Star Warrior: A SciFi Alien Romance (6 page)

“Captain, I just did a search of the enemy ship’s database to see if it matched anything. It looks like this thing fits the mass and acceleration profile of a Vornask class battlecruiser,” Kehn said.

Everyone looked up at that. Good. Nice to know that something could get their attention.

“Time until it’s in range of weapons?” I asked.

“Already in range, captain, sorry,” Smith said. I could tell from the sound of her voice that she was shaken. Though I couldn’t help but reflect that she wouldn’t seem nearly so shaken if she’d taken the drills I tried to run seriously.

“Should I fire captain?” she asked.

“You’ll fire only when I give the order,” I said. “We still don’t know what…”

Only as soon as I said that alarms flashed all over my chair. Emergency notifications sounded out, long and shrill, and were silenced. The holoprojector in the ceiling sputtered to life, and my breath caught as we all got confirmation of exactly who was out there closing in on us fast, and it definitely wasn’t anyone from the Fleet coming out here for a readiness test.

“They’re breaking through communications captain,” Nomura said. Then she turned and got a good look at the face hovering in the middle of the command center.

A face I recognized. The very same Livisk that I’d held captive for a brief moment at that battle that destroyed my reputation and my career in one explosive moment. How could he be here in the center of human space?

Because he was likely trying to get some revenge for what I’d done to him. General revenge against humanity in total, but it appeared fate had thrown us together once more and this time he’d caught me with a far less trained crew.

Damn it.

My breath caught. I’d heard that the Livisk put any conception of masculinity we had on earth to shame, but nothing could have prepared me for the shock of seeing that perfect specimen hovering in the center of the bridge once more. Even with the distance of space between us he was delicious. Involuntarily I found myself leaning forward, my mouth parted, as I stared at this creature. He looked more or less human aside from the strange ridges running along his forehead which was a vestigial leftover from some ancient ancestor that used horns.

He was also bare from the chest up. I knew that muscular chest would be almost impenetrable to any sort of weapon we’d come up with. They were notoriously tough, with an almost armor-like quality which made it very difficult to defeat them in hand-to-hand combat and made me very glad that I was in the fleet where ideally I’d never have to face one of them in person. Though of course our last encounter with one another proved that was more a guideline than an actual rule. That skin would be blue, but the holoprojector was an older model that rendered everything in a uniform green color that ruined the effect somewhat.

More than that, though, there was the handsome features on that face that took my breath away. I felt more like a school girl with a silly crush at the academy than the captain of an interstellar spacecraft facing the single worst enemy humanity had ever found amongst the stars.

I glanced around and saw that the alien had the same affect on the other women in the command center. Smith and Nomura both leaned forward. Both stared with their mouths hanging open in much the same way that I was. I shook my head and returned my attention to the alien regarding me.

He might be breathtaking, but he was the enemy. I wasn’t going to moon over the enemy. I was going to destroy him, damn it. I’d beaten him once and I could beat him again.

“Livisk commander, you are in violation of earth space. You will remove your ship from human territory immediately or face…”

I didn’t get to finish. He spoke and his booming voice washed over me. I felt a thrill at that voice. It was like a caress. It was commanding. It was every bit the commander I tried, and failed, to be. Everyone in the command center fell silent at that command.

“Quiet, human,” he said. “I am General Jorav t’Thal of the Livisk Ascendency. Surrender your ship or be destroyed.”

“Excuse me?” I said. “You come to our territory and threaten to destroy us? Do you remember how this ended the last time we met?”

Okay, so maybe I felt a touch nervous at his words. His ship had the power to wipe us from the skies completely and utterly. There was no match between my cruiser and a Livisk Vornask battlecruiser. We weren’t close to equally matched like we had been the last time we got in touch. It was no contest, but we had the entire fleet at our disposal and he was just one Livisk ship out here far from home.

“The Fleet will not stand for this. Even now they’ll be launching ships to come to our aid. Leave now and save yourself,” I said.

The general chuckled. It wasn’t a pleasant chuckle. It was a laugh that said he was in complete control of this situation and I was a child playing at being in command. I hated that he made me feel so inadequate even as that sent a chill running through me. I was not inferior to this alien, damn it.

“Those would be bold words if my communications officer wasn’t jamming all communications between you and your home world,” he said. “I admire your dedication to your duty, but surrender now and you will be spared.”

“Spared to be slaves to you and yours? No thank you. I know exactly what you do to human women you capture,” I said. “Nomura, do something about this.”

“On it, captain,” she said. A moment later the alien disappeared.

“He gone?” I asked.

“As best as I can tell,” Nomura replied.

“And was he telling the truth about them jamming any signals back to earth?”

“Yes,” Nomura said, looking down.

“Would’ve been nice to know that before I talked a mean game with him,” I muttered. “No matter. Lieutenant Smith, shields up please. Fire at will.”

The hum in the ship changed slightly as power was diverted to the shield fields, and not a moment too soon. The ship rocked as we were presumably hit with a salvo from the Livisk ship. A salvo that we couldn’t possibly hope to stand up against for very long.

“Launch several distress beacons along with the first torpedo salvo,” I said.

“Captain? Won’t that waste valuable weapon space?”

I gritted my teeth. This would’ve been so much easier if I had a halfway competent crew.

“Just do it, Smith. Nothing we fire at this guy is going to hurt his ship enough for us to get away. Those emergency beacons are our only hope!”

The ship continued to rock under the blasts. I could only hope that one of those beacons would get through to the Fleet in time for them to send help. Otherwise we were screwed.

6: Ultimatum

Jorav:

I leaned back in my chair and had to stop for a moment to catch my breath. I didn’t know the humans made their females so attractive, but I didn’t have time for that. She might be strangely exotic and attractive in that uniquely human way, but at the end of the watch she was an enemy and I had a job to do.

“They’re charging their weapons. Looks like they already had torpedoes loaded sir,” the weapons officer said.

I frowned at my readout. Several of their weapons impacted against the ship, to be sure, but there were several that went wild. No, not wild. They were heading straight back into the accursed human home system.

“Target those torpedoes and fire everything you have at them!” I shouted.

The weapons officer turned his attention to the torpedoes without questioning me. It was a testament to how well trained he was that he didn’t hesitate before following orders. Unfortunately it was going to be entirely too little, too late. I saw our weapons shoot one, two down, but two more made it past the bubble of our jamming equipment and immediately started broadcasting a human danger signal.

Everyone on the command deck went silent. They turned to look at me. Particular communications and weapons. It was clear from the pale blue on their faces that they expected to be killed for their failure, but I didn’t operate my ships in that way.

“End this quickly,” I said. “It would appear our foray into the human’s home system is over. I want us to at least take prisoners from this ship before we leave its husk behind for the rescue to find.”

The men went back to work and I fell back in my chair. Would taking out one ship on the edge of the human home system be enough to restore my honor? It was daring. More daring than anything any commander had attempted in decades. Yet at the same time I couldn’t help but feel that I’d failed. I’d intended to raid farther in their system. To hit one of their bases and fade into the blackness before the humans had a chance to react, or die in the process if they did have time to react.

This small pinprick would have to do. It was nothing compared to my grand plans, but it was all I had.

Even as the weapons tore into the human hull I knew there was nothing left for me to do here. The battle had been over before it even started. All that was left was the part that I truly relished. The combat.

“Prepare the launches for combat. I want all marines ready to go. I’ll be down there coordinating if anything is needed,” I said.

No one blinked at that. They all knew there was no need for it. I’m sure more than a few of the crew up here itched to be on the launches where they could gain some true honor, but that was the general’s prerogative.

It was time to regain some of my lost prestige for the honor of the Ascendency.

A full cycle later I was in a corridor of the human ship. Some of their security personnel were down at the end of the corridor firing their weapons every time one of our men came into view.

“How long has it been since the beacon went off?” I growled into my communicator.

“We’re seeing activity at the center of their system that is out of normal parameters. Or at least what we think is normal based on the short scan we took. It could be they’re mobilizing to fight us, or it could be something as simple as an exercise,” the communications officer spoke into my ear from the command center.

Good officer. He answered the true question I was asking and not the question I actually asked.

“We don’t have much time,” I said to the soldiers surrounding me. “We move in. Their command center is beyond this barricade, and we will take them all alive!”

The soldiers surrounding me all nodded. They knew it was possible we might not survive this, but I would lead them. Besides, unless they had truly heavy weaponry there was a good chance their pitiful shooters would merely bounce off our skin. All we could do was charge and hope for the best.

“Valor above all,” I said, holding my hand out in a salute.

“Valor above all!” the rest of the men shouted in response.

I pulled out my sword. I found it worked much better for fighting in close quarters. Especially against a species whose weapons typically didn’t do much against us. One reason why they tended to keep their combat ship-to-ship unless they had elite unites with power armor and other unique and crafty solutions they’d come up with to make up for their inadequacy during this long conflict.

A quick glance at the security holding us off from their command center was enough to tell that they hadn’t bothered equipping the people on this ship with anything useful like that.

I wanted to pretend that I didn’t know why I was so focused on getting to this woman. I lied and told myself that the only reason I was interested in reaching her was so that I could repay her for the turn she did me on a colony world light years from here where she destroyed my life. I wanted to believe that the only interest I had in finding her was so that I could destroy her.

And yet I knew that wasn’t the case. Deep down, at the core of my being, I knew I had to meet this warrior woman again. I had to see her. Feel her. Smell her. Taste her. I knew it was ridiculous, this was a woman who’d humiliated me and ruined a family reputation going back thousands of years, and yet here I was trying to reach her and conquer her.

Prove to her that I was the better warrior. Maybe in proving that I could also have her.

I shook my head and pushed those thoughts away. That way was madness. I was in the middle of combat, and I wasn’t going to allow myself to be swayed by an exotic human with her too-tan skin that wasn’t even a proper shade of blue. No, I was going to take this ship for the glory of the Ascendency, and I needed to take it soon before the humans fully realized what was going on out here on the outskirts of their system and they sent truly dangerous warships to do us in.

I rounded the corner with my sword drawn. The humans fired at me and I felt the sting of their weapons hitting me, and I grinned. Presumably a ship this far out was supposed to be running interference for my people doing exactly what I was doing right now, but it appeared the humans who sent this ship on its mission neglected to provide it with the weapons they needed to truly fight off a boarding party. They didn’t have weapons designed to pierce our skin. They didn’t have that accursed battle armor that had bested me the last time around.

It was warrior against warrior with raw strength on the line, and when it came to that my people would always come out the betters.

I felt the battle lust as my blade sank into the human security. One let out a cry and the other simply gurgled as my blade rammed home. I stepped forward to the door to their command center, but of course it refused to open.