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response. She straightened, wiping the uninvited expression from her face. New aches and assorted bruises rushed to be counted.
    They were alive. The Sen Ekir was out of harm’s way. She sighed and rubbed her face with her hands.
    “All right,” she said. “Before I can betray my father and my people, I need information.”

CHAPTER 6

    D AMEN traded a troubled glance with V’kyrri. His gut froze at the no-nonsense tone of Jayleia’s voice. He couldn’t read the smooth, emotionless mask she’d made of her face.
    He studied her and knew that, in his own way, V’kyrri did, too.
    “It’s not . . .” he began.
    “Like that?” she finished for him. “Of course it is. Your commanders didn’t order you to kidnap me because they happened to foresee my messy death by kuorl attack.”
    “No,” he replied. “Knowing what kind of death you’d suffer at the hands of the mercenaries brought us to yank you out of harm’s way. If it counts for anything, Captain Idylle’s first concern was for you.”
    Mine, too , he didn’t say aloud.
    She flushed and shifted, but didn’t look away. “I’m a means to an end.”
    “I was ordered to find your father,” he said, “and to ascertain the merit of the charges against him. I was not ordered to seduce you into treason.”
    Her lips twitched. “You could.”
    Had she meant for him to hear that? Want raked through his gut. Damen held his breath. What the Three Hells was happening to him?
    He’d been physically attracted to Jayleia from the moment he’d helped Admiral Seaghdh hijack the Sen Ekir . Somewhere in the past year, simple attraction had grown damnably uncomfortable.
    He felt V’kyrri’s questioning glance. Daring to draw breath again, he forced his mind back to their tactical situation and said, “It looks like we blew more than the Erillian’s defense generators when we hit them with our shields.”
    “They’re limping,” V’kyrri agreed. “The Ykktyryk set down on the glacial fields in the southern hemisphere. No settlements within a thousand kilometers.”
    Jayleia shook her head. “Their funeral. What that ice takes, it does not give up. There’s a reason the settlements on Chemmoxin are clustered in those miserable swamps.”
    V’kyrri tossed her a shrewd glance. “The least of the miseries?”
    “Very much so.”
    “All right,” Damen said, releasing his restraints. “We’re clear and in the lane for Silver City. Let’s get you patched up.”
    She raised her eyebrows. “Silver City? How do we know the mercs won’t follow us in?”
    “Let them,” V’kyrri growled, relish in his voice. “They’ll find the Claugh battle cruiser Queen’s Rhapsody waiting.”
    She looked between them, sudden awareness, and a tiny, unguarded smile blooming on her face. Her gaze settled on the telepath. “I see. And I am addressing?”
    “Her new captain,” Damen supplied.
    Jayleia grinned. Her brown eyes lit. “You’re leaving the engines for a command chair? Do you even know where to find it? Congratulations, Captain.”
    Damen felt the answering smile on his face and spotted the grin on V’k. She had them in the palm of her hand. Did she know?
    Damen cleared his throat.
    Jayleia’s smile subsided. He thought he could spot the moment she’d brought her defenses back online, but her gaze still sparkled when she turned it on him. He felt her regard as a physical thing, an approving stroke that stirred his blood and sped his heart rate.
    He spent a second shoring up his own shields.
    “If you load my handheld with a translation routine to interface with your systems,” she said, touching the unit attached to her belt, “I’ll begin pulling information regarding my father.”
    Damen studied her.
    She’d spoken as if the data pull would be easy for a xenobiologist with no computer tech training.
    “Something you learned from Omorle Lin before he died?” Damen asked.
    Both from the way V’kyrri stiffened and from the way her expression