by Susan Grant
There was a loud snap. Jana smelled something burning. Then all the lights in the ship went out. The little saucer was completely dead.
Silence, then Cavin’s swearing and the thud of his fist hitting the dashboard. Looking weak, the Gatekeeper took a seat. Jana formed words somehow. “What happened?”
“I tried a shortcut,” Cavin said. “It didn’t work. I’ll have to find the rest of the power panels.” He spun around in the chair and went in search for more parts in the Orange Crush carton. Every once in a while, he’d attach something. But the ship remained dead.
Hours passed. Jana alternated sitting with Cavin for moral support and pacing. She couldn’t stay still. Somewhere out there an invasion force approached, while Cavin fought to get their best defense up and running…with a hammer and screwdriver! Talk about working against the clock.
Cavin held the handle of a screwdriver clamped in his mouth while he fiddled with a cylindrical crystalline object that stubbornly wouldn’t go where it was supposed to fit. Blood was seeping through the makeshift bandage where his gauntlet had been. He needed stitches, a doctor’s care. Jana swallowed and forced her eyes away from the incision. He’d already refused painkillers and wouldn’t submit to a bandage change until he was done. But they were supposed to have been done by now.
“Jana, I need you to hold this down for me.”
She climbed into the cockpit. He pressed her hand over a warped metal panel. “Hold pressure—there—and I’m going to try to apply power.”
“Okay.” Cavin’s fingers danced over a perfectly flat keyboard of some kind. Nothing happened.
She pressed harder. He tried again. And again. Nothing.
“I’m going to have to try it manually. I’ll either melt what’s left of the systems, or we’ll get this crate powered up.” He fell to his knees and fiddled with the underside of the pilot station. Sweat glistened on his forehead. “All right. Here we go.” His eyes closed, and he concentrated. Or prayed. It was hard to tell the difference. Even the Gatekeeper held her breath.
Nothing.
Jana could almost taste the bitter disappointment in the air as Cavin fell wearily back into the seat. “It’s up to Jared now,” he said.
For the first time, Jana acknowledged the possibility that Cavin might not be able to accomplish what he’d set out to do. That it meant the destruction of all that she knew and loved.
“Damn it,” she snapped. “We need some magic!” She slammed a fist on the console. Something within the little ship clicked and whirred to life. “We’re back—we’re back. Cavin, send out the signal.”
But he was already in action, his hands flying over the panels as he hacked into the system. “I’ve got to do this fast. If it dies again, we may not have a second chance.”
Each second that ticked by was tenser than the last. Jana tried to remember to breathe.
“Here we go,” Cavin said.
There was a flicker, and nothing more. “What happened?” Jana blurted out.
“Wait.” Cavin held up his hand. “Watch.”
Nobody breathed. Then, like fireflies fanning out over a starry sky, dozens and dozens of tiny lights appeared on the lower portion of the screen and rose toward the fleet.
“Earth’s fleet.” Cavin sat back in the pilot chair. Folding his arms over his chest, he looked a lot like his old smug self.
He looked a lot like Peter, she thought. “But did it work? Did they see it?”
He shrugged and turned around in the chair. “Probably.”
“Probably?” the two women chorused.
A familiar telltale glimmer of mischief appeared in his eyes. Jana gaped at him in disbelief. “Tell me you didn’t just make one of your kidding jokes.”
“Something tells me this is a damned if you do, damned if you do situation,” he said.
“I’m going to kill you,” Jana whispered.
Cavin pulled her onto his lap and kissed her soundly. “Yes, Squee, it worked. It worked.” Emotion had made his voice thick. “We multiplied the Shakree by the hundreds. To the Coalition, it will look like Earth has advanced tech and a massive space-faring fleet.”
The Gatekeeper peered at the little lights on the windshield, each representing a huge spaceship. “But they are still coming in our direction.”
“The Coalition fleet is like an enormous lumbering elephant. It will take some time to turn it around. I assure you, they will. But again, as I told the president, it’s not a permanent fix. Long game. They’ll be back, eventually, if not to invade, then to form a treaty because they will be fearful of us. Earth has much to do before that day comes. We have a very big secret and not a lot of time to figure out how to keep them from finding it out.”
“We’ll be ready,” Jana said. This time, diplomacy would be a genuine possibility with Earth negotiating from a position of strength—or at least from a position of perceived strength. As a senator, that particular path to peace was far more palatable than a war they might not be able to win.
A senator who needed to appear a little more professional, she reminded herself and climbed out of Cavin’s lap.
“Well, then.” The Gatekeeper wiped her hands on her apron. “It’s time to go upstairs for milk and cookies. And then I would like for you to tell the president everything you have just told me.”
THE HANDYMAN DROPPED Jana and Cavin off at the highway. “See you next time,” he called from the truck before driving away to retrieve the REEF’s body.
“That’s just weird,” she said. “The whole thing was weird. The farm, the vast underground basement. The ship that doesn’t exist.”
“People will know it exists now.”
“But not where it is.” She doubted that would ever be discovered.
The helicopter sent to pick them up descended. The rotor blades kicked up a tornado of dust and pebbles. She and Cavin ran to it and boarded. “Home, James,” Jana quipped, still giddy from their hard-won victory.
The pilot turned around. It was Connick. He tipped his sunglasses up. “I can’t take you home yet.”
Her blood turned cold. “Why not?”
“I’m afraid I have some bad news. Your grandfather had a stroke.”
As the helicopter took off for Mercy Hospital in Sacramento, Cavin drew her close. “We’re in this together, Squee. From now on, we’re together.” Under the smells of sweat and dust, he smelled like Cavin. She breathed in, holding his essence deep inside her, feeling her blood carry it throughout her body until he was in every pore. And even then, she didn’t let go.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
JANA AND CAVIN RAN down the hospital corridor toward Grandpa’s private room. A pair of nurses flashed them disapproving looks, saw who they were and nodded sympathetically. An honor of state troopers stood guard at the hospital room door. Grandpa had been much-loved by California’s law enforcement back in the day when he’d served as governor. To have the officers volunteer to be here when he was at his most vulnerable was touching, and fitting.
From inside the room, a heart monitor beeped, slowly. The murmur of hushed voices filtered out, but no boisterous laughter, no growled swearwords. Inside that room, Grandpa was dying. She couldn’t imagine losing him. He had a full life, the most amazing life. He lived hard and long, and now it’s time for him to go. Logically she knew it was true, but it didn’t make it any easier to accept.
Jana stopped in the hallway, unable to go any farther. Her throat almost closed, and the tears she’d tried holding back spilled over. Cavin squeezed her hands. “You’re like ice.”
Because she felt so cold inside. “Do you know what the most painful thing is for me? He wanted to see me elected president of the United States. The latter is so crazy, Cavin, a long shot. But he never relented. He always believed.”
“He will see you as president,” Cavin interrupted. He dabbed at her tears, ignoring her confusion. “Now dry your eyes and let’s go see him.”
Her father and mother sat by the bed. Her fa
ther’s eyes were moist. Mom and Evie were openly crying. The children had been there earlier, but had been taken home. Jared sat hunched in the corner, smiling briefly as they walked in. Having come here straight from sitting alert in Cavin’s ship, he probably hadn’t slept in days.
“He’s slipping away,” Dad informed them. He and her mother gave up their chairs so Jana and Cavin could move closer.
Grandpa was very white and still. His eyes were closed. The lids were bluish, almost transparent. His white hair seemed wispier, more inconsequential. It was as if he’d become as ghostly as his hold on life. The monitors displaying his vital signs seemed to make a lot of noise.
Jana crouched by the bed and took his cold hand. If hers were ice, his must be…She tried not to think about it. “Hi Grandpa, it’s me, Jana.”
Maybe it was her imagination, but she could swear the beeping of the heart monitor increased in frequency. Maybe it was her imagination, too, that his hand seemed to tighten over hers. “I’m sorry it took so long for me to get here. All that saving the world paperwork, you know.”
She squeezed his hand. She wanted to say so many things, but how did you encapsulate a lifetime’s worth of gratitude into a few words? “I love you, Grandpa. I love you for so many reasons. You taught me it was wonderful and right to see the magic in everyday things, and I will always be grateful for that. And you taught Dad never to be afraid of going for it, even when someone tells you your chances of succeeding are one in a million. He passed that philosophy on to me, and I remind myself of it constantly. I want you to know, I won’t give up on the presidency.”
There was another hiccup on the heart monitor.
Cavin crouched next to her. Quietly, he said, “Jana is going to be elected overwhelmingly to a second term serving on the state level.”
Jana gave him a startled look. But his nod willed her into silence. “She’ll continue her political ascent, first as the head of Earth-Space Security, an organization she’ll help create from the ground up, and one that brings Earth into the future with a bright hope for peace. But politics is her first love, as we know, and after serving five years in this capacity, she’ll run for California’s U.S. senate seat, winning handily.”
Jana’s family listened intently, enchanted by Cavin’s story. From descriptions of making love in the jungle to an imagined presidential campaign, Cavin’s word pictures were as vivid as ever.
“Still, Jana resists calls to run for president until the end of her second term. We Jaspers finish what we start, she tells them. And so she does. Eight years later, when she’s accumulated the experience to match her desire, she finally enters the presidential race.”
The heart monitor stumbled, and so did Jana’s heart. Could Grandpa hear Cavin? If so, was it too much?
“Jana Jasper wins in a landslide, riding an overwhelming wave of support that began when she saved the world. All because she believed that with heart and a little bit of magic, anything was possible—something she learned from her grandfather. A few months later, on the clearest, sunniest winter day in memory, Jana Jasper is inaugurated as president of the United States of America. She takes the oath with her family surrounding her—her brother, her sister, and their families, and her proud parents. Holding the family Bible is her husband, Cavin of Far Star.”
Love swelled inside Jana, warm and sweet.
“And gazing up with smiles of pride at their mother are their five children.”
Five? Jana mouthed in terror.
“The Jasper’s go home that day to celebrate as they always do over a delicious meal, only this time, for the first time, dinner is eaten in the White House. And so begins a new era in the Jasper political dynasty.”
The only sound other than the hospital monitors was Jana’s mother’s soft sniffles. Grandpa lay perfectly still. Jana brought her lips to his cold, rough knuckles and kissed him.
To her shock, a sound whispered past his lips.
“I can’t hear you, Grandpa.”
Everyone gathered close to listen.
“All hail the chief,” he whispered. Then, with a soft, happy smile, he let go of Jana’s hand and slipped away.
Epilogue
IT TOOK TIME for the family to adjust to Jake Jasper’s passing. Some weeks later, Cavin had the chance to take Jana away for a vacation and time alone together. He’d been kept busy flying back and forth to Washington, many times in Jana’s father’s company. He had been given a position as advisor to the president for all alien affairs, tasked with preparing Earth for the next time an interstellar army came knocking at the door.
He was a hero on Earth, the Jaspers told him. That was fine and good, but that was not what drove him. He’d always been a simple man with simple needs. He could think of no better life than that of Jana Jasper’s husband. He loved her, and he’d saved her. In doing so, he’d saved her world. Call it a delightful consequence.
“Speaking of delightful…” He whirled on Jana, who held on to his hand as he led her up a narrow path past a waterfall in the middle of a jungle. When he returned home, he would have to thank her brother for recommending Costa Rica as a vacation spot.
Cavin scooped Jana up and carried her the rest of the way up the path. The sound of her giggles always made him smile. She kicked her feet. Bright nail polish sparkled in the sun. Coral, she called it.
He set her down near where the river spilled into the gorge. Jana threw her arms wide and spun a graceful pirouette. “Look at it, Cavin. It’s gorgeous up here.”
Steam rose. By now her hair was wet and her skin glistened with the spray. He pulled her close to kiss her. Her kiss was hot and wet and full of feeling. Gods, she could kiss like no other.
He kept tasting and nibbling and suckling her lips as he moved her backward. Her eyes opened wide when her back bumped gently against a tall Jocote in bloom. She laughed as she lifted her gaze to a canopy of leaves and clusters of small purple flowers. Then she turned her attention to him and grinned. “A tree,” she said, her voice huskier. “Ever since your jungle tale, I’ve had fantasies of us…”
He lowered his head to kiss the side of her throat. “In jungles?”
“Namely jungles with big, thick, smooth-trunked trees.” Her breath hitched as he took her breast into his hand, cupping her, feeling the heat of her flesh burning through her bikini. He kissed and caressed her until she moaned his name. He ached for her, as he always did, but first…
He slid down to one knee before gathering her hands in his. He was supposed to have waited until after they arrived home, but the moment just seemed right.
She smiled down at him, half amused, half baffled, her eyes dark with desire. “Jana, my sweet Earthling,” he began.
Her mouth tipped in a smirk. “Yes, Cavin, my sweet spaceman.”
“Would you do me the honor of being my mate—er…” Nerves had almost made him forget the proper Earth words. “I mean my wife. Would you do me the honor of being my wife?”
He saw her love for him shining bright, and he thanked the gods he’d had the common sense and good fortune to make the decision to return to her. Life is sometimes easy, and sometimes hard, but love is the only constant. No matter how far you rise, or how hard you fall, a good love will always be there for you. “Yes,” she said. “I’ll be your wife, your mate, you name it.”
“My love slave?”
“Oooh, and especially that.”
Laughing, he grabbed her and spun her around. Their swimsuits went every which way in the thick foliage. With his mouth pressed to hers, he hoisted Jana, warm and naked, off her feet and pressed her against the tree. She wrapped her soft thighs high around his hips. “Don’t make me wait another second,” she breathed in his ear. “It’s been four hours since the last time, and I miss you already.”
They never could stand time apart, he thought.
Grinning, he gripped her bottom and with a blinding surge of pleasure he found his way home, again, and again.
JANA AND HER NEW HUSBAND em
erged from the wedding reception in a shower of birdseed and flower petals. Reporters and paparazzi mingled with onlookers and her family members. Cameras flashed. Jana waved and smiled at them as she and Cavin ran to their getaway car: a brand-new Jeep.
Cavin opened the passenger door for her before jumping into the driver’s seat. He reached across the car and took her hand. His happy gaze went from their sparkling wedding rings to her smiling face. “I loved you at first sight,” he said.
“Me, too.”
Time stood still as they regarded each other, more passing between them in those silent seconds than words could ever convey. Cavin gave her hand a squeeze and turned the key, starting up the car. “Ready?”
She slipped on her sunglasses. “Ready.” And she was ready, ready for everything to come. The future might not be assured, or even safe, but the power of magic would keep hope alive.
As they drove away from the cheering wedding guests, she imagined what the headline would say: Third Wish Is A Charm: Woman Gets Happily Ever After Ending.
Available for preorder now—ROYAL RECRUIT (Jared Jasper and Queen Keira’s story)
Coming soon: CYBORG AND THE SINGLE MOM (Evie Jasper and REEF’s story)
From the Author
Susan's childhood dreams of becoming a space explorer fizzled when she found out calculus was involved. Luckily, she didn’t need math skills to fly jets—or to create space stories in her head, first for herself, then for friends, and now for readers everywhere.
A New York Times/USA Today bestselling author and a military veteran, Susan won the prestigious RITA® Award for her book Contact, a sci-fi aviation-thriller romance.
Also by Susan Grant
New York Times & USA Today Bestselling Author
