TANAK: Sci-Fi Romance (Star Fall Series Book 1)

by E. A. James

  “Indeed,” Grimm said with a dark scowl and Kira noted the anger that seemed to burn in his eyes.

  “Okay, so it’s a simple transport mission, that still doesn’t explain why you decided I was the best person for this job, or why this mission isn’t officially credentialed,” Kira replied.

  “Given our past relationship and my high regard for your ability to carry out this task, I thought of you first,” Grimm said.

  “Truthfully, I needed someone I can trust to complete this mission and uphold its classification. That is the reason my shortlist is only one person long.”

  Kira wasn’t sure if she should allow herself to be flattered, or indulge the nagging feeling that she was being manipulated.

  “Alright, we’re two for three now Colonel. That just leaves the question of why this mission isn’t credentialed through Terran High Command,” Kira said.

  “I’m afraid that is the chapter of this story that must remain in secrecy,” Grimm responded.

  “Let me see if I have this straight Colonel – you have a prisoner that you’re honor bound not to kill that you want to deposit into one of the worst places imaginable and, most importantly, you don’t want your own fingerprints on this,” Kira said with a bemused look.

  “Perceptive,” Grimm replied. “That was another quality I admired.”

  “Your admirations aside, this is a big ask Colonel. You’re really stretching the definition of a favor here.” Kira responded. She thought she noticed the Arcanum soldiers at the bar shift uneasily in their stances when she said this.

  Grimm seemed mildly annoyed at the amount of effort that he was expending. Kira figured he was not used to asking for much at this point in his career.

  “Alright,” Kira sighed. “If I did agree to this, what would it look like?”

  Grimm smiled slightly in relief. “Two Arcanum soldiers will accompany you to secure the prisoner. You will be in an unmarked vessel with a specially fitted brig to contain the prisoner – you will have no interaction.” Grimm explained.

  “You will rendezvous with a third party that will complete the transfer to Jaantu 7 – that should ensure you are never connected with this mission. I’ve arranged for a meeting in a remote area of space near the facility, where a bounty hunter will wait for you. Nico Rax is one of the best in the business, Captain. He will take the prisoner the rest of the way, shielding your involvement with the mission completely.”

  “So, all I have to do is fly this prisoner to an isolated location in space and wait for the bounty hunter to pick him up?” she repeated, creasing her brow. Something about the plan continued to strike her wrong—something was definitely off.

  “Precisely,” Grimm replied, not noting the skepticism on her voice.

  “Why not send a military escort?” Kira asked.

  “We don’t want to divert too many resources and we can’t risk the publicity,” Grimm replied quickly.

  Kira thought for a moment, stealing a glance at the Arcanum soldiers. She sighed deeply and said, “Alright, I’m on board, but I have conditions.”

  “The best way for me to keep my head above water here is to know as little as possible. Basically, I’m telling you to keep me in the dark. I’ll run your mission as a personal favor and a thank you for everything you did for me at the Academy, but after this, whatever debt you feel I might owe you from our past has to be considered paid.”

  “Consider your debt transferred to me when this is all over, I’ll be the one who owes you something,” Grimm responded.

  “I’m not asking for that,” Kira responded. “You put me in a position to succeed early in my career and because of that, I’m where I am today. That’s the only reason I’m saying yes right now.”

  “Fair enough,” Grimm said. “Kira, please know that I’m asking you to do something in the best interest of the Federation. I wouldn’t dare be reckless with you or your life unless it was of great importance.”

  “You have my trust Colonel,” Kira replied. “I’ll make sure this gets done. What are the next steps?”

  “After departing here I’ll arrange for secure communication that will lead you to the unmarked vessel,” Grimm said. “From there, you will proceed to the rendezvous and upon arrival, my men will make sure your vessel is looked after. After that, it’s a simple flight path to drop off the prisoner. We don’t expect any issues.”

  “Do I have time to return to my quarters to pack a few personal items? Kira asked.

  “I’ll be notifying the crew immediately after your departure. You should expect coordinates within the next two hours,” Grimm replied.

  “Feel free to return to grab anything you might need, round trip you’re looking at about two weeks. However, I must insist that you say nothing of our meeting to anyone, and your departure should remain quiet.”

  Kira stood to leave, “I’ll make sure this gets done sir, despite my hesitations I’m happy to help a friend in need.”

  “Thank you, Captain, that means a great deal,” Grimm responded.

  Kira walked out of the bar, but not before stopping at the bar to transfer a few galactic credits to him for his trouble. The Rengar looked somewhat pleased.

  Grimm watched in silence as she boarded her ship and departed from the station, cigar smoke rising around him. One of the Arcanum guards slowly walked over to him and said, “Are you sure she can be trusted, sir?”

  “No, but it doesn’t matter. She’ll serve her purpose.” Grimm replied as he stood to leave and snuffed out his cigar.

  The other Arcanum soldier calmly pulled his sidearm from its holster and turned the weapon on the Rengar bartender firing two quick shots before re-holstering the weapon and joining the others as they departed.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Kira returned to the T.F.S. Victory, still disgruntled that she would be leaving for another mission. It wasn’t just that she would be leaving for another mission that bothered her, though; it was that she was expected to leave so quickly.

  She had just enough time to collect a few things before her Communicator let out a high-pitched alert. It was a message from an unknown sender, although she didn’t have to wonder who had sent it. The message contained a long string of coordinates, belonging to a remote section of Terran space—the rendezvous where she would transfer to the unmarked vessel containing her classified cargo.

  She couldn’t help but wonder who this unnamed prisoner was. A Vorion militant leader, set on overthrowing the Federation? A Rengar thief who pushed his luck one time too many? The lack of information given to her about who this person was only made her imagination run wild as she considered the options and possibilities.

  Regardless, this person had the full attention of one of the most powerful men in the Terran Federation.

  There were seven major races living within the Milky Way Galaxy and countless minor ones. The only one that she quickly dismissed as having any potential for her mysterious "cargo" were the Zel'Dar. While the sentient insectoid race did prove to be a constant galactic nuisance, it was impossible that one of the over-sized bugs would be picked up and taken to Jaantu 7. Usually, the best way to deal with the Zel'Dar was to simply kill on sight.

  It was with these insect-like aliens that Earth had its first contact with extraterrestrial life. The event, now called the First Contact Event, marked a quick and drastic change for the once war-ridden planet. The Zel'Darian forces attacked several Chinese mining vessels on a remote asteroid belt in the year 2124 and set into motion the chain of events that would lead humanity into the future. For once, countries that had been in a constant state of combat came together for a common cause—strengthening Earth's interstellar capabilities and protecting themselves from further aggressions and unknown galactic threats.

  Over the next 150 years, humanity prospered and the Terran Federation was formed, casting out the "Old Earth" organization known historically as the United Nations. Through further investigation and exploration, they came into contact with the ot
her races living and prospering in the Galaxy.

  Alliances were formed with the Telani, the diplomatic humanoid race from Maelor. In addition, trade agreements were signed with the Arkadians, a humanoid race from Arkadia identifiable by their green skin, hairless bodies, and immense size.

  To Kira's knowledge, the only race Earth had any real hostility with, besides the Zel'Dar, was the Vorion. The Vorion formed a militant, aggressive empire that was known to instigate conflicts with anyone and everyone else sharing the galaxy with them. The reptilian humanoids have long been targeting Terran and Telani economic interests, intent on gaining control of resource-rich star systems for themselves.

  A shiver ran down her spine as she continued to consider the possibilities for who the prisoner could be. Whoever he was, one thing was certain, it was someone dangerous.

  Her thoughts continued to hover around the question of her “cargo’s” identity as she made her way to the dock. She would be taking her private ship to the rendezvous spot. It was a small vessel, but it got the job done. She spent her life flying the top-of-the-line spacecraft at work. She didn’t need anything fancy on her down time.

  She strapped herself into the pilot’s seat, waiting for clearance to take off. The cockpit was slightly cramped, and Kira often wondered how the manufacturer had the audacity to call this model a two-seater.

  As she waited for the go-ahead, she began to input the coordinates for her destination into the console. Just as she finished, a chirp rang out from her ship’s message board. Someone had left her a personal message – the alert stating “D. Marner”.

  “Marner?” Kira thought out loud.

  She reached down to the control panel to initialize the message.

  “Captain Winter,” an unfamiliar voice said through the audio system, “this is Dr. Dario Marner. I was hoping that I would be able to reach you before…” his voice trailed off for a second as though he was concealing his conversation. “It is important that we speak, things are not as they seem and you may be in danger…” again his voice trailed off.

  “Dario Marner?” Kira muttered to herself as she reached for her bag in the seat sitting next to her. She pulled out a small tablet and opened up the military’s civilian database. “Marner,” she said again as she typed in his name.

  Her query was met with a result of “No Record.” “Interesting,” Kira thought, “if he wasn’t in the database it must be an alias.” Kira racked her brain again, but to no avail, she had no idea who Dr. Marner was.

  “Captain Winter,” a voice came over the comm installed in her console, “this is control center. You’re clear for departure, safe travels.”

  “Understood control,” she said, quickly returning her tablet to her bag and focusing her attention back on the task at hand.

  Whoever Dario Marner was, he was going to have to wait. She had other things on her mind, and despite the desperate tone in Dr. Marner’s voice, he did not out-rank the potentially dangerous situation she was about to thrust herself into. She needed to focus.

  The journey to the rendezvous point was just over four hours. Kira felt uneasy about the entire situation and wanted more time to process everything; the call from Marner only served to heighten her sense of anxiety.

  She found herself unable to think of much other than the prisoner, wondering who it would be and what they had done. She also found herself questioning Grimm’s motives for recruiting her for this mission. She had never known her former Commander to do things off the books. “Maybe I should be humbled that he chose me for this highly illegal mission,” Kira pondered sarcastically.

  She wasn’t, though, no matter how hard she tried. “Damn Kira…what have we gotten involved with here,” she thought.

  Nearing the rendezvous point her sensors lit up, identifying the ship. “Well, at least there really is a ship,” Kira mused. As she approached the vessel its outline appeared on her view screen – she hoped that she might find better answers once on board.

  As the ship came into view, Kira recognized it as an unmarked Terran Freighter, probably thirty years old given the design. It was bigger than Kira expected and probably had regular crew component of twenty or so.

  “Good,” Kira muttered to herself as she piloted her small vessel to dock with the air-locked hatch, “that’s more space I can put between me and the meat-heads on this tin can.”

  Once inside, she waited for the hatch door behind her to close, and the air to be oxygenated – a green light signified all clear to proceed. Collecting up her personal items, she emerged from her vessel. To her surprise, no one was there to greet her. She paused for a moment and let her hand fall to her hip to graze her Phantom, reassuring herself it was still with her. The only door was to her right; Kira took a deep breath and started through it.

  As the door opened, she immediately recognized the two men glaring in her direction. They were Grimm’s personal guard that accompanied him to the meeting with Kira.

  They stared blankly in her direction, emotionless eyes fixated on her. Kira had never felt more like prey than at that very moment.

  They were nearly identical in size and appearance, with their hair cropped short and their interchangeable dark, brown eyes. They were both massive in size, with arms the size of her thighs. The only unique identifier Kira could see were their tattoos. One had a large snake tattoo curling up his left arm. The other had a lizard sprawled across the right side of his neck all the way onto the side of his head.

  “Well isn’t this a lovely surprise,” she said as she pushed past them. “It’s always great to see familiar faces.”

  They continued to stare at her with those empty eyes.

  “I have to say, I really appreciate the warm welcome,” she continued. Still, they remained silent and the pause was excruciating. “Well, since we’re clearly becoming fast friends, why don’t you tell me your names,” she added.

  “No names,” the one with the snake tattoo replied.

  “Alright, what if I find myself in need of room service? What do I do? Call out for Thing 1 and Thing 2?”

  They were clearly not amused by her comment.

  “If you need us, we will be there,” the man with the snake tattoo said. As he spoke, the other shoved his way past Kira and into the airlock.

  “Where is he going?” Kira asked, moving over to the airlock window to look back at her private ship.

  As she expected, the man with the snake tattoo didn’t answer her. He simply stood behind her with arms crossed and looked on over her shoulder. His partner pulled a small case from the storage shelf in the airlock and assembled a suit of jet black combat armor.

  “Oh look, a costume party, see I knew you guys had something special planned for me,” Kira quipped. The other guard didn’t even acknowledge her. Kira turned back feeling more awkward, and again she found her hand gliding down to graze her Phantom to calm her nerves.

  In seconds, the guard in the airlock had himself ensconced in the armor and was locking the slim helmet down onto the neck collar of the suit. He then reached down and entered some information into the wrist-mounted control panel. The headlamp on the suit beamed to life and a small audible hiss was emitted around the collar. Kira recognized the hiss as the suit pressurizing.

  “Whoa, he’s going out?” Kira said. The other guard continued to ignore her.

  The guard in the airlock reached back into the case and pulled out three small metallic disks that he attached to the hull of her ship magnetically. He then hit the emergency release on the door which caused the airlock to depressurize rapidly – pulling her vessel, the guard and the remnants of his case out into space with some force.

  The man with the lizard tattoo emerged quickly from behind her ship.

  He entered more information into the control panel on his wrist and the three metallic disks affixed to her ship began to glow bright red.

  “Wait,” she said, as she watched the man guide her vessel away from the ship. “What’s he doing to my…
”

  She wasn't able to finish her sentence. A loud explosion rang out almost simultaneously and she instinctively took cover behind the bulkhead adjacent to the airlock window. Returning quickly to the window after the shockwave passed, she stared, her eyes widening.

  In the space where her ship once was, there was only sparkling debris.

  “What the hell?” she exclaimed, turning around to face the man with the snake tattoo. “Seriously, what the hell?”

  “Grimm’s orders. He doesn’t want evidence of our rendezvous.”

  “You could have left it in the dock!” Kira objected.

  “Too risky,” the man with the snake tattoo replied as he moved to continue down the ships main corridor.

  The second guard came back through the airlock after removing his combat armor, and without a word, he joined his partner. Together they began walking down the dimly lit corridor in silence. Kira looked out the window one more time. “Really,” she exclaimed again, “what the hell?”