Point Zero by Aer-ki Jyr (christmas read aloud TXT) 📕

to do already, and there’s no need to scare us with the monsters next door,” Paul said, giving up on the head massage that never seemed to work. “But it seems I’ve got a long term date in the future. Hide that information until later. Don’t need curious people poking around and getting killed.”

“What if people find it anyway, who aren’t looking for it?”

“Fine, put a deep patrol in the system, but stay away from that gas giant. And if anyone does go there, use drones to shoo them off, but don’t attract attention to it with your presence.”

“I’ll have Ghostblade take care of it. We’re discrete.”

“No sneaking in,” Paul said, pointing a finger at her.

Kara raised her hands in a symbol of sincerity. “I promise. No games.”

“Take care of it,” he said, standing up and heading for his shower booth.

“Want some company?” Kara asked.

“With Azoro watching?” Paul shot back.

“Didn’t ask to screw you. Just asked if you wanted some company. Bet I can massage that headache out with some telepathy if you let me, and that waterfall you call a shower is big enough for 4 people.”

“I don’t think it works that way, but you’re welcome to try. Why didn’t you ask before…” he said, realizing the reason.

Kara shrugged innocently.

“Come on. Just don’t tell the others. I get enough jokes from them as it is.”

The Jinx smiled and followed him into the rear compartment of his quarters, stripping her clothes off as she went, then Kara followed Paul inside the now larger shower compartment meant for his bigger body, except it wasn’t a tube as much as it was a room of its own that would fill up into a swimming pool when needed, but usually Paul just used the waterfall feature and sat down on the bench underneath it…or so Kara had seen watching him from the outside on occasion when he took too long in there and missed one of their scheduled meetings. He’d developed a bad habit of losing track of time ever since his Saiolum breakthrough.

Paul turned on the waterfall and sat down underneath it while Kara triggered the rain function for the ceiling that added a light sprinkle to the rest of the room that slowly slicked down her hair as she leaned against the wall a few feet away from him. He opened up his now well-shielded Furyan mind and let her in, with Kara trying to work out the knots in his head that came from his contact with Azoro in addition to the actual damage, which she couldn’t heal but she could distract him from and get him to relax enough to stoke his own healing…but since the damage wasn’t totally physical, it didn’t always obey normal rules and was a constant, but light nuisance to him.

And while Kara was in his head giving him a telepathic massage, she also poked around into the memories of his conversation with Azoro to see exactly what he’d told Paul…

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