Defying The Alliance (Novokin Alliance Invasion 1) (5 page)

“You disregarded my explicit orders Commander. I should have you shot for that. You got me? Right after you give birth to my godchildren, of course.” I hollered and the line went quite. A few seconds later I mumbled, “Thank you, Jaxx.”

“Captain," he said as if insulted, "remember protocol."

I turned my head back again to appraise golden boy of the situation. He was already staring down at me, his hazel eyes flecked with gold, now deep and dark with hunger. Maybe this is the most action he's had all year too. I bit my lip before I spoke. "It seems like we’re free to go now. I owe you a debt of gratitude big boy."

His look intensified if that was even possible. "No, brave Terran warrior, it is I who owe you a life debt. Your actions here today have shamed me back to an honorable path. And I thank you for it."

"Um, sure...You’re welcome. Well, the least I can do is offer you a ride."

His smile stretched from ear to ear at this, and the throbbing on my belly intensified.

Down big boy!

Buzz! Buzz!

The man in the bed shifted uncomfortably.

Buzz! Buzz!

He cursed under his breath. He was groggy with drink and his body ached from the games earlier that evening.

Buzz! Buzz!

His temper flared and he turned toward the door of his cabin, "Cease that infernal buzzing!"

Blessedly, the infernal noise stopped. But nothing else happened.
Oh yes, he'd forgotten, protocol.
"Enter. Enter!"

The thick metallic door slid open letting in a cold blinding light from the hallway obscured only by the lone figure standing in the doorway. He grumbled his dissatisfaction while his eyes adjusted to the light. The man outside had enough sense to wait until he was summoned. A gesture waved him in.

A man garbed in a crisp military uniform stepped through the door. His eyes went wide as saucers for a moment, his gaze focused on the floor next to the supreme commander's bed. He caught himself and addressed the senior Novokin officer. "Sir, I'm sorry to disturb you, Sir."

He sat up, letting his cover pool at his naked waist and glowered at the younger man. "Get on with it Lieutenant, what's so important you've got to wake me at...0300 hours in the morning. I hope it is very important, for your sake."

The lieutenant swallowed hard. He stood ramrod straight, arms down at his sides and eyes forced up when he gave his report. "Sir we've had a message from the Station Chief serving on the Deep Proteus space station 5. An incident occurred, Sir. It involves information the Supreme Commander himself, you Sir had flagged."

"Well, don't be obtuse Lieutenant, what is it?"

Sweat beaded on his forehead, and a rivulet ran down a light purple cheek, which identified him as a Novokin. "Sir, apparently one of the rogue captains from the ex-Protectorate army was briefly scanned by an advertising bot, during a showdown with some slavers."

The supreme commander cracked his neck from side to side. He was getting bored with this. "Well don't keep me in suspense Lieutenant."

"Apparently Sir, the rogue Captain and several other individuals, possibly of said Captain's crew covertly entered the station, biometricly cloaked and dressed as Daunietes. They attacked the slave caravan directly, killing two Lizardian slavers, five standard space station security officers and twelve Imperial guards."

The commander yawned. "Yes yes, I get that. Who was it?"

The lieutenant’s voice cracked when he responded. "I'm sorry Sir, I’m not privy to the information. The details have been designated for your eyes only, as per your command, on quadrant 34's Novokin Alliance Independence Day, three years ago."

The supreme commander briefly considered demoting the lieutenant down to auxiliary crewman status. But then he would have to demote every fool he was forced to suffer under his command and soon he'd be out of a crew. Instead he chose to lash out at the man. "Why didn't you just start with that you gelk! Give me the data pad!"

The young lieutenant didn't move. "I'm sorry Sir, this was designated classified red Omega. The only copy has been forwarded directly to your data terminal."

The supreme commander slid to the edge of his bed, swinging his feet to the floor. Letting his sheet fall completely away, he smiled at the young man's embarrassment. He was as fit today as the day he first enlisted, and he didn't mind if people knew it. Actually he made sure they were aware of it.

The room was still draped in shadows, but he was careful to step over the dead Terran girl lying at the foot of his bed, her glassy eyes catching the light and staring into nothingness. He tapped a few keys on his data terminal. The face of a beautiful Terran woman and her statistics rolled across the screen. The supreme commander licked his lips and smiled.

"Lieutenant." He barked.

The young officer stepped forward. Still at attention, he purposely avoided making eye contact with his commander.

The Supreme Commander of the entire Novokin Alliance's fleet scanned the communiqué, then spoke in cool even tones that almost approached mirth. "Are the perpetrators still on the space station?”

“No Sir, they escaped,” the young lieutenant’s palms dripped and his mouth filled with cotton.

“Get me Captain Asmot. I have a traitor I want hunted down and brought back to me, alive."

We descended the three decks down to engineering. And by we, I mean myself and my new ever present 6'8" brick wall of gold, rippling muscles that was my new shadow, Trex. Not that I was complaining. Well, maybe a little. Every chance I got actually. To everyone I met, but not inwardly.

I only met him a day ago on Deep Proteus space station 5 where Jaxx and I had struck an unfortunate deal with a less than shady character named Skeeves. That son of a sheetek, sold us out, to the Novokin Alliance no less. Who expected them so far into the outer rim? If it wasn’t for Trex, I'd be a little more than a carbon scorch mark on the station's promenade.

He was part of a slave caravan, waiting to be sold. And I was pretending to haggle with the one-eyed lizard mongrel in order to stop him from abusing a young Terran woman. Things went south, fast, when he refused to sell her to me, while making detailed threats of what he would do to the poor girl. I snapped and blasted the monster’s arm off.
Ooops!

The commotion that followed my assault alerted the Novokin and station guards who were quite displeased with my negotiating tactics. As expected, plasma fire was exchanged. That’s when my golden barbarian made his brilliant entrance and saved my ass. Well truthfully, he is not exactly mine and I know nothing else about him. Except, that he’s from a different galaxy and I owe him a life debt, which I intend to pay back, in full. Still, he is an unknown on my ship, under my command. I’ll have to keep my eye on him.

Anya was waiting for us in the doorway when we arrived at engineering, languishing as if she didn't have any work to do. Did I pay her to languish? I'd be really put out by this, if I was actually paying her.

Her tall and slender form worked hard at holding the doorway in place. She was half Terran half Duskanite, and she'd been gifted with the best of both worlds. There was a delicate, almost Elven quality about her beauty. Jet black hair flowed over skin of a deep flawless mocha. At least she wasn't as tall as most Duskanites, her mother's Terran blood stunting her growth to a mere 6'2". I stood up straighter as she stepped aside and graciously ushered us into the room.

Something strange was going on because she never called me to engineering. Never. When I turned back to eye her, she had now draped herself over a consul, as if standing was too taxing on her system. Damn if she didn't look like one of those models from the fashion holo-magazines.

"Captain," she merely cocked an eye in greeting, then turned to Trex and let a predatory feline smile slide across her face. "Handsome," she purred.

Standing and spinning in one motion she cat walked toward the reaction chamber. I guess she was expecting us to follow.
Handsome, huh?
I bit down on the inside of my cheek, as the green snake of jealousy slithered its way out, ready to pounce. But I wasn’t even with Trex. No, I had no claim over him.

"Captain there's something I want you to take a look at." She opened the outer hatch of a long metal cylinder next to the engine’s reactor. She pulled down the three green safety latches necessary to access the chamber and then keyed in her override command. It cried a long decompressive hiss before opening. I peered in, and-.

"What am I looking at? It's empty."

She gave me an haute smile. "Exactly. Listen Captain, far be it for me to question your actions on the space station... I'm sure, I would've done the exact same thing in your shoes." She paused to give Trex a flirtatious wink. "Hey handsome, thanks for saving our Captain.”

Trex arched a single eyebrow. “Not at all, it was my pleasure.” His stoic face was in full bloom.

She gave him another small wink before turning back to me. “The real problem is, that when we fled the station in haste, we did so without replacing our fuel crystals. If you remember Captain, we took that skecky deal because we were desperate. At that point we were already recycling discarded shards. What you're looking at in there is the total sum of everything we've got left."

I frowned deeper, on top of the frown I was still sporting from her wink at Trex. "There's nothing in there. How-."

She nodded her head and then threw her index finger up. “And before you ask, Captain, fumes. That's all we’re running on."

Skeck.
"So what can we do? Or better yet as my Chief Engineer, what do you suggest we do?"

"Well Captain, as your
only
engineer, I've been giving this a lot of thought and it comes down to one of three possibilities. Number one, give up. Surrender to the Alliance."

That earned her my patented are-you-praking-kidding-me look, as hot blood rushed to color my face. Trex’s deep, low growl mirrored my feelings exactly, but she took it in stride.

"I know, I know. You wanted options and I'm giving them to you. Number two. The Razor's way too far from a refueling site to make it on her own power. We can start at top speed, and I can maybe coax half a day out of her. The hope here being that we can eventually drift to somewhere we can refuel."

That sounded a bit dubious, but I'd bite. "And what's the likelihood of that?"

"Pretty good, eventually...I mean if we don't die of starvation or hypothermia, undoubtedly some of us would have to eat each other. A few of us might make it." She flashed me a smile full of sharp teeth. Not quite pure-blood Duskanite carnivorous sharp, but enough to make Trex growl. My big barbarian shadow was nothing if not consistent.

It was well known that her people, could go for long stretches of time without eating. As much as I liked Anya, I didn't relish the idea of starving or freezing to death, only to be stored and then reheated for her as a vid-screen dinner.

I waited, not wanting to step on my engineer’s flair for the dramatic. She took the cue. "Number three, we get it from a passing ship."

I must've looked like a confused toddler, because Trex was looking back and forth at the two of us before his gaze became somber. "But we don't have anything to trade," I pointed out, not liking at all where this conversation was headed.

"I know," she mumbled, her eyes searching the room until she found a very interesting display panel to gaze into.

“
Prak the seven winds of Galinomo Valley! Chief, are you telling me that we’re about to be sitting ducks in Novokin space? Not more than spitting distance from the Deep Proteus space station 5 where just yesterday a new arrest warrant was issued for myself and the nine slaves we liberated?” I exploded, the heat in my body rising, as anger flooded my vision. “You’re telling me that my only choice to save my crew is to turn us all into criminals?” I asked again, not quite believing what I was hearing.

She simply nodded.

I rubbed my forehead and pushed my hair back trying to take a breath and clear my head.
Could my day get any worse?

"I will not sink to praking piracy," I growled, ready to explode from the rapidly building pressure inside my skull. Made that much worse by my unintended pun.

Keeping my hands open and my movements fluid I took a step back on the mat, looking for some kind of opening in his defenses, but came up short. The man was a fortress. I sidled in low, faking a sweep to his left leg, putting me in a position to attack his unprotected midsection with an openhanded strike. He sidestepped the fake kick easily then batted off my multiple thrusts and jabs without much effort. Now he was just playing with me. We had been sparring ever since our meeting with Anya in engineering. I needed to pound something and Trex was there, a willing victim. Plus, I hadn’t made up my mind about him. Had to keep him close.

I kept attacking, with deadly accuracy and razor-sharp quips. All the while he evaded and defended quietly. The more I attacked, the easier it seemed for him. I was dripping like a Cartusian rain forest monkey and I don't think he even broke a sweat. Unfair.

“Is that all you have got Captain? Your combat technique is seriously lacking. Is this how your Protectorate taught you to fight?”

Was he mocking me? His straight face gave up nothing. There was a glint in his green, gold speckled eyes; a warning of danger maybe, or something else I couldn’t quite decipher yet. I narrowed my own eyes over pursed lips. I’m usually able to read people right away and I liked it that way. It made sense.

I managed to sneak in two quick kicks to the side of his head. He was easily able to block the first, the second caught him in the cheek. “Got you! Who doesn’t have technique now, you Hyberian ox?” I gloated. He grunted and his nostrils flared even as a thin trickle of gold fluid weaved its way down to his jawline. We were only supposed to be practicing, but the building tension of the last couple of days had my blood boiling and my body itching for release in more than one way.

The ship's training room was a fully equipped Protectorate training center with both holographic combat sims and standard exercise equipment. Though, if given a chance, I preferred hand to hand combat with a real opponent. The adrenaline spike I experienced, attacking, defending and trying to anticipate my rival’s moves, helped me focus and think. What a better sparring partner than the 6'8" golden mountain of solid muscle threatening to pummel me if I gave him half a chance.

“You may not have a choice Captain,” he reasoned as he caught my scissor kick in mid air, flipping me backwards.

The somber tone in his voice slapped me with the realization of our desperate predicament. My bruised heart tried to claw its way out of my chest, so I couldn’t feel the hurt anymore. Anger rose deep from my gut pulling me to where it always pulled me, the Novokin Alliance invasion. That first day, and those horrible vid scenes coming in from New Astoria. The devastation, the death. Tears of festering rage started to build as I thought about my family. Caught on the home world during the first praking Novokin attack. And it wasn’t just mine. Countless numbers of planets and outposts in our galaxy ransacked and destroyed in mere seconds by those Novokin butchers. I could barely see, grinding my teeth and shaking so hard trying to keep the tears back -.

The room flipped upside down.

I realized what was happening a millisecond before white hot pain exploded in my shoulder where it hit the mat. That was a praking teeth rattler. A far off voice boomed in time with the jarring of my brain.

"If we're going to practice, you will need to focus on the here and now Captain, lest you wish to be thrown across the room again," he said firmly as his lips curled up in that annoying, lopsided way that made him look sexy as hell and flustered the area south to my belly button. Apparently this was all very funny to him.

I worked hard to keep a dazed look while I reached up a hand, from my undignified position on the floor, with the hopes of him helping me up. He obliged and leaned down to reach for my hand. Too bad for him.

I took advantage of the millisecond he was slightly off balance. I locked his wrist then used his own weight against him, pulling him forward. All traces of smugness on his face were replaced with the stark gut-punch of reality. He was going down. I kicked out at his weight bearing leg. The big beautiful golden mountain of a man tumbled over little ole me and smacked face first on the ground, hard.

"I didn't do all this just to become a criminal. Damn it!" I retorted, breathing heavily from the effort I’d exerted to see his 320 pound of pure muscle ass knocked down a peg, and kissing ground.

He seemed stunned so I followed him down to the mat, circled behind him and leapt on his back like a monkey. “I used to hunt down and lock up criminals,” I panted. I pushed my knees into his back as I wrapped my arms around his neck. I locked my hands and started to squeeze.

“Be careful Captain you may strain a muscle there.” Was that mirth in his voice? Was he laughing at me?
Skeck, no.
I squeezed harder.

“Maybe honor, and duty mean nothing to you, barbarian, but I took an oath to uphold and enforce the ideals of the Protectorate.” My voice trembled under the strain of my anger and my effort to immobilize my gargantuan opponent.

He started to move to his hands and knees.
Dammit he was getting up.
Then one of his arms crumbled under him, listing his body on one side. Oxygen baby. You don't realize how much you need it, until it's gone. There's a reason I'm the Captain. There's a reason I took first place in
all
the martial arts competitions at the Academy. Size doesn't matter to a grappler. The bigger they are, the harder they –AAAAAHHHH!

All my muscles went into spasm at once. The jolt of electricity crawled over every inch of my body crippling my nervous system. My grip involuntarily loosened and he started to fall. Before, I had a chance to react, he turned the momentum of his fall into a roll and crushed me like a Greycrunch water bug. So much for air. My arms had the strength of wet spaghetti and when he righted himself, he easily peeled them from around his neck using my thumbs as levers. The only thought going through my head, as I skated unceremoniously to the floor is that this is what must've felt like to exist before I learned to walk.

The next thing I knew I was face down drooling on the mat, and Trex was on his back next to me, breathing heavily. When I could once again feel my arms and legs, my indignation began to rise. I crawled to my hands and knees. Then I jumped on top of him, barely able to straddle the width of his solid muscled torso.

I poked my index finger into his rock hard chest. "You cheated!" I snapped. My voice crackled with emotion, and my cheeks burned. “You bamboozled me with your zapping ray power thingy.”

"No, I merely decided that air was more important to me in that moment, than my pride." His eyes then trailed down the length of my body where I straddled him. An amused lopsided smirk spread across his face and he turned his heated, green gaze back up to my eyes.

“Is that so? Oh, you mighty golden barbarian,” I gibed, as I attempted to push myself away, up off his rock hard abs. Getting intimate with the beautiful barbarian in the middle of the training room had not been my plan.
Ever!

Strong, forceful hands quickly landed on top of my thighs and firmly tugged my lower body back down against his groin. His body was saying hello as his hardness fit snugly between my thighs, awakening my own desire for this male and turning the heat up in my core. The sound of his voice was warm, deep and smooth like rich, thick, dark Olourian maplehoney syrup, dribbling on the tongue, sending ripples of sweet pleasure and excitement through me.

"You need to decide what's more important Captain. Your freedom and that of your crew, or your reputation. By which will you attain true honor?” The solemn, rough tone of his voice shook me inside.

Skeck all, as much as I hated to admit the barbarian was on to something. Every member of my crew was counting on me. I had to...I had to–.

His large arousal pulsed and pushed against the seam of my pants disturbing my thoughts and making me wet. My lips parted and my hips reacted by rocking back and forth, grinding up and down the length of him. My entire southern region tightened. I could've come right then and there, but I wasn't ready to give up my advantage and I wasn't ready for this to end. One of his large hands slid from my thigh and cupped my backside, pulling me into him.

I lowered my chin and his eyes locked on mine, as I traced the definition of his solid, powerful muscles and ended in a soft, silky patch of fur at the center of his chest. Raw need reflected in the green pools of his eyes making me quiver and sending my essence ablaze. His need mirrored the unbelievable craving inside me. A need that demanded satisfaction.

It had been three years since a man warmed my bed. Three years of relentless running and hiding. Always checking over my shoulder. Never knowing who to trust. I’d always managed to keep a cool head. But this was different. He was different. It was all happening too fast. I desired to be with this alien like the desert craves the water.

Yet my unconscious mind, unrelenting and always vigilant shouted at me,
It’s ridiculous, you’ve only known this alien for a day and a half. You’re the Captain. You can’t fraternize with people under your command. These people depend on you. To keep them safe. Safety requires focus and protocol. Romantic entanglements are only a distraction, a distraction you can’t afford.
I knew I had to put a stop to this before my body’s rebellion got out of hand.

Still unable to detach myself from the warm, solid fingers gently squeezing my thighs, I whispered, “My crew’s safety and freedom mean more to me than anything else, and yet I can’t betray the ideals that I swore to uphold.” I paused, struggling to focus on what I was saying and not the feel of him under me.

I continued speaking before he had a chance to respond. “On the Deep Proteus station you asked me why I saved all these people. I did it because I’m a Protectorate Captain, sworn to defend and protect. That’s what I do. That’s who I am. It may mean nothing to you but it means everything to me and my crew. Besides, I wish somebody had done the same for my family before the praking Novokin butchers slaughtered them.” My voice broke as a single tear finally escaped, cool on my flushed cheek.

Calloused fingers cupped my face and wiped the runaway tear. “You’re not a Protectorate Captain. Not anymore. And it wasn’t your fault. You couldn’t have saved them,” he stated gently.

“I never said that-.” The words froze in my lips. An empty stare haunted his beautiful green eyes. He let me see his pain, his loss and I knew it for what it was. It was my own. The dilated, dark pupils of his tender eyes sucked me right in, drowning out all of my pain and misgivings. At that moment, I needed him like nothing else, like nobody else before.

A soft prickling sensation, the same as when we were hiding in the air vent from the Novokin soldiers on the station, began to ride up my legs and into the folds of my sex. I dug my nails deeper into his skin as my whole body was assaulted by electrifying waves of delicious pleasure. His strong pelvis pushed off the floor, making our connection tighter, as his throbbing cock thrust against the thin barrier of my workout leggings.

Snaring a fistful of golden brown, silky fur on his furnace of a chest, to balance myself against his thrusting, I leaned down to devour those luscious chiseled lips, when the door to the training room hissed open.

Skeck!
I threw my chest up swinging one fist, then two into the smooth line of his beautiful, rugged jaw. Trex laid back, eyes wide with confusion and his shapely nose now bleeding profusely into his mouth. I pushed off him and stood in one fluid motion, wincing as the throes of pleasure still assailed my lower half.

Unable to move quickly on my quivering legs I addressed my sparring partner on the floor.

"And that's why you always have to remain focused," I proclaimed, before I spun on shaky heels and headed for the door.

I strode carefully across the room, casually nodding to Jaxx and one of the lieutenants, as they repaired a power coupling, or something. When I could see straight again, I'd figure it out.

“Hey Captain,” Jaxx chirped. His eyes drilled into mine, as he tossed sidelong glances toward the other side of the room, where Trex was still lying on the floor. Or I thought he still did. I didn’t dare look back.

“Commander,” I intoned, looking in his general direction but avoided his gaze. On second thought, I really needed to talk to him. “Actually, Commander Jaxx, could I have a word with you?”

Then I thought better of it as Jaxx started packing up his tools to follow me." I'll meet you in the operations room in twenty."

I left my first officer to his confusion and hobbled to my quarters like a newborn Verdaxian foal.