Starcrossed - Bianca D'Arc Page 0,51

many lived in habitats built on and in the water that comprised over ninety percent of the planet, having only one arm was a definite drawback.

She’d never had a boyfriend. Never dated. All the usual games young adults played—frolicking in the water—were off-limits to her. Her balance was all off for swimming anywhere fast. She was fine on land, though the basic mechanical arms she’d worn as she grew to adulthood had drawn stares, pity and sometimes horror.

Krysta had begun to dream of other worlds, where swimming wasn’t so necessary to everyday life, when she was still a little girl. She’d studied hard and applied herself to navigation calculations until she could do even the most complex of them without difficulty. Her dream had been to work as navigator on a trading vessel—to see the worlds beyond her home and maybe find a place she could finally fit in.

Then, the virus struck. The only good part of that whole horrible time was that her nav skills were needed by the human fighting forces, though she never would have considered joining the military before the plague. Still, when she saw her father and brothers die of the virus, she knew where she needed to be to put a stop to the beings who would harm the only men who had ever looked on her with love in their eyes. Her mother was proud of her, but they weren’t in contact often. She’d sent a message home to tell her mother where she was going before they left on this mission, but hadn’t received a reply. Her mother was a healer by nature and inclination. She didn’t understand the military, though she was always supportive of Krysta, if distant.

“May I act as your escort, Ensign, since Navigator Jeviar is in the brig?”

Krysta snapped back to the matter at hand. She looked up to find a kind smile directed at her from one of the most handsome men she’d ever seen. She remembered him. He’d sparred with Henny that first day they’d practiced in the shipboard gym, and she’d noticed him then. He’d been in the gym watching them practice a number of times since, but then, so had a lot of the men. They couldn’t seem to comprehend women practicing a fighting art. But Krysta had noticed this man, time and time again. Unpracticed as she was in the ways of flirtation, she’d had no idea he even knew who she was or what job she did on board, but apparently, he did. That thought sent a warm, scared feeling to the pit of her stomach.

“You’re Commander Xeer.” Krysta felt like an idiot the moment the words left her mouth. She’d asked around about him, and she’d just betrayed herself.

But his widening smile made her feel tingly inside and less embarrassed. “I am. And you are Ensign Krysta Verity, navigations officer. I’m sorry I didn’t introduce myself to you before now, Ensign, but my duty station is on the other side of the ship, and our rotations were opposite. When you were going off-duty, I was going on. I only managed to find a few hours where you were free when I was, but at those times, you were usually in the gym under the tutelage of your armsmaster.”

So, he’d been asking around about her too. She was flabbergasted at the idea that he’d made an effort to seek her out. It was simply mind-boggling to a girl who’d never had much male attention thrown her way.

“I—” She didn’t know what to say.

“I have made you uncomfortable, and that was not my intent. I apologize.” He stepped back, and it looked like he was going to leave. Suddenly, that was the last thing Krysta wanted. She reached out to stop him, grasping his arm. She’d unthinkingly used her cybernetic arm and immediately pulled back on the power, but it was too late. He stopped dead in his tracks.

“I’m sorry.” She released his arm and turned away, tears threatening. How could she be such a fool? She didn’t know how to talk to men—especially not ones she found attractive—and this one lit her up like no man ever had before.

She felt a soft touch on her shoulder, just at the join between her cyber parts and her human flesh. “Don’t apologize, Ensign. I am the one at fault here. I am too direct. Always have been. But I sensed something in you that resonated with my own experience. I, too, have had limbs