Star Warrior: A SciFi Alien Romance (9 page)

She blinked as though confused. I suppose to a human that would seem confusing. To me this was just a reminder of why I was so drawn to this strange woman from another world. Why I had to have her, even though she made that more and more impossible with her actions.

It was time to end this current farce, though. She got in her cheap shot, and it was time to put her back in stasis where she would be safe from her own injuries and her tendency to try and make those injuries worse by doing stupid things like stabbing the general in charge of the forces holding her captive.

It was the sort of stupidity I could marvel at, though.

I grabbed the hilt of the sword and pulled. It hurt terribly, but pain was something I should have been accustomed to. I welcomed it. It was a reminder I was alive. I pulled it out and blood spattered, blue, on the remains of the human’s uniform.

I grabbed her, trying my best to be gentle but getting a grunt of pain from her nonetheless, and carried her back to the stasis chamber.

“I could kill you now and it wouldn’t be anything of consequence by the laws of my people,” I growled as I placed her in the stasis chamber. I wondered if she would realize that I was trying to be gentle. As it was her eyes watered. No doubt from the pain.

Yet she wasn’t finished. She leaned forward and I thought she might decide yet to surrender. How I would relish that moment. Only instead of surrendering she spat. It hit my shoulder and I looked down in amazement. That was a gesture of disrespect that crossed the stars to both of our species.

“Go ahead and do it you honorless dog,” she said.

I assumed a dog was a species from her planet. From the way she said the word I didn’t think it was a flattering comparison. I would have to look it up later when I had time, which would likely be never with the way things were going. We were still deep in human space and they weren’t taking an attack on the outskirts of their home system lightly. At any moment the tables could be turned on me, and getting stabbed in the side because I was drawn in by a pair of exotic human eyes. Stupid.

Almost as stupid as a human stabbing me with my own weapon and taunting me to kill her.

“I won’t kill you,” I said.

“Coward,” she spat back.

“No. Not a coward. I won’t kill you because you wish it, and because you intrigue me. Field up.”

That last bit was for the medics surrounding us. No sooner had I said it than the field went up around her again. She scowled at me until the moment her face disappeared behind the glow, leaving a shadowy silhouette behind the glow.

I waited until she was completely hidden before I allowed myself to show any small measure of weakness. I stumbled forward slightly and turned to glare at the medical teams surrounding me.

“Well, what are you waiting for? I’ve been stabbed!” I roared.

They jumped and sprang into action around me. It was as though the very act of denying the pain for that brief moment was enough to lead them to believe I was in no pain at all. I suppose that was a good show, then. Good to remind them that their general was still able to hold back against the pain of battle, even if it had been a wound that was nearly self-inflicted in its stupidity.

That human. I stared at the medical stasis chamber that held her. There was just a shadow where she had been moments ago. I knew she was in there. I wanted to pull her out and have my way with her, but of course that was impossible in her current delicate state. It was impossible in my current state, for that matter.

“Be sure to turn up whatever it is you use to make sure the humans are asleep in there,” I said to no one in particular. “The human shouldn’t have been able to resist to the point of waking inside that field in the first place.”

“Yes sir,” someone muttered from behind me, no doubt wondering if I was going to place blame for this incident on one of them. No, I was irritated, but I wouldn’t go that far. This was entirely my fault. I was the one who let a seemingly injured enemy combatant into my space because I’d been lulled into a false sense of security.

Amazing, even if I was paying for that lull now.

I winced as I felt a medic probing at the wound. I welcomed the pain, though. It was a reminder that I should never let my guard down. Even for something as seemingly frail as the human female who’d just run me through with my own sword.

“Well?” I growled at the medic who was checking my wound.

“It appears she didn’t hit anything vital, general,” he said in a quavering voice. Perhaps there was more growl to my voice than I’d intended. Good. Let them live in fear of me a little. I felt like that was something that needed to be drilled into my crew from time to time. Men who didn’t live in some fear of their commander didn’t perform well, and I’d learned that lesson the hard way.

“I think she intended it that way,” I said.

“With all due respect, general. A human couldn’t possibly know that much about our people,” he said, sounding scandalized that I would even suggest such a thing.

I shook my head. I’d gone up against this human three times now, and she’d bested me two out of those three. It seemed that she was keeping track of those times as well. Which was all the better. I couldn’t wait to get her back to Liviska so that we could begin the next round.

9: Awaken

Talia:

Darkness. A deep voice speaking to me. Filling my mind. Whispering to me and consuming my world. Explosions. The sound of battle all around me. The terrifying sound of metal being torn by forces that could destroy a person in an instant. Pain flaring through my body.

Death. I should be dead right now. Why did I think I should be dead?

I opened my eyes and found myself in a dimly lit room on a massive comfortable mattress that didn’t look like anything I’d ever seen on a human world outside of some of the cheesy orbital motels that promised hourly visitors a “truly out of this world experience.”

I’d had a couple of guys try to get me to one of those orbital hotels. The first time was an upperclassman in my academy days who soon learned what it meant to try and use his rank to get me in the sack. The last had been an admiral trying to take advantage of my disgrace losing my ship. He’d also learned the same lesson, though I suppose he’d had the last laugh since I’d been put on assignment on the outer rim which brought me…

Here.

Wherever in the known galaxy here was. Something told me I wasn’t in Kansas anymore. Hell, I doubted I was in the heliosphere anymore.

Memories came rushing back. The ship falling apart around me. The surprise attack. Waking up in a Livisk medical bay and finding myself face to face with the same Livisk general I’d bested on that terrible day.

Jorav. He said his name was Jorav. I rolled that name around in my mind. It was a nice name. A strong name. A name befitting a man as powerful and sexy as the strange alien general.

Wait, sexy? Did I really just think that? I did not think a Livisk was sexy even if a fluke accident of convergent evolution made that thought a very real possibility. I knew what the Livisk did. Looking around at this lavishly appointed room, it was bigger than any command quarters I’d ever enjoyed, I had no doubt who held me captive and what his intentions were.

The dirty sneaky Livisk bastard. I had to think that way, otherwise different thoughts would intrude. Thoughts of what I would like to do with my captor in this room.

Still, I couldn’t help but think that this was a nice room. Sure it was on an alien world, or maybe on some orbital space station going around some forsaken planet in the middle of enemy territory, but I could get used to living like this. I felt guilty for the thought even as it occurred to me.

I was a member of the human interstellar fleet and this was the enemy. I should not be thinking about all the things I’d like to do with my alien captor, or how comfortable these sheets felt. I should be thinking about a way to escape. A way to find my crew, even if they were the reason I found myself trapped here in the first place.

“Where in the known galaxies are you, Talia,” I muttered to myself as I stood from the bed and made the rounds of the room. The walls were jet black. I wasn’t sure if that was because they were actual walls or if they would fade into viewscreens if I knew the right voodoo to get the alien technology to work.

That there was alien technology embedded in this room somewhere seemed likely. Rooms this swank didn’t get built without toys built into them.

I glanced down at my body as I moved through the room. I felt surprisingly… good. None of the pain that had threatened to overwhelm me the last time I came out of stasis. None of the screaming from broken bones as I forced myself across the room and pulled the sword out of that idiot’s scabbard and…

Oh damn. I’d stabbed him. Right in front of a bunch of Livisk who didn’t seem too happy about watching their precious commander getting stuck like a pig. I smiled thinking of that particularly pleasant memory, even if it did seem like the sort of pleasant memory that would come back to bite me in the ass soon enough.

If I could figure out how to get the hell out of here. I did a complete circuit of the circular room and came up blank. No door in evidence. No advanced technology to be seen anywhere. Just the bed and those sheets with the ridiculous thread count that made me want to dive into them and go back to sleep.

At least if I was asleep I wouldn’t have to worry about reality for a little while.

“Okay Talia, you’ve been in worse scrapes than this. We can figure a way out of this one.”

The only problem? I’d never really been in a situation like this before. I was just putting on a show for any listening device that might be hanging out hidden in the walls trying to gather some intel on yours truly. I didn’t want to let on to the sparkly blue bastards that I was up a black hole without a working FTL drive to get my ass out of this.

I sat down on the bed again. It was the only thing in the room so why the hell not? No way out. No alien in here gloating about how he was going to kill me for daring to defy him. I suppose that last part was a good thing. Sort of.

I was still amazed that I was alive after sticking him like that. His compadres had not looked happy about that. No, not one bit.

“So are you going to tell me what you want from me?” I said to no one in particular. Let’s just say I had a feeling someone was out there listening in on me. If I’d captured the enemy then I’d sure as hell be tapping all their communications to make sure I knew what they were thinking.

No response. Nothing. It was as though I was in the galaxy’s cushiest solitary confinement. I suppose it could’ve been worse. I’d heard stories about Livisk brothels where captive human women were sent to work.

I shivered as I thought of being put to work similarly with the alien general who was most likely my captor. I wasn’t sure whether that thought was terrifying or exciting, and I hated how my body was betraying my duty to my species. Even if my species had sort of turned their back on me by posting me in a place where I could get caught like this in the first place.

No. No use getting upset about this. I would get out of here instead. Kill every Livisk motherfucker I came in contact with. Make them regret the day they decided to take me captive just like I let General Jackoff regret the day he let me get into his killbox with his sword at his side. I’d beat this guy twice. I could do it again, damn it.

I fell back against the sheets. I guess this was better than a sterile medical bay or a prison cell. Again my mind wandered to my crew. They might be a bunch of sad sacks who were far from the best the fleet had to offer, but even I had to admit that being taken captive by cranky aliens and sold to a life of slavery wasn’t something they deserved.

Maybe.

“And in other news, fleet officials continue to state unequivocally that the mobilization of a massive amount of fleet resources on the outer rim of the Sol system is nothing more than a fleet readiness exercise that’s part of the extended rescue operation we’ve been reporting on,” a smarmy too-perfect human voice said.

I’ll admit to a moment of confusion. I wasn’t expecting to hear a human voice in here. Maybe the deeper seductive voice that belonged to Jorav, I wouldn’t mind hearing that voice let me tell you, but certainly not the confident voice of Toril Jak, famed news announcer for the Interstellar News Network.

I’d been on a ship assigned to escort him to a war zone early in my career. That was the one time I was a little disappointed that an excursion didn’t end with part of the ship being blown out. Particularly the entire deck given over to him and his entourage as a special privilege because he was considered well above VIP thanks to a minor scandal amongst the Admiralty that mysteriously never turned into a major scandal in the media after Jak got that treatment.

Funny how that worked out. I wish I had an interstellar audience of billions to leverage when I “screwed up” by losing a ship. Lose one lousy ship and they got all pissy.

I sat up. A screen had appeared in the dark well. I grinned. I knew there had to be some sort of technology squirreled away in this room somewhere. Apparently Jorav the alien general wanted to gloat a little bit by showing me the news from back home. I’d sat up just in time, too. My picture appeared on the screen next to Toril Jak. I leaned forward and started grinding my teeth.