Chapter 3: Nera

“Did you get them to talk?” Darc asked me as soon as I walked back onto the bridge.

“Not even a little bit.”

“Did you say please?” Philip asked.

Like always, his twinkling brown eyes strayed toward Darc. I was pretty sure my communications officer had quite a crush on my pilot, but he kept things professional. I, however, wouldn’t care in the least if he put a pink tint to her pale cheeks to match the color of her vibrant hair. She could do a lot worse than Philip.

Fast and loose was how I captained shit around here because space was a fast and loose place. Plus, they both deserved to be happy.

“I…sort of forgot to say please,” I admitted, shrugging. “I did punch one of them, though, and made him knock into the back of the other’s head. That’s basically the same thing as saying please.”

“Well, we’re still stuck up here, Captain,” Darc said, gesturing broadly to the ship’s controls. “That part hasn’t changed.”

“Could you torture them? Make them talk?” Philip asked me.

“Uh, no. I just learned that one of them is the king of Xenoxx, so starting a war is not my brand of military.” I sighed. “I just captain ships that can’t land.”

“But you do think they have something to do with this?” Darc adjusted the pretty beads of her necklaces so they hung down her black sleeveless Space Fleet top.

Pair that with her pink hair, and this was not a military-standard look, but whatever. One of the reasons I had the best Space Fleet pilot on my crew was because I didn’t give a shit about what she wore while piloting. Unlike her old captain, who happened to be my ex-husband.

He lost us both on the same day. I might have stolen Mosely and Philip from him too. That’s why it sucks to be my ex.

“Oh, I definitely think they had something to do with this,” I answered.

“So what now?” Philip asked. “We’re too high to toss the package out the window, so to speak. Klio-3‘s atmosphere would incinerate it.”

“I tell the lieutenant what I’ve already been telling her—that we can’t land. She’s going to have to do without, and whatever is going on down there, she’ll have to handle it herself.”

And then? I start day-drinking. But one look at the military clock on the ship’s controls told me I’d better make that night-drinking. The whole day had been a complete waste of space.

“I’ll patch you through.” After pressing all the right buttons, Philip nodded to indicate he was ready when I was.

I nodded right back, and the view screen appeared. “Lieutenant, we’re headed back to Baka. We’ll get Space Fleet help to land there, if needed, and then make repairs to the Odessa. We’ll try again after that. I’ll keep you posted, but without knowing the exact cause, I don’t know how long it will take. Over and out.”

Above the sounds of shouts and gunfire, Lieutenant Avery took a deep breath and then launched into what was sure to be an epic rip-down.

Too bad I didn’t get to hear all of it since my trigger-happy finger on Philip’s keyboard ended the transmission. The view screen beeped out.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard the sound of someone’s blood pressure rising,” Philip said. “That can’t be good.”

“You didn’t mention our royal guests?” Darc asked.

She looked tired, the poor thing. It had sure been a long day for all of us.

“It wouldn’t make much of a difference if I mentioned them since I don’t have proof they’re behind all of my problems. Or not all of them,“ I corrected. “Just today’s problems, which is more than enough. Anyway, I’ll deal with them.”

Somehow. And later. I was anything but diplomatic on a good day.

Philip turned to look back to me. “What is happening down there on Klio-3? A war no one told us about? And why do they so desperately need this package thingy?”

“I wish I knew. I wish I knew a lot of things,” I said. “Darc, set a course for Baka. We’ve wasted enough time floating around up here, and we’re wasting fuel. Philip, let the rest of the crew know what we’re doing.”

“And the Xenoxx?” Darc asked.

“Oh, they’re coming with us. Royals or not, I’ll make them pay for ruining my Tuesday.”

“They fucked around and found out,” Philip said with a shake of his head.

“Which is why I’m going to bed now,” I announced, angling toward the bridge door. “Try not to need me until morning.”

We would arrive at the Earth Space Fleet base on Baka first thing tomorrow evening. The Xenoxx weren’t my top priority, but my ship was. As long as I got it fixed, I didn’t care if I ever saw the purple alien men again.

Even the big, brawny one who looked at me with a strange mix of wonder and hunger. I couldn’t deny that he ignited the same things in me. At this point in my life, though, I could ignore those feelings. I was an expert at hiding behind a wall of witty sarcasm, tacos, and a healthy dose of alcohol. Okay, sometimes several doses. Sue me. But stay away from my tacos.

Even my crew, whom I considered family, didn’t question why I’d erected my walls. If they already knew, which they probably did, they never said anything, never probed or picked me apart, never questioned the sudden onslaught of tears when grief crashed over me. Again.

With them on this ship, I was boring old Captain Nera Cotrobin. To that Xenoxx king, though, it almost seemed as though I were something else entirely.

Could he know? I couldn’t blame him if he did. My past had been blasted to all four corners of the universe, as public as anything could be.

Plus, the Xenoxx had made it a point to get to know humans. Women, specifically, since they wed and bred with them. Long ago, the Killian race declared war on the Xenoxx. The Killians used a biological weapon to infect the Xenoxx with a genetic defect designed to critically reduce the Xenoxx population.

The solution? Human women. There’s more to it than that, but now wasn’t the time to get into the rest of it.

But even if the Xenoxx king didn’t know about me, it didn’t make a lick of difference. He could have killed my crew while trying to steal that mysterious package, and he’d already hurt my ship. For safety’s sake, I needed to get as far away from him as I could.

It wasn’t long after I went to bed that something roused me into a sitting position. Not a sound since I could barely hear over the ringing in my ears, but a strange feeling. Something was wrong. Wronger than it already was.

“Who’s there?” I called toward my closed door.

Of course no one answered. I might not hear them if they did though. I glanced at the clock on my bedside table. Only nope o’clock. If I didn’t get to sleep soon, I already felt sorry for my crew for having to deal with me tomorrow.

“Major, is that you?” I asked my dimmed room and the hallway beyond.

Major was the one crew member who stayed mostly to himself. No one was quite sure what he did around here or what he did while everyone else was sleeping, including me. With him, it was best not to ask questions because he was probably insane.

A movement at my door snatched my attention. The latch on it was moving.

My heart tripped over itself. I’d locked it. I always did.

If it were someone on my crew, they’d use the telecom to wake my ass up. Unless they already did but I hadn’t heard. But if it wasn’t one of them, then who? The Xenoxx? But no, they were tied up inside the brig that locked from the outside.

I untangled my legs from the blankets and set my feet down on the cold grating. Shivers coiled through me and set my teeth on edge. My gun lay on the bedside table, same as it always did, next to an empty glass that had been filled with bourbon before it knocked me out. Now, the effects of the alcohol were completely gone.

I picked the gun up, my palm slick with sweat. Unease prickled down my back.

“Hello?” I called on the off chance I could hear a response.

Why not just answer me? Unless whoever it was wanted to draw me out of my room, but they had to know I’d be armed. I wasn’t stupid, despite my inability to spell Massachusetts correctly the first time, even though that’s where I’m from.

On tiptoe, I made my way to the door and cracked it open. No one stood outside.

I sure wished I could hear properly. If this were an emergency, my crew would sound the alarm, which flashed a bright red color across the ship. I stood out in the hallway searching, my teeth chattering. Dressed in only a thin black tank top and panties, I was hardly ready for battle, or whatever this might be.

Satisfied that I was truly alone and must’ve been dreaming, I turned to go back into my room.

Out of the corner of my eye though, something large and purple streaked past. A sharp prick needled the skin on my neck. Hissing in pain, I turned and started to swing my gun like a club, or I tried to anyway. As I did, one-thousand-pound weights dangled from my fingers. The edges of my vision blackened around the purple figure stalking away from me.

“You,” I growled.

The creeping darkness swept over him, then me, and then…nothing.