End of the Line

by Bianca D’Arc

  Jit’Suku Chronicles

  End of the Line

  by

  Bianca D’Arc

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Copyright © 2012 Bianca D’Arc

  Smashwords Edition January 2013

  Cover Art by Valerie Tibbs

  All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Dedication

  This one is for the fans who help keep me writing and off the streets. LOL.

  And for my Dad, a real life “rocket scientist” who helped put men on the moon and inspired my lifelong fascination with science fiction as well as science fact. One of my best memories was running my own laboratory straight out of college and being able to call him in his laboratory to ask for help. He never let me down. Love you, Dad!

  As always, I want to thank Mom for encouraging me to follow my dream. She surprised me by telling me “do what you love” instead of taking a job that would have furthered my career. I took her advice and the rest is history. Love you, Mom, and I miss you more than I can say.

  Chapter One

  She saw the incoming fire too late to save her ship. The one-man fighter was going down, and if she didn’t pop her canopy in the next five milliseconds, she was going with it.

  Lisbet realized she had no choice. Hitting the catastrophic failure button, she checked herself out of her ride split seconds before it blew into a million little weightless bits. Out in the nothingness of space near the galactic rim, she was in no man’s land where rescue was hard to come by. She had either a long wait or a slow death to look forward to in the next few hours.

  The enemy jits had won this battle, though hopefully not the war. Skirmishes on the rim had escalated in recent years as the jit’suku empire looked for ways to gain a foothold in the Milky Way galaxy. The expansion from their home galaxy was fueled by the comparative ease of travel via an inconvenient wormhole and several jumpoints that had been created before humans had realized how the jit’suku truly viewed the human race.

  Inferior. That’s what the jits thought of humans. Inferior in every way to their war-mongering race. Though they looked very human in appearance—if built on a bit larger scale than most humans—jit’suku society was one that most humans had a hard time understanding.

  They prized warriors and seemed to scoff at diplomats or anyone who wanted to negotiate peaceful coexistence. The only thing the jits understood was conquest, it seemed.

  Which was why they’d been fighting so long and so hard out here, on the rim of the Milky Way galaxy. Lisbet was just the latest in a nearly endless rotation of human fighter pilots who had drawn the dreaded duty of patrolling the rim.

  Vast reaches of emptiness between nearly lawless stations, dangerous jumpoints, and the occasional star system, rim duty was enough to drive anyone crazy. But she welcomed the emptiness of space and the loneliness of her own thoughts after the humiliation she’d been through.

  She’d been on this patrol for over a week with nothing to report. Then this.

  A jit’suku battle cruiser had appeared as if from out of nowhere, and blasted her before she could even get a message out. It had been lying in wait behind an asteroid. Lisbet had known to be cautious, but honestly, her thoughts had been elsewhere. As soon as she spotted the giant ship zipping out from behind cover of the asteroid, it had already been too late. Her signals had been jammed and a blanket of weapons fire had been sent the distance between the two ships in all her possible trajectories. She’d been dead already, and she’d known it.

  Popping her canopy and stranding herself in the middle of nowhere in the emergency pod had been her only choice. Not a great one, but there had been no other way to get clear of all the incoming fire. The bastard giving orders on that battle cruiser hadn’t been taking any chances that she would get clear and report back. He had thrown everything but the kitchen sink at her and she hadn’t stood a chance.

  “Human, this is Captain Fedroval of the battle cruiser Fedroval’s Legacy. Warrior to warrior, I give you the choice. Would you prefer the fast death of missile fire or the slow death of suffocation when your air runs out?”

  For a moment, Lisbet thought of ignoring the short range communication from the cruiser. He was still blocking her long range transmitter, but he had allowed her enough bandwidth to broadcast to his ship. Big of him. Damn, jit’suku bastard.

  “How do you know I’m not the advance scout of a much larger force? Could be my battalion is hot on my heels and will pick me up after they blow you to kingdom come.” Oh, how she wished that were true. She’d get a lot of satisfaction right now at seeing the jit’suku ship blown into a million pieces.

  There was a slight delay in the answer she’d expected would come back right away. He probably knew she was bluffing. If he’d been hiding out behind that asteroid for any length of time, he had to know hers was merely a patrol craft on a regular route.

  “Who is this? What is your name, rank and gender?”

  He sounded mad now, for some reason she couldn’t imagine. And why would he ask her gender? That seemed odd in the extreme. But she’d play along. She’d be alone out here for a long time—if he let her live after this encounter—and she was going to have a lot of time before her air ran out with her own thoughts. Might as well talk to someone while she had company, even if he was a damned jit.

  “Lieutenant Lisbet Duncan of Earth. And I’m female, not that it should matter to you. I’m a qualified pilot who graduated at the top of my class from pilot training.”

  While there had always been a lot more males drawn to military life than females, Lisbet wasn’t too much of an oddity. Many women had the natural skills needed to fly shuttles and other spacecraft. She was unique in that she’d requested fighter duty. She liked shooting at things and would have tried for a gunner position on one of the big battleships if she hadn’t qualified as a pilot.

  “Prepare for retrieval.” The order was brusque and he sounded even angrier.

  “Now just wait a darn minute! What?”

  He didn’t answer, but a moment later she saw two small craft launch from inside the battleship and head straight for her. The bastards were going to pick up her pod. She was going to be a prisoner of war.

  Dammit!

  Although… it was probably better than dying alone in the vastness of space, she had to admit. At least if they picked her up, she might have a chance to do some damage to them before she died. She didn’t like the idea of possibly being tortured, but she’d trained for it, like all the other pilots, and thought she was mostly prepared. She didn’t know much that they could get out of her. She wasn’t privy to any battle strategies or troop deployment information. She only knew her current mission and those she had been on previously. Not much of value to the jit’suku empire.

  Sure enough, the two craft flanked her and deployed some kind of netting that encompassed her pod. As soon as she was secure, they flew back toward the cruiser. The ship was even larger th
an she’d thought. It had the latest in jit technology, from what she could see of its outboard arrays. This was no battered old warhorse. This ship was battle ready and gleaming, though she could see a few spots where repairs had been made—after engagements with human forces, no doubt.

  The two patrol craft deposited her inside a spotless hangar bay, bumping her only once as they set her down. Their nets retracted and they parked on either side of her. She waited patiently inside her pod, gathering what little information she could. Her instruments told her the hangar bay was pressurized with a breathable atmosphere and she saw big jit’suku men working on various other craft parked nearby without breathing gear.

  The hangar bay had a giant force field at one end, keeping the air in. Nice. On most human battleships, the hangar bays were kept at zero atmosphere. Pilots loaded into the canopies above and were dropped down and secured to the fuselages below via a small chamber that was sealed, then evacuated of its precious air before opening to the hangar deck below.

  The pilots who had caught her pod and brought her here climbed out of their cockpits and moved closer to investigate. One made the sign for her to pop her lid and she shook her head, refusing. They went on like this for a few minutes, arguing via sign language through the window until suddenly everyone on the flight deck jumped to attention.

  At the far end of the long deck, Lisbet could see a giant of a man—even among the very large jit’suku warriors—coming toward her at a fast pace. He looked absolutely furious. And handsome.

  Damn. Why did she have to notice how handsome he was? She should be completely immune to men after what she’d been through. But this guy—this angry guy—flipped her switches in all the right ways.

  He grabbed something as he went, nearly tearing the piece of equipment out of a tech’s hands. It had to be magnetic because it clamped onto her canopy the moment he stopped and touched the device to her hull. He held something on a wire up to his mouth and suddenly his voice boomed through the internal speakers in her canopy.

  “Stop playing games and come out of there now or I’ll have you cut out.”

  Lisbet sighed. She would have to open the hatch sooner or later. She admitted to herself that she was scared. These jit’suku were all huge and everyone she could see so far was male. She had no idea what they had in mind for her, but she wasn’t looking forward to finding out. Still, she couldn’t hide in here forever. The time had come to take her punishment. Whatever that would be.

  Releasing the hatch, the canopy popped with a hiss of equalizing air. Whirring gears indicated the hatch was rolling up and back the way it had been designed to do and as it cleared, she got her first good look at the glowering man with the captain’s insignia on his uniform.

  Oh, boy. The captain himself had come down to get her. No wonder the crew had all jumped at his entrance. Lisbet wondered what she’d done to rate the captain’s attention.

  Pushing herself out of the seat, she stood within the canopy. She should have been taller than anyone on the deck a foot or more below her, but she hadn’t counted on these giant jit’suku.

  The captain’s eyes met hers and time stood still for a breathless moment.

  His eyes were dark. The dark of space with a hint of golden brown that made them warm. They would have been inviting in another setting. As it was, she could see the flare of gold in his gaze as his expression tightened.

  He held out one impatient hand and she took it before she could think better of it. He assisted her in the big step over the canopy lip and down onto the deck of the cruiser. She was truly in enemy territory now. Goddess help her.

  Chapter Two

  Val couldn’t believe what he was seeing as the small human female stepped out of the damaged cockpit. He’d almost killed her and the guilt and anger ate at him. What were these humans that they sent their women into battle?

  Barbaric. That’s what it was.

  Women were to be protected and revered. Not shot at and nearly killed in combat.

  Val shuddered to think of the stain he’d almost incurred on his soul. Killing a woman in battle was considered one of the most horrific sins among jit’suku warriors. It would have cost him his commission, had it been discovered, at the very least.

  As it was, his men were as horrified as he was. This strange woman had almost cost them all a grave price to their honor and their souls.

  “Have you nothing to say for yourself, woman?” Val demanded. He was so incensed that he wasn’t thinking clearly. And he’d yet to let go of the female’s soft hand.

  As soon as he realized that, he dropped her fragile hand as if it burned him.

  Her head cocked at an angle that he sensed meant trouble, though he’d seldom run afoul of a difficult female. Those few left in his family were all quite well behaved and if they ruled the home with an iron fist, they also filled it with love. He had been lucky with the matriarchs in his clan.

  “As I told you before, I’m Lieutenant Lisbet Duncan of Earth. Beyond that, I have nothing to say.”

  Val felt his temper rise and knew he must not lose his cool any further in front of his men. He had things to say to this female that were best said in private. If he was going to blow a gasket, better that the whole flight deck didn’t witness it.

  Val grabbed the female’s hand again and tugged her—trying not to use too much force—along with him as he exited the hangar. Mercifully, she followed without too much trouble. She probably had a hard time keeping up with his fast pace and longer steps, but he was in no mood to slow down and she skipped along at his side reasonably well.

  He didn’t stop until they had left the hangar far behind, passing a number of startled crew members on his way toward officer country. That was the colloquial name given to the area that housed the private quarters of the captain and his staff. There were also guest chambers there that would serve his purpose, and it was toward one of those comparatively luxurious compartments he made his way with the human female in tow.

  “Could you slow down a bit? Or walk smaller?” she complained as he dragged her along.

  Val stopped in the wide, empty hall, dropped her hand and turned to assess her. He quickly realized she was breathing much too rapidly, laboring to keep up. He’d dragged her at double time the length of the ship. No wonder she was huffing and puffing. Damn.

  He had caused her discomfort. First he blows her ship out from under her, almost killing her in the process, then he makes her jog to keep up with his longer strides, causing her to nearly hyperventilate.

  Val let her go and bowed his head, holding her gaze. “My apologies.”

  Some of his fury had cooled on the trek across the ship. Rather than anger, he was filled with dismay every time he looked into her pretty green eyes.

  She was small and soft, though she acted tough. She piloted her vessel well, from what he had observed as she approached their hidden position, and she was an officer in the human armada that fought surprisingly well against jit’suku expansion.

  “You’re the captain of this vessel, aren’t you?” Her voice was well modulated, almost soft as she asked the question, rubbing her wrist where he’d manhandled her a bit.

  Shame filled him when he saw the red marks his fingers had left on her pale skin. He had tried to be careful of her fragility, but his anger had gotten the better of him.

  “I am,” he replied to her question, then reached for her hand to examine the red marks on her wrist. “Again, I apologize. It is not our way to harm females.”

  She looked at him oddly for a moment, then pulled her hand back. He let her go with surprising reluctance. She had very soft skin now that he had slowed down enough to take notice. Smaller than most jit’suku females, she was oddly fascinating. Her coloring was pleasing in the extreme and even her scent—soft female mixed with the oils and lubricants he associated with fighter craft—was wickedly attractive to him. He’d been a pilot when he was younger and even though he had never smelled those scents coming from a female befor
e, he found the mix strangely arousing.

  “It’s okay. My skin marks easily. It’s nothing.” She looked around the empty hall. “Where are you taking me?”

  “To private quarters where you will remain as my guest until I can figure out what to do with you.” He hadn’t meant to reveal quite so much, but he could tell she was skeptical and scared behind her bravado.

  “I expected torture and interrogation.”

  He grimaced, his anger returning slightly. “I do not harm females.”

  “You blew up my ship!” she countered, squaring off with him.

  He was just in the mood to argue with her. Arguing wasn’t prohibited, though it seldom occurred with jit’suku females.

  “I thought you were male. What kind of barbarians are your people that they send women into battle? Jit’suku women do not make war. They make—”

  “If you say babies, I’m going to slug you.” She cut him off, her voice rising in intensity.

  “They do that too, of course,” he replied, confused by her apparent anger. “Our women are the lawmakers. The leaders of our clans. The power behind our businesses. They do not put themselves in harm’s way by fighting on the front lines.”

  That seemed to set her back on her heels and she looked truly confused. Adorable and confused. He really didn’t understand why he found himself so attracted to this tiny female.

  “Your women really have active roles in your society?” She blinked up at him as if unsure of the truth of his words.

  “Of course.” What did she think? That his people were as barbaric and backwards as hers?

  She looked away, peering absently down the corridor before returning her lovely green gaze to his. “I think the gender roles in our respective cultures must be very different. Among humans, anyone can serve in the military. While it’s true that most women don’t choose to serve, some of us do and some of us even seek out adventure on the front lines.”