Free Burning Love [Flights of Fancy 1] (Siren Publishing Menage Amour) by Melodee Aaron Page A

the board showed red or yellow lights, the telltale signs that her ship was slowly dying. "Helm, prepare to leave orbit in two hours, thirty-five minutes. Full impulse power in any direction you care to pick, as long as it's away from this planet."
    The helmsman hesitated before she plotted her course. "Aye, aye."
     
    * * * *
     
    Star's head hurt. At least she thought it did. The blow the intruder gave her when she resisted had rattled her teeth, and she felt some surprise at being able to feel anything at all, lucky that she wasn't dead. When she opened her eyes, the light pained her head even worse, but she kept them open.
    She was lying on a bench or cot in a small room. No , she thought, a small cell. The door was closed and heavy. Sunlight flooded the cell through a tiny barred window. A small table with three chairs sat in the center of the room, and when she managed to move her head enough to look around, another cot hung suspended from another wall.
    And Krell lay crumpled on the cot.
    She struggled to her feet, stumbling to the other cot, and knelt beside it.
    "Krell? Can you hear me?" She shook his shoulder gently.
    The touch of his skin startled her because he felt cool. For the first time, she noticed that the room was also cool, maybe twenty-five degrees or so. She wondered if he might be dead.
    She didn't know much about Hendri anatomy, but she felt around on his neck. Debi said the Hendri were similar to humans, so there must be large arteries running to the brain. Star felt a rapid, faint pulsing of blood under her fingers, but she didn't know what that might mean other than his heart still worked.
    Star rolled him to his back on the cot, and Krell stirred slightly, his eyes flickering a few times before they opened. His expression looked confused for a moment as he came fully awake, but he finally smiled a little.
    "Are you hurt, Star?"
    A sense of relief swept over her, and she returned his smile. "Other than a bit of a headache, no. You feel so cold, though."
    "Yes, that's not normal for me. The Rangor are trying to prevent me from using my powers against them." He sighed. "They know this will work, too."
    "Rangor? Is that who these people are?"
    "Yes."
    "This is not the sort of thing I would expect from animals." Her addled brain seemed to work well enough to tie all the facts and suspicions she had together. "You need to level with me, Krell."
    He managed to work himself up to sit on the edge of the cot. "Yes, I do." He took a deep breath. "The situation is complicated, but the Hendri and Rangor are the same species. The Council long ago favored the Hendri, the city-dwellers, and gave us the pyrokinetic powers so we could rule the world and the Rangor."
    "The Council? Who are they?"
    "The elders of our world, the leaders."
    Her head swam with the new facts, and no small amount of questions about Krell's motivations. "Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?"
    "Because the Council wants you to help us, the Hendri, leave this world to escape the Rangor." He paused, his eyes watching her closely. "I wanted to tell you, but the Council ordered otherwise."
    "So why tell me now?"
    He laughed. "The Rangor have clearly decided to make their move now. We hoped they would wait so we could leave, but they have other ideas." He sighed, a raspy breath pulsing from his lungs. "Besides, it doesn't matter now."
    A foreboding filled her. Much like Spence's fatalistic views of the universe, something about Krell's attitude frightened her. "Why not?"
    He shrugged. "Because the Council will have destroyed your ship by now."
    "What?"
    "The Council will destroy Daedalus to prevent word of the situation here getting out and ruining any chance of our escaping." He stared at her for several seconds. "I so wanted things to end differently for you and I, Star."
    Her heart leapt between racing and nearly stopped. The thought of Daedalus and her crew gone was unthinkable. "I think your Council will find destroying Daedalus easier