Carter, Beth D. - Star Mates (Siren Publishing Classic) Read online

  The two men stared at each other, measuring the inner core of the other. Tension crackled between them.

  “You’re saying we’re stuck here?” Logan demanded.

  Raiden blinked, and his dark eyes changed from aggravation to pity. “We’ll take you to our home port on Arden, one of Dura’s moons, and we’ll get you to someone who can help you get settled.”

  “I don’t want to settle,” Logan said, his voice tight with a hard edge.

  “I know,” Raiden answered and then he stood. “I’m not trying to be insensitive, but you two have stumbled into a situation where humans know no other way of life.”

  “We’re at war, my friend,” Pikon told them.

  “War?”

  Raiden sighed. “Shut up, Pike. Listen, I’ve got to get back to the controls. We’ll be at Arden soon.”

  Right before he departed, he glanced over his shoulder at her and held her gaze. Emmarie felt that pull again toward him, as if she’d known him all her life. Then he broke eye contact and was gone.

  “Holy hell,” Pikon said on a sigh. “It’s a bad blow knowing the Slip Gate has been rebuilt.”

  “So you’re part of some type of resistance army?”

  He held his finger and thumb about an inch apart. “Yeah, but it’s this big.”

  “Well, we’re American so we know all about small revolutions.”

  “My grandparents were American, I think,” Pikon said. “When the Merloni first started abducting humans, some Amarante natives began questioning the ethics of forcing sentient life forms into slavery, and then about sixty-some-odd years ago a Merloni ship crashed on Earth and that started a chain reaction that led to some people escaping and forming a resistance movement. It’s been slow going.”

  “So all those people abducted by aliens,” Emmarie murmured, upending her glass and draining it, “were telling the truth.” Then she looked sharply at Pikon, her left eyebrow raising high. “They crashed sixty years ago?” He nodded and she grinned. “Like, 1947?”

  He just gave her a blank look.

  She turned to Logan. “Roswell!”

  “Oh my god,” he muttered.

  “I’ve heard the name Roswell,” Pikon said. “But what exactly was it?”

  “Supposedly an alien crash site,” she told him. “It’s been this urban legend slash myth for decades on whether or not there was an actual UFO and little green men. The military said it was weather balloons but I guess they lied.”

  “The military always lies,” he replied rather acerbically.

  “Wow,” she said as she gave a little slap to Logan’s arm. Her gaze became a little unfocused and she humorously realized the unfamiliar alcohol was starting to affect her. “We’re the only people who know the truth!”

  “Imagine that,” he replied sarcastically.

  “When we get to Arden we’ll take you to my friend who can help you get settled,” Pikon told them.

  “I said I don’t want to settle,” Logan stated, repeating his earlier sentiment.

  “Don’t much have a choice right now.”

  “Hopefully, we won’t be here long enough to have to adjust to that.”

  Emmarie silently agreed before the alcohol completely consumed her and she passed out.

  Chapter Five

  Raiden sat in his pilot’s seat, staring moodily into the inky blackness of space. His mind was consumed with his two guests. On one hand he was consumed with anger. There weren’t supposed to be new human slaves anymore. Thirty years ago a group had sacrificed their lives to make sure the Merloni couldn’t access Earth again by blowing up the Slip Gate Hub. Obviously, those people had died in vain, and it burned like acid in his stomach.

  But then, he couldn’t help but think Emmarie Tice was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Those few seconds when she’d been pressed against him had made him harder than he’d ever been in his life. He had never, ever, had such a reaction where all the blood had drained from his head, his heart had soared into overdrive, and everything around them had faded against the intense heat burning through him. It had completely knocked him off his guard.

  The depth of how she affected him knocked him slightly off kilter. His life had been about doing his duty as well as trying to lead a rebellion no one seemed willing to fight. He didn’t have time for things like passion and romance. There’d been women, of course. He was a man with a normal appetite for sex, but the women he tended to hook up with knew the score. They were hard and detached, much like himself. He had vowed a long time ago not to be the type of man who left someone behind.

  He knew first hand how much that hurt.

  But the moment he’d looked into Emmarie Tice’s big blue eyes, something inside had lurched, liked he’d stepped off a cliff to free fall without a safety net to catch him. It was more than the attraction he felt toward her, although when she’d briefly been in his arms his dick had jumped to life. It had taken a great deal of willpower not to claim her lips in a kiss. He’d wanted to, and that scared the shit out of him because for a moment he’d forgotten they were in an asteroid field rescuing two earthlings from a damaged Merloni ship. Everything had faded away except how his body had jumped to life when she’d touched him.

  If he was a smart man, he’d dump her on Leona and stay far the hell away from her. But sometimes he just wasn’t that smart.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Pikon said behind him.

  Raiden turned to see his friend leaning against the bulkhead, arms crossed. A frown twisted his lips.

  “I can assure you that you don’t,” Raiden said wryly.

  “The Slip Gate mission.”

  “Right,” Raiden replied in an off manner. “But…” His voice trailed off.

  “But?” Pikon asked. “Maybe the swing of long blonde hair in the frozen space air?”

  “I sometimes wonder about your mental state,” Raiden murmured, looking back out into space. He thought that would be the end of the conversation.

  “And I wonder about yours, my friend.”

  Raiden swung around to stare at him incredulously. “What?”

  But Pikon only shook his head. “You know what I mean. You’ve got to let the past go.”

  “Fuck off,” Raiden said and swung back around to his console. “We’re almost there. Get to your station.”

  Pikon gave him a half-mocking salute. “Aye, Captain.”

  * * * *

  Emmarie awoke from her light stupor when Raiden had announced over the intercom that they would be arriving at Arden’s docking station. She groggily opened her eyes and saw she was lying down in a small area that hosted a bed and built-into-the-wall drawers. With a small whimper, she realized that the previous few hours were real, and being abducted by aliens hadn’t been a joke. Her head pounded, no doubt from the alcohol, but she forced herself to sit up. Once the world stopped spinning, she rose and made her way back to her previous seat.

  She felt Logan’s stare as she sat.

  “How do you feel?” he asked her.

  “Like I got hit by a few asteroids myself,” she replied with a grimace.

  He gave her a sympathetic smile and took her hand in his, his thumb brushing the back of hers in a soothing gesture.

  “How can we get home?” she asked him quietly, coming to the point that was on both their minds. “Even if we find a Merloni ship, how do we fly it?”

  “I’ll fly the damn ship myself. Don’t worry, shouldn’t be too hard once I learn their language,” he replied. “Linguist, remember?”

  Tears welled up in her eyes and there wasn’t anything she could do to prevent the sobs from breaking forth. She was dimly aware of Logan reaching over and gathering her up in his arms.

  “I’m sorry,” she hiccupped. “I don’t normally break down.”

  “Hey,” he whispered to her, running a soothing hand over her hair in a comforting way. “I think you’re allowed to cry in this situation, but it’s going to be okay. We’ll get home, Emmarie.”
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  “But it’s going to be pretty impossible, huh?” She sniffled.

  “I’m not going to lie to you and say it’ll be easy,” he told her. “But I will protect you, that I promise.”

  With effort, she reined in the tears and took a deep breath. “Thank you,” she whispered to him.

  “For what?”

  “For making me feel safe.”

  He smiled at her. “I’m just as freaked out as you.”

  She had to smile at that, vastly relieved to not being alone in her fears. She ran her fingers down his cheek, cupping his chin. He caught her hand and brought it to rest against his heart before rubbing his nose against hers. And then, before she could think, his head bent to capture her lips.

  The kiss started out small, tentative, his lips only nibbling against hers. Perhaps it was just what she needed, this bonding of two lost people thrown together by circumstance. And yet, as soon as she closed her eyes she saw Pell Raiden’s face and knew she couldn’t let the kiss continue. It wasn’t fair to Logan that, though he was the rock she needed, he wasn’t the man who burned in her mind.

  She brought her hands up and pushed gently against his chest.

  Logan pulled back slowly and stared down at her with passion-filled eyes behind his glasses.

  “Logan, wait,” she said. “I’m grateful that you were there to help me on the Merloni ship, because I think I would have gone crazy if I’d been alone.”

  “But?” he whispered.

  “You’ve become a very good friend to me.”

  “Friend?” A wall came down over his eyes and he abruptly stood up. “We’re docking,” he told her and turned.

  “Logan—”

  “We’re friends,” he said. “Got it.”

  He walked away without looking back.

  Chapter Six

  Emmarie waited in her seat as she felt the ship come to a bumping halt upon a docking platform deep inside Arden’s core. She had learned from Pikon that it was too dangerous to have their precious ships exposed outside, when any Merloni ally could fly by and destroy them, so the engineers of the colony had built this underground landing pad and bunker.

  Her first glimpse as she stepped off the Sunray took her breath away. This was something she would see in movies, not real life! Several identical ships, all sleek and big and futuristic looking, were parked on circular landing pads throughout the huge chamber. Men ran around servicing each one in some capacity or other. There were carts filled with everything from tools to sheets of metal, computer equipment stashed in every available space held data streaming by. Metal drums stacked neatly here and there. Her mind was simply in shock at seeing something from Sci-Fi blazing real in front of her.

  “Humans were able to build all this?” Logan asked from behind her.

  Emmarie turned to look at him. He had his hands on his hips, gazing in confusion to the chaos around them. She smiled tentatively at him but he ignored her.

  “I find it unlikely that humans could advance so much as to build all this,” he continued, waving a hand around. “I mean, the greatest minds in NASA can’t even build all this!”

  “That’s because you Earthlings are still using hydrogen as a form of fuel,” Raiden replied as he came down the Sunray’s docking ramp. “We have a different power source, more powerful and efficient, and it won’t blow us up if there’s an accident.”

  “Still,” Logan shrugged, “this seems too high tech for less than a hundred years.”

  Raiden shrugged. “Well, we’ve had help. The Durians have supplied a lot of this technology.”

  “This is just amazing,” Logan murmured as he turned slowly, eyeing everything.

  “Come on,” Pikon told him, waving. “I’ll show you around. You gotta see the cruisers.”

  Logan didn’t spare her a second glance as he followed after Pikon.

  She looked up to see Raiden staring at her. Standing next to him made her acutely aware of how big he was. Wide shoulders, big feet and hands. He wore a black flight suit that fit his large body rather tightly. She could see his defined muscles under the material as he moved. His face was clean shaven, his line of his jaw firm and obdurate.

  “Are you going to run away and cry some more in his arms?”

  She straightened her shoulders. “You spied on me?”

  He snorted. “Don’t be silly.”

  “You could have a little sympathy,” she shot back. “Understanding.”

  He ran a hand through his shaggy hair, separating the strands with long tapered fingers. “I do have sympathy,” he muttered. “It’s just…frustrating knowing that the Slip Gate is back in operation. But I’m glad we found you on the way back from the mission.”

  “What mission were you on?”

  He walked over to a stack of metal containers that she recognized from her exploration of the Sunray’s cargo hold. He opened it, showing her the contents. “Medical supplies,” he said. “Pikon and I were away two weeks obtaining them from sympathic traders on one of Kex’s moons, hence our run-in with their sentinels. Anyway, it’s frustrating when you can’t stop the source of slavery.”

  He stood there, shoulders slumped, a grim line slashing his mouth. Instead of the haughty captain, Raiden now seemed like a man with too much on his shoulders. She walked over to take his hand, and was rewarded when he turned to focus directly on her.

  “I may be new to this situation, but Earth still has suffering, still has parts of the world with slavery, injustice, dictators, and warlords,” she said in a low voice, her thumb rubbing over his skin. Small sparks of electricity shot from his hand into hers, stealing her train of thought.

  Something rippled between them. Heat touched her spine and made her arch her back in a shiver. The sensation, for lack of a better word, made her feel vulnerable, open, and exposed, and she wasn’t sure if she actually liked the feeling or not.

  “Pell!” Pikon’s shout came from somewhere behind them, causing them to jump as the connection was broken.

  He pulled his hand from her grasp.

  “Come on,” he murmured. “I’ve got to get debriefed before Pikon and I can take you into Sparta.”

  “You have a city named Sparta?” she asked in surprise as she followed him off the landing pad, walking next to him as they wound their way through the busy hangar.

  “When the first humans escaped past the Outlaw Rings, they found a sanctuary here on Arden,” Raiden explained. “They wanted to inspire others to rise up and fight. Sparta, from what I was taught, was known to have dominant warriors recognized all over Earth.”

  “I guess you never saw 300, huh?”

  “Three hundred what?”

  She shook her head. “Never mind. So this rebellion is fully underway?”

  “Unfortunately, ’bout the time we’re able to find and liberate people, they’ve already lived a lifetime as a slave. It’s hard to rally motivation when you’ve been dissected alive and sterilized.”

  “Sterilized?”

  “Only the people chosen for the breeding line are allowed to bear children.”

  “Are you…sorry, it’s none of my business.”

  “It’s okay. I was born in Sparta,” he said, and then dropped the subject by turning away.

  The hangar held six launch pads and four of them had ships docked on them. People bustled about, not paying much attention to them. Several questions were yelled to Raiden, who yelled his answers back without looking at the person asking them. The entire place had an air of frenzied movement.

  “The Sunray is one of six ships we have,” Raiden told her as he stopped abruptly to let a forklift-looking truck pass. Emmarie, who had been trailing him, smacked into his back.

  “Just six?” she asked, rubbing her forehead.

  “Like I said, what we have has been at the generosity of some of the human sympathizers,” he smiled conspiratorially at her. “That’s why our technology seems more advanced and why the ships are treated better than how we treat ourselves. Wit
hout them, this rebellion, however small, is worthless.”

  “Do you always trade? Or do you have to steal, too?”

  “Some. I suppose you could liken it to Earth’s mythology of Robin in the Hood.”

  “Actually, it’s just Robin Hood, unless you live in South Central,” she murmured back. But at his blank look she waved it off. “So you’re just one of six pilots?”

  “No, there are many pilots, because the Sunray doesn’t belong specifically to me,” he answered, taking her arm and leading her through another busy intersection. “We take shifts, and mine, this time, was a medical supply run.”

  They had reached the large open doorway and Raiden reached down to take her elbow, escorting her from the hangar portion of the base into a system of hallways with various doors and open rooms. People walked with purpose, many greeting the man at her side with smiles or nods of hello. All gave her a curious glance. The activity reminded her of a busy hospital.

  They turned the corner and then Raiden led her to an unmarked door and opened it. Inside she spotted a large screen that held symbols and pictures of ships, including the Sunray, and information stats. Several smaller screens were built into walls and consoles with a mixture of buttons and touch-screens littered the area. A metal table with chairs was pushed off to a side, and Emmarie saw Pikon and Logan sitting there with an older woman standing in front of them, talking with Pikon.

  She looked up and gave a nod to Raiden, who held a chair out for Emmarie at the table.

  “Willoughbee,” he acknowledged. “This is Emmarie Tice.”

  “Captain Raiden,” she murmured back. She was a tall woman, on the thin side as proven by her gaunt facial features and very square jaw, but dressed in overlarge fatigues. Her hair was gray, short, with blunt-cut bangs touching the tops of her eyes. She reminded Emmarie of a feminine version of Lurch from The Addams Family. “I just met Logan. Nice to meet you, Emmarie.”