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."Huchtik teeth," Loric said, as if he spoke areminder."Nothing is meant by it."The scan officer turned to Isaac, squeaking, "What,307Gravitational Attraction Angel MartinezOz? What'd I do?""Your smile& "Rand clapped a hand over his mouth."It's thathideous?"With a deep breath, Isaac fought down a laugh.I'vemissed you, Rand, you idiot genius.I've missed you all."You can't show your teeth when you smile.It's, um, likeyelling pussy-slave in a bar full of Altairian Marines.""Oh." Rand shot furtive glances at the surroundingCorzin."Sorry."Turk crouched in front of him."Come, Rand Wilde.I know your heart.What do you have for us?""Oh, yeah.Hey.I forgot how huge you are upclose." Flustered, Rand ducked his head and fiddled withhis wrist comm.He spoke without looking up."Can youturn on your holo soup bowl thingy? So I can talk to it?"Turk tapped the edge of the bowl with his foot andit hummed to life.Muttering under his breath, Rand'sfingers flew over the pad until he breathed out, "Ah! Gotit."A visual from one of Rand's scanners on theHermes bridge hovered over the bowl, blobs of light, largeand small, representing ships.Travis threw an arm around Rand's shoulders andpulled him close to plant a tender kiss on his temple.308Gravitational Attraction Angel Martinez"That's my boy."While Isaac gaped at such a public display.CaptainDrummond merely gave them an indulgent smile andSylvia rolled her eyes."Okay." Rand scooted closer to the bowl to point ashe spoke."This big mama toward the back? That's theflagship.New E-class galactic carrier.Biggest freakingthing floating out there right now.These four other bigguys? Older carrier models.Still monsters.You got yourcruisers five, your destroyers seven.Buncha little scoutships but you can't get a count on them, 'cause they're inand out and the ID's are, you know, cloaked and stuff.Andeight smaller frigates for the whole set.No clue about troopcounts, but you soldier types probably have a better handleon that than me."Captain Drummond's jaw tightened during Rand'sexcited recitation.The dalk'ae all wore bland expressions,which Isaac translated as grim."That damned new carrier is a monster, but herspeed is frightening," Captain Drummond broke in."That'show they nearly caught us.We came out of GEM jump insight of your system perimeter, and that hellish thingdeceled right on our tail before she fired on us.We hadyour codes, at least, so we lost her once we crossed the lineand your orbiting guns turned on her."309Gravitational Attraction Angel MartinezLoric looked up from the display."Turk, wouldthere be high-ranking officers in any of these other ships?""Each ship would have its captain," Turk answered."But the command will be clustered on the flagship."His father nodded, pulling absently on his lower lip."Captain, if you would remain with us? Turk, if you wouldtake the rest to the assembly room."Inwardly, Isaac bristled at being dismissed, but heknew the dalk'ae didn't need all of them hovering to plan.He tugged at Rand's sleeve and jerked his head toward thedoor."Mr Wilde?" Captain Drummond spoke as herjunior officers rose to leave."Do we have everythingdownloaded?""Yes, ma'am." Rand grabbed Travis's arm when hisleg buckled.Guilt stabbed at Isaac as he realized how muchit must still hurt him."I mean, not everything.There's, like,barge loads of data in those scanners.Don't want tooverload stuff.But you've got everything on those ESTOfu I mean, creeps.""Thank you, Mr Wilde," the captain said at herdriest.The juniors trooped out to leave the katrak heads tohash out strategy with Captain Drummond.In the hall, Nidar leaned close.He shot a glance310Gravitational Attraction Angel Martinezback at Rand and murmured, "Your chautae speaks oddly,but he is very lovely."Isaac blinked.He'd never thought of Rand as"lovely" but then again, he did seem to have a beatific glowabout him now."Should I tell Ges you're thinking ofadditions?"Nidar snorted on a laugh."Do you hate me so,lochau? It was merely an observation.I am attached, notdead.""Speaking of& " Isaac nudged Sylvia, who walkedon his other side while Turk strode before them, playingguide."How long have Rand and Travis been& like that?"Sylvia tried to look disgusted, but a quirk at thecorner of her mouth betrayed her."Couple nights after Turktook you downside.Trav was so down.So& I dunno.Hetook the whole thing hard.One night at mess, he says to me'No more wasting time, Syl.So many years wasted.' Thenhe marches over to sickbay, lifts Rand up in his arms, badshoulder and all, and carries him to one of the bigger guestcabins.Rand's had that goofy, shit-eating grin on his faceever since."Despite the fact that he knew it was too obvious,Isaac stole a look over his shoulder at them.Yes, Travishad given Rand his arm to support his bad leg, and, yes,Rand's smile as he gazed up at the pilot was unabashedly311Gravitational Attraction Angel Martinezgoofy, but the transformation was amazing.Separately,they had been two relatively good-looking men.Together,they were breathtakingly beautiful."Huh." Isaac shook his head.So unlikely, somismatched, so& perfect.Yeah, I understand that.Hejogged two steps to catch up to Turk."You all right, babe?"One blond brow lifted."I would ask you the same.""I feel better than I have in a long while.But youlook beat."Turk tipped a shoulder up in a shrug."I'll rest whilewe wait for battle plans.""Guess that's the best I can hope for right now,huh?""My heart, when this is over, I will most likelysleep far more than you wish me to."Just get through it with me, big guy.Me, you, mycrew, your crazy family, and all the Drak kids, and I'll sitand watch you sleep for a week.Promise.When they reached the door to the assembly room,Isaac stopped on the threshold of the most inappropriatelynamed meeting space in the galaxy.This wasn't a room, itwas an amphitheater, a stadium, a coliseum.A huge bowlrose in a gentle gradient from a circular center platform,doors dotting the sides at several levels, Corzin of bothgenders and, presumably, every katrak lounging on the312Gravitational Attraction Angel Martinezcurved floor.Dark heads peppered the crowd here andthere, but shades of blond and red far outnumbered them.Regardless of coloring, most of these heads turned towardthem as they entered."Oz," Rand whispered."They're staring at us.Isthis, um, a good idea? Us being here with all these& ""Rand, don't.""& huge badasses?"While the bright colors Corzin preferred gave theassembly a festive air, Isaac understood Rand's hesitation.The crowd bristled with weapons, ferocious strength ondisplay wherever the eye turned.So many&And yet, except for the two hundred out on ket'sa,this was the planet's entire Corzin population.The planet'sentire defense system had gathered in this one room.Suddenly, the collected Corzin didn't seem nearly enough.He pointed Rand toward a space halfway down thebowl."There's our boys.""Our boys?" Travis's brows crept up."Turk's boys.That's where we belong." Yeah, ourboys.That came out way too easy.They wended their way through groups, pickingtheir way around long limbs.When they reached Turk'shech'zai, Nidar flopped down between Ges and Tash andreceived a kiss from each.Rand's eyes, which hadn't313Gravitational Attraction Angel Martinezreturned to normal size since entering the room, threatenedto swallow his face [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]