“Says the newly promoted commander.”
A reluctant smile finally broke through Jakkin’s gloom. “I’m beginning to understand why the previous commander accepted the transfer so easily. The past two days have been an education.”
“Just between you and me, Wade requested the transfer. I’m just trying to figure out if Kaden saw this as a reward or a punishment for you.”
The ever-serious Jakkin actually chuckled. “Probably a little of both. I’ve been giving your brother hell for the past two years.” He motioned Dakar toward the square table tucked in the back corner of the cabin’s living space. A connecting door led to the bedroom, but space was still limited on any starship. “Would you like a drink? Gods know I could use one.”
“Whatever you’re drinking is fine.” Dakar watched the commander efficiently fill two glasses with g’haut then they moved to the table. Jakkin slid one of the glasses across the smooth tabletop as they sat down.
“What happened in the mess hall is a good example of what you’ll be facing on Lunar Nine,” Jakkin began. “I don’t think the leaders anticipated females with total disregard for rules.”
“Are they all like the one you berated in the mess hall?” He took a drink, savoring the burn.
“No. In fact, most are at least trying to follow the rules. But it just takes a few to really disrupt things. Heather is actually a follower of Chelsea, who is much more of a problem. Everyone was praying that the matching program would disqualify her.”
“But it didn’t?”
He shook his head. “She has seven possible matches, four with compatibility indexes in the nineties. I just received her stats before you arrived.”
“If her behavior is so objectionable, won’t the interviewers weed her out?”
Jakkin nodded. “That’s my hope, but she’s smart. She’ll smile and blush and tell them exactly what they want to hear, then she’ll sneak off in the night to share pleasure with various members of my crew. At least that’s what I’ve been told by one of the other females.”
“Don’t you have security cameras in the cabins?”
“I wish,” Jakkin muttered. “The Fearless was built before continual surveillance became the standard.”
“Wow. I didn’t realize the ship was that old.” He stressed the last word, knowing it would irritate the new commander.
Jakkin glared at him, but there was no real hostility in his eyes. “Kaden warned me about your sense of humor.”
“Chelsea will only be aboard for another few days. Do you have a strategy for dealing with her misbehavior or do you intend to let her potential mates discipline her.”
“Any potential mate can deal with Heather’s wandering eye, but Chelsea’s different. Chelsea’s mean-spirited and dishonest. I assigned one of my covert agents to follow her. His specialty is spybots, so I’m hoping he’ll be able to document some of her antics.”
Dakar nodded thoughtfully as he swirled the last of his g’haut around in his glass. “What about the crews’ behavior? The occasional fight is one thing, but sharing pleasure with a female you know is meant to become someone else’s mate is very different.”
“It’s even worse than that.” Jakkin stood and crossed to the corner desk on the opposite side of the living space. He picked up a datapad and returned to the table as he quickly navigated to a site on the human internet. Then he handed the device to Dakar. “I’m not sure how she’s uploading these images, but I need to find out. That’s another reason I’m allowing her promiscuity to continue.”
Dakar took the datapad and cringed. The website’s title was I screwed an alien! The boast was followed by picture after picture of an attractive blonde in various sexual positions with battle born soldiers. Several of the males had their back to the camera or their face obscured, so it was hard to determine the exact number of males involved. It was possible more than one image featured the same male. “Are they all members of your crew?”
“Unfortunately. I’ve arrested the ones easily identified in the photos, but none of them are talking. I’m not sure what they think they’ll gain by protecting the human. She clearly cares nothing for any of them.”
“They aren’t protecting her,” Dakar said. “They’re protecting each other.”
“I agree. But she couldn’t have uploaded those images without help from one of them. That’s who I’m most interested in finding. This reveals a serious moral deficiency on both sides, but it’s also a serious security breech.”
Dakar nodded as he processed all the possible complications. “Sex-starved males frequently make bad decisions, but what does Chelsea get out of this? Why post her sexual encounters on the internet?”
“I found it puzzling as well,” Jakkin admitted. “So I commed Indigo.” His gaze narrowed and he tilted his head. “Are you familiar with Zilor Nox’s mate?”
“I am.” It was impossible not to smile when he thought of Indigo. She was lively and unique, always unpredictable. “She’s quite a character. How did she explain Chelsea’s brazen behavior?”
“She offered several possibilities. The first is celebrity. Apparently, some humans use their sexuality to draw attention to themselves. She said it’s usually done when the person has nothing else to offer.”
Dakar chuckled. “That sounds like Indigo. Is it just the attention of others that these people crave?”
“No. If they create enough of a stir, they can make money off their fans.”
“How?” He understood what Jakkin meant, but he couldn’t think of a single example in his experience to support the concept.
“Chelsea likely intends to upload a video next.”
“And she’ll charge a fee for access.” Dakar nodded, finally understanding. It seemed dishonorable and degrading, but he could see how public attention translated into monetary gain. “What were the other explanations?”
“Curiosity. As I’m sure you’ve heard, many humans find our appearance appealing. We are just savage enough to intrigue.”
“I’ve heard, but curiosity doesn’t explain the website.”
“True. Humans have something called groupies. They’re individuals with obsessive tendencies. They focus this obsession on a sports team or musical group.”
“Or in this case, the battle born?” Dakar asked.
“Exactly. They’re obsessed with the battle born and want to express this obsession through sexual interaction.”
“And bragging about their exploits is common?” Dakar shuddered. That felt even more dishonorable than the attention seeker.
Jakkin set his now empty glass down as he said, “Indigo insisted that bragging is part of the fun for a groupie.”
“Has the website been destroyed?”
“Of course. We disabled the site on the human side of the crystal array, but made it appear that the site is still live to anyone accessing it from this side.”
Dakar emptied his glass then pushed back from the table. “Well, I’ll let you get back to work. You’ve given me plenty to think about.”
“Stop by anytime. Any brother of Kaden is welcome aboard my ship.” He suddenly grinned. “My ship. Gods it feels good to finally be able to say that.”
“Congratulations and good luck finding Chelsea’s accomplice.”
Dakar left Jakkin’s cabin and headed for the nearest gangway, but his steps slowed as he neared the stairwell. Should he find Alyssa and let her know… Let her know what? Only those males interested in claiming a mate were included in the matching program. She’d be given a dossier on each of her possible mates. If the interview panel found her acceptable, which he was sure they would, her next stop was Lunar Nine. His domain.
She seemed reasonable, even timid, but he secretly hoped that she found a reason to misbehave. If she broke a rule, any rule, he’d have a reason to seek her out.
She was his potential mate! What more reason did he need?
Shaking away the disconcerting thoughts, he hurried toward the departure bay, anxious
to get back to his responsibilities on Lunar Nine.
Chapter Three
Hand trembling just a little, Alyssa connected the transfer cable to the IO port on the circuit board inside her datapad. She sat cross-legged on the bed in her apartment on Lunar Nine. She was finally here, within reach of her target, but her mission had stalled out. She couldn’t move forward without backup and Kelsey was still on the Fearless.
Opening the Rodyte device without destroying it had taken time and patience. This would have been so much easier if she had her laptop, or even her phone. But the battle born weren’t taking any chances. All she’d been able to smuggle into Lunar Nine was a USB drive, a compact set of tools, and a transfer cable with an assortment of pins and connectors. She’d worked with Rodyte technology enough to know what to expect. Still, interfacing alien and human technology was no simple feat. Which was why her father had chosen her for this mission.
She paused for a frustrated sigh. Thoughts of her father always filled her with conflicting emotions. Her logical mind knew trying to earn his respect was an exercise in futility, yet her lonely heart refused to stop hoping that he’d one day look at her with affection in his eyes. She shouldn’t care. He’d disappointed her often enough. And still she couldn’t seem to say no whenever he needed her.
Forcing away the distracting thoughts, she focused on the task before her. As part of “graduation” from orientation, each human volunteer was given a datapad, the Rodyte version of a tablet computer. The simple device gave them access to very specific areas on the outpost’s central computer, the entertainment library, a simple messaging system so they could contact their instructors and potential mates, and various information vids. But Alyssa wasn’t an ordinary user and her datapad was about to become a gateway to the entire network—if she could get the damn thing to accept information from her USB drive.
She adjusted the wires on the connector, for the third time, and suddenly the display on the datapad came to life. “Finally,” she muttered under her breath, wishing again for her laptop. She unlocked the holo-controls, knowing this would be excruciating if she tried to use the touchscreen keyboard.
Quickly navigating through the graphical user interface, she accessed the command line directly and triggered the transfer of her thumb drive’s contents to the datapad. Once the transfer finished, she disconnected the cable and carefully reassembled the datapad. She looked at the unit carefully, then smiled. There was no indication that it had been open. Good, first hurdle cleared. The second hurdle would be much higher.
She put her tools away and hid her USB drive in the zipper pouch with her tampons. It was more than just a stereotype. Males of any species tended to be squeamish about female hygiene products. She stacked pillows against the wall and returned to her bed, then opened the program her father had given her. Reading code was tedious and time-consuming, but she refused to unleash malware unless she knew exactly what it did. She’d done this already before she left Earth, but she wouldn’t put it past her father to slip her a different USB drive somewhere along the line, or trigger self-extracting code. She was probably being paranoid, but she didn’t care. She would be directly responsible for whatever happened because of this program.
For the next five hours, she read line after line of code. Soon her eyes blurred and her muscles cramped from inactivity. She needed to take a break. Her brain no longer comprehended what she read. She exited the program and set the datapad aside, knowing it would power down by itself after a few minutes.
She glanced around the room then sighed. If she watched a movie, she’d fall asleep and then she wouldn’t sleep tonight. She needed exercise, even if it was just a brisk walk. The volunteers had access to a gym, but going there required an escort and she didn’t feel like having a guard watch her while she worked out. She didn’t really care where she went, as long as she got out of this room.
Alyssa eased her door open and looked out into the corridor. Thinking the human females would enjoy each other’s company, the program leaders had assigned them all apartments on the same floor of residential village one. The village was one of ten identical complexes arranged in an untidy cluster beyond the commerce tiers. Alyssa quickly selected one of the apartments closest to the elevator, knowing she’d need to be able to slip in and out of the building without drawing attention to her activities.
Laughter and muffled conversation drifted down the hallway. There was a lounge hallway down the corridor and the young women were encouraged to spend time there rather than isolating themselves in their apartments. She’d always been somewhat of a loner, so she ignored the suggestion and stayed almost entirely to herself.
The humans were also allowed to visit the shops and restaurants on the commerce tiers as long as they took one of the guards with them. Alyssa had been more interested in the vendors than their merchandise. Except for their eyes, the battle born could pass for human. Such was not the case with many of the vendors. Some were reptilian, others humanoid in shape yet their coloring was vastly different than anything found on Earth. Alyssa spent her time talking to the shop keepers while the others explored the shops.
Alyssa had been one of the first to gain approval and be taken to Lunar Nine. Part spaceport, part compact city, the outpost was larger than Alyssa imagined. But the excitement of finally seeing the mysterious facility quickly wore off. She’d arrived four days ago. Much to her frustration, Kelsey was still on the Fearless, taking additional tests and enduring hours of interrogation by the interview panel. The Rodytes really were working hard to weed out people like Chelsea.
Even though she felt sorry for her new friend, part of Alyssa secretly hoped Kelsey would be disqualified. If Kelsey went home, Alyssa would ask to be disqualified as well. She hadn’t had misgivings when she agreed to the mission. Now, having met several of the battle born and hearing them described as heroes by the merchants, she was seriously torn.
Her father demanded absolute loyalty, and she felt honor-bound to protect her country. So her personal feelings had to take a backseat to duty. If the battle born wanted American females, they should work within the law, rather than circumventing it. End of story.
“Aly!”
She heard the diminutive form of her name and cringed. No one she liked ever called her Aly. Why were so many people insistent on shortening names? She calmed her expression and slowly turned around. Heather stood in the hallway a few doors down. Clearly she’d just stepped out of the lounge.
“Heather,” she acknowledged then started to turn back around.
“Where are you going?”
Turning only her head, she said, “I just need some air. I’m not used to being indoors all the time.”
Now that Heather was away from Chelsea’s influence, she was nearly bearable. But Alyssa wasn’t here to make friends. The closer she grew to these women, the harder it would be to sabotage the program. Most of them seemed genuinely excited by the possibility of bonding with a Rodyte male. Alyssa couldn’t blame them. If Indigo could be believed, the mating bond allowed human females to live longer, healthier lives, a fact they hadn’t advertised on their website.
“Going ‘outside’ isn’t going to help with that,” Heather pointed out. “You’ll still be inside the cave.” The entire outpost had been constructed inside an enormous natural cave. A detail Alyssa was eager to pass on to her father.
“True, but it’s easier to pretend.” She quickly took a step toward the elevators.
“Then I’ll go with you.”
“No need.” She waved Heather back toward the lounge as she continued her escape. “I don’t intend to stay out there long and your friends will miss you.”
“They’d be your friends too if you’d just—”
Alyssa ducked around the corner, sparing herself the rest of Heather’s lecture. She wasn’t in the mood for a critique on her social skills. She couldn’t allow herself to soften or she’d be lost.
After activating the lift with her palm print,
Alyssa impatiently waited for the small car to arrive. If Kelsey didn’t get here soon, Alyssa was going to lose her mind. She was trapped in limbo. The main objectives were too dangerous to attempt without backup, yet none of the tasks required much prep work. She could verify the exact location of the crystal array, but that would take minutes not hours or days. What the devil was taking Kelsey so long?
The elevator took her to the ground level and she exited through a small lobby. Heather was right, coming “outside” on Lunar Nine didn’t help with her restlessness. She needed to see the sky and feel a cool mountain breeze on her face, not the massive, rough-hewn dome of the lunar cavern and the tepid brush of recycled air.
She faced the apartment building known as residential village one. It looked like it had been constructed by a toddler who hadn’t yet mastered the art of building blocks. Units stuck out at odd intervals, creating strange angles and senseless shapes. It was obvious the architect had been trying to be unconventional, but it lacked symmetry and flow.
“Not your style?”
The deep voice washed over her like a caress. Tingles spread from the nape of her neck, over her shoulders and across her chest. She recognized the speaker, had expected him to visit eventually. “Is this sort of thing common on Rodymia?”
She didn’t turn around so Dakar moved up beside her. He stared at the building as well, tilting his dark head this way and that. “It was a style that came and went quickly back home. These sorts of things never last.”
“Thank God.” Her mood began to lighten, so she looked at him. Tall and intimidating, he was just as striking as she remembered. His long dark hair was pulled back, as usual. He wore a black-and-gold uniform, which only added to his authoritative air. “Are you here on official business, Senior Enforcer Lux? Have I done something wrong?”
“I think you know the answer, Miss Wallace.” He looked at her then. The purple rings in his dark eyes flashed for a second as their gazes locked. “Why did you ignore my messages?”
She wasn’t usually such a coward, but this wasn’t real. It felt dishonest to give him false hope when she had no intention of mating with any of her genetic matches. She couldn’t explain the situation, so she said something that was at least true. “I’m waiting for Kelsey. She’s still on the Fearless, trying to get approved.”
Enforcer (Battle Born Book 11) Page 5
