Starr Struck Read online

  Surely they would have known something was wrong.... Wouldn't they?

  Her feet propelled her forward. Adriana was almost at the arrivals gate before she realized where she was headed.

  She leaned against the glass and scanned the stream of arriving passengers. This was lunacy, surely. Starr was supposed to have made one last run to Malvar, hauling a cargo of heavy machinery parts. While he might have been the best pilot this side of Rigel and a half decent mechanic, he had a deep mistrust of teleporters, wouldn't be caught anywhere near one, preferring the relative dangers of faster than light travel to what he called the scattering of his component parts over half of known space.

  A tall Malvarian stepped from the teleporter pad to the noisy welcome of a hoard of family members. Adriana sighed. What am I looking for here?

  Waving its eyestalks in greeting, a squat Xubian was the next arrival through the gate. All around her reunions of families and friends were taking place. Joyful hugs, welcoming smiles and squeals of delight filled the arrival lounge. The gate cycled, preparing to spew forth another passenger. Adriana stared into the teleporter's swirling mist and tried to think up excuses for her uncharacteristic behavior.

  In the midst of the teleporter's haze, a pair of green eyes began to take shape. A sharp gasp escaped her lips, drawing the attention of the Xubians nearby. Adriana covered her mouth with her hand. Didn't anyone else see the ghostly image of a man forming?

  I'm losing it for sure.

  And yet from out of the ghostly web of the transporter system, those haunted emerald eyes stared back at her. Blond hair billowed out over his shoulders, barely discernible against the background of glowing atoms. Beneath it she could see the unmistakable outline of a pair of broad shoulders. Adriana pressed her palm against the glass. Then he was disintegrating, lost in the twisting center of the teleporter.

  "Quillan," she whispered, squinting to bring him back into focus. Amidst the churning sea of energy she saw the flicker of his eyes. Like a television picture gone to snow, his form faded. For a moment she thought she saw the jagged outline of his jaw, the full lips whose silken feel she could still conjure every time she closed her eyes. His mouth shaped her name. And something else.

  "For today...."

  And then there was only space above the floor pad of the teleporter's mechanism.

  Cool glass beneath her palm brought her back to the present. The tumult of the arrivals lounge came crashing back into her senses. People drew away from her, throwing suspicious looks over their shoulders. Even the Xubians gave her a wide berth as they passed. And no wonder, she thought. To them I must look like a crazy woman talking to an empty sheet of glass.

  But before she turned herself in for psychiatric tests, the scientist inside her demanded the riddle be solved. Last night she had been caught up in the sentimentality of Zelina's wedding. Last night she'd drank more wine than was good for her. Today she stood before the teleporter, awake and sober. And still, she'd witnessed an event that had happened too many times to be sheer coincidence.

  His haunted eyes flashed before her mind's eye. And in that instant she was suddenly certain of one thing. Never mind what people said about Quillan Starr. Something awful had happened to him. Adriana intended to find out exactly what.

  * * * *

  Zelina's father took a suspicious view of her sudden interest in teleporter technology. But she was the best friend of his only daughter and nearly as dear to him. As chief merchant on Rendezvous Station, his influence was considerable, and he reluctantly agreed to accompany her on her visit to the manager of the Teleporter Station.

  Annoyed at having his busy day interrupted, the manager glared at her across his pristine chrome desk. From the look the two men exchanged upon greeting, she could tell he was only granting her a few minutes of his time as a personal favor to Zelina's father.

  "Whenever someone takes a teleporter journey," he explained with strained patience, "a copy of their DNA is placed in a file locked for safe keeping with their own personal password. The password is kept in a special file with their insurance documents in case of an emergency. Now since there was no record of Mr. Starr's alleged teleporter journey, he is deemed to have gone missing under other circumstances. His file has been forwarded to the Intergalactic Police. If you wish to pursue the matter further, you will have to contact them. However, records are purged on a regular basis. So if you have a query to file, I would suggest you do it in within the next oh," he consulted the chrono on his wrist, "five hours."

  Adriana sucked in her breath. In exactly five hours, it would be the one-year anniversary of Quillan's disappearance.

  * * * *

  Adriana left the Teleporter office more frustrated than when she came. She politely thanked Zelina's father, assured him for the tenth time that yes, she was perfectly fine, and headed off down the corridor toward her hotel room.

  She had been through all of this a year ago. The fact that Starr was well known to be a scoundrel worked against him. To make matters worse, there was no record of Starr taking a teleporter trip, making it appear all the more as though he had planned to disappear for the rumored reason.

  Whatever the reason for his unplanned trip, she had five hours to find out what before all record of Starr was erased forever.

  * * * *

  Adriana sat before the terminal in her hotel room and watched time creep forward on the chrono. It had taken her fifteen minutes to walk back from the Teleporter Office and another five to call up a drink and a bite to eat from the room's processor, which left her four hours and 40 minutes to solve the mystery before Starr's essence was dumped from the police files.

  The chrono clicked. Another minute lost.

  It took her another fifteen to navigate her way through the network. And sure enough, the teleporter files were locked as securely as a safe.

  Her fingers hovered above the keyboard. If he had taken a teleporter trip, what code could Starr possibly have used to safeguard the essence of his being? She typed in "Needle."

  ACCESS DENIED, the screen responded promptly. Adriana swore softly and typed in "The Needle."

  ACCESS DENIED, the screen spat back and turfed her out of the system.

  Four hours later, she'd tried every possible combination of letters and numbers she could think of, both their names spelled forward and backward, Starr's birth date, hers, even the date they met.

  40 minutes left. Adriana drummed her fingers against the desk and tried to calm the cyclone of terror in her gut. The memory of those haunted eyes was indelibly engraved in her mind.

  Though malfunctions were extremely rare, there were a million ways a teleporter transmission could go wrong. Interference, crossed signals, technically both were possible. Horror stories dated back from the dawn of space travel. It chilled her to think of Quillan trapped between dimensions, belonging neither to this world nor the next.

  Buried in the multitude of facts she knew about Quillan Starr was the key to unlock his fate. Adriana typed 'green' for the color of his eyes. When that didn't work she tried 'amber' the color of hers. Red for the color of her hair didn't prove any more successful.

  In the back of her mind was the nagging suspicion there was something she should know, something she should have thought of. What had he been trying to tell her?

  Tel--

  With trembling fingers, Adriana entered the letters T-E-L.

  And found herself barred from the system again.

  It took her another ten minutes to evade the system's defenses and get herself back into the teleporter's high-security directory. 'Tel--' she was sure he'd said. Or was it 'Tele-'? Adriana typed T, and prayed to Octarian god of luck. She typed E and held her breath. L was entered with a carefully worded prayer to the Xubian goddess of good fortune. On the final E she shut her eyes and waited.

  Cautiously, she opened one eye and swore fluently in frustration. On a black screen, two red words flashed mockingly.

  ACCESS DENIED.

&nb
sp; "Think Adriana," she whispered. "What else did he say?"

  Fragments of a well-known melody echoed through her mind.

  Say for today that you are mine

  Before the night comes between us...

  Their song!

  Adriana glanced at the chrono. Nine minutes left. Swallowing hard, she closed her eyes and typed "For Today".

  The screen reconfigured and she found herself admitted to the most basic element of Quillan Starr, his genetic code. Now all she had to do was feed that information to the teleporter file. According to theory, when the two merged, it would retrieve the scattering of Starr's component parts and put the pieces of the puzzle back together. According to theory of course, to her knowledge the fail-safe had never been used.

  Adriana's fingers hovered above the keys. This was the part she simply couldn't mess up. Trouble was, she didn't have the faintest idea what she was doing.

  The chrono clicked. Seven minutes. Do it now, the rational part of her brain argued. Now, or Quillan Starr will be lost forever.

  But I really don't have a clue what I'm doing, the doubtful part of her mind insisted. I'm a hyperdrive specialist, not a network expert. From out of the corner of her eye, she watched the chrono count down another minute lost.

  It was now or never, Adriana decided. Praying to every God she could name, she located the teleporter file and fed it Starr's data.

  For a long moment, she was sure something had gone terribly wrong. The air around her crinkled. Like staring through a waterfall, she watched as reality warped. The atmosphere in the cubicle prickled with static.

  Through the twisting air between them, a pair of green eyes stared out at her from a cloud of blond curls. Below she could see the beginnings of a strong, roughly-stubbled jaw forming. Broad shoulders emerged, tapering down to narrow hips and well-muscled legs. Caught in a sea of rippling molecules, he hovered between dimensions.

  Finally the net disintegrated and it really was Quillan Starr standing before her.

  He looked at her in dazed confusion. "Riana," he whispered hoarsely.

  And passed out cold.

  Crouching before him, Adriana stretched out a tentative hand. Her fingers brushed the rough material of his gray flight suit, feeling hard muscle beneath. She ran her hands over broad shoulders and across the smooth plane of his chest. He was real, all right. Most definitely solid.

  His eyelids flickered, giving her a glimpse of the emerald eyes she remembered so well. A low moan escaped his lips.

  "Quillan!" Adriana gripped him by the shoulders and shook him hard. "Wake up, Starr, damn you!"

  At her harsh command, he blinked, once, twice. The hard planes of his face softened, his sensuous lips curved into a smile.

  He reached for her, pulling her down into his arms. "Riana," he whispered against her ear. "I thought you were an angel."

  * * * *

  "It was ... cold. Like being pierced by a million needles," Starr told her as they huddled together under the blankets in her hotel room. He shuddered and gulped down a mouthful of strong Malvarian tea laced with brandy. "The cold was in my mind. I couldn't concentrate. All I knew was that something had gone terribly wrong ... and I thought of you."

  Beneath the covers he was warm, most certainly a part of this dimension. Whatever had happened, it didn't matter now. Quillan was there in her arms. She hugged him closer. "It's okay, I got you back."

  "You got me back," Starr repeated and put the cup aside.

  Strong hands tangled in her hair as he cupped the back of her head and tilted her face to receive his kiss. Warm lips teased hers apart. The tip of his tongue traced the outline of her lips. It seemed as if he would continue in his reacquaintance, but suddenly he stopped.

  "How long?" he asked, his lips moving against hers. "How long have I been gone?"

  Adriana levered herself from his embrace and placed her hands on his shoulders. Under golden brows, his eyes narrowed, as he sensed the bad news coming.

  "Quillan, it's been almost a year."

  Starr ran a hand through his long blond hair, tousling already disheveled curls. "An entire year?"

  She nodded.

  "Then my ship--"

  Adriana swallowed hard. "I'm afraid it's been impounded."

  "They'll have sold it by now," he said hollowly.

  "People said you'd run off," Adriana blurted. The words tumbled over each other into the silence. "They thought you were trying to get out of your wedding vows. They wouldn't believe me when I said something was wrong. If I hadn't come back to Rendezvous Station for Zelina's wedding--"

  She stopped. No need to tell him just how close he'd come to oblivion.

  The horror in Starr's eyes deepened. "I missed our wedding--"

  Unable to hold back the tears that spilled over onto her cheeks, Adriana could only nod.

  "And you thought I--"

  "Everyone said you got cold feet. They told me the worst stories. I thought you'd changed your mind about marrying me."

  His face softened into an expression that was at once caring and wounded.

  "Riana," he said, looking intently into her eyes. "I went to buy you a wedding present."

  "You what?"

  "Remember those Xubian diamond earrings you had your heart set on?"

  Vaguely, Adriana remembered coveting the matched pair of dazzling stones. During the year that followed Starr's disappearance, a pair of baubles, no matter how fine, just hadn't seemed important anymore. "What about them?"

  "I was going to use the first payment from the Malvar run to buy them for you. I talked a buddy who worked at the teleporter station into sending me through for free when no one was looking."

  "That's why there was no record of your trip!" The pieces of the puzzle were coming together, and the picture they formed wasn't the one she'd been expecting. "You made that last run to Malvar so you'd have the money to buy me a wedding gift?"

  Starr nodded solemnly.

  "I was afraid the thought of lifelong commitment was making you nervous. I thought you wanted to get away from me for awhile."

  "Now why would I want to get away from you?" He pulled her closer. "You're the light in my life."

  "But what about the stories about all those other women?"

  "Like all stories," he said laughing, "they're greatly exaggerated."

  "They're not true?"

  "Mostly fabrications, I assure you. They go with the territory of being a hotshot pilot."

  Adriana leaned against him, reassured by the beating of his heart that he was in fact very real and there with her.

  "So," Starr asked. "Are we still engaged?" The words were spoken in his usual self-confident style, but the look on his face was anything but.

  She smiled reassuringly up at him. "I have a whole slew of wedding plans just waiting to go."

  But Starr was shaking his head. "We can have a party later. I want us married before the day is done. I don't want to run the risk of you misunderstanding my intentions again."

  * * * *

  Two hours later Adriana and Quillan stood before the altar where Zelina had said her vows the evening before. The special effects generator with its sparkling mist and swirling stars had been dismantled and sent back to the rental company. But the altar decorated with sky-blue-pink roses had yet to be taken down. The roses, Adriana noted, were a little wilted, but she didn't mind. Quillan didn't seem to notice at all as he stared around the empty ballroom in awe. He hadn't let go of her hand since they'd left her hotel room. Everywhere they went on Rendezvous Station he remarked on things that had changed in the year he'd been gone. Adriana shuddered to think of what it must have been like for him to have been trapped in the ether while time and life went on around him. Despite his ordeal he seemed happy just to be near her, to touch her.

  Once confronted with the undeniable truth that Quillan was still alive and well, Zelina's father had commandeered the grand ballroom for a few more hours. Rendezvous' captain had agreed to officiate. Z
elina's father had insisted on giving her away, while his daughter watched on a nearby monitor via subspace transmission.

  Turned out they were going to have their party after all. Champagne left over from Zelina's wedding chilled in chrome wine buckets. All the tables had fresh white tablecloths, even though there weren't enough guests to fill more than one. Overhead the stars blazed in blinding white glory set off against the blackness of the sky.

  But the handsome blond man before her stole Adriana's attention. Even though dark circles ringed his eyes and it looked as though he might drop with exhaustion, he positively beamed at her. There hadn't been time to arrange for wedding rings or formal announcements. That would have to wait for tomorrow, or perhaps even the day after. They both intended to stay in bed tomorrow morning, Adriana thought with a smile.

  Quillan seemed to be having similar thoughts. His eyes roved with approval over the bridesmaid's dress she'd bought for Zelina's wedding. There hadn't been time to buy a new dress either, Adriana thought and then decided she didn't care.

  The station's captain read their vows. Adriana repeated the phrases she'd been certain only hours ago that she'd never have a chance to say. Still staring into her eyes as if he feared she'd vanish at any second, Quillan repeated his own vows in a rich voice.

  Then the captain pronounced them life-partners. Zelina's father popped the cork on a bottle of champagne.

  And the wedding Adriana been sure she'd never have was over. They were married. Zelina logged off her subspace transmission and went back to her new husband.

  Adriana smiled. Time for the reception and the honeymoon.

  Zelina's dad seemed intent on using up the leftover champagne. He proposed toast after toast in his loud booming voice and served glass after glass of the bubbly brew.

  Once the computer records had been scrutinized and Quillan had undergone a quick medical examination, her best friend's father had let go his suspicions of Quillan's sudden reappearance. Now he couldn't be happier for the couple.