IGO 2: Save for Shardae

by Blue, RaeLynn

  She couldn’t believe Kirk and Stankiewitz were dead. Snow had tried to warn her, to tell her, but she’d been too wrapped up in her own damn ego to see what he tried to convey.

  Nothing moved. The air hung heavy with tension -- an unusual quiet of the stairs. Where the dickens was the crew?

  “I don’t like this,” Zander whispered. “Too quiet.”

  Folding her hands into fists, she tried to quell their quivering fury. Gripping the stunner tighter in her hand made her knuckles throb, but she didn’t care. She agreed with him. They hadn’t seen another living soul, but then she expected that might be good news.

  The stairs emptied out into the hall. Nothing but containers occupied this end of the craft’s cargo floor. If they encountered anyone now, they’d be shot to death -- there was no cover.

  “Like shooting in a hologram chamber,” she whispered, her thoughts spilling through her lips.

  “Yep.” Zander slipped around her, to be in front.

  “I don’t need protecting,” she growled at him, but inside she glowed.

  “I beg to differ,” he said.

  The doors to the cargo bay appeared before them. Funny, Lee didn’t have guards posted or anything. What had he done that made him this confident? She hurried toward the bay with her heart beating out its own cadence.

  “Steady,” he said quietly. “Signals.”

  She watched Zander’s hands but couldn’t keep her mind on the fact that those hands felt so wonderful when on her body. Those same hands had knocked Barlow unconscious and had shot Private Kirk to death.

  Those hands now told her that the coast was clear.

  Zander approached the doors. The blinking scarlet on the keypad told her that Lee had locked out whoever wanted to get into the cargo bay.

  “That’s why there weren’t any guards,” Zander said. “He’s locked the keypad.”

  “And contacting the A.I. to force them open would only tip him off,” Shardae said. They dropped their weapons to their sides.

  “Is there another way into the bay? This can’t be a one way in type of space.”

  “Right,” Shardae said slowly, her face scrunched in thought.

  “How do engineers repair the big shuttles that skate into here?” Zander asked. “They couldn’t get through these doors. Where’s the service port entrance?”

  “Follow me.” Shardae backtracked down the corridor to the cargo bay doors.

  Chapter 17

  Zander leaned over Shardae’s shoulder. She still smelled like him. The faint trace of sex clung to her, but barely, like a fading mist. It made him smile, but when he looked across the cargo bay what he saw evaporated the warm fuzzy feeling he had. Several round plastic barrels protected them from view. He understood at once why he and Shardae hadn’t found anyone from the crew.

  “Most of the crew is here,” Zander whispered to Shardae. “But why?”

  “Hostages?” Shardae whispered back in bewilderment. “Was the entire crew in on it?”

  “No, listen,” he said and touched her shoulder.

  He couldn’t hear well from this distance, so he leaned carefully forward. The stack of biodegradable containers created enough coverage to hide both of them, but barely. Positioned on his knees, he leaned around the round edge of the box. The crew had been contained behind mobile force fields. Across the floor, four dome-shaped metallic spheres had been positioned at four points to create a solid force field. How Lee had corralled this many people into the cargo bay was beyond Zander’s comprehension.

  He could see Lee. Someone had given him an ebony uniform. He stood in the center of the bay with his hand cupped to his left ear. He spoke loudly. Zander scowled at Lee’s furious whine.

  “ETA in about fifteen minutes. Yes, I’m aware. Yes, sir. No, damn it, I said NOW!” Lee roared into the cold cargo bay air.

  When he took his hand away, Zander spied the reflection of a communication earpiece. Lee pushed the earpiece button and removed his stunner. Like a caged animal, he paced the floor.

  Zander ducked back around. Shardae sat beside him on the floor with her back to the containers. “He’ll explode before whoever he wants gets here,” she whispered, her hand curling around the handle of her stunner. “We must act.”

  “Plan?” Zander asked, eyebrow raised.

  A smooth hum announced the cargo bay’s doors opening. Zander leaned over again to spy O’Leery, a huge grin on his face. He must’ve accessed the craft’s A.I. to open them because he strolled in as if everything had been under control. Moron.

  In stunned silence, Zander watched O’Leery walk right up to Lee. They talked in low tones. Judging by Lee’s body language, he disliked O’Leery. Funny. Though Zander doubted Lee truly cared for anyone except himself.

  Beside Zander, Shardae ducked back down behind the containers and changed her position. Sitting on her knees, she met his eyes. He found steel in those deep maple pools. Calculating, Shardae’s face showed nothing but pure determination.

  “We can’t stay here forever,” she said.

  “With O’Leery here, it looks like they’re all getting ready to jump craft.”

  She nodded. She quietly sat up on her knees and took in the scene. Scowling, she sat back down on her heels. Zander’s face tightened in worry. If Lee or any of his friends caught her, they’d been in for a battle. The element of surprise would be lost.

  “Hostages are safe behind the force fields,” she said. “That still leaves Rojas and McAffrey.”

  “Three,” he said. “Two of us, three of them. Whatever we do, we must do it quickly.”

  She nodded. “Confronting them outright won’t work. Lee might use the others as hostages.”

  Zander agreed. He’d thought the same thing, but he did have an idea. “We can create a diversion while one of us frees the hostages. Then we get them to help us take over the other three.”

  “I like it,” she said. “I’ll get the party started.”

  Before he could stop her, she streaked across the floor to a neighboring stack of containers. Calling her back would alert Lee and Rojas, so he made the hand signals. She gave him a single nod, but it didn’t make him feel better.

  She shouted as she rose and aimed four or five blasts from the stunner into the area around Lee.

  “There!” screamed O’Leery.

  Zander didn’t see what happened next. He’d ducked behind the containers until he arrived at the portable force field. The crew trapped in the square all watched him with careful eyes. They couldn’t celebrate yet because they all seemed to understand that to do so would alert the others. He pressed the release button for one wall. They all spilled out.

  “Watch out!” someone yelled.

  Zander spun and fired. Everyone scattered.

  Stunner fire raced all over the place. He couldn’t see anyone in the spray. He peered through the chaos. Where had Shardae gone? Heart pounding, he saw mouths open. He knew others yelled. But he couldn’t hear anything.

  “Stop!” roared Lee. “Young Reyes, show yourself!”

  Zander stood, not liking the self-assurance in Lee’s voice.

  In front of him, he held Shardae. Lee’s arm curled around her neck and in his other hand, he held a stunner. He pressed it close to her cheek.

  “You won’t get anything for killing her, Lee!” he shouted. “Because I will kill you.”

  “I don’t want her dead. I want your life,” Lee said coldly.

  “My life?” Zander frowned.

  “Throw down your stunner.” Lee pressed the stunner hard into her cheek.

  Shardae winced, but she didn’t cry out. Her eyes didn’t show fear. He loved that about her. Ready to take on whatever, Shardae struggled against Lee.

  Zander tossed it at Lee’s feet. He took his eyes off of Lee’s to spy the carnage around him. Several of the crewmen had been hit. O’Leery lay near the cargo bay’s doors like he’d tried to run.

  “Why do you want my life, Lee?” Zander asked, feeling his
hands itch. He wanted to slam his fist into Lee’s grinning face. “Let her go.”

  Lee laughed. “She’s so deliciously beautiful, Reyes. Why would I? I mean, you’ve let all of my other hostages go. This one seems to mean something to you.”

  He licked her face. Shardae didn’t flinch. She kept her eyes on Zander.

  The world filtered to red. He didn’t think. He started for Lee. A fiery burn lit up his shoulder. The shot blew him back several steps.

  “Seems I touched a nerve,” Lee cackled.

  Damn, he hated it, but his entire left shoulder had been stunned. He couldn’t use his numb left arm at all. “What do you want Lee?”

  “I’m going to barter your life to get off this craft.” Lee’s grip tightened on Shardae’s arm. Shouting, people poured into the bay, then Lee took his eyes off of Shardae, and his grip loosened.

  “Now!” Zander yelled.

  Shardae yanked from Lee, successfully pulling away before he could reclaim her arm. She stumbled. He fired. Zander tackled Shardae to the ground. The containers in front of her took the brunt of the stunner fire.

  “Halt!” came the icy cold voice of Commander Ashe.

  Zander’s chest was on fire. He tried to breathe through the tightness. She’d landed on him, taking his breath from him. His oxygen-starved lungs sucked in air in hungry gulps. She groaned and rolled off of him.

  Grunts and yells filled the air. Shardae jumped to her feet. Weaponless, she looked around her.

  “Shardae!” he yelled at her and pushed himself to a sitting position. His right arm worked fine, but his ears rang. “Wait!”

  She met his eyes and gave him her hand. She pulled him to his feet. He wheezed out, “Commander.”

  Shardae nodded. “Give me your stunner.”

  He gave it to her. He watched her slip around the containers with her weapon drawn. Following her lead, he came around. What he found there made him smile.

  Shardae had begun to read the IGO regulation violations to Lee. “…and regulation 631-B for attempted murder, 780-V for false imprisonment of IGO soldiers…” She took the force field restraints from Lieutenant Stein’s hands. She secured them around Lee’s wrists and ignored the bastard’s laughing.

  Commander Ashe stood there, her stunner still pointed at him, her eyes unwavering.

  Lieutenant Mackerel and several others had Rojas in the portable force field. Medics attended to injured soldiers. The scene seemed surreal. Blood was scattered everywhere. The carnage didn’t stop at the surface. Zander knew that the level of distrust extended lower, beneath the surface. Psychological damage lingered far after the physical wounds had healed.

  “You need medical attention?” asked a medic. She touched his shoulder where blood leaked out. “Pilot Reyes?”

  He nodded numbly at her. She guided him to one of the containers. He didn’t feel the pinprick of the needle, but it bit into his arm.

  “Stunner fire?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  His eyes met Shardae’s. She finished her conversation with the commander and came strolling toward him. Her smile brightened her face, chased shadows away.

  “You all right?” she asked. She crouched down in front of him.

  “Yeah,” he said, “Now.”

  She smiled wider. “Lee’s being contained -- again.”

  “And the others?”

  “Dead, except for Rojas,” she said. “You scared me for a second there, pilot.”

  “Does that mean you care?” he asked. His heart warmed. It spilled all through his system.

  With Yu looking on, Shardae kissed him softly on the lips. “Yes.”

  Epilogue

  Four weeks later -- The Explorer

  The flicker of fire leapt and tickled the shadows on the walls of Shardae’s quarters -- a new addition to her Aspen program. She sat cross-legged on her bed. Snow fell down. She reached for her glass of Mars wine perched on the neighboring wall shelf. From the entertainment console smooth jazz poured in from the surround speakers.

  Crouched in front of the plasma screen, Zander accessed the touch screen. His loose hair fell to his muscular shoulders in straight brunette beauty. The jazz music selection belonged to him. He crawled painstakingly slowly through the catalog of IGO music. The database held hundreds of thousands of songs.

  Anchored to Titan Penal Outpost, the crew remained on temporary leave as the Qs came in to investigate what had happened on the craft with Lee. Shardae had done weeks of interrogation with the warden of the penal colony and director of the outpost. But they were all civilians. IGO personnel would be different.

  Until then, she wanted to spend some time with her lover, Zander.

  “Ah, here it is! Coltrane!” Zander said. The music halted. His fingers swept across the screen. Then smooth, calming, strangely haunting music flooded the cabin.

  Shardae leaned back against the pillows. Mars wine warmed her inside. Zander climbed into bed. It gave under the pressure of his body, just like her heart. She’d fought it, but eventually everything caved into him.

  He pulled her into his embrace. She nuzzled his face. He kissed her. She chuckled at the tickle of his growing moustache.

  “Oh, you like that,” he said.

  Heat zipped across to her lower abdomen. It tugged hard on her libido. She set the glass down. She slipped her hands around his slender waist. Pressed firmly against his torso, she couldn’t stop the rising course of hunger. Her nipples already ached for his mouth, the mouth he currently pressed softly to her ear. Those soft lips drifted down the outer shell of ear to her lobe, which he sucked between his lips. His tongue tickled it, but instead of giggles, moans came from her mouth.

  “Zander…”

  “Yes,” he said, answering her call with tiny nibbles, barely-there brushes of his teeth against her skin.

  She shuddered through the ripples of pleasures rolling through her. Naked, they nestled together. They’d only finished making love minutes before and cuddling felt right. But if he continued to tease her, he’d make her want to do more.

  With her emotions thick in her throat, she pushed her fingers into his hair. Tangling her digits in those lustrous strands, she balled her fingers into her fist. In response, he bit harder, making her yelp in the mixture of pain/pleasure.

  “You are going to get it,” he promised, voice heavy with lust. He smacked her ass. “Keep that up.”

  She smiled. “Promises, promises.”

  “Shardae.” He looked down his nose at her.

  “Yes?”

  “Did you hear about Gonzales?” he asked, voice serious. “I saw Miller in the corridor earlier. She seemed distraught.”

  “Gonzales is still in critical condition. Dr. Raja is keeping him in stasis until they transport him to the outpost’s medical center. There, Raja said he’d be able to access better tools to repair the brain damage.”

  “And the Scarlet Burn victims?” he asked.

  “Porter and Gray are on the recovery list, but Eves… well, Raja doesn’t expect her to survive the trip back to Mars Outpost.”

  Gloomy topics, but she knew where the conversation was headed. After the mutiny attempt, Commander Ashe had systematically eliminated everyone who had any personal contact with those who’d participated. Ashe had become obsessed. Some of the crew had taken to calling the commander Ahab behind her back.

  The entire crew knew she and Zander were a couple. Ashe had removed him from her security team. “Don’t worry,” Shardae said. She kissed one of his nipples, teasing it a bit with her tongue. “She won’t transfer you off the craft. Not after what you did to save it.”

  He sighed. “You know my father will see to it that the entire crew is drilled by the Qs, disbanded, and spread out. He can’t be sure that everyone who helped has been imprisoned here on the outpost. He won’t want the combination of people together again.”

  “But he’s your father,” she said, her heartbeat increasing. She hadn’t thought about the captain. “He would
n’t split you up from your, your…”

  “Wife,” Zander said. “No, my father wouldn’t separate me from my wife.”

  “Wife?” she gasped. He couldn’t be serious. Could he? “Zander, are you asking me to…”

  “Marry me, Shardae.” He sat up, lifting her with him. He gazed into her eyes. “Be my wife. I love you. I will love you to the day I die.”

  Her heart had broken free and now sped about at warp speed. She couldn’t breathe. She’d only known him a mere two months. He wanted to marry her? The womanizer? The man who couldn’t commit?

  “I realized that when Lee had you in his arms that I wouldn’t ever be the same if you were gone. I didn’t want to live without you, not another minute, not another second,” Zander said softly. He dug around in his uniform jacket. In seconds he produced a silver ring.

  “Shardae Simmons,” he said, taking her hands into his. “Will you be my wife?”

  Shardae met those intense verdant eyes and saw the adoration in them. Wiping her face, she realized she was crying.

  “When Lee had me, I couldn’t stop looking at you. You were the last thing I wanted to see if he decided to kill me. You. Oh, Mars, Zander, yes! Yes, I will be your wife!”

  He let out a sigh of relief, and slid the ring onto her finger. Just a simple silver band, but it meant so much more.

  “I love you,” she squealed. She hugged him.

  “I love you, too, Shardae,” Zander said, leaning in to kiss her. “Save for you, nothing else matters.”

  RaeLynn Blue

  RaeLynn Blue is the author of numerous tales of erotic interracial romance and speculative romance. With an imagination that’s varied and diverse, her tales explores love in all its many shades, situations and scenarios. She fell into romance stories at the ripe age of eleven and has been writing stories ever since. A humble scribbler of tales, RaeLynn is actively writing another story of lust, love, and romance.

  Email her at raelynnblue@msn.com or visit her: