Chapter 10

Buck and Wilma stepped into the lobby of the large hotel and slowly walked up to the counter. When the woman behind the counter looked up, she smiled and greeted them.

"Welcome to Hotel Aurora," she said sweetly. "Can I help you?"

Buck and Wilma returned her smile. "Yes," he answered. "We have reservations for Mr. and Mrs. Carey."

The woman looked down at her computer monitor and tapped a few keys. After a brief moment, she smiled and looked up again. "Ah, yes. We have you here. If you have your identicard handy, I'll swipe it and get you on your way."

Wilma handed her a card. The woman took it, swiped it through her computer to authorize it, then handed it back. "You will be in Room # 5788." She glanced down at the monitor again. "Oh, it looks like you have a package."

"A package?" Buck asked suspiciously, taking a small step backwards.

She bent down underneath the counter for a second before coming back up with an envelope in her hand. She handed the envelope to Buck who visibly breathed a sigh of relief. She smiled again and waved her hand toward the right of the counter.

"The service droid will take your bags and show you to your room. The elevators are over there."

Wilma nudged up against Buck as they followed the droid through the lobby. "What's in the package?" she asked softly.

Buck simply shrugged. "Dunno. We'll find out once we get to the room, I guess."

They followed the droid to the elevator. It led them to the fifth floor and then down a maze of corridors to their room. Once inside, the droid carefully placed the bags on the floor and then left the room silently.

"One nice thing about droids," Buck commented with a grin. "You don't have to tip them!"

Buck moved to the edge of the bed and sat down. Cautiously he inspected the outside of the envelope. It appeared to be a normal envelope with the name, "Mr. Carey" written in red. Slowly he broke the seal and looked inside to find another envelope. Written on the outside of the second envelope was a short message.

"Do not speak. It is possible the room is being monitored. If this envelope shows any form of tampering, leave immediately. You've been made. Otherwise please open."

Wilma stepped up to the bed and began to say something, but Buck held up his hand to stop her. He held up the envelope and the message written on it. She nodded and silently sat down beside him. He opened the second envelope. Inside was a letter.

"At 1800 hours local time, leave the hotel and take a taxi to the town's south gates. There is a business there called Finegan's that rents hovercraft. Rent a hovercraft and travel into the desert to the following coordinates. I will be waiting for you there."

When they were both finished reading the letter, Buck put the letter back into its envelope and stuffed it inside his flight jacket. He checked his watch and tapped it. "One hour," he mouthed. He lay back in the bed and turned on the news vids.

"There's only one problem with this," he grinned.

Wilma looked at him curiously. "What's that?"

Buck's grin slowly grew. "There's no Headbanger's Ball to listen to."

Wilma returned the smirk. "I don't think the galaxy is ready for that kind of music."

Buck simply nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right. Nothing in the universe could prepare people nowadays for Ozzy Osbourne."

When the hour passed, Buck and Wilma left the hotel and stepped onto the busy street of Trixtania's capital city. Wilma flagged down a cab. When it floated gently to a stop, they climbed into the back seat. The driver looked into his mirror.

"Where can I take you?"

"Finegan's Hovercraft Rental," Buck replied.

"Which one?"

Buck turned to Wilma unsurely. Wilma smiled and looked at the driver. "The one at the south gates," she said.

The driver nodded once. When the door closed, the car gently rose into the air and eased into traffic. Buck and Wilma intently looked around them at the sights of the modern city. It only took about fifteen minutes to reach the south gates from the hotel. The car settled onto the ground to allow Buck and Wilma to exit. Wilma handed the driver her identicard and he swiped it into his slot, then handed it back to her. They watched the car climb back into the air. Buck then looked around them. About fifty yards south of their position was a high metallic wall. Just to the left of the pair of large gates was a long parking lot that contained dozens of hovercraft of varying sizes and designs. The sign above the parking lot simply read, "Finegan's."

"I guess we're here," Buck muttered as he headed slowly across the sand-strewn sidewalk.

They walked across the parking lot and into the small air-conditioned office. The heavy set man behind the counter didn't look up. They stood there for several minutes before Buck finally got impatient and loudly cleared his throat. At last the man looked up with a scowl on his face.

"What?" he asked gruffly.

"We'd like to rent a hovercraft," Buck stated matter-of-factly.

The large man looked back down at the monitor he had been intently reading. "It's getting late."

"So?"

"It gets cold out there at night."

"We don't intend to be out that late."

"Some of the monsters out there get pretty vicious. That's why we have such a high wall. They used to get into town and tear stuff up."

"We can take care of ourselves," Wilma said.

The hefty man glanced up again. "Yeah, I bet you could. I got something you could take care of," he mumbled with a gleam in his eye.

Buck slapped the counter loudly with the palm of his hand. "That's my wife you're talking to," he bellowed.

The man smirked. "So?"

"So are you going to rent us a hovercraft or not?"

He sat up and placed his elbows on the counter. "You ever drive one of these before?"

"Yeah, I have."

"Fine," he finally sighed as he looked down to type the information into his console. "It'll cost you a thousand credits an hour."

"That's highway robbery," Buck growled.

"You want to rent a hovercraft or not?" he smirked.

Buck reached slowly into his flight jacket and pulled his pistol out of its holster. Gently he set it down on the counter, barrel pointed toward the man's large head. The salesman started to say something smug until he got a closer look at the pistol. His eyes widened.

"That's a Draconian pistol," he commented nervously.

Buck grinned out of one corner of his mouth. "So it is."

Wilma removed her pistol and placed it on the counter beside Buck's. The large man looked at her just as nervously.

"Being in the Draconian Secret Service has its advantages," she commented.

He started furiously typing at his station. In a moment he set a contract and a key atop the counter. "Two hundred credits?"

Buck accepted the contract and signed under the name of Carey. He pushed the contract back across the counter and laid some credit chips beside it. "Sounds better."

The man took the contract and chips and put them away. "You can take any of the hovercraft you want. The same key works for all of them."

"Let me ask you," Buck started. "Do you always jack the price up five hundred percent? Or is that just for people you think are suckers?"

"I'm just trying to make money."

"Are you Finegan?"

He shook his head. "No. Mr. Finegan works in the corporate office downtown."

"What would Mr. Finegan say if he found out you're scamming his customers and undervaluing his bottom line, because I'm sure you're not claiming all of your income on the company vouchers."

"You're not going to report me, are you?"

Buck grabbed the key off the table. "I'm just here on vacation with my wife. I just advise you to be more careful in the future who you try to scam. Otherwise, some morning you may wake up dead."

Buck and Wilma left the office and walked to one of the smaller hovercraft. Wilma stopped before climbing into the craft. "How is he going to wake up if he's dead?" she wondered aloud.

Buck simply grinned. "It's just a saying. Let's go find this Vaahn fellow before it gets dark."

Buck took the controls and eased the hovercraft through the gates. He input the coordinates that Vaahn had given him into the onboard navigational computer. In a moment the monitor displayed the readout.

"Looks like it's about fifty miles south-west of here."

Wilma checked the speed of the hovercraft. "We should be there in about an hour."

Buck nodded. "Keep an eye out for vicious creatures," he said with a slight smirk.

She tapped her pistol. "I'll be ready for them!"

When they reached the place, the hovercraft stopped and settled slowly to the ground. In the distance, the sun had almost completed its disappearance into the horizon, streaking the sky with reds, oranges, and pinks. It almost looked as if the reddish sands of the desert were being reflected upon the sky. Buck looked around him intently for any signs of civilization. They were truly in the middle of nowhere. Nothing but flat ground and desert sand for as far as the eye could see. They sat in silence for several moments watching what was left of the sunset. Within minutes, it grew dark. Wilma shivered ever so slightly as the temperature rapidly dropped.

"He was right," she said. "It gets cold out here quick."

Buck removed his flight jacket and wrapped it around her. She started to protest, but another shiver made her think otherwise. Instead she leaned up against him until she could feel his body heat. She basked in the warmth for the longest moment before she broke the silent, night air.

"You know you had me scared to death yesterday."

He turned his head slightly to look down at her. "When?"

"When I couldn't find you after you'd jumped out of the Gaussian shuttle."

He simply nodded. "Sorry."

She perked her head up and smiled. "No, it's not your fault. I was just... scared. Scared I might never see you again."

Buck started to say something, but when he noticed the serious look on her face, he refrained. He recognized the inner turmoil going on inside her head. She obviously wanted to tell him something, but wasn't sure she had the courage. Instead he simply nodded once. "When I was floating around out there, a lot of things flashed through my head," he said, glancing up at the host of stars in the clear sky.

"Buck," she said hesitantly.

He moved a finger to cross her lips. "You don't have to say anything."

Gently she moved his hand away. "Yes I do. I was scared... for several reasons. I was scared that I would never see you because... I don't know what I would do without you. You've taught me so much about... many things, including what it means to be a woman and not just an officer."

"Wilma..." he tried to interrupt.

"Let me finish," she said softly. "When I found out that you were alive, I felt relieved and upset at the same time."

"Upset?"

"Relieved that you were safe, but upset that Devyn had found you and not me."

"But Devyn is just-"

"I don't care about Devyn," she interrupted. "I care about you, Buck. You mean so much to me that I find it difficult to put into words."

"I care about you too, Wilma. You're one of the best friends I've ever had. "

She hesitated for several moments, then nodded. "I think what I'm trying to say is that I want to be more than just friends. I see you with Devyn, or the girl down at the pizza shop, or the girl at the customs counter at the space port, or Princess Ardala, or..., well you get the idea..."

Buck looked away.

"I just get disappointed, depressed, jealous. I know I have no right to, but I do, and I can't stop myself. I just want..."

Buck turned back and gently put his hand on her cheek. "Wilma, I'm sorry. I never meant to-

She shook her head. "I know you're not ready to settle down," she admitted. "You've said so yourself on many occasions. But when you are ready, just promise me one thing."

"Anything."

A tear slid out of her eye and onto her cheek. She hoped that it was too dark for Buck to notice. "When you're ready... give me a chance," she said softly.

Buck smiled as he leaned forward toward Wilma's face. "You're number one on my list," he grinned.

Just before their lips could meet, they both saw a brilliant flash of light. Then suddenly a metal panel began to rise out of the desert sand, just ten feet away from the hovercraft. The panel continued to rise for a moment before three men appeared. They climbed the stairs and out into the desert night air. Quickly they approached the hovercraft.

"Captain Rogers and Colonel Deering?" one of them asked.

"Yeah," Buck called back.

"Please come with us. We have been waiting for you. Vaahn is looking forward to meeting you."

Buck and Wilma exchanged disappointed glances before leaving the hovercraft and following the men into the opening. As the panel began to close, Wilma swore silently to herself.

If they had just waited another ten minutes... or an hour...