by Liza Probz
The fear in the cell was palpable. Jeffrey knew that he had to step in now, before morale sank any lower.
“There are ways to tell,” he said, drawing their attention. “Major Ontarii began acting strangely, and Kat and I picked up on it. He started doing things he wouldn’t do, like ignoring protocol and brutalizing his prisoner.” He didn’t need to indicate his injuries for them to know he was referring to himself.
“So if Captain Brooklyn comes back and punches me in the face, you’ll know she’s a shapeshifter.”
He’d intended his words to be a joke to lighten the mood. No one laughed.
“We just have to be extra vigilant,” he finished lamely.
“What about you?” Tan asked. “How do we know you’re human and not a Hareema plant, put in here to get us to lower our guard and reveal something.”
Jeffrey was surprised at the sharpness of her tone. She wasn’t kidding. “Well, I can assure you I’m the same smart ass I ever was.”
“Prove it,” Chao said, moving to stand next to Tan.
Jeffrey wracked his brain, trying to come up with something to convince them before the tide of sentiment turned against him completely.
“Hareema can take on human form, but they don’t have our memories. Which means a Hareema wouldn’t know that Chao, you like chocolate chips on your dehydrated pancakes. And it wouldn’t know that you, Dr. Tan, are a secret fan of a certain cartoon mouse.”
Tan had the decency to blush, but Chao was unwilling to let the thread of doubt go. “If the Hareema agent was on our ship for any stretch of time, it could have found those things out easily.”
Jeffrey sighed. “Okay, Chao, I didn’t want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice.”
The small woman braced herself, as if Jeffrey was going to launch himself at her physically. Instead, he continued to speak in a serious voice.
“Three missions ago, when we were parked off the rings of Saturn taking samples of ring dust for that scientist at Yale, you and I were stuck on off-ship duty together, gathering dust. Remember?”
Chao nodded, but her eyes remained distrustful.
Jeffrey continued. “You’ve always hated being on ‘spacesuit patrol,’ as you call it, because you’re terrified of becoming untethered or of your suit depressurizing. We had just collected the last of our samples when you felt something hit your suit.”
Chao’s eyes widened. “Yeah.”
“You swore it had caused a microfracture and started to panic, eating up your oxygen in heavy breathing. The depletion of your oxygen at a more rapid rate than normal reinforced the idea that you’d sprung a leak, remember?”
“Okay, Cheerful, I believe you. You can stop now.” A blush was stealing its way onto Chao’s face.
“Oh no,” Tan said. “The story’s just getting interesting.”
“Chao knew she was going to die, even as I told her that we’d be back on the ship before her suit could depressurize. She made me promise that when she was gone, I would tell Mike that she’d always had a thing for him, and that she regretted never making her move.”
“Shut up, Cheerful, before I punch you harder than that Hareema did!”
Tan doubled over laughing. “Oh man, I knew you liked Mike.”
“I don’t think you ladies need to worry about me being a Hareema plant,” Jeffrey finished, a shit-eating grin spreading across his face.
“No, but you need to worry about where I’m going to plant my fist!” Chao said, shaking her balled-up hand in his face. “You promised never to tell anyone!”
“You made me!” he replied with a laugh.
“You better call that medic back,” Chao growled. “I’m gonna add to your array of bruises.”
Tan stopped laughing long enough to give Jeffrey a serious glance. “I think you’ll be giving him all new bruises, Chao. His old ones have already healed.”
Jeffrey touched his face. It should have been swollen beyond recognition. Instead, everything felt normal.
The lieutenant let out a loud guffaw. It felt good to laugh, now that his body no longer ached. The laughter helped banish the pall that had hung over the cell.
Tan put an arm around Chao, shaking her out of her funk until she was able to smile about the situation. “I think Mike’s cute. Big deal. At least I don’t wear mouse ears in my bunk.”
Tan chuckled, then gave Jeffrey a wink. “Count on Lieutenant Cheerful to perk things up around here.”
“Just doing my job,” he replied, keeping up the pretense at merriment. Inside, his thoughts were less pleasant.
What’s going to happen when we get to Zanthar, he wondered. Would they be released, or would the Zantharians insist on keeping them prisoner?
That question wasn’t the only one that kept his nerves on edge. What about the lovely Kat’Chinna? Would he be allowed to see her again?
Even more than that, would he be allowed to taste her once more? She’d shocked him after he’d felt her climax on his lips, pushing him away faster than light speed. Why had she turned cold again, just when they were getting close? What had he done to drive her away?
Jeffrey hoped he would have a chance to learn the answer to that question. For now, he sat in his cell and waited, memories of their time together replaying over and over as the hours ticked past.
Chapter 11
Kat’Chinna stood on the bridge of the Zantharian flagship, watching as her home planet grew larger on the view screen. Once she’d taken command, she’d tightened security protocols, insisting that every crewmember exchanged energy every fifteen minutes, and with different partners each time. All non-essential crew had been confined to their quarters. So far they had yet to discover another Hareema agent, but she would never again relax her guard.
She’d sent out a sector-wide bulletin about the human ship, encouraging any ship in the area to report its whereabouts if encountered, and to capture it if possible. She had not encouraged violence, but she had stressed that the ship presented a very real threat to the Zantharian fleet.
She’d started a ship-wide search for the navigator who’d exchanged energy with Major Ontarii once he’d come back on board, but he hadn’t been found. Instead, they found his uniform shoved behind one of the storage canisters in the cargo bay. His absence worried Kat more than anything else.
It could be anywhere. It could be watching me right now.
She’d considered not returning to Zanthar because of the risk it would present, knowing there was a Hareema agent loose somewhere on the ship. Still, she had no choice. She had to share what had happened with Central Command, and it was no longer safe to assume their communication channels weren’t being monitored.
Plus, as Jeffrey had suggested, she wanted to get their prisoner to a Zantharian lab as soon as possible. They had to figure out exactly how the Hareema were able to imitate the energy exchange.
A million doubts floated through her mind, but for once she welcomed the distraction. If she was checking and rechecking her plan, she couldn’t be worrying about what had happened between her and the human in the interrogation chamber.
She’d surrendered to his kisses, had accepted his warm seduction, and he’d brought her the most intense orgasm she’d ever had. She might have gone further, might have allowed him to couple with her, if he hadn’t said those fateful words.
You’re different.
She’d heard those words too many times in her life, and they never failed to frustrate her. When she was a child, it was “You’re different. You’re too short.” It was true. By Zantharian standards, she was considered short, several inches shorter than most males and a few inches shorter than the average female.
In order to prove that her stature didn’t define her, she’d worked harder than her peers, pushing herself to be the best at whatever she set her mind to. This included pursuing a military command.
Although the Zantharian military had female members, it wasn’t a career that most women chose. Space detail on a milita
ry vessel didn’t leave a lot of time for raising a family, which was important to most females. Each Zantharian woman had a single egg that could be fertilized at her own choosing, generally leading to a sole offspring.
Those precious single babies were cherished and treasured by females, who often took long stretches of time off to raise their children. Long stretches of time off were incompatible with military command, unless one resigned her commission. It therefore made little sense to work hard and climb the ladder of rank, only to resign when the time came to breed.
Choosing to perhaps forego the chance to raise a child was yet another thing that set her apart. Since each woman could usually have only one child, it was something akin to duty to produce offspring. Instead, Kat had chosen to put her career first. Even when she’d allowed herself to fantasize about building a relationship with the dashing Major Ontarii, she’d always thought of them battling their way through space and not in a cozy nursery, bringing up a baby.
Kat had known she wasn’t your average Zantharian for years, and she’d accepted that, even at times felt superior because of it.
But now, for once, Kat didn’t want to be different. She wanted to be a normal woman, interacting with a man. She didn’t want to be special, something other than normal.
Those words had made her realize that she was a box to check for the human. One exotic alien female. Check.
While she’d been opening up to him, he’d been crossing a fantasy off his list.
Don’t think about it, she told herself, shaking her head to clear it. She concentrated on the swirling mass of colors that was Zanthar as it grew closer. Beautiful greens, blues, and purples coalesced to form the Zantharian oceans. She’d always loved this view, always felt a sense of wonder and purpose when she’d seen Zanthar from space.
Now she was worried, and had a sense of gnawing loneliness.
She was going to have to explain to the Supreme Regent of Zanthar that her commanding officer had been replaced by a Hareema agent, and that she’d lost the Earthling vessel, not knowing whether or not Major Ontarii was on that ship.
But worse, she was going to have to face Central Command alone. Major Ontarii had always been there to take charge, to charm the administration and to stand up for his crew. Now she’d be subjected to their barrage of questions with no one to have her back.
What about the human lieutenant? her inner voice whispered. He’d have your back, no questions asked.
Would he? He’d insisted that they needed to work together against their common enemy, and in the case of their current Hareema captive, they’d made a good team. But would he still feel the same way, now that she’d locked him back in his cell and not consulted him about her current course of action?
Zantharian men, although recognizing that women were their equals, still had a macho streak a mile wide. This went double for military men. Jeffrey was a military man, with a rank equal to her own. And yet she’d locked him away, preferring to proceed without his help.
She’d told him that she didn’t want to have to explain him to her crew, and that was true. But perhaps the bigger reason that she’d put him back in his cell was her own embarrassment at letting down her guard long enough for him to make his move.
Why does he have to be so freaking sexy? If he was a short man with bad teeth and spotty skin, I could have ignored him with no problem.
Instead, he was a tall, muscular male with a winning smile and eyes that burned her now, even in her memory. When he’d captured her lips, she’d realized that no one had ever kissed her in that way. She’d wanted more.
And when he’d touched her body, when he’d put his mouth on her core, she’d almost lost herself, giving herself over to a pleasure so intense, the thought of it now caused her to tremble.
But in the end, he reminded her that she was different. And even if he hadn’t meant it the way she’d chosen to take it, it didn’t matter. They were different. Different species. From entirely different planets.
She gave herself a few moments to imagine what choosing Jeffrey as her mate would mean back on Zanthar.
Ridicule. Shame. Embarrassment.
Abandonment.
She would lose friends. Lose stature. Perhaps lose her career.
And even if she didn’t lose those things. Even if she was accepted, as much as she could be, by her peers, there were still too many differences dividing them.
They were both lieutenants on different starships, with different missions and different protocols. How would they ever find time to get together?
Enough traveling down the trail of What If, she told herself. He was scratching an itch, satisfying his curiosity. He now knew what seducing an alien female felt like. Who knew if he’d even be interesting in repeating the experience.
The officer stationed at navigation broke through the haze of her thoughts. “We’re on our descent course now. T-minus four minutes until landing.”
Kat swallowed, taking a deep breath. She expected quite a backlash for the events she’d set in motion. And she couldn’t even warn them of what was coming.
“Attention all crew. We are making our descent into the Zantharian atmosphere and will soon be landing. Because of the nature of the Hareema threat against us, all crew are ordered to remain in quarters or at their posts until ordered otherwise. Any breach of these orders will subject you to the strictest possible disciplinary action, and will arouse suspicion that you have been replaced by a shapeshifter.”
She thought that last bit might be a bit too strong, but she’d never been one to hide things from her crew. They would all be under the harshest suspicion from the beginning, and she preferred it that way. If the Hareema operative were allowed to sneak off the ship and onto the home world, the threat to their people would be incalculable.
As they approached Central Command, two smaller ships flanked the flagship on either side. “Major Ontarii, this is Central Command. Why didn’t you warn us of your unscheduled return?”
“This is Lieutenant Kat’Chinna Yarr, current commander of the Zantharian Flagship. We were forced to return to the home world due to circumstances beyond our control.”
“And those circumstances are…?”
Kat frowned. “We can’t be sure this channel is secure. The situation is threat level midnight.”
Threat level midnight meant a crisis of planetary proportions. She thought she heard a gasp over the comm, before she heard Central Command’s response. “Threat level confirmed. Quarantine procedures initialized. You are ordered to secure your ship after landing. We’ll come to you.”
Kat rodgered her agreement, then inhaled hard at the next words. “If any of your crew attempts to set foot off the ship before we’ve cleared them, they will be terminated with extreme prejudice.”
“Understood.” Kat relayed Central Command’s orders to her crew, reminding everyone of the extreme danger of their situation. It would be the height of folly to make it all the way home, only to be taken out by their own comrades.
As the ship made its way into the largest hanger on the base, she watched as Zantharian troops spilled out of command centers to converge on the ship. One it had settled into place, Kat leaned back. There was nothing to do but wait as the special command squads cleared the ship room by room.
The squad hit the bridge fairly quickly, and she was soon subjected to an intense energy exchange to confirm her identity. Then, with the remainder of the bridge crew, she was led off the ship and shuttled to the office of the ranking officer.
As Kat stepped through the membrane into the office, she was surprised to find herself confronted by the Supreme Regent himself. Xivthar Rasveen was one of the largest males she’d ever seen. His body rippled with repressed strength, his eyes bright and discerning with a keen intelligence that had served to protect his position for years.
With something akin to fury in those eyes now, it was hard for Kat not to be intimidated.
“Oh Xiv, stop it,” a female voice said
. “You’re scaring her half to death.”
Kat turned, surprised to see the form of a small human female, standing near the shelves of digital tomes to her right. Dr. Sylvia Cohen.
So the rumors are true. The Supreme Regent has chosen a human for his mate.
Although there was nothing definitive in the fact that the female was in the office with them now, Kat nonetheless knew that these two had become a pair. For one, no woman but the regent’s mate would dare to give him orders.
Zantharian males became extremely possessive over their females, not allowing them out of their sights for long. And there was something in the way the regent was looking at her, as if Dr. Sylvia Cohen were a plate of octopus hors d’oeuvres and he’d been stranded in space for a month.
“Supreme Regent,” Kat said, moving forward toward the desk behind which Rasveen was seated, “I have urgent news to report.”
“Where is Major Ontarii?” Rasveen’s face was cold, his words harsh.
Kat heard the human female make a strange clicking noise. She risked a glance at Dr. Cohen. She held up a finger and was delicately shaking it at the regent.
“Regent, forgive the request, but what I have to say is restricted information. Are you certain I should speak freely.”
Rasveen’s face tightened. “Whatever you have to say, you can say in front of my mate.”
The rumors were true. The Supreme Regent of the planet Zanthar had been snared by the tiny human scientist.
Kat wasn’t sure how to take this bit of information. Her thoughts began cascading. If the regent could mate with a human, then—
“Start talking, Lieutenant, before I throw you in a cell with a spikefin and get my information from someone else.”
The image of her being gored by the massive ocean predator brought her mind back to the task at hand.
“Major Ontarii is not aboard the flagship.”
“My men have already relayed that tidbit to me, Yarr. Try harder.”
“He’s been impersonated by a Hareema agent, either when we encountered the human ship or before.”
“Human ship?” Dr. Cohen leapt forward, staring up into Kat’s face. “You encountered a human ship?”
