Alien Alliance Box Set

by Chris Turner

  Miko rounded on the colonel with force. “The girl stays with me, or I refuse this mission.”

  “Fine!” cried Lexia. “Zaul, see that it is done. We don’t have time to waste on minutiae.”

  “Permission to speak, Empress?” Jinquar said. Lexia nodded. “The idea smacks of madness. They are not gunners or special operatives.”

  “No matter. They are my talismans, Jinquar, good luck charms, as I have explained.”

  “You always were superstitious,” said Zaul, sighing in resignation. Though he looked secretly pleased that it would be the rebels who would be flying into the monster’s fangs.

  Lexia’s eyes glinted. “It has served me well before.”

  XI

  In the pleasure gardens of Lexia’s personal arboretum, Miko and Star found solace in each other. The battleship was not all metal and sterile corridors. The Jakru had a strong sense of the sybaritic. Earthy pleasures, sensuous luxury and self-indulgence, all were possible pursuits in these war bases away from home.

  Pools, hot baths, exotic bowers—such luxuries abounded. Tropical hedges lined the maze of walkways through a vast garden of flowers, herbacious shrubs, and towering palm trees. The air had a humid, lush feel to it, unlike the dry desert air to which Miko had become accustomed. Scented fumes and exotic fragrances from far planets tickled his nostrils—a jungle paradise indoors.

  Their love-making on the loamy grass had been intense, almost violent. Star brought out the violence in him, also the tenderness—and their simultaneous climaxes came in rich, convulsive ecstasy. They lay gasping, clutching each other’s sweaty bodies in mutual satiation.

  Artificial lights, similar to the orange sun of Chrysalis, sheltered by overhanging branches rich with plump orange agra fruit, shone warmly on their naked limbs.

  Star smoothed back her wine-dark hair. Around her neck lay the beaded necklace given to her by the outcasts, the obsidian dark against her pale skin. “Lexia suggested a herbal tincture of three drops in each nostril,” she murmured, running a slender finger across Miko’s bare thigh. “Erotic stimulant with vivalpus leaf from the forest planet Prataera. I no longer doubt its effectiveness. Though I like the experience, I don’t altogether trust the woman.”

  “Then the love we made was not worth it?” Miko asked light-heartedly.

  Star laughed, a mysterious husky laugh which Miko found most exhilarating.

  He ran his hungry eyes over her desirable contours. Her slender frame was padded in all the right places. Her slim hips, liveliness, quick temper, husky voice and sharp teasing were all part of the allure of Star, a temptress, a manipulator, and an inescapable beauty. No thought of Audra’s degenerate couplings arose to mar the blissful moment.

  They donned their fresh garments, rich earth tone leather, fine wool and linen, and strolled hand in hand through the bowers and pathways. Star stopped to caress the scented leafy fronds that angled out on the earthen path. Cleansed of her wounds and the deprivations on Demen II, she radiated a healthy glow.

  “You’re still hurt,” she said, stroking Miko’s chest wounds. “What are these from?”

  Miko shrugged. “Past battles.” He shuddered, reluctant to shed light on his disfigurations. The obscene symbiosis with Audra still caused him to flinch.

  Star seemed to sense Miko’s withdrawal, and jerked away in frustration. “You never tell me anything about yourself. Even those Jakru busybodies with all their intel-gathering couldn’t describe two words about you. It’s odd, if you ask me.”

  “I’m a ghost from the past, as the Empress says,” he murmured. “In more ways than you can imagine.”

  “Past? As in you’re running from something. Like the law?”

  “I’m not from this time.”

  She croaked out a laugh. “Right... And I’m the bionic woman. And hence the gills?”

  “That’s another story. That horror you saw...” He couldn’t bring his lips to finish the words.

  “What about it? Didn’t you call it Audra?”

  “I was part of a routine mission—there was a hardware failure, a piracy. It was a Zikri ambush. They pirated my ship, then I—became joined to that thing.”

  Star gaped. “You and that obscene waddling filth?”

  “It’s not what you think.”

  “What else could it be?”

  Hot shame rose in Miko but there came with it an ironic image of Star naked and whipped at the degrading hands of Beardly and Drek.

  Miko scowled and changed the subject. “These horrors—they’ve changed me, thrust me into a future universe. My atoms have been rearranged. I’ve sat, floated in the locust witch water. I’ve gone through their twisted transporters. Yet I feel as if I am destined for a greater purpose. I thought my mission was to return to my own time. Of that, I am now not so sure. I see a future where humans are wiped out, or enslaved by soul-sucking locusts or scavenging Zikri. Seeing their destruction, a part of me wants to run—far away from these horrors and filthy nightmares.”

  Star twitched. “Don’t you feel obligated to your people?”

  A raw anger surged in Miko’s heart. “For that I will fight! Though I have been timelost and thrust many centuries into the future. The world I once knew is gone.”

  She shook her head. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “It’s not important.” Miko looked away.

  From the anguish on her face, it was clear he was losing her. “You’re good-hearted—while a lot of men I know are not.” Her lips twisted in a moue of distasteful memories. “Skullrox is full of rednecks, and cruel masters.”

  “So it is in a lot of places.” He stared like a man in a trance. “Enough seriousness, Star. Let us enjoy the moment.” He pulled her close, feeling her warmth and a sudden stir of desire passed through his body. She responded with animal passion. How he had gone from Audra’s horror to this sensual being, he could not fathom. He’d enjoy the moment, while it lasted. Tomorrow was a new day, one where everything could be snatched away.

  Miko pulled her off the path through the shrubs to a clear patch. They lay down and made love again, drinking deep of the pleasures of the body, too long withheld.

  * * *

  While Star went to explore the green lushness around them, Miko tossed and turned in his sleep. Dreams plagued him, of long-tentacled Zikri, clacking locusts, ships exploding in fire, gasps and screams. He jerked awake in a sweat to a face with long curving horns, peering down at him in curiosity but not without a certain mischievous intention.

  “I think my elixirs and herbs have struck a goldmine,” the Empress said, gesturing to the wrinkled clothing in the grass.

  Miko stifled a cough. “Satisfactory enough.” He hastily reached to don his shirt and woollen breeches.

  She swept opened palms out to the greenery in an all-accompanying embrace. “We Jakru live in a world green beyond imagining, Miko, where all that we want is there in the manner of pleasures, any elixir or aromatic essence, or healing balm, you name it.”

  “It seems to have its advantages, Empress. Something like Earth once was.”

  Lexia acknowledged as much. “I trust you are well rested?”

  “Better than at Drek’s palace.”

  “Drek—” she croaked out the name “—may his diseased soul burn in hell.”

  “Where is your Colonel?” asked Miko, not without some irony.

  “Zaul is not here. He would not understand my interest in you.”

  “Star wouldn’t either—unfortunately.”

  She waved him off. “This has nothing to do with her.” Her mouth quirked in interest. “Who are you, spaceman? A pilot they tell me—or so Zaul says. A NAVO officer from the long line of Earth settlers and explorers, sent on exploration missions centuries ago. But you differ from any of them I knew. As if you appear from a different age, from a different world—yet you have slits on your throat, like a strange fish. I saw what you did back on the locust ship, rescuing me, zapping out of sight, saving people while takin
g or plucking lives as if they were numbers on a great roulette wheel. Your friends don’t know half the truth of your actual abilities.”

  “Usk knows. Fenli is getting wise. It’s a long story... But the Zikri, she has been stalking me.” His face turned sullen. A nameless foreboding gripped his heart and it thudded wildly in his chest. “I thought I had lost the menace. Then some kind of transporter mishap had us jumping from world to world, finally to the Mentera base. I don’t know what happened after that.”

  Lexia’s eyes flashed in understanding, then they glowed with intensity. “Damaged hypralight materializer. That might explain it. And yet, if you hadn’t landed there...and survived—”

  Miko shrugged.

  “I ask you again, who are you?” The Empress stared fiercely.

  “My name’s Miko Almstran, first lieutenant of NAVO command, as you already know.”

  “All well and good, but really, who are you?”

  A rustling came from the foliage. Zaul emerged, blundering through the yielding fronds. He cast a scowl of displeasure at Miko. “Your Excellency, new information has come in. Transmission from Xalnas. We need you at once on the bridge.”

  “Very well, Zaul, I will come.”

  The Colonel had taken his burnished helm off, perhaps disarmed by the soothing atmosphere of the botanical gardens. He was greying at the temples, his hair receding, with many worry lines about his face. He also had a pair of stubbed horns angling back at the temples. Male Jakru, as Miko discovered, had only tiny templar horns, making them look like devils.

  Zaul stared dumbly, his eyes fixed on the trampled-down grass.

  “You are dismissed.” Lexia spoke maybe more curtly than necessary.

  Zaul hesitated, then he pulled at his eagled helmet, as if seeing the Empress for the first time. But under her brisk gaze, he turned on his heel, ignoring Miko’s steel grey eyes, and marched off.

  Miko frowned. “He seems over-protective of you.”

  “Understatement of the year. Zaul is my most loyal subject. My father, who was Grand Emperor, entrusted him to be my guardian, to teach me and to monitor my progress. The Colonel has fanatically made me his prime objective since day one, as devoted to me as he was to our great leader. I can’t fault him. But it’s annoying having him hover over me like a mother hen.” Lexia grinned, a small laugh spilling from her lips. It was the first mirth Miko had witnessed. The Empress brushed back her thick golden tresses and caressed the great golden horns that curved down her back like a ram’s.

  Once more, Miko was struck with her regal bearing and felt a stirring of desire. She was not the same quivering wretch who had stumbled out of the tank in B & D’s surface car only days ago. He murmured and dropped his gaze. “You would not be here, if it weren’t for him. Nor would I.”

  Her eyes glinted. “Nor would he be here, if not for you.”

  The alpadacus fronds parted and another figure stepped out, startling Miko. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything?” said Star, wringing her wrists, her dark eyes flashing.

  “Nothing much,” said Lexia airily. “Miko was telling me all about his adventures.”

  “Was he? Odd. Miko never tells me anything. He’s very closemouthed around me. You must have the magic touch, Lexia.”

  Lexia chuckled, a tittery sound meant more to tease than comfort. “You just have to know what to ask. I will leave you to your leisures.” Amused by Star’s jealousy, she flashed a smile in Miko’s direction.

  Star watched the woman leave, the sway of her hips all too provocative. “What was she doing here?”

  “Well, it is her garden,” Miko pointed out. “Come on, let’s go, Star. I want to brief with Usk about gunning aboard the Doraxu. You should come along too, if you’re going to be part of our team—or should I say Wing Commander 2.”

  A grunt of appeasement struggled forth from Star’s lips. “Then let’s do it, Lieutenant.”

  * * *

  The launch bay was buzzing with mechanics and technicians tending their duties. Miko, crouching by a diagnostic station, examined the nearby L-Doraxu. Its long, tapered, lead-black fuselage and macabre grasshopper semblance gave him an eerie feeling of deja-vu. He stroked its sleek hull, noting its punctures had been repaired by technicians and its polished finish shone to look like a ship fresh from the locust fleet.

  Zaul strode over, acknowledged Miko with a perfunctory glance. “Here for the training sessions? We need competent gunners. I’ll have Laren fill in for you and you can act as auxiliary while the alien navigates. We’re going to need as many mock trials as possible before we reach the locust world.”

  Miko shook his head. “You should let me work with Usk, Colonel. He trusts me. I can man the lasers, and learn as fast as any of your men. Fenli, likewise, can get up to speed in the other vessel with the guns. That’s what we agreed upon, right?”

  Zaul’s lips curled in a frown. “Fine, but Laren goes aboard the Doraxu to oversee operations—and overstep you at any time, and I’ll be watching you with a fine eye.”

  Miko smirked knowingly. He did not like Zaul. The Colonel was too imperious and had a way of rubbing everyone the wrong way with his pompous nature. As fearless a commander as he was, he had rough edges that grated.

  “Where’s Fenli?” Zaul growled. “The lax dog. Training zone Alxar 1 will be reached in five minutes.” Sket and Berlast gathered with a Jakru officer for preliminary briefings and boarded the third locust vessel.

  Miko turned away. “Usk, we’ll need the language translator.”

  The locust’s one and only antenna drooped as he gave Miko a forlorn look. There existed between them almost a psychic link of silent understanding. Usk stirred and scratched at his side. His scored carapace was riddled with ridges and cuts, cracked diagonally from throat to ribs. The locust liquid had not been totally effective. The Mentera limped, hind legs clacking on the metal tiles, but his red eyes glared with a fierce light.

  Engineers hovered about the locust crafts like ants, scurrying with welding tools and diagnostic machines to apply the final tweaks. Vessels were drilled and outfitted with secure radio and holo transcommunications and heavy artillery was concealed in the hull to inflict maximum damage. Technicians made themselves busy installing heavy duty shields with extra power sources to double their capacities. All but Usk’s ship had been cleansed of its feeding tanks. Extra space suits had been installed in exit vehicles, escape pods too. Not that any of those safeguards would make much difference out in the cold gulfs of space in this remote sector.

  Miko felt a sudden jolt as the Kestrel and the rest of the Jakru fleet came out of light drive before an asteroid field some 200 million miles from the star Gerix. The viewport showed swarms of irregular chunks of rock floating in space, stretching as far as the eye could see, some the size of battleships.

  “This should make an effective training ground,” remarked Zaul. Deral strode in lock step beside him.

  A section of the field was denser than most asteroid belts, making it an ideal obstacle course in which to run a vigorous mock-combat training.

  Dangerous too. Collisions could render a ship a raging inferno, if its shields were not operating at 100%.

  Zaul spoke to the gathered crew in solemn tones. “Mock lasers shall run the gamut, at 1% of their force. Normal shields will catch incoming rays, render them harmless. Under no circumstances are you to drop shields. I repeat. Do not drop shields! That should be self evident—Fenli, glad that you could drop in. Over to you—”

  Miko marvelled at these mechanical instruments, machines of translight capability. Ships that had conquered time and could compress ten light years into a few hours, thus bypassing a staggering journey across the endless gulfs of space from world to world. Time distortion fields, disrupters... it was a technology beyond Miko, one that had flung him into the future.

  “Well, gentlemen, your move,” said Zaul, interrupting Miko’s reverie. He swept an arm out somewhat sardonically. “My men will keep you busy, if not
sufficiently entertained.” All the pilots and crew piled into their respective ships: Miko, Usk, Star and Laren in Eagle 1; Sket, Berlast, Bruus and Nayon in Eagle 2. Fenli and two of Zaul’s men, Vembrod and Varon, took up the third, Eagle 3, while Zaul’s men commanded the latter two Doraxu craft, having refused Usk’s helpful attempts to instruct them after the introductory briefing. Ten Jakru lightfighters went out to harry the Doraxu and batter them royally.

  One by one, the fifteen ships burst into space, while Zaul stayed back on the command bridge to monitor and assess their performances. Lexia prowled at his shoulder. She scrutinized the manoeuvres with a hawkeye, noting every nuance of what went on.

  The asteroids lay strewn like a vast graveyard: of grey, misshapen chunks. Dark shadows draped their mottled faces, revealing them in all their grotesque deformities.

  Usk swooped like an eagle up and over a line of rotating boulders with practiced ease, dodging the Jakru lightfighters that gave fire. Miko clutched his gun controls, watching the giant, rolling stones of death and the lightfighters, friend or foe, through his weapons’ attack viewscreen.

  Usk had shown him the basic movements: up, down, long fire, short burst, cannon yaw and tilt, much of which he had assimilated in the last dog fight against the locust bots. He kept his eyes glued on the virtual screen which highlighted targets and showed blinking lights to warn of approaching enemies.

  Though his movements were initially jerky and the controls overly sensitive, Miko’s military ops training kicked in, and he opened fire and pegged one of the Doraxus piloted by Zaul’s men.

  Around the asteroids Usk flew and climbed, using the chunks as cover to hide behind, successively avoiding Zaul’s men’s fire. Fenli whooped through the com and his pilot Vembrod followed their stern wake with delight.

  Lightfighters and Doraxus screamed past rocks, in and out, harrying each other like raiding wasps.

  Usk rounded in figure eights, giving Miko scope to target Zauls’s elusive lightfighters, clearly a master of his craft. Miko cried out in triumph, opening practice fire on any targets he could lock onto. The ship rolled and spun dizzily.