“Ready, Starfighter?” he asked.
“I can’t believe this. It’s exactly like the game.” Now I sat in the cockpit of the Valor. The seat was similar to my gaming chair but better. It fit me… perfectly. I watched a hand, my hand, touch the holographic displays that told me the ship was full of fuel, loaded with weapons, and ready to go.
Alex settled into his seat beside me and buckled his harness into place. “Secure your harness, Jamie. This is not a game.”
His voice was deep and back in control. The only time he’d lost it had been under my touch.
Excitement mixed with terror made my fingers shake as I pulled the harness over my shoulders and buckled myself into the pilot’s seat. This was one thing that I hadn’t done in the game, but the feel of the straps, the snug security, was a promise that I’d feel every thrust and every turn I made in the responsive starfighter.
“I can’t believe this.”
“Do I need to take you back to the control room and convince you some more?”
My laughter rang through the small space, and I was shocked at the sound. I didn’t sound like me. I sounded wild. Happy.
Free.
Maybe it was the orgasm. Maybe it was the hot guy beside me. Maybe it was this ship. A real, live starfighter spaceship.
Maybe I was thinking too much.
I pulled the control station forward, and it locked in place across my thighs, the joystick and control-pad button arrangement exactly like what had come with the gaming package on Earth.
“Even the controls are the same.”
“What good would come from training our Starfighters on control systems that they were not going to use?”
I thought about that for a moment, staring at the joystick and control pad. “I can’t tell you how weird this is.”
Alex’s large hand appeared from nowhere and settled over both of mine, which I’d been wringing in front of the joystick, afraid to touch the darn thing. It made my mind go to what those fingers had done just a short time ago. He was skilled at more than just flying.
“These controls will launch the Valor into space. This ship is real. The weapons are real. If you are not prepared to attempt your first flight, we can do this another time.”
“No. Let’s go. I want to see what she can do.”
I leaned my head back against the seat, which looked and felt like dark gray suede.
Alex reached out and pushed a button on the controls in front of us. I smiled as the translucent cockpit shell lowered into place over our heads without making a sound. As the alien graphite composite—which the entire ship was made of and was supposedly much, much stronger than any metal we had on Earth—locked us inside, everything within me settled. It was so strange and yet completely familiar at the same time.
Had even one thing been different, I would have hesitated. But I knew this ship, every single control and display. Even the docking bay where the ships were held looked identical to the videos I’d seen inside the game. The symbols. The uniforms. The ships and walls and people. Except for the control room. I hadn’t known that was there. If I had…
Everything suddenly felt more real to me than anything else had in my life. I’d spent hundreds of hours playing the game with Alex at my side. I lifted our joined hands to my lips and kissed the back of his fingers. “I want to fly, Alex.”
He smiled like I’d just made him the happiest man on the base. Maybe I had. I definitely had earlier “Very well, Elite Starfighter, I will contact Launch Control and request a departure clearance.”
“Okay.” One word and he was all business.
“Bay 4 Control, this is Starfighter Valor requesting permission to launch.”
A stranger’s voice came back through our communication system. I heard her through the ship’s speaker clear as a bell. “Valor, this is Bay 4. You are clear for launch.”
“Clear? No one else is flying?” I looked at Alex in surprise. Usually, in the game, I had to dodge other starfighters or at least a shuttle or two when I first exited the moon base.
“The Dark Fleet attacked during our last orbit. It was while I was on Earth retrieving you. The current position of the asteroid field gives us some protection. Queen Raya’s fleet doesn’t like to attack with the planets in this alignment because they’ll be trapped on this side of the asteroid belt. We should have a couple of days to get some practice in before they attack again.”
“Wait. They attacked last night? And you just let me sleep? Took us into that room and—”
He lifted a hand. “The attack came while we were still on Earth. Their attack runs and harassment is a normal occurrence, sadly.” He frowned. “They like to remind us who is winning this war.”
I frowned, too. How dare the Dark Fleet think they were winning! I was invested; I cared. I was here, ready to kick Queen Raya’s ass—and infuriated, because it sounded like I’d missed my chance.
“I don’t want to practice. I’d rather kick some Dark Fleet butt.”
He gave me a slow smile. “I know you do and that proves you have the fighting spirit of an Elite Starfighter. But you have yet to fly the real Valor.”
That made sense. Velerion was at war, fighting for their survival. If everything I’d seen and learned in the game was true—and it looked more and more like that was the case—if Velerion didn’t hold their ground, the planet would be destroyed. We’d be killed.
And according to what Alex had told me, Queen Raya wouldn’t stop there. Earth would be next.
“Okay. Let’s take her for a spin.”
“Okay,” he said back.
I settled into my seat and placed my hands on the controls, my fingertips flying through the preflight checks as if I’d done this thousands of times, because I had. When I was confident everything was ready, I glanced at Alex, who nodded.
A thrill shot through me as I spoke into my headset comm for the first time. “Bay 4, this is the Valor. Ready for launch.”
“Ready for launch, Valor. Confirmed.”
Alex was watching me with a look that made me want to hug him, kiss him, and jump up and down like an excited five-year-old all at the same time. “Ready?”
This was it. This was really it. A moment I’d imagined for a long time.
“Ready.” He turned to his own controls, and his voice became serious as he checked his systems and reported to me just like in the game. “Weapons, ready. Targeting, ready. Shielding, ready. Life support, navigation, and all secondary systems optimal.”
“What about you?” I had to ask. Surely this was surreal for him as well?
He must have heard something strange in my voice because he lifted his head and turned to look at me. “I’ve been waiting for you for months, Jamie. Where you go, I go. When you come, I come.”
I blushed hotly, and I shifted in my seat at the heat and intensity in his gaze. He meant every word, my possessive bondmate.
The ship jostled beneath us as the transport bots, like robotic tugboats on wheels, braced the Valor and moved us into position on one of the launch beams facing a long, straight tunnel that would serve as our exit. The individual launch tunnels were easier to camouflage from the outside and prevented unnecessary accidents when multiple ships took off at once. I felt a bit like I was flying out of a tube on Battlestar Galactica with the strange lights moving along the side of the ship as we were nudged forward into place.