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Maud has known that she is destined for life as a dragon’s wife, but she has contractual obligations that she has to finish first. On her last assignment, everything goes wrong and she goes from filing paperwork to being scooped up by Raiders for use in one of their arena facilities, providing black market fighting to an entertainment hungry universe.
Tridell has been patient, waiting as dragons do for his woman to come to him. When he finds out she is lost in space, he pushes to find her and puts his own life on the line to bring home the woman of his dreams.
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Intercept
Copyright © 2011 Viola Grace
ISBN: 978-1-77111-017-4
Cover art by Martine Jardin
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
Published by eXtasy Books
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Intercept
A Terran Times Tale
By
Viola Grace
Chapter One
Maud hooked her arms under her partner’s arms and hauled with all her might. Breathing into the emergency mask was tough enough, but dragging an unconscious Kalordan with her was a workout she was not prepared for.
“Lekar, you are one heavy son-of-a-bitch.” She grunted again, but got him into the emergency pod. Gasping and shoving, she rolled him into a life-support chamber.
She leaned against the pod and sighed with relief as it registered his life signs. Pressing her fists to her forehead, she tried to run through what she needed to do as quickly as possible.
The protocol flashed in front of her eyes and she got to her feet. On automatic, she verified food and water supplies, sealed hatches, transferred breathable atmosphere and prepared to uncouple the emergency unit.
She counted down, watching the transfer of vital fluids and fuels until the pod was as ready as it could be. The release was on a timer, so she set it and climbed into her own safety pod. With her hands and feet hooked into the bands, she hung on as the lid of the pod came down over her.
A sedating gas hissed out of the ports and she let her head rest on the flat pillow. She had done what she could and if the planet beneath her was hospitable, then they would survive. If not, this was her last moment alive.
Maud bit her lip and thought of all the ice cream she had missed in her life as she slipped into a sedated sleep.
* * * *
The Raider ship swooped in and grabbed the low-hanging fruit that was the Alliance escape unit. They didn’t know what was inside, but the exploration vehicle that had been found dead in space was a two-man ship.
“Captain, do you want us to crack the unit when we get it on board?”
The captain shook his head. “With all of the trouble we have been running into lately, keep it sealed until we arrive at the base. They can deal with our findings there. I am not opening that box on my ship.”
If there was a talent inside that unit, he was not equipped to deal with it and if it wasn’t, there would be plenty of folk in need of a simple domestic. His ship would get the finder’s fee regardless.
He sat back and watched his ship approach the small capsule of life in the blackness of space, with the flick of his hand, his ship was set to intercept.
* * * *
Dimly, Maud felt the rocking of the emergency unit. She reached under the side of her bedding and clawed at the beacon activator. The minute hiss as the beacon rocked free was a comforting sound.
She had no idea how long she had been in the compartment, but she knew it wasn’t time enough for an Alliance ship to have answered the distress call. Maud wasn’t even sure that the shorted systems of their explorer vessel were capable of sending the message.
The storm that they had flown through while leaving the death throes of Jskor had started a cascade of disaster running through their systems. Lekar had been touching the controls when the jolt hit the navigation station and he had been thrown backward, whacking his head on another panel.
She had administered basic medical care to him and hauled his carcass to the relative safety of the separation chamber. Time would tell how safe it actually was and as the small escape unit shuddered again, she admitted that she had serious doubts.
* * * *
Containing his fury was difficult. “What do you mean they disappeared? They were finished with their assignment and on their way home. What happened?”
Tridell ground his teeth and started to pace, his wings opening and closing as he crossed the room.
“We have our best trackers looking for them, Tridell. Calm down.”
“I will not calm down, Vasu. Maud was on her last assignment before we were to meet face to face. Now, you tell me she has disappeared? What about her partner?”
“Lekar Wineholt is also missing. Their ship is not responding to any attempts at communication and our seekers and seers are looking for them. The moment we find them, you will know.”
Tridell gave the other Drai a long look. “The moment that you find their trail, you will let me know and I will come with you to find her.”
Vasu looked so formal in his uniform with its banding and a design that matched Livin’s, his mate. Tridell had met Vasu again when he needed his assistance with a fugitive on the world under his protection, it had been quite the reunion after centuries of separation. Drai always asked for permission when entering another’s territory if the Drai were of the old-shifter generation.
Vasu and his mate had helped Tridell find his own mate amongst the Terran Volunteers, a consultant named Maud Odette Mickaelson. Maud had greeted his formal overtures with amusement, but she had kept in touch every day of her assignments that she had a communications array. Their mutual attraction was morphing into something more lasting and for that to happen, they needed to meet in person.
When she didn’t call him at her normal time, he had contacted Vasu immediately and when the Sector Guard showed up at his door less than a day later, Tridell knew that something was very, very wrong.
Somewhere out in space, Maud was lost and alone and even if her partner was nearby, she was in danger. Tridell gave Vasu a terse nod and flew out the window to shift into his greater form. He had to burn off some energy, or he would rip his home apart.
As he moved his scaled dragon form through the sky and exhaled a gout of flame, he circled around and around the building he had created with his own hands. Maud was going to love it and if anything interfered with her coming to his home, that thing had better run.
* * * *
Maud yanked at the chain links that bound her to the wall in what appeared to be a medical facility. Lekar was next to her, bound in the same kind of heavy linkage that she was wearing.
“Well, this is just lovely. How are you feeling, Lucky?” Maud tried to keep her voice chipper even though she was freaking out. Every Raider report that she had ever read was scrolling through her mind and the chains really did not
bode well.
“Just fine, Maud. Despite their rude behaviour, the healers here are fairly skilled. I barely feel like the ship tried to kill me and you bounced me across the decks.” He gave her a sarcastic look through his dark pewter eyes. His shaggy golden hair was lying in waves along his skull, mimicking his other form.
“Hey, you were just lucky that I have been working out, Lucky.” She jerked at the chains again. They had been left alone for hours with no one checking on them. Only the cameras aimed at them confirmed that they had not been abandoned.
She ran her gaze over him with concern. Lekar was like a brother to her. The moment that they had been introduced, they knew that a sexual relationship was out of the question. He simply wasn’t her type and she wasn’t his. They both were attracted to very different sorts of people, but they made an excellent team when it came to recording and examining dying worlds.
Lekar was the rarest of Kalordans, a geologist. With Maud’s simple skill of remembering everything she read, she had the peculiar status of Recorder. It was the perfect skill set to memorize the data that spilled through the instruments as a planet ripped itself to pieces. Lekar set the instrument packs and she verified and memorized the data that streamed into the ship computer. The electromagnetics of a dying world could easily blow out even a shielded computer, so Maud was the ideal backup. She read and absorbed the data before it entered memory, a living backup drive. It wasn’t glamorous, but she enjoyed her work.
She jumped when the door opened and a scar-faced Raider, with the look of an administrator, came in. “Kalordan, you are being assigned to the arena.”
Two burly guards came in with stunners at the ready. They hauled Lekar away from the wall and he fought the whole way. “What are you going to do with her?”
Maud sat with her eyes wide. She hadn’t even thought that she was basically useless for anything and everything outside her profession.
The administrator looked from Lekar to her and back again. “She is to become a prize, Kalordan. If you are good at your job, you can keep her to yourself. If not, get used to sharing.”
Clutching at the wall, Maud watched her friend get hauled off to the arena.
The administrator crouched near her and examined her features closely. “You are flawed, but tolerable enough. If your species wasn’t in demand, I would simply throw you in with the rest, but I think we can do a little better than that. Come along, woman. You have to get presentable. Your male fights in two hours.”
Blinking and in shock, she didn’t fight him as he tugged her to her feet and used the chains to lead her to the women’s quarters. While she was being primped, polished and plucked, her manacles remained in place. It was a reminder that she didn’t need. She wasn’t free to leave any time soon.
In one moment, she had gone from free consultant to captive and she didn’t like it one bit.
Chapter Two
Maud jumped as the Selna next to her placed a hand on her back.
“Don’t try and back up. The fighters have the right to examine us before every fight. Just hold still and encourage the ones you like.”
Maud twitched. “How am I supposed to do that?”
The women were lined up like cheerleaders waiting for the team to arrive. Each was in a distinctively suggestive outfit in what appeared to be a signature rank colour. Maud and three other women were wearing a diaphanous pink affair consisting of strategic ribbons and a mid-thigh fluttering skirt. The skirt was almost completely transparent, inviting passing males to stare until they could see through it totally.
The guards were handsy, but they didn’t get out of control. Instead of the boisterous arena that she had been expecting, the only watchers were row after row of recording devices. The Raiders running this facility were not dumb enough to allow a physical audience, plus they could make a lot more money selling the images of the fights across the galaxies.
When the fighters came forward, the women in the darker clothing leaned forward to catch the attention of their favourites while Maud and the other newbies hung back. Members of races that she had read about but never seen were looking her over with a speculative gleam in their eyes. The men were scarred, burned and generally the worse for wear, but they acted as if the women should be pleased by their attentions.
Maud bit her lip and watched for Lekar.
“Where did you come from, little thing?” The voice was dark and the touch on her cheek caught her by surprise. The fingers were rough and he was caressing the scar on her face. As she jerked back in shock, he laughed and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her against seven feet of scaled and muscled male.
She looked up in surprise and winced at the leer of interest on the features of a male with tusks and a hard-on of frightening proportions. “I was floating in a biohazard container in space. How about you?”
The men within earshot barked laughter as her friend released her with incredible speed. She stumbled a little, but managed to regain her footing. Lekar was the final male to exit through the doorway. He came up to her and bent his head close to hers. “If you see anything that can help me, shout it out. I will hear you.”
She pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. “Whatever I can, Lucky.”
He blinked in surprise and quirked a grin. “Is it that bad?”
“Wait and see.”
The women were herded and lined up on the edge of the fight area, in order of their clothing colour. Darker colours belonged to the more experienced and more desired of the women and the paler the colour denoted the newer that they were to the arena.
The matches were called, stats displayed and it was at that point that Maud kicked into high gear. She read every displayed stat on each monitor in her line of sight.
When Lekar was called as the second fight, she used her hands on her hip and shoulder to tell him where to strike.
He nodded and turned to watch his opponent lumber toward him.
Maud held her breath as the fight progressed, Lekar clawing at the turtle-like carapace on his opponent, finally concentrating on the areas she had pointed out.
The lumbering hulk went down in under five minutes. A respectable time for a first fight and Lekar didn’t have a scratch on him.
Maud fought the urge to fidget as the remaining fighters paired off and bashed the hell out of each other. She was sure that two of the combatants were dead and just as sure that the organizers didn’t care.
Her little pink dress was spotted with blood from a variety of the fighters and as the final battle between the highest-ranked fighters wound to a close, she sensed a wave of anticipation in the women around her.
The winning fighters stood and fixed their gazes on the women’s side of the arena.
“Oh, balls.”
One of the new women clutched her arm, “What is happening now?”
“The men get to pick one of us.”
“Why?”
Maud looked down at the woman clinging to her arm with her hands forming claws that drew blood. “I am guessing it is for sex. Aside from that, I have no ideas.”
The woman released her and stumbled backward.
Maud wasn’t worried. The Alliance had brought her into space for her analytical skills, but her true talent resided in her ability to repel men. Any male trying to take her by force would end up limp and ineffective. She knew that her body would probably be beaten for the effort, but death before dishonour was the way to go for her. She couldn’t help it.
She held her breath as the senior fighters picked first. Her earlier suitor paused near her, but passed and went for one of the more senior females. When Lekar came to her and held out his hand, she took it gratefully. One more night of not having to worry was all she could ask for and he was being a good partner and giving it to her.
They were locked into Lekar’s quarters and he wrapped his arms around her, settling them on his bunk. One night of rest was all they could hope for, because in the morning, it would all start again.
* * * *
Tridell didn’t understand. “Why don’t we just go in and get her?”
Vasu rubbed his forehead. “Because they are watching and waiting for something. We need to be more subtle, to get someone on the inside to control events on the ground when we come in.”
“Fine. Send someone in. Send me in.” He opened and closed his wings in agitation.
“They won’t believe that you were in the area by coincidence.”
Tridell had an idea. “Fine. Don’t tell them that it is a coincidence. Tell them that I am looking for Maud. Send an open message through the area and tell them that I am looking for her.”
“What will that achieve?”
“I will then fly a shuttle through the area looking for my missing mate. From what you have told me, no shifting Drai has ever been caught in one of these arena events. I am a prize that they cannot pass up.”
Vasu nodded. “I will run it past Relay and if she gives the go ahead, you will be able to take your ratty shuttle out within the hour.”
Tridell grinned, showing his fangs. “And if it takes more than an hour, I will go anyway.”
* * * *
The moment she woke, Maud was hauled back to the groomers for a new dress and hairstyle. Eight hours later, she was in a powder blue dress that accented her silvery eyes and standing to watch men pound each other to goo.