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  Deep Space Mission Corps 4

  Out of Bight, Out of Mind

  Emi Hypatia loves her job exploring the galaxy with her three husbands, Aaron Lucio, Caph Bates, and Ford Caliban. When a nonhuman crewman is temporarily assigned to the Tamora Bight for a mission, Emi hates and mistrusts him at first sight due to what her empath training tells her.

  Aaron, Caph, and Ford know Emi can’t help what she feels about their temporary crewmate, Kayehalau. But they don’t know if it’s just the jump engines wigging her out, residual nerves from her fight on Kal’moran, or something else. They feel badly Kayehalau’s presence on board makes her nervous, but orders are orders.

  Emi knows Kayehalau is up to no good. She just has to prove it. It’s soon apparent he wants to use her for a nefarious purpose. She turns the tables, but only after she’s out of harm’s way does her larger problem become apparent. Can Aaron, Caph, and Ford rescue her when she’s left Out of Bight, Out of Mind?

  Genre: Futuristic, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Science Fiction

  Length: 68,203 words

  OUT OF BIGHT, OUT OF MIND

  Deep Space Mission Corps 4

  Tymber Dalton

  MENAGE EVERLASTING

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting

  OUT OF BIGHT, OUT OF MIND

  Copyright © 2012 by Tymber Dalton

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-62242-102-2

  First E-book Publication: December 2012

  Cover design by Les Byerley

  All art and logo copyright © 2012 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

  If you have purchased this copy of Out of Bight, Out of Mind by Tymber Dalton from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

  Regarding E-book Piracy

  This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.

  The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

  This is Tymber Dalton’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Dalton’s right to earn a living from her work.

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  DEDICATION

  To Hubby. I couldn’t do it without you.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  The correct order to read the series is Love at First Bight, Bightmares, Spider Bight, and then Out of Bight, Out of Mind. While they could be read independently of each other, it is best they be read in order. All three books are available from Siren-BookStrand. The events in this book take place immediately following those in Spider Bight. And yes, I do have plans for more books in this series. *smile*

  OUT OF BIGHT, OUT OF MIND

  Deep Space Mission Corps 4

  TYMBER DALTON

  Copyright © 2012

  Prologue

  From the personnel files of Dr. Louis Graymard, Deep Space Mission Corps Chief Personnel Acquisitions Officer:

  Mission Debriefing Summary #1

  File #20-8720.2

  Ship: DSMCV Tamora Bight

  Base of Origin: New Phoenix, Arizona, Earth

  Crew: Captain Aaron Lucio; First Officer Caphis Bates; Mate Ford Caliban; Medical Officer Dr. Emilia Hypatia

  Following a stint of R&R on the Martian base, the crew was sent out on an exploratory mission. Unfortunately, a distress call and request for assistance from a Kal’moran ship diverted them. They towed the ship back to the Kal’moran space station. Through a series of events, the Moran leader asked them to the surface. Having been ordered to indulge diplomatic interaction, the crew went.

  Apparently, the daughter of the Moran leader constructed a plot to frame Bates and Caliban in an attempt to take ownership of all three men from Dr. Hypatia. Fortunately, Dr. Hypatia perpetuated a ruse during the fight that allowed her to win and exposed the charade. All four crew members were released and allowed to return to their ship. The Kal’moran leader issued a recommendation that the crew be given commendations for their work, which under the circumstances we certainly will take under advisement.

  Their next mission is to…

  Chapter One

  When sorrows come, they come not single spies,

  But in battalions.

  —William Shakespeare, Hamlet

  Before her, the greenish-blue swirls of Daxious Theta 2 resembled a marble suspended in the middle of a sea of black velvet. Dr. Emilia Hypatia sat in the command chair and stared out at the planet. Having the bridge of the Tamora Bight all to herself during nighttime watch allowed Emi plenty of time for contemplation. The planet, the fourth from its sun, was only five percent larger than Earth, had an iron core, a healthy mix of oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and other gasses for its atmosphere, and was only fifty percent saline ocean. Also, the largest life-forms on the planet were mammals equivalent to bears back on Earth. No intelligent life-forms.

  In other words, it looked like a valid prospect for a settlement colony.

  Emi knew somewhere on the backside of the planet orbited the Kendall Kant, another Deep Space Mission Corps exploration vessel that had arrived hours earlier to assist with the mission. On board, her best friend and roommate from college, Dr. Donna Stephens.

  Emi wouldn’t mind the company. After their past couple of assignments, she looked forward to having backup close at hand in case something went wrong. It also didn’t hurt that she and Donna would be able to chat in real time instead of back-and-forths delayed by hours, or even days in some cases.

  All three of Emi’s men were asleep in their shared quarters. Emi had volunteered to take the night watch once they’d stabilized their orbit around the uninhabited planet. Her scientific curiosity wouldn’t let her fall asleep. This wasn’t the first planet she’d been to outside of Earth, but it was
her first true exploration mission. She enjoyed watching the automated scanner output screens and paused the results every so often when something caught her eye.

  This was what she’d signed on for. What she’d trained for. It didn’t matter where in the universe the DSMC sent them, as long as they were together.

  Her men, her family, were her home. The Tamora Bight was her home. Nowhere had truly felt like home since Bozeman, Montana, where she grew up with her parents. Before they were killed in an accident at their lunar research station.

  Since then, emotionally, she’d been adrift and wrapped in her studies.

  Now, she had a family.

  Home.

  And after their tenure in the DSMC ended and the Bight wasn’t their home any longer, that would be okay, too. Together, they were home, regardless of where they lived.

  She drifted into thoughts about Bozeman, about tending the small garden they’d had at their house. Looking back on her childhood always made her smile. And made her miss her parents that much more.

  The com link let out a whistle, startling her from her reverie. She hit the button. “DSMC Vessel Tamora Bight. Dr. Hypatia speaking.”

  A woman’s voice sounded over the link. “Tamora Bight, this is DSMC Vessel Kendall Kant. Hey, girl. Whassup?”

  Emi giggled. “Chicken butt.”

  From somewhere on the other side of the planet, Donna also giggled. “I’ve missed that.”

  “Now all we need is Sophie and none of the guys stand a chance,” Emi said. Sophie being Dr. Sophie Vanderlin, now assigned to the Braynow Gaston. Sophie and her three men had been sent to Earth for training since Sophie joined them after Emi solved the crisis at the Aroykin colony. In the short time they’d known her, Emi and Donna had become fast friends with the woman. “You have night watch?” Emi asked.

  “Yeah,” Donna said. “I had to order my hubbies to get their cute asses in bed. They don’t mind sharing a bunk if I’m there, but they still get a little weirded out sometimes if they have to all sleep together and I’m not there.” Emi had signed up for the DSMC before Donna. She had also met—and rejected—the crew of the K-2 due to their boorishly militaristic attitude.

  Emi thought the condition’s medical term was acute stick-up-the-ass-itis, but she might have been mistaken. Fortunately, Donna had a more compatible attitude, allowing her to whip her former ISNC military men into a friendlier lot. It didn’t hurt that Dr. Graymard of the DSMC had sat the men down and had a heart-to-heart talk with Rob about them being assholes, and showed them videos of their sim sessions.

  Donna had also demanded they build a group cabin for them to all share, much like Emi and her men had. It made sense for Emi’s guys, because they had been lovers with each other for years before Emi joined them.

  The crew of the K-2…not so much. It had been a pretty big adjustment for Donna’s hunky hetero men.

  Not for a lack of trying on Donna’s part. Even her considerable powers of persuasion apparently had their limits. At least they’d entered into a group marriage with her.

  “They’ll get over it,” Emi assured her with a grin she was glad Donna couldn’t see. “It’s only been a few months. Go easy on them.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Emi heard Donna let out a wistful sigh. “So, what’ve we got down there?”

  “I’m doing the prelim scans now. So far, the data I’m seeing backs up what’s in the records from the primary expedition party that orbited the planet.”

  “This is so cool,” Donna said. “We are in fricking space!”

  Emi smiled at her friend’s excited tone. “The ships weren’t a clue? And you’ve been in space for a while now.”

  “Yeah, but Aroykin and Mars don’t count. This is exciting! This is the last fricking frontier. This is what people hundreds of years ago felt like settling the Old West back on Earth. When do we get to go down there?”

  A cold chill swept through Emi. She rubbed her arms to smooth the gooseflesh rippling up them. “Not yet.” She couldn’t help but think of the terrifying spiderlike tals’tophk creatures she’d seen up close and personal, which inhabited the areas outside Kal’moran’s protective city walls.

  Deadly poisonous. Even though it was five weeks earlier, she could still hear the creature’s dying screams in her memories.

  “We have to take precautions,” Emi continued as she shoved that horrifying memory away. “Believe me, I’ve seen bad critters firsthand. We won’t know more about the fauna until the drones and robotic landers do close-up scans. We also have to test the flora. Make sure it’s not poisonous.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know.” Despite Donna’s brains and beauty, patience didn’t even make the top ten list of her strong points.

  “You’re not bored, are you?” Emi asked.

  “No, not bored. I just want something to do besides stare at a computer screen from several miles above the planet’s surface.”

  “Don’t worry. We have four weeks here. Once we finish our scans and topography studies tomorrow, we’ll start sending down the drones.”

  Donna’s voice softened, her tone growing serious. “So…how bad was it on Kal’moran? We really haven’t had a chance to talk about it. Are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?”

  Heat filled Emi’s face. Her stomach churned before tightening, threatening to send the remains of her dinner back up via express elevator.

  She picked up Bucky, the rubber spider, from where it sat on the command console. She rarely let Bucky out of her sight. The good luck charm had allowed Emi to save her men from the treacherous Kal’moran who’d tried to take them from her.

  To save her family.

  “I’m okay,” Emi softly said. “Maybe later. Face-to-face. Not like this.”

  “Fair enough, girlfriend. Fair enough.”

  * * * *

  They spent most of their night watch talking. Ford showed up first the next morning to relieve Emi. Of course he brought her a cup of coffee.

  She cupped her palms around the warm mug and blew across its steaming surface. With enough creamer to turn it the color of caramel, and sugar, he’d fixed it exactly the way she liked it. “Thank you.”

  He leaned against the command chair with one arm, his other hand holding his own mug. A delicious smile curved his lips. “No problem, babe. You really think I’m going to show up here with no coffee? That’d be like taking my life into my hands, wouldn’t it?”

  Emi smiled at him over the top of her mug. “I love you so much.”

  “Ah, you just love me for my caffeine.”

  “And your cock.”

  “Well that’s good to know.” He grinned, his blue eyes playfully lit with good humor. “I thought it was my witty conversation.”

  “You are a chatterbox, but I love that about you, too.” Slightly slimmer in build than Aaron, his lean, catlike body always turned her on.

  “Also good to know.” He tipped his head toward the screens, where the sensor scan readouts still scrolled. “Anything interesting?”

  “It’s all interesting to me.”

  He arched an eyebrow at her. “You know what I meant, babe.”

  “Nothing unexpected or extraordinary, if that’s what you meant.”

  “That’s what I meant.” When she slid out of the command chair he took her place. “Nothing to catch me with my drawers around my ankles?”

  “You mean besides Caph?”

  “Ah, good one, babe. Nothing I need to worry about, then?”

  “Nope. Donna and I had a good chat last night. She had their night watch.”

  “Never thought I’d say this, but I’m glad Rob and his crew are here with us.”

  Emi reached over, grabbed Bucky off the console, and pocketed the rubber spider. “You and me both, Ford.” She gave him a kiss and wandered down to the galley. There she found Aaron toasting himself a bagel.

  “Good morning, Em.” He leaned in and kissed her. He hadn’t shaved yet. The stubble on his cheek brushed against hers. “Boring nigh
t?”

  “Got lots of data pouring in.”

  “So that’s a yes?”

  She shrugged. “It’s not boring to me. Am I the only one on this boat who enjoys looking at scientific data?”

  “Maybe. My job is to get the data and keep my ship and crew safe.”

  She bumped him with her hip. “And here I thought you were a renaissance man. How many times have you read Othello and Hamlet?”

  “I am. If we discover an opera or Shakespearean theatre company down there, they’ll have my full and undivided attention. Until then, it’s just a job for me. I’ll leave the science stuff to you and Ford. I have a ship to take care of.”

  She was toasting a bagel of her own when Caph swooped into the galley, grabbed her, and kissed the side of her neck. “Hiya, babe.” She felt his semi-stiff cock rubbing against her through his uniform trousers.

  “What’s wrong, big guy? Didn’t Aar and Ford take care of you last night?”

  He grinned. “They did, but I missed you.” He went after her neck again, making her squeal with giggles as he dry-humped her hip. Caph was her big, playful goofball. His shaggy blond hair and green eyes were the decorative bows on his total package, which included a large body, broad shoulders tapering off to a narrow waist, and a positively bitable, tight ass. Aaron referred to Caph and Ford as the twins because of their habit of speaking at the same time, not because they were related or even looked remotely alike.