Clueless about hacking and overrides, Xander stood by as helplessly as the others.
“Gareth, hurry!” Fairchild cried. “It’s burning!”
“Doin’ the best I can. I’m in the system, lass. Just a moment.”
The lock released with a noisy click. Once the door flew open, their team spilled into the hall, eager to be away from the unknown gas. A desperate decontamination began, each of them stripping from their hard suits down to their undergarments for Fairchild and Xander to spray them with a neutralizing compound. He went last.
He could take it. Their fragile human skin couldn’t last.
Most of the victims had been children and teenagers. Xander sat at his desk reviewing the files they’d pulled from the medical center and swallowed down his disgust. Everything he’d known about Mathias had been wrong, because only a monster could do the vile acts performed in that lab.
“United Command is sending two more ships,” Ethan said from the doorway.
Xander spun his chair around and blinked at him. “How long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough to know you need to stop drinking coffee and get some sleep.”
“I can’t. I tried sleeping and…” Xander grimaced and ran his hands through his hair. None of those kids had been any older than he was when he’d run away from home, desperate to escape his aunt’s abusive boyfriend. The guy had known Xander was a Lexar half-breed and spent his every day punishing him for being an alien mutt. “I just can’t sleep.”
“All right, then. What have you got so far?”
Xander brought up his research in 3-D for Ethan’s perusal. “He was playing around with concepts I never even conceived. See this? Nanofiber filaments spread through the frontal lobe.”
“Why so many children?” Ethan asked.
“The preadolescent psychic brain is incredibly malleable and plastic, and neurosurgeons once believed they could recover from many more traumas than an adult. We had a theory once, but we dismissed it… I thought—I never imagined he could do this.”
“He was a real dick, but someone commissioned this shit. I just finished with Admiral Novak. They want us on the job of tracking down the source of it and who’s responsible for the laboratory. You up for that, mate?”
“There are few things lower than harming a child. I’d do it without orders.” He closed his eyes and tilted his head back to breathe. His heart pounded frightfully fast and the world around him shimmered. He blinked through his blurry vision and inhaled a few deep breaths.
“Hey, we’ll get whoever’s behind this.”
“I hope so.”
A week later, reinforcements arrived, but by then, the Jemison’s crew had whipped the details out of most of the so-called villagers. They were all employees and actors hired by a faceless corporation no one could name. Financial records and evidence dug up by their ship’s tech team revealed some had been paid to do Campbell’s bidding and to occasionally fly off the planet to abduct more victims.
Most of the original inhabitants of the settlement were long gone, used as experimental fodder in Campbell’s grand scheme. A probe determined that the two outlying colonies had no idea about the atrocities committed in their sister community.
Many families received closure at last and mourned the loss of their own children—those whose care they had entrusted to Doctor Campbell, their sole medical provider. Records showed six months of questionable deaths and illnesses.
The combat squad discovered three dozen victims in a prison block beneath the clinic and surmised that those dirty and malnourished survivors were next in line to visit the table. Half of them originated from Athena. Five survivors turned out to be the only remaining colonists from the lunar colony of Loki 4.
Xander’s investigations made him heartsick. The total number of experiments in the system painted a gruesome portrait spanning back well over a year. Campbell kept meticulous notes, but he failed to include his employer’s identity.
They were still out there, and he intended to find them, no matter what.
Chapter Fifteen
Almost three weeks overdue, the Jemison arrived at her next port practically running on fumes. Engineering hadn’t discovered the fuel leak until it was almost too late, and the department looked forward to receiving help from the technical experts on Elora’s local military space station.
Elora had no actual spacecraft docks on the surface. Instead, a UNE space station hung in synchronized orbit around the planet and shuttles traveled between it and a few key landing pads.
The tiny shuttleport occupied a carved mountainside cliff. Since water covered 93% of the planet’s surface, creative engineering utilized land space to the maximum potential without disrupting the natural flora.
If not for Ethan and Thandie teaming up to get Xander off the ship, he would have remained in his office poring through data. But he’d promised his girl a vacation paradise, and nothing could make him go back on his word.
He just needed time to adjust. To re-center himself.
Step by step, the tension left him as he walked along the shore of a pink sand beach, miles of it contrasting the turquoise waters.
He hadn’t visited Elora in nearly three years, not since Ylona left her birth planet in favor of dwelling in a human settlement on Albion. With him. She’d moved with him into a home in Gloucester, lavishly tailored to her unique aquatic needs. During the funeral, he couldn’t bear to face her parents, too consumed with his own guilt. Deep down, a small part of him still expected to see them waiting to greet him on the beach.
Time dwindled and people passed him as they headed on their way, but Xander remained where he was, his gaze held to the horizon.
“Ready for sunshine, frozen drinks, and snorkeling?”
Xander nearly startled out of his boots. He jumped and swung his gaze around to focus on Thandie. “Huh? Yeah. Yeah, I’m ready.”
Her dress became the distraction he needed. The rich teal color stood out bright against her bronzed skin. The thin straps hung from her toned shoulders and the corset-laced bodice amped her breasts up to “I need to tittyfuck you now” levels of appealing.
“Finally, a dress.”
“You’ve seen me in dresses before.”
“True, but each one is prettier than the last.”
Her eyes lit up, and she twirled, letting the skirts flare around her calves. “You like?”
“I do. Very much.”
Without a rush to reach their lodgings, they took a romantic stroll along a rambling path parallel to the tropical coastline. Their walk cleared his head and allowed him the chance to relax. Ethan had been right to insist. Not only for himself, but for Thandie’s sake, as well. She deserved the R&R just as much.
Thandie tilted her face upward, her delighted expression bathed in sunlight. “I know the lamps in the bio-farm and medical are supposed to mimic this, but nothing beats the real thing. I could sit out here for hours just soaking it up.”
“It was like this at home in Paradiso. I remember the sun always seemed to be shining, and the summer rain made for the best time of the year. As a child, I’d just stand in it.”
“Back on Tallulah, I used to run out and play in the puddles during a rainstorm, but that usually ended with a day or three in bed afterward.”
“You’re more than welcome to dance in the rain now.” He paused to kiss her beneath a flowering tree with purple and golden leaves. “Are we going to come back to swim after check-in?”
“Not right away if I can help it. I don’t really want to share you.” Her eyes twinkled. “The nude sunbathers are already out in force.”
“C’mon, our room should be ready by now.”
Pacifica Cove maintained only two surface structures, a shuttle dock near the beach and a domed entrance to the city, accessible by following a long pier onto the ocean. The structure at the end was only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, the rest of the city concealed beneath the waves. They made their way
to the city entrance, passing a few of their shipmates, some tourists, and the Elorans who walked among the sunbathers passing out sea flower garlands with their webbed fingers.
The Elorans, as far as Xander was concerned, were a beautiful people. He’d always thought that even before meeting Ylona. While humanoid in shape, their basic physiology differed from the humans who lived at peace with them. Most had skin ranging in hue from pale blue to deep violet, their dewy flesh velvety soft, like old world seals. Identical gill slits glistened on each side of their throats, and their large, dark eyes gleamed beneath the sun.
When they reached the pier, an Eloran approached with a big welcoming smile on his aquiline face. He offered out a lei made of orange blossoms, pink shells, and braided greenery.
Thandie’s smile turned magical and stirred Xander somewhere deep down in his soul. “Thank you.” She bowed her head to accept the gift.
Another Eloran arrived with a garland for Xander, as well. He dipped down to accept it. “Thank you.”
Their kind hosts only smiled back, revealing all of their sharp little teeth. Elorans lacked the capability for human speech, instead communicating with one another through a series of sounds and inhuman vocalizations that carried beneath the water. Among their own kind or close friends, they conveyed deeper meanings and thoughts through physical contact.
The first settlers had come to the world as a scientific expedition full of oceanographers and their families. The native Elorans, curious and unafraid, had come out to greet them.
But it hadn’t gone well.
The human race had tried to colonize the planet despite the native population. That’s when the Lexar had stepped in and enforced their sovereignty. Despite the year-long war that had raged through space, and humanity’s eventual surrender, the Elorans had still welcomed them to the planet.
It marked the very first interspecies friendship in human history, and Pacifica Cove was born.
After checking in on the establishment’s upper level, they took the scenic stairwell to the ocean floor. Thandie flitted from one window to the next along the way, bright-eyed wonder on her face as she pointed out one ocean creature after another. An enormous jellyfish skated by, gelatinous tendrils gliding behind it with luminous bulbs at each tip. It glittered in shades of vermillion, orange, and black.
“I take it you’ve never visited the Cove before?”
“No, my friends always wanted to stay in Atlantica for the slot machines and gaming tables, so I never came down this way.” The northern hemisphere settlement provided an abundance of eye-catching activities for visitors who preferred parties over relaxation, a literal den of sin tucked away in the chilly waters.
“There’s a marauder crab.” A dog-sized, soft-shelled crab worked diligently at hollowing a colorful lump of coral. “They wear pieces of coral for protection but they’re known for evicting other creatures from inhabited structures and prefer that over an empty dwelling.”
“Seems like more work. Why would they rather fight for one?” Thandie crouched beside the glass for a closer look at the muddy brown crustacean. It froze, completely aware of her attention.
“No clue,” Xander admitted. “Maybe the theft makes the house more appealing.”
Without warning, the crab lunged and struck the glass with one claw.
“Shit!” Thandie startled and fell on her rump, fingers instinctively flying for a non-existent holster left behind on the ship. Weapons were highly restricted on Elora, disdained by the peaceful natives, so only a small number of human security personnel kept arms locked in strategic points for emergency purposes.
Chuckling, Xander offered both hands to Thandie and pulled her back to her feet and into his arms. “I considered warning you, but that’s the best part.”
“I was right about you at our very first meeting,” she grumbled as she smoothed her dress back into place. “Sadist.”
Xander grinned. “They’re one of Elora’s intelligent life-forms and loathe to be seen naked. Come on. Our room is this way.”
“I will get you back for this.” Fingers entwined with his, Thandie cast a last glance back at the crab, then nudged Xander to continue down the hall.
“I think he liked your dress,” he teased.
“Ha! Well, if he wants it he’ll have to fight you for the honors.”
Their playful banter helped Xander to brace himself for the next wave of nostalgia. It struck as he led Thandie down the familiar corridors. He’d met Ylona at Neptune’s Garden, the only high-class restaurant in the city, where she served meals to lonely diners who declined a table to sit at the bar. At the time, Xander was one of those lonely men, too embarrassed to take a table for one, and absolutely bewildered that the lovely Eloran had seen his heartache and wanted to comfort him.
Ylona had touched him ever so gently and conveyed all of her concern in a single mental caress of her mind against his thoughts. They chatted for hours after the end of her shift. She’d been his best friend.
Now the honor belonged to Thandie, because a day didn’t go by that he didn’t need to hear her voice or see her in passing.
“We’re here.” He let them into a room at the end of the hall and sent Thandie ahead of him while he kicked off his shoes.
She gasped, hand clutched to her chest. The room was a normal suite with a stretch of plush, wine-hued carpet and a bed bigger than his home planet, but one wall had been replaced entirely with glass.
Light from above the ocean surface shimmered in fantastical patterns over the king-sized bed, while multi-colored fish swam in school formations, undulating their slender bodies in the underwater paradise.
“It’s lovely, isn’t it?” He gazed at the graceful creatures. Coral formations created privacy screens for the room’s occupants and provided homes to bottom-feeding creatures. He dropped his overnight bag and crouched near the glass to watch a scuttling sea-spider pursuing an emerald feather worm. A larger shrimp-like crustacean struck from within the hollow coral and caught the spider with its many segmented pincers. Its double pairs of eyestalks watched them through the glass.
“The fish, yes. That thing… not so much.” Thandie knelt down beside him to watch. “Is it going to attack the glass, too?”
“No, he won’t do anything to threaten you. You’re too large. Come on. You have to admit, it’s sort of beautiful, even if it is nightmare fuel. They’ll let you hand feed them in certain areas.”
“As much as I enjoy our lab sessions, I’d really rather not lose another limb.”
“You’re not a particularly brave Royal Marine,” Xander teased.
Thandie shot him a dirty look.
“I’m only joking. You’ll see plenty of them once you’re snorkeling off the coast.” He moved to the in-room bar where a bottle of wine waited in an ice sculpture carved to resemble a crashing wave.
“I’d really like that. Gosh, this room is gorgeous. You didn’t spend a lot, did you?”
Xander grinned and shrugged before popping the cork. “Don’t worry about what I spent. It was worth it to have time alone with you. Private time that isn’t set to a schedule.”
While he poured, Thandie snuck behind him and wrapped one arm around his waist. Her cheek pressed against his shoulder blade, breasts a firm presence at his back. Her body heat soaked through his thin t-shirt, a comfort in the cool underwater hotel room. He almost overfilled the first glass.
Whiffs of peach and subtle oak enticed him to sneak a sip. Sweet, effervescent bubbles tickled across his taste buds, and then Thandie slid her other arm around to steal the glass from his hand.
“Since you’re the guest, our next destination is up to you, my dear. What would you like to do? Dinner? Dancing?” With three nights promised to them, Xander had no desire to waste a moment of their leave from the ship. In his head, he planned dozens of possible activities, from water-skiing on the coast to hiking in the jungle terrain.
“Xander?”
“Hm?”
The
palm that had been flat against his stomach slid lower and cupped him tenderly. Both cocks, especially the ill-behaved upper one, were almost always in a state of near-arousal when she was near. One stroke was all it took to firm them the rest of the way.
She traced one out, then the other, sizing them up with her thumb and index finger. “I love how fast that happens.”
“Keep doing that, and you won’t be seeing anything but the ceiling. Maybe the pillow, if I’m generous.”
Thandie’s breath hitched audibly. “That a threat or a promise?”
He took the glass from her other hand and set it aside before spinning her around for a kiss. Thandie melted against him, both arms circling around his neck and shoulders. She surrendered to his hungry exploration, molding her body against his, rubbing against his dual lengths.
He turned his mouth away from hers and nipped her earlobe. “Get this dress off before I rip it off.”
Indecision warred on her face, as if she were considering letting him tear it from her body.
“Too late.”
As much as he loved the pretty turquoise gown, he’d buy her a thousand more just like it. Xander grasped the front of the bodice and ripped, shredding material and baring her breasts. She hadn’t worn a bra beneath the tight bodice.
“Xander!”
He dipped his head down to her breasts and claimed one. “Warned you,” he muttered. She wore only panties and those were coral pink with dainty scalloped edges that contrasted the tough warrior woman he’d come to love.
Love. God, he loved her.
“Your turn.” Thandie’s right hand fisted in his shirt and yanked, tearing the cotton like tissue. If anything, her dominant display made him even more desperate to have her.
Xander growled a low sound of animal lust and moved closer, grabbing her by both hips and yanking her in against him. He kissed her, tongue licking into her mouth, the taste of her as sweet as the wine they’d shared.
She fumbled with his belt and shoved his slacks down. Both cocks sprang free, hard and eager to meet her anxious fingers. Her touch was fire to his blood, and the way she looked at them both—not in horror or disgust, but raw fascination and lust—sent a surge of pride pulsing straight to both cocks.
Xander (The Nova Force Book 1) Page 17