Star Warrior: A SciFi Alien Romance (10 page)

That couldn’t be any good.

“The Admiralty hasn’t released many details of the patrol ship that went missing on the outskirts of the system, but they did indicate that the commander of the ship was Talia Tanaka, the commander famed for losing the ship Alemeraine in an engagement on a border colony world of no consequence…”

I let out a growl and would’ve thrown something at the television if there was anything to throw. Maybe it was a good thing there wasn’t anything in the room.

“We’re joined now by Admiral Smith of the Sol Defense branch of the fleet,” Toril said.

My picture disappeared, replaced by the hardassed face of Admiral Smith. A man I recognized well. He was the one who made it clear that my continued advancement in the fleet was contingent entirely upon my willingness to hop into the bunk with him. He was even more ugly on the screen than in person, and that was saying something.

“Right, I don’t have much time. The fleet is continuing search operations on the outer edge of the system and all civilian traffic is being kept out of the region until we can assure safety.”

“But that makes it sound like there’s some danger out there on the edge of the system, Admiral,” Toril said.

The bastard. Of course there was danger out there on the edge of the system. The Livisk were able to jump in, take out a patrol ship, and jump out of the system before the fleet could mobilize to stop their strike force. I imagined that right about now there were a few people with gold bars on their shoulders having kittens and wondering if their career was going to last.

I could take some satisfaction in knowing Smith was at the top of the list.

The screen fuzzed a bit and Smith’s face changed. I looked around the room again but of course there was no one in there controlling the show. I had no doubt that there was someone controlling a recorded show somewhere. That fuzzing meant someone was going through a highlight reel made especially for me.

“As we all know, Captain Tanaka has had trouble in the past. This posting was her last chance before being drummed out of the service, and the loss of her patrol ship is tragic, but unsurprising,” he said.

The recording fuzzed again and then went out. I fell back against the bed. The message was clear enough, and whatever sparkly blue Livisk bastard had decided to record that information and share it with me was smart enough to understand the implications.

The fleet was keeping the old home system from going into hysterics, and keeping their jobs at the same time, by engaging in a good old fashioned cover up. And I was the fall guy. Girl. Captain.

Whatever.

I rolled to the side and felt something different from the bedding. I gathered the material in my fist and held it up. Blinked. It was a sheer blue dress that sparkled. Almost as though someone was trying to make me look as close to a Livisk woman as possible.

Ugh.

There was no way I could’ve missed the thing when I did my first inspection of the room. No, someone was messing with a teleporter or something by putting this here and now. Someone was fucking with me what with showing me that recording showing there would be no help from humanity and then showing me a dress that would be more suited for cocktail hour than anything else.

Damn it.

“Whatever you’re thinking, it isn’t going to happen!” I shouted at the empty room. “I’m not going to be your plaything!”

I looked down at the dress again. Thought about my options. There was no exit to the room. No access to the outside world aside from that brief view of humanity throwing me under the bus, to coin an ancient phrase that had no meaning in modern civilization. If I was going to make my escape and best this Jorav guy then I’d have to meet with him face to face.

And that meant putting on the damn dress. I sighed again and hoped they didn’t have any sort of monitoring equipment on as I started pulling off the tattered remains of my fleet uniform and slipped into something a little more comfortable.

This was ridiculous. I was trapped in enemy territory and I was putting on evening wear. Still, it was necessary if I was going to make my escape, assuming I had any hope of escaping this truly fucked up situation I found myself in.

10: Dinner

Jorav:

I paced back and forth in my dining chamber, one eye on the monitor set up in the human’s room. Already I was thinking of it in those terms even though that room had been a sealed part of my palace for many years now.

I might as well get some use out of this massive relic of a time when my family held influence. Of a time before I let my quest for the glory of the Ascendency get in the way of pesky things like trying to continue my family line.

I glanced at the monitor again. At the human. Ran my eyes over the screen’s approximation of her figure. Even with the distance of the monitors installed in her room she was captivating. A seductive exotic creature from another world. Looking at her I could see what my brothers who preferred the company of humans were thinking.

I’d always thought them a little soft in the armor plating, but now I understood.

The door to her chamber opened and I turned to face this woman who had so intrigued me. She’d also stabbed me to be fair, but if anything that just added to the intrigue. Here was a female who was self-assured and had a warrior spirit in a way that I hadn’t seen in any other female since, well, that terrible day when I first met this human.

A day I couldn’t fault her for. After all, she was just exhibiting that warrior spirit and craftiness in a way that I hadn’t expected from a human. I pushed thoughts of that day aside, though, and bowed to her formally. She didn’t return the bow, but that was to be expected. Humans typically didn’t have any concept of what was proper behavior. Not that my people usually spent much time trying to beat those social niceties into them.

Slave labor didn’t have time for social graces. I frowned as I thought of that. Her crew was fated to that labor, and she might not care for it if that was discovered. Best to not mention it. Particularly with the way her eyes cast about the room looking for all the world like a Great Horned Vornsk Beast in the lower tropics that had been cornered in a hunt.

Though she was a far sight more attractive than any Great Horned Vornsk Beast I’d ever taken down in the hunt. This hunt was far more dangerous, at that, despite her lack of claws or pointed teeth.

Her eyes locked on mine and she still had that look of an animal that knows it’s being hunted and is looking for any opportunity to escape. That was only fair, given the circumstances. If I was put in the same situation I would probably be looking around for an escape in much the same way.

“I’m glad you decided to join me,” I said.

Her eyes narrowed. I was familiar enough with human emotion to know that wasn’t a good sign. It certainly wasn’t the look of desire that I needed from this human. A need that I couldn’t explain, but then again there never had been any particular reason to a man’s desire.

“It’s not like I had much of a choice after that little shit show you put on for me,” she said.

My own eyes narrowed, though in confusion. Not anger. “Shit show? I’m afraid I sometimes get lost in the intricacies of your language.”

She brushed past me and I felt a small twitch. The last time she got that close to me she had put a blade in me, after all. Though I wasn’t wearing any sort of weapon this time around. Better to not give her the opportunity for mischief when I wasn’t in the middle of a medical bay where my wounds could be immediately tended to. Besides, I was confident that I could overpower this human with no trouble if it came down to it.

She didn’t have her power armor to make this an unfair fight now.

“I apologize. That was regrettable, but I needed to convey to you that there truly is no hope of you being rescued from your current situation,” I said.

“And what is my current situation?” she said. She moved over and took a seat at a table I’d had laid out with various bits of cuisine the computer had told me were human delicacies. She plucked a fruit called a “grape” off of a plate and took a bite. Grimaced and put it back down.

Maybe the computer wasn’t as good at reconstituting human cuisine as I’d hoped. I should have grabbed examples of their food from their ship before we evacuated the human system. I’d had other things on my mind at the time, though.

“Your current situation is that you are being held on the homeworld of the Livisk Ascendency by General Jorav Ravisk. Uncle to the emperor and conqueror of human worlds.”

Talia speared another piece of food. The computer told me it came from the liquid of one of their food animals that they allowed to sit for long periods of time until it solidified. The idea turned my stomach. It was nothing like chasing down your own food on foot and tearing into its flesh as was right and proper.

Not that civilization allowed us such pleasures too terribly often. The price of advancement.

I paused. “You don’t seem particularly impressed.”

She chewed on the yellow hunk for a moment and nodded. Apparently the computer had been more accurate with that taste. Finally when she was finished she looked up at me and smiled.

“I’m sorry. Should I be impressed?”

“But I just said that…”

“It seems to me that someone with all the impressive titles you have shouldn’t be out in human space running raiding missions,” she said. “You seem more like the type to lead battles, except you aren’t leading battles. You’re running the sort of missions that even an insane pirate wouldn’t run. So what’s the real story?”

I felt myself deflate. At first I thought her not being impressed was a product of humans not having a proper understanding of Livisk politics. Imperial politics. Not that crazed notion they had of counting everyone in their population for governing decisions.

Madness.

I sat on the other end of the table. Strange utensils from another world rattled. I reached out and took one of the grapes she’d sampled and put back. Allowed it to roll around in my mouth for a moment before grimacing and putting it back. Yes, the computer really hadn’t done a good job of that at all.

“I was beginning to think you wouldn’t join me,” I said.

She locked eyes with me as she ate as though she hadn’t had a meal in some time. Which was partially true. It had been several weeks as the humans reckoned it since I captured her ship, but she’d spent most of that time in a medical stasis field healing most of the injuries she suffered in the attack. The medics told me that she might be more hungry than usual as the body compensated for the combination of time in a stasis field and healing that couldn’t quite be fueled entirely by supplements delivered as she slept.

“You know I had no choice, right?” she said. “As you said, I’m your captive. What am I supposed to do about it?”

“You know you are singularly infuriating,” I said. “I think that’s what I like about you the most.”

She stopped her eating to regard me with a grin. A grin that showed all of her teeth, and made her look more predatory than friendly, though I knew that piece of body language meant something completely different on the human worlds than it did on the worlds of the Ascendency.

“What you like about me? Why general, you’re going to make a girl blush talking like that,” she said. The smile disappeared and she pointed one of those strange pronged utensils at me. “But don’t think for a moment that I’m going to willingly become your human pleasure girl or anything like that.”

I blinked. “What are you talking about?”

The pronged implement waved through the air. “Don’t play stupid with me. I know full well what you Livisk do with human women you captured. Isn’t that what happened to the women in my crew?”

“I don’t know what happened to your crew,” I said. “That was none of my concern as soon as I got back to this world.”

“But I was your concern? Why? Because you thought I’d look good in this ridiculous dress?”

I looked at the human. Really looked at her. I prided myself on being able to read my enemies. It was something that had made me a formidable warrior in the last succession war that brought my nephew to power, and it was something that had served me well decades ago when the war with the humans was sparked by a first contact gone terribly wrong. Then again most first contacts my species had with others out there among the stars tended to go terribly wrong. Part of that warrior spirit that had served us so well until we got into a fight with the humans.

Still, that ability to read my enemies served me well now. It told me that no matter how she blustered, she was hiding something. There was a hitch to her voice as she spoke of that dress that I’d gone to such great pains to procure in the right size. There was the way her breathing picked up as she spoke to me and her voice took on a breathless quality. I had limited experience with human arousal patterns, but it seemed that this human was more than interested and trying to cover it up.

“You lie,” I said, standing and moving around the table. She looked up at me and blinked, suddenly looking helpless as I towered over her. Looking nothing like the strong human who’d nearly run me through with my own sword.