Boarded: Alien Romance Page 6

  Instead, she glared back. The Denobola respected strength and confidence. To save everyone, she needed their cooperation. “We need to get everyone in the escape shuttles. Once launched, we destroy the Traveler. The blast should be enough to do significant damage to the Zair warship.” She stepped forward and Glitch followed displaying a magnified view of the Mauvrin Point. “If we live through the explosion and any retaliation, I suggest we head for this small asteroid belt on the edges here.” She pointed at the small dots on the hologram.

  Maol crossed his arms over his massive chest. He had a small tear in his navy blue pants above the right knee. “When did Liaison start giving battle advice?”

  “This one is different.” Nual placed his hand on her shoulder. It made her jump enough to glance his way and see the small smile aimed in her direction.

  She pried her eyes from the ambassador, her head full of burning questions, and looked back to the captain. “Glitch retained all its military programs. Things needed by soldiers in such situations. Problem analysis is one of them.”

  Moal’s ears were plastered to his head. “The engines are too damaged to set off the self-destruct. We can blow her up but not control when, and not from the safety of a shuttle. I would need to stay behind.”

  Glitch began downloading other possibilities. They poured in a steady stream. All needed more trained individuals than were present, Special OPS or Central World Elite, not traders and politicians. She remained so focused at assessing these options that she didn’t realize Nual spoke to her until he shook her shoulders.

  “Sorry, got caught up in a download.”

  “I think I can destroy the ship.” He spoke in a soft voice but the sharp Denobola hearing caught it.

  “How?” Maol growled out the word.

  She knew, Nual’s secret sunlight-feeding machine, his only available source of essential nutrients.

  “The cargo I have in storage. It can be converted to be destructive.” He grinned. “Very destructive.”

  She wanted to stop him but couldn’t. It was their best hope of escape. Maybe he wouldn’t starve to death if the Central World Fleet received their distress signal soon and retrieved them from the asteroids within a day.

  They could return him to Cyn, his home world to recuperate. She stepped forward and leaned a cheek against his back between his shoulder blades and swallowed around the hard lump in her throat. If. If. If.

  A low clank rang through the ship and made her jump.

  The Zair were boarding.

  Chapter Eight

  “Jed and Sudu, you’re with me. We’ll get Nual to the Cargo bay and set this device he’s brought on board.” Maol pointed at Sadie. “You and Len take the other wives with the children to the escape shuttles.” He led his sons to the lift.

  Len turned down a corridor and called to her family.

  Sadie heard the echo of the Zair breaking the airlock seal and couldn’t move. Her gaze darted to Nual. This would be her last time seeing him. How silly of her to assume they’d die side by side.

  Barely two days together and she-she... “Maol, I can’t agree being separated from the ambassador.” She followed them to where they tampered with the elevator controls.

  “While you’re on my ship you follow my orders, Liaison.” He didn’t even look at her when he spoke.

  A vein pulsed in her temple as she clenched her jaw. She ground her teeth while counting to ten. “Yes, Captain.” She spat his title. “But my oath to guide my charge can’t be broken.”

  Maol turned from watching his son working with the wires and glared at her.

  Nual soothed her tense arms with his hand as he approached her from behind. “Defend me in political issues, Sadie. I’m more than capable in combat.”

  “Go with my wives and children.” Maol leaned in and his nose almost touched hers. Vertically slit golden eyes stared into hers. “Defend my family.”

  The face may have been alien, but the emotions were not.

  “Sorry, of course, I will. My life before theirs.” She responded with the traditional Denobola oath.

  Sparks flew from the panel and Sudu yowled, sticking his singed fingers in his mouth. “That should do it.” He mumbled. “Those rubber skinned monsters will have to climb from the bowels of the ship to find us.”

  “How will we communicate?” Nual asked.

  “Radio?” She’d never seen the crew carry any though.

  Maol rubbed his furry chin. “They’re not reliable inside this much metal. It’s why we use the intercom system. There is a unit in the loading bay but not in the storage area where we have to go.”

  She caught herself gnawing on a thumbnail. A habit she’d started on Zairan. She was about to lose two important things in her life, Nual and her POD.

  “Take Glitch.”

  The silver ball came to hover by Nual.

  “You can understand it. Our connection is as much organic as technological, so metal doesn’t affect the signal.” She gazed at them, imprinting this image to her photographic memory.

  “It’s settled. We’ll set the device and contact you. When you get to the shuttle, take off and hide close to the belly of the Traveler. We’ll meet you ASAP and fly for the asteroid belt.” Moal gathered his sons and took the nearest stairwell. Nual followed with Glitch in tow.

  Alone, she stood by the lifts and watched the sparks fly from the destroyed control box. Empty inside, if someone touched her would she shatter?

  Small mewls of disquiet grew louder behind her as the rest of the Denobola family gathered to flee. Maol’s charge to ‘defend his family’ weighed heavy on her shoulders. She stared at the sharp curve of her blade. Worst case scenario, she’d make sure they weren’t taken alive. No one heard her silent oath, but she was sure the sister wives had made a similar pact.

  Len approached her. “I’ll take us through the repair corridors. It’ll be cold since they’re next to the hull.”

  “Yes.” The plan sounded solid. Zair were a desert race, they hated the cold, and most of them would avoid the area.

  “I’ll lead.” Len turned to the group. “Youngest cubs with Cine in the center, Kaille you follow to make sure there are no stragglers. Sadie will bring up the rear.”

  Which translated to stay back and fight if they got discovered. She noted both younger wives carried sharp kitchen knives. It turned her stomach.

  Cine crouched as the cubs gathered close. “We’re going to play a game of hide and seek, so it’s important to not be seen and move silently. Remember your hunting lessons, stalk low and quiet, or your prey will hear you.”

  Both wives slung a babe to their chests and Cine strapped the smallest toddler to her back so the group could move quicker.

  Dizziness tilted Sadie’s world. She’d been holding her breath too long while watching them. She sucked in a lung full of air. It burned her tight throat and tasted of fear.

  Len motioned them to follow down a different stairwell on the opposite side of the room. They were steep and made of a red painted metal.

  Soft paws made little noise, but her hard boots clanked. She stepped light on her toes to make less noise. By the third flight her calves screamed from the abuse. She stopped and untied the laces, then knocked the boots off her feet to pad quietly in her socks. If only she’d thought of that twenty minutes ago.

  Ten more flights down and still no sign of trouble. The younger cubs sat in the arms of the older ones when possible, tired from the exertion as well as fright. None of them laughed or even spoke; they knew it wasn’t game, not when their mothers carried weapons.

  Len motioned them to stop, then went down one more flight to a door. She peaked around it.

  All the muscles in Sadie’s back clenched, ready to spring into action, but an attack didn’t come.

  With a wave of her hand, Len called them to her.

  Like a soundless posse, they scurried toward the escape shuttle launch. Things were going smooth. Still, the hairs on her neck stood and she fel
t tight as a bow, all wound up and ready to spring. She squeezed the Ragnar handles, taking little comfort in the death dealing metal.

  They came upon an intersection. Everyone crossed in small groups of two or three after checking both ways. She held her position guarding the rear until left alone. When she checked the crossing hall, she heard it before seeing anything.

  The click of its nails on the hard polished ship floor echoed before the Zair stepped into the hall from an adjoining room.

  She pressed her back to the wall. The pounding of her heart filled her ears. She waved for Len to run away.

  They stared at each other for a split second before Len sped the children from the danger. The family disappeared around a curve in the corridor. If the Zair came this way they’d only find a single human female.

  Her breath came in short, sharp gasps as she nerved herself to peak around the corner. For all she knew ten of them could be waiting for her.

  Relieved to find no one had joined the first Zair, she knelt close to the floor.

  It stood about five feet high. A long snout protruded from its smooth gray head. Six pincher-like tusks met in the center of it, forming a mouth. They used them for an initial bite to hold the prey while a smaller jaw came out to eat. Gray shiny skin covered their body. It had four arms. Two bulky strong ones formed their shoulders and two smaller ones between them for dexterity.

  This one held a foot-long metallic stick, a shocker. She remembered the sting it caused as it stunned whatever it touched.

  Glitch, I’m separated from the wives and children. Don’t tell Nual and Maol yet.

  It sent her their position. The men had just arrived at the cargo bay and had not encountered any resistance.

  If something happens to me, stay with Nual. Do everything you can to save him.

  Clicks and guttural grunts sounded from the Zair. He spoke in their native tongue. She grimaced. Someone must have joined him. From what she could hear, the first one smelled the Denobola in the area.

  It wouldn’t be long before the area was flooded with these aliens. The bottom of her stomach dropped out. Maybe if she crawled away quiet enough they wouldn’t find her. She could find a hole to hide in for awhile.

  Until Nual blew up the ship.

  She chewed on her bottom lip unconsciously. Cowering had never done her any good on Zairan. When she started to fight back, she got results and found freedom. This wasn’t any different.

  Crouching on feet, she took a long deep breath and gathered her courage. If she lingered any longer, she’d fail the Denobola cubs. Without any further thought, she flung herself into the center of the intersection. Blades held out on each side of her like she was taught, a stance of challenge among the Zair.

  The first one’s eyes widened and bulged from their sockets. He stepped back and tripped over the feet of his companion behind him.

  She howled with laughter laced with crazy. All pretense of sanity had vanished. She charged them, Ragnars held in front of her, ready to taste blood. Hers or theirs, the blades wouldn’t care.

  She ducked under the shocker as her blade sliced across her first victim’s belly. Its contents spilled to the floor. The second one ran from her, screaming a high pitched howl. She threw one of her blades over-handed and struck the beast’s spine. Her knife stuck out its back and made a twang with the sudden stop as the alien tumbled to the floor.

  He labored to breathe as he rolled onto his side and spoke in the Zairan language. “They said you were dead. That they killed you.” Then it stopped. The still form, which struggled for life a second ago, relaxed in death.

  They? She looked closer at the corpse by her feet. The markings on his back showed this Zair to be a merchant, not a warrior. What the hell was he doing here? No wonder he ran like a coward. She’d never known a Zair warrior to flee a fight. She returned to the other body. According to her memory banks, this one wore the markings of a lower class soldier.

  Why would the warrior class lie and tell their people she’d been killed? Why would anyone care?

  She snatched her blade from the merchant’s cadaver and wiped the black blood on the warrior’s body. Warriors trained to fight from the day they hatched, and she’d gotten lucky with his kill, but the other never had a chance. She sighed and left them to rot.

  It didn’t take long to find the Denobola family.

  Len guarded the doorway leading to the shuttles. “I’m glad to see you.”

  “I killed two at the intersection. They were going to report our presence. It won’t be long before their bodies are found.” When Len’s eyes traveled down to her stocking feet, she felt the stickiness of the dark blood soaked into the material.

  “Two?” Her ears flapped once in approval. “My sister wives should be finished loading all the cubs by now. Can you tell where Maol is?” Before she could ask Glitch for an update, Len grabbed her arm, claws biting into her flesh. “I hear them. They’re coming.”

  Sadie clenched her teeth against the sharp pain from being punctured like a pincushion.

  Len retracted her claws. “Sorry.”

  Sadie twisted around, expecting to see an army marching toward them. Blood trickled from her tiny wounds. Nothing moved that she could see. “How far away?”

  “I don’t know but they’re getting closer.” Len pulled her through the doorway. “We’ll take off in the shuttle and hide under the engines as planned.”

  Sadie reached out to Glitch. We’ve got trouble. We’ll meet you under the ship between the engines. Hurry! She halted when her POD sent their position. Len’s claws scratched deep grooves along her arm. She yelped and held it close to her, pressing the scratches to stem the blood.

  Glitch’s transmission showed Maol with an injured Nual cornered. The ambassador sported what looked like a burn on his lower back. One of the boys knelt next to him while the ambassador stood and allowed the Denobola to tend his wound. The others used blaster weapons to keep the Zair at bay. Energy blasts could breach the hull. They must be desperate.

  Worst of all, they hadn’t reached the sunlight machine.

  She severed the connection unable to watch Nual hurt. Blood from the scratches oozed down her arm and dripped from her fingertips, making a small puddle on the floor. The sight mesmerized her.

  “Liaison, I will carry you to the shuttle if I have to.”

  Love was as potent as fear.

  Funny how epiphanies came at the oddest moments, this one would drive her to do something stupid. “They haven’t set the machine yet.” Her soft words quieted Maol’s dominant wife. “Take your family and hide like you said. I’ll hold the Zair off as long as I can and protect the last shuttle for them.”

  In that moment, she was no longer a Liaison of the Central Worlds but a woman, who wanted to protect the alien she was falling for.

  “I would be proud to call you sister.” Len rubbed her cheek against her own then turned away and ran to the shuttles entry. She crawled through the door and pulled it closed behind her. The sound of it sealing filled the room.

  Then the clicks of tusks followed it.

  Sadie spun around and caught the shocker aimed at her head with her left blade.

  A fist punched her in the gut and sent what air in her lungs out with a grunt. She dropped to the floor. Not from weakness, but to slice the tendons above the Zair’s knees.

  It fell backwards where she rolled next to it and ran the blade over its throat. Gurgles bubbled from the wound.

  Out in the hallway she met three more approaching the area. Her heart couldn’t decide if it was beating too fast or forgetting to beat. She’d spent most of her life as Liaison, dealing with ambassadors and delegates. Politics was an abstract, confusing thing. You never knew who tried to stab you in the back. Battle in the corridors of a spaceship was not as complicated. When someone tried to stab you, they were your enemy, and you tried to kill them first.

  If she stood in the shuttle dock doorway, like Len had, they had to come at her one at a time
. With an expert’s ease she programmed her CHIP to switch her voice modulator to speak Zairan. “Come and get me, you egg suckers.” She shouted their worst insult.

  The first one charged. As she stepped aside, he passed the doorway, and she hamstrung him. Ignoring the helpless Zair, she paced forward to face the other two. With a skilled flick of her wrist, she flung a blade and gave a little prayer. It whirled through the air skimming over one to catch its taller companion in the eye.

  She ran headlong for the last remaining Zair and swiped wildly, slashing a deep scar on the metallic wall. Pursued by stabbing and slicing, the creature fell back in fear. It managed one block, which took the end off its shocker.

  So consumed in her bloodlust, she hardly felt something hit her in the side. Pressing forward she struck the retreating alien in its ugly face again and again, chopping and beating it, sending lines of dark blood flying into the air. She tasted it but was too outraged to be revolted.

  Again something hit her in the side, and she spun, thinking a Zair punched her. A moment of clarity led to a moment of confusion as she regarded her attacker standing further down the passageway, crossbow in hand.

  She glanced down to her side where two small bolts embedded through the fleshy part of her hip, then looked back in time to watch the Zair aim the ancient weapon once more.

  Chapter Nine

  Sadie staggered back and tripped over the dead Zair at her feet. The bolt clattered above her head just before the floor jolted her body. Sharp pain shot down her hip right to her toes. She cried out and braced the bolts sticking through her flesh. Her moment of clumsiness saved her life.

  She gazed past her feet to the four Zair pacing toward her. The pool of black blood she sat in made the floor too slick to crawl. With a growl, she pointed her blade at them.

  The one with the crossbow set a new bolt. It never heard his companion creep up behind and draw a Ragnar blade like hers from a sheath. Nor did he hear the crash as it bit into his skull.