Balance of Terror

Balance of Terror by K. S. Augustin

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Authors: K. S. Augustin
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stay on a regime like this for the rest of your life,” Moon muttered, then she straightened. “But, if you did, I would feel no better a creature than Hen Savic.”
    Her voice became brisk. “What we really need is to get you to a top-flight laboratory and have them run you through a cellular analysis. The kind of laboratory,” she grimaced, “that I doubt exists on Marentim.”
    Srin seemed to pick up on something in her tone.
    “You’re wondering what this Gauder character is going to do, aren’t you?” he asked. “Whether he’ll take us to the rendezvous point or…do something else?”
    “I hate having my fate decided by strangers,” she replied, bite in her voice. “It seems to me that the last four years of my life have been nothing but being bounced from one horrible fate to another, without the ability to do anything about it.”
    “You rescued us,” Srin objected.
    “Well okay,” she conceded, “although we had a lot of help with that. And we did a lot of the actual work ourselves.”
    “You put your research beyond the Republic’s reach forever, when you detonated those scramble-bombs along all your nets.”
    He moved up to her, enfolding her in his arms in a loose grip.
    Moon put a hand up to her mouth and choked out a laugh. “Do you remember that? The time to detonation ticking away and Drue stopping us just before we could board the shuttle for Slater’s End? If it wasn’t for that obnoxious Consul Moises throwing her weight around by allowing us to leave, we might be in a maximum-security detention facility right now. Or even on Bliss.”
    Srin sobered. “No Moon, I don’t remember that at all.”
    Her eyes widened and she lifted a hand to his cheek.
    “No you don’t do you,” she whispered. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am. Sorry I had to use that hideous memory-swipe on you again, but we had no choice. We had to get off the planet…you were convulsing…a Republic sweep-team was about to come on board….”
    “I don’t regret it,” he answered fiercely, his voice low. “Not for a second. And it doesn’t matter what happens to me, what they do to me, I will always love you, Moon Thadin. You told me that I was attracted to you every two days for all the months we were aboard the Differential . You might call it attraction but, to me, it seems more likely that I was falling in love with you. Every two days. It was a compulsion greater than anything the Republic tried throwing at me, a compulsion that needed no artificial means of delivery.”
    Tears trickled down Moon’s cheeks. “Oh Srin.”
    She rested her head on his chest and felt the reassuring thump of his chest beneath her cheek. A few minutes later, she let herself be led to the bedroom.
    This would be the first time. The first time on Marentim. The first time since they’d escaped from Lunar Fifteen. The first time for a Srin who now had recent memories spanning more than one month.
    They peeled the clothes reverently off each other, savouring each moment that revealed a slice more of flesh, warm and quivering with want. Srin wasn’t much taller than her, and Moon liked the fact that she didn’t need to stand on tiptoes to kiss him. She admired his stocky build and the hardness of muscle beneath her questing fingers.
    “It’s been so long,” she murmured. “I can hardly remember the last time we made love.”
    “That makes two of us,” Srin said with a smile. He stroked his hands down the side of her arms. “Whenever I see you, it’s like gazing upon my own personal goddess.”
    She tried to shift, embarrassed, but he wouldn’t let her.
    “It’s true. The woman who delivered me from evil.” He kissed her breasts. “Whisked me to safety and who looks out for me still.”
    He pulled her down to the bed. “What did I ever do to deserve someone like you, Moon Thadin?”
    She straddled him, massaging his chest with long, sure circles of her palms, digging into the pads of his muscles with slim,

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