Free Heart of the Nebula by Joe Vasicek Page A

she admitted,
her grin widening. “But you have to admit, it was a fun
lesson.”
    Apparently, it was a little too fun for her
to release him. He struggled to get up, but she held him down so
well that he couldn’t get any leverage. Resorting to a trick he had
learned against his sister, he reached up and tickled her in the
armpit. Instantly, she collapsed on top of him in laughter. He
rolled her off to the side and stood up.
    Did I just tickle the
patrician’s daughter? he wondered. Thank
the stars no one else had seen him do it.
    “ Oh, wow,” she said as she
stood up. “That was perhaps a bit too much fun.”
    “ Just how proficient are
you?” James asked.
    Her eyes lit up. “How proficient do you
think I am?”
    Once again, blood rushed to his cheeks. He
shrugged and made an equivocating motion with his hands.
    “ I don’t know. Black belt,
maybe?”
    “ Good answer. I have a
first degree black belt in Rigelan jujitsu.”
    “ And you wanted me to show
you some self-defense moves?”
    “ Well,” she said, pulling a
strand of golden-blond hair out of her face, “I wanted to see what
you’d do, and you didn’t disappoint. You really are a good
teacher.”
    Why is she looking at me
like that? James wondered. Is she coming on to me? He’d never been very good with women. The fact that he spent
so much time on duty certainly didn’t help. But there was something
different in the way Sara was looking at him—something that
definitely looked like interest. It made his legs go numb and his
heart hammer something awful.
    “ We’ve got a few days
before we get to Gaia Nova,” she said, glancing at him tentatively.
“We should, ah, get to know each other.”
    Stars of Earth—she is coming on to
me.
    “ Uh, yeah,” he said, his
mind suddenly blanking. Inwardly, he cursed himself for being such
an idiot.
    “ You must be pretty busy,
though. I’m sure a lieutenant like you has a lot of
duties.”
    “ Not until we get to Gaia
Nova,” he blurted. “Do you want—do you want to have dinner
sometime?”
    She smiled. “Well,
we are on a luxury
yacht after all. When were you thinking?”
    “ Uh, tomorrow night maybe?
How does 1800 sound?”
    “ Tomorrow would be fine.
There’s a private dining room on the lower deck. I’ll talk with the
captain about reserving it.”
    James could hardly believe what was
happening. He nodded dumbly, afraid that if he opened his mouth, he
would say something stupid and make her change her mind.
    “ All right, then. See you
tomorrow at 1800, Lieutenant.”
    He stood there for a couple of moments until
he realized that she wasn’t leaving—he was. He’d finished his
workout, after all, and she’d barely begun hers. With considerable
awkwardness, he nodded and left the gym, nearly tripping over his
feet on his way out.
     
    * * * * *
     
    Kyla crept up to the open doorway and peered
around the corner. She could hardly stand up straight, she had to
pee so bad. At least there was a bathroom just outside the door to
the cargo hold. Trouble was, it sat at the end of a long, well-lit
corridor.
    After looking both ways, she dashed out into
the open space. Her bare, dirty feet pattered against the cold tile
floor, making her heart race with terror. With her hands jammed
between her legs to keep herself from bursting, she reached the
bathroom and slapped her palm against the access panel on the wall.
The door slid open with a jarring hiss, but she slipped inside and
shut it again before anyone saw her.
    She relieved herself as quickly as she
could, then pulled out the empty bottle from her pants pocket and
filled it up at the sink. With that done, she took a moment to look
herself in the mirror. Her grubby black hair stood out against the
immaculate porcelain wall behind her, the blue and purple floral
designs contrasting sharply with her dirty gray clothing.
    In every possible way, she did not belong
here—on this ship, in this society, among these fabulously rich
people,