Bev: The Interview (5 page)

Authors: Bobbi Ross

BOOK: Bev: The Interview

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Defying the Alliance: Book One

By Bobbi Ross

What captain in her right mind could resist saving the smoldering hot, ferocious alien dipped in delicious muscles and cooked to a golden sexy perfection?

Caspia Jones, the headstrong and sassy little captain of the Warbird Razor, was once a proud agent of law and order in her galaxy. That is until the Novokin Alliance invaded her world, enslaving her people and killing everyone near and dear to her. Most of her crew are dead. Her fleet disbanded. To save the last remaining crestfallen members of her ship from certain death, she had to run. Become a fugitive. An outlaw.
But Caspia couldn’t leave well enough alone.
She just had to go and free the slaves on the Deep Proteus space station, along with a hunky barbarian alien -who dares to challenge her authority, infuriates the prak out of her and yet tantalizes all of her body’s senses.
Now, her ship and crew are once again in the enemy’s crosshairs with nowhere to run.
Will she choose to break her Protectorate Captain’s code to save them? Will she go against everything she believes in? Everything she stands for? Will Caspia choose the mysterious, intoxicating, hazel green-eyed alien commander over her principles, her ship and the lives of her crew?
Alpha males, savage beasts and pregnant men, oh my!

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Chapter 1

"Capt. Jones, will these holographic disguises be enough to fool the bio-metric sensors?"

Before I had a chance to slap the young ensign into next week, Jaxx had him by the throat and pinned to the stained metal wall of the corridor. "Sheetek! I will not die today because of your incompetence!" My trusted friend, one-time chief of security and now second in command roared in fury.

No matter how well the holographic projections shielded our faces or the bio-metric scrambling capability of our brand new implants were, announcing my name on a Novokin Alliance controlled space station, was simply asking for trouble. I tapped Jaxx on his massive arm through the thick sleeve of his disguise. "Ease off my friend, he didn't mean any harm."

Jaxx was still fuming, and the ensign was turning my least favorite shade of purple. "No holograms or biometric sensors will do us any good Captain, if this sheetek is shouting our names to the sensors."

"Come on Jaxx, let him go." A few more hard stares and the man relented. The ensign, once again under the purview of the station’s artificial gravity dropped to the floor, gasping for air.

I knelt down beside him. "Ensign, do you remember what we discussed about stealth protocols before venturing onto the station?"

He shook his head vigorously, still trying to pull air through the swelling in his throat. I shot my normally peaceful first officer a look that could melt the hull of a ship, but he was too busy pacing to be fully chastised by it.
Males.
Pfft!

The ensign coughed a few times and then whispered in a raspy voice, “All communication is to take place
-cough-
using code names
-cough-
and never ever the real names of the crew
-cough-
."

“What’s the purpose of the protocol Ensign?” I deadpanned.

“…to prevent detection by hostile forces Captain –.” A short coughing spell cut the last of his words.

“Are you trying to get us killed ensign?” I growled.

“No Captain,” he gulped. His eyes pleaded with me while his face burned crimson like a red dwarf star. I grabbed the underside of his arm and helped him up to his feet. I thought of brushing him off, but the dirt added a certain sense of authenticity to his disguise.

When constantly running for your life, and looking over your shoulder becomes a way of life, there's not much time left for drills. Adhering to protocol begins to fall short, and yet more often than not, it's the edge we need to survive. Ensign Chandles was well aware of this. Still, I felt responsible.

“Ok then Ensign, keep your head on straight and your tongue in check."

“Yes, Captain!” He responded with a sharp salute, then turned to my second in command Jaxx. “I’m truly sorry Sir. It will not happen again,” he assured the large man behind me, while dropping his chin to his chest. The contrite look in his face matched the sincerity in his voice.

“Ensign go on up ahead and keep watch for hostiles...Dismissed” I commanded, and he scurried off down the corridor.

Once the young recruit was out of earshot, I turned to my second in command whose rage had simmered down to a light boil. "We've got a timetable to keep my friend, and you know at this stage in your pregnancy your hormones are wreaking total havoc with your system."

I began to rub his upper back directly over his spine at his fourth dorsal vertebra. The tension in his wide shoulders relaxed instantly and he let out an audible sigh. At least I’d hoped it was a sigh. The book said that in his condition he’d be prone to multiple gaseous releases, with delayed olfactory recognition for the non-Floturans in the vicinity. And they might be deadly.

He dropped his voice to a near whisper. "I'm sorry Captain. These praking emotions are impossible to contain sometimes. One moment I’m euphoric like flowers in the spring, the next I’m depressed like the great willow, or worse I’m spiraling into a violent rage like I'm being uprooted.” In a decisively uncharacteristic move of my normally calm, well-restrained and rational friend, he folded his massive green arms around me squeezing the air out of my lungs. Pregnancy sure was doing a job on him. I could feel the two spawning buds on his large bellies kick and wiggle while he wept on my shoulder. Small drops of green ran down the sleeve of my well-worn brown coat.

"It's alright my friend." I consoled him by making small circles with light pressure over his mid-back just below his shoulder blades to stimulate the release of a balancing hormone chloraxin; a midwifery technique I had also learned from the book. If we made it off the station alive, I'd be sure to disseminate a copy of
Spiritual Mid-husbandry: Special Edition for Floturan Males
to every member of the crew. Mandatory reading.

"How in the dark abyss of Torgan infested waters did you find the chance to go home to reproduce?" I teased, deliberately changing the topic. Sure we had missions that separated us for days at a time, but not that long. Especially, considering his home world was way on the other side of Protectorate space.

I clenched my fist and drew in a sharp breath. No, not Protectorate space, we lived in Novokin Alliance space now. Even thinking the words turned my mouth to ash.

He wiped leaking eyes, dripping chlorophyll laden tears onto the grimy deck below and further staining my brown on brown disguise that resembled the official uniform of a Dauniete captain.

"As I told you before Captain, for some things you just make the time,” he replied and I could hear the smile in his voice. Good, I needed his mind right, if we were to live through today’s mission.

"The truth is I met my budmate 3 months ago. You probably remember her, she was the engineer on the Galorian freighter we docked with in sector 45. It was a surprise to me too. I mean, how was I to know that the hot Floturan petal I was flirting with would have a sexy pollinator as a roommate?" a smug little grin split his face, as he bounced his eyebrows suggestively.
Oh brother.

Now my longtime friend was practically tittering at the memory. I've been dry as a desert planet for almost three years and he's having a three-way harvest festival.
I'm sorry I asked.

The strain of his two big bellies on his large frame was evident with his forward drooping shoulders. His torso leaned backwards in a precarious angle, struggling to balance the extra weight. Green sweat rolled down his forehead and he looked, well... kind of green even for his people.

I felt a pang of guilt. All things being normal I would never have endangered his life on an away mission in his condition. I have way more respect for fathers-to-be. But having a crew of only nine people, on a ship that's meant to be manned by over 100 beings made everyone except my pilot and my conscience irreplaceable. Our supplies were dangerously low, mostly because we’d aborted the last three attempts to resupply in order to evade capture by the annoyingly vigilant Alliance authorities. We were lucky enough to land a deal here at Deep Proteus space station 5. That being said, no one knew the inner workings of a Deep Proteus space station as well as Jaxx, having served on one for over 15 years. Plus he set the rendezvous up through his private network, so the whole deal hinged on him being there. "Okay J, this is your contact, so I'll let you take point."

"Yes Captain. Give me a minute here. Please
-sniffle-
Ensign, do you have a nose cloth?” Jaxx called to him across the corridor. “I think something on the station is setting off my allergies," he blubbered.

Oh boy
, this was going to be a long night. The waterworks continued to flow for another several minutes while the ensign tenderly tried to console the much larger man.

"For gosh sakes,” I groaned. “Just stay behind me and let me handle this."

Exasperated as I was, I pushed past the two of them. The coordinates of our meeting put it just around the next corner, the largest junction on the maintenance level of the station. I checked the time. 19:05 and we were supposed to be there at 19:00.
Skeck!

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Defying the Alliance: Book 1