Business or Pleasure (The Department of Homeworld Security Book 3)

by Cassandra Chandler

  Electricity scattered across her nerves, building until the lightning struck, branching through her body, filling every cell until she felt herself radiating energy. He cried out, his back arcing and his hips bucking against hers, pounding his dick into her as he came. She felt every pulse, her body echoing it, pulling on it, wanting more.

  She wanted…more. More than this fleeting pleasure. More than a one-night stand.

  His eyes were wide as he stared at her. Dammit, he was feeling it, too.

  It had to be an illusion. The adrenaline of the situation, being thrown together. Feelings this intense didn’t happen so quickly. Not real feelings.

  This wasn’t love.

  “That was…” he said. “I’ve never…”

  “That makes two of us.” She smiled as she let him slide from her body, feeling grateful for the distance and missing the connection at the same time. She wanted to run away, screaming. Instead, she made herself lie next to him and tried to relax.

  “Listen, you should know that sex can make you feel an artificial sense of connection,” she said.

  “You feel it, too,” he said.

  Oh crap.

  “I feel… It doesn’t matter. Stressful situations can make people feel closer. And adding sex to that can make it worse.”

  “You’re trying to dismiss what I feel—what we feel. Calling it ‘artificial’. Nothing about this is artificial. Are you truly going to tell me to ignore my emotions after everything you’ve said? Everything we’ve done? Did it only apply to physical feelings?”

  Honestly, that’s what she had been focusing on. But damn Khel with his drive and his passion and his amazing body. He was the total package. She just wasn’t looking to buy.

  “It doesn’t matter,” she said again. “You guys don’t even have real sex. I highly doubt you have partners or marriage or—”

  “We pair-bond. My people still decide to partner with others. It can be a mutually beneficial arrangement, or because of mutual attraction. We still fall in love.”

  She rolled away from him and sat up. “But not in half a day. Nobody falls in love that fast.”

  “From what I understand, falling in love is a process. Who is to say how it begins or will proceed?”

  He sat up next to her, but didn’t reach for her. She wanted him to, and cursed herself for it. Of all the people to fall for—or start to fall for, as he pointed out—an alien?

  “This isn’t a passing thing for me,” he said. “I am forever changed. Not from the coupling or the threat of the Tau Ceti. Because of you.”

  And that was the problem. He had changed her, too.

  Chapter Twelve

  Pair-bonding had always seemed an archaic and unnecessary social construct. Now, Khel was wondering what would be involved in formalizing a relationship with Paige.

  He didn’t really care about paperwork. He just wanted to be with her. From everything she’d said and done, it didn’t seem one-sided. Then again, he was new to this.

  Paige grabbed her undergarments and pulled them up her legs, then started shimmying into her jeans. “Infatuation isn’t love. Admittedly, the sex has been great, but we’ll get over it in a couple of…” She paused and glanced at him. “Months.”

  She didn’t look convinced, which encouraged him. He stood, hunched over, but didn’t bother with his clothes. She dug through the pile and pulled out her bra, struggling with the straps in her haste.

  As she sorted her clothing out, she repeated, “We’ll get over it.”

  Khel was silent as she dressed. He waited until she’d pulled her shirt back over her head to speak.

  “Do you want to?” he asked.

  “Want to what?”

  “Get over me.”

  Her mouth dropped open and she paused in the middle of pulling on her shoe. Before she had a chance to answer, the gravity field failed. There was no shift through Zero-G. Up was suddenly down.

  Khel was inches away from the ceiling. He felt the first tug of Earth’s gravity and launched himself at Paige, trying to catch her before her head struck the hull. He barely made it in time, curling himself around her and altering her trajectory so that she wouldn’t injure her head, neck, or spine. They ended up in a pile on the ceiling, his sleeping mat and clothes strewn over them.

  “What the hell was that?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. Ship, report.” Nothing. “Ship—”

  The light in the chamber was coming from the small viewport in the sleeping chamber. He had left the screens open after Paige requested a view.

  No power. That meant no defenses and no cloak. At least they were still firmly attached to the highway overhead.

  A rending sound tore away that small comfort. The hull groaned, and the screech of metals grinding together rang in his ears as something attached to the ship and pulled. He scrambled to the viewport. Paige hurried after.

  A large transport with an Earth-style exterior was parked right beneath them. It looked like a large semi truck, but the top of the trailer was open, revealing technology the likes of which Khel had never seen. Part of it included a grappling arm that had attached to the skimmer. There were two other arms with some sort of sonic cutters at the ends, the beams slicing through the wings of his ship.

  “Khel…”

  He didn’t have time to reassure her. The force of the grappling arm attached to his ship had to be impacting the highway overhead. If the stress grew too great, it would pull the busy pathway apart, endangering scores of Earthlings.

  He pushed Paige toward the hatch that led below. She grabbed his clothing as they went. Lifting her, she crawled up into the ship’s main cabin area. She had to be filled with questions, with fear. But she was trusting him and following his lead. The thought fortified him for what was to come.

  He lifted himself through the hatch, then ran to the manual release for the docking clamps. He pried off the cover for the lever and pulled on it with all his strength. With any luck, the skimmer would be too heavy for the grappling claw and would crush the Tau Ceti beneath them.

  He felt the clamps start to give and shouted, “Brace yourself!”

  Instead of the sudden drop he had hoped for, the ship only shuddered. He heard a rending sound—most likely the wings coming off. Metal scraped metal as the remains of his skimmer descended. They stabilized at a slight angle, no doubt so the ship would fit into the vehicle. Through the viewport, they could see the light slowly vanish as the top of the trailer closed.

  No power. No cloak. No weapons, propulsion, shields…or communication. How had the Tau Ceti managed to disable his ship? How had they found him in the first place? And most importantly, how was he going to protect Paige?

  A light appeared in the inky darkness. Paige’s phone.

  “You said we’d be safe when we reached your ship,” she said. There was no accusation in her tone. Her voice was flat and calm.

  “I thought we would be. I’m so sorry.”

  “Save the apologies. Right now, we need a plan.”

  He wouldn’t let either of them fall into Tau Ceti hands. The only plan he could think of involved a well-placed phase rifle set to overload and a final kiss—if he could even get his weapons to work. The ship had been thoroughly neutralized.

  “Your silence is not encouraging.”

  “This is unprecedented,” he said. “The Tau Ceti have disabled my ship. Without power, there’s nothing I can do to protect us.”

  “I’m not going down without a fight. Where do you keep your weapons?”

  He led her to the panel for the weapons’ locker and opened it. Everything on the ship was meant to control enemies, not kill them. He grabbed a stunner and tried to power it up. Nothing.

  “Okay, then.” She turned her phone toward her face, working on the screen. “I’m not getting a signal, so they’re probably blocking me. But I still have power. Why would that be?”

  “They must only be targeting Coalition technology. The ship’s hull blocks transm
issions. It’s part of the design. Only the communications array built into the ship will relay messages.”

  “And the Tau Ceti have shut that down. Which is good for us.”

  “What?”

  She glanced toward him, grinning. “They think they have us beat because they’ve taken out your ship. But they’ve underestimated our Earth technology.”

  “They know about phones. I doubt we’ll make it off the ship without them commandeering it.”

  “But will they bother trying to block its signal? Will they even be watching for one from me?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Would you?”

  He thought for a moment, then shook his head. “No. Earth technology is rudimentary. There aren’t any signals worth blocking. Taking your phone would be enough for me. Besides, anyone on the planet you could try to call for assistance would be completely outgunned.”

  “Anyone on the planet.” She started using the light from her phone to look around his ship. “But if I can get a signal to orbit—”

  He shook his head. “Your cell phone won’t be able to reach Brendan, if that’s what you’re thinking. And, as I said, they’ll most likely commandeer it immediately.”

  The light from her phone crossed her backpack. She quickly ran to it. “That’s not what I’m thinking.”

  She dug around in her bag, then pulled out a small plastic cylinder. It looked completely unremarkable.

  “What is that?”

  “A panic button. It’s made to look like lipstick. The signal it emits is supposed to be untraceable.”

  “There is no Earth technology that is untraceable.”

  “Yeah, and the Tau Ceti can’t see through your cloaks, either. If this can send a signal even for a few moments, Brendan might be able to pick up on it.”

  He knew she was grasping for hope. Hope he tried to share.

  “You might be ready to give up, but I’m not,” she said. “This is our best shot. I’m going to take it.”

  He wished she was half as interested in keeping their relationship alive. If so, they would stand a chance. He was further aggravated that her zeal only made her that much more attractive.

  Shaking aside his thoughts, he set his priorities straight. First, fight the Tau Ceti…after getting dressed. And if they survived, he would fight for a chance with Paige.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “There has to be something around here we can use as a weapon.” Paige was racking her brain, trying to come up with anything else that might give them an edge.

  She was the first to admit—if only to herself—that the panic button was a longshot. Though she suspected Brendan had it hooked up to satellites, she couldn’t be sure. He had always denied it when she asked.

  Even if it could reach Brendan, the Tau Ceti might scan her and find the signal. They might have a general jamming device wherever they were taking her and Khel.

  Then again, they might not. If she’d learned anything about these aliens, it’s that they were cocky bastards. The Coalition had been coasting for so long, it sounded like they were falling to entropy. And the Tau Ceti thought of Earthlings as walking snacks, not cunning adversaries.

  Even if the Tau Ceti took away her bag, the panic button would keep emitting its signal. Brendan would eventually find it—find her. She only hoped it would be in time.

  She shook aside the dark thought. They were going to get through this. And afterwards…

  Afterwards, she’d have to give Khel his answer. As much as she would prefer not to.

  She didn’t want to get over him.

  The thought of following this new relationship through to its natural conclusion scared her more than facing the Tau Ceti. When she let herself think of where she and Khel were headed, she actually imagined them as weathered from time. Did his people age the same way as Earthlings? She had never considered growing old with someone before. She shelved that question for later.

  “Maybe we can use the rifle as a club,” she said. Or chuck the ray guns at the Tau Ceti.

  She shook her head at her own ridiculous thought, but then another popped in. A possibly viable one.

  “You said your tech is programmed to self-destruct. Is there any way we can bring that system back online? And if we did, would it be powerful enough to take them out or cause a diversion?”

  “It would be, but they’ll be on guard for that. Kira used the self-destruct sequence for the listening station where she was assigned to observe Earth. She took out a fair number of the Tau Ceti when she did so, along with one of their ships.”

  “Remind me to thank her, whoever she is.”

  “Your brother’s partner.”

  “Partner?”

  “Yes. She broke protocol and began conversing with him several months ago. Apparently, they fell in love. They’ve gone so far as to enter their pair-bond into Coalition records.”

  What the hell? Her ears started to buzz.

  Everything going on around her, and this caused her to freak out. “Brendan got married and didn’t tell me? I’m going to kill him!”

  “There were and continue to be exigent circumstances.”

  “Still… The guy is at the forefront of communication technology on Earth. He could have called.”

  “It’s been less than a day.”

  Right. Everything was happening at light speed. She leaned against the wall, closing her eyes for a moment and taking deep breaths to try to center herself. Khel’s soft touch on her cheek didn’t startle her. She had felt his warmth as he approached.

  “I can’t promise you that everything will be okay,” he said. “But I will die protecting you.”

  She let out a brief laugh. “I don’t want you to die. I want both of us to live. So cut it out with that kind of talk. I’m just trying to find some balance here.”

  “Balance?”

  “Emotional equilibrium. Or don’t you super-advanced aliens need to worry about that anymore?”

  In the dim light from her phone, she could see him thinking.

  “The Coalition provides a chemical for that. It’s even called Balance.”

  “That’s the first thing you’ve told me about the Coalition that reassures me. I’m glad they’re using their advancements to help people with imbalances in their brain chemistry.”

  “There are no imbalances in brain chemistry. The regen beds take care of that. Balance is for all citizens, to keep them content and maintain peace.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me. They’re prescribing happiness? Does the Coalition allow its citizens to experience anything that’s real?”

  His silence said more than any words could. She was getting close to the limits of what she could take. Vampire space frogs were bad enough. But the more she learned about the Coalition, the more turning to them for help seemed like an, ‘out of the frying pan’ situation.

  “Brendan and Kira weaponized Balance against the Tau Ceti,” Khel said.

  Now he had her interest. “How?”

  “Sadirians apply it topically. The Tau Ceti have sensitive skin. Balance helps Sadirians feel well adjusted. For the Tau Ceti, it makes them euphoric and then knocks them out.”

  “What are you suggesting?” she asked. “That we palm some and try to shake everyone’s hands?”

  “There isn’t much on board. But if we use it at the right moment, we might be able to escape.”

  They didn’t even know where they were being taken. For all they knew, the Tau Ceti were just moving Khel’s ship to a less conspicuous spot before vaporizing it and everyone on board. Except the Tau Ceti still wanted to know what she knew. From what Khel had said, she had a feeling vaporization would be preferable to their questioning techniques. She hoped to avoid both scenarios.

  “I have specimen containers in my bag,” she said. “If we transfer this chemical into them, the Tau Ceti will be less likely to take it away.”

  “Brilliant.”

  They worked together to get it done. They wer
e just finishing when she felt the truck carrying the ship slow to a stop. She reached into her bag and hit the panic button, then buried it at the bottom, keeping the specimen containers full of Balance near the top.

  Khel quickly hid the empty Balance vials in one of the panels in the ship’s walls while she slid her backpack’s strap over her shoulder. He came to stand at her side, finding her hand and interlacing their fingers.

  The ship lurched, and they grabbed onto each other more tightly. Light filtered into the ship as the top of the vehicle carrying them opened. She could see trees covered in sphagnum moss through the viewport and prayed the Tau Ceti weren’t planning on dumping them in the swamp to drown or starve.

  The ship began to turn. The ceiling they were standing on became a ramp as they slowly spun back to an upright position. Khel held her waist, helping them slide safely to the wall and then land on the floor when the ship settled.

  More sunlight illuminated the ship as a ramp in the flooring opened. Two Tau Ceti cyborgs marched aboard. She was beginning to recognize the clunking sound of their steps. Advanced technology, yet they hadn’t bothered to try to make them light on their feet. It was just another symptom of how individuals seemed to be devalued in both cultures.

  A man wearing a white hat and suit walked up the ramp. His bow tie was a thin black ribbon. His eyes were large and protruded from his head in a very frog-like way. His lips were thick and his face gaunt.

  “Good evening,” he said, in a thick Southern accent.

  Okay. She wasn’t expecting that.

  For some reason, it made him even creepier. He was an alien. He was supposed to sound alien, not like one of the locals.

  “My apologies for the accommodations during your trip. I’m afraid there’s one further formality before we can move forward.”

  He gestured to one of the cyborgs. Paige put up a little resistance—mostly for show—as they took her phone. The guy patted her down, then Khel. He handed Paige’s phone to the guy in the white suit.