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

by E. A. James

  “Ha! Perfect timing,” Kira replied.

  “Weapons array is working, too,” Vinnie added.

  “Bron, stop playing around back there and figure out how to get some fire in their direction!” Kira ordered.

  “Damn you, Kira,” Bron called out as he regained his footing. “Thor, with me, there are starboard and port mounted pulse cannon turrets, let’s return some fire.”

  They dashed off in unison and made their way to their respective turrets.

  The ship in front of them sent another beam surging towards them. This time, Kira kept to her course, praying that the ship’s shields would be able to deflect the blast. The orange beam flew at them quickly, causing the ship to shudder and the lights to flicker.

  Undeterred, Bron and Thor began to fire on the ships. Thor’s accuracy amazed her. He was able to keep the ship sighted despite Kira’s frenetic flight pattern, and his shots were finding a home.

  “Pull up!” Thor ordered her, just before unleashing a torrent of cannon fire at his target.

  Kira’s view screen became filled with a yellow-orange glow as the unmarked vessel imploded in on itself. The aftershock was coming quickly, Kira knew, so she drove the ship upwards, avoiding the disruptive aftershocks.

  “The other ship is dead in the water, engines are offline,” Bron called out over the comm system.

  Kira watched with interest as the vessel’s distance from them continued to increase and Thor and Bron re-entered the flight deck.

  "Why do I do this to myself?" Bron muttered. "Why do I continue to get on a ship with you, when I know full well it's a bad idea?"

  “It wasn’t that bad,” Kira said, evening the ship out and beginning to pull up their nav system to enter a course for home. “Don’t be dramatic, that’s not very Bandurian.”

  Bron let out a loud, incredulous scoff and Thor chuckled, slumping down in the co-pilot’s chair to her right and released a quiet sigh of relief.

  “Yet another close one, good flying ace,” Thor said with a smile.

  “Thanks, good shooting on your part, you’d think you were a cybernetic super soldier or something,” Kira playfully replied.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  After they had put a comfortable amount of distance between them and Vandor, Kira initiated the ship’s autopilot and communicated to the others to join her, Bron, and Thor on the flight deck.

  "Looks like you two are stuck with us for the time being," she said to Bron and Vinnie once the others had shuffled into the now slightly cramped room.

  “It’s fine,” Bron muttered. “I never liked Vandor. Besides, those Vorion assholes won’t be able to find me now, and Vinnie gets a chance to see something other than the Bazaar.”

  “Good,” Dario said, stepping forward, “we’re going to need all the help we can get.”

  “What’s our plan, then?” Alaria asked.

  "I think our best option is to go directly to the Terran High Command and make a case against Grimm," Dario explained. "With Thor's testimony and the notes I kept during my time working with him, I think we have enough to at least initiate a full-fledged investigation."

  “We might need a little more than that,” Kira said.

  “It’s all we have,” Dario replied with a slight shrug.

  “Maybe,” Kira said, crossing her arms over her chest. “What about Admiral Artanis?”

  Admiral Artanis, the commanding officer that took over her fleet after Grimm was promoted had, on occasion, expressed his dislike of the newest Arcanum forces leader.

  “They’ve been long-time rivals and as far as I know, there is no love between the two,” Kira explained. “They’ve secretly hated each other for years and competed for the same promotions many times over. Artanis’ name carries weight and might make it easier for us to get proper due with Terran High Command. We need to speak to him, alone, before we go any further.”

  “Will you be able to convince him to meet with us?” Dario asked.

  “I don’t think it’ll be a problem,” Kira replied.

  “Then I believe it’s worth trying,” Dario said.

  “Alright, up until now this has been a pretty loose operation due to the, well, weird series of events over the past few days. Going forward, we’re going to have to organize ourselves, especially now that we’re running a ship,” Kira continued, her captain’s instincts coming out in full now.

  “So here’s how we’ll set up this crew – Bron, and Thor will be our security officers, and each will lead fire teams when we’re not on the ship. You’ll both be responsible for weapons and defense arrays aboard the ship as well as maintaining personal arms for the crew.”

  “Alaria will be our chief engineer and you and Vinnie will be responsible for this ship’s maintenance and operation,” Kira carried on.

  “Dario is obviously medical, and Zola, well I guess she’s our therapy animal.”

  “Any objections?” Kira finished.

  “No, captain,” Thor replied proudly, and the others nodded in unison.

  “Alright then, we have a mission – let’s get started, Alaria, where are we at with the warp system?” Kira said.

  “Well,” Alaria said, setting the cat down and turning her attention to the group. “The ship needs some work and the warp system is going to take some coaxing to be reliable. Unfortunately, the ship is in a state of serious disrepair. Couple that with the virtual lack of supplies and equipment, and we’re at a serious disadvantage at the moment.”

  “Shocking,” Kira said sarcastically.

  “I haven’t given up hope on her yet,” Alaria added quickly. “I just need a little more time, and some extra hands to help with the work.”

  “It’s my ship and if anyone can get her working right, it’s me,” Bron said stepping forward.

  “Hey!” Vinnie objected. “I’m starting to sense that you don’t want to give credit where it’s due – we both know who did the majority of the work here!”

  “Are you two seriously arguing about who gets to claim responsibility for this pile of flying garbage?” Kira blurted out.

  “Well, if it’s a matter of pride, we better get to it, then,” Bron said, stepping towards the door. “The rest of you can explore the ship, find your rooms, and make yourselves comfortable.”

  “If that’s even possible,” Kira shot back at Bron sarcastically.

  “I forgot how much you talk,” Bron replied in jest. The rest of the crew chuckled at the banter.

  “Private rooms are better than none, I’m sure some of you will want some rest for the journey ahead, let’s get moving,” Bron said as he left the flight deck.

  They agreed and Thor, Dario, and Zola followed Bron and the others out of the Flight Deck.

  “You coming?” Thor asked Kira over his shoulder.

  “I’ll be along in a minute,” she said. “I just need to make sure navigation’s all set up here.”

  Thor nodded and disappeared out the door. Kira turned back to the control panels in front of her. She had a meticulous system for checking and re-checking the instruments before entrusting the auto-pilot to take over full control. It took her slightly longer than it normally would, seeing as the ship was strange and unfamiliar to her. But, finally, she pushed her chair back and stood to her feet.

  She took a moment and breathed deeply. The view of infinite space staring back at her from the view screen was always comforting. After a moment of reverie, Kira turned and walked off the flight deck.

  No one was around when she emerged. Her steps echoed off the tiled floors as she wandered around, searching for the ship’s sleeping quarters. She moved slowly, though. Lost in her thoughts, replaying all of the recent events that had taken her life way off its intended course, she found herself enjoying the silence.

  As she thought back on the last few days, she found herself becoming impassioned. While at the outset, the cause she had found herself tangled up with wasn’t hers, she now felt as if her level of personal investment was high.


  They were still uncertain of what Grimm was planning, but they knew in their hearts it wasn’t anything good. As she remembered Thor’s story of his time trapped in the Arcanum experiments, a horrified shudder ran down her spine. No matter what Grimm was planning, what he was already doing was evil enough on its own.

  As she continued to contemplate everything, she turned down a short hallway. There were doors lining the walls, and she assumed she had found what she was looking for. Stopping at the second door on the left, she ran her hand over the switch and the carved out entryway slid open.

  She stepped in, still lost in her thoughts, and the door whooshed shut behind her. To her surprise, she found that the room was already occupied.

  Thor stood up quickly and looked at her, confused. Again, he was shirtless, a state she found herself suddenly unopposed to.

  “Oh,” she said, stepping back, her cheeks burning red with shock and embarrassment. “I thought this room was empty.”

  “Right,” he said, rolling his eyes. “You just can’t stay away from me.”

  “It’s not for lack of trying,” Kira shot back at him.

  He crossed his arms over his chest, the muscles in his arms flexing slightly as he moved, and eyed her skeptically. “If you say so,” he said with a shrug.

  She turned to walk out of the room, feeling his eyes burning into her back. Just as she reached for the door release, she paused.

  “Thanks,” she said, turning back around to face him. “For earlier—with the bounty hunter. You saved my life.”

  “I owed you,” he said, smiling. “You stopped me from running straight into the line of fire.”

  “How did you not know that was coming?” she asked, stepping towards him. “I mean, you’re always so aware of everything going on around you.”

  He slumped back down on the bed and looked up at her. “My focus was on something else at the time,” he admitted.

  “Your focus was on something other than the robotic super assassin chasing us through the streets of the Bazaar, firing red-hot plasma at us?” she asked with a slight laugh. Crossing the room, she sat down next to him. “Seems unlikely.”

  “In that instant, I was worried about getting you to safety,” he said, shifting his body around to face her.

  “Excuse me?” she said, backing away from him slightly and looking at him with an expression of surprise. “You were worried about me?”

  “Yes,” he replied.

  “Thor, if you haven’t noticed, I’m more than capable and I don’t need protection…”

  Her words cut off when he stood up quickly and took a step towards her. The space between them was small, and his massive frame hovered over her.

  She moved to take a step back from him, but he quickly reached out and grabbed onto her wrist. When she spun back around and looked up at him, she was surprised to see a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

  “I know,” he said, looking slightly surprised at his own words. “I know you’re strong and capable, Kira. I know you don’t need me to protect you.”

  “That’s right, so don’t risk your own life on account of my safety, what we’re trying to do here seems, somehow, bigger than all of us,” Kira replied.

  The surprised expression on his face melted away and the smile once again formed on his lips. “You’re something else,” he said to her, his voice soft. “I’m standing here, telling you that I care about you, and all you can think about is the mission.”

  “You what?” she asked, her eyes suddenly wide.

  “You heard me,” he said. Still holding onto her arm, he sat down on the bed, pulling her down with him. “You’re so unlike any person I’ve ever met before. You’re driven and focused, you’re intelligent and by far the best damn pilot I’ve ever seen.”

  She felt her cheeks flushing red as he continued. She wanted to speak, but again she found herself in the unfamiliar state of speechlessness.

  “You’re stubborn as hell, and you don’t take shit from anyone. You haven’t stopped surprising me since we met, Kira.”

  As he spoke, she felt her stomach begin to turn to knots. Her heart started to race and her head swam with a flustered confusion, processing his words quickly, but not completely absorbing them.

  She stared into his eyes, searching them. She wanted to push her attraction to him from her mind. She wanted to drive out the feelings she knew she had developed for him, but as hard as she fought to do so, she couldn't.

  “Oh,” she replied, unable to say anything else.

  Thor moved his hand from hers and slowly drifted his fingers up her arm, sending shivers running along her spine. By the time he reached her shoulder, she was already reaching up with her other hand to wrap it around his neck.

  Their lips came together quickly, almost as if the tension that had built up around them was pushing them towards each other. He wrapped his hand around her arm, holding her tightly and pulling her into him.

  The feeling of his lips pressed against hers sent a rush of excitement surging through her. Her hand shook as she ran her fingers through his hair. When he began to lean back onto the bed, her body followed him. It was as if her longing was controlling her, urging her to stay as close to him as possible, driving her to topple forward with him, still clinging to him tightly.

  As they lay back on the bed, she dropped her hands to his chest, feeling the pounding of his heart against her palm. The feeling of his skin, taut and tight, stretched perfectly over his muscles, was enticing. She felt her stomach tighten with desire as they melted into each other, letting the moment wash over them.

  She ran her fingers over his bare skin, feeling the gentle rise and fall of his chest as his breathing became heavy and his movements more passionate.

  “This doesn’t mean I’m okay with you acting as if I’m completely helpless and unable to take care of myself,” she whispered as he began to run his hands over her body.

  He slipped his hand under her shirt, his fingers delicately sliding over her skin, sending shivers of longing and anticipation radiating through her. Leaning in and kissing her neck softly, he whispered, "There’s nothing helpless about you."

  “And you had better remember that,” she said as she pulled back from him slightly, staring down at him intently.

  “Yes, Captain,” he replied firmly, a playful smile spreading across his face.

  “Good,” she said, reaching down to pull her shirt off over her head, “a man that can follow orders. I like that.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  The next morning, Kira slipped out of Thor's room before any of the others woke up. Regardless of what went on between them, they had both agreed that keeping things professional was their main concern. In an effort to do that, they also agreed that keeping their relationship a secret, for the time being, was the best course of action.

  In addition, Kira made him swear to treat her like any of the others in their group.

  “No worrying about me; no protecting me; nothing,” she said firmly.

  “Deal,” he said as he walked her to the door.

  Instead of trying to find a room of her own and running the risk of stumbling into someone else’s, she went down to the mess hall. It wasn’t long after she had prepared herself a bowl of oatmeal that the others began to drift in.

  The first to arrive was Dario, followed closely by Alaria. She looked as if she were still half-asleep, and slumped herself down in the seat across from Kira without so much as a “good morning.”

  Dario rushed off to find them something to eat as Bron and Vinnie came slowly wandering in. Thor was close behind them, and by the time Dario returned, juggling bowls and spoons, oatmeal and water, they had all taken their seats around the table.

  “We fixed it,” Alaria finally spoke, her words heavy with sleep. “We fixed the warp system.”

  “We were up working most of the night,” Bron added. He, too, spoke slowly, his words nearly slurring from exhaustion.

  “So,
that means we can go to Earth, right?” Vinnie asked excitedly. He was clearly the only one of the three who was not still feeling the effects of the long night’s work.

  “Yes,” Kira said, finishing her oatmeal and pushing the bowl away from her. “Finish eating and I’ll start preparations.”

  As she pushed herself up from the table, Zola leaped up into her seat and began sniffing at the air.

  “Awe,” Alaria cooed, “she’s so cute.”

  “I’m glad I can be replaced so easily,” Kira remarked as she turned to walk away.

  Just then, Zola’s implant began to let out a quiet, but audible alert. The melodic sound bounced off the walls and echoed lightly through the room.