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Written orginally for Maderr's b-day.
Haden jumped as the word was shouted directly in his ear. Irritably, he looked up from the engine components he was working on and glared at his wayward tech who was grinning back with the same idiot grin he always had on his face. “What?”
“You wanted to tell me when the Florian arrived.”
“Yes, tell. Not shout in an attempt to create hearing loss.”
“Well, excuse me,” Telerk mocked back. “I called you five times. You responded to none, so I was forced to resort to extreme measures.” Telerk was a tech he’d picked up on Jalenth. And in all honesty, the boy was loud.
“Fine,” Haden sighed. “I was doing some last minute fine tuning of the magic-to-technology networks. It’s delicate work.”
“I know.” Telerk shot him a glance that clearly indicated that he was offended by the idea that Haden hadn’t anticipated his knowledge on the matter. Little upstart brat. Too bad he was smart as hell to boot. Haden kept trying to push the kid into the engineering program, but to little avail. “I didn’t tap you on the shoulder because of it.”
“Yes, well, thanks,” Haden mumbled awkwardly, rolling his sore shoulder and standing up from the workbench. “Let’s see this Florian. I have to make sure it’s a good magical match. I thought of going with those Geteivian pixies for a while, but their life spans are so short and they’re becoming endangered. Florians, while as rare and as endangered as the Geteivian pixies, seemed to have a much longer staying capacity and seemed capable of providing a great deal more magical power. This kind of ship would have required at least four pixies to power it and they would have to be replaced every four years. With one Florian, I can power it for upwards of fifty or sixty years.”
“Uh, sure boss,” Telerk smirked, and Haden could only roll his eyes. Honestly. He was trying to give the kid some inside info on the spaceship industry. Telerk might be a smart mouthed little shit, but he had so much potential. Most of which was being obscenely wasted on such a low ranking position. “I left him in the other room. You want to take a look at him?”
Haden gestured for him to lead the way. It was a short, but confusing walk for those who were uninitiated with the hanger. Haden, however, could navigate it in his sleep. Had, on numerous occasions, navigated it in his sleep. The only thing he’d ever wanted to be growing up was an engineer, specifically the spaceship building kind of engineer. It fascinated him the way that different races had taken technology and woven magics into it, producing stronger, faster ships.
It was a lucrative, fast growing field of work, and Haden would never be forced to look through the galaxy’s classifieds to find a job. But it wasn’t why he’d chosen to work in it.
“Here we are boss. Your Florian.”
Blinking, Haden glanced around to reacquaint himself with his surroundings. They were in the break room. That in itself was a little troublesome, considering that of all the places in the hanger that Haden might have conceived of housing their Florian, the break room hadn’t even made the list. In fact, he wasn’t quite sure why they weren’t down in the magical creature holding facilities that were on the opposite side of the building.
There was, however, a rather dirty half naked heathen sitting in Haden’s chair, drinking coffee out of his personal coffee mug. He made a mental note to have the mug incinerated as the man glanced up warily from his drink to stare at Haden.
He wasn’t from any race that Haden recognized. He had blue eyes that almost seemed to phosphoresce a bright green whenever his hair fell down far enough to create a shadow. His forefingers were abnormally elongated and lacked a fingernail, but they weren’t as bizarre as the strange spots and stripes that appeared to be natural rather than applied tattoos on his skin.
Turning to look down into Telerk’s mischievous red eyes, Haden scowled. “So where’s my Florian. And who’s he?”
“He,” Telerk laughed, “is your Florian.”
Slumping his head down on his work bench, he glanced over at the Florian who had rather docilely followed him from the break room back to the main hanger. The cuffs were still on him, of course, restricting his ability to produce magic or magically corrupt any of the software that wasn’t yet ready for the main power source to activate it. But the Florian was inspecting the ship just as any man from any other race might, with an air of curiosity and fascination for all the bells, whistles and doodads involved in creating something so massive and so powerful.
Powerful. Haden banged his head on his work bench a few times. The whole ship had been constructed solely with a Florian power source in mind. He had four years of his life tied up in the creation of this masterpiece of magictech. Besides that, there were hundreds of others who had put their time and resources into its construction. Hell, the ship was already paid for in full.
Starting over again was not an option. Neither was scrapping the project all together.
And Haden found himself stuck in a rather excruciating ethical dilemma. He was going to have to use a Florian, this Florian, to fuel his ship, and he was going to have to force the Florian into it. It was one thing to take domesticated magical creatures or non-sentient animals that had been plucked from remote regions to power ships. Using humanoid races?
A hand on his shoulder startled him out of his self imposed applications of his head to the desk, and two hands smoothed the hair off his somewhat tender forehead. The Florian was standing right next to him, cool amusement and maybe a little concern shining in his glow-in-the-dark eyes.
“You must hate me,” he muttered more to himself than to the Florian. Reaching across his bench, he pushed a couple of buttons to bring up a view screen of the file he had on Florians. The Florian he had beside him, only looked at the screen with detached curiosity. He poked it once or twice to presumably establish that it was only a holographic projection of a screen and not a physical one.
Scanning through the files once more, Haden caught on to the allusions now that back up sources were always considered and employed in ships with Florian fuel sources. In fact, most indicated a history of troublesome interactions with Florians to extract the magical outputs needed. Haden had taken it all into consideration when he’d made his ship based solely on Florian power, but he had assumed that the engineers that had failed so grievously before him had failed because they had such long histories of abusing and over-extending the power of their magical sources that they inevitably killed them or rendered them useless.
It made an eerie kind of sense now, that he hadn’t found any of the peers that he’d grown to respect and appreciate the works of to be utilizing such power sources. Obviously, they had known about the humanoid factor and had opted for less barbaric means of flying their ships.
Glancing out of the corner of his eye, Haden could see that the Florian was still incredibly close, invading his personal space kind of close. In fact, his long straight white—if grungy looking—hair was brushing against Haden’s shoulder as the Florian reached across the bench and punched a couple of the buttons on Haden’s keypad. And even though he was filthy, Haden had to admit, he wasn’t entirely bad looking. In fact, under any other circumstances, Haden would have been falling into infatuation from afar with the graceful way that the man held himself.
The blueprints of the living spaces inside the ship popped up and Haden blinked a few times to make sure that one too many bashes to his head hadn’t made him start hallucinating things. “Wha?”
“This is where you planned to house me, no?”
“You talk,” Haden squeaked, looking up at the man as he felt his stomach jump into his throat. The Florian even spoke his language. Lovely. He’d built a sophisticated state-of-the-art magictech ship that ran on humanoid slavery.
He was despicable. Lower than low. And certainly not worthy of the man’s attention, let alone affection.
“I have a mouth, yes?” The man smirked, and it reminded Haden almost eerily of Telerk. He was beginning to suspect that his tech had left out a few details of his trip home from picking up their power source. “These are my quarters?”
Focusing on the blueprints instead of the fact that the project he’d been proud of ten hours ago had spiraled into his greatest shame, Haden nodded. “Yes, those were intended to be them. I was expecting some sort of creature,” he explained lamely.
“They will do.”
“Wha?”
“Well, obviously I need furniture. The bathroom facilities need to be converted to accommodate my needs, but you’ve left room for that. The space is adequate enough, although I would like a supply of—what do you call them? Vid libraries? I do not wish to be bored.”
Blinking, Haden was now certain he was hallucinating. “I’m sure we can manage that quite easily,” he heard himself weakly say.
“Plus, we will have to make room for you,” the man shrugged as if it were the most obvious thing in the universe. “You will need your things. Work benches. Tools. This here,” the man pointed to what Haden had intended to be a sick bay that catered specifically to the power source, “is not needed. My physiology is not so different or so delicate that it would require a separate room or doctor. You can use this space.”
“You think I’m coming along?” Haden blurted out, incredulous.
“You have to,” the man said simply.
“Look, I don’t think you understand. I just design and help with the construction of ships. Once they’re built, my work is done. And I understand that this is not acceptable. I didn’t know everything I should have when I decided to use your race as a power source. Obviously, if I had, I never would have done this. I don’t even know your name.”
“Geflan. And you are Haden.”
“Yes, and don’t believe everything Telerk told you about me. He has a tendency to exaggerate.”
Gelfan nodded absently as he went back to studying the layout. Unsure of what to do, Haden let the man scan through the various layouts and technical diagrams that composed the final plans of the ship. “This is ingenious work. You were right to choose Florian magic as a power source. No other creature would be able to handle such an elaborate system.”
“No,” Haden scooted up out of his chair, blowing his mud brown bangs off his glasses, “I shouldn’t have chosen Florian power, and I’ve rendered this ship useless in making the gamble.”
“Useless?” Gelfan returned, surprised.
“I refuse to let the client that paid for this ship exploit you as a fuel source. Surely, you yourself can’t want to be nothing but a huge magical battery.” Haden ran his hands through his hair in exasperation and frustration. He went to pull some of it out even, if just to release a little of the pent up anxiety over this, but Gelfan gently detangled his fingers before he could do so. “It’s late, let me take you back to my place. You can clean up and we can both get some sleep. I’ll figure out how to work this out tomorrow.”
Tiredly, he peered up at Gelfan, who stood at least four inches taller than him. “I will agree to this for now.” Gelfan nodded, a smile gracing his lips.
That made Haden feel even worse. How could he have not known that his power source was sentient? How?
He set the meal that Gelfan had approved of eating in front of the man. He left Gelfan to eat and rummaged around, picking up various clutter that had inevitably accumulated over the last four years when he’d been off thinking of doing better things than housekeeping. He converted his couch to a bed, noting with some relief as he put sheets on it, that it was at least clean and usable.
“You can just leave the plate on the table when you’re done; I’ll take care of it in the morning,” he tiredly told Gelfan without really looking at him. “I’m just in the other room through that door there. Feel free to wake me up if you have any problems. It might take some doing, since I tend to sleep like the dead, but I’d rather you woke me up.”
Haden saw Gelfan nod his agreement out of the corner of his eye, and took the assent as leave. Stumbling into his room, he flopped belly down on his bed, toed off his shoes and half heartedly pulled his blanket over his shoulders.
He was amazed that Telerk had even come back to work for him after discovering just what a Florian was. If anything, his tech had to be having a good laugh at his expense right about now.
And Haden deserved that and so much more. At the very least, he wouldn’t be surprised if his company filed suit to have his engineering license revoked.
Numb, he put it out of his mind and went to sleep.
The dream started like most dreams he had over the last couple of years. Warm arms wrapped around him as someone kissed the top of his ear from behind and whispered in it. The person was familiar, a life mate that Haden had somehow managed to find despite the fact that he never left his lab and lived almost exclusively for his work.
The whispered things Haden could barely make out, a teasing jab at the fashion or lack there of in his wardrobe, gentle reminders to take a break and get some sleep in between all his hard work, stupid little terms of endearment that were they muttered by anyone else but this person, would have severely offended Haden. All of it accompanied by gentle caresses, the occasional grope and an over all sense of possession and affection.
Haden loved these dreams.
“Haden, wake up,” the words were whispered in his ear, and mumbling, Haden burrowed closer to the arms holding him, rubbing his eyes as he did so.
“Wha?”
“It is getting close to morning.”
A few things register then. One, he was in his own bed in his own home. Two, someone really was hugging him and holding him from behind. Strong arms were wrapped comfortably around him, and he could feel the tips on abnormally long forefingers resting just underneath the elastic waistband of his boxers.
Three, Gelfan, the Florian slave he’d unwittingly purchased as a power source for a ship he’d designed, was sleeping in his bed with him.
“Gyah!” He tried to scramble away, but Gelfan held him firm. Not hurting him, but not letting him up either. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“What is natural,” Gelfan retorted back. “What we both want. You have dreamed of me, and I have dreamed of you. This is how these things work.”
“No, it isn’t.” Haden argued, half heartedly elbowing Gelfan in the ribs. “There’s dating and romance and stolen kisses and it does not happen because one person was stupid and didn’t research enough and it does not happen because the other person was bought to fuel a ship. I can’t believe you can even stand the sight of me. I’m horrible! I’m the worst person on the planet. Hell, this galaxy.”
“You did not know, and I knew when I was captured where I was going and what would most likely occur. I can’t say it was a pleasant experience, but you make it worth it.”
“You’re cracked,” Haden told him shortly. “I am not worth slavery. And you couldn’t have possibly, in your wildest dreams, thought that I wanted you to power my new ship.”
“You do not intend to keep me a slave. My race has moments of precognition. Doesn’t yours?” Gelfan asked coolly, and Haden could practically feel the irritation that was beginning to bubble up in Gelfan. Damn it.
“Well of course I won’t make you be a slave. And my race sometimes has precognitive abilities, but still-”
“Still nothing,” Gelfan interrupted. “You are my life mate. There will be time for this dating? The romance and most certainly, the stolen kisses. But you have to understand that I will not back down. I will power the ship that you designed, and with your help, I will become a part of its onboard computer.”
“No way in hell,” Haden stated flatly. “I am not tying any part of your consciousness to a hunk of metal. If the ship were attacked or scrapped, it would attack you or scrap you. It’s not happening.”
“It will,” Gelfan returned, if a little bit more gently than before, “and I want it to happen. This is why you must come with me. Not just because you are my life mate, but because I need you to look out for my best interests.”
Haden’s mouth worked soundlessly for a few moments. “I barely know you! You can’t put that kind of faith in me. What if I sell you out? What if I betray you and you die a horrible and excruciating death?”
“You would not,” Gelfan said with a great deal more calm than Haden could even fathom feeling. “I do not know everything about you yet, but I know you. You would never hurt me, or anyone else, in that manner.”
Twisting around in Gelfan’s arms until he was facing him, Haden found himself starting at Gelfan’s somewhat fuzzy face. His glasses were either lost in the covers or sitting on his bed table. It didn’t matter either way, even without them Haden could make out Gelfan’s glowing irises and the sharp angle of his cheekbones, the curve of his lips. “How could you possibly know that?”
“I just do.”
“I’m an engineer. My life is planetside, designing ships and overseeing their construction.”
“Ships can be designed from anywhere and you can oversee anything through the technology you possess and Telerk’s help,” Gelfan returned, his hand trailing up Haden’s arm and over his shoulders until it came to rest cupping the side of his face.
“But I don’t know you. I barely know what you are.”
“So you’ll find out,” Gelfan said easily as his thumb traced over Haden’s lower lip. “The ship will not be ready for flight for another three months at least, no? Get to know me now.” Gelfan murmured against his lips before taking possession of them. Almost in spite of himself, Haden felt himself returning the kiss, matching Gelfan caress for caress tongue for tongue until he had to forcibly push the other man away to catch his breath and cool down enough to allow his other brain to do the thinking for his body again.
“You can’t possibly want me badly enough to be a magical fuel source.”
“You’d be surprised how badly I can and do want you,” Gelfan whispered back, a smirk on his face.
“If,” Haden stressed, “we do this, I want the romance and the stolen kisses and the dates.” What the hell was he saying?! Who was he to be making demands when Gelfan was practically telling him that not only would he still be employed, he’d be living in and seeing how one of his creations worked first hand. He’d be lying if he said that the prospect of being able to fine tune things once aboard hadn’t sparked a little appeal.
“We will do this, and you will get your romance,” Gelfan teased, laughing. Blushing hard, Haden tried to push him away again.
“We’re not having sex until I’m ready!” he squealed as one of Gelfan’s forefingers accidentally brushed at places that Haden wasn’t sure if he wanted brushed harder or wanted not brushed at all.
“That,” Gelfan murmured with a soft laugh, “we will work out, just like we will work everything else out. Now relax and go back to sleep. We have a lot of planning to do when we finally get up.”
“Hmm,” Haden mumbled, curling in closer.
