Page 94 of Hot Zone

Another deep sigh from him with a skeptical edge.

“Welcome home, Captain Marconi,” the professor commented, rising up out of her chair and taking off the time-travel headband as she did so. “I see you’ve brought along a guest.”

Tessa opened the booth’s door and stepped out. Rustam followed cautiously.

The professor frowned, looking past him into the enclosure. “I felt three spirits. Where’s the third one?”

Tessa whirled quickly, terrified that Kentar or one of his men might have managed to hitch a ride on their time jump. There was no one. Only Rustam, smirking. Smugly. At her.

And then it hit her. The baby. She was pregnant, just as he’d said she was. His hand came to rest lightly, but possessively, on the small of her back.

From behind her, Athena exclaimed suddenly, “He’s Centaurian! Arrest that man!”

Tessa whirled, flinging up her arms in front of him defensively. “He’s with me! He’s okay!”

Beverly Ashton stepped forward, glaring. “Are you so sure of that? We’ve been having trouble with his kind.”

Rustam, beside her, held his hands carefully away from his sides. “I mean no one here any harm. I did not intend to come to this time-place at all. I’m afraid Tessa took matters into her own hands and decided to include me in her jump, however.”

Athena shot a hard glance at her.

Tessa gulped. “It’s a long story.”

“In there,” Athena ordered sharply, pointing at the soundproof, surveillance-proof briefing room off the main lab. “You, too,” she snapped at Rustam.

The two of them followed her and Beverly Ashton into the chamber and took side-by-side seats at the conference table. Tessa reached out her hand, and Rustam grasped it protectively. Their auras swirled and mingled comfortingly.

Athena’s gaze narrowed as she studied the two of them, apparently taking in their shared aura, as well. “Start talking, Captain.”

Surprisingly, it was Rustam who jumped in to answer, however. “Let’s cut to the chase. She can fill in the details later. Tessa is a star navigator.”

Athena retorted impatiently, “We know that. Why else would she be involved with this program? It greatly enhances my ability to time-travel a subject if they carry the latent talent.”

Rustam snorted. “There’s nothing latent about her talent. She’s a full-blown navigator now. She’s been making deep space jumps for the past two weeks.”

Tessa’s mouth fell open. What? “What are you talking about?”

He turned his gaze on her. “What did you think was happening every time we made love? Those were jumps. Without a ship and without a focus object, and without crystals, as far as I can tell. But I’ve been a navigator for twenty years, and I know a space jump when I make one.”

Tessa peeked over at the professor and the general in chagrin. Nope, they hadn’t missed the making-love bit. Thunder rumbled on both their brows. She swung her gaze back to him. “Are you serious?”

He grinned. “Think about it. The darkness of space. The stars all around. The weightlessness. We were out in the middle of the galaxy.”

Her? A star navigator? She mumbled under her breath, “Holy cow.”

He grumbled, “Now there’s an understatement.”

“How come we didn’t die in the vacuum of space?”

“I created a pressure and oxygen bubble around us. It’s an emergency skill all star navigators learn in case something happens to their ship and it doesn’t make a jump with them. We can stay in-between like that for a few seconds, normally, but then we have to jump immediately to someplace with an atmosphere. By the third jump, you were creating the bubble yourself, probably without realizing you were doing it.”

“But we stayed there for several minutes at a time.” As she realized what she’d just said, Tessa’s face flamed. She must be beet-red.

He frowned. “I’ve never heard of anyone being able to stay for extended periods of time like we did. As best I can figure, our combined star power must’ve been able to sustain the bubble much longer than a single navigator can.”

Athena interrupted briskly. “How did you get here, Mr.—”

“His name is Rustam,” Tessa interjected quickly.

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