Standard Disclaimers Apply
Ruth and Amanda were settled into their quarters by James Terry, Amanda was secretly relieved that the silent 'were had delivered their luggage and disappeared.
Amanda left her sister flirting with James and hurried to her own quarters, with shaking hands she pulled out a silver case that had not left her side since they had left Osiris. With shaking hands she pulled out a surveillance wand she wanted to double check that there were no tracking devices anywhere near her, satisfied that she was safe for the moment Amanda started to unpack the remainder of the case.
She looked around the room, she needed a place to hide the small control chip she had removed from the interior of the Self Satisfaction Virtual Reality Module 7.2. Behind her the door slid open, with out thinking about it she threw the wand at whoever was coming in and grabbed her gun out of the case and pointed it toward the door.
Acting out of years of training Cord ducked the flying object and looking up into the gun in Amanda's hand, he continued forward under her arm and tackled her to the floor.
"What in the hell do you think your doing?" he growled, Cord could see the fear in her face, he held Amanda down until the fear faded and embarrassment took its place.
'tianna what a time formy body to noticeI have a female pinned down' Cord thought as he carefully rose up off of Amanda and stepped back by the door, he slid the door partway closed and leaned against the wall
"Care to tell me what kind of trouble your bringing to my ship?" he asked in a quiet voice.
Amanda got up from the floor feeling like a fool, how was she going to explain this, 'best to try and bluff it out' she thought.
"Excuse me sir, you were the one who barged into my room," Amanda lifted her chin and tried to stare him down, it had worked on the toughest Matron on Osiris, surely it would work on this man. Amanda worked on controlling her unexpected reaction to the man who leaned so casually against her wall. Never in her life had she responded so physically to a man.
The fog of desire cleared enough for Amanda to recall what he had asked her, frowning she asked, "Your ship, I thought Cousin Chloe owned the Katie's Pride? Who are you?"
"Chloe is the owner, I am the first mate, and my name is Cord, your turn to answer me. What kind of trouble are you running from?"
"I'm not in any kind of trouble, and I would thank you to please leave my cabin this instant." Amanda haughtily replied.
"Don't try to lie to me woman, your beautiful eyes won't make me forget that you drew a gun on me." Cord cursed silently to himself as soon as the words left his mouth, though his expression never changed to reveal his thoughts.
"My apologies Mr. Cord, you simply startled me and I have been trained from a very young age to react quickly to situation as my body guards may not be there." Amanda hoped that the excuse satisfied him, even though it sounded pitiful even to her own ears.
Even with Cord wearing sunglasses Amanda could feel his assessing gaze as he weighted whether or not to accept her lie. With a sharp nod of his head he strode out of her cabin, Amanda collapsed onto her bunk relief making her knees weak.
"You know it's to bad all the great ones are sly, though I do think he is a little on the large size" Ruth announced as she breezed into Amanda's bunk, looking around she pronounced the bunk not to bad, "I expected worse accommodations actually, the infirmary is definitely set up very well. Much better then expected."
"Sly? Whose sly, Mr. Terry?" Amanda came up out of her fog to question her sister.
Ruth's laughter pealed out of her like silver bells, Amanda had always been jealous of her sister laugh, according to their brother Amanda's laugh sounded like a donkey's bray.
"No, that 'were Cord is sly, silly"
"How do you know?" Amanda asked curious as to why her sister would say something so outrageous.
"Because, he didn't even bat an eyelash when I said hello that's why" Ruth replied as if that explained everything.
Amanda looked at her sister in astonishment, if the heated length his arousal was anything to go by, she really didn't think Cord was sly, tentatively she ventured "Ruth, you do realize he is from the planet Helios?"
Ruth spun and stared at her sister in shock, she knew the history of the Core planets even better than Amanda, Dr. Graham Helios-Ware was a genius in his field of genetics, but when he announced his belief in the need for genetically engineering humans to achieve the perfect specimen he was laughed out of the medical community.
The doctor was the last in a long line of a very rich family, rich enough to purchase a small planetoid out on the farthest rim of explored space; there with his dedicated followers he genetically engineered the foetus's of his pregnant followers. Children of this genetic tampering came to be known as 'Weres due to their animal like eyes and remembrance of their creator.
"Amanda are you sure? 'Were's almost never leave Helios due to the reception they receive from everyone else." Ruth, even though she struck everyone she met as an empty headed frivolous woman with no more on her mind than her next exciting escapade, cared deeply about her chosen career in medicine. Ruth, more than anyone Amanda knew, reviled what Dr. Helios-Ware had done.
"Ruth, I may have had my head stuck in a medical textbook, then in the innards of synth for the past couple of years, but yes I am sure Mr. Cord is a 'Were."
Ruth sat down beside her sister; she chewed the ends of her hair as she thought this over, "Manda, do you think?"
Amanda thought over what she knew of the first mate, her first impression was of a tall man with long hair wearing a faded red cotton shirt and canvas pants tucked into battered combat boots, nothing to really to make himstandout from the rest of the crowd on Evansdown docks. She refused to think of her visceral reaction to the man when he shook her hand, or of the surge of passion that suffused her when she felt his arousal against her thigh.
"Ruth, I hardly know the man and I don't know how he would take your offer to fix his genes." With a sharp movement Amanda stood and started to move jerkily around her bunk, "I have to finish unpacking and get ready for dinner."
Eyeing her sister Ruth realized that there was something going on between Amanda and Cord, a mischievous grin lit up her face.
A knock on the door interrupted both women, a dark head poked around the door, cries of "Jules and Jube Jube" rang through the ship as all three women hugged and tried to catch up on eight years of living in the space of thirty seconds.
Laughing Jules, pulled the twins over to sit on the bunk, with one on each side of her she told them how she ended up cooking on Katie's Pride after their father fired her and threw her out of the family estate.