by Liza Probz
Before they could reach their destination, the bridge door whooshed open. Ontarii was confronted by two large mechanical beings. Their shape resembled a person's, with two arms and two legs, but the area where their faces should be were instead light displays. The displays were bright red and flashing angrily.
“Intruder alert,” the units said in unison.
Small hatches on the units’ shoulders opened to reveal laser weapons that swiveled to lock in on him. Ontarii breathed deeply and started charging up his bioelectric weaponry. Zantharians had the ability to discharge powerful pulses of electric energy from their bodies. The discharge should be powerful enough to take out the unit.
The door behind him opened, catching him further off guard.
“Intruder alert,” came from behind him. He risked a glance and found two more units stationed behind them. They were effectively trapped between the robot pairs.
Ontarii wasn’t used to someone getting the drop on him. It rankled. While he and his companions could each discharge into one of the robots, they would still leave one unaffected, and that one robot could do significant damage before they were sufficiently recharged to use their bio-weapons again. Still, they couldn’t stand here and do nothing.
“Prepare for shock discharge,” he said, powering up his own weapon.
“Stand down!” a strong feminine voice commanded.
Ontarii’s head shot up at the command. His eyes narrowed as his gaze fastened on the one who’d spoken.
A human female stood behind the two robots blocking the entrance to the bridge. She was tall, for a human, only a couple inches lacking six feet. Her hair was dark and pulled back tightly. Her eyes were a light amber that reminded him of starlight seen through the tinted glass dome of Noruma’s temple. His heart fluttered uncommonly in his chest.
That’s an unexpected thought to have while facing down the enemy. Ontarii chastised himself. Focus on the matter at hand.
“Call off your robots, human,” he said, his voice firm.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her tone sweet but her face expressionless. “I can’t do that. It looks like you’re charging up some kind of weapon of your own, if the pulses in your skin are any indication. Why should I disarm myself when you’re not willing to do the same?”
Ontarii had to admit that she had a point.
“Perhaps you’re mistaken about your situation here,” he said. Point or no point, she’s outnumbered and outgunned. She will back down. “Your ship is tractored to our hull. I’ve got over one hundred soldiers on that vessel. Your paltry vessel couldn’t hold more than a dozen, and I doubt you have that many with you. Even if your robots succeed in overtaking us, they still can’t match the force we can bring to bear.”
“Maybe not,” she said, her dark eyebrow rising. “But my robots will still be able to put a hurting on you and your companions before your ship of soldiers can get to you. So stand down, stop charging up whatever weird weapons you’ve got, and let’s talk like civilized beings.”
Ontarii considered her words. The Earthlings posed no real threat, and if he wanted to push the issue, he could alert the flagship and have this tiny craft flooded with Zantharian soldiers within seconds.
He didn’t appreciate the tone the Earthling female was taking with him, nor the way it was making him feel. He had half a mind to blast her with his charge and see how she took it. Hopefully it would wipe the smug look off her pretty face.
Ontarii’s eyes narrowed as he stared down the human female, giving her a minute to think through her strategy.
Chapter 3
Brook swallowed around the lump in her throat as subtly as she could. She didn’t appreciate the expression on the alien leader’s face at all. There was no doubt that he was the leader within the small squad before her. He was slightly taller than the other two, his entire demeanor projected command and dominance. Her stomach tightened in a way that made her want to blush, but she forced herself to remain in control. She was a scientist. It was simply the excitement bubbling up inside of her at their finding.
The male stood ramrod straight, his skin a curious mint green color, but beautiful somehow. There was nothing little about the “little green man” though. He was taller than most humans she knew, and his body was a mass of muscle tone and restrained power.
His eyes were as black as empty space. His nose was prominent and straight, leading to lips that were compressed in what she imagined was barely repressed rage. The clothing he was wearing was strange, made out of some kind of natural plant fiber. It consisted mainly of a skirt of sorts that fell to his knees in braids, with two thicker braids climbing his chest. At his shoulders the braids displayed an intricate knot. The rest of his massive body was bare.
Brook concentrated on her breathing, her eyes boring into the alien leader. I will not back down. Why the fuck are you so hot? I will not back down.
If she gave in now, the aliens would walk all over her. Hell, they likely would anyway, given their advanced technology and weapons. Regardless, she would stand up for herself and her crew, ensuring that the foreign being before her knew she meant business. It was her duty to keep those under her command safe, and to complete her mission.
And she would, by God, accomplish those goals, despite any resistance from her new discovery.
The leader’s eyes narrowed as he met her gaze and held it for a few minutes. He broke the connection finally, turning to his companions and giving a short nod. The energy pulses that were rippling across their bodies faded away.
Brook let out the breath she was holding. Round one - humans.
“Power down your robots,” the leader barked, his voice as hard as steel.
She didn’t like giving up her advantage, slim as it might be, but she had to make concessions as well. It was only fair. “Lieutenant Brunt, power down the FIDOs.”
Talia stood just behind her, and moved up as Brook turned to pin Brunt with a stare. Talia lifted to her toes and murmured close to Brook’s ear, “You sure that is a good idea?”
Of course not. It’s the dumbest idea I’ve had in years.
Behind her, Brunt was at the console, inputting the commands to deactivate the FIDOs. The face displays of the units blinked from red to blue, and the robots turned and headed down the corridor and back to the cargo bay where they were stored.
Brook turned back in time to see the leader starting to speak, but she jumped in first, not wanting to give him the chance to take control of the situation. “Do you want to explain to me why you captured my ship and boarded her without permission? We’ve done nothing to provoke such a response.”
The leader gave her a tight smile as his eyes moved across her face. “You were nearing the Zantharian defense perimeter. We’re on high alert and scanning all ships entering our system.”
“Scanning doesn’t mean boarding.”
The hair on his head started to move suddenly. She was riveted and couldn’t speak for a minute as she stared at him. She’d assumed the alien had hair similar to her own, but now she realized it was something more akin to tiny tentacles. And they’d started to ripple.
He didn’t answer, but asked a question of his own. “What are you doing here? Explain yourself. Now.”
Brook’s face tightened. “Explain why you boarded my ship.”
Letting out a large sigh the alien took a step forward. “I already told you. Keep up and don’t waste my time.”
Alvarez, who had been standing next to her on the left, lifted his laser pistol, aiming it at the lead alien who scoffed and turned his attention to her crewmate and then back to her.
“I thought we were past brandishing our weapons at one another.”
Brook put her hand on Alvarez’s pistol to push it back toward the floor. “If that’s the truth, then you should release my ship and stop talking to me like I’m a child. It’s not going to get you anywhere with me.”
The alien’s face hardened until it looked carved from jade. “I can’t do that
. Not until you explain what you’re doing here.”
Brook let out a heavy breath. Someone had to be the first one to capitulate. The alien seemed to be meeting her halfway, so she supposed it was time to give a little.
“One of our people was investigating a nearby planet, classified as JL-398. We lost contact with her when she entered the planet’s atmosphere and haven’t been able to re-establish communications. My crew was sent to try and locate her.”
The leader nodded as if he’d been expecting her answer. “And is this the entirety of your crew?”
Brook frowned. “The Earhart currently has a complement of eight crew members, including her captain.”
“I suppose you’re the captain?” He eyed her up and down as if it was humorous that a woman was captaining a ship.
She wanted to slam her fist into his arrogant smirk, but instead she nodded and pursed her lips momentarily. “Captain Brooklyn, at your service. Now you know why we’re here, so you should be able to release my ship.”
The alien shook his head. “I am Major Ontarii, commander of the Zantharian defense fleet, and I’m afraid we’ve detected a threat aboard your ship, so releasing you isn’t a possibility.”
Heat rose in Brook’s chest and coated her insides. “What threat? We’re no match for you. Shit, you said so yourself.”
“You humans are not a threat,” the alien said, as he scanned the crew gathered behind her.
“Well, we humans are the only ones aboard this ship, other than the robots, which we turned off. You must be mistaken about your supposed threat, or you’re looking for an excuse to invade the ship of an innocent species.”
“Innocent?” he said, cocking a dark eyebrow at her and taking another step forward so that she had to tilt her head back to meet his gaze. “That remains to be seen.”
Something about his tone of voice set off a strange shiver down her spine. She stifled the shake and let the odd feelings burn into anger. Anger was safe.
Frustration. Anger. Not lust. Just not lust. It wasn’t turning out to be what she’d expected her first contact between humans and an alien race would be like. Off to a bad start. This is going to look like shit on my record.
“Look,” she said, her tone now brooking resistance. “You either tell me what you think this threat is, or you get the hell off of my ship.”
He scowled down at her, his jaw locking as if she were the biggest pain in the ass ever. His skin, which had been a light green, had started to shift slightly. Yellow striations appeared across his skin’s surface, the change quite striking and unexpectedly beautiful.
“Human, I am not in the habit of explaining myself to my subordinates,” he snapped at her and looked down his nose at her.
He was angry, but it couldn’t match the fury boiling over inside of her at his statement. “Subordinate? That’s no way to refer to a member of species you’re meeting for the first time.”
He rolled his eyes, and she barely stopped herself from kicking him in the shin or kneeing him in the crotch. If he had a crotch to knee him in.
As captain, Brook had had to keep her cool in much more high stakes situations than her current conversation, but for some reason she was having problems keeping her temper in check with this particular elitist asshole.
“You aren’t the first human I’ve met,” he said. “I’ve studied your species, and believe me, my assessment of Zantharian superiority is well founded.”
That was it.
Brook closed the space between herself and the alien until her breasts pressed tightly to his hardened chest. She lifted on her toes, and even though he was still several inches taller than her, she was as close to being in his face as she was getting.
Purposefully making her voice firm with an appropriate dash of anger, she bore an angry stare at him and whispered low and dark, “You and your Zantharian superiority can go fuck yourself. Get the hell off my ship before I physically remove you from it.”
Chapter 4
Ontarii couldn’t explain the flush of warmth that shot through his body at the human female’s words. Anger was a familiar emotion, but something else lurked beneath it, something more sinister. Something he wasn’t ready to deal with.
Anger was safer.
“Captain Brooklyn, I believe you said your name was, I don’t have time for your snarkiness. Zanthar is under threat of enemy invasion, and Earth has been implicated in a conspiracy to overrun my world. So maybe you should just shut up and let the big boys do their job.”
He watched the human’s jaw drop. Perhaps in another situation he’d be able to admit to himself that he wasn’t in the habit of being so high-handed in diplomatic situations, but something about this female unsettled him.
It wasn’t that she held a command. Plenty of Zantharian females held high ranks and offices. It wasn’t that she was from another species. He’d met aliens from many different worlds. In fact, he couldn’t put his finger on exactly what it was about her that made him agitated. He didn’t have time, nor the energy to try and figure it out either.
Her upper lip curled and her eyes narrowed to slits as his heart picked up its pace. Why was her anger leaving him feeling things he hadn’t felt in a long time? Her pretty lips were plump and pink, and her eyes were shining with an inner light. Probably rage at my remark.
She surprised him. Instead of matching his jab with her own cutting remark, she honed in on the substance of his words. “You believe Earth is involved in a conspiracy against your world? How is that possible when we didn’t even know you people existed?”
“That is what Dr. Cohen said,” he replied. “We have reason to believe that a contingent of humans had been informed of our existence. This contingent pushed for the mission to Zanthar, or JL-398 as you so quaintly call it.”
“Been informed? By whom? We thought we might be alone in the universe until we discovered signs of life through a probe that had passed by your planet. You’d know that if you actually talked to Dr. Cohen.”
Ontarii sighed. Now wasn’t the time for exposition. The Hareema agent could be anywhere, or anyone.
Still, Captain Brooklyn looked to be a tenacious major. She wasn’t going to be easily fobbed off with an excuse.
“I will explain everything,” he offered generously. “But first, we need to subject you and your crew to a short physical test to assess your threat level.”
“A short physical test?” The human female smirked. “You want us to run a lap around the ship and do a hundred pushups? What kind of test?”
Ontarii stared down at her. I can think of a way to silence that smart mouth of hers and chances are she might actually like it. He took a deep breath and reined himself in, a little unnerved at his wayward thoughts. Where did that come from?
“We need to ascertain that you are exactly what you say you are: humans on a rescue mission. The test is simple and takes only a moment. You will experience discomfort, but no lasting damage.”
The human captain crossed her arms over her chest. “How much discomfort are we talking about? Are you taking blood or tissue samples?”
Ontarii shook his head. “No. You will be subjected to a short energy discharge. Once we confirm your human status, we can discuss more in-depth testing on the flagship.”
“This is ridiculous,” Captain Brooklyn replied. “You haven’t even given us your first ‘discomforting’ test and you’re already talking about further tests. I want to speak to Dr. Cohen… now.”
“The test is first.” It was essential to find the Hareema as quickly as possible, and trusting the woman was out until he knew that she was, in fact, a human.
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. How do I even know Dr. Cohen is alive and well? Maybe you’ve cooked up this conspiracy plot to justify whatever you’ve done to her!”
“Dr. Cohen is very well. I spoke to her two days ago. She’s on the surface with the Supreme Regent. How would I know her name if I were lying?”
“How can I trust you?
Intel is easy to access. I’m not a fool,” the female replied, her voice low.
Ontarii froze. He could tell she was concerned, for her crew and for herself. It made him wonder if he was being too hard on her.
How do you know it’s even a her? It could be a Hareema agent attempting to play on your sympathies.
“If you and your crew submit to the test, I will allow you to speak to Dr. Cohen immediately afterward. Then you can see that she is alive and well for yourselves.”
There was a long moment of silence that stretched out between them, but he wasn’t willing to break it. Ontarii scanned the faces of the humans who were grouped behind their captain. Their expressions ranged from wonder to concern to anger.
It must be difficult meeting an alien for the first time. Unless I’m not the first alien they’ve talked to.
Ontarii wasn’t sure how far the conspiracy went, but he was certain of one thing: Hareema agents had infiltrated Earth, and they had plans to invade his planet. Precautions were absolutely necessary, and although these humans might not like what happened next, he couldn’t back down.
“Fine,” the human captain relented at last. “Give me the test.”
“Wait!” Another human pushed toward the front of the group. This one was small, with dark brown hair cut in a bob around her face. “You can’t agree to a test like this without knowing what the effects will be.”
Captain Brooklyn put a hand on the smaller woman’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Tan. Someone has to be the first, and we need to get this over with if we’re going to find Dr. Cohen and get home.”
The smaller woman would not be mollified though. “How do you know these aliens are sufficiently familiar with human anatomy and physiology? This ‘test’ could kill us, if it isn’t properly calibrated.”
