Seducing the Enemy

by Lily Thomas

  Books By Lily Thomas

  Giant Wars Series

  Loving His Fire

  Grounded By Love

  Melted By Love

  Galactic Courtship Series

  Xacier’s Prize

  Claiming His Champion

  Captivating the Doctor

  Escaping the Hunt

  Abducting the Ambassador

  Wicked Prisoner

  Seducing the Enemy

  Seducing the Enemy

  Lily Thomas

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Cover created by SelfPubBookCovers.com/ Ravenborn

  Copyright © 2018 by Lily Thomas

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce the book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information email lilysamanthathomas@yahoo.com.

  www.lilythomasromance.com

  ISBN: 9781980636168

  ISBN: (ebook) B07BTLL88D

  Chapter 1

  Adira frowned at the flashing red light on the control console. Leaning forward in her seat, she quickly adjusted the parameters for her flight path. When the flashing red light stopped blinking, she allowed herself a small smile.

  It had taken almost two weeks to locate the convoy of warships in front of her, and another day to maneuver into her current position, hiding in the wake of the rear ship. A few more seconds drifting off course, and the occupants of the ship would have caught her with her pants down. Her shuttle was equipped for speed and stealth, but it would stand no chance in a head-to-head fight against a Sri’thaen warship.

  Luckily, her careful steering and precise commands into the shuttle’s autopilot had finally paid off. Adira kept an eye on the console for a few more minutes, but her shuttle followed the warship like an obedient duckling, gliding effortlessly behind the larger ship.

  Adira rolled her head on her shoulders and stretched in the chair. As she flexed her arms, she marveled again at the strength she felt rippling beneath her skin. All the training, the procedures, the enhancements. Her entire life had been spent in pursuit of a single goal: to become the best, the most powerful, the most effective weapon of the human government.

  Adira sucked in a deep breath. Time to get the plan underway. She rose from the pilot's seat with a final glance at the controls and headed to the front airlock.

  Adira already wore a skintight outfit made out of a purplish-black material. The stuff was lightweight but space proof with the right head gear, and it would even act as a layer of armor in a pinch. Adira grabbed a helmet next to the outside airlock door, placed it over her head and locked it into place with a slight twist.

  Mentally, she ran through her mission. A few months ago, the Sri’thaens, a formerly reclusive species that was relatively unknown on human worlds, had begun capturing human spaceships on the outskirts of Earth Alliance territory. The attacks had been entirely unprovoked, and Adira’s government was at a loss to explain the Sri’thaens’ sudden hostility.

  Recent intelligence hinted that several unofficial human colonies were going to be the next target. The Earth Alliance could care less about the unauthorized colonies and the relatively few humans who had settled there. They did, however, care about the Sri'thaens turning their attention towards Earth and any Earth-protected colonies, otherwise known as Earth-approved colonies.

  Adira needed to get aboard the Sri’thaen vessel and gather any information about their enemy’s plans and military forces that the humans could use to defend the Earth Alliance.

  As she grabbed a plasma gun, she heard the chief in her head, rapping out a final order to remain undetected. If she had to shoot her way off the warship, the Sri’thaens would be alerted to her presence and easily capture or destroy her shuttle as she tried to escape. As she strapped the plasma gun to her waistband, she fervently hoped she wouldn’t have to use it.

  Adira positioned herself inside the airlock and closed the inner door.

  Hopefully, this Sri'thaen ship would have the information she was looking for and her mission would be over as quickly as it had begun. Otherwise, she would have to get out, find another Sri'thaen vessel, infiltrate their ship, and hope they had the information she sought.

  Preoccupied, Adira slammed her fist against a bright green button, skipping over the depressurization stage. The airlock popped open, and she was blown out into space. The force of the depressurization sent her sailing towards the Sri'thaen warship at high speed.

  Unfortunately, being blown out of the airlock screwed with her calculations. The chief would have punished her fiercely if he'd witnessed this mistake.

  She spun wildly, trying to regain control of her trajectory. She veered dangerously close to the Sri’thaen ship's thrusters, and she felt the heat increase through the protection of her suit and realized she was about to die. Briefly, she wondered what the Sri’thaens would think when they eventually discovered a ghost shuttle following them through space, unmanned.

  Then, she was past the thrusters, and she scrabbled desperately at the back of the warship, trying to find purchase. Her hand clamped down on a metal post. Secure on the ship, she rested for a moment. Clearly, her lack of sleep in the last few days was affecting her judgment. Her enhancements were supposed to decrease her need for things like sleep, food, and water, but she’d pushed herself a little too far. From here on in, she was going to have to proceed more carefully if she wanted to get out alive.

  Adira made her way to an airlock on the side of the warship and positioned herself beside the hatch. She took a device from her pocket and placed it on the ship's hull. It would allow her to pop the hatch without them even knowing it had ever opened. She just prayed it would work correctly. A lot of the gear she carried was still experimental.

  She smiled behind her helmet. The Earth Alliance may have put her through hell, but she enjoyed the technology that was now at her disposal. If it all worked, it would make her job a lot easier.

  The hatch opened, and once the air finished rushing out, Adira crawled her way inside, closed the door, and then re-pressurized the hatch. She was in, and she didn't hear any alarms going off. It was an excellent place to start over.

  She peered out of the airlock and into the halls of the Sri'thaen warship. She didn’t see anyone. Now she just had to find computer access, acquire information on the Sri’thaen forces, and get the hell off the warship before her presence was noticed.

  Every move she made could be her last, yet she didn’t feel any fear. Training under the Chief would do that to a person. Anything the Sri'thaens did to her would be child's play compared to the Chief and his punishments.

  Adira crept into the hall and used another device to pull up a general schematic of the ship's layout. If the schematic was correct -- and that was a big if -- she would have quite a task ahead of her. The ship was massive, and she had no intel about which part of the ship would have the correct computer access for the information she needed.

  Well, just moving through the ship was going to gather some useful intel. Time to do her part for the Human Alliance. She hit a button on the side of the device and began walking down the hall. The device would record a more detailed layout of the ship and update the schematic as she walked through it.

  The sound of boots hitting the metal floor reached her ears. Adira had no choice but to duck into a room without checking it first. She pressed her back against the door and faced the room. Thankfully, there were no occupants. The boots passed by in the hallway outside.

  Adira let out a breath and cursed softly. That had been a relatively close call.
Scanning the room, she noted a panel of computer monitors. Quickly, she darted over and checked them. None of them had the information she was looking for.

  She needed ship deployments, weapons specifications, the resources the Sri'thaens could dedicate to the war, maybe a leader they could assassinate to put an end to the war or at least throw the Sri’thaens into chaos.

  With a frustrated growl, Adira abandoned the screens and cautiously slid open the door. She peered around the corner into the corridor. She was still alone, so she slipped out of the room and crept her way once more down the hallway.

  There were a couple more close-calls, but Adira skillfully avoided detection as she made her way through the ship. Eventually, she snuck into a room with the hint of promise. The sheer number of screens in the small space screamed of importance.

  Turning around, she placed another small device against the door's panel. It should keep any unwanted guests from entering the room until she'd gathered what she needed.

  "General Rakshasas, there might be a problem with an outer hatch on the lower decks."

  Rakshasas turned in his chair to face the lieutenant who had spoken. "Have some men check it out. I don't want a hatch blowing out and losing a whole deck to the cold of space."

  The soldier gave a sharp nod and issued a set of terse orders through the comm system.

  Rakshasas eyed the men on his bridge. He'd been a general for years, but this was the first time he'd been sent off to destroy an entire race. He usually kept enemies out of Sri’thaen space and hunted down any internal dissidents that his government wanted dead.

  Now he'd been given orders to destroy all the humans he could find, and he'd been given every soldier, weapon, ship, and authorization to get the mission done. His superiors were unhappy and ready to show their displeasure.

  It was a great honor to be entrusted with such an act, but Rakshasas felt the slightest twinge of…something…when he thought about his task. These humans wouldn't be much of an opponent, and it almost felt cruel to wipe them all out.

  "The men have reported back. There was nothing wrong with the hatch that they could see, but I will put mention of it in the maintenance log."

  "Do it." Rakshasas turned to the pilot. "Cloak the ship, we're close to human space, and I don't want them detecting our approach."

  His lips thinned as he reminded himself of the events that had led to this moment. The humans were merely getting what they deserved. Provoking the Sri'thaen race had been incredibly foolish.

  "Sir, we have another issue."

  "What is it?" Rakshasas growled. He was trying to read through the new regulations recently passed by the Empire, and all these interruptions were grating on his patience.

  "There's an unauthorized access on deck three. Someone down there is trying to pull up information about our systems and our mission."

  Rakshasas tossed the regulations aside. "Block them out and get troops to that section immediately. Whoever it is, I want them alive."

  He stood up and began pacing. Had one of his men decided to betray them? Was he not the only one having second thoughts? He gripped the back of his chair in a tight fist. He'd find out soon enough.

  The room had been an absolute score. Adira downloaded file after file, finding information on Sri’thaen weapons stockpiles, orders between their government and their military, planet defenses, and more.

  The mission was going better than she expected, and so far she hadn’t run into anyone. Her fingers tapped impatiently as the file information transferred to her memory card. Despite her success, she wasn’t going to push her luck. As soon as the final file downloaded, she was going to leave this warship in the dust.

  Adira grinned. The Sri'thaens wouldn't even know she’d been here.

  Just then, something slammed into the door behind her.

  “Shit.” Adira spun on her heel to face the door. She heard several voices yelling on the other side. So much for not getting noticed.

  Adira heard plasma fire. They were going to try to melt the door, which would be difficult and buy her some more time. Warships like these would be designed to allow gunfire inside and not have to worry about creating a leak in the hull.

  She should be fine for a few minutes, which was all she needed to complete this job and figure a way out of this tight spot.

  Adira examined the room around her. She wouldn't be able to leave through the only door, so she needed another way out. An air vent above the consoles caught her attention.

  The console let out a shrill beeping. Adira swiped up her memory card and climbed on top of the console to reach the vent.

  Her hand went to her hip and grabbed a knife from her belt. Using the point of the knife, she wiggled the blade under the metal plating until it popped off. Then she jumped up and slid into the ductwork.

  The door blew open right as she got her torso into the air vent. Adira heard yelling behind her as she wiggled her way through the air shaft. It was a tight fit, and she wasn’t able to move quickly in the small space.

  A firm grip latched onto her ankles and started to yank her back out of the air shaft.

  Adira cursed again. As her legs were pulled out of the air shaft, she braced her arms against the duct walls and gave a swift kick that connected with what felt like someone's face.

  She pushed herself the rest of the way out of the air shaft and dropped onto the console. One Sri’thaen soldier had fallen back onto the floor, hands over his face, but another five Sri’thaens stood between her and the doorway.

  The Sri’thaen on the floor swiped out a leg knocking her off balance on the console. Her head smashed into the console before she righted herself and fended off a couple of attempts the Sri’thaens made to grab her again.

  Adira felt her enhancements respond to her body’s increase in adrenaline. Her eyes darted from opponent to opponent, identifying targets, and her body sped into motion, following her thoughts. Even though she had a crack helmet screen it was still doing its job.

  She dispatched the closest Sri’thaen with a fist palm to the nose. His head whipped back with the blow, and a crunch sounded throughout the room.

  She leaped off the console and took down his partner with a flying kick. One soldier came up behind her and attempted to put her into a choke hold, but she grabbed his arms and flipped him over her head and into another soldier. The last Sri’thaen faltered as Adira turned to the door. She wiped the surprised look off his face with a punch to the solar plexus. He doubled over, and she jumped over his back and sprinted down the hallway.

  This was not going to plan!

  Adira berated herself as she darted around the next corner. She had let herself get overconfident! She should have been checking the computer system for hidden alarms while the files were downloading.

  A shot from a plasma pistol sizzled by her, and she ducked. She was in the middle of a long corridor, with nowhere to hide. The next blast hit home, searing through her suit and burning her calf. Her leg gave out beneath her, and she fell. So much for her great suit. Her earlier encounter with the warship’s thrusters must have weakened the material.

  The Sri'thaens were on her in a second. Adira let a fist sail into the nearest face, but she was quickly overwhelmed, hands gripping her from all sides. They yanked her up and hauled her away to a small cell.

  After removing her weapons, they tossed her in. She turned on her good leg to leap at them, but a blueish force field shot up in front of her face. She backtracked quickly, and in the process, she accidentally put all of her weight on her wounded leg, which crumpled beneath her.

  Adira slumped down against one of the walls inside the cell and took a look at her leg. Her suit had melted to her skin. She grimaced. She wouldn't be able to do anything about it in here. It was just like the punishments the Chief dealt out. All one could do was grit her teeth and deal with it.

  Chapter 2

  Adira blinked, and a dozen reflections blinked back from the broken faceplate of her helmet. Sh
e turned away from where it lay on the floor, discarded hours ago. Both it and the suit were wrecked. She was going to bust some scientist heads together when she got back to Earth. Her outfit had not held up to expectations.

  Carefully, Adira examined the burn on her leg. Her body was already healing the wound, but the material of the suit was being combined with her muscle tissue as it healed. She rolled her eyes. She didn’t look forward to having a purple blob of a tattoo on her leg, but at least one enhancement was doing its job correctly.

  Wait until the chief heard about the equipment failure… there wouldn’t be anything left of the scientists by the time he was done with them.

  Adira shivered. Instead of thinking about the scientists, she should be thinking about herself. The Sri'thaens had taken her weapons, but they hadn't located the memory card. She still had a chance to complete her mission successfully. But would the chief see it as a success? Or would he view her as another failed experiment?

  Unbidden, a memory surfaced. Adira, lifting herself weakly from a medical bed, overwhelmed by the new enhancements to her body. Unable to control her arms and legs, falling to the floor. The chief’s voice.

  “Has the experiment failed? I thought she was the best candidate.”

  “She was. She is. It will just take some time for her to get used to the new modifications.”

  The scientist, trying to help Adira stand, and the chief’s voice lashing out again.

  “Don’t help her! If she wants to live, she’ll learn to move her body properly.” Boots stepping close to Adira’s face. “Only trash lies on the ground.”

  Adira slammed her fists into the cell floor, and the brief flash of pain brought her back to her senses. Tears pricked her eyes, but she dashed them away. She would prove her worth to the chief. She was going to find a way off this ship, and she was going to get the memory card back to the Earth Alliance.