by Lace, Lisa
I nodded. That was my thinking exactly.
I leaned back and let a servant set the next course in front of me. There was a white cube, drizzled in some kind of red sauce.
“What is this?” Kenna said under her breath to me. She was clearly disgusted.
“It’s space whale. Speaking of the Mirallaleyans. Remember the diplomatic visit I went on to Mirallaley to thank them for the intergalactic technology they provided us with? They took me whaling.” I grimaced at the memory. “And I got one.”
She blanched.
“A space whale? I didn’t even know there were such things. And this is it?”
She poked at the small white cube.
“Well, this is some of its blubber. The Mirallaleyans have a very cold planet and so they used to go out into space and hunt the whales and then bring them back and live off them for months as the winter raged. They often eat the blubber straight up. They consider this a delicacy.”
She gave me a look.
“They made me take some with me. I was going to give it away or throw it out but somehow it must have got into Chef’s hands.”
“Oh, stop complaining kids, and eat it.” I watched as my mother cut off a piece and put it into her mouth.
Kenna cut off a small piece. She pulled it gingerly off her fork with her teeth and chewed slowly but didn’t gag.
“It’s tough,” she said.
“Wouldn’t you be if you had to survive in space?”
“I guess so,” Kenna said and she continued to eat.
“You don’t have to eat it if you don’t want to,” I said, unsure whether I wanted to eat mine.
“I come from an Italian family. If it’s on your plate, you eat it,” she said.
“Italian?” My mother found it difficult to pronounce the foreign word.
“It’s an ethnic group on Earth that my family comes from. We’re big eaters.”
My mother and my human fiancee were getting along and discussing space whale blubber and Earth’s ethnic groups together. I must be dreaming.
I thought back to when I had met Kenna and was so glad I could remember my life again. We had been through so much. And now that we were engaged and would get married soon, we would be going through the rest of our lives together.
I couldn’t wait.
KENNA
The hovercraft had dropped us off at the entrance to the oasis and Dar and I strolled through, chatting.
“So, when do you think your mother will let us get married now that the Conveyor has approved us?” I said, as Dar picked a small purple flower and tucked it behind my ear, kissing my neck.
“Probably a month or two. Why do you ask?” he said, looking at me curiously. He knew I had something up my sleeve. He pressed the triangle in the rock and I followed him into the cave with swirling rainbow lights on the ceiling. I stared up in awe.
“This place never ceases to amaze me,” I said.
“You never cease to amaze me,” Dar whispered.
I smiled, still trying to keep it light.
“You’ve never seen a human eat space whale before? It wasn’t that impressive.”
He picked me up and spun me around so that my legs swung out and I got dizzy. Then he set me down and very thoroughly kissed me until my knees got weak.
When he let me go, I swooned.
“Now, tell me what you’re up to woman, or I won’t be held responsible for my actions.”
His eyes looked predatory in the weak light. Good.
“Are you saying that because you love me? Or just because you’re on your mating cycle?” I said, as innocently as I could.
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Both,” he said.
That’s what I thought. I just needed confirmation.
I swallowed. “If you’re planning on ravishing me tonight…”
He took a step towards me and I saw his chest rising and falling quickly.
I took a step back.
“…we might have to use some protection.”
“Protection? What is this protection?” he said. “I remember now, you mentioned it the first time we made love.”
“You remember that?” I said.
He nodded.
“On Earth, humans use it so that women don’t get pregnant.”
He blinked.
“Don’t get pregnant?”
“If you make love to me tonight, I could get pregnant because I’m on the fertile part of my cycle, too.”
He stared at me.
“What? Shouldn’t I have told you?” I said, feeling really nervous now.
“Of course,” he said. “I’m just stunned. It often takes years before a male and female’s cycles come into alignment. It’s just one more sign that you are my sheeranla.”
“So do you have anything?”
“There’s no such thing on Susohn. If the cycles line up, the couple is happy. And if they don’t want to get pregnant, they simply abstain.”
“So we’re going home now?” I hoped my voice didn’t reveal the disappointment I felt.
“Not on your life,” he said, pulling me into the circle of his arms. “We’re starting a family tonight.”
I smiled and looked up at the glowing lights dancing on the rocks of the cave. I remembered how I had been so sad that I couldn’t see the stars before I left home to come on this crazy adventure.
“I love you, Dar,” I said, kissing his face with The Three — forehead, cheek, cheek.
“And I love you, my sheeranla. Now come on. I’ve got some ravishing to do.”
Like the night when I had first decided to leave Earth, my life suddenly seemed full of possibility.
*
Kenna and Dar’s story is complete for now, but Elara and Jakk’s is coming soon. In the meantime, enjoy this sneak peak from Warriors of Surtu!
Warriors of Surtu
TERRA
They were out there. The Surtu.
I could see their ships from my tiny window in the kitchen where I worked as a porter on the Fortuna space station.
I thought their ships would be more hostile looking. Intimidating or depraved perhaps, like the Surtu themselves. But as I took a rag from over my shoulder to dry a glass, I couldn’t help but think that the ships looked like glow flies out in the distance.
The view would have been romantic if we weren’t worried that the Surtu were going to kill us all.
We knew the Surtu were going to come. It was a war Earth had sixty years to prepare for. Now, that war was about to begin, and I was part of Earth’s first line of defense.
Well, to be honest, my home the Fortuna was. It was one of many military space stations constructed after Earth learned that the Surtu were out there and we had to be ready. Unlike the other space stations, it was disguised as a spiritual sanctuary. We looked like a sisterhood, where women of the cloth were ready to welcome alien visitors into the gardens and marble halls under the pretense of peace.
Setting the glass down, I snickered at my own thoughts, more out of tension than any humor.
Nothing about the Fortuna was peaceful. Every woman on board was as lethal as a cobra. From one generation to the next, the women chosen for the Fortuna were taught the art of warfare with precision, as if it were a school subject like algebra or English. Earth never knew when the Surtu would come, but we knew what the Fortuna was built for. We were the furthest station away from Earth. Fortuna was a deathtrap, meant to lure the enemy in, learn its weaknesses, then eliminate them.
Our time was now.
“Gallia wants to see you,” Lucina announced brightly as she bounded into the kitchen, grabbing an apple from a nearby bowl. Lucina Whitmore was my best friend. Like me, the petite blonde had been primed to join the Fortuna since she was little. Our mothers were once sisters here before they returned to Earth to marry and have children.
All women assigned to the Fortuna were given the name of a Roman goddess, which was used proudly like a badge. Lucina and I were different. We had been
given Roman names since birth, our destiny already decided by our mothers.
I’d known Lucina since I first beat half the boys in our kindergarten class at arm wrestling. We knew more about each other than our own families back on Earth. I didn’t know one thing, though. How she managed to stay so bubbly and upbeat, even with danger looming close to us, was beyond me.
“Did Gallia say what for?” I asked, deciding whether or not I should finish my duties in the kitchen before heading to our Commander’s office. Lucina twirled the apple on her finger before taking a huge bite. “No,” she said, her mouth full, “but I’m assuming it has something to do with the alien race that’s about to attack. The ones with the big fangs and hollow eyes.”
I was surprised. “Is that really what you think they look like?”
“We grew up listening to stories about the monsters in space. It’s hard to know what to expect.” Lucina shrugged.
“Those who escaped the attack on the colony all those years ago said the Surtu were humanoid.”
“Even devils are humanoid,” Lucina pointed out with a wide smile, as if she reveled at the prospect of standing her ground against creatures so unholy. Being pretty, small, and blonde, she was like a militant angel.
Unable to share her enthusiasm, I once again looked out the window at the glow flies in the dark sky, ignoring the girl with the mousy hair and earthy brown eyes faintly reflected in the glass. I was not a warrior, not like Lucina, or Gallia, or any of the other women on the Fortuna.
I mean, I had skills, I was perhaps one of the most skilled fighters on board, but I considered intellect a stronger weapon than a spear. And I was an optimist. We didn’t know what the Surtu wanted, or why they were hell bent on attacking us, but I believed there was still a way to work our differences out before war began.
Such sentiment was why I was in the kitchen, and Gallia was in command.
I turned towards the door, dropping the rag on the counter. “I guess I better go see our Queen Sister,” I said, using the name Lucina and I secretly thought of for Gallia. “Maybe she wants a chance to yell at me one last time before the Surtu attack.”
“Probably,” Lucina supposed. “She better start yelling now. Based on the formation of those ships out there, we don’t have much time left.”
*
“Terra Lynch, how old are you?” Gallia asked as I entered her office. Like me, she was dressed in a skin-tight, plain white jumpsuit. It was the standard uniform on the Fortuna, regardless of rank.
One of many differences between Gallia and myself was that her jumpsuit complimented her raven black hair and green eyes, which were both reckless and wise simultaneously.
“Twenty-four,” I answered.
She didn’t seem pleased. “You’re a little young, but it still might work.”
A little young? Gallia wasn’t that much older than me. Few women on the Fortuna were. Many left in their thirties, ready to fall in love and start a family after serving their time, like my mother had.
“I’ve watched you train, Terra,” Gallia stated. “You’re one of the most skilled warriors on the Fortuna, but you have no bite. Why is that?”
“I think weapons should be the final solution, not the first,” I said truthfully. I was confused as to why I was there.
Gallia frowned. “Even when the enemy already has their weapons pointed at you?” she asked.
“That’s when your mind will catch them off-guard,” I said earnestly.
“That sounds like fancy bullshit to me,” she returned. “Why are you here if you won’t fight? The whole reason for the Fortuna’s existence is to fight.”
I was getting nervous. Gallia’s words suggested dissatisfaction with my performance. Was she thinking of sending me home?
I hoped not.
“The Fortuna is my legacy,” I said, choosing my words carefully. “I’ve trained to be here since I was a little girl. It has always been my destiny. This space station is everything I know. I never said I wouldn’t fight to protect it. I understand our purpose here. I just think we have to fight with our heads and our hearts as much as our fists.”
“There’s no heart in war,” Gallia imparted. “You’re naive to think so.”
“Please don’t send me home,” I begged. “I’m an asset to this station.”
She seemed amused. “Enlighten me.”
“The girls trust me. They turn to me for support. They need me, especially now.”
Gallia wasn’t fazed. “That’s why we have Bellona. She’s here to provide counsel.”
I thought of Bellona, the fiery priestess on board. “She’s here to play a role. Her counsel is that of a superior. Mine is that of a friend.”
I was panicked. I couldn’t let Gallia send me home, no matter what the danger of staying here was. Although I did not want to fight, my life had purpose on the Fortuna.
My last remark caught Gallia’s attention. “You think Bellona is playing a role?”
“Bellona is an assassin before she is a priestess, able to live in the shadows, her first strike her last. Her counsel is sensible, but it’s not always comforting. I mean, we’re all playing a role here, right? I’m no kitchen porter. I can barely pretend to be one. I wish the Fortuna had a library. A real one, not the one with all the forged spiritual text. That’s where I belong. I like to learn.”
“And you’re also a trained warrior,” Gallia said thoughtfully.
“Yes, and that. Please don’t send me away.”
“I’m not sending you home,” Gallia revealed, her expression softening. “You’re right, you are an asset to the Fortuna, despite your own personal philosophies on warfare. That’s why I’m making you Commander.”
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Other Books by Lisa Lace
Water World Warrior
Why would I want to be married to an alien?
I should not have applied to TerraMates! The idea was crazy. I’m a young woman, in the prime of my life.
But I was desperate.
When I landed on another world, his appearance intrigued me. He dripped sexuality and moved like an animal. We have three days together before he sets sail without me. Am I going to escape or submit to my desires?
Taken: A TerraMates Novel
What happens when TerraMates runs out of applicants?
There’s never a shortage of wealthy alien bachelors looking for the thrill of mating with a human. They want our women.
But despite the promise of riches, sometimes the pool of available brides runs dry.
How does TerraMates find more girls, and where do they go? When Lyzette gets taken off the street, she finds out.
Water World Confidential
He needed a wife. I wanted an alien lover.
The first time I saw Jory, I hated everything about him. He didn’t care about anything except himself. On the other hand, his body was spectacular, and his muscles were firm. I couldn’t stop thinking about him.
When TerraMates gave me the chance to marry Jory, I took it. I knew I needed the money. What I didn’t know was that Jory’s exterior was a facade, and he had kept secrets from everyone his entire life.
Warriors of Surtu: The Complete Series
TERRA
They came for us sixty years ago. We called them the Depraved. We later learned the proper name was the Surtu.
After we get done with them, they will be called the Defeated.
We’ve been waiting sixty years for our chance to fight back. Last time, they took all our women, and we were defenseless. This time, the women are going to kick their ass back to their home planet.
No one has seen a Surtu for decades. We tell our children they are monsters. I will be surprised to discover they look like gods. Cold. Hard. Sexy.
One, in particular, will be impossible for me t
o ignore.
*
JIDDEN
We came for them sixty years ago. We needed women. We didn’t care where they were from as long as they could mate with us. They were called humans.
Now they will be called our wives.
We’ve been waiting sixty years to make sure our offspring are viable. They were easy to conquer before. Now, we’re the vanguard of a Surtu fleet. We’ve had a taste of their women, and we want them all.
I’m only here to advance my career. I will be surprised to discover that I can’t stop thinking about one particular Earth girl. She will capture my heart, she will tempt me to sin, and our love will be forbidden.
I won’t care.
Desert World Savages: The Complete Series
Tracy thought she had problems at her boring newspaper job, but it turns out that missing a promotion isn’t so bad. Being abducted by aliens? That’s bad. Finding out they need women? That’s even worse…
Her only hope for survival is one hunky alien who is sexy, strong and into her…
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Ryn abid Alna has an excellent reason for sneaking into Ziri’s home. After years spent scraping together enough vud for the bride price, he’s finally ready to steal a wife. One look at Ziri’s sweet smile and Ryn decides no other woman will do. She can fix anything she touches, so why not the loneliness he’s lived with since he was enslaved as a young boy?