She should have said no. She should have pulled on her fatigues and run a diagnostic on the port thrusters. But the grey heart in her chest—not the organ, but the myth, the wall she had built—felt soft today.
This was not a seduction. It was a surrender. Not to the men watching, but to the simple, brutal fact that she was still here.
Anya looked at her reflection in the polished durasteel of her locker. The woman staring back had a map of violence on her skin: a long, pale line from a shrapnel burst across her ribs, a starburst of scar tissue where a laser drill had misfired on her left shoulder, and the fine, silver seams of synth-skin grafts on her knuckles. Her hair, cropped short and shock-white, framed a face that was handsome rather than beautiful, with eyes the colour of weathered granite. AG Grey Heart Bikini Mature
She stripped off her pilot’s fatigues. The fabric whispered to the floor. For a long moment, she simply stood, hands on her hips, assessing the machine. Her body was a testament to function over form. The muscles in her shoulders and back were dense, ropy cables. Her abdomen, though flat, bore the raised lines of an emergency field surgery she had performed on herself in a escape pod. Her legs were powerful, the calves solid as stone.
She walked past them, the grey bioluminescence flickering with her pulse, and waded into the warm, sulfur-scented water. The thermal vents bubbled up from the sand, and as the heat enveloped her scarred shoulders, she let out a long, shuddering breath. She should have said no
Her ship was docked at the floating resort of Elysian Three, a place of chlorinated sapphire seas and synthetic sunlight. It was a layover. A ghost in the machine. A chance to wash the ozone and regret from her pores before the next job.
When she walked out onto the white sand of the artificial beach, the few other crew members looked up. The junior engineer, a boy of twenty-two, dropped his ration bar. Kaelen’s mouth went slack, then closed into a tight, respectful smile. This was not a seduction
Later, back on the Archimedes , she stood in the sonic shower and peeled the grey bikini from her body. It felt like removing a layer of nerve endings. She held the damp fabric in her hands, watching the bioluminescence fade to a dull, sleeping grey.
A knock on the door. Three sharp raps.
No account yet?
Create an Account
