by K. D. Jones
“Captain Malone is on a shuttle run with me.” He glances at Jaxon.
“Where in Kitana are you?” The Prime Commander yells over the communications.
Shit, just shit!
SilAS was just as freaked out as Jaxon. “Uh … Commander.”
Jaxon tried not to laugh. The Lieutenant was acting all Rico Suave a minute ago. Now he was more like Gomer Pyle.
“Get back to the transport ship NOW!” Prime Commander KydEL yells.
Both SilAS and Jaxon winced at the loudness. Wow, he was really pissed off for some reason. Jaxon wondered if the Commander was more upset with SilAS or with her; probably more with her.
Jaxon held back her disappointment when Silas took back over the flying. Oh well, some flight time was better than no flight time. She noted that SilAS was taking his time getting back to the transport ship. It was like getting behind a really slow driver. It was fine by her. She wasn’t in a hurry to get back either.
They entered the docking bay and waited while the air pressurized. Jaxon could see the Commander as he stood on the other side of the viewing screen. Once the air was pressurized, Jaxon followed SilAS out of the shuttle. The Second Commander came to get them. They followed him to a small sitting area where the Prime Commander paced back and forth angrily.
Kyd didn’t look at Jaxon. He turned his anger on the male who whisked his female off to a secluded area. “What were you thinking Lieutenant?”
SilAS was very pale. Jaxon thought he might pass out. “I was showing Jaxon … I mean the Captain, how we do shuttle runs Sir.”
“Shuttle runs do not involve landing your shuttle on a secluded part of a Luna Lieutenant. Shuttles are for Katiera’s security procedures. NOT a place for mating! Report to command center and await disciplinary detail.” Kyd is trying hard to control the infuriating images in his mind of this male touching Jaxon.
SilAS followed the Second Commander as they left for the command center. Jaxon tried to walk away, but was stopped by a large, warm hand clasping her right arm. She turned back to face a very angry Prime Commander.
“Where do you think you are going?’ He demands.
Jaxon pulled her arm in an attempt to free it from his grasp, but he wouldn’t budge. “Commander KydEL, I didn’t do anything wrong. I was off duty and Lieutenant SilAS offered to take me out on the shuttle.”
“Did he mate you?” Kyd asked angrily.
Mate? Oh like … sex. “No. I think he wanted to kiss me but….” Jaxon was interrupted as she was suddenly pulled hard up against a strong muscular chest. She was caught off guard when KydEL’s hard firm mouth covered hers. He claimed her with the brutal kiss.
He licked the seam of her lips and Jaxon was helpless as she opened for him. The moment their tongues connected, it was like an explosion of flavors and emotions. It wasn’t a gentle kiss, but, a harsh burning need to consume. The man knew how to kiss.
Large, strong hands gripped her bottom and lifted to press her body against his. Her back was pressed against the corridor wall and she felt his large arousal pressing into her pants covered crotch. More, she wanted more.
Beep … beep … beep.
The kiss ended as suddenly as it began. She was confused as she found herself leaning back against the wall while Kyd moved about 3 feet away. He hit his Comm link.
“Commander KydEL here. Keep him there until I come up. No. In six minutes.” Kyd ends the communications. He takes several deep breaths trying to get himself under control. What in Kitana is happening?
He looked over at Jaxon who was also breathing hard. One minute she was telling him the other male wanted to kiss her and the next he was practically mating her in the corridor where anyone could see them. The female was dangerous. He needed to put some distance between them.
“Captain, your team is scheduled for another assignment in the Medic Wing.” With that he storms away.
Her legs became rubbery and wouldn’t hold her up. Jaxon allowed herself to sink slowly to the floor. What the hell just happened? And how could he just leave her like that while she still wanted more? Man, this ship was too small for the two of them. She needed off and soon.
Chapter 4
Jaxon watched with her remaining team members as the transport ship approached the Katieran star system. There were 6 planets each with their own moon or Luna. Kappan the blue planet, Liskan the yellow planet, Ratran the red planet, Satrine the white planet, Traquana the orange planet, and Katiera the green planet. Their star system had 2 Suns, one large yellow one and one smaller red one. The transport ship’s destination was the green planet of Katiera.
“There are a lot of shuttles heading our way.” Second Lieutenant Daniels comments.
“Wow that is a lot of ships.” Lieutenant Lyons agrees.
“At least it will be a short flight to the planet. I’m ready to have my feet on solid ground again.” Jaxon says.
All of her team members were able to all travel down to the planet on the same shuttle. The closer they came to Katiera, the more they could distinguish other colors like reds and blues. Jaxon noted that there was an abundance of large green vegetation and over 60% of the planet was covered by emerald green water. It reminded her of the pictures she had seen of Earth’s rainforests before they were destroyed by pollution and the overpopulation problem.
The shuttles were directed to a landing field, which was as big as several football stadiums. Her team unloaded from the shuttle and was greeted by another tall, attractive Katieran man. He introduced himself as LenON and said that he would be their Liaison for the next week.
“Oh, there’s the Prime Leader and the Prime Commander!” A civilian in the next group over yells and points out. Everyone turns to watch the hottest guys in the universe walking towards a platform. The Prime Leader steps up to the center of the platform and faces the women from Earth. Oh good, speech time.
“Welcome human females to your new home on planet Katiera. We will be dividing you up in groups of 15. Each group will have a Katieran security liaison. Your liaison will take you directly to your new living quarters to allow you to settle in. Tomorrow you will meet with your liaison to take a tour of the surrounding area. The Katieran Nation looks forward to the mating of our two cultures. May the Goddess bless you with fruitfulness.” Prime Leader RendEL bows formally before he turns and walks off the platform.
Jaxon’s liaison was talking to her team but she wasn’t paying attention to him. She watched the Prime Leader join his brother the Commander. The Commander was hugging two tall beautiful Katieran women. Up until now, she had never seen any women from Katiera. They were as tall as supermodels with athletic builds, golden bronzed skin, and their dark eyes shone with gold irises.
They were drop dead gorgeous. She wondered which one of them was the Commander’s girlfriend. Jaxon felt jealousy eating at her from the inside out. She watched them walk off and felt bitterness rise up. How dare he kiss her on the transport ship like he did when he already had a woman waiting for him. Bastard!
Jaxon and her team are assigned to the 2nd floor of the Prime Building, which is the main building for the City of Katiera. It is sort of like their ‘capitol’ building or ‘white house’ since the prime family resides on the 8th floor. Their liaison says that there are 15 females assigned to each suite. The suites remind Jaxon of college dorms like the ones Cassie used to live in when she went to the local university.
When you entered the suite there was a long hallway. Off the long hallway were 5 large bedrooms, 3 on one side of the hallway and 2 on the other side. Each room had 3 standard sized beds. The rooms were extremely spacious. Each bedroom had a private bathroom. The hallway led into a large common living space with several large couches and lots of chairs. There was a kitchen area and 3 large dining tables. A balcony wrapped around the entire length of the suite. Nice.
Jaxon shared a room with Second Lieutenant Daniels and Lieutenant Taylor. Lieutenant Lyons volunteered to share a room with civilians so that the oth
er 3 team members could bunk together. Jaxon had mixed feelings about that, it could lead to another member of her team requesting a dismissal. She tried to put her worries aside as she unpacked her things. She wanted to spend some time on the balcony before they were called for another bogus assignment.
Jaxon felt her watch vibrate. Shit. She told her team members that she would be back in just a few minutes, she needed some fresh air. She walked out onto the long balcony and sighed. Secret Agent Jaxon was being buzzed to report in.
The great thing about being on the transport ship was that you could not send out or receive any messages from outside the firewall. Though Jaxon did take pictures with her special watch/digital camera and took down notes of things she observed, she couldn’t relay anything back to EWG Military headquarters.
Now that they were on Katiera, the messaging capability was restored. This meant that her mission to collect Intel on the alien technology was back on schedule. Fan-freaking-tastic!
Jaxon didn’t have much to report, the Katierans kept them busy on the transport ship. She took her watch and opened a latch that provided a small keyboard. She typed that they had just arrived and that the few pictures she took would be downloaded and sent to them. She really hated this part of her mission. She walked back into the suite and continued to unpack her things.
KydEL and RendEL left the human females with their liaisons on the landing field and followed the rest of their family back to the Prime Building. Kyd’s mother SandELa and their female cousin AriELa prepared a special welcome home Evening Meal for them.
“What was Earth like?” AriELa asked. Her dark eyes shone with interest.
Ren responds, “The planet itself is in bad shape. We’re going to have to relocate most of the inhabitants before our scientists can begin making repairs. Their people are very enthusiastic.”
“Medic JadEN reports that Earth’s Ozone is almost completely gone.” Their younger brother Prime Medic SydEL says.
Both Kyd and Ren nod their heads. Kyd adds, “You can smell the difference in their breathing air.”
“Was I mistaken? I thought I caught sight of a breeding female?” SandELa asked.
Ren sat up straighter. “The female was being hunted because she was breeding without the approval of EWG. She was scared, undernourished, and desperate to keep her young. I couldn’t turn my back on her.”
“Of course not son. What is the female’s name?” His mother smiles reassuringly to him.
“Her name is Cassandra Tomlin. She calls herself Cassie.” Ren hears Kyd chuckling beside him. He turns to glare at him.
SandELa turned her attention to her eldest son Kyd. “I also saw females in uniforms. What was that about?”
Kyd explained about the military exchange that the EWG insisted on sending.
“Female warriors? It has been a long time since we have seen any, how interesting.” SandELa said.
“There didn’t seem to be very many of them” AriELa observed.
Kyd shifted in his seat. “While on the transport ship, some of the females requested a dismissal from their military duties so that they could continue on as civilians.”
“Why would they do that?” SandELa asked.
Kyd shrugged. “They realized that the warrior lifestyle was a little too hard for a female.”
Ren added, “Yes and Kyd helped them come to that realization.”
Both women stared at Kyd suspiciously. “What did you do?” SandELa asked.
Kyd gave Ren a look that said there would be retribution for this. “I gave assignments like I would do for any of my warriors.” He defended himself.
His younger brother SydEL asked, “What kind of assignments?”
“On their first day they were assigned to clean the floors of the anti-gravity chamber.” Kyd stated. He was hoping to leave out the rest of the details.
Ren couldn’t help himself, he had to bust his brother. “Yes, while the anti-gravity chamber was mysteriously turned on to maximum level.”
Syd bursts out with laughter, almost choking on his Katieran Juice. Ren chuckles too. Kyd glares daggers at both brothers.
“You did what?” SandELa and AriELa were absolutely livid.
For the next few days the assigned liaison took Jaxon’s team on a tour of the Prime City of Katiera. All the buildings were white. They were made out of some kind of clay/brick material. People either walked the streets or rode in golf cart looking vehicles that hovered over the ground. Everything was solar powered. With Katiera’s two suns, they would never run out of power.
The other positive aspect to having two suns was the weather. It was always warm. The temperature never got below 75 degrees on Katiera. The air, water, and land were free of pollution. No one swam in the Waters of Katiera because that would contaminate their natural resource.
There were little family owned shops throughout the city. You could easily walk to everything. They had a non-monetary system. Almost like a barter or gift system. If you found something that you wanted, you would exchange something you had. The human women were advised to bring spices with them before traveling to Katiera. If you didn’t have anything to barter or exchange, you could get it on credit.
The women of wore beautiful dresses and outfits that resembled togas. The men’s clothes were simple pants and tops that hooped liked kimonos. The clothing was made out of natural fibers. All the women had long hair. The men wore theirs in different lengths. Women did not wear makeup. Everything was natural here.
The Katieran people were very friendly. The men seemed to appreciate women of all shapes and sizes. For the first time, Jaxon actually felt desirable. She noticed though that there were very few Katieran women. It was apparent now why all of the applicants that had been accepted were single women. She also noted that there were very few children. She suspected that there was more to the story but she would have to dig further to find what that was.
The Prime Commander kept his distance from her. She thought she would be relieved but she was sad about it. She was surrounded by her team members but she felt lonelier than ever. Cassie was somewhere in the same building but on a separate floor. They used the IHM feature on their digital tablet to talk to each other. Yep, Jaxon had snagged herself another one before leaving the transport ship.
So far, she hadn’t had any more of her team members drop out. She had been worried for a while that she would be left as an army of one. The assignments improved a little. She wasn’t sure why, but was grateful to have a small reprieve.
Jaxon was trying to hurry up and complete their latest assignment so that she could get back to the Medic Wing and check on Cassie. Cassie had collapsed earlier that day with a problem with her pregnancy. Turned out, Cassie was pregnant with twins. Only one twin was receiving the nutrients needed while the other twin was struggling. The struggling baby went into some kind of arrest. They were recovering in the Medic Wing, but it scared the shit out of Jaxon.
She was taken off guard when her Comm link beeped. Would she ever get used to this thing? She tapped it, “Captain Malone here.”
“Captain Malone, a lieutenant is on his way to escort you to your new living quarters. Pack your belongings and someone else will bring them later.” The Second Commander informs her.
“What? Why am I being moved?” Maybe this was a new attempt at trying to separate her from her team in a play to get the rest of them to request dismissal.
“Your presence was requested by the Prime Leader.” He said frustrated that his command was not being followed immediately.
“The Prime Leader wants me to move in with him?” Jaxon is very confused. She barely knows the guy. And doesn’t he have a thing for Cassie?
“Of course not! You will be moving to the 8th floor and staying in the suite with the breeding female. She will be heading there as soon as she is released from the Medic Wing.” He explains.
An hour later Jaxon had 2 lieutenants arrive at her suite. She had just finished packing her things. She fo
llowed the lieutenants to the blue elevator where security shot her with a clearance tag under her palm. Whatever happened to ID badges?
The lieutenants led her to a suite on the 8th floor which was the Prime floor, reserved for the Prime family. Talk about elegant; the suite was even larger than the one that housed the women from Earth. And the decor was a lot more decadent. Wow, Prime Leader did all this for Cassie? Maybe he wasn’t a jerk like his brother.
The two Katieran women she saw when they first landed on the planet were walking towards her. She noticed that both women were tall and gorgeous. One was slightly older with chestnut hair and attractive silver streaks. She had kind brown eyes. The older woman greeted her first.
“Hello. I am Prima SandELa. We are welcoming you to your new quarters.” The Katieran people normally greet one another by clasping forearms. But SandELa hugs her instead. She then introduces the younger woman. “This is my niece Prima AriELa.”
“It is good to meet you.” The young woman says, also hugging Jaxon. She is gorgeous. Her hair is jet black and falls straight down to her waist. She has the darkest, deep blue eyes Jaxon has ever seen. Both women have the gold centers to their eyes which are common for Katierans.
Jaxon wondered which one was the Commander’s girlfriend. It was kind of hard to dislike them when they were being so nice. She was startled when Prime Leader RendEL walked out of one of the bedrooms.
“Good day to you Captain Malone. I am grateful that you have agreed to move in with Cassie. It gives me peace of mind knowing she has friends close to her.” RendEL clasps forearms with Jaxon.
“Have you been introduced to my mother and cousin yet?” He points to the two Katieran women.
Mother? Cousin? So they weren’t … Didn’t matter, she wasn’t interested. “Yes, we made the introductions.” Jaxon responded. “You said, friends?”
“Dr. Morris is moving in as well. She gets along well with Cassie and she is a medic. She will be coming up with Cassie. This reminds me, I need to go meet them.” RendEL kisses his mother before he heads off.
