“The station was chosen because it housed the provisional government set up by the UHT. The attack happened in the middle of a government session, to have the greatest impact, I suppose. There were over twelve thousand people, both Colonials and UHT, aboard the ship at the time of the attack. All are presumed dead.” He stopped again this time to collect his thoughts and figure out how to paraphrase the next portion of the message. “Apparently, the station also housed the team that was formulating the rescue plan. The entire team was aboard the station and is listed amongst the casualties.”
Mila was dumbstruck. She opened her mouth, but no words would come. These rebels had killed indiscriminately. Both UHT personnel and other Colonials. If she were on the outside, she might have sided with these rebels, but from here… Mila felt like she was a third-party looking in on the system. The war, the attack—it all looked like petty squabbling from here, on the very edge of existence. Battles and death just to decide whose flag would adorn the meeting room of the system’s government.
“So, I guess no one is coming to get us in the near future.” It was all she could think to say.
“Oh, it gets better.” The translator did a surprisingly good job of conveying his sarcasm. “Following the attack, the whole system is in political chaos. A large portion of UTH personnel in the system were aboard that station. Most of the chain of command has been eliminated. Each colony had enacted their own continuation of government plan and each of those provisional governments is vying for control of the whole system. New interplanetary violence has started to take place throughout the system. I’d say nobody is going to be in a position to plan and mount a rescue anytime soon.” There was nothing more to say.
Chapter 3
“It’s not much, but its home.” Mila laughed awkwardly. Rex had to stoop down to get through the door into the small loft. Mila’s bed was in an alcove in the wall. On the opposite wall there were storage spaces for her personal items. It was a typical utilitarian military sleeping quarters. Perfect for a soldier. Very efficient. The room in which Rex had slept on his ship had been very similar. “Well that’s the tour.” Mila looked at him expectantly.
Rex moved in close and kissed her. Their bodies pressed together. His scent enveloped her. He reveled in how she responded to his touch as one hand caressed the curve of her waist and the other slowly unzipped her suit. He opened the fabric and ran both hands languorously over her breasts.
For an alien, you sure know how to touch a human woman just right. Thinking of his alien nature, she reached up and placed her hands on his muscled shoulders. Molded as if from marble, they quivered under her fingertips. Mila began to massage Rex’s shoulders, digging into the warm, smooth flesh.
Rex arched his neck back as he let out a breathless sigh of satisfaction. Apparently, this is a sensitive area on a Dextronin. She stopped her work only long enough to unzip the front of his suit. Teasingly, she pulled back and made a show of examining his bare chest. She was pleased to see that the rest of his body was just as solid and ripped as his shoulders, although his torso was in similar proportions to that of a human male.
Unable to play any longer, Rex grabbed her and urgently began to move his hips rhythmically against hers, kissing her deeply, his tongue searching her open lips. There was no denying his desire for her now as she felt the length and firmness of his manhood against her pelvis. Mila let her own sign and began to follow his sway.
It would be a lie to say she had not wondered what his entire body looked like almost from the moment that he told her he was an extraterrestrial. Mila smiled slightly at the memory. Rex had said that Dextronin and Humans were distantly related, so perhaps their penises were no different. Or maybe, it will be almost the same just with slightly different proportions, like his shoulders. Her curiosity needed to be satisfied, along with a few other things. She pulled away from him.
For a moment, Rex was worried that she was angry like before, and a frown crossed his face. But he quickly read her expression.
Mila moved quickly now, sitting on the edge of her bed, leaning forward so her head did not hit the top of the tiny alcove. She grabbed the sleeves of Rex’s suit and pulled downward peeling it away from his upper body. An elastic band kept the lower half of the suit secured to his waist.
Rex took charge and in a move that seemed to Mila to be almost sleight-of-hand he released some kind of trigger in the suit and the lower half seemed to melt away. The whole suit fell to the ground in a pile.
Well, he isn’t built like any human male I’ve ever been with, but I won’t complain. Assuming the techniques that pleased a human male would do the same for a Dextronin, Mila lowered her soft pink lips to his hard manhood, tickling and nipping at it. Rex’s moans told her that her guess was correct. His hand found her head and she felt fingers running through her thick hair.
After a very short time, Rex pulled away from her. He seemed to need to memorize her face in that very moment. As quickly as he moved away, he leaned in and began kissing her ferociously, as if starving for the taste of her. He easily removed her lower suit, both of them laughing as he pulled it out from under her round bottom. Mila’s suit out of the way, Rex urged her backward, his lips never leaving hers.
Rex now hovered over her. He worshipped her breasts, her stomach, and her thighs with his eyes. Finally, as if reading her mind, he allowed their naked bodies to come together. There was no war. No black hole ready to devour them. No orders to be followed. There was only the two of them and this moment. Everything outside of the loft faded away as their bodies moved in rhythm.
Chapter 4
Rex opened his eyes. He was immediately aware of the space in the bed next to him. He swung his legs out of the alcove and stood, nearly hitting his head as he did so. He’d been sleeping with Mila for nearly a year now and he still did that occasionally. He opened one of the storage compartments on the opposite wall and pulled out a pair of his underwear. He slipped them on, then made his way to the door.
In the main cabin, Mila was sitting at the control console wearing her formal uniform.
“I told you to wake me.”
“We were up late. I figured you could use some extra sleep.” He stepped up next to her and leaned down for a kiss. She leaned sideways to accept it, but never looked away from the holo-display. “I certainly hope you plan on wearing something nicer when our guests arrive.”
“Oh? Are you afraid I might distract them from our proposal?” Rex crossed his muscled arms over his chest and took a heroic stance. That got your attention didn’t it? He casually flexed every muscle in his upper body. He could see temptation flare in her eyes, but they had work to do today.
“Go.” For good measure she smacked him on hit tight buttocks.
“Back to giving me orders, I see. We truly have come full circle.” He shook his head and laughed as he sauntered back to the loft to finish getting dressed.
Chapter 5
An hour later a call came through on the holo-console. Sitting together at the controls, they accepted it. A white-haired man’s head appeared on the display.
“Hello Commander.” Mila began. “I’m glad to see that you have managed a successful orbit.”
“As am I. I got your report on the two ships that dipped into the event horizon. It’s a pity. Those were good people.”
“I’m sure.” Mila nodded. “You’ve had time to review our proposal then?”
“Yes.” He paused. The old officer was not used to having to agree to other people’s terms, but he was in a bind and they were his only way out. “We will agree to your terms.”
“Good. I estimate we can rendezvous within six hours. We’ve done simulations on the best attachment scenario. I’m sending you that data now. Please be sure to follow the instructions in the data-burst. Welcome to Refugium, Commander”
“We will follow them to the letter. Thank you for your… hospitality. I know you take a risk with each rendezvous, but I’m confident our association will be a
mutually beneficial one.”
“As are we.” Once the call was ended Mila added, “And if not, we have the ability to jettison your ship.”
“Relax.” Rex slowly rubbed her back, comforting her. “In a year, we’ve only had to do that one time.”
In the last standard year, twelve different ships had taken the dive and joined Rex and Mila’s ships in a high-velocity orbit around the black hole. The outside world had gone from bad to worse. Every possible faction had declared war on every other. Entire planets had been rendered inhospitable. A group of ships was poised to destroy any wormholes that the UHT tried to open in the system, effectively cutting the Human Fleet and the remaining UHT personnel off from the outside universe. Rumor was, the UHT had declared the system “a lost cause”.
The situation in their system was so bad that some had decided to take a chance on flying a ship toward a black hole and taking refuge in its lower orbits. Mila and Rex had started offering a sort of sanctuary to these ships. They could link up with Mila and Rex but only if they agreed to their terms. Eleven ships from all factions had attached to theirs in order to pool resources and better survive the harsh environment.
They agreed to set aside their wartime affiliations and squabbles to join the Refugium (as they had named it). Only one ship had violated this agreement and Mila had been forced to jettison it from the cluster. All the other ships and their passengers, about six hundred people in all, agreed to the terms and maintained a peaceful coexistence. Of course when every day was a struggle just to meet your basic needs while avoiding falling into a black hole, it was hard to find time to take issue with your neighbor.
Rex sometimes wondered what those people must have experienced in the outside world that was so bad that taking the chance at getting here was the lesser of two evils. He decided he was better off not knowing. Perhaps, he liked to believe, they just saw the way that he and Mila had put aside their pasts to work together for survival. Maybe they sought out the same for their family. It was hard to say. The data-bursts had stopped coming long ago. Now the only news they got from the outside was what the new arrivals shared with them.
Rex leaned over and kissed Mila passionately. They had a couple hours before the rendezvous, and he was not going to let it go to waste. When you lived perched on the razor’s edge, you didn’t let any time go to waste. As they tore off their formal clothes and fell to the floor in front of the console, they both knew that there was nowhere else in the universe they would rather. Finding each other was worth taking the dive.
THE END
Ashley's Guardian
Chapter 1
Ashley Key knew one thing above all others: when Jerno the Lomarian warrior said “run”, she was to do as he said. No questions, no hesitation.
“RUN!”
She ran.
It had been like this for months, ever since the red-skinned alien soldiers took her and her shipmates in.
Ashley, Ben and Daniel had drifted in the dead shell of their deep-space exploration vessel, far from listening ears or helpful hands, for over a year before the Lomarians arrived. We would have died there, unrecorded and never mourned, in the vast dark. And then…
The Lomarian scouts found the human ship floating in what was referred to as Jar’oool Hernand, the “Road’s End”. It was less a rescue and more a capture in fact. The aliens took them prisoner and stripped the exploration vessel of whatever spare parts and trophies they could find.
Once aboard the Lomarian ship, it hadn’t taken long for Ashley to understand their huge humanoid captors were on the run. Thankfully, they had translation devices that had made communication easier in those early days. Not perfect but easier.
It had become a constant in her life, this running and hiding and doing their best to avoid trouble in a dangerous galaxy.
This new planet, Vaffir, was proving to be more challenging than they had expected. Jerno’s command to run was just one in a long series this day and Ashley was reaching her limit. This is ridiculous. It hasn’t stopped from the moment we landed.
Grandon, the largest of the aliens and the Commander, had said a southeastern landing point should have been relatively free of patrols or roadblocks. They knew the Corgon Army had outposts on the surface of Vaffir, but the intel showed them concentrated up north. They soon discovered that was not the case.
Her feet crunching in the rocky sand, Ashley ran as if her life depended on it—because it did. The air around her was filled with heavy breathing and nervous grunts. They were all scared. They were surrounded.
From the muffled noise, Ben yelled “up there” and Ashley glanced in the direction he pointed as she ran. The ridge on the Eastern side of the valley? Glints of sunlight on metal. A Corgon gun. She pushed on harder, her lungs about to burst.
Suddenly the ground to her right exploded with a green blast of energy. Static sizzled and tiny rocks and sand pelted her legs. Shit, that was close.
Sprinting beside her, Jerno grabbed her arm and roughly pulled her away from the now smoking hillside. “This way.” His bellow urged her on. She let him guide her, realizing he was taking her toward the mouth of a small cave cut into the side of the cliff.
Somewhere above them the well-camouflaged Corgon sniper pulled the trigger again. The blast of green energy burst from the barrel of his canon-like weapon and a sly smile spread across the Corgon’s rodent face. It chuckled at its prey’s feeble attempts to run. For a split second when they changed course for the side of the cliff the Corgon hesitated, but recovered quickly and swung its weapon to follow, placing the cross hairs directly on the back of one of the humans. Die humans, die traitors.
Ashley staggered and yelped as another laser bolt slammed into the earth behind her. She recognized Daniel’s voice, cursing and screaming. Go, go, go, go…
They were almost to the cave. Just get there, just get there… it’s too hot to run, too dry on this desert planet, the atmosphere’s too thin… get there, get… there… Panting, trembling, unable to take another step but taking it anyway Ashley forged ahead. Please, please…
She collapsed into the shadows of the cave entrance, rolling over in the dust and coming up onto her elbows to look behind her. Jerno… Hunner, Daniel, Kando… Ben. Hurry.
Just as she sighed with relief that all were accounted for, a brilliant green blast erupted around Ben. Sand, rocks and flame blocked her view for what seemed like an eternity. As it cleared, she saw Ben stumbling, his feet tripping over one another. Then, he fell—hard.
“Ben!” Ashley pushed up to stand and immediately came into contact with Jerno’s upraised palm.
“No.” Jerno emphasized his command with a strong hand on her shoulder. He motioned to Kando, who was in mid-stride toward Ben already.
Ashley couldn’t help noticing the heat from Jerno’s hand as he gently ran it from her shoulder to her bare forearm. “It’s too dangerous.” His blazing eyes softened as he met her gaze. “You know you’re too valuable.”
As Ashley fought to hold his intense stare, she was struck by a sense of confusion for a moment. What was that in your eyes? “Too valuable”? She had seen many things in his glare in the past months—anger and apprehension mostly—but there was something else in them, something that appeared when he mentioned her value. Under different circumstances, she would have questioned him. As it was, she stepped back, went to one knee and watched Kando sprint expertly to Ben and lift him up by the arm.
Just as the two of them took the first step, Jerno and Ashley were blinded by another green flash. Their warnings caught in their throats as the Corgon finally found its mark. The center of Ben’s chest burst into flame as the laser tore through him from behind and he fell forward with a primal, guttural moan.
Propelled by Ben’s momentum, Kando tripped, landing flat on top of Ben’s now limp body. Kando clawed at the ground, trying to stand, but only had time to raise his head. He looked at Ashley and Jerno with terror and defeat as the next crackling green bolt tore thro
ugh the back of his head. He slumped forward, smoke rising from the wet mass that had been his skull.
Ashley screamed and tried to run to them but again Jerno stopped her. His vice-like grip lifted her off the ground as she kicked and wailed. “I can’t just leave him there.”
“Yes, you can. And you must.”
Relaxing against his hard body, hoping this would make him loosen his embrace, Ashley violently shook her head back and forth. I can’t…
Her eyes locked on Ben’s body. Motionless, smoke rising from the burnt, bloody hole in his back. I’m sorry, Ben….
Jerno’s words brought her back to reality. “Come on. We need to go.” There was an imploring tone in his voice now. “We need to get further into the cave and hide. We have no idea how many of them there are and I….” He paused and Ashley raised her gaze just in time to see that glint again, a wavering light behind the gloom. “We can’t risk losing you.”
Jerno shot a glance at Daniel. “Both of you. Without the two of you, you know our cause is lost.” He pulled his laser pistol from its hip holster. He held his other hand out to Ashley. “I mean it. Come on. We’ll come back for Ben and Kando when we can.”
Ashley finally nodded her agreement. She knew it was a lie, she knew they would never come back, but she also knew it wasn’t Jerno’s fault, he didn’t mean it to be a lie. Quietly she sniffed back her angry tears, took his proffered hand and fell into step with him. Walking deeper into the Stygian darkness of the cave, Ashley hoped somehow she would make in into the light once again.
Chapter 2
Carefully picking their way through the narrow, suffocating tunnel carved deep into the mountain, Jerno finally felt he could let go of Ashley’s hand. To his surprise, she grabbed his forearm as if for balance. A warm flutter swelled in his tense chest.
Romance: Alien Romance: Simply Aliens: A Ten Book Alien Romance Collection (Paranormal Scifi Interracial Romance) (Fantasy New Adult Alpha Short Stories) Page 3