Alien Capture (Latrothain Warrior Series Book 1)

by Christy,Dena

  Alien Capture

  Dena Christy

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Coming Soon

  Also by Dena Christy

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  Copyright © 2016 by Dena Christy

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover design by Melody Simmons

  Chapter One

  Synn Agrysass sat at the controls of his beloved space scout, Hylda, and the corner of his mouth kicked up. The vast emptiness of space stretched out in front of him, and he controlled this tiny domain inside it. Hylda was content for once, and her lights and monitors all indicated that everything was running smooth. He stroked his hand over the slick edge of her console and gave her a little pat.

  “The way you touched that, it's like you're caressing a female.” Cynric stepped over to his side and sighed. He stood straight and tall and had his hands clasped behind his back as he looked out the view screen in front of them.

  “She is a female.” Every pilot knew that ships were female, and this ship was his and he loved every bolt. Ryce liked to joke about his closeness to Hylda but she’d gotten him out of more scrapes than he could count. She’d earned his love the hard way.

  “It’s a hunk of metal and a cranky one at that.” Cynric softened his words with one of his rare smiles.

  “Don’t listen to him Hylda. He doesn’t understand how it is between us.” Synn kissed the tips of his fingers and touched them to Hylda’s console.

  She wasn’t sentient, but it didn’t hurt to treat her nice. Cynric was right about one thing, she was temperamental. Of course he could get the best performance out of her, but then he knew her better than anyone else. She always did what he asked of her, and performed better than some of the newer scouting cruisers that were around, even if she was held together with mostly hope and good intentions.

  “Are we near anything that could be considered a hospitable planet?” Cynric threw himself down in the co-pilot’s chair and dragged his fingers through his ink dark hair. It stood up all over his head, and he made no moved to straighten it as he stared out the view screen.

  “Not yet. I told you I’d let you know of anything interesting comes up. Bugging me won’t make a planet magically appear.” Synn rolled his eyes. Every day the same thing. How many times did he have to tell him that he’d be the first to know if he saw a planet?

  “I know.” Cynric blew out his breath and shifted in his chair. “You know how important this mission is.”

  “I’m well aware.” And if he hadn’t been before, it was more than clear now. Every day Cynric told him the same thing. They needed to find a planet with women, their government was counting on them, the next generation of Latrothian warriors depended on finding viable females to mate with. He tightened his jaw and looked at his friend out of the corner of his eye. Around and around he went, saying the same thing, until Synn wanted to ban him from the control room if he thought it would make a difference. “We can only find what we find. Have you tried talking to Ryce? Maybe he wants company.”

  “I think Ryce is best left alone. He keeps field stripping his weapons and grunting. And pacing. Frankly I don’t want to be in the same room as him since he isn’t handling the emptiness of space any better than I am. We’ll come to blows if we’re in the same room.”

  If Cynric didn’t stop asking the same questions, and talking about the same things, he wouldn’t have to worry about coming to blows with Ryce. His greatest concern would be how to get rid of the boot shaped bruise on his ass once Synn kicked him out of the cockpit.

  “And you thought you’d come pester me? I’m fine with just Hylda for company. At least Ryce is trying to keep himself busy. You should occupy yourself with something.”

  Please occupy yourself with something before I kill you.

  Synn let out a breath and focused his attention on Hylda and the view screen. Everything looked to be fine and the space outside looked just as empty as it had before Cynric came in.

  Cynric let out a growl and pushed up out of the chair.

  Finally.

  He moved around to the back of the cockpit, but Synn didn’t bother to look to see what he was doing. As long as he wasn’t bugging him, he didn’t care what his commander did.

  He turned his head when the room had grown silent, and Cynric was sitting in one of the chairs at the back, with his eyes closed. At least he wasn’t rocking in the corner.

  An alarm on Hylda’s console beeped, and Synn spun around to find out what was wrong. He should have known that she’d been behaving too well lately for it to be anything other than a momentary lapse on her part. With a few practiced swipes, he brought up the diagnostic log to see what had the bug up her ass. He had to read the report twice for the full meaning to sink in, and he looked up at the view screen to confirm it was possible.

  Squinting his eyes, he strained to pick it up. And there it was, the source of Hylda’s problem.

  “Cynric, you need to get over here.”

  The heavy tread of Cynric’s boots came over to his side, and Synn hit a button to put the annoying buzz of the alarm on silent. Hylda had done her job by warning him, but he didn’t need to listen to her squawk anymore.

  “What is it?” Cynric threw himself back down in the co-pilot’s chair and leaned forward in it, his eyes never wavering from the view screen.

  “Do you see that?” Synn pointed at a tiny pinhole of light on the otherwise blank view screen. “It’s a planet.”

  “Can you tell if it’s habitable?”

  Another alarm went off, and a quick scan of the log that was still up told him why.

  “I would say so, since they’ve just engaged a gravitational pull. They are pulling Hylda toward them.” He grabbed the control stick and flipped the switch to disengage the autopilot. The stick vibrated in his hand, and he gripped it tight.

  “We cannot let them bring us in. We are under orders to observe only. Get us out of that pull. Now.” Cynric stood, and he was now in full command mode. At least now there appeared to be a remedy for his cabin fever.

  Excitement danced in the pit of Synn’s stomach, and he fought to keep the grin off his face. This was shit he lived for, going up against someone else and putting Hylda through her paces.

  He threw on Hylda’s reverse thrusters and pulled back on the control stick. The drag was heavy as Hylda’s engines reversed and fought the forces pulling her toward the planet. She gave a shudder, and a few more alarms went off, but Synn ignored them. If he couldn’t get her out of this, all the alarms in the world wouldn’t save her. “Come on baby, you can do it.”

  Hylda gave a heaving lurch, and Cynric fell against the console.

  “Sit down.” Synn grabbed his commander by the arm and yanked him down into the co-pilots seat. He didn’t have t
ime to worry about his friend, and if he was going to stay here, he needed to be out of the way.

  The interior lights flickered as Hylda gave another shudder. Synn pulled the lever to his right that controlled the thrusters power and put them to fully engaged. He pulled back on the control stick, and Hylda’s engines gave a whining protest. She shuddered hard, and Synn winced. He’d never asked this much of her before, and he didn’t know if he would get her out of this.

  “What’s going on Synn?”

  Synn didn’t bother looking at his barking commander as he tried one more time to pull her back. Hylda screamed with her efforts and heaved and shook again.

  “I can’t get out of it. It’s too strong, and if we fight it much longer, she’ll break apart.” Any trace of his earlier smile wiped off his face, and he eased back on the control stick to give Hylda a break.

  “We don’t know if the inhabitants of that planet are hostile and I don’t want to find out. We must abandon ship.”

  No way. There was no way he was leaving Hylda when she needed him. He would rather die here, at the control panel, then watch her be destroyed.

  “I’m not leaving her. You and Ryce get out of here, and I’ll keep her together and distract them long enough for you to get away.” Synn ground his teeth together, and he ignored Cynric as he tried one more time to pull Hylda back.

  He had to save her. The ship gave a long, teeth rattling shutter, the lights went out and silence descended in the control room. Hylda had finally stopped protesting. The emergency lights came on and bathed the control room in red. It was like watching Hylda bleed from the inside.

  “We are getting off this ship together. That’s an order.” Cynric yanked him out of his seat. He struggled against him, and his commander pulled his fist back. “You can go out on your feet, or over my shoulder, but you are going.”

  Synn pulled away from him and hit the emergency button and alarms rang out. Ryce needed to know that they were abandoning ship.

  “It’s only a ship, Synn.” Cynric grabbed him by the arm and dragged him to the exit.

  “She’s more than that.” Synn took one last look at the control room before turning away and walking out the door at his friend’s side. He picked up his pace when Ryce sprinted for the docking bay. They all knew what they needed to do, had been through this exercise many times before. Synn had never thought he’d need it.

  “Move your ass Synn.” Ryce shoved him toward the docking bay doors as he came abreast of him. “Hylda wouldn’t want you to die for her.”

  The docking bay doors opened, and Synn went to his assigned pod and pressed his hand against the control panel on the side. Red light shone through the spaces of his fingers as the scanner moved up and down his hand twice to verify it was him. The door hissed open, and he settled inside the cockpit of the tiny escape shuttle. He put his comm set in his ear and turned on the engine. It was the last thing he wanted to do. It didn’t feel right, leaving Hylda like this.

  “Lead the way Synn.” Cynric’s voice buzzed through the comm set. He was deliberately making him go first. The thought had crossed his mind to go last and not leave the ship at all, but Cynric was way ahead of him.

  “Yes sir.”

  Synn lined his shuttle up to the docking bay doors, and the sensors picked up his presence and opened with well oiled smoothness. He nudged the nose of his pod closer to the door and once it was open all the way, he shot out through the door and out into space.

  The planet had grown since the last time he’d seen it on the view screen. It pulled Hylda closer, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.

  He maneuvered his tiny shuttle so he could cover his crew mates as they made their way out of the ship. Ryce pulled out of the bay next, and Cynric followed. They flew away from Hylda, but Synn stayed where he was.

  “Where are we going?” Ryce’s voice came over the comm.

  “We are going to the planet. Put your shuttles on stealth so they can’t detect us and we’ll sneak in. Hylda should be enough to distract them."

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Synn didn’t want to go to the planet, and a bad feeling crept into his gut. Maybe it was because of what they were doing to Hylda, or because he didn’t want to leave her, but going to the planet didn’t seem like a good plan to him.

  “We still have a mission. We will explore the planet, get the lay of the land and see if they have viable females. Besides, we won’t last long out in space in these shuttles, and it’s better if we go down on our own terms.”

  “It may not be that easy sir,” Ryce said in the comm.

  From his vantage point next to Hylda, Synn could see ahead of them there was an asteroid field that surrounded the planet in a wide band. They would have to fly through it to get close to the planet.

  “Nothing worth doing is easy. Synn, get away from the ship.”

  Synn growled as he took one last look at Hylda and entered the asteroid field.

  “I’ll lead the way. It’s too risky to shoot our way through if we’re trying to be stealthy, so follow my lead.” He pulled ahead of the others and focused on maneuvering the pod through the asteroid field. He dodged and weaved through the flying boulders and didn’t concern himself with the others. He may be the most experience pilot, but they all knew how to navigate their pods.

  Synn’s entire focus was on the asteroid field, and he was grateful for the shuttles’ lightweight maneuverability as he dodged and darted around chunks of rock. A quick glance back showed him the others were navigating through the field. He blew out his breath when he saw that they’d made it half way through. Hopefully the rest of the way would go as smooth as the first. The air shuddered around them, and the pod with the vibrations stirring the air.

  What the hell was that?

  Synn jerked his head around, and saw in the midst of the asteroid field Hylda was in distress. Without someone navigating, heavy asteroids battered against her sides, and Synn flinched. Every time a rock slammed into her, made his shuttle shake like he was feeling her pain. The huge asteroids were pummeling her to pieces and there wasn’t a thing he could do about it.

  The shuttle rocked around him, and he focused to get his pod under control. An asteroid hit his tail and sent his shuttle spinning. It spun faster and faster, and the world outside his shuttle blurred around him in a never-ending loop. He closed his eyes for a second. It was like his eyeballs were spinning in his head, and he couldn’t see a thing with them open.

  Another asteroid hit him. Pain slammed through his head as he hit the side of the shuttle hard enough to make his brain rattle. Sparks danced in front of his eyes. He reached his hand up to touch the side of his head and it came back bloody.

  As if from far away, Cynric’s voice yelled in his ear as another asteroid slammed into him and his head hit the side of the pod again. Black edged his vision, and he slumped in his seat, unable to do anything more as unconsciousness claimed him.

  * * *

  Miranda Reynaud sighed as her car drove itself into her parking spot. She’d instructed the damn thing to go faster, but she was still late for work.

  Time for another exciting day!

  The low laboratory squatted at the fringes of the parking lot, and the grey drizzle she’d woken up to this morning hadn’t abated at all. She grabbed her purse, and turned in her seat to grab her umbrella.

  It wasn’t where it was supposed to be, and she turned back around. In her rush to get out the door, she’d forgotten it at home. A quick glance at her watch told her that time was marching on and she couldn't wait out the rain.

  If she was lucky, her boss would be busy and she could slip in with him none the wiser. She got out of the car, and the locks automatically engaged. Rain hit her head, and she lifted her purse to keep it off. At least her raincoat covered her dress.

  She squared her shoulders. Time to face the day.

  She hurried across the parking lot, but could only go as fast as the high heeled shoes on her feet
would let her. She could feel the water through the shoes, and it squished between her toes. Great, now her shoes were probably ruined, and she really liked these. Today just wasn’t her day.

  The door handle was wet and slick when she reached out to grab it. A gust of wind pushed against it, and she pulled as hard as she could, but it kept blowing shut.

  “Come on.”

  She reached up and banged on the glass. Edgar looked over from his post at the guard desk and sauntered over to the door. He pushed it open and held it for her. She smiled up at him as she stepped out of the rain and into the lobby. She lowered her purse as she followed him to the security desk.

  “Good morning, Citizen Reynaud.” Edgar settled back in his seat and waited for her to stand on the other side. She stood in her assigned spot. Every day she went through the same pointless procedure just to get in the building.

  “Citizen card?” He held out his hand, and she had it ready to hand over to him.

  He scanned the card with a small electronic wand, and his computer gave a double beep. Looks like they will let me in today.

  He handed the card back, and she tucked it away in her purse. She stepped to the right and held her arms out at her sides. He swept a weapon detector in front of her, behind her and up each side of her body. No alarms rang out. The only thing lethal on her person was the spiked heels on her feet, and she could hardly incapacitate anyone with those.

  A glance at her watch told her she was later now, and she blew out a sigh.

  “You know I have to do this, Citizen Reynaud.”

  “I’ve been here for three months, and every day the computer says I have clearance to come in, and I’m not carrying any weapons. Can we not just give it a rest?”

  “It’s my job to check everyone that comes in here.” A job he took way too seriously.

  “Do you ever just wave anyone through?”

  “No.” He went back to his seat and put the weapon detector away. He took his time with it, and tomorrow when she went through this she’d keep her mouth shut. Obviously he’d been offended.