by Beth Sadler
A Man For Calli
by
Beth Sadler
Copyright Beth Sadler 2012
This book is written in Australian English
Cover Copyright 2012 Beth Sadler
Chapter 1
The early morning salt air breathed warm and gentle, over the tall, slender woman standing on the beach. She held herself motionless, revelling in the first bite of the sun on her soft, creamy skin, captured by the unveiling beauty before her. The sun rising over the horizon seemed to turn the sea to molten, blazing fire, as it ripped away black velvet night in a burst of glorious colour.
As long as she lived, Calli would never forget this sunrise, her first day on the planet Earth, at long last, she was where she had worked and planned to be for the last fourteen years.
Callianta Anderon was in charge of the Interplanetary Research Pod, Seeker 4. As Executon, it was her duty to direct the other members of her team, and co-ordinate the information they collected. It was also her responsibility to return them safely to their families once this tour of duty was completed.
Everyone but Calli was ready to return home. The crew’s initial eagerness to explore had now turned to boredom and homesickness. They’d left their home planet of Teeron nearly twelve Earth months ago, all eager to see the worlds that they had only heard of up until then. But now, after trillions of miles of hyper- speed travel and this, their fourth planet to document, they’d had enough. Nine more earth days and then it was all systems go for home.
Only nine days thought Calli, a nervous chill racing over her skin. Nine days to find her life- mate, or spend the rest of her days alone. That was her close held secret; that was the reason why she had joined the science co-operative and volunteered for every lousy, hair-brained tour of duty they’d cooked up in the last ten years.
Callianta Anderon was famous for never having said no, no matter how gruelling the expedition; she had been the first to cheerfully put her hand up. She’d tested water forty feet below the surface of a planet covered in sand and constant dust storms. Eaten frozen rations on top of mountains bombarded by fierce blizzards, and stoically descended old sewers, to work out the diets of extinct civilisations. Yep! She’d built an enviable reputation all right, and all for one reason, and one only; to be able to head up a planetary tour of her choosing.
Now this was it, finally, after ten long years of backbreaking work and thousands of hours of study at the Teeron Supreme Academy, she had been able to include the planet earth in this exploration. Somewhere on this planet was her life-mate; she had banked her whole life to this point on that premise.
All of her friends were already bonded and happily producing little copies of themselves. They couldn’t understand why she had never felt the tingle, that exploded in the palm and ran up the arm when you met your life-mate. She was attractive to look at and had a pleasing personality; she should have met her mate years ago.
It was a given fact that once they felt the tingle, the couple never thought to turn away from the future bonding, no matter how young. It was a happy fact that, Teeron’s once bonded in this way stayed together for life. But, it was also a sad fact that the bondings that had taken place without these phenomena were never happy. Ergo, it was safer to live alone than take the risk.
How to explain to her friends and family, that the only time she had felt that tingle, she was fourteen and pouring over a map of Earth; just one more of the planets that the academy had specified that she studied. She was now a well-travelled twenty-eight, and pinning her future on the next few days.
With a deep sigh she turned round and headed back up the beach. No matter her private hopes, first she must get the survey organised and settle her brood to their duties. The Science Co-operative wanted reports on how the other worlds were evolving. Her team would be waking; it was time to set them to work.
Chapter 2
Walking into the ground floor unit of the beachfront apartments Calli quickly organised her thoughts; it wouldn’t do to fail the Co-Op at this point. If she didn’t find her mate, she would only have her reputation to keep her warm at night.
When the Research Pod had left Teeron, it had been carrying two transporter vehicles. They were equipped to carry up to six passengers each and enough research tools to complete the necessary surveys. In addition they also carried some highly technologically advanced weapons; it was always the fervent hope that these would never have to be used. So far their prayers had been answered.
One of these transporters would be used to carry the other six members of her team to other countries. Once settled there they would each work on their individual specialties. The second transporter would remain with Calli, in a local hanger, so that she could commute with the Research Pod daily. The Pod was well hidden in the Gold Coast Hinterland bush, cloaked in a magnetic shield that guaranteed its safety from inquisitive eyes. Calli needed to collate all of the data sent in by the others and forward it on to Teeron. It promised to be a hectic nine days and nights.
Entering the kitchen Calli was struck, not for the first time, by the genetic similarity of her crew. All were over six- foot, men and women, and all had black hair, blue eyes and pale skin. It was probably a good thing that they were rarely all seen together in one place. It was entirely too obvious that they were different from the genetic pool here on Earth.
At the moment they were gathered around the tiny table, loudly chattering and laughing, while they eagerly consuming the food that they had picked up as they flew in late last night. Their last fresh meal had been six weeks ago on the planet Zaron, definitely not famous for its food.
Clapping her hands sharply together she called for attention.
“OK, friends listen up.” Stealing a quick glance at the multi-purpose communicator on her wrist, she made a rapid decision.
“We need to start work in thirty minutes. That’s thirty Earth minutes, people, from now on we speak only the language of the country we’re working in, except when reporting to the Pod, or me.” Calli smiled reassuringly at the six pairs of eyes watching her obediently. They were a damn fine crew, by Hera, and she was honoured to command them.
“I know you’re all looking forward to the end of this tour, you’ve done a brilliant job so far, so let’s finish it off in style.” Their eyes, brilliant with laughter, the four men and two women sitting at the table, gave a mighty cheer, and toasted her with their milk glasses. Her second in command, Callem, stood and kissed her hand.
“You are without doubt, a champion Executon; we salute you, Oh Mighty One and hope like Hera that the next few days pass quickly and successfully.”
The resulting laughter faded as the crew quickly spread through the small unit, finding places to set up their communicators and settle to work. By tonight they would have monitored the world’s news channels and be ready to slip away under cover of darkness to the countries that held the information they needed.
Using the transporters, which were parked at Coolangatta Airport in a private hanger, they could reach any point on the globe in two hours. Calli had selected the Queensland Gold Coast for two reasons. One, Coolangatta Airport was just down the road, and the transporters could blend in with the air traffic easily. They resembled twin engine jets and could pass muster as private company planes. As long as it was dark there was little chance of them being picked out by the naked eye, and it was impossible for Radar to track them.
The second reason was more important; this was where the environmental conference was to take place, Calli’s own area of expertise. As Executon she had to work during the day on her own project and at night commute to the Pod to co-ordinate the information sent in by the rest of the team. It only made sense to base herself near the Pod and her objective; otherwise she would neve
r have any time to sleep.
The day flew by, with every member of the team finding an important lead to his or her research. Soon it would be time for them to leave. The Co-Op wanted an update on how human life on Earth was progressing. The last check had been a hundred years ago and at that point there had been no threat to their existence. Now they had discovered space flight, nuclear power, and pollution. It was time to see if they were going to blow up their planet, or perhaps be ready to accept help from Teeron.
Calli checked her crew’s findings. Once again they had worked well and had everything well planned. Three teams of two would establish themselves by morning, in the accommodations they had just arranged over the Internet. This was one technological breakthrough on Earth that simplified their job.
Callem’s team would attend a Nuclear Summit in Helsinki, taking over the jobs of two of the translators. The original translators would have no memory of not attending; it would all be accomplished quite easily, without causing any harm. Their mandate was to monitor modern weapons, and the will of humans to use them.
The second team would hit Silicon Valley in America, and find out just where their technology was going. They should blend in easily there; after all, the place was crawling with odd bods.
The third team had, possibly, the most difficult and complex mandate of them all, they had to determine where the human Race was heading socially. It was imperative to find out if this Race worked together towards a common goal. Lately the media signals picked up on Teeron had been worrying; it didn’t appear as if co-operation was a key word here on Earth.
They would attend a world conference in Dehli on World Aid and Freedom from hunger. Not a perfect forum for judging social intentions but, definitely a key piece of information.
Finally there was Calli’s conference here on the Gold Coast on World environment and pollution problems. Calli would correlate all the information every night, and beam it forward to the Co-Op on Teeron.
This was it then; the time had come for the hardest part for all of them, separation. The first night on a new and strange planet, away from the rest of the crew was always stressful. Calli knew now was when she was most needed, with a cheerful smile she slapped Callem on the back and ushered them all out the door, into the warm, dark night.
“OK friend’s time to hit the road, remember I’m always with you via the wrist communicators. Anything goes wrong and I’ll be in my transporter and with you in two hours.” Looking around at her crew, she saw swiftly hidden signs of relief. They had needed that last piece of reassurance.
Amongst moral boosting laughter and quivering excitement, they walked swiftly to the hired vehicle in the parking area. Happily squashing in they prepared to make the trip to the hanger and the waiting transporters.
Chapter 3
Calli watched the transporter vanish before it had cleared the hanger. Callem was flying, and had used the cloaking device as soon as everyone was on board. They would all be in position in the next four hours, until then Calli was free to relax.
Returning to the car she headed back to the unit, a fast run on the beach was what she needed. Months on board the Pod didn’t allow for much in the way of true exercise, and Calli enjoyed stretching her body to its limit.
Changing into shorts, she headed out the front door and down to the hard packed sand at the edge of the sea. Her palm tingled pleasantly, as she passed the empty ground floor unit next to the one she had rented. Not strongly, as if her life–mate were near, but as if he was somewhere close. Perhaps, she thought happily, he would be at the conference tomorrow.
Feeling optimistic for the first time since they had landed, she joyfully stretched her legs into a ground-covering stride that swiftly carried her down the five miles of beach. She did it in less time than the average human would take to get to the local bus stop.
Teeron’s differed not at all to human physiology, but for some reason they had evolved into supremely healthy beings. That was one of the questions the Co-Op wanted answering and an important part of the research. If the people of Earth were inadvertently corrupting their bodies, Teeron needed to be wary of not going down that same road.
Several hours later Calli was sitting at the controls of the Research Pod with a feeling of relief, all members of the crew were in place and everything had gone smoothly. Now she only had to beam forward the personal messages from the crew to their respective relatives, then she could return home for some much needed rest. She’d better include a message to her mother Theela this time or, she would be in massive trouble.
Her mother was constantly anxious about her daughter’s single state and her habit of running off to far away worlds. Calli simply couldn’t confess her secret hopes to her; she’d probably send her off for a psych evaluation.
Her father, Dalon Anderon, was head of a massive solar fuel conglomerate and didn’t have time to worry too much about what his only daughter was up to. Teeron’s twin suns provided endless amounts of clean power, and her father’s company was in constant demand to provide it. He loved her, but was willing to let her develop her career and life as she saw fit. She smiled reminiscently to herself, he was always proud of her achievements.
Shutting down the programs she’d been using, she put the Pod back into self- monitoring mode. Time to get home and grab some sleep; tomorrow was a whole new, exciting day.
Chapter 4
Daniel Smith was pissed. His new tenant had disturbed his sleep two nights in a row. First, she’d arrived two hours late, and woken him to get the unit key. It sounded like she’d brought a hoard of excitable friends with her too, to judge by all the noise and laughing. He’d shoved the key under his door and told them to look after themselves. What the hell, he’d already been paid for the two weeks hire over the net; let her leave if she didn’t like it.
Then, last night she’d been in and out until two o’clock in the morning, waking him every time the screen door slammed. Of course, it was his fault the door banged, he’d meant to fix the spring but just hadn’t gotten around to it. He was deep into his final renovation, a few more days and this unit would be finished and then his life would be his own again.
He’d bought this old, run down, fifties style unit complex, three years ago. It had been cheap but needed a lot of work to get it up to scratch. That was fine with him; he’d got nothing better to do with his life. He was a carpenter by trade and a dreamer by nature; this project had fit him like a glove.
He’d started renovating the two story building with its eight units, as soon as the contracts were signed. Living in whichever one he was renovating, he’d rented out the others. He was now on the last unit and had finished paying off the bank loan. According to his friends he was on top of the world. Hah! They were the ones with the world at their feet. Most of his friends were now happily married or in long term relationships. He had beach units, big deal, he also had the ugliest mug ever blessed on a male.
He’d only to look in the cracked mirror over the bathroom sink to see who the lucky one was, and it sure as hell wasn’t him, a pleasantly ugly face stared back at him. The best that could be said of his large nose was that it worked. It’d been broken twice by surf-boards hitting him in the head and now twisted its way across his face like a mad ski run. His eyebrows and eyelashes were so pale they appeared non-existent, and he had more lines on his big, square, craggy face than a road map. The result of squinting into the sun too much; he never could hang on to a pair of sunglasses. But, perhaps the feature that drove him most to distraction was his shock of thick, bright yellow, curly hair. Not silver blonde and elegant, not golden blonde and sexy. Nope! Yellow. He figured the unruly blonde locks had just missed out on being red, he wasn’t sure if he should thank God for the lack of freckles or hit the dye bottle and end his misery. There was only one thing he could do with it; sheer it as short as possible, so that he didn’t look too much like that clown out of the three stooges.
His one redeeming feature was the most gorge
ous green eyes. They were the eyes of a dreamer and held incredible kindness, a fact many had taken advantage of in the past. Unfortunately, he was completely unaware of their beauty.
To top off this list of natural disasters was his frame. He stood six foot eight in his stocking feet and was blessed with a set of massive shoulders. Now, that should have been a plus but, combined with his face, women just about broke the four-minute mile in their stiletto heels getting away from him. His friends affectionately called him stretch.
He was thirty- five years old and had only had two serious girlfriends in his life, both had moved on without a backward look when Mr. Right had turned up. If pushed he would admit he hadn’t been sorry, he hadn’t thought they were right for him either, it had just felt good to have someone to call and share time with.
With a sigh he finished shaving and mentally planned his day. He’d work on putting in the new kitchen this morning, then, come what may, he was finding time to fix that damn flyscreen next door.
Still grumbling under his breath, he walked into the kitchen and switched on the jug; coffee was the first order of the day. While he was waiting for the jug to boil he heard the screen door bang next door. He cringed and cursed, lack of sleep was certainly souring his attitude. He supposed he’d better go out and introduce himself, and apologise for his lack of welcome when she arrived.
Moving over to the sliding door that overlooked the beach, he pulled back a corner of the curtain, just in time to see his latest tenant pass the window and head down to the water’s edge. His heart stopped beating and his lungs starved for air, he forgot to breathe. He just stood, hanging onto the curtain for support, all thought of going out to meet her forgotten; he couldn’t have moved if the unit was on fire.
The most glorious creature in the world had just moved away from him, and, typically, she was already running. He watched, as endlessly long, perfect legs, started to eat up the miles of beach. Her blue-black hair streamed out behind her like a silk banner, reaching past her waist. High, round breasts pushed against a top that tucked into shorts spanning the narrowest hips, and slimmest waist Dan had ever seen. And let’s face it thought Dan; he’d seen plenty of female bodies on this beach. Just because he couldn’t face anymore rejections didn’t mean he hadn’t been looking.