Bare Facts

Excerpt From: Bare Facts

The planet of Ciaran 3123 A.D.

“Your laws don’t happen to be my laws,” the astrokrafte captain stated in a husky monotone.

Nude, Mirah Verlyn crouched directly behind the intriguing man and observed her sister as she spoke to him. He was one of the few men she had ever had the privilege of laying eyes on. Too bad the view was from the back. Every muscle in her body quivered at the sight of the curved planes of his backside and his muscular shoulders.

She had to hurry to find herself a spot to stow away on this ship. When the astrokrafte was in outer space, she would commandeer the unworthy-looking space vessel.

Repressing a sigh and hoping her sister’s invisible magick spell would remain in force for long enough to aid her in finding a hiding place and the docking area around Bazime, Mirah tiptoed down the astrokrafte’s narrow corridor. In her mind’s eye she could see Bazime playing the part of a port authority guard but several things were wrong with the image she was thinking of. Bazime spoke in a nervous tone, while a guard would have spoken with callous insensitivity. Mirah hoped that the captain wouldn’t catch on to the fact that Bazime’s magick spell was blocking out the activity on the dock behind her. She couldn’t help but send a prayer to the Ciaran goddess Merlasi that the captain wouldn’t look behind him at the wrong moment. If by some horrible mischance he did and her spell wavered even for a second, he would see a slim, nude woman furtively searching for a place to conceal herself on his ship.

Mirah could visualise the captain crossing his arms over his chest and blocking Bazime’s way past him onto the ship.

“Boarding your ship is simply a precaution,” Bazime said.

Mirah sighed with relief. Thankfully, Bazime had changed her tone. She had no intention of searching the ship. She skulked down the corridor, peering in the compartments with her third eye, the one which permitted her to look through thin walls and around ninety-degree corners.

It seemed that Deven Blaylock was proving to be a more difficult assignment than Bazime had bargained for.

“Captain Blaylock,” Bazime replied sweetly. Mirah turned to see her sister clench her fingers around the clipboard and press it against her smallish breasts with fierce determination. “Within minutes, you’ll be on your way.”

Bazime’s voice was low and urgent now, more in character with the role she was playing. This ordeal of acting as a guard and maintaining the invisibility shield to block the movements of the real guards was worse than a nightmare.

“Precaution against what?” the captain asked in a gruff, disbelieving voice.

Would he see through her sister’s deception? His sheer physical presence and the fact that he towered over Bazime couldn’t have helped suppress her trembling nerves.

“Against the terrorist threat presently engulfing Ciaran.” Did her sister straighten her shoulders? Was she looking into the captain’s eyes without flinching, as if it was her business to demand entry onto his ship to hunt for anything that could be deemed suspicious? The planet of Ciaran had never experienced a terrorist threat before and was unlikely to with such strict and vigilant security.

The captain heaved a sigh of irritated impatience. “I haven’t heard of any terrorist attacks.”

“That’s because you’re not privy to council matters,” Bazime bluffed.

Mirah cringed. She imagined her sister’s rigid self-control in maintaining eye contact with him.

“And I suppose you are?” His tone was of utter scepticism.

Was Bazime going to destroy their mission before it began? Mirah crouched low, hoping the captain didn’t have an eye in the back of his head.

“As port authority, yes,” Bazime admitted.

Huh! Bazime had no more access to the Ciaran council than the captain did. In fact, very few Ciarans did.

“Why are you being so evasive? Lieutenant Bazime, is it?”

Mirah huffed, picturing the tall captain glancing at Bazime’s holographic nametag as if he hadn’t seen it before. “I haven’t been allowed off my astrokrafte since I landed here forty-eight hours ago, not even for some sightseeing, which I find highly unusual. Before I allow you aboard my ship, you’ll have to give me a much better explanation than terrorists.”

“My captain wouldn’t be too happy to be disturbed from her immediate duties. However, if she was forced to do so, she’d be happy to search your ship herself.”

Would the captain believe her sister’s unlikely story? She continued to search for a hiding place. One compartment was smaller than a child’s spin toy, another wasn’t much larger than a treasure chest. Each place she looked at was far too small for her five-foot-three-inch frame.