3013: SYNERGY: A 3013 Novella (3013: The Series)

3013: SYNERGY

3013: THE
SERIES

A 3013 Novella

Laurie Roma

The
3013 Series

3013: MATED by
Laurie Roma

3013: RENEGADE
by Susan Hayes

3013: CLAIMED
by Laurie Roma

3013: STOWAWAY
by Susan Hayes

3013: SALVATION
by Laurie Roma

3013: MENDED by
Kali Argent

3013: TARGETED
by Susan Hayes

3013: CHAOS by
Laurie Roma

3013: ALTERED
by Kali Argent

3013: FATED by
Susan Hayes

3013: GENESIS
by Laurie Roma

Novellas

3013: SYNERGY
by Laurie Roma

3013: ASYLUM by
Kali Argent

3013: SCARRED
by Susan Hayes

3013: SYNERGY

Morgan Chavez is
a Class-A Empath whose gift is her curse. Due to the strength of her ability, she
has excelled as a liaison officer despite dealing with constant emotional
overload. Her situation makes it impossible to have a relationship, and she’s
been forced to give up the dream of having a family to call her own. Or so she
believed…

Attending the
grand opening of Alpha Station: X21 near the planet Xenthian was D’Aire Ambassador
Orion D’Sil’s last assignment before returning home. Tired from a life of duty,
Orion never thought he would find the keeper of his heart on the edge of
Alliance controlled space. Morgan owns him, heart, body and soul, but can he
convince her to give up everything she ever known to live with him in his world?

An
Erotic Romance Novella.

3013:
SYNERGY by Laurie Roma

First
E-book Publication: March 2016

Cover
design by SW Graphic Designs 

Copyright
© 2016 by Laurie Roma

ISBN:
978-1-942979-03-6

Kindle
Edition

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work
may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express
written permission.

All characters and events in this book
are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly
coincidental. It is fiction so facts and events may not be accurate except to
the current world the book takes place in.

DEDICATION

For those of you who asked for another
D’Aire story.

This one is for you.

PROLOGUE

The year is 3013.

Earth
barely survived the Alien Wars that have ravaged the planet, and an unknown
virus had nearly wiped out the entire population. On the brink of extinction,
humans struggle to rebuild their civilization, although nothing would ever bring
back what once was.

Enforcing
martial law, a new age of mankind is born, where warriors rule and women are
the ultimate prize.
Only the elite earn
breeding rights and are granted leave to claim a woman in pairs.
Men
dream of the day that they will be able to claim a woman to love, but for those
chosen being claimed
means the end of
their freedom and a beginning to a lifelong bond with two strangers.
The
warriors may have the choice, but the battle for their woman's heart has only
begun…

CHAPTER ONE

“That’s it, I quit.”

Alliance Officer Morgan Chavez’s
statement was met with a snort of derision from her commander. Truthfully,
she’d expected nothing different from Alliance Commander Olivia Jacobson.

“It must be Wednesday,” Olivia said
dryly. “You always quit on Wednesday.”

“It’s Tuesday. That should tell you how
bad it is. I couldn’t even wait one fucking day to quit this time.” Heaving out
a heavy sigh, Morgan didn’t wait for permission as she sat down on one of the chairs
in front of the large desk. She propped her black boots up on the edge of the
desk, then lowered the off-center zipper of her uniform jacket so she could
breathe better.

There was no need for formality between
two women since they were alone in the office. Morgan and Olivia had been
friends since their days in the Academy, back when life had seemed much easier.
Actually, that wasn’t true. Life had always been pretty fucking complicated,
even back when she’d been young.

Her childhood hadn’t been all bad. In
fact, she had been surrounded by love and laughter during the first few years of
her life. Morgan had been born on an exploration vessel that had been sent out to
discover and study other worlds.

After centuries of unrest, the nations
had come together with one common goal in mind—to reach for the stars and
explore all the possibilities that existed beyond Earth. The creation of space
vessels powered by jump drives and other technology had made traveling to other
galaxies possible, and humans had strived to explore all they could.

Morgan’s parents had left Earth on a
voyage into deep space. Her mother had been a scientist, and her father had
been second-in-command on the exploration vessel. She might not have had an
average childhood, but she’d loved every second of growing up in space. The
ship had been her playground, and the entire crew had been her family.

But things didn’t always go according
to plan out in the big black.

The exploration vessel had been
scheduled to be away from Earth for a maximum of ten years. They’d explored
previously uncharted areas of space, and they had made sure to leave ample time
for their return voyage. During their journey, they’d found several uninhabitable
planets, and they’d also discovered a few that could have sustained a colony
under the right conditions. They’d been on their way back to Earth to report
their findings when their ship had encountered a strange anomaly.

A shimmering band of light had appeared
in front of their vessel, and before they were able to change course, they’d entered
a temporal rift, which created a fissure in space and time. In the matter of
seconds, they had somehow lost sixty years, though they hadn’t realized that
anything was different until they’d arrived back on Earth.

Then they’d realized everything had changed.

When humans announced to the universe
that they were capable of traveling the stars, they had gained the attention of
other beings…not all of which were benevolent. While Morgan’s family and the
rest of the crew had been caught in the temporal rift, the Zyphir—a colony race
of insect-like creatures that stood on two feet—came to Earth in 2960. The
Zyphir had planned to annihilate the human race and deplete the world of all
resources before they moved onto the next planet that suited their needs.

A brutal three-year war had destroyed
much of Earth, and humans had been on the brink of losing the fight until three
alien races arrived to help. The Zyphir were defeated as soon as the Dragon
Warriors, D’Aire and the Krytos joined the battle, but the consequences of the
war had left humans struggling to survive and large portions of the Earth in
ruins.

Martial law had been declared, and the
world was under the rule of
the United Federation Command Alliance, or as it was more
commonly called—the Alliance. To make matters worse, t
he Zyphir had left behind a deadly
virus that had killed thousands, and altered the genetics of the survivors left
on the planet.
More accurately, the virus seemed to attack the female reproductive systems,
leaving most women on Earth infertile. No matter how advanced medical
technology had become, the cause for the infertility remained untreatable.

When the exploration vessel returned to
Earth, they witnessed the aftermath of the war that had been waged in their
absence.
It
wasn’t long before the virus infected every single member of the crew. Morgan
and another young boy that had been born of the vessel, Matt Malloy, were the
only survivors.

With their families
gone and nowhere to go, they had been left at the mercy of the Alliance. While
they had been gone from the planet, it had become mandatory for all children to
be tested when they turned ten to determine if they would be taken for military
service. Only the strongest and brightest were chosen to receive genetic
enhancements to become elite soldiers. The elites were bigger and stronger than
normal humans, with increased reflexes and heightened senses. These
enhancements were encoded into their genes, and would be passed onto their
children.

And their enhanced
genetics were the future of the human race.

Both Morgan and Matt
had been too young to be tested. However, since they were alone in the new
world, the Council of Regents—the governing body of the Alliance—allowed for
them to receive the genetic enhancements in order to save their lives. The virus
had weakened them, but a regiment of enhancement drugs and other medical
treatments over a year ensured that Morgan and Matt recovered completely.

Morgan had just turned
eight when she and Matt entered the Academy—the place where all elites trained.
She’d been the youngest recruit there, however, she’d had the advantage of
acclimating to her own enhancements years before her fellow classmates. Since she’d
been born in deep space, what Morgan had known about Earth’s history were just
stories, so she didn’t miss much of the old ways.

Still, there were some
parts of her new life that she didn’t like.

Staring at her friend
across the desk was enough to remind Morgan of the one thing she hated the most
about Alliance rules and regulations. Both Morgan and Commander Jacobson had
been marked with a star tattoo on the right side of their faces, declaring that
they were both infertile.

Some human women were
tattooed with specialized scroll marking on the right side of their faces,
signifying they were what men coveted most—a breeder, one of the few women able
to have children. The scroll tattoo became darker with age, turning a mercurial
black when they became of age. When a woman was chosen, the two elite soldiers
that claimed her would have their initials tattooed on the left side of her
face, marking her as theirs for the world to see.

In return, the men
would have a similar tattoo placed on their left neck, shoulder, arm and torso as
a sign of pride to have claimed a woman. These markings took the place of
archaic symbols such as wedding bands to declare them a bonded unit. Fertile
females were also implanted with nanotechnology that made it impossible for
them to get pregnant until their birth control was deactivated when they were
claimed, or if they chose to have it done any time after their eighteenth
birthday.

Morgan hadn’t had to
worry about that since the virus had robbed her of her chance to have the
family she always wanted. She knew that having children was the only way that
humans would continue to thrive, but she hated wearing a brand upon her face
that showed the world that she was lacking.

“So, what has you
quitting this week?” Olivia asked as she swiped her finger across the tablet
she held in her hand, bringing Morgan back to the present.

“Actually, it’s all
your fault this time.”

“Oh, really?” Olivia lifted
a brow as she set the tablet aside. “How am I to blame?”

“Because you asked me
to greet Regent Marks’ group to escort them to their quarters this morning.”

“I thought you liked
Regent Marks.”

“I do…sort of. I’ve
only met him a few times when I was working in the Capital, but he has some new
fucktards on his security detail that I really didn’t like. Two in particular.
Officers Denver and Brinkman thought I should be willing to share their bed while
they’re here since I’m just a star who should be grateful for their attention.”

Olivia tapped her finger to her lower
lip before she said, “Are you telling me Officer Fucktard and his sidekick,
Officer Scumbag, are currently in the medical unit trying to retrieve their
balls after you kicked them into their stomachs?”

Morgan let out a little snort at that.
“I should have, but I held back. I did give them a pretty impressive verbal
bitch-slap, though.”

“Satisfying, but you could have
reported them and made sure they paid for their insult to you. You know I don’t
tolerate that shit on my station.”

Shaking her head, Morgan said, “I know.
Plus, Director James is still a little pissed at me for what happened last week.”

“Director Tight-ass needs to get over
that,” Olivia said sharply. “Those elites were drunk, and you had every right
to give them a beat down. I would have done the same if I’d been there, and I
told James that.”

Morgan laughed. “Which is just another
reason why I love you.”

Last week, she and two female security
officers had been asked to escort three Tarin females to Asylum, where they had
been granted sanctuary. Tartarus was a relatively new ally to the Alliance.
Known as the Dark Planet, Tartarus was home
to a barbaric, demon-like race that fed
off the energy of others. The Tarins had recently ended a civil war that had
been raging on their planet for years, and many of the females that had been
kept as slaves now sought to escape to space stations and other planets, far
from their old lives.

The three Tarin females had been
nervous and frightened when they had landed, and their fear had increased when
the group of drunk elites had blocked their path in the hallway. One of the
drunk men had stumbled into a security officer, and a fight had broken out.
Fueled by everyone else’s emotions, Morgan had lost control of her own temper,
and she’d torn into the group of elites like some sort of crazed berserker.

When people were given the enhancement
drugs, there was no way to tell exactly how it would affect each individual. Morgan
had been one of those that had gotten a little something extra from the genetic
boost. She was now considered a Class-A Empath, meaning she could feel or sense
the emotions of others.

As a liaison officer, that talent came
in handy, which was the reason why most empaths were steered toward that
particular division. But Morgan’s abilities had turned out to be her curse. She
had to work hard to keep from being swamped by other people’s feelings just
being around them, and it was ten times worse if she actually touched someone.
It was as if she were a sponge for other people’s energy. Whatever they were
feeling, she would feel, almost like a contact high.

But when the rush of emotions faded, it
left her feeling sick and shaky.

Her abilities were so strong that she
could even read residual emotions off objects right after someone touched them,
so Morgan tried to wear gloves to minimize contact as much as possible. But
when she was in a situation like she had been in the hallway with the security
officers and drunk elites fighting, there was no way for her to stop the
barrage of emotions from taking over.

A red haze had taken over Morgan, and
in a few seconds all the drunks were groaning on the ground. She had always
excelled in hand-to-hand, but there was one tiny drawback whenever she was in a
combat situation. After the emotional high was over, Morgan had raced over to an
alcove in the hallway, promptly losing the contents of her stomach into one of
the waste receptacles.

It was an embarrassing side effect to what
she thought of as sensory overload.

Thinking back on the incident, Morgan
pushed back one of her wild, chestnut-colored curls that had escaped from her
ponytail. When she had been stationed in the Capital, she always had to keep
her long hair up in a bun while she was on duty. Her hair was the one vanity
she allowed herself, even when it was a pain in the ass keeping the long, unruly
curls tamed.

She fought the urge to rub her temples
in defense of the low-grade headache that lurked there as she remembered how
her new director had reacted when she’d told him that she and the two security
officers had put five elites in the medical unit. Director James had been
furious with her for acting that way in front of the three Tarin females,
although, the females hadn’t been afraid of her.

In fact, the Tarin females seemed to
like her quite a bit after seeing her in action. They’d even asked for
self-defense training, and Morgan had arranged for some of the female officers
onboard to teach them when they were off duty.

“I know Director James means well, but
he really is a tight-ass,” Morgan admitted. “I want to like him, but sometimes he
makes it so hard.”

“He was just promoted and needs to
relax a little. Don’t worry, he’s going to have to ease up while he’s under my
command,” Olivia promised with a grin. “I wish I could have seen the fight.
You’re pretty impressive when you lose control.”