Rescued By Tordin: Olodian Alien Warrior Romance (3 page)

F
ucked
, that’s what he was. Why had he lost his cool with her? Now he was screwed to oblivion, and he knew it. Kyra was gone. She no longer worked for him. She was out of his life. Who would keep the controls running smoothly now?

Succession plan be damned. He hadn’t taken the time to make sure Kyra recorded everything she did in any given shift—at least she hadn’t done it that he knew of. Maybe the guys on the other shifts knew if she kept a log and where it was located, but he was too busy being moon-eyed over her to ever take the time to ask. He knew better than to get caught up in her allure. Now he was the one with his pants around his ankles, looking shabby and exposed.

The console emitted flashing lights, worrisome messages and angry sounds. Were those temperature spikes? And that looked like a warning that the station was moving by a matter of degrees. His pressure was rising by the second.

Too many systems required attention, and the conflict warnings glared an angry red at him. He knew enough about the controls Kyra had constructed to begin to panic. She hadn’t been gone an hour, and everything was going to hell.

His handling of the situation was going to get him fired or worse. He needed her back, but he couldn’t just call her back to the control room. Security had already revoked her clearance, and there was no way he was going to let her work on his credentials. She might try to sabotage him and mess something up. No, he had to think, had to find another solution. He had to get Dirk to come back in, or someone—hell, anyone!—who could get him out of this mess.

Dirk was not as brilliant as Kyra, but he knew how to clean up a mess quickly. Brantley scrambled to get him to come in and cover the vacancy Kyra left.

Brantley had lied to her about why she always had to work with him. The real reason was that he was obsessed with her. He knew it sounded sick now that he replayed it in his mind. Another reason was so he could learn from her; ensuring that she did great work while he was on duty made it seem like he was on top of things. She made him look good, and he wanted her, badly. His plan had been to work with her and woo her over time. That plan had now sunk like a bag of rocks.

For years he’d skated by, never having to prove he knew anything, just coasting on his rank. Now he had to put up or shut up. Kyra hadn’t yet calibrated the systems for the day when he’d lost his mind and decided to have a quick feel and smell of her. She drove him crazy, and he always acted nuts around her.

He couldn’t explain it, but she was the most alluring woman he’d ever met. He loved that she was unaware of the effect she had on him and every man who came into contact with her. And her body! It was the stuff of many wet dreams—Brantley’s and others’. No one bragged about having had her, and if the rumors were true, the idea of her being a virgin was too much to handle.

When she so blatantly rejected him with that look of disgust this morning, he’d lost all control. His anger drove him to do something he couldn’t take back. He’d fired her and brought security into it. He’d been driven to make her pay, to show her who was in control and who had power over whom.

But now it looked like she would win. There was no way he could run the controls without her. He hated his life right now. Then he thought about it, and he hated her for making him lose control.
She
was the cause of this mess. It was because of her and her temptress ways that he’d had to do what he did. She knew what she was doing when she leaned over that console every day, displaying that perfectly rounded ass of hers. And all the times she’d flash a bit of her plump, ripe breasts in those lacy bras was too much. He positioned himself in a seat whenever she stood so he could look up and see through the buttons of those shirts, hoping to catch glimpses of her perfect tits.

She knew full well what effect it had on him and the others. She was a seductress, playing innocent and hard to get. That’s why he had to keep her on his shift and away from the others as much as possible. He’d wanted to woo her, but almost two years and she still wasn’t warming up to his advances. She was a cold-hearted bitch, that’s what she was. It was her fault he was in this predicament. Kyra was to blame for all of it. He wouldn’t be surprised if she hadn’t managed to do something to sabotage him before she left. She could be dangerous if she wanted to be.

On second thought, it was best if he got her off this ship before either of them did something drastic.

Dirk finally picked up the communicator and tried to play tired. Brantley was not in the mood; Dirk would get himself here or else. Wait, he couldn’t fire another of his staff, but he could make his life a living hell. He could make sure Dirk didn’t get much time to spend with that hot new wife of his. Yeah, that would make him get here.

“Dammit, can’t you come in now? I need someone to help me get the station back on line… Oh, Kyra?” he hesitated as the second most competent man of his crew asked where she was. She never called in sick, so he couldn’t use that lie. He had to confess. “She’s no longer working here. I had to fire her.”

He held the phone, wondering if the analyst had fallen back to sleep. He knew it was possible, since the man had just finished up his twelve-hour shift, but Brantley was in a bind.

“Look I need you to come in, if only for a couple of hours until the midday staff arrives…Yeah, yeah, I’ll let you have extra time off. Just get here now!” he muttered and slammed the communicator down before Dirk could wrench any other promises out of him. He didn’t want him to pick up on how desperate he was, or the guy would ask for the fucking moon.

A
TTENTION
! ATTENTION! ATTENTION! All staff report to your stations. ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ATTENTION! All staff report to your stations.

K
yra looked
at Phoebe and saw her own confusion mirrored on her friend’s face.

“Yeah, this is bad. Look, Phoebe, you’d better go back to the medical bay now, something must be happening.”

“I don’t want you to be stuck here without knowing what’s going on,” Phoebe said, looking a little hesitant.

“I’ll be all right. You heard your orders. I’ll try the intra-communicator channels to see if anyone has any information. Now scoot. You can tell me what happened later.”

There was a loud and anxious knock on the door. Before Kyra or Phoebe could respond, a strong male voice shouted through the door, “Kyra Simmons, this is security. May we come in?”

Her heart was in her throat. Security wanted her again? She cast a quick glance at Phoebe and all she got in return was a shrug.

Okay, she had to be calm and find out what this was about. She’d done nothing and was as clueless as the next person about what might have caused that sound. With what strength she had left from her already horrible day, she managed to get out, “Yes. I’m coming.”

When she opened the door, she saw a different set of security personnel. It was only three this time, but she recognized them from the commander’s detail.
Oh sugar, this couldn’t be good, not at all.

When they filed into the room one of them spoke directly to her as if he knew her. “Kyra, the commander requests your presence on the command deck in the mission control room. Please follow us.”

They turned without acknowledging Phoebe and filed back out of the room. When Kyra failed to follow, the one who had spoken before turned back and said, “Please Kyra. This is an emergency.” Then he addressed Phoebe. “Dr. Brown, I suspect you are needed in the medical bay. Please excuse us while we attend to this matter concerning Ms. Simmons.” Phoebe looked like she was about to speak when he added, “Don’t be concerned. She is not in any trouble. On the contrary, it’s us who need her help.” With that he turned and said to Kyra, “Please, come quickly.”

Kyra gave Phoebe a quick glance, and they left in different directions, she with the security officers and Phoebe to the medical bay.

“
G
ood to see
you Ms. Simmons…or may I call you Kyra?” the commander asked as she came into the vast room.

Mission control looked as she’d imagined it. There were people and technology everywhere. As on the rest of the station, the air was sterile and cool. She should know—she programmed it to be that way. Working with Phoebe, she’d come up with the optimal temperature and air quality mix to stave off the spread of disease and bacterial growth.

The room bustled with quiet activity; each person having a highly specific skill. They paid no attention to the new arrival, continuing to focus on their tasks as she tried to overcome the awe and wonder of the scene. Kyra knew this was why members of the flight crew were deemed the cream of the crop.

An air of complete competence permeated the room.

That was the confidence she coveted when she saw it in others who were boldly themselves, no matter what happened around them.

But that didn’t matter now; she was no longer a part of the space station—she’d been fired. Kyra stilled herself enough to dare to act like these people. She forced down that piece of her that nagged the back of her consciousness, the one that made her feel inadequate. Was the commander going to reprimand her in front of everyone? She didn’t know what she’d done to make everything seem so solemn, but she wasn’t going to allow them to see how rattled she was.

She held her head a little higher and managed to get out in a clear, almost confident voice, “Yes sir, by all means, please call me Kyra.”

With a warm smile, he gestured for her to follow him into another room off to the side.

Once inside the impressively decorated and official-looking office, the commander, his second and two of the security officers remained. After he gestured for Kyra to take a seat at a large conference table, the rest of them followed. His voice was mellow and comforting. She liked that. He was an attractive man who looked to be in his late forties or early fifties. He was in great shape and had a full head of salt and pepper hair; Kyra found that she could easily develop a crush on him.

Stop that. This is the commander you’re considering for your pitiful crush adoration.
Her thoughts were quickly interrupted when he spoke to her again.

“Kyra, thank you for coming so quickly. Unfortunately, time is not on our side today, and we need your help.”

She felt her eyes widen with surprise as she listened to what the commander of the largest outpost space station had to say. They needed her help? With what?

The commander continued to speak. “First let me say it has come to my attention that Brantley Mitzen attempted to have you fired and removed from the station this morning. I want to assure you that you are not fired, nor have you been relieved of any of your duties.” He paused and noticed her surprise. “I can tell by your expression you were not aware of this.”

“No sir, I—”

“Please Kyra at a time like this, I think it’s best to drop the formalities. Please call me Mark. That’s the least I can offer for what I’m about to ask of you.”

“Okay then… Mark, what is the big emergency?”

“It appears while we were allowing you to cool off in your quarters this morning, Brantley was allowing the ship to veer off course and some of the most vital systems to overheat. We’ve drifted into the path of some space debris. The loud noises you heard and disturbances you may have felt were due to our colliding with some rather large pieces of junk and old space hardware. Now we’re in a magnetic pull toward a larger mass of this junk. If we don’t correct our course soon, the situation might very well become grim.”

“Hmm, okay. I’m not sure what he may have done to cause us to veer off our coordinates, but I’ll be happy to go down there and take a look and fix what I can.”

“Oh no, there’s no way we’re going to let you anywhere near him again.” Commander Mark cleared his throat as he began the next part. “It has also come to my attention that you were routinely sexually assaulted by that…man. We are purposely allowing him to think he can hide what he’s done or failed to do until we can get this fixed and have him put into confinement. He’s a disgrace to our corps, and I want to extend my deepest apologies to you. If I’d known what he was doing to you on a regular basis, I would have intervened. Please don’t ever be silent or work in conditions like that again without saying anything. We failed you in that regard, and for that I’m sincerely sorry. Please accept my apology.”

The sincere hurt on his face allowed Kyra to let down her guard and instantly trust him. She decided then and there she’d do whatever the commander needed of her.

“Commander, I mean Mark, there’s no need. But may I ask who told you? How did you find out about that?”

“When Brantley contacted security and said he’d fired you, which is not in his power to do, by the way, he triggered the security protocol. That protocol requires that we access and review video and audio footage of events leading up to the charge.” He scanned her face for signs of misunderstanding as he spoke. “Let me assure you, Kyra, that we do not watch video of anything anyone does on the station without probable cause. Although video and audio is recorded at all times, the footage can only be accessed once the protocol is activated. This information is above Brantley’s security and management level, so he wouldn’t have known it existed. Before this morning, we had no evidence of what he was doing until he brought security into the situation. We watched with horror at what he did to you. Then we reviewed other times he’d worked with you, only to discover this was a norm with him where you were concerned.” He looked at her again, this time to gauge her reaction. When he was satisfied she was handling it well enough, he continued. “We also learned how incompetent he is. We’ve taken control from his console and re-routed the systems operations up here. If you can find it in your heart to forgive us, we’d like you to attempt to fix whatever he has done. It appears you are the only one who fully understands this system. In fact, it looks like some type of proprietary system you created. Plus, it has since locked up and won’t allow anyone to bring it back online.”

When he put it like that, Kyra saw how much she’d overstepped her bounds in reconfiguring the system. She quickly offered what she’d done. Might as well get the tongue lashing over with.

“Yes, I did some work to use different sources to power the system, but I made sure to leave an override, and the operations manual is in the SOO file on the Standards of Operation drive. It would only go offline if there was some sort of threat. Did anyone attempt to corrupt it with a foreign command? It makes no sense it would lock up otherwise. The guys should have known how to bring it back online,” she quickly added when he looked puzzled.

“We didn’t allow them to come to Brantley’s aid, even though he attempted to bully Dirk to come back to work after he’d already worked twelve hours. The only person to touch it has been that moron. As for the documentation and file location, we will make sure that’s noted in the ship’s main operation manual. And to answer the question you didn’t ask, no I’m not angry about your changes. This station never ran better than when you got here. I’m glad to know where the SOO file is now too.” He looked around at the others as if looking for strength and said, “But in the meantime, we are in a perilous situation. We are right in the path of a large piece of an abandoned space station from the early twenty-first century. If we collide with it, it may cause irreparable damage to the station. Those pieces of antiquated metal are heavy enough to cause serious damage or worse.”

“Oh, well, let’s get to it then. How much time do we have before impact?” Kyra asked, hoping she had enough time to unravel what had happened in the last two plus hours under Brantley’s control.

“Less than five hours to impact is our current calculation. And there’s another issue. The debris that already collided with us has lodged itself into one of the ten engines. The engine is now off line, and that collision was just a slight bump. Imagine what will happen if debris hits us with any force? We’re operating at eighty-five to ninety percent engine capacity at best. That may not be enough to move us out of the path before impact. All I can say is that I wish we were meeting under better circumstances.”

She nodded, unable to comprehend how this had managed to get so bad so fast. Brantley had struck again. But she’d have to process that later. “It’s all right. Please lead the way so I can get started on the system.”

Kyra was placed at a console that put the one in the operations section to shame. After she logged in and got acclimated, she began. When she had the system back online, she looked up to see many of the same people she’d admired when she came onto the floor staring at her in amazement.

“Commander, would it be possible to get someone to help me with the calculations for the thrust needed to dislodge the mass of the debris? I want to see if we can remove what’s already entwined with the engine. Plus, if you can spare them, I need a few engineers to help with a couple other things.”

Without hesitation, the commander motioned for four people to come to her station. After she gave out the directives and worked for another couple of hours, she motioned for the commander to go back into his private office and briefing room.

Once inside and certain only his trusted staff was there, she announced, “I don’t see a way to avoid most of the debris field. I recommend that you prepare an evacuation immediately. I’ve already used up more than two hours trying to find a way to avoid the field. I don’t know how long it would take to get some other transports, but I suggest you give the order to get most of the crew into the shuttles and back down to the surface as soon as possible.”

The room remained quiet for a few beats too long. Then the commander spoke.

“I see. So what you’re saying is that impact of some sort is inevitable? Even with the system back online?”

“I’m sad to say, yes, that’s correct. We’ve drifted too far into the field, and our engine capacity by your own engineer’s calculation is down to eighty percent at best. We must prepare for the worst. Even if we had someone go out there and physically remove the debris from that engine, we still wouldn’t have the thrust capacity to change course in time. I’m sorry, but that is my best recommendation.”

The commander squared his shoulders and stood. “All right people, you heard her. Get everyone ready to evacuate the station.”

The words had no sooner left his mouth than a loud crash sounded, and the station shook from a collision impact. As in so many of the fictionalized accounts of space collisions she’d watched in old movies growing up, there were blaring alarms and flashing warning lights. If she didn’t know she was in mission control with the best people to handle a crisis, she might have panicked. Instead, she affected a steely resolve and went about assessing the damage and becoming part of the solution to get people to safety.

Her next thought was how Phee was doing. She could only imagine the chaos she must be enduring in the medical bay. As she ran a quick scan of systems, her worst fears seemed to be playing out today. The air pressure and oxygen levels were compromised. They were losing oxygen more rapidly than they’d be able to evacuate.

As she scanned and re-ran the data, she thought about how much she wanted to hate Brantley right now for putting everyone into this predicament, but she knew that was a cop-out. Now wasn’t the time to be a temperamental shrew. It was her place to work and find solutions. Blaming was a waste of time and energy that could be better spent getting things done.

“Commander, I need you to get some help from the surface. Is there a way to send a Mayday to them? I don’t think the station will be able to sustain air quality for the two plus hours we need. If everything remains constant, the air will be gone in an hour and forty-nine minutes. We need to get all non-essential personnel out of here now.”

The commander gave her a look of disbelief and then quickly went into action. “Thank you, Kyra. Looks like you’re the commander today. I’m going down to the engine rooms to coordinate the evacuation. Please keep me apprised of the systems’ situation every ten minutes. I can be reached on the intra-communicator on this frequency.” He pointed at a frequency she hadn’t known was available before then.

With a quick nod to confirm that she understood what was to be done, he was off.

Within the next few minutes, the station-wide announcement system began to broadcast the mandatory evacuation. Hearing the announcement brought chills to Kyra’s body. This was not a drill. She was in the heart of a potentially life-or-death situation. Looking at the disarray of many of the station’s systems, she dug in deeper to unravel as much of the chaos as possible.

A buzzing notification let her know the filtration system was failing. If the filters couldn’t keep up, then the air quality would deteriorate even faster, poisoning everyone with gases mixed in deadly proportions. This was nuts. She could only imagine what the rest of the ship must look like. Up here in mission control it was starting to unravel. People were running back and forth, and the tension in their voices belied their calm appearance. Seeing these strong-willed people start to fray around the edges gave away the rawness of the situation. Any minute now, someone would lose his cool and snap.

Buzz, buzz, buzz…

The sound startled her, but she picked up the intra-communicator next to her station. Dirk’s agitated voice filled her ears.

“Kyra! What the hell is going on? I came in to help Brantley. He’s in a corner crying and losing it, and I can’t access any of the systems. Plus, someone just reported a fire in one of the loading galleys next to an engine that seems to have stopped working.”

“Dirk, slow down. Did you say there’s a fire next to one of the engine rooms?”

“Yes but I can’t get control of the system to run a check.”

“Don’t worry about that. Mission control overrode it. I have control of all the systems up here in the control room now. I’ll take a look to see if I can locate the fire and activate the extinguishers.”