Starfire Read online

  Starfire

  by

  Imogene Nix

  Starfire

  Copyright © 2016, Imogene Nix

  ISBN: 9781944270360

  Publisher: Beachwalk Press, Inc.

  Electronic Publication: August 2016

  Editor: Pamela Tyner

  Cover: Fantasia Frog Designs

  eBooks are not transferable. No part of this book may be used or reproduced without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in articles and reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

  Back Cover Copy

  Jemma and Raven find forever on the eve of war.

  Jemma Cardnew is hard-nosed and determined. Her life consisted of growing up in an orphanage, only to be kidnapped and dumped at the academy without choice by those in charge of the Elector. She deems anyone telling her how to live her life to be high-handed. That includes Raven, the ship’s gorgeous engineer, no matter how much she feels emotionally drawn to him.

  Raven Fraser has a multitude of problems: the power matrix of the Elector is leaving the ship unprotected and afloat in space while Crick Sur Banden taunts the Empire, leaving them on the verge of war. And the woman he dreams of is avoiding him, playing havoc with his concentration.

  Thrust together under trying circumstances, the promise of explosive passion consumes them both as they attempt to save the Empire.

  Content Warning: Space travel, violence, and evil aliens abound

  Acknowledgements

  Starfire is one of those stories that grips you by the neck and worries you until it’s done. Jemma and Raven were like that all the way through the writing and continued to screech at me until the book was re-released. It was a book that couldn’t stay on the bookshelf once I had the rights returned, it needed to be back out there available for readers to buy and savor.

  As a result there are many who had a hand in ensuring this story was as good as it could be. Thank you to Pamela and the Beachwalk crew for their hard work and the fabulous cover. Thank you to the lovely Tracey and my husband Mark for their input, suggestions, and proof reading. Thank you to my daughters; okay, so maybe the rolled eyes and heavy sighs told me you wanted dinner or to do other things that didn’t pertain to writing the story, but you did show tremendous forbearance. Hate to tell you, girls, but this is not the end of my writing journey!

  To those reading this book for the first time, or those who saw and read it previously, I hope this story shines for you as it does for me.

  Prologue

  The imposing white walls of the Earth Empire Academy rose like monoliths toward the sun, glistening with the quartz decorations representing the colonized worlds or those they’d formed alliances with. It was a symbol of both their might and drive that it remained standing.

  “Get lost, Raven!”

  Shocked looks shot in Raven’s direction, and he jammed his hands into his pockets while a woman dashed through the shady quadrangle and paid the onlookers no attention. Instead, she muttered a litany of complaints, the sounds drowning beneath the crunching of many feet in heavy, black boots.

  Her exquisite pink lips moved rapidly with caustic words that tumbled, and the knot of people gathered who saw the woman with the black hair and piercing blue eyes gave her a wide berth. Many a cadet had experienced her temper, already legendary in this corner of the Empire. They’d heard of her cold shoulder, and the jagged edges of her sharp tongue, while the rising red crest of fury washing over her cheeks warned them of the danger of crossing her right at that moment.

  Raven stood under an awning at the end of the long building, watching her hurry defiantly away from him. “Dammit, Jemma.” He had felt the heat of her tongue this day. The news he had brought, that she had to stay at the academy until she graduated, had enraged her further, causing an outburst that would have burned a lesser man.

  Even as he exhaled heavily, he couldn’t stop his gaze from roaming over her retreating figure. The plain black suit of an academy cadet did nothing to hide the subtle curves of her body or its suppleness. He was aware that many male students had already made the mistake of addressing this young woman with an offer of companionship. Some had compounded it by offering earthier suggestions on occasion. She’d cut them down, letting them know how little she thought of them and their self-confessed prowess.

  He watched her with troubled eyes, knowing that the news he would return to the Elector with would upset his captain further.

  Touching one hand to his commbadge, he opened a channel. “Duvall? I’ve made contact.”

  “And?” The scratchy sound of his friend and captain’s voice didn’t improve his mood.

  “She’s not happy.” The knowledge that she chafed against the strictures and the directive from the upper echelons of the Admiralty itself frustrated him. He remained forbidden to explain why or who’d made the decree. She assumed Duvall was to blame.

  “Return to the Elector.” Duvall’s voice was weary, but there was little else Raven could do. He’d carried the Admiralty’s wishes, but it didn’t lessen his feeling of dissatisfaction in the errand.

  Jemma rounded the corner, headed for the dorm tower, and disappeared from his sight. Raven turned and retreated beyond the walls.

  * * * *

  Crick Sur Banden sat in his headquarters on Sienna V, the frigidly cold planet nearest the border of the Earth Ru’Edan-delineated space. Dark and icy, the planet remained largely uninhabited except for the miners of the dark Juran metal. Highly toxic to most, its medicinal use in the drug Xeradax remained the only reason for the continued settlement of the planet.

  He stretched on the lounger while women hovered around. “Get me another goblet of Dragorth’s Blood.”

  They poured the shimmering red spirit into the metal cup and pressed it into his hands, as he waited for the chemicals to take effect. The crimson drink was native to the wastelands of the Alpha Star Colony, which he’d happily brought under his command, and he took a moment to reflect on how much his influence had grown since the abortive mission to Earth.

  “Duvall, you haven’t stopped me yet.” A trickle of laughter escaped as he spoke. Duvall and the Elector had singularly failed to curb his expansion and soon… Soon he’d have a force strong enough to conquer the might of humanity.

  The fire burning in the hearth was reminiscent of the destruction he had left behind at the colony. The fire he’d rained upon the colonists cleansed the dirt that should never have seen the infection of humans, he thought humorlessly. He had found an isolated pocket and wiped them from memory, burned their bones and taken their women for the comfort of his men. He’d only made a token effort this time.

  He’d had plans for the Alpha Star Colony, but the riches he had found them mining had intrigued him even more. The activities nearly sidetracked him, until he’d remembered his goal—to annihilate the humans.

  This time he’d accomplish it by blocking their access to the coveted Duschem Mineral, whispered to be used in creating the energy matrix of the stealth ships of the Earth Empire.

  It was also said they were integral to the formulation of the shields of the Predators of the Ru’Edan. Such highly coveted resources would be his. That alone was the real reason he needed the Alpha Star Colony. He laughed. It would be interesting to cut off the supply and starve their shipbuilding, but he had bigger plans.

  He stood, a sneering smile adorning his gray-toned skin. He raised a glass to the memory of comrades who’d died in the battle, then made his way slowly toward his desk screen. “Bring the girl and the maps. Let us see what we shall destroy and rebuild for our own purpo
ses.” Once more he flashed a grimacing smile, so feral in intensity that those around him gasped. Crick settled his mind and let the creation of plans begin. “Oh yes, Earth, you will rue the day you crossed me.”

  * * * *

  The crew of the Elector was on leave. Raven knew the last time this had happened had been well before he’d joined the crew and been sent through the Time Port. This time the crew had reason to celebrate. Their captain, Duvall McCord, had undergone the ceremony of communing to the lovely Mellissa, whom he’d saved on the Elector’s maiden voyage through the slipstream. The ceremony had cemented the link between them, even after the archaic wedding ceremony Mellissa had requested.

  Raven, together with the rest of the crew, waited anxiously to see what their next mission would be. Each of them had a reason to want to be aboard the Elector, some history with Crick Sur Banden that spurred them on.

  The stealth ship, the first of its class, had proven maneuverable and speedy, but there was consensus that soon they would join either a squadron or one of the fleets in order to fulfill its role.

  The crew knew it was only a matter of time until they were once more deployed, and of course, they knew that with Crick Sur Banden, the surety of battle occurring grew closer. For now though, they celebrated, caroused, and enjoyed themselves.

  “Jemma didn’t come?” Chowd spoke behind him, and Raven considered it a failure that he hadn’t been able to convince the young woman to set aside her rage for the day.

  “No. She’s still not ready to accept what was done.”

  Her transfer to the Earth Academy had been acrimonious, and she refused any contact with the crew and in particular Mellissa, who had always been her mentor and sister-like figure. She accepted the position of Admiralty cadet under duress, feeling that she didn’t need to be trained in the ways of the Admiralty, but her much younger age had made it imperative that she be appropriately educated and find some occupation.

  Raven had been chosen as go-between for Jemma and the crew due to his parents’ presence as professors at the academy, even though he knew it was unlikely that Jemma would have anything much to do with his parents as one ran the Science Exploration faculty and the other worked in the medical wing. Not that he had a close association with them. Their relationship had become strained when he chose active service, becoming a ship’s engineer, instead of the more academic role they would have preferred he investigate.

  Chapter 1

  Jemma burned with anger and stomped her way back to the room the academy had allocated her. It was as bland as any other institutional building with off-white walls and large plate-glass windows, but she didn’t pay it any attention.

  Each footstep echoed down the hall. Oh yeah, it was right for everyone else to look like they knew what they were doing with her life. They weren’t thrust into a new time against their will, she thought savagely. She had promised herself after the orphanage never to let anyone else make decisions for her.

  “Never again.” Thanks to Mellissa’s betrayal, she was back to square one. After the orphanage, her life had been her own...for a while anyway. She muttered a vicious curse under her breath. “I hate the academy. The stupid clothing rules, enforced bedtime, and the food.” Every aspect of her new life insulted her, because they treated her like some nameless, voiceless figure in some stupid institution. Just like she’d already survived once.

  She slapped her palm on the reader, waiting only for the door to slide open enough for her to slip into the room. “Close door and engage locks.”

  Most of the kids here—and she privately considered them to be nothing more than kids— had never faced anything more difficult than cleaning their rooms or making sure they didn’t exceed their budgets.

  She threw the papers she’d crushed into her pockets, onto the small but sturdy desk that sat in the corner of the room. What would they know about the loneliness of not having a family? They didn’t have a clue about making your own way in an alien world and culture. Yes, for all her humanity, the lifestyle changes made her feel like she may as well have been on Jupiter.

  Before all this occurred she had always been able to talk to Mellissa, but now she knew the truth. You couldn’t rely on anyone.

  She didn’t know where Mellissa was, either off with her husband on board his ship or still on leave for six weeks at the sumptuous spa resort on Mars. Their romance had captured the attention of the various media outlets. “Scum-sucking media hounds.” Her chest ached at the betrayal that lanced her to the soul.

  Mellissa had tried to explain why Jemma needed to attend the academy, including that she had age against her. Now that they lived until nearly two hundred, she was classified as a youngster. It didn’t matter that in her time she was old enough to make her own decisions, the current thinking was she was young.

  But the fact remained that there she sat, on her own again. When it came down to it, Mellissa had traded her in for someone else. She refused to admit it hurt.

  She hated this place, and that any skills she did have were unable to help her find her place in this new reality. The fact that she was different to everyone around her angered Jemma.

  Once again, she had to start over. She had done that before, after leaving the orphanage. She’d built a life for herself, but with the stroke of another’s decision she’d lost everything she’d gained. “For fuck’s sake, it’s so damned unfair! How could this happen again? How did I lose control of my life?” She raged as she stalked around the small cubicle they called a dormitory.

  Then the results she’d received for the exam passed through her mind, reinforcing her negative thoughts. A C-minus! For God’s sake, she had only been there three weeks when she’d sat the exam! The others? They’d had months of tutoring and teaching. She’d managed that on almost nothing!

  She heaved a sigh. How could her life have spun so totally out of control? One moment, she had been having this great affair with Andurs Feinstein. He had been very good in the sack—she grinned at that thought—and the next moment, she ended up on board some spaceship headed for the future.

  Even her time on the Elector hadn’t been that great. They’d been in such a hurry to get back to the future Earth, no one really had much to do with the person they probably thought somehow instigated the whole mess. Once Mellissa had been out of the SurgiTech, Jemma had seen she already had a place as part of the crew.

  Jemma seethed. Her request for release from the academy had been returned, denied by Grayson, which really meant it was Duvall, in his usual highhanded manner, pulling the strings. He didn’t even have the courtesy of telling her himself.

  “Oh no! He sends the engineer. Whoever heard of an engineer acting as a bloody courier anyway?” Jemma threw herself down onto the bed. At least they’d allowed her a room to herself so she could have some privacy. No small mercy, she thought. She would have probably done something heinous if they had stuck her with one of the young girls in the classes she attended. “Twirling-hair, boy-watching babies.” The snarl filled the air, and Jemma snorted.

  She hadn’t even had a freaking date in the whole time she had attended the academy. She felt surrounded with no one worth considering. Her choices, she acknowledged, were slim; either the professors—and no way would she let that happen—or little mama’s boys. Those youngsters all considered themselves so grown up, but the only ones she had seen were namby-pamby wimps with nothing to make them appealing to a woman like herself.

  Lying on the bed, looking at the ceiling, she thought over the courses set for her as mandatory. Basic self-defense, piloting—silently she acknowledged that was the best of all— and a make-up course on technical and engineering skills, basic self-sufficiency, and field medicals. Bah! They hadn’t even let her think about the skills that she might have to offer, unlike Mellissa, who had slotted right into a researcher role on the Elector. No, she’d been dropped, like a good little girl, to learn her place. She let loose a roar of anger, throwing a pillow at the door.

&nbs
p; “God! They won’t even let me on an air-bike!” She had to attend testing so that they could deem her capable. The stupid thing was, just about every cadet had a license while she stayed stuck on her feet. They didn’t even accept that she had a motorbike license in her time. Nope. That didn’t carry any weight in their eyes. Yet another sin to lay at their door. She shifted on the bed and continued to look at the ceiling. Back to the whole institutionalized mindset.

  * * * *

  Jemma slumped down the steps toward the communal mess and wove through the lines of students, many of whom had seen her and moved away to allow her access. No one stood up to her and her already legendary temper.

  She grabbed a meal and headed outside to the garden seats. Today she would be tested on an air-bike, having finally talked an instructor into letting her tackle the exam. Her spirits lifted a little, and she made her way through the meal. Jemma found it difficult to know what she was eating and since arriving had quickly learned not to ask. The one meal she had made that mistake with had been a Uranian Squirrel stew. She hadn’t finished throwing up until the following morning.

  Once she finished eating her meal, she disposed of the tray in the slot in the side of the refectory wall and headed for the large hanger where the cockpit simulator lay.

  She hurried in to see Professor Anston, who had agreed to trial her and if possible give her the necessary documentation for a license. His grizzled countenance and white hair did not do justice to the sharp mind encased in an older body. He inclined his head toward her.

  “Cadet Cardnew, come in. I was waiting for you.” He motioned her forward with an easy hand. “I have prepared a holo-simulation for you to try. I believe you said that previously you had driven a land-based automobile?”

  “Yes, Professor, we called them a motorbike in my time. It was just sweet, all chrome and blue and went like a shower of...umm, speed.” She grinned awkwardly. Jemma found it difficult to remember sometimes not to be so unguarded with an answer. She backed up, reminding herself once more of where she was and with whom.