Alien Fighter's Baby (Captured Science Fiction Romance) (15 page)

B
ran held Starling
at his side, while she held Wran, as a cargo jumper hovered into view outside their current cavern base camp. He was surprised to see a cargo ship and not a Skitter-jumper as the ship settled in a small clearing. Bran glanced back at the cavern, while mentally checking that he had done everything he needed to do. They were leaving the Zach for Cobalt, in the event he managed the impossible.

But Bran had to go through the Zach and disable anything incriminating or useful the enemy could use, on the off chance the Grubs found it. The rest of it, like the rescue beacon, he had encrypted, and then he’d given Cobalt the code before he’d left. Bran thought if Cobalt were smart, he’d lie low close by, then once they left, he could retrieve the Zach for his personal mission. That was what Bran would do, so he was fairly certain Cobalt had eyes on them.

“So that ship will be okay for Wran?” Starling asked nervously.

He’d explained to her that they would likely have a couple of weeks together, finding a place for her and Wran, before he had to leave her. But he felt, as she did, with the cargo ship and Wisetech arriving, that their time was nearly up.

Her free hand found his and she held on tight, while he felt a sudden urgency to let her know—

“I love you, Starling,” he said.

She looked at him, startled, then she was in his arms for a tight embrace, while still holding Wran as she cried, “I love you too, Bran. We love you so much.”

That was how Wisetech found him a few minutes later, and Bran realized that a lifetime ago he would have been embarrassed to show emotion around his team member. But by then, he just wasn’t. He didn’t give a damn, because all that mattered to him was Starling and Wran.

“Whoa ho, boss man,” Wisetech exclaimed, with electronic bass tones. “You got a baby! That’s good to see.”

“You came back,” Bran said, and emotion made his voice rough, as he moved from hugging Starling to hold out his hand to Wisetech.

“Said I would,” Wisetech boomed, as they clasped hands. Wisetech’s electronic eye motored to Starling. “Good to see you as well, ma’am.”

Starling beamed as she bounced Wran, who was trying to reach for the new person he’d not seen before.

“We are so grateful you came for us,” Starling exclaimed. “And this is Wran. He has never seen anyone new but us.”

“A boy!” Wisetech yelled. “Boss man, way to go! Can this old soldier hold him, do you think?”

Bran was surprised Wisetech wanted to, but Starling was all for it, already handing a squirming Wran over.

“Whoa ho, you’re a big boy,” Wisetech exclaimed.

Bran and Starling had talked about it and they hadn’t seen any reason to keep Wran’s cybertron DNA from Wisetech, because he already knew Wran was Bran’s son. They especially had to tell him because they needed to find a place for Starling and Wran to live where they had doctors that could look at Wran, but keep their mouths shut.

“My cybertron DNA in him has accelerated his growth,” Bran said.

Wisetech looked down at Wran, while Wran tried to pry open Wisetech’s chest panel. “Going to grow fast, boy!” Wisetech exclaimed, then he bounced Wran, who looked happy about it. “I’ve never seen a kid this close,” Wisetech said, and Bran wasn’t surprised, because he hadn’t either.

Then Wisetech exclaimed in his normal booming voice, “I like him!”

Starling smiled. “He likes you too.”

Wisetech studied Wran. “I guess I did a good thing, then.”

Bran tilted his head, wondering what Wisetech meant, but he had pressing questions that needed answers. “Are they believing the MIA hack, old man?”

Both Wisetech’s eyes lifted to him, and Bran knew the man well enough to see the answer before he gave it. “They sure do, boss man! And it made it easier for me!”

Bran thought Wisetech meant that their superiors hadn’t interrogated the crew over the loss of two troopers. But seconds later, he was staggered to be wrong.

“Easier to report you dead-o, boss man!” Wisetech boomed.

“Dead?” Starling said, and she looked horrified, as if it was a bad thing.

But instantly, Bran knew how enormously good it was or could be. “Did they believe it?” Bran asked sharply.

Wisetech nodded, and Bran felt his life take another cosmic beat. “Shot to ash, not retrievable status for you, boss man. But not for that damn Cobalt. Him they’re after.”

“Oh no,” Starling said, but there was also amazing hope in her green eyes.

Bran clamped a hand to Wisetech’s shoulder. “I don’t know how you did it, old man, but I’ll owe you forever for it.”

Wisetech grinned.

Bran took Starling and pulled her into his side. “You want to get married, baby?” Bran asked, looking down into her amazing green eyes.

“Yes!” she exclaimed, and Bran knew it was all he ever needed to hear.

* * *

I
hope
you enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing Bran and Starling’s adventure. If you would be so kind as to leave a review, it would help other readers find good science fiction romance stories!

Next, read a rough draft: the first chapter of Kat Emm’s next scifi romance...

B
y Kat Emm
(coming soon)

C
arly felt
the shampoo bottle slip from her soapy fingers and nearly sputtered a cuss word as it hit the bottom of the shower stall. The heavy steam in the spraying shower made finding the bottle again a challenge.

“Just my rotten luck,” she exclaimed into the vapors surrounding her. And it was Sunday. The day of rest. “Not a day to get called back into work!”

She wanted to cry, and she wanted to strangle her boss. If she didn’t need her job so badly, she’d—

“There you are,” she muttered, grasping the slippery shampoo bottle.

It was a good thing she’d used those discount coupons she’d received for two trial yoga classes, or she’d never have been able to straighten from the back-bending position she was in.

Thud!

“Oh my God!” Carly gasped, lifting her body upright at the loud thudding sound.

She clutched the shampoo bottle to her bare chest. What was that? She lived alone! Her small two-bedroom house didn’t even have a pet, because she worked so much.

Stupidly, she flattened her back against the wall, underneath the spraying showerhead, while her gaze leaped to the bathroom door.

Which was not locked.

She could barely see the door through the steam that clouded the glass shower door. But some optical illusion, as she looked through the swirling cloud, made her think she saw the door slightly moving.

She held her breath.

Was someone in her house?

Her gaze jumped to the two towels she’d set out across the small bathroom; their distance made her desperately wish that she could transport.

Move.

Do something!

Thud…

Carly screamed at the sudden sounds of destruction outside the bathroom door.

Earthquake?

It sounded as if something were tearing her small house apart board by board.

* * *

L
uke Chao took
the hit to his chest, and his breath exploded from the powerful blow that threw him against the bathroom door of the small house. Hell, if he’d had more room to maneuver in the tight hallway, the Spiked Gryphon would not have been able to strike him.

But the bathroom door had been too battered during the fighting. It collapsed against the pressure of his back hitting it, at the same time the Gryphon’s tail struck the wood next to where his head used to be. Just as he hurled through the broken bathroom entryway, Luke saw down the hallway, where Victor fought a seven-foot Gargoyle in the living room.

It was the fifth-dimensional rip in twelve hours. Unheard of. There was something cracking in the cosmic glue that held the dimensions apart.

Luke grabbed a convenient towel, which he’d seen hanging on a hook as he flew through the demolished entryway. He tossed it into the snapping jaws of the Gryphon.

He hoped the towel would gum up the beast’s ability to bite any part of his body in half for a few seconds. Then he hit the floor on top of the smashed door. That was when he caught sight of a naked body out of the corner of his eye, and heard her scream of high-pitched terror.

Damn, there was a civvy involved.

She was a bare-ass naked civvy with plump breasts, small pink nipples, and a soft looking red-topped mound. Yes, he’d seen all that as he rolled away from the young woman screaming in the shower.

He’d hoped to draw the Gryphon’s attention in his direction, but the woman’s sharp cries threw the beast’s head toward her. Then the glass shower broke when the Gryphon’s snout hit it, and the glass shattered inward toward the woman.

“Don’t move!” Luke shouted at her.

Carly gaped at the Asian man shouting at her, while she plastered her back against the shower wall. The monster in front of her snapped its jaws again, and its hot breath growled over her. She forgot to hide her nakedness as she tried to disappear into the wall.

One more snapping bite and the inconceivable and mind-blowing monster was going to bite into her. Her instinct was to move. Even though the Asian man ordered her not to.

Was she dreaming?

She had to be dreaming…

Suddenly, the man kicked the monster on its scaly side.

“Don’t do that!” Carly cried. “What are you doing?” She was hysterical and making no sense, but somehow seeing the man eaten by the monster was equally as horrible as being eaten herself. Carly slapped soap out of her eyes as she screamed, “It will eat you!”

“Be silent, woman,” the man ordered, and she saw the beast turning back toward her screams.

Carly practically gulped a scream down into her chest with a pitiful whimper. God, she didn’t want to die. The man kicked the beast again, even shouting at it. This time she was so grateful.

Then she saw that the man had a long sword in his hand. She wanted to cheer, but thought a big gun would be much better, and she wondered why she wasn’t a puddle in the bottom of the tub by then. Adrenalin. It had to be that and the basic instinct to stay alive, she decided as she prayed her sword-wielding savior knew how to stop the monster.

The man was powerfully amazing as he leaped and turned his body in the small confines of the bathroom, staying just out of reach of the beast’s snapping jaws. In one move, the man jumped five steps up the wall. It was as if he actually walked the wall, then leaped toward the back of the monster’s neck.

Carly was so amazed at the physical feat that it took her several seconds after the beast suddenly roared to realize the man had thrust his sword through the monster’s neck.

The abrupt thud of its huge body falling limp onto her bathroom floor caught her attention. It seemed to vibrate the entire room.

“You got it!” she yelled, feeling intense relief shudder through her as her gaze lifted to the man.

He stood with his bloody sword in one hand and his broad chest puffing from exertion. He had straight strands of jet-black hair flung over one eye, and looked like a hunky martial arts warrior from the movies. Abruptly, she realized she was gawking at him while stark naked.

“Oh my God,” she yelped, corralling her breasts with one arm and slapping a hand between her thighs with her hand. The one eye of his that she could see had an intense black depth to it. “This has got to be a nightmare,” she whispered.

He didn’t speak, just slowly reached for a towel still sitting on her shabby-chic bathroom cabinet, while her stare followed his every move. The realities and impossibilities of what was happening were beginning to shudder through her.

“Th-this can’t be happening,” she said. “This is impossible.”

The man threw the towel at her.

“Use this. But stay there,” he ordered, just before he turned his hot gaze away from her and sprinted from the room.

It was then Carly realized she could still hear enormous thuds and banging that shook her little house. Out the open bathroom entrance, she saw the gnarled and grungy green back of another enormous monster down the hall in her living room.

“Oh God. Oh God,” she cried, as she grabbed the towel off her shoulder and arm, where it had landed, and spasmodically wrapped it around her body.

The mind-boggling nightmare was not over, but she couldn’t move or escape on her bare feet with shattered glass all around her.

“Got your back!” Luke shouted to Victor when he entered the battle Victor fought against a badass, ugly Gargoyle.

Craven and Montego were fighting off Hellhounds, which tried to leap into the living room from the broken sliding glass door at the back of the house.

It was overkill, all the dimension beasts in one spot, Luke thought.

He swung his sword in low against the Gargoyle as Victor slashed high. Most of a Gargoyle’s hide was too tough for even a razor-sharp sword to pierce. The attacker had to find one of two kill spots, and with his help, Victor finally pierced one of them. The Goyle shrieked, and it was like the piercing sound of fire engine sirens.

All dimension warriors knew that was an advantageous sound around civilians, which would not alert the unknowing population. The general inhabitants of this world, which they protected, were unenlightened that there were other dimensions that could rip, and those dimensions contained creatures they’d be horrified to know existed.

“Any more?” Victor asked with a shout, while swinging his sword in an arc ready for another attack, as his long dirty-blond hair whipped along with the motion.

The Goyle stopped its death screech and began to topple backward. Luke braced a hand against the wall for the earthquake-like shaking the dead Goyle was going to make when it hit.

“Just the hounds,” Luke shouted at Victor.

Then the Goyle hit and the tremor was enormous, with lamps crashing, pictures falling off the walls, and more windows breaking.

There was a high-pitched scream from the back of the house, and Luke added, “There’s a live civvy in the back.”

“Get her and wipe her,” Victor ordered, as he lowered his sword. “Leave her with the mentally imprinted suggestion there has been an earthquake.”

“A quake in just this one house?” Craven asked, sounding skeptical as he stepped into the room with his sword held out to the side. Blood dripped from the silver surface, evidence of the Hellhounds he’d killed. “She’s going to notice the minute she steps outside that hers is the only house on the block with damage.”

“Damn,” Victor said. He grabbed part of a toppled curtain and used it to wipe his sword clean of Gargoyle gore.

“Since when is the last time an otherworld pack has come through a dimensional rip this close to population?” Luke asked, distracting them all from the problem for a moment.

He glanced down the hall. He didn’t want to go back there and haul a hysterical, and extremely beautiful, woman out of that bathroom, then lay his hands on her and wipe her mind clean of the events that had just blown through her life.

Maybe if he delayed long enough, Montego or Craven would go do it.

“I thought there was something about people,” Craven said, as he rubbed his hand across the phoenix tattooed on his bald head, “that their combined energies kept the rips from happening in cities. It can happen out in the countryside. This is a small town, but not that small.”

“Damn,” Montego said, limping into the room, and pain flashed across his shadowed jaw. “I say these hounds are after something. I’ve never seen them so focused.”

A purple vapor seemed to flash down the hallway, and then a mist of particles flung up toward the ceiling in the small house. The dead Spiked Gryphon, which had been lying half in the hallway and half in the bathroom, had disappeared and left no evidence that it had ever existed in this dimension.

Luke glanced at the spot where the dead Spiked Gryphon’s tail had just been.

“At least that’s normal,” Victor said.

Then they all heard a woman’s cry. “Help! Is there a fireman out there?”

The woman …

Luke grimaced as her presence in the house became prominent again, while Craven mouthed, “Fireman?”

The other three dimension warriors looked about ready to grin at the woman’s attempt to place such phenomena inside her home.

Victor cleared his throat, obviously trying not to smile. “All right, one of us ‘firemen’ needs to go take care of that.”

“It’s your turn, my brother Chao,” Montego said, walking over to grab the same curtain Victor had used to wipe his sword clean. Victor’s sword hissed as it retracted into its base.

All their gazes turned to Luke with expectation.

Luke hated this part of being a dimensional warrior. In every other aspect, he was made for the job. He just wasn’t good with people … especially civilians. Or females. Luke shook his head at the other fighters, a flat line forming on his lips. Then he turned away, while he hoped the hint of embarrassment he felt didn’t show as redness on his cheeks. But he was afraid that it did.

That pissed him off.

“I’m going outside to check the perimeter,” he said, and then he stomped away. “Be careful with her,” he snapped, as he heard several low chuckles behind his retreat.

J
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