Pushing The Limits

She wanted it back.

But she had no idea how to reclaim it.

For a moment last night, when she’d been in the lake with Hemi beside her, she’d had a glimpse of what could be.

She took another sip of her tea, tipped her chair back on its rear legs and looked up at the roof of her wooden porch. Spiderwebs and some scratch marks. She put the chair down on all four legs and stood on the seat, reaching up to touch the scratches. Initials.

WBT.

No doubt one of the co-owners’ relations. The Tanners’ forebears had been granted this land by the Spanish king back before Texas was a state. She wondered what those people must have felt, looking out at this land, trying to figure out how to claim it.

She heard the rhythmic sound of footsteps approaching on the trail and climbed down off the chair as a group of six Cronus candidates came jogging around the bend.

Hemi was in the lead, followed closely by two women, and then a man and two more women.

They waved at her as they continued running by. She watched them go and realized that she’d never been a part of a team. Her family had been a group of individuals and most of the adventures she went on pitted her against nature. There were other people on the same quest but she’d always been aware that she was the leader, and the responsibility she had for their safety had been heavy.

The Cronus candidates were a team. She heard them urging one another on. There were twenty-four candidates out here competing for places on the missions. And everyone wanted to be part of the first one.

She’d read the files of each of the candidates and understood that each of them was elite in some way. They also had a fire to be up there among the stars. She finished her tea and went back inside, doing a series of tai chi exercises that helped bring her peace. Then she showered, tossed her hair into a ponytail and put on khaki cargo pants and a black T-shirt.

The exercises she had designed for her students were tough. But her mandate from Dennis Lock had been to get these people ready for anything. To hone their instincts so that they would be able to survive anything that nature or failing technology put in their way. He had said that ensuring no one died in space was mission critical. She understood that.

So today she’d teach them things that she’d learned from the time she was old enough to walk. Ways of moving into a new area and assessing the potential threats, and then she’d test them. She had a mock ship interior that she’d be using along with the technical crew. Her part of the training involved using the mock ship interior and working with the crew candidates. She knew that they were going to assess the dynamics between the contenders to ensure that the first mission was a success.

She had spent a lot of time in their space suits and in the mock module herself, trying to make sure she understood what was going on. She had to teach them how to survive if their climate control was damaged and the icy cold of space permeated their ship. Though their astronaut training had already covered this, she was here to shore up their understanding of how to survive when everything went wrong.

She knew that all she could do was give them the tools they’d need to survive and she was determined they would.

Last night had been fun, she thought, as she applied sunscreen and lip balm. A sort of sweet dream. An anomaly. Today it was back to her world—teaching people to survive. Hemi, with his brash attitude, flashed into her mind and she felt a flicker of excitement. That was different—the first time in a long time that a person and not a challenge had inspired it.

Interesting. And scary. She was going to have to step away from Hemi but she had more than a few regrets at the thought.

* * *

HEMI HAD DONE his best to play it cool when he’d jogged past Jessie’s cabin that morning. But he wasn’t cool. Granted, a big part of his attraction to her was down to the fact that she was hard to get, although he knew she wasn’t playing. That wasn’t her way.

She was honest and tall and so damned beautiful he’d spent more than half the night in a semi-aroused dream state, wishing last night in the lake had ended with them together in his bed.

The memory of her full breasts pressing against the almost transparent fabric of her wet bra, her eyes bright, blond hair a halo in the light of the waning moon, was burned into his mind. It was all he saw when he closed his eyes, and the effect on him was definite, immediate and pronounced. Even running and pushing himself to his limits, his body had reacted to the thought of her. He had been in lust before. Hell, who hadn’t? But this was different. And he didn’t need lust messing up his focus.

He’d worked so hard to get where he was. He didn’t want to lose his chance to be second-in-command on the first Cronus mission because of the power of the boner. He needed to get his head back into the game.

One cold shower later he felt more in control. He leaned over the sink in his bathroom and stared at himself in the mirror. He looked at his face and tried to remind himself of everything that was important. Everything he wanted and needed to be happy in his life.

He touched the birthmark that bordered his right eye. His mother had called it his good luck charm, and this morning he’d take luck. Though he had earned everything he’d achieved, every once in a while he’d take his mom’s belief that his ancestors had marked him for greatness.

He rubbed his hand over his jaw, deciding he didn’t need a shave, and then got dressed for the day. They had a schedule that was packed with lessons and training. The Cronus team would be using a spacecraft that had been designed for the lengthy mission and they all had to learn how to repair it. They’d be traveling a long way before assembling the way station.

The way station was halfway between Earth and Mars. Each mission would add to the station, but initially it would be just minimal living quarters to support a five-man crew. The mission would last twenty months. Eighteen months would be spent just traveling to and from the station. They were tentatively scheduled for two months to assemble the station and live on it before returning to Earth.

Of course, he also had an extreme survival class in the afternoon with Jessie. Hopefully he’d be focused on the course and not the instructor. He needed to be. He’d seen how close his good friend Ace had come to being dismissed from the Cronus team because of his health, and had almost been moved into an administrative role. Dennis wasn’t taking any chances with this. They all had to be in top shape.

And that meant not lusting after a tall, cool blonde.

Shaking his head, he headed out of his quarters. The apartments weren’t too bad and Ace had recommended that all of them bring stuff that reminded them of home.

Hemi hadn’t brought much. His home was up there in the stars, so he had tacked up a poster of the area where Cronus would deploy the way station. Then he’d hung a list of his own objectives on the wall at the foot of his bed so he would see them every morning.

He ducked into the kitchen and grabbed a protein smoothie from the fridge. Walking down the hallway, he found Izzy Wolston locking her door. Her call sign was Bombshell, but behind her back some of the guys called her Ice Queen. She was a little cold at times, but she was built like a pinup girl, with a curvy body and heart-shaped face. A lot of men, himself included, sometimes got distracted by the curves and missed the keen intelligence in her eyes.

“Ready for this?” she asked.

“Yeah. I’ve been ready since we got here. The party last night felt like one big tease,” he said.

She nodded. “I heard the higher-ups wanted to give us a chance to acclimate before we got started training.”

“More like they were sizing us up,” Hemi said.

“Agreed. I think we’ve been under observation since our names were announced,” she admitted.

“Probably.”

They walked over to the training facility in silence, past the lap pool and chin-up bar in the open courtyard.

They entered the main auditorium, which would be used for all general sessions. Everyone had been given a schedule for training and it was vigorous. Hemi glanced over his, making sure he’d been given dedicated time in the observation room to analyze data being sent back by the explorer satellite from the region where they would build the way station. Part of Hemi’s role was to ensure that there were no anomalies that would interfere with the safety of the station.

The scent of fresh mountain flowers drifted on the air and a second later he spotted Jessie standing a few feet away talking with Ace and one of the nutritionists. He watched her for a long moment before forcing himself to turn away.

Down, boy, he thought, but the truth was that he really struggled not to go over there and make small talk, just to hear her voice again.

She’d gotten under his skin.

A part of him thought it had happened too quickly, but his father had fallen for his mom in a second. That was what his dad always said, that he’d seen her at a Pacific Culture Festival doing a reading of Maori mana wahine poetry. Her voice had been compelling and his father had been drawn to her. She had exuded confidence and power, and his father said he’d known she would be important to his life.

It had sounded like bullshit to Hemi. He didn’t doubt his father loved his mother, but that any woman could floor a man before he even spoke to her had sounded...well, like a tall tale. But then he’d seen Jessie last night.

At first he’d thought maybe it was because she’d been his crush as a teenager, but then, as they’d talked, the crush had disappeared and it had become about Jessie.

Jessie.

He heard her laugh and turned toward her again, took a step in her direction before he realized what he was doing. He turned on his heel, leaving the auditorium to get control of himself.

* * *

“WELCOME TO SURVIVAL TRAINING 101. I’ve read your files and seen the training you’ve already had, so I know some of you have learned some of this already. But I promise that is just the beginning.” Standing in a classroom in front of twenty-four candidates wasn’t Jessie’s ideal situation.

She felt claustrophobic, the back of her neck itchy in the nearly windowless room. Most of the facility was fortified with heavy walls. The work took place in simulators and specially designed modules. The Cronus trainees also practiced teamwork through practical ranching sessions. Jessie had seen the setup in the barn—Ace had the teams take turns every day riding the roundup, driving cattle from one pasture to another.