Starline Page 3

  “Who or what are these Roo-E-Dan you lot keep on about?” she asked up front. He shifted in his chair, not wanting to share a lot of information with her.

  “Many, many years ago, humans formed an alliance. Earth was becoming politically unstable. Some believed it was a direct result of overcrowding. For years the shuttle program had been delayed and the focus of inquiries after a slew of accidents. Once the first successful relaunch, it was determined that a push needed to be made to populate other planets. Scientists worked around the clock, seeking alternatives.”

  Duvall paused and glanced down at his coffee. Taking a sip, he let that information sink in before starting again.

  “In order to travel further, humans needed to improve their spacecraft. It became a priority. Within twenty years, man was at the point of colonizing the first planet. One success led to another, and we became not just more adept, but also more capable of long voyage travel. I suppose you would call it a form of scientific evolution.”

  She watched his eyes as he explained what he knew, and he could see the disbelief in her face.

  “Anyway, once humans finally got beyond the boundaries of our galaxy, we found many habitable planets and also other species. The alliances we formed outside our solar system and galaxy with these species improved our technology, which gave us the drive to move beyond the area of space we knew. The alliance had been working quite well until we met the Ru’Edan some…oh, I don’t know, hundred or so years ago. They believed we were going to invade their pre-determined spatial boundaries. They didn’t want us in their space. We needed more planets. As a result, we’ve been at war with them now for at least eighty of those years. In the last fifteen, we have operated in a state of diplomatic truce.”

  He looked at her now, watching him. He could see the skepticism on her face.

  “However, during this time, both sides have sought out the leader of the Ru’Edan rogues. Their leader, Crick Sur Banden—” He watched her eyes closely, looking for a flicker of recognition, anything at all. “—has managed to elude capture. He’s working behind the scenes to derail the process that is currently in place, attacking our ships and seeking ways to disrupt our Empire. Any expansion throughout the areas which we have pinpointed as having possible habitable planets has been halted until we can find him.”

  She watched him. Disbelieving. Barsha! He may need to prove that his assertions were real. Frustration made him want to grab her and haul her off to the bridge and show her the reality of the inky blackness of space. Damn! He would never have thought that working with those from the past could be such a nightmare. Thank Eshra so few ships used this technology. Imagine more disbelieving types having to hear about their advances? He couldn’t suppress the small shudder that shook his body.

  “Look, I don’t know what you think you are doing, or who is playing this joke, but I just want to go home. Let me go now, and I won’t tell the police. I’ll keep it to myself.” She sat forward in the seat, leaning on the table, hands clenched and eyes narrowed. He could see her uncertainty in the pallor of her skin and the tiny drops of sweat that beaded her upper lip.

  “You think I’m kidding?” He grabbed her arm and dragged her to the port. “Do you really think this is a joke?” he demanded of her. “See that asteroid?” He pointed to one, which seemed so far away. “Do you really think that is made up? What about the Earth then?” He pointed to a distant sphere that was rotating slowly, the distance making it look like a tiny ball. Getting smaller. He knew she could see it clearly now, as she swallowed. “Do you think that is made up? Tell me then, how did we do it? How did we get you here without anyone seeing us?” he asked, his words as hard and stormy as her eyes when she looked at him.

  He dragged her back to her seat. The fear in her face startled him. His face wrinkled in disgust at himself. He’d really mucked this up so far.

  “I want to go home,” she whispered from lips that trembled.

  “You can’t.” He said the words with a steely voice. He felt his face harden, the muscles ticking in anger and exasperation. “We’ll be moving out of this zone shortly, and you’re coming with us. You have seen too much, and the Ru’Edan will be searching for you. Whether I want it or not, you’re stuck here. I suggest you accept your new reality.”

  He rose and indicated with his hand that she should accompany him. He collected cups and plates, glanced at the half-eaten sandwich on her plate, and looked toward her. She blushed, the tinge of pink coloring her pale skin. He dropped the plates on the side of the dispenser and depressed a button. They disappeared.

  They took slow steps back to the front of the room, down the stairs, and through a door that opened into a sort of corridor with what looked like cubicles and, at the end, a small room. The door whispered open, and he stepped inside to one side and waited for her to join him.

  There is much to do, he told himself, and no time to sugar-coat it for her. Deep down, he thought of comforting her, but he ruthlessly shoved those thoughts aside.

  * * * *

  His face betrayed an emotion; for a moment Mellissa thought she saw pity, but in an instant it was gone.

  She stopped in the doorway briefly and looked around. It looked like a set off one of the sci-fi programs she watched. A single seat sat in the middle of the bridge, and a bank of seats circled around it, two more situated in the front at the bottom of a number of steps, all gray with black seating. There was some sort of computer screen in front of each seat and a large window-looking thing, rather like a windscreen in a car. It’s eerie, she thought, stumbling forward.

  “Captain, we are ready to go to jump.”

  She noticed an increase in the vibration beneath her feet as soon as the young man sitting in one of the front seats made the comment. She closed her eyes briefly and waited.

  “Prepare for jump speed. Find a station and buckle in,” a disembodied voice announced. Once more, she jumped.

  She jerked toward the seat Captain McCord motioned to, and she cast around looking for buckles, noting that the seats felt better than those on a plane. They conformed to the body. A set of large hands came to the rescue. She heard him sigh as he fastened the belts, strapping them over both shoulders and across her lap. Then he sat and buckled himself in.

  A large desk-like feature sat between them with, apparently, an intercom system, since he pressed a button and said, “Captain McCord. Go to jump.”

  The ship seemed to buck, then a sensation of pressure from everywhere surprised her. For an instant, a strong emotion passed over his face. Pity? Then it was gone, controlled in the cold face that she watched intently.

  “No! I want to go home,” she wailed, but something told her it was too late.

  Mellissa sat looking at the captain. She could see his eyes scanning her, taking everything in. Why didn’t he understand? She wanted to go home. And if he thought she hadn’t realized he was fishing for information before...well, that was his problem. She had read in her research books about types of questioning techniques, knew what he was attempting to do. She knew nothing about any of the people or places he had mentioned.

  Her choices had been stripped from her, and she felt sick. She had done the victim thing once before and had promised herself never again. Not after all those years in the orphanage, where she’d had no control of her own destiny. Now, years later, there she was again in the same boat. She straightened her back. No way! I will have some control over my life, she promised herself.

  She started pulling at the buckles, but his commanding voice told her to wait. Anger, despair, and fear roiled in the pit of her stomach as she worked to make sense of what she was experiencing. She looked up and saw pity his eyes.

  She had so many questions to ask, but the main one included why? Why her? She had played by the rules she’d learned in the orphanage. She considered herself a contributing and upstanding member of society, so how could this possibly happen to her? She sniffled. Don’t whine. Get out there and accept the trials you�
�re given. The voice of Mother Superior rang in her head again. The woman had loathed shows of strong emotion, and no doubt this would count as such.

  “Where are we going?” Mellissa asked, traces of her tears evident in the husky question. But she would be damned if she would give in to the tears. She turned her eyes on him.

  “Back to where I came from. Earth Empire Admiralty on Aenna.”

  “Aenna? Where’s that?”

  “It’s really a glorified asteroid, located between Mars and Jupiter,” he said, relaxing into his seat. “Admiralty has its strategic offices there, but first we have to get to the Time Port outside the solar system, just beyond Eris.”

  “Time Port?” She leaned forward. “What is a Time Port, and why do we have to get there first, and where in hell is Eris?”

  She dragged her eyes away from his and looked around. The gunmetal gray that met her eyes again teamed with sensitive lighting. Black streaked with slashing lights filled the ports. He sighed and huffed out a breath, and she could tell that dealing with her frustrated him to no end. Once more she questioned the sanity of what he had said, and what she had seen.

  Quickly undoing the buckles with fumbling fingers, she rose and hurried to the window, looking out. Nothing made sense though. Nothing looked even remotely like anything she could see on Earth or anywhere else. This so had to be a nightmare, she told herself, hoping it would settle the nerves that floated around her brain, buzzing anxiously.

  Okay, she could go along with this; after all, she would wake up back in her office after her fertile imagination had given her fodder for her book. Right? But what if this was really happening? A click sounded, then a hand settled on her shoulder, breaking her reverie.

  Warm, heavy, and somehow reassuring, that hand gently turned her back toward the most magnificent man she had ever laid eyes on. Duvall McCord. Captain of the stealth ship Elector. His eyes mesmerized her.

  “It’ll be all right,” he said. “We’ll make this right for you, but you can’t go back.” He looked at her, and she felt a charge of something—some kind of new emotion, desire—flash through her system.

  Then she stopped, the internal commentary jarring her. Yeah, like some mouse like me could ever interest a man like this. Look at those shoulders, abs, and arms, not to mention that face. Yeah. As if. She mentally shook herself. Obviously, I need some male companionship, or at least a frontal lobotomy, she thought, snorting again.

  “Thanks.” She glanced away, her mind settling back to the bigger issue. He said she couldn’t go home. “Nothing can make this right for me,” Mellissa explained, slowly shaking her head. “If I can’t go back, what can I do?” A bitter laugh erupted from her. “The me that I am will no longer exist.” The sensation of being lost in a warp settled within her mind.

  “I’m going to call my second, Grayson, in to get you started on the identification process. The sooner that’s done, the sooner you can begin the integration process. There’ll be some learning ahead, but maybe we can learn some things from you too. Let yourself get acclimated first. I’m sure there will be an occupation suitable for you, and your skills will be evident.” The vibration of his voice soothed her.

  She allowed him to usher her back to the seat.

  He quickly called on Grayson—Ah, the disembodied voice from before, she concluded on hearing his acknowledgment—then, explaining he had duties to see to, he headed to the door, stopping just before it closed to say, “I know this seems tough, but there really is a lot riding on this mission. I just don’t have choices either.”

  Then he acknowledged a tall, Nordic man who slipped in through the door before he left.

  “Alice, welcome to Wonderland,” she said aloud.

  Chapter 3

  Lying on a bunk in a room—cabin, she reminded herself—she considered what had happened to her since the morning. Nothing in her wildest dreams could have prepared her for what had occurred.

  “This is a dream,” she assured herself. “Nothing more than the figment of my overactive imagination. I’ll wake up and find none of this happened.” If only she could truly believe that, but the things she had seen since waking in what had looked like a medical suite told her otherwise. How could a perfectly ordinary morning lead to such an overwhelming change in her life?

  She stared sightlessly at the military-grade gray room. In fact, everything seemed gray-colored. Dull. Bland. If this was a future reality, why not discover a new shade of military gray? she wondered with sour humor, then mentally corrected herself for the negative thought.

  Rolling onto her side, she pulled up the sheets and blankets and settled in for an uncomfortable sleep when a klaxon alarm surprised her. “Holy… What the hell is happening?”

  Scrambling out of the bunk, pulling on her shirt and jeans, and slipping into the slippers she had arrived in as quickly as she could, she opened the door to see a handful of crewmen running down the corridor. One grabbed her by the arm and pushed her, thrusting her roughly back into her cabin. “You need to remain here, out of the way.” He said no more as the door whispered shut, and she stood alone.

  A voice called through the noise, “Emergency lockdown procedure commencing.”

  She tottered over to the bed and collapsed. Feeling quite useless, she gripped the side of the bed, feeling ill.

  An interminable period followed, though probably only a quarter of an hour or so. The wail of the klaxon finally ceased. She sagged on the bed, breathing heavily. She hadn’t realized that her muscles were so tense until she relaxed them. A brief bout of dizziness followed, and following tried and true methods of dealing with it, she leaned forward, taking controlled breaths. The room remained in silence.

  “Maybe I should wait here? At least until Captain McCord tells me it’s okay.” The echoing words calmed her fears a little.

  She stayed in the cabin, listening for the thud of boots on the decking, but she heard nothing. After a while had passed, she lay down and drifted into a restless sleep.

  A noise woke her, and she sat up groggily. Her eyes opened, and there he stood. Impressive. Her warrior captain. Whoa there! Where in God’s name did that come from?

  “Are you okay?” he asked simply, helping her to rise from the bed. His face showed nothing, but in his eyes she could just detect a hint of concern. His hand felt soft on her arm.

  “What happened? One minute everything was fine, and the next we have sirens and running crew? Was it something with the ship?” She had a momentary panic that it would stop dead in space and they would all die. Claustrophobia such as she had never experienced washed over her.

  “No and yes. Someone tampered with a setting in engineering. Thankfully, we were able to deal with it swiftly,” he assured her. “But I think whoever did it knows that while we have both you and the information we retrieved, we are a danger to them. I’m going to move you to my cabin for the duration of the journey as a precaution.”

  She looked at him, disbelieving. What? No way. Mellissa wasn’t prepared to question why she felt so strongly, she just reacted.

  * * * *

  As Duvall watched Mellissa he realized that she could be dangerous to his sanity. The need to protect this woman overshadowed the anger he’d felt over someone tampering with his ship. Nothing in his experience had ever prepared him for this. He forced his mind back to the current situation.

  “Nope, no way. Isn’t going to happen.” Her retort came swiftly.

  Duvall looked at the woman. She couldn’t be serious? By Eshra’s sake. He certainly didn’t look forward to sharing his cabin with the woman that was turning him into a walking bundle of mixed feelings. His temper was frayed, and he couldn’t concentrate on his job. All he wanted to do was grab her and hold on tight. Kiss her. The situation was deeper than anyone could see on the surface, and he told himself to get his head into the game. She was the key somehow to the whole plan, he knew, and no way would he jeopardize everything by letting his emotions run rampant. Or his physical attraction
either.

  Her cheeks flushed pink against a pale face. Her eyes appeared shadowed, and he could detect the weariness about her. Her shoulders drooped and her lush lips etched downward. The urge to touch her rose, but he suppressed it. He wasn’t sure how in Eshra’s name he would keep his hands off her. Ever since he’d met her, his overwhelming desire had been to kiss her senseless. It was beyond him how one woman had turned him inside out. Since their meeting, he’d been telling his brain to slow down and think through the situation.

  “I don’t have the manpower to ensure your safety, so you’ll move to the captain’s cabin until such time as we get to the Admiralty. Or until we find out who is looking for you. It’ll take us another two days to reach the Time Port, another day to get through, and one more to our destination. Four ship days at worst, barring anything unforeseen.” He hoped his voice soothed her.

  “But what about you? Where will you sleep?”

  “In my ready room—just off the cabin.” And boy, wouldn’t that be comfortable? The couch was barely wide enough for two to sit side by side. But when needs must, he thought to himself. “I can be with you in an instant, and you’ll be safer there than anywhere else on the Elector.”

  Without any further arguments, he pulled her along swiftly toward his cabin and the start of what he quietly considered would be his own private hell.

  * * * *

  Mellissa once more fought for sleep, this time in Captain McCord’s cabin. The musky scent of his body rising from the sheets and pillow surrounded her. It seemed to pull her in ways she couldn’t imagine, make her wish for things she couldn’t have. Namely the sexy captain who had pulled her into an intrigue she couldn’t possibly conceive. To top things off, parts of her body throbbed insistently, and the thrumming of the engines exacerbated it.