by Anna Carven
CONTENTS
Disclaimer
Author's Note
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 Anna Carven
All rights reserved.
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CHAPTER ONE
Jia stared at the dark hull of the Kordolian ship, trying to make sense of it. The menacing looking Alpha-class battle cruiser was like nothing she’d ever seen before. She wasn’t even sure if the body was made from metal, or some mind-blowing composite.
Whatever it was, it was light, yet impossibly strong.
It was strange, otherworldly, alien technology. And somehow, she was expected to fix it.
There were vicious tears in the side of the ship that looked as if they’d been made by giant claws. The biggest one had to be about ten meters wide.
Jia shuddered. What kind of being would be stupid or dangerous enough to attack a Kordolian warship?
She turned to her colleague, Mendoza, who was busy trying to reprogram a welding-bot.
“I don’t even know what setting to use,” he complained, wiping his sweaty forehead. “How the hell are we supposed to attach Armium plate to this freaking Callidum hull? And on top of that, it needs to be vacuum-proofed, pressure-sealed, and impregnable.”
“Shh,” Jia cautioned, glancing nervously at the big Kordolian who had appeared at the edge of the dock. “Don’t let them know you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing. I don’t think that’d go down too well.” She suspected none of the Human mech team really knew how to fix this thing, but they had to try. The section they’d been assigned was one of the largest, and for once, Jia cursed the fact that she had a reputation for being competent.
The boss always gave her the most difficult jobs.
Mendoza followed the direction of her gaze and nodded in agreement. “I wouldn’t want him on my case.”
The Kordolian in question was staring out across the brightly lit loading dock of their asteroid mining station, Fortuna Tau. Jia watched in fascination as he walked across to another Kordolian warrior and said something to him in low, rumbling tones.
With his attention diverted, she stole a moment to study him. This Kordolian was huge, standing even taller than the rest of his teammates, who were big by Human standards. A large weapon was strapped to his back; it looked like a gun or cannon of some sort.
Jia had said it before, and she hadn’t changed her mind. With their grey-silver skin, sharp, aristocratic features and pointed ears, the Kordolians were strangely attractive.
Her friend Abbey’s comparison was rather apt; they looked like big, evil elves.
But storybook elves didn’t carry big-ass guns and wear freaky black nano-armor that they could seemingly activate and retract at will. These Kordolians were something else; hard, brutal, dangerous, and exotic.
The combination did funny things to Jia. Heat rose in her cheeks, and warmth pooled in her lower belly, spreading throughout her core. She was thankful for her drab, shapeless mechanic’s jumpsuit, because it hid all traces of her arousal.
But Jia would never act on her obvious attraction. No, it was better to stay back and observe from a distance, accepting her thoughts for what they were; distant fantasies.
There was no way she would ever get close to one of these lethal creatures. After all, she valued her precious little life and her freedom. The sooner they got this alien battle cruiser fixed, the sooner the Kordolians would be off Fortuna Tau, and then they could all breathe a huge sigh of relief.
Jia stole one last little look, watching the big guy in particular, the one who’d drawn her attention in the first place. Right now, his back was turned, so she could get away with it. She admired the shape of his body, which was clearly defined under his form-fitting black armor. He had broad, rippling shoulders, which tapered to a muscular back and narrow waist. Her gaze traveled over his fit, toned ass, and she briefly wondered what it would feel like to run her hands over his hot, bare skin.
At that moment, the Kordolian turned, catching Jia in the act.
She found herself looking into eyes that were the color of amethyst.
Goddamn, he had beautiful eyes. Jia swallowed a lump in her throat.
But even though they were mesmerizing, they were cold, hard, killer’s eyes. She reminded herself of that as he regarded her with a flinty expression.
Jia froze. The Kordolian had just caught her red-handed, checking out his ass.
He stared at her for a long, hard minute, his hard-scary-beautiful eyes like chips of glass.
For some reason, Jia’s body seemed to find that even more arousing. Inwardly, she cursed. She needed a bucket of ice, or a long, freezing shower. Her brain was telling her to look away and get back to work, but she couldn’t drag her eyes away from him.
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, he raised a silvery eyebrow, as if to say: checking me out, little Human?
At least, that’s what she imagined he’d say, because she sure felt small compared to these intimidating Kordolian warriors.
The tips of Jia’s ears had become warm. Damnit. That meant she was probably blushing like a tomato.
It was an annoying trait, and it always showed up at the worst of times.
“Hey, Jia, a little help here?” Mendoza’s high, clear voice cut through the trance-like moment. Jia blinked and turned away, trying to ignore the warrior’s piercing stare as she attempted to regain her focus.
A sharp elbow dug into her side. “You were staring,” Mendoza whispered. “Are you trying to get us killed?”
A transport bot rolled up beside them, laden with dull grey sheets of Armium plate. Jia stared at the metal, her thoughts scrambled. She didn’t dare look back, but she could feel the Kordolian’s eyes on her.
His gaze
burned into her with more heat than a three-thousand megavolt welding beam.
She shook her head. Enough of her crazy little fantasies. They had to figure out a way to repair this hull, or they were going to be stuck with a bunch of unhappy Kordolian warriors.
“All right,” she sighed, wiping her grease-stained palms on her jumpsuit. “Let’s figure out how to attach Armium plate-metal to a Callidum hull. Any ideas, Mendoza?”
Her offsider shrugged. “I don’t think there’s any material or device known to man that can penetrate Callidum. Maybe we should just stick it on with SuperTack and hope for the best.”
“Ha-ha,” Jia said dryly. “I’d love to see the expressions on their faces when they’re halfway through the galaxy and they realize our repairs have fallen to pieces because your SuperTack hasn’t held up at sub-lightspeed.”
Mendoza shrugged. “It was worth considering.”
“I’d rather not risk the wrath of the Kordolian Empire. Technologically speaking, we’re about half a millennia too early to try and fuck with them. Maybe in five hundred years, we’ll be at the same level, but right now, I don’t want them returning to the station, realizing we’ve sold them a dud.”
“It’s good to know one’s limitations,” Mendoza agreed wryly, as he experimentally tapped the black hull with a solder bar. It resulted in a dull, muted sound. Evidently, Callidum also absorbed sound.
Jia lightly ran a gloved hand down one of the giant tears in the hull. The edge was sharp, and to her surprise, it cut through the thick polymer material of her glove.
She craned her neck, staring up at the massive structure. The Kordolian warship was huge, outsizing the giant Human-made mineral freighter that sat alongside it. But where the freighter was ungainly and bulky, designed to drift at a snail’s pace through space, the Kordolian craft was built for speed.
The mechanic in Jia could appreciate the highly advanced engineering that had gone into its design.
Like the Kordolians themselves, it was mysterious, dark and beautiful.
Now, she just had to figure out how to fix it.
CHAPTER TWO
He’d caught the Human staring. As he’d chatted with Rykal, Kalan had felt eyes upon him.
He’d turned and found himself looking at a female.
She’d been boldly appraising him, thinking he wouldn’t notice. Her dark brown eyes had widened when he turned, but she hadn’t looked away. Instead, she’d met his stare with curiosity, rather than fear.
Strange. It wasn’t the reaction he would have expected.
Then, something odd had happened. Her face had turned from almost-white to a light pink color, the change spreading up to the tips of her ears.
Kalan didn’t know whether to laugh or growl in irritation.
What in Kaiin’s hells had that been all about?
He watched as she turned to her colleague, babbling to him in their strange Human language.
What an odd creature. She was a tiny thing; he easily dwarfed her, and yet the way she had looked at him had been almost… lustful.
Kalan shook his head. What nonsense.
What would he do with a little slip of a female like her? She had pale, flawless skin and a soft, delicate body; he’d probably break her in half.
Why was he even thinking such things? General Tarak had said it well; they weren’t here to sample the ‘exotic fruit’.
They had to focus on getting their warship, Silence, repaired, so they could get back to Kythia. That’s all these Humans were good for.
Kalan watched as the Humans inspected the damage in the ship’s hull. He was dubious about their ability to repair Silence with their inferior metals and technology, but right now, they were the only available option.
He cursed the Xargek cruiser they’d encountered on the way back from a quick routine weapons calibration run. Silence had been running on absolute skeleton staff, with only the First Division onboard, as they’d only been several stops away from the Sector Three base. It should have been the most basic of missions. No-one had expected the fucking Xargek to appear in Sector Three, and no-one had expected they’d get sucked into a wormhole whilst pursuing the Xargek warship that had dared to ram Silence.
Those fucking Xargek had come out of nowhere.
“It would have only taken one of our engineering people to fix this,” Kalan grumbled, glancing at Rykal. “Instead, we have a bunch of clueless Humans trying to figure out how to weld Callidum.”
The younger Kordolian nodded, a bitter laugh escaping him. “This has to be the biggest clusterfuck we’ve encountered since we ran into that Ephrenian ambush on Teldur Five. It’s too bad we left our mechs and techs behind, but to be fair, not even the Big G could have anticipated we’d run into a Xargek ship and sustain that kind of damage just a kulik away from base.” Rykal shook his head. “And remember what the boss said before we left? That he was going to debrief us on something important while we were in the silent zone? I think he left the rest of the crew back on base on purpose. What do you think that was supposed to be all about?”
Kalan dropped his voice. “There’s something going on back on Kythia, Ry. Empire politics is malignant at the best of times, but I get the feeling something big’s about to go down.”
“Well, whatever it is, now we’re not going to find out about it until after we kill the rest of these Xargek and get back to Kythia.” Rykal frowned. “What in Kaiin’s hells were they doing entering our airspace? And how did they pass undetected?”
“Maybe they were looking for fresh meat,” Kalan said darkly. “That’s all them seem to do. Eat flesh, and reproduce. Who knows? No-one understands anything about those fucking monsters. I don’t know how they get past our surveillance either, but they keep on doing it.”
It was true. There was no obvious pattern to the Xargek attacks. No-one knew where they came from, or what they wanted. They just appeared from time to time, causing death and destruction wherever they went.
A bit like Kordolians.
Kalan stiffened as the small Human female turned, again looking in his direction. Even though Rykal was by his side, it seemed she only had eyes for him.
She stepped around an ungainly looking robot and began to cross the floor, approaching him.
“Looks like you have company,” Rykal said, sounding mildly amused. Kalan glared at him, then at the Human.
“Excuse me,” her voice rang out bright and clear across the cavernous space. “Do you speak Universal?”
“Of course,” Kalan growled. “What do you want, Human?”
She came to stand in front of him. Kalan looked down, meeting her dark brown eyes. He towered over her; the top of her head was about level with his chest.
“I just wanted to ask you a few questions about Callidum. I hate to say it, but we don’t have much experience with this material, and we want to figure out how to get you boys out of here as soon as possible.”
“Hm.” Kalan took in her appearance. She wore a dull, shapeless garment that was obviously designed for work. Thin black gloves covered her hands, and a pair of protective goggles hung around her neck. Her black hair was pulled into a messy bun, and a few wayward strands escaped it here and there, trailing around her face.
She smelt of grease and chemicals and something else he couldn’t quite identify.
She was dirty and disheveled, and yet Kalan found his eyes drawn to the graceful column of her neck and the fine lines of her jaw and face.
A delicate thing, indeed.
She was acting respectfully, but she didn’t seem intimidated by the fact that she stood toe-to-toe with two fully armed and armored First Division warriors. Perhaps she hid her fear well, or perhaps she was just naive.
Humans had been living an idyllic existence in the Ninth Sector for so long that perhaps they simply didn’t know better.
Did this female understand that on Kythia, she would be nothing more than a common slave?
“You want to know about Callidum,” Kalan
said slowly, crossing his arms. “What exactly do you need to know?”
“Well, for starters, how do you guys manipulate it? We’ve tried cutting it, melting it, shooting it… nothing seems to work.”
“The only thing that can penetrate Callidum is Callidum itself,” Kalan said slowly, as if speaking to a child.
“Well, that’s useful.” Her eyes narrowed, and she counted something off on her fingers, doing some sort of mental calculation. “So, no laser cutting, no superheat welding. We’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way. I don’t suppose you might have a Callidum drill-bit, by any chance?”
“Drill-bit?” Kalan inclined his head. When it came to the ins and outs of engineering, he didn’t know much. His specialty was weapons, not spacecraft engineering.
The female looked up at him expectantly, as if she were somehow relying on Kalan to help her out.
As if he had all the answers.
Kalan looked at Rykal, who responded with an unhelpful shrug. “Try the mechanics bay.”
Kalan responded with a grunt. He’d been about to enter Silence to retrieve a plasma charge and some extra weapons when this Human had appeared. “Come.” He motioned for her to follow, setting off for the main hatch.
A soft rustle told him she was behind him. Not looking back, Kalan strode towards the dark, gaping maw that marked the entrance of the massive warship.
He didn’t really know how to deal with this small, curious creature. She was an alien, a lesser species. On Kythia, she would not have dared speak without his permission.
But here, the Kordolian Empire really didn’t have any jurisdiction. Only fear made these Humans comply.
Kalan entered the warship, passing through its dark interior on silent feet, entering a narrow corridor. Soft footsteps echoed behind him, becoming irregular as he made his way down a ramp and into the belly of the ship. He glanced behind and saw the Human walking slowly, trailing one hand along the wall.
Her pupils were wide, her eyes slightly unfocused.