Alien Forces Of Affinity: Episode One

by Cher Hollis

  “Oh, Bo,” Cassie exclaimed, and she gripped his solid strength tighter. “What I said to you—God, I should have kept my mouth shut like I promised.”

  “No, angel, you were right. But for Robert and I—it’s been too long. I’ve lost too many, Cassie. Lost men, women, pilots, and soldiers. They’re all dead ... all of them; massacred in four short hours of this damn alien war.”

  His tenor voice had turned tighter as he’d spoken, and with each word, he’d seemed to hold her closer.

  Cassie brushed her palm across the fine hair on his arm. “Who, Bo? Who died?”

  “Damn it, Cassie ... it was my entire squadron, but two of us. It happened in our first assault against the aliens—I’ve never seen anything like the aliens attack. My squadron, the Falcon’s, we were the best fighter pilots UED had.” His voice tightened. “But the aliens are superior.”

  Cassie turned and rose to her knees to embrace Bo, as he’d done earlier for her. She knelt between his thighs and put her arms around his neck, to hug him tightly.

  “It’s all right, Bo, you’ve lost so many, you need to let it out,” she whispered, with her mouth near his ear.

  “It’s just so fresh. So many,” he growled, and his body grew taut, nearly shaking, while she caressed the back of his neck. “I don’t understand, Cassie, what’s it all for? All this death I see over and over. God and service to country ... they aren’t good enough reasons anymore. Only I’m bothered to admit that, because it’s all I’ve got. All ... I’ve ever had. And God help me, I’m afraid it’s all I’ll ever have.”

  “Bo, it’s all right,” she whispered.

  “Hell, Cassie, I’m sorry—” he started to say.

  “Don’t say it.” She held him closer. “Bo, you wouldn’t let me say I’m sorry and there’s nothing ... nothing for you to be sorry for.”

  Bo’s hands wound in her hair and he drew her closer, then his mouth found her lips in the darkness. Cassie wondered if it was their highly charged emotions from the darkness and the revelations that mingled into instant passion as their lips moved and became urgent against each other’s.

  But after long desperate kisses, Bo lifted his mouth from her lips. She could hear him breathe deeply with his hands fisted in her hair, then his voice was rough.

  “You know where this is going, Cassie. Tell me to stop, and I will. But I can’t make any promises—there’s a war.”

  “No promises. I understand, Bo,” she answered breathlessly. “Only don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”

  Her pleading was passionate, as the heat of his hard body flamed her. The darkness brought its own sensuality, and she moved her hands over the broad, firm muscles of his chest, to explore. His hands skimmed under her shirt to her breasts, and he cupped them, then he caressed them. She moaned and melted under their renewed kisses, while she urgently tugged his undershirt loose with the need to get closer to his heat.

  Suddenly the lights flicked on, and she exclaimed in surprise.

  In the light, Bo looked into the heated brown of Cassie’s eyes, while she knelt between his long legs. She took a deep breath and her bare breasts filled his hands with firm pressure, while her nipples rose tautly to his palms.

  “Kiss me,” he ordered, and he kneaded the bareness of her full breasts, as she tilted her head and moved her eager lips against his mouth.

  Then out of nowhere, the sound of the shower room door as it crashed open echoed in the room, followed by the sounds of heavily booted feet as they stomped inside.

  Bo reacted fast. He spun Cassie around and clamped his hand across her mouth. Then he moved their position, following the wall, as he dragged her with him into the corner.

  A tall, silver-haired Variant appeared around the half wall and he shouted, “Don’t move!”

  Bo shoved Cassie behind him, and he stood.

  “Simon!” Cassie exclaimed.

  Bo was surprised Cassie knew the man’s name, as he felt her struggling to stand up behind him. Then she grabbed the back of his waist. He turned, putting himself fully in front of Simon as he lifted his arms to show his surrender. His move backed Cassie further into the corner, while she clutched him tighter.

  “Move away from her,” Simon snapped, and he backed up his order by leveling his weapon squarely at Bo’s chest.

  Bo answered the threat in a neutral voice. “Let her get dressed first.”

  Simon shook his head sharply, then he took a menacing step forward.

  Outwardly, Bo knew he looked calm as he smiled and lowered his arms. When he spoke, his tone was matter-of-fact. “That IR will shoot through me and her. Why don’t you step closer and try to take me without it.”

  Simon’s weapon swung up slightly and he seemed to hesitate.

  Bo spoke lowly through closed teeth, hoping Cassie would hear him. “Follow my moves. Stay behind me.”

  He took small steps sideways, with Cassie following behind him, until he stopped at her remaining clothes, which were on the floor. Simon followed their movements with the point of his IR.

  A man’s voice called for Simon, from the outer hallway.

  Without looking that way, Simon shouted, “In here, Dalton. I found her.”

  When Simon shouted, Bo ordered, “Cassie, get behind the wall, on my signal.”

  Simon must have heard, because in one motion he turned and fired into the wall, to the right of where they stood. Cassie screamed, and Bo latched his arm around her waist behind him, steadying her. Two more Variants advanced into the room, each one carrying IP’s, the pistol version of the IR, as Bo processed the information they were there for Cassie … his charge and mission.

  Damn it, how, he wondered.

  “Shoot him,” Simon ordered, the first man through the doorway.

  Cassie watched in horror as the man pointed his weapon at Bo.

  “No!” she cried, and she tore loose from Bo’s grasp to come around him. “He has nothing to do with this! I will come with you,” she exclaimed.

  She continued to move away from Bo, and heard him curse under his breath. She didn’t know if she was doing the right thing, but she couldn’t let them kill him.

  “Come here,” Simon commanded.

  Cassie flinched and then reluctantly moved to stand in front of him, while her heart pounded wildly. He was one of the militants that had kidnapped her. She struggled to control her fear. Simon shouldered his weapon and grabbed her by the arm, then he spun her around, while she bit back a scream. He grabbed her nape and forced her to stand still.

  “You’re a Variant, aren’t you?”

  Cassie knew Simon was speaking to Bo.

  “Yes, I am, and you must be part of the Variants who are fighting to free our people,” Bo answered.

  Cassie heard a rustling sound. Simon was doing something behind her.

  “You military sellouts are going to wish you were on the right side soon,” Simon warned, with deadly confidence.

  “We can’t leave him, he has seen us,” snarled one of the other Variant’s.

  Simon’s grip on Cassie’s neck tightened, as Bo said, “Maybe there are a lot of us caught in the military now that want to join you, but don’t know how.”

  Simon pulled back on Cassie’s neck, and forced her to stumble backward against him.

  “It’s a thought. If you weren’t a Variant, you’d be dead by now,” Simon said. He let go of Cassie’s neck and clamped an arm around her waist, as he hissed, “Hold still.”

  Cassie looked down and she saw Simon place a hypo against her bare thigh, instantly she felt the stinging bite and heard the hiss of air. Her world tilted sideways and her body started to go limp as she felt herself falling.

  The last thing she saw, before blackness overtook her, was a last look of Bo’s fierce blue eyes.

  To be continued …

  This story is an over 220,000 word science fiction romance Serial space opera, with a definite ending. If you would like notice of each part as it is released, please join Cher Hollis’ ne
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  Read an exciting excerpt!

  Alien Forces Of Affinity: Episode Two (Alien Forces Serial)

  By Cher Hollis

  Having fought Earth forces and seeing they were worthy enemies with strong battle tactics, Khan wondered what the humans would be like when it came to defending their home planet. He knew, with all he’d viewed so far, it would take more than ‘brilliant strategy,’ as Korpal claimed to have, to stop the war from going another hundred cycles, like the war they’d fought for the Makkars.

  With the tactics of the coming offensive firm, Khan let his dark vision sweep the area around him, and his thoughts of fighting slipped away with another frequent thought.

  Where was Balice?

  Korpal had not arrived with her by his side. It was a rare thing that Korpal did not have her with him, to view his powerful pledging ceremony.

  Khan hadn’t seen Balice, in all the cycles, since she’d danced alone for him. That night had stunned him, when he’d seen her alone and naked, as she called it. It had changed him. Balice had given him her dance without any cloth covering her soft, rounded body. He was still rocked from the new and strange urges she had torn from him. From that time, he was stalked by sparkling green eyes and thoughts he could not understand.

  Since Balice’s dance alone for him, he wasn’t able to receive Talis from any other female.

  Each time he tried, he was driven to pretend. It was difficult to understand how he could go so long without any of the release that Talis gave an Esa. That he had survived was surprising—it was so unknown—he knew he couldn’t share the strangeness with another Esa.

  In all other ways, he felt as an Esa should—his skills were sharp, except for the burning need to see Balice, if even for one short click. He looked across the entire gathering, as he had many times before, making it clear he had not missed her. Where was his Talis? He was ready to see her, and face the strangeness she pulled from him.

  “Come here, Khan!” Korpal shouted.

  It shook Khan from his search for Balice, and he saw the last of the Esa were leaving. Khan looked at Korpal and saw they were the only two left on the platform. Dante had left to take the females to the cavern where they were held by the wardens.

  Khan stalked forward and faced Korpal. He saw Korpal’s eyes burned with darkness, while his tongue moved over his lips, and his voice shook with excitement.

  “Go to my K-10, beast, and get Balice. Bring her to me, at once!” After Korpal spoke, he strutted forward with his white robes snapping around him. Then he shouted, “She will fulfill my needs, here! On her knees! Right here on the platform of my power!” Korpal swept his hand across the vast emptiness, then he turned back to Khan. “Here, beast, you will need this. Hurry! I need her here, now.”

  Korpal tossed Khan a black bio-chip. Khan’s mighty fist caught it above his head, then he lowered it to study it as he strode off the platform. His feelings expanded—he would see Balice—that drove him to long strides. It was a short journey down the left side of the central wing to where Korpal’s K-10 was docked. The sign of human living showed on the K-10 with bright cloths hanging over the hatchway and across the viewing ports.

  Khan didn’t think to call his arrival as he strode into the central sphere of the K-10, where abruptly he stopped and stalled at what he saw. His structure jerked, and his bulk tensed to breaking. Unfamiliar unrest slammed into him, which swiftly turned to rage, because Balice was helplessly hanging by her small hands high over her head. Chains were wrapped around her white limbs, holding her bound to the inside K-10 wall.

  Her shining green eyes stared at him. They were filled with something very bad, he could feel, but not name. She had marks on the softness of her neck and her mouth was split in one corner, while one side of her face was harmed. The cloth she wore was ripped in pieces and hanging from the roundness of her curved body. One mark could be seen on her breast uncovered by the torn cloth. It forced a raging growl from him.

  Someone had beaten his Talis.

  Cassie regained consciousness reluctantly under the influence of the drug Simon had hypo-shot into her. It was the pain in her wrists and shoulders that brought her awake. Opening her eyes, she saw the synthetic rope wound around her wrists and tied her to the pipes above her, while an acidic odor flooded the air. She blinked and tried to look around.

  “Bo!” she cried.

  He was hung by his wrists, several feet away from her. She could see he was unconscious, but breathing. Relief brought tears to her eyes. His handsome face was lax but there was evidence of harsh treatment marking it. There was dried blood at the corner of his mouth, a cut under one eye, and on his temple. His undershirt was ripped nearly off, and it showed a reddish purple bruise on his ridged abdomen.

  Cassie called out to him several times, but he didn’t answer. She thought he’d been drugged, the same way she had been. But she was never more thankful to see anyone in her life. Thank god, they hadn’t killed him.

  When she craned her neck down, she could see a bench seat a little behind her, against the wall. She struggled with her toes to balance on the bench, which she finally managed, and it eased the pain in her shoulders and wrists. It was a precarious balance on her tiptoes as she looked around and tried to figure out where they were.

  It was a small area, maybe a storage room of some kind. She could see atmosphere suits were hanging in a partially open storage locker. The acidic smell had to be some type of unrefined ore, because she could see equipment strewn in a corner, which looked like gear miners would use.

  “We’re in space,” she whispered, as she shuddered and the quake had little to do with being half-dressed. She only wore her partially buttoned silk blouse and underwear. It left her feeling very vulnerable.

  Straining to control her fear, she tried to tell herself that the man she knew as Simon Preston, a militant Variant, had to be taking her to her father.

  “That means he won’t harm us,” she muttered, suddenly willing to believe her father had to be in league with Variants, because the alternative had her struggling to control old fears. “Please be that,” she whispered, even though it was so impossible to believe.

  Simon had wanted her badly, when she’d been imprisoned under Korpal’s power. But Korpal had denied Simon each time he’d tried to press it. Those thoughts made Cassie pray that Bo would wake up soon, because imagining what could happen was hard to contain.

  That was when her breath hitched, because she heard the hatch clicking. It made her jerk with fear. Then Simon stalked into the compartment. He was on her list of nightmares. Helplessly hung by her wrists, she couldn’t stop his bold gaze as it raked her from head to toe with a look of savagery that she knew he could back up.

  She struggled uselessly against the ropes that held her prisoner.

  “You owe me something, little Ela Cassandra. Do you remember?” Simon spat viciously as he stepped toward her. He stopped at Bo and took Bo’s chin in his hand, to shake it.

  Bo didn’t wake up! Cassie watched in horror as Simon stalked in front of her. He was tall with a powerful build like most Variants, and even at the height she hung from he could still looked directly into her eyes. Cassie tried to turn her gaze away from the ugly intent.

  “Korpal was very stingy with you the last time we were together. I don’t think that was fair, do you?” Simon asked. His voice dripped with suggestion and his face was only inches from hers.

  “My father,” she gasped. It was a desperate attempt, while she tried to keep her voice from wavering. But then her toes slipped off the bench, and the pain of it made her whimper, with a sharp intake of breath.

  “Hurts, does it?” Simon sneered. “I remember how you begged, little Ela.” His wide hand touched the outside of her exposed thigh and his calloused palm felt like sandpaper was scraping her skin as he groped her. “What of your father? Why bring up his name?” Simon demanded.

  Dread whimpered in Cassie’s throat as she tried to move her body away from h
is touch, while her inner thoughts screamed “No.” It had to be her father he was taking her too. It had to be!

  Vytor stayed beyond the reach of Esa detection, and he watched the once chattel armies, while he considered how to reach his goal. He had many problems to solve, if he ever hoped to free Ramon from Korpal so that Ramon would be free to help him procreate.

  One of the biggest obstacles was the reality that a human body could not voyage in a Makkar vessel, so he realized he would need help to free Ramon. Then a revolutionary thought occurred to him.

  “Ela Cassandra.”

  Humans would be the only way left for him to find help, when he considered his banishment from his race, following the Esa abdication.

  “Who better than a member of Ramon’s own human circle to help,” Vytor declared into the confines of his vessel.

  If he found her, it would also allow him to warn Ela Cassandra of Korpal’s lethal intentions toward her, because she must not be captured and used against Ramon.

  Ela Cassandra would be unaware that since Ramon had bonded with the Circle Generation, she had also been linked through her father to Vytor and to all Makkars.

  To be continued...

  About the Author

  Hoping you have enjoyed the story so far, this epic science fiction romance space opera is my rather large “trunk novel.” It is one of the first things I ever wrote, and I am working my way through it, piece by piece, to arrange and revise it all. There are 6 to 7 episodes to it (still deciding how to break down the last of it) and the ending has been written.

  If you will stick with me to the end, as I work to publish it all, I think you could enjoy the adventure.