Free Star Brigade: Odysseys - An Anthology by C.C. Ekeke

frustration reached Sam, and her hard edges melted away. “I know,” she said in a husky whisper. “And you will.” She caressed his cheek tenderly, like a lover would. Her warm touch made Khal’s skin tingle, soothing away his unease, distracting him. Just for a moment.
    Sam only displayed this type of affection with Khal when it suited her.
    “When?” he asked peevishly, pulling back. “It’s been almost a year.”
    Sam leaned in closer, eyes alight with fiendish mischief. “I’ve got big plans for you, pretty boy,” she declared, suddenly playful again. “And it all starts tonight.”
    She wants something , Khal realized. Of course, another task that brought him no closer to combat-team placement than before. Instead, he hid his suspicions behind a mask of calm. “What do you need from me?” Maybe the task might be interesting, and she’d reward him like all the other times.
    Sam pulled out a 5-inch datapad as slim as a paper sheet from her belt. She keyed in a code across its typepad. Instantly, the viewscreen was filled by a squid-faced Rhomeran with maggot-white skin. “Meet Glu Zlliosho.”
    Khal stared at the holoimage blankly, not recognizing this ‘Glu Zlliosho.’ “Who is he?”
    Sam made a rude noise. “That’s for you to find out.” She flicked off the holoimage and slid the datapad back in her belt. “I sent the image and the name to your Union TriTran account.”
    “You want me to find dirt on this guy?” asked Khal.
    “Find out everything you can about him,” Sam nodded. “What does he do for a living? Where does he live? Does Glu have family? What’s his favorite food? What’s his political affiliation? Who’s his favorite polymaero player? Does he even like polymaero? Everything, anything, and then some.”
    “What for?” Khal scrutinized Sam as she stood up. He wasn’t sure how spying on some Rhomeran would get him on a CT.
    Sam leaned near the shuttlecraft’s side exit. Khal could not deny the suggestive way that she carried herself: relaxed in posture yet oozing confidence and an irresistible feminine allure. “Get me all that and be patient,” Sam kept her husky voice at almost a whisper. “Keep improving and follow my lead these next few months. You will be placed on a Star Brigade combat team.”
    The phrasing confused Khal. “But we only have one Star Brigade combat te—” The import of Sam’s words sank in then.
    She gave him a barbed smile. “Still mad at me?”
    A combat team. Meaning that this first combat team would be Nwosu’s…and then Captain Ishiliba would get his own. Khal shook his head, and felt a smirk pull at his lips.
    “Good,” Sam sassed, like a teacher giving a student a pat on the head. She whirled around and out of the cargo bay with a mesmerizing sashay. “You got till the day after tomorrow,” she called over her shoulder. “And tell no one .” Her departure was marked by the hissing open and shut of the shuttlecraft door.
    Half an orv later, Khal was on a return course to Hollus. As his ship hurtled through Zeid’s roiling emerald clouds, he had already started a detailed search through official and unofficial databases on this Glu Zlliosho. So far, nothing. Was he a covert agent of some sort? Working for the Rhomeran Acunet maybe?
    Searching for a needle in an asteroid field, Khal considered with a smile. Not unlike the test Sam had tasked him with after their first meeting, to ensure he was worth poaching from UIB’s grasp.
    Khal had no complaints then or now. He always excelled at cracking the challenging mysteries. Meanwhile, he sent a transmission to a data analyst friend posted on Star Brigade’s nearby Cobalt Waystation. After almost a month of training and no sex, Khal needed some action tonight.
    “Hello?” answered a young human female with a faint Martianborn lilt.
    “Hey Gigi.”
    “Hi, sunshine,” Genesis Delgado’s voice instantly brightened.
    “Still on your shift?”
    “Just got off,” she replied