“Dahl stole the shuttle!” Cassie said fighting back tears of worry and frustration.
“We know. We got an alert when the main doors opened up. Why are you freaking out so much?”
“I don't know. I just can't stand the thought of losing him. I can't explain why, I just don't want to lose him,” Cassie said.
“You two might want to see this,” Jason shouted from the briefing room. “We got video feed from The Raven.”
Cassie and Lars ran back to the briefing room and stared at the screen showing Dahl in the cockpit and the screen showing the external camera. Dahl had a look of steely determination on his face as he flew directly at a large, black ship that was at least twice the size of Solaris.
“Dahl, get back here. You don't have to do this,” Jason shouted into the communicator microphone. “Especially don't do this in my ship.”
“The Grimmots have taken everything from me,” Dahl said in a voice that Cassie felt was disturbingly calm. “My friends and my family were murdered by these people. I've been running for a long time. Cassie was the first person to show me any compassion since the Grimmots killed my family. I won't let them take her, too. I have suffered long enough. This ends now,” he said.
“Dahl, please no!” Cassie shouted with tears streaming down her face. “I don't want to lose you. Please come back to me.”
Dahl stared directly into the camera and Cassie saw those bright blue eyes he used last night. She thought it was his attempt to comfort her, but triggering that memory ripped her heart apart even further. Without saying another word, Dahl flipped a switch and the screens went dark.
“Get that video back,” Jason ordered.
Jennifer typed furiously on the keyboard in an effort to restore the feed. The best she could do was to find the external camera on the front of Solaris. The entire crew of Landers watched in horror as The Raven flew into the engines of the Grimmot ship, exploding it into millions of pieces. Cassie collapsed on the floor at the sight of it and began to weep openly.
Lars knelt next to Cassie and attempted to console her. “I know it sucks, but he saved all of us and countless others. You heard him. Once they killed him, they were just going to go to another planet and commit another genocide there. He is a hero for this entire galaxy.”
“Him?” Jason interrupted. “What about The Raven? I loved that ship.”
“Shut up, you dumb ass,” Jennifer said slapping Jason on the shoulder.
The whole scene was suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door leading to the hangar. Jennifer looked back at the screen and saw the main doors were closed again. Cassie looked up when she heard the knock and searched the faces of the crew hoping they had an answer. However, everyone looked just as confused.
Cassie rose and slowly walked toward the door, suspicious and scared. There was no way anyone could be on the other side of the door. For a moment she thought it was just her ears playing tricks on her until she heard another knock. Slowly and carefully she crept toward the door. Jack, along with the rest of the crew, followed behind her with a rifle aimed and ready to fire on whatever was on the other side. Cassie took a deep breath and pressed the button to open the door. She nearly fainted when she saw Dahl standing smiling on the other side.
“How? How did you get here?” Cassie asked dumbstruck.
“I came back just as you asked me to,” Dahl said in that same calm voice.
“How the hell did you survive that explosion?” Lars asked.
“I was never in that explosion. I evacuated the ship shortly before impact. It was a simple matter of changing my body to survive the vacuum of space and floating back here,” Dahl explained.
“You are one tough bastard,” Jack said stunned, lowering his rifle.
Cassie struggled to believe it. Finally she reached out and placed a hand on Dahl's face. Feeling his warm skin against hers, she knew it was really him. Her terror and sadness was immediately replaced with overwhelming joy and she leapt into his arms and covered him in kisses.
“Don't you ever scare me like that,” she said between kisses.
“Great, but what about my ship?” Jason asked.
Before anyone had a chance to respond to Jason's question, they heard the front doors to Landers HQ slide open. They all walked back to the briefing room to see who was visiting them. When they entered the room, they were surprised to see Captain Jackson standing there.
“Well, I was coming to offer my condolences to Cassandra, but it seems like she doesn't need them,” the Captain said, seeing Dahl.
“Dahl saved us all,” Lars said.
“I saw that. It was very noble,” Captain Jackson replied.
“Also, Cassie was able to synthesize a terraforming serum from Dahl's DNA,” Jennifer added.
Captain Jackson paused and took a look around the room as he processed all of the information. After a brief moment of silence, he said, “Well, in light of all this, I can't rightfully send him back to his planet now.” Captain Jackson walked up to Dahl and extended his hand. “Dahl, I would like to offer you citizenship on Solaris in honor of your heroism and sacrifice.”
Dahl graciously accepted the Captain's handshake. “Thank you, Captain Jackson. I gladly accept your offer of citizenship.”
“I suppose with this new serum, we could begin to colonize this planet. What do you call this planet anyway?” Captain Jackson asked.
“Novus, sir,” Lars answered.
“Like the hooker?” the Captain asked.
“Yes, like the hooker,” Jason said with a laugh.
“What do YOU call your planet, Dahl?” Captain Jackson asked.
“I simply call it 'Home',” Dahl replied.
Captain Jackson sighed and shook his head in resignation. “Fine, ‘Novus’ sticks as the name. Dahl, would you object to us living on your planet?”
“Captain, my friends and family are all dead. I would be honored if my new friends would share my home with me,” Dahl replied.
Cassie smiled and hugged Dahl. She didn't care what people thought about her hugging and kissing an alien. She was just happy he was back with her and they could now be together without worries.
The rest of the day was a rush of excitement and celebrations as the ship was informed they would be settling down on Novus. Cassie and Dahl were paraded around in front of everyone and hailed as heroes for their efforts. Eventually, the parties and ceremonies came to a close and it was time to go to bed. Cassie was glad she could crawl back into her own bed. Her parents even allowed Dahl to come stay with them. As Cassie was ready to close her eyes and fall asleep after an exhausting day, she heard her door open and saw Dahl walk in.
“What is it, Dahl?” Cassie asked sleepily.
“I don't like sleeping alone,” Dahl admitted.
“Well, come sleep with me,” Cassie said scooting over to make room for him. She was surprised by his confession, but was very happy he came to lay with her.
“I'm very glad you came back to me today,” Cassie said to Dahl once he was in bed with her.
“I'm very glad I came back as well,” he said.
“I don't know how to describe it, but I have very strong feelings for you,” Cassie admitted.
“I know,” Dahl said. “I feel the same way. I would like to explore these feelings further and I know you would like to as well. If you would like to, I would like to have a relationship with you.”
“I would like that very much,” Cassie said excitedly.
“I know you would,” Dahl said with a smile.
With that, Cassie gave Dahl a passionate kiss on the lips, curled into his arms and listened to the sound of his heart beating as they both drifted off to sleep…
THE END
Soldier's Desire
Chapter 1
“Alex, come on, we have to go.”
Alexis Hawthorn finished tying her combat boots. “Keep your pants on. I’m coming.” She knew they were in a hurry, she was third-in-command of the initial str
ike force, but there was one last thing she had to do before leaving.
She opened her dresser and took out a photograph. It was of a child, a boy, playing on the beach. She kissed the photo, touched the boy’s smile.
Alexis pressed the photo to her forehead a moment. I love you, I love you, I love you. Be a god boy. She lovingly slipped the photo back into the dresser drawer.
Grabbing her flight jacket, Alexis killed the lights and left the room.
Wesley was in the hall waiting. He was impatient but he knew why she took so long. He was a lifelong bachelor, no children of his own, but he had a mother, a father, and he went through a similar pre-flight ritual.
Alexis gave him a distracted nod, only half-meeting his blue eyes. In return, his smile brief but affectionate.
He had loved Alexis since war school. He would never tell her though. Just like he would never tell her how beautiful she was: pale Irish skin, short blonde hair, tight military-trained body, pert breasts, and round ass. One day, he kept telling himself. But he knew it was a dream destined to remain unfulfilled.
Romance between members of a flight team was a notoriously bad idea. In support of that generalization, Alexis had already on more than one occasion made her position known. “Wesley, you know we can’t. We’re First Strike, the best of the best. We can’t bring sex into it, we can’t mess with our dynamics.” Each time she would pause and look him up and down, openly admiring the cut of his arms and abs, his clean handsome face. “Just to blow our loads. Even though…”
This last time she had paused again, stared at him awkwardly a few moments and walked away without another word. That was a year ago, a month after the alien ship was first detected on long-range radar.
That was a long time ago and it certainly didn’t matter now.
Now, they were rushing down the hallway, heading for the official briefing they had been waiting on for 12 months.
Alexis raised her eyes. “This is really it, isn’t it?”
Wesley nodded, quickening his pace. “Yeah, you ready?”
Alexis almost smiled. “Always.” She hoped she appeared more confident than she felt.
Minutes later in the briefing room, Alexis and Wesley took their seats alongside the rest of the squad.
Commander Fairbanks strode in with a stack of papers in his hand and a scowl on his face. With him, as always, was his assistant, Karl.
“Listen up, ladies and gents,” Fairbanks stepped to the podium in front of the room. “As I’m sure you’ve heard, we’ve got some updates on the general situation.” He gestured to Karl. “Set up the projector.”
While Karl plugged the laptop into the projector system, Fairbanks continued. “At exactly 1540 hours yesterday, the alien vessel passed Titan Outpost.” The overhead lights went out and Karl turned on the projector.
On the screen behind Fairbanks, a photo of a massive silver vessel, roughly cylindrical, the front tapered and the back glowing with an array of propulsion units of some type came into focus. Two massive rectangular openings were visible on the sides of the ship as well as a series of smaller ports and protrusions.
“These photos were taken on Titan Colony and from ISS-2. As you can see”—Fairbanks flipped to the next photo—“it looks like the reports are true.”
An extreme close up of the ship came up on cue. Though slightly grainy, the image was unmistakable. Guns. Alexis glanced at Wesley, making sure he saw it too. Those are friggin’ huge guns.
“All intel suggests that what we’re looking at here”—he flipped to another photo, then another, each of them similar to the first—“are weapons of some sort.” He flipped to yet another photo. “Some type of projectiles, bullets, missiles, lasers, plasma, who knows, who the fuck cares.”
He paused for final effect and looked over the faces seated around him. His First Strike Team, the cream of United Global Air Force. “What matters is that they’re big, there’s lots of them, they’re hostile, and they’re coming for our water.”
Fairbanks flipped to another photo, this one detailing the large rectangular openings. “These are hangars which means they have fighters, who knows how many.” He kept his voice hard, emotionless.
Next was a close up inside the opening, showing something like skid marks on the floor near the edge. “They estimate a ship that size could carry up to three thousand single- or dual-crew fighting jets.”
Alexis watched a few more photos click by before she raised her hand. “What’s the time scenario look like?”
Fairbanks nodded to Karl who turned the lights back on. “Best guess is that it reaches our airspace in three days. If it passes us by, it will be in Earth’s orbit less 48 hours later.”
Alexis shifted in her seat, nervous aggressive energy coursing through her. Greg. She saw the smile from the photograph in her mind. It’s summer. Her boy would most likely be at the beach house with his grandmother. I love you, little boy.
Beside her, Wesley gave a UGAF hoot of “Oo-rah,” and the room erupted in echoed grunts and excited shouts of affirmation. Wesley stood. “I speak on behalf of all my squad mates, Sir, when I humbly inquire as to when we might be permitted to commence kicking this extraterrestrial ass back to Neptune’s bunghole?” His overblown formality went over very well with the audience.
Boisterous whoops, woo-hoos and applause echoed off the low ceilings of the briefing room. Fairbanks liked it when his team was pumped up. He needed them to be. There was no question, every one of them was scared shitless inside. Fairbanks knew he was, he knew his immediate superiors were, so he needed First Strike to be pumped, too jacked up on adrenaline and ego to allow their fears to take root.
Commander Fairbanks smiled the big ugly smile he was famous for all over Mars Base. “I’m glad you asked, Grimes.” His eyes turned from Wesley to Alexis and his smile somehow became bigger and uglier. “Because I have something special picked out just for you two.”
Chapter 2
Two days later, Alexis knelt in the toilet stall in the flight deck restroom. She was having trouble breathing. Slow down. Just slow down. Breathe… Count… One, two…
She held her head over the toilet, her mouth watering, sour taste rising… Breathe, just breathe… Three, four, five… She vomited. Wiped her mouth roughly with the bank of her shaking hand.
Like kissing her child’s photo, this had become part of her war-time ritual, albeit a part that was not welcome and reserved for only the big missions. There was no mistaking the fact that today’s mission was big.
It was, in fact, the biggest.
Rinsing her hands off in the sink, leaning down and sipping water from the faucet to swish and spit, Alexis took a moment to stare into the mirror. The large brown eyes staring back were glassy, pupils like saucers. I love you, Gregory. For you. It’s all for you…
On the flight deck a minute later, Alexis climbed the ladder and hopped into the cockpit of her Stinger, the UGAF astro-fighting jet.
Wesley was already inside the Stinger, helmet on, seatbelt strapped, and warm-up sequence initiated. “Better?” He didn’t wait for the reply and instead adjusted the flight sequence stabilizers.
Alex knew he knew she vomited. That’s what partners are for. She put on her helmet and settled into her seat. “Better.”
She fastened her seatbelt and pressed the console button activating the helmet com-link. “Blue Squad, report.” Alex adjusted her chinstrap. “Blue Nine in ship and ready.”
In her earpiece, a series of voices. “Blue Seven, in ship and ready. Blue Two in ship and ready.” The voices kept coming, running down the list of twelve Blue Squadron Stingers. They were all accounted for. Her colleagues. Her friends.
Alexis continued pre-flight protocol, reporting, “Blue Squad accounted for and affirmative. Mark time and proceed.”
On the dashboard, the warm-up light flashed from yellow to green. It’s time. Wesley flipped a switch and the Stinger began to hum, a slight vibration running the cockpit as the engines came to life.<
br />
“Command Base Two, please confirm Blue Squad launch sequence.”
“Blue Squad confirmed. Go launch and good luck.”
Alex glanced at Wesley as her partner drove the Stinger forward, lining up the front wheel with the hook on the launching mechanism. “Good luck? Seems a little insufficient, don’t you think.”
In their helmets, a countdown began. The vibrations grew, the humming built. Five, four, three…
“I don’t know,” Wesley said, gripping the flight controls tightly, “we should take what we can g—”
Whoosh… The forward thrust of their launch pushed them both back deep into their seats. Seconds later, they cleared the launch tube opening and zipped through the frictionless vacuum of space.
Wesley adjusted his velocity and bearings controls. Behind him in the gunner’s seat, Alexis double-checked their weapons systems. “Weapons online, payload secure.” Her eyes lingered on the blinking digital shapes of five bombs on the screen as she replayed the briefing in her mind.
She still couldn’t believe what Fairbanks asked them to do; her rational mind would not wrap itself around the assignment.
The rest of Blue Squad was setting up a perimeter along with the entirety of the Global Military Forces. They would wait in the atmosphere around Mars for the official declaration of war before they commenced aggression.
In contrast, Alexis and Wesley had been ordered to go underground with their attack. They were the clandestine arm and if they were successful, they would save Earth from suffering its first full-scale, hostile alien invasion.
Alexis knew the plan perfectly—there were no questions.
Fly to the Mid-Point space station between Mars and Jupiter. It had already been evacuated. After dumping the station’s contents into space, they would activate their Stinger’s cloaking shield. Their ship would read lifeless, just another piece of abandoned scrap floating away.
Romance: Alien Romance: Simply Aliens: A Ten Book Alien Romance Collection (Paranormal Scifi Interracial Romance) (Fantasy New Adult Alpha Short Stories) Page 17