Space Junque by L. K. Rigel Read Free Book Online Page B

understand."
    Just sitting here was going to drive her crazy. There must be something useful she could do. She found a schematic on the agronomist's compad and pulled up directions to the fruit section. "I'm going out to the crop pallets to do a hands-on check."
    It took two Ppods to get to the other side of the annex. The pallet room was dark and cool with grow lights suspended over the plants, and the cleansing fragrance of growing things was strong. Somewhere between the melons and the berries, her threatening headache dissipated like the hydro mist.
    Not surprising, everything was in good order. The blackberries were fat and sweet and the strawberries were as red as … Cripes, she couldn't get Jake out of her head. One particularly fat berry reminded her of that foo-foo drink with the origami dragon and the red stains the fruit left on his lips.
    She picked the strawberry and bit into it.
    "Now that's a very pretty picture, Meadowlark."
    Jake! She whirled around. He was standing at the end of the pallet with his typical amused smile and his arms spread wide in invitation.
    "How did you --?" She didn't care how he got there. She ran to his embrace.   Shibad , he felt marvelous.
    "Char, you're alive." His voice was warm and wondrous and comforting, and his eyes as dark and kind as she remembered. It seemed like weeks since she'd seen him, not half a day. He kissed her forehead and eyelids and pressed her to his chest, whispering in her ear. "It's so good to see you."
    He kissed her again, full on the mouth, insistent yet tender.
    He smelled wonderful, as if he'd just showered with lavender and ylang-ylang. And he was clean-shaven.
    Clean-shaven.
    Something wasn't right. Char twisted out of his arms and stepped back to get another look at him. Khaki flight pants, light green hemp shirt. Lovely muscles. Brown eyes, shaggy hair. It was Jake. But it wasn't Jake.
    "Begone, Empani!" A female called out. "Back to the fall!"
    Char scanned the pallets behind her. Nothing. Had she imagined that voice? She turned back to Jake.
    Gone.
    The stress was getting to her. She was cracking up. But no way did she imagine that embrace. That kiss. She could still feel Jake's lips on hers. She could still smell him.
    "No, little creature. You're not crazy."
    A small woman stepped out of the shadows. Except there were no shadows.
    "The Empani was drawn to your desire for the man in your heart." Her voice had a childlike quality mixed with an all-knowing vibe. She had light blue eyes with crinkly laugh lines, a turned-up nose and pouty cherubic lips. Her blood-red curls were streaked with silver and piled on her head, falling out of pink and gold binding cords.
    "Empani?"
    "One of Samael's glories." As if that explained everything. "That one got caught up in you. It won't bother you again."
    The woman was naked but for two pieces of shimmering material held over her front and backside by two tiny fairies sitting on her shoulders. Naked male fairies. Virile little naked male fairies.
    "You see me." She seemed pleased by this fact.
    "How did you get onto the annex? Who are you?" Char moved backwards, but the door was on the opposite side of the room past the woman. "Did you come with Jake?"
    Only that wasn't Jake.
    "As you   do   see me, aren't you forgetting something?" She raised an eyebrow as if Char had committed some transgression. The fairies glared. Their wings fluttered -- angrily, in Char's opinion.
    Where had this hallucination come from? There was nothing in Char's past. No childhood story, no class in ancient folklore she could think of that featured such characters.
    "Characters! Stupid human. Submit!"
    Char's body flung itself to the floor, prostrate and trembling like some novice waiting for god.
    God?
    "Much better." The hallucination came closer. With each step, Char's body shook with increasing violence. She couldn't handle much more of this.
    "Oh, fine." The hallucination stopped and sighed. "I won't smite you. Sophia knows we