“Any Yona?”
Regret filled him. “No, though several bodies have been recovered.”
“Damn.” Her brow furrowed. “I really like those guys. I hate to think they might have died in the battle, all of them except the royal guard, I mean.”
“The possibility that some survived remains. There were many escape pods on the Kandovar, and many fighter craft. If Yona soldiers piloted any of the latter, they could have survived the conflict.”
“I hope so.” She looked lost in thought for a moment, then visibly shook it off. “May I join you?”
“Of course.”
Before he could say more, she set a data pad he hadn’t realized she carried on the arm of the commander’s seat, then crossed to an empty chair at a weapons station that was usually only manned during battle. Leaning over it, she clutched the arms and moved as though to lift it.
It didn’t budge. Eliana frowned at the chair and bent to try again.
Dagon opened his mouth to tell her the chair was strongly magnetized to the deck and would have to be turned off to move, but he lost his thought when the chair groaned and shifted a hand’s span. His eyes widened. That should not be possible. Even he couldn’t move a chair once the magnetic charge had been activated. They were designed that way to prevent them from moving when the ship engaged in battle.
“What the drek?” Galen muttered.
Eliana looked up and froze when she noticed everyone staring at her. Straightening, she bit her lip.
The silence stretched.
Fiddling with the tie on the blade sheath strapped to her thigh, she met Dagon’s gaze. “Is moving a chair forbidden or something?”
He shook his head. “You should not have been capable of moving it at all. It’s magnetized to the deck.”
She glanced down at the chair. “Oh. Um…” She darted the others a look. “Maybe it’s malfunctioning. How do I turn off the magnets?”
“There’s a button under the seat.”
Bending down, she felt around. “Ah. There it is.” She gave the chair an experimental wiggle, then smiled when it moved easily. “Good.”
Much to the further astonishment of the crew, she carried the chair over and plunked it down beside Dagon’s. “Should I reactivate the magnet?”
“Such would be wise, yes.”
As soon as she did so, she retrieved her tablet and sank into the chair. “This is perfect,” she told him with a grin. “I can see everything from here.”
His men all gaped… except for Janek. His comms officer looked as though he were choking on laughter he sought to repress.
Eliana could see everything from her position because she was seated beside him, the commander. No one sat beside Dagon. His was a position of rank and honor, one earned after many years of serving in the military. Even Barus merely stood beside him rather than sitting beside him when both occupied the bridge.
Yet Eliana had dragged a chair over and was making herself quite comfortable. She even stretched her alluring, black-clad legs out in front of her, crossed them at the ankles (her small feet barely able to reach the floor), and sank a little lower as though settling in to read.
Dagon retook his seat.
Eliana sat so close that his elbow brushed her arm.
He arched a brow, amusement sifting through him. “Comfortable?”
“Yes, thank you.”
Smiling, he shook his head and once more picked up his data pad.
Eliana turned her attention to her own and activated it.
After a long pause, the crew returned to work, but Dagon didn’t miss the curious glances they slid his way.
He tried to focus on the messages and updates his tablet conveyed but found Eliana’s presence too distracting. She smelled good, like the soap commonly distributed to the cleansing units and the naga juice she had consumed at first meal mixed with her own unique scent.
Her dark-as-space hair gleamed beneath the overhead lights. Her brown eyes focused intently on her screen as she swiped her finger from right to left over and over again.
“What are you doing?” he asked. Was she looking for something? The speed at which she swiped seemed to indicate she hadn’t found it yet, whatever it was.
“Learning,” she murmured absently.
Learning? Learning what? She didn’t stay on one page long enough for him to even glimpse the subject, let alone long enough for her to absorb whatever information it conveyed.
Dagon didn’t know what to make of it. “Can I help you find something?”
Pausing, she smiled up at him. “No, thank you.”
He caught a quick glimpse of what appeared to be an English/Segonian language translation guide before she resumed her swiping.
Did she seek the meaning of a particular word? Perhaps one she had overheard for which the translator she now wore in her ear could find no equivalent?
If so, she wouldn’t find it without pausing to examine the pages she flipped through so quickly.
Shrugging it off, he returned to work.
A few hours passed. Normally Dagon grew restless when he sat in one place for too long. But not today. There was something comforting about having Eliana beside him. Even more so when she turned sideways in her chair, draped her legs over the far arm, and leaned back against Dagon’s side, resting her head on his forearm.
He stared down at her in surprise.
Tilting her head farther back, she looked up at him. “Am I in your way like this?”
His mouth suddenly dry, he shook his head.
She smiled. “Good.” Then she went back to swiping her screen.
Warmth blossomed in his chest and spiraled outward as… something suffused him.
Peace?
Contentment?
Yes, he concluded. It was nice, having her so close and breathing in her scent while he worked.
His men continued to dart looks their way that vacillated between astonishment and amusement, but said nothing.
Dagon enjoyed Eliana’s presence so much that he couldn’t even find it in him to scowl at them.
He and Eliana shared mid meal together in the mess hall. Once more she surprised and delighted him with the amount of food she consumed as she peppered him with more questions about Segonia, his life, and the Aldebarian Alliance. He lingered longer than he ordinarily would have, then reluctantly left her to return to work.
He was tempted to ask Eliana if she’d care to join him, but knew he would get more done without the distraction. After updating Tiran on Eliana’s health, he participated in an Aldebarian Alliance holoconference with the other commanders participating in the search-and-rescue effort. Some were puzzled over the Gathendiens’ actions and wondered why the Earth women were so valuable that the Gathendiens would risk launching a war with the entire Alliance in order to obtain them. Others simply assumed the Gathendiens had leaped at an opportunity to study a new race of people they might wish to conquer. All wanted to stop the grunarks from annihilating another species.
Dagon opted not to tell them that the Gathendiens had already released a bioengineered virus on Earth and wanted the women so they could ascertain why it hadn’t worked. The Aldebarian Alliance was unanimously determined to rescue the Earthlings and punish the Gathendiens, so he saw no need to violate Eliana’s confidence.
Unfortunately, the Alliance members’ determination did not alter the fact that no other Earth women had yet been recovered. Dagon was examining a preliminary map the Sectas had produced of possible projection paths the escape pods might have followed after bursting out of the qhov’rum when a voice carried over the comm link in his earpiece.