Then they would wait. Estimates placed the alien ship near the space station 22 hours later. At that point, Wesley would hit the thrusters and move them into position. Alexis would fire the bombs, one bomb at each of the five pre-arranged targets on the alien vessel. Once the final bomb was on its way, they would flip the Stinger around and fly away as fast as they could.
There was no way to guarantee they would survive. In fact, the Tactics Department gave them less than a 40 percent chance of outrunning the shockwaves.
The bombs they were deploying were not standard-grade nuclear bombs. They were experimental Compounded Nuclear Energy Devices. Alexis didn’t know the science but she knew the results. The C-NED was designed to fold energy back into itself, compounding the power of the blast exponentially without having to rely on a proportionate amount of materials to power the blast.
The C-NED was built with enough materials to produce a 90-megaton blast. When detonated using the C-NED technology, it would produce an explosion between 200 and 350 megatons, depending on a range of physical factors.
Five of these weapons would be used against the alien ship.
The odds are against us making it home. Alex knew it. Fairbanks did not beat around that bush. He told them both directly: “You will most likely die.” If the shockwave doesn’t kill us, then the guns all over that ship will most likely do the trick.
Alexis knew the odds of their personal survival were small, but if their sneak attack was successful, then Earth would be safe. Greg will be safe. That was all that mattered in the long run. To protect her child. To protect her family.
She flipped the safety switch on the bomb bays and then opened the manual controls on the Stinger’s side guns. “Guns are active. “All systems are go.”
“All right… let the games begin.” Wesley accelerated.
Games? Alexis knew he was just posturing, all communication lines were open and people were listening. It’s our job. She knew it. It’s our job to be the best, the bravest, the strongest. Still…
Alexis pressed the com-link. “Mars Base,” she called out, “this is Blue Nine. All systems are go, all weapons are online and we’re on route to Mid-Point Station.”
Over the helmet speakers, Fairbanks’ voice came through. “Message received, Blue Nine. Good luck and good hunting.”
“Good luck and good hunting,” she repeated. “Communication blackout is starting. Emergency channel only in three, two, one.” Click.
They were alone. Jetting through space. Heading for the Mid-Point space station and their rendezvous with life—or death.
Chapter 3
They reached the Mid-Point station in 19 hours. They knew something was wrong immediately.
Alexis double-checked her scanner, making sure she was really seeing what she saw. What the… “We have a problem here.” She switched the scanners to infrared and back again. Holy shit.
“What’s up?” Wesley slowed the propulsion units as they came up alongside the station.
There was no question. One faint blip on the radar screen. It was on the opposite side of the station. The blip began to move.
“We have company.”
“What kind?” Wesley’s fingers danced over the accelerator. “One of ours or one of theirs?”
I don’t know… The blip cleared the station on the screen. Alexis lifted her helmet visor, looked out the canopy window. Oh fu—
She grabbed the controls for the side guns. “Not us.” Swinging the guns towards the triangular alien fighter ship, she concentrated her anger on them.
Wesley saw it. He hit the engines and flipped the ship around, not running but prepared to run. “Do you have any signatures?” He scanned the sky nervously.
“Nothing,” she told him, checking every variation of scan available. Strange. The blip remained faint but it should have been dark, solid, defined.
Also, instead of red, it was a ghostly white, indicating a lack of organic matter. She shook her head. “So much nothing, it’s weird.” Her fingers tapped on the trigger.
On the front of the alien ship, two small blue lights began to glow.
“There’s something—” The blue glow grew. Two shots burst out. “Move it, there’s—” Alexis didn’t have time to finish her sentence. Wesley jammed the accelerator and whipped the ship to the side.
One blast missed the Stinger but the other clipped the left wing. The impact rocked the ship as it accelerated. It began to spiral. Alexis kept her focus and squeezed off a couple of shots. Red laser bolts pulsed from the Stinger. The alien ship spun as the bolts hit it at a glancing angle.
“Dammit,” Alexis yelled. In a spiral, it was hard for her to keep a hold on the weapon control.
Sweating, grunting, she was shoved back against her seat with the centripetal force. Her hand was slipping from the control… One last chance… She pulled the trigger... Come on, baby, come on, come on…
Her aim was true. A direct hit. The alien ship exploded in a blinding display of molten metal.
The charred body of the triangular ship slammed into the Stinger, throwing its spin into an end-over-end whirl.
Wesley fought hard to regain control. He jerked the steering lever, fighting the spin. Debris from the alien ship pelted the Stinger. Emergency chimes began. Red lights flashing. Like this? Is this really it? She couldn’t believe that this was how she would die. The mission incomplete, the day unsaved.
I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…
The Stinger rumbled and shook. Wesley unleashed a guttural scream of effort and frustration. He activated the dampeners, slammed on the reverse thrusters. It was working. The spin gradually came under control.
“I got it.” Exhaustion tinged his voice, “I think we’re going to be oka—”
A small explosion from the engine and they lost all power. Lights off, computer system down. All power gone.
Alexis screamed and banged on the computer console. “Come on.” Nothing. The dead Stinger floated upright, quiet and already cold.
From the front seat, Wesley’s voice was muffled. No power meant no communication system. Worse, Alexis knew, no life support.
She couldn’t understand what Wesley was saying. She tapped her helmet on the side: no speakers, no communications.
He removed his helmet. “Any suggestions?”
She removed hers as well. “Well,” she said, doing her best to remain positive, “I think we should think about getting out of here.”
“Really?” Wesley’s teeth were chattering, his lips going blue. “That’s quite the groundbreaking idea.”
“Yeah.” Alexis kept flipping dead switches, pressing dead buttons. “Someplace a little more oxygenated would be nice.”
Wesley tried to remain calm but she could hear the tension in his voice. “How long do we have?”
With no power, there were no readouts. She gave it her best guess. “Two or three minutes. I hope.”
“How about our flight suits?”
Alexis was already planning the next step they would have to take. “A couple hours of oxygen,” she said, unbuckling her seat harness and beginning to fasten the seals on her suit, “if we stay calm and breath slow.”
“You know me,” Wesley said, following her lead, “Mister Cool and Calm.”
“Is that what you are?” She finished her preparations.
He didn’t reply, only gave a small chuckle.
The space station was several hundred meters in the distance. Their dead Stinger was floating in the opposite direction of the station, getting farther with each passing second.
With no power to get the ship there, they were left with one option. Blow the hatch, press off of the Stinger’s hull with strong legs and hope that they floated to the station. A little skill, a lot of luck. Alexis didn’t like that. She was never fond of luck. She liked things to be more concrete than chance.
“We have to go.” Worry crept around the edges of her voice. “We have to go now.”
“What about
the C-NEDs?”
Alexis shook her head. “We have to worry about that later. There’s nothing we can do if we’re dead. First we get to safety, second we figure out how to complete the mission.”
“Fair enough.” He leaned over, gave her a small kiss on the cheek. It tingled. Even moments from death, Alexis blushed.
“See you on the other side.” He tried to sound positive.
Alexis shook off her tickled embarrassment. She slid her helmet on and powered her suit. Here goes everything…
She stuck her tongue out and Wesley smiled, giving her thumbs up. He pressed the power button on the sleeve control pad. The vacuum formed, oxygen began to flow.
Alexis touched the side of his helmet with a gloved hand. Good luck. She counted down in her head. One… two… three.
She pulled the emergency release lever and the canopy blew off. Alexis and Wesley floated out of the incapacitated ship. Before they drifted away into deep space, Alexis reached out and grabbed her floating seatbelt.
Wesley grabbed Alexis’ arms and she managed to pull both of them securely against the outer hull of the Stinger.
Alexis took a deep breath. Okay, this is it. There was a sprawling field of black between the dead Stinger and the Mid-Point station. They had one chance to make it there, one chance to reach the safety of the station. If we miss…
The only comfort Alexis could find in the thought of missing the station was the fact that their oxygen would run out and they would be dead in just over one hour. A small consolation to say the least.
Chapter 4
They collapsed together in the airlock. Alexis met Wesley’s eyes as they lay on the floor and waited.
Oxygen levels and atmospheric pressure built. 50, 60, 70 percent…
Wesley gazed at her, a goofy grin on his face. 80, 90 percent…
A buzzer sounded. Pressure normal, air breathable, temperature sustainable. Okay, here we go. Alexis removed her helmet. Wesley removed his.
They took long, deep breaths, savoring the air, relishing the fact they were going to, at least temporarily, survive their ordeal. Breaking out in exhausted laughter, they held one another tight. Alexis turned her head to Wesley, a large grin spreading across her face. “So what do you think about that?”
Wesley laughed. “What do I think?” he repeated, gazing into her eyes. Before she could react, he pulled her to him, held her firmly in his strong arms.
And he kissed her, deeply.
Alexis leaned away… I can’t… But he pulled her back to him. His mouth was warm, his lips soft… I… Stop… His tongue slid slowly into her mouth and she felt a rush of warmth course through her body. I want…
She put her hands on his chest and managed to push him back. “What are you doing?” Her face flushed red and hot.
He smiled. “You asked me what I thought.”
Alex was flustered, feelings stirring in parts of her body long ignored. “Well what do you…? I… What are you…?”
She couldn’t finish her sentence, her mind blown, her body running in circles. She had not been with anyone since Nate died. Six years. It’s been six years.
Wesley was understanding but determined. Gently, he pulled her back to him, bringing their chests together, their faces close, breath on one another’s lips. “We almost died, Alex,” he said softly. “We still might. Everything and everyone might.”
He paused. She didn’t try to move away. He leaned in and kissed her softly on the forehead. “I don’t want to die…” A butterfly-winged kiss on her cheek. “Without ever having kissed you, without ever having tasted your lips.” He felt her heart pounding through her flight suit. “Without ever having felt your body, without you touching me, and without me touching you.”
Alexis felt his hand slide from her neck, to the zipper of her flight suit. The top came open easily and his hand was active again—over her breasts, across her tummy. Firmly, urgently. Further then, brushing the insides of her thighs. She squirmed slightly in his arms, feeling warmth rise from her core. He looked at her intently as he finally slid his hand deep between her silky thighs to her clitoris. She grew wet and warm and welcomed his hand further. I can’t… we can’t…
She stopped him, not moving his hand away from her but stopping it from rubbing, from teasing. “We can’t Wesley,” she said, but unsure of her own convictions. “We have to stay focused.”
“Really?” Taking his hand away, Wesley was not angry but frustrated, not upset but amused, full of affection and desire. “Even after all of this? Alexis, sometimes you need to turn off your brain if you want to see things clearly. You know like take a long walk or…”
“Or a long bath,” Alexis interrupted. “I know that.” She rolled out of his arms and stood. “But that doesn’t say anything about fucking your partner, does it?”
Wesley stood. “It doesn’t say anything about not fucking your partner.”
She laughed, more in disbelief than amusement. “The world is about to end, our families, and our friends, all of it….” She trailed off, turning to the small window in the hull and looking out into the void of space. “We don’t have the luxury of distracting ourselves. We need to work, we need to figure out some way to get the bombs out there.” She pointed to the Stinger, floating away, barely visible in the distance. “Armed and shot into the giant alien ship that will pass by us in about…” she glanced at her wrist controls, “twelve hours.”
She watched Wesley’s face cloud with a frown. He adjusted the bulge in his pants. Alexis saw. It’s big. She shifted her thighs, still wet, still sensitive.
“Even at the end of the world you won’t be with me.” Wesley turned away. “It’s all right, I understand.”
He walked to the computer console on the wall, staring at it. “You turned me down before. This is nothing new. But come on, admit it, it’s nothing about the aliens or the bombs or anything like that. It’s about me. You turned me down before the aliens came and you’re still turning me down.”
He turned to her, not angry but hurt, and maybe a little annoyed. “You don’t have to make excuses. It’s not about the end of the world, it’s about me and I’d appreciate it if you stopped lying just to try and make me fe—”
“I want you, okay?” She interrupted him, her voice louder than she intended. In fact, she did not intend to speak at all. She was as surprised as he was.
“You what?” He was unsure if he really heard what he heard.
Too late now. No turning back. “I want you, okay? I do, I have for…” She couldn’t look at him, her hormones conflicting with her embarrassment. She walked back to the window. “I have for a long time now, Wesley, you have to know that.”
“How could I know that? You never show it, you never say it.” He went to her side again. “You do a good job of hiding your emotions, Alexis, you’re a real professional, at least when it comes to that.”
She smiled, slapping his arm playfully.
He leaned in to kiss her but she stopped him with a palm to the chest. “But we’re First Strike. Just because we want things…” She stepping back, blushing. “Doesn’t mean we can have them.”
Silence fell between them. An air-circulating unit in the ceiling whirred. Consoles beeped and lights flashed. Alexis and Wesley gazed at one another and time, death, danger, all of it, fell from their bodies and minds.
Finally, Alexis said, “I’ll tell you what.” She reached up, placed her hand on his smooth cheek, and gazed into his green eyes. “Let’s put this conversation on hold for now.” She brushed his short black hair to the side. “If we come up with a plan, if we survive this, then…” her fingers ran down his face, down the curve of his neck and shoulders, and came to a rest on his strong chest, “… then I’ll do things to you that you never thought of.”
A hungry smile spread across Wesley’s face.
I can’t believe I said that. What’s wrong with me? Maybe lack of oxygen? Maybe temporary insanity?
Wesley could not wipe the ridicu
lous smirk from his face. “Are you serious?”
Alexis took a deep breath, rolling with the flow. “Only one way to find out.”
Chapter 5
“It’s a good idea.” Wesley was watching Alexis make the final adjustments on her flight suit. “And I completely agree, this is the best option with the time we have, but why does it have to be you?”
Alexis double-checked her suit’s oxygen level: full. Good to go. She was tired of arguing with him but she knew she would have to continue to fight. “Because I’m certified with the C-NED technology and you’re not.”
Wesley countered. “You don’t need to be certified to go get the bombs and bring them back here, you just need to have good aim and a steady hand.”
He took her hand, gazed into her eyes. “Please? I can get them just as easily. You can prep the lab and do your work when I’m back.”
“No.” Her turn to counter-propose. “The bombs need to be checked and secure before we try to bring them into the station. If there’s a leak, if there’s a breech…” She didn’t finish her sentence, she just mimicked a bomb exploding.
Wesley knew she was right but he refused to say it. “Come on, Alexis, please, you have to…”
“No,” she interrupted, “you know you’re wrong.” She held his stare until his eyes dropped with guilty acceptance. Taking her helmet from the hook by the door, she told him, “You just have to be ready. When I get back you just need to be ready.”
She wanted to say more, she wanted so much out of the moment, but she knew nothing she could say would be adequate.
“Just get on the other side of the airlock. I’m opening the hatch.”
She gave him a slow, warm kiss, their lips pressing, their tongues exploring. With a quick parting peck on the cheek, she put on her helmet. “Catch me when I come back. I’ll be coming in fast.”
He smiled. “Don’t worry. You can come on me anytime.”
She was so nervous, she thought it would have been impossible, but she found herself blushing.
Romance: Alien Romance: Simply Aliens: A Ten Book Alien Romance Collection (Paranormal Scifi Interracial Romance) (Fantasy New Adult Alpha Short Stories) Page 18
