Boarded: Alien Romance Page 5

  “Shit.”

  Nual stepped close behind her. “Can the rail gun defend us?”

  She ordered Glitch to adjust the sensors and boost their power.

  Len stiffened in her seat. “Something’s happened to the array. Our readings are clearer.”

  “That’s Glitch, don’t worry.”

  Maol’s green eyes widened. “Your POD is military issue.”

  The cylindrical Zair ship carried six forward cannons and three aft. It out-gunned the Traveler ten-to-one. They could outmaneuver it, nothing else.

  “The rail gun will be useless against armor plating.” In vain her mind juggled other ideas, searching for any escape route.

  “You’ve worked with the Zair,” Nual whispered. “Maybe they have no interest in us. Can you speak with them?”

  She twisted to face him. “That would make things worse. The war clans have a bounty on my head.”

  “You failed to mention that earlier.”

  “You have secrets and so do I.” She noticed both Denobola angled their keen ears to listen. “It’s better they don’t know I’m aboard.” She swallowed around a knot in her throat. “I’m not popular among the warrior class. When I attempted to bring contact from Central Worlds to Zairan, it caused political turmoil. Many were killed. Our best chance is to run.”

  She heard Nual sigh. The sad sound hurt her. His first trip to space and he had to encounter the worst scenario instead of the best.

  Len’s claws stabbed at her console at a furious pace.

  “What course are you plotting?” Maol helped his wife strap into the chair.

  “Anywhere but here,” she responded.

  “Strap in.” The captain gestured to Sadie and Nual toward folded seats at the back of the room. “We’ll try to outrun them.”

  Not needing to be told twice they both settled themselves where told.

  Nual grasped her hand. “I shouldn’t have taken so much time in the storage bin.”

  It almost made her laugh. Instead she squeezed his hand back.

  “Where are you going?” Maol’s cry caught their attention.

  “Straight for Mauvrin Point.” Len spoke as she focused on her board. “The gravity-well will slingshot us around its mass, and we’ll reach Jump speed before those creatures can turn their fat-assed ship around to follow us.”

  The captain ran his claws through her beautiful golden mane. “If you’re off angle by one degree, we’ll be sucked into the point and be crushed into atoms. You’re risking the lives of our children.”

  “I’d rather them dead than on a Zair dinner plate.” She clasped his hand before returning her attention to the controls. “Buckle in.”

  Maol’s ears flattened to his head as he followed her order.

  Memories didn’t fade with internal processors. Sadie would rather be crushed into paste as well. She’d spent her fare share with the Zair. There were worse things than being eaten. She remembered them all too well.

  Nual leaned closer. “Can you ask your POD to display what is happening outside the ship? I’d like to see.”

  Glitch presented a three dimensional hologram without her command. Too preoccupied, she didn’t question its behavior toward Nual.

  As they drew nearer to the gravity well created by the neutron star, it scrambled the sensors somewhat and appeared as a large, white hazy spot in the hologram. A cylinder-shaped space vehicle came from behind, aimed directly for the Traveler.

  Even though she couldn’t sense them accelerate, the blip representing the small freighter moved toward the star. She had once hoped to change the fear Zair elicited in everyone. Not all members of this species were monsters, just the bastards who controlled their spaceships.

  Len used the force of Mauvrin Point to help increase the ship’s speed. When they almost reached the cloudy circle on the hologram, Len piloted it to sling shot around the edges. The blip on the hologram swung around the star.

  Nual squeezed her hand tighter. The discomfort reminded her of how alive she felt. Only the dead didn’t have pain.

  She clenched her teeth. This was where they’d need some luck as the freighter headed back the way they came, right by the huge warship. Her heart pounded. They were getting closer.

  “We didn’t gain enough speed. They’ll catch us before we make Jump.” Maol punched his armrest. “Make another pass around the star, Len.”

  Sadie could hear her swearing under her breath. It came out as a low continuous rumble while she maneuvered the Traveler back to the gravity well.

  Vibrations shook the bridge.

  “Is that supposed to happen?” Nual braced himself against the chair.

  Maol glared at them for a moment over his shoulder.

  Sweat trickled down her back. “No,” she whispered. The ship appeared very small and vulnerable all of a sudden.

  Glitch’s hologram showed the ship returning to the white haze of the neutron star, away from the Zair. The shaking made her lose faith in the strength of metal and rivets. They were flying in a tin can pass one of the most powerful forces in the universe, twice, and then hoped to outrun cannon fire from vicious aliens.

  As they passed the zenith of their turn, it became apparent what the enemy had waited for them. Small crafts left the main one and gathered in the Traveler’s flight path.

  “I can’t avoid them.” Len cried out. “We need the rail gun.”

  Crap and a truckload of it. Sadie swallowed and undid her harness. She had never fired a rail gun. It was an electromagnetic weapon that fired metal rods at several times the speed of sound. Her military issued POD carried a lot of files necessary for such situations since she’d been sent in such a dangerous zone on Zairan. This would be her first time using them, an upload virgin.

  “What are you doing?” Nual grabbed her arm. His brow furrowed, his eyes filled with concern. His apprehension surprised her. It wasn’t his job to protect her but the other way around.

  “Glitch, upload rail gun file.”

  He released her arm and nodded.

  She leaped to the appropriate console and applied the straps. Data flowed through her CHIP. Circuit to circuit until it reached her neuro-synapses. Faster than any other file she’d ever used. Dizziness lasted a few seconds but felt like hours. Now she understood why soldiers got addicted to their PODs.

  Opening her eyes, she knew exactly what needed to be done. The slim slots, where the Denobola inserted their claws sat in front of her. She frowned and looked at her own manicured nails.

  “Maol, how am I supposed to reach the buttons?”

  Without taking his attention from the board, Maol reached under his seat and came out with a small black case. He tossed it to her.

  Inside, she found a set of thin metal picks.

  The Traveler rocked as if kicked like a ball. Safety straps strained as her body slammed against them then back to hit the chair. The contents of the case scattered to the floor, and she swore at their loss. Cannon fire from the warship must have reached them.

  She loosened one strap enough to reach out and snatch two picks from the ground, straining the muscles on her flank in the process. With the tools, she began the sequence to control the weapon.

  She aimed and fired at the smaller Zair fighter ships.

  A distant rattle of projectiles echoed from above the bridge. She spotted the telemetry on her controls, showing a clear path down the middle of the throng.

  They might escape. If the engines kept accelerating, if they didn’t get blown to bits, crash into a fighter, or get swallowed by the gravity well.

  Each of her shots found a target. One Zair fighter for each guard they’d killed on her expedition to their home world. She bit her bottom lip. Not from fear but to keep from cackling in glee. Revenge was sweet.

  She patched into Glitch’s scans of outside and had a better sense of where they sat. In the middle of the path she’d cleared, the small Zair fighters closed in and shot back.

  Len cried out a furious roa
r. “They got the engines. We’re not accelerating anymore.”

  “Jep! Sudu!” Maol demanded via the intercom to his sons in the engine room. Silence answered him.

  Ears plastered flat to her head, Len swiveled her chair away from the pilot’s console. She panted, a sign of emotional distress among her kind. “Maol.” Anguish was even more evident in her voice. No doubt, she birthed at least one of the boys.

  “Fly the damn ship, Len. I’ll go down and see what’s happened.” He undid a strap when the intercom crackled on.

  “Captain—“ Static interrupted and garbled the voice. “Father,” the reception cleared, “can you hear me?”

  “Jep, what’s your status?”

  “The Flux Core is breached. We barely made it out before bulkhead doors closed and sealed off the engine room.”

  “Find Kaille and Cine, protect them and your siblings at all cost.”

  “Maol, the warship is approaching.” Nual’s calm voice startled her. Quiet and steadfast, he pointed to the hologram of the large space cylinder hovering over the small freighter.

  Since Maol ordered his sons to defend their family, he must’ve known their fates. Most thought the stories of Zair’s appetite for sentient flesh a myth. She knew firsthand the warrior class still ate people.

  The bottom dropped out of her stomach, and she clamped her hands over her mouth. Fear clutched her lungs. She needed a deep breath but could only pant.

  Nual’s strong hands rested on her shoulders and lent her strength. She twisted in her seat to face him as he knelt next to her.

  “You—,” she licked her dry lips. “You should stay in your safety harness.”

  He brushed his fingertips over her cheek. “Does it really matter now?”

  Tears welled in her eyes. He knew they wouldn’t survive. “No, I guess not.” She swallowed around the knot in her throat. Terror would overwhelm her if she allowed it, but that’s not how she wanted her life to end. Sadie Beckit would die on her feet. Her last breath would be taken fighting the Zair with their blood on her knives.

  She pulled Nual closer and kissed him. Duties be damned. She released him. “I wish we had more time but I’m glad to have known you these few hours then never have met you.”

  The Traveler shuddered as if struck by something. Nual tumbled from her arms to sprawl on his back.

  “Nual!”

  Without thought she unbuckled herself and scrambled on all fours. The sudden momentum stopped. She helped him sit up and examined his head where it struck the floor. No blood or bump.

  He took her hands in his. “I’m all right.” Then looked to Maol. “That didn’t sound like blaster fire.”

  “Polarized tows, they’re reeling us in. They have us.”

  Chapter Seven

  Her worst nightmare was coming true. The Zair warship had caught them. All those weeks of therapy to help her deal with the trauma of Zairan—they disappeared in a flash. She felt herself slip back into survival mode as if she never left that cursed desert planet.

  Nual grimaced as he lay on the bridge floor.

  Only then did Sadie sense her fingernails digging into his hand. Ice-cold fear clutched her soul. If these Zair recognized who she was, they’d do worse things to her than eat her flesh. She struggled to not run around the room screaming. The cold emotionless mask she wore was on the verge of crumbling. She released his hand. Little half-moon indentations decorated his skin. With her thumb she tried to soothe them, but her hand shook too much.

  The familiar feelings of being hunted sprung up, even though she thought them buried deep. Being prey never appealed to anyone. After running through the Zairan deserts for three months, trying to stay alive, she’d learned a few skills. Most of them un-Liaison like.

  Nual touched the shaking hand she stared at, and she glanced to meet his stare. No fear touched his face. Solid and calm, things she strove for. He kept her from drowning in terror.

  A ship full of people, and like a coward she worried for her own safety. She took a deep breath, sending Glitch a message to access its military files and present some escape options.

  Nual’s lips parted as if to speak, but she silenced him with a touch to his sweet mouth. If he spoke the words she read in his eyes, she’d lose what little self-control she’d gained.

  “Kaille, Cine,” Maol spoke into the intercom. “Gather the children and pack what supplies you can carry. Send Jep and Sudu to meet me in the family sitting hall.” He closed the link and looked to his wife. “Len, launch the distress buoy.” His shoulders slumped slightly. “Maybe it’ll reach the Central World fleet ship that was supposed to clean out this area.”

  She should have insisted on taking the regular trade route, this system probably was swept empty, but the scum came back. It was her job to advise her charge toward the best decisions. Blinded by lust, she let Nual have his way without much argument.

  She assisted the ambassador onto his feet and saw a small gash on the back of his head. It oozed navy blue blood. Glancing around the room, she had nothing to stem the flow. If this was his only injury he’d incur during this nightmare, he would be lucky.

  They all hurried to the lift. Maol pressed the button for the crew level but Sadie pressed it for her own floor.

  “Liaison, there’s no time to gather personal effects.” The captain crossed his arms over his chest and met her gaze as they sped downward.

  “I want my weapons. If I go down, it will be fighting.”

  “How did you smuggle weapons aboard my ship?” He stepped forward.

  Sadie smirked. “Says the merchant who owns a rail gun.”

  Len grabbed his elbow. “It doesn’t matter. We need to get armed and think of a plan.”

  The elevator’s door slid open and Sadie ran down the corridor to her room with Nual at her heels.

  “You should have stayed with the captain,” she said over her shoulder.

  “When did Liaison start training with weapons? You preach peace and compromise among the worlds.” He followed her into the room. “Your profession is the most protected of them all. To harm you is a capital offense. Trade embargoes with Central Worlds the least of the punishments.”

  She snorted. “Embargoes.”

  “Zairan is cut off from all trade, even government representation at Central Station.” A thoughtful expression crossed his face.

  She lifted the mattress on the cot. Two curved long blades, each a foot long and sharp on both sides, lay waiting. As she slid them from their sheaths their silvery metal reflected the light.

  “Zair Ragnars?”

  “When I went to Zairan to teach them of Central Worlds, the warrior caste decided they didn’t like what I taught. Systematically they killed any who listened or harbored my guards and me. For three months, they hunted us before a rescue reached me. I picked up a few things along the way. In essence they taught me to fight back.” She sliced the air around her with some practice swings.

  “Three months.” With expert grace, he grasped her wrist without being cut by the moving blades. “You should never have been placed in such a position. The Liaison office failed you.”

  “Then why do I feel like the failure?”

  He retrieved his bag and removed a slender wooden stick. With a brush of his fingers, it grew to a staff.

  Her mouth dropped open. “Neat trick.” It felt smooth as she ran a finger along the shaft. “It doesn’t shoot anything that will make holes in the hull?”

  “No, I was told of the dangers of such weapons aboard space crafts and to use hand-to-hand combat weapons or low voltage blasters.”

  “Blasters don’t work through rubbery Zair skin.”

  She left the Ragnar sheaths on the bed, not seeing any need to bring them and relieved Nual could defend himself. She began to stalk out of the room.

  He had other ideas and pulled her into his arms. “I’m sorry it took me so long to find you, bing-ta.”

  Heartache twisted her inside. How does a woman answer suc
h a statement? But she didn’t have to.

  He took the opportunity as she hesitated to give her a short, tender kiss. “I won’t let them capture us alive. If I have to, I’ll take care of both of us.”

  Her POD descended to hover behind Nual and into her view. “Not yet though. Glitch has come up with a plan.”

  “Glitch?” His brows rose and he twisted to look at the silver-floating sphere.

  “It is military issue. I asked it to analyze our situation. Glitch is the reason I survived Zairan.” She touched his elbow to draw his attention. “Let’s find Maol. I’ve got a few questions for him.”

  * * * * *

  Len and Maol were arming themselves and their sons when she and Nual entered the large family room. Plush carpet softened her steps. A riot of primary colors assaulted her senses; dark blues, bright reds and yellows plastered the area. This was where the children spent their days with lessons and playing.

  “If we take the escape shuttles, the Zair will only use us for target practice, Maol. We need to make a stand and fight.”

  Maol took Len’s face in his clawed hands. Both their ears were flattened and to the side. “Once they’ve overwhelmed and killed us, what do you think would happen to the children, my love?”

  The children.

  Dread clutched Sadie’s stomach. If she’d have anything to do about it, they’d never be taken alive to be served as a meal. No one deserved such a fate. She shuddered at the memory of terror filled screams of Zair victims. Did she have the courage to carry out such a horrid task if forced? She hoped with Glitch’s plan she’d never have to find out. “Maol, can we remotely destroy the Traveler?”

  All four Denobolians pivoted to face her. “Destroy the Traveler?” Maol hissed the question.

  “I have a plan, well Glitch does. If it works, we live but both ships get destroyed.” She took a deep breath. “I hope we live.” It was a lot to ask the freighter’s family but what choice did they have?

  Nual stepped closer, a silent supporter. She wanted him to wrap his arm around her. Protect her from the daggered stares pointed in her direction.