Rogue Sign

by Elin Wyn

  I wondered what a wedding would be like. Would my family be okay with something like that? Would Aryn?

  A wedding…one between Aryn and myself…would it be better to have it here, on board the Rogue Star? This is where we lived, where we met, and where…well. I loved her, I would marry her anywhere, if she would take me.

  As if the universe had been listening, my door chimed, signaling a visitor.

  I opened the door to see Aryn.

  “Hey,” she said, a smile on her lips. She held a bottle and a datapad.

  “I wanted to see if you wanted to watch some vids on my pad and chill?” she asked.

  “Excuse me?” I asked as I let her in.

  “It’s an old Earth custom,” Aryn explained. “It originated a few hundred years back. But nowadays at home we called it ‘Flix and Chill’,” she said as she made herself comfortable on my bed and patted the sheets next to her.

  I smiled.

  I would figure out all of this ‘home’ business later. I just knew that wherever Aryn was, I was home, as I joined her on my bed.

  Epilogue: Aryn

  Now that the Qasar Station was completely out of sight, I felt like I could breathe again.

  “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” The sound of Kovor’s voice instantly brought a smile to my face.

  “Didn’t expect to find me here, did you?” I stood in front of the massive window on the observation deck.

  “No,” Kovor admitted. “You never struck me as one to stare at the stars in solitude.”

  “This is the first time I’ve come up here on my own,” I replied.

  He stepped up next to me and I marveled at the way the light of the stars shimmered against his golden skin. In this light, he looked like he was made of stardust. I looked at my own pale hand. As crazy as it was, I almost missed my false silver skin. I’d liked the way it looked, just not the way the dye eventually itched.

  “What brought this on?” he asked.

  “I think it’s finally sinking in that my life will never be the way it was,” I explained. “I’ve always understood that the chances of returning to the Terran System were slim. It’s only now that I’m feeling it in full. Dominion space is my home now.”

  “Is that a bad thing?” Kovor asked.

  “It’d be nice if I wasn’t wanted by the Dominion,” I laughed. “But other than that, it’s not a bad thing at all. In fact, I think I’m more suited to Dominion space than I ever was to the Terran System.”

  “Naturally,” Kovor agreed. “There are hundreds of planets in Dominion space. I don’t know how you didn’t go stir crazy with only three habitable planets in Terran space.”

  “There was a time not too long ago that I thought three planets were a lot,” I reminded him.

  “Silly human,” he teased.

  I bumped his arm with my shoulder. “How many planets have you been to?”

  “Not many,” Kovor admitted. “Twenty-eight, I think. That’s not including stations and outposts.”

  “Oh, only twenty-eight?” I made an exaggerated disappointed face. “And here I thought you were some well-traveled nobleman.”

  “I’m so sorry to be a disappointment,” Kovor quipped.

  “Tell me about the planets you want to see most,” I urged him, mind racing with wonder at the thought of all there was to explore. “Maybe we can stop off at a few while we’re running from the law.”

  “I’ve always wanted to see Phixtrial,” Kovor answered quickly, without needed to think about it for even a moment. “Ever since I was a child, I’ve wanted to explore the ruins of whoever lived there before the Dominion arrived.”

  “Does anyone live there now?” I asked.

  “The ruins are on protected land. Nothing new can be built there. But a few species have inhabited the non-protected parts. I think they’ve built a school dedicated to learning about the ruins.” Kovor’s eyes lit up with excitement as he spoke. It was heart-meltingly charming.

  Like everything about him.

  “I’d like to see Mermian,” I offered. “I don’t know how I’d fare on a water planet, but after meeting those women, I’m fascinated.”

  “There are suits we can purchase that allow the wearer to walk underwater,” Kovor jumped in. “They’re pricey and hard to find, but we can figure it out.”

  “We?” I smiled.

  “You don’t think I’d let you go to Mermian without me?” Kovor exclaimed. “I want to see it just as much as you do.”

  “I don’t think Captain Dejar would appreciate it if you commandeered the Rogue Star so we can explore the galaxy,” I joked.

  “Aavat would tie me up and throw me in the cargo hold before he allowed that to happen,” Kovor laughed.

  “I’d actually like to see that,” I snorted.

  “Nice to know I can count on the love of my life to laugh at me when I get into a scrap,” Kovor replied.

  “Of course! What else am I good for?” I quipped. “If the roles were reversed, you’d be laughing just as hard.”

  “Very true,” Kovor chuckled. We stood in comfortable silence and watched the stars pass by.

  “Kalyn saw space whales up here once,” I commented.

  “She saw what?”

  “Space whales. I forget what you call them. Huge creatures that swim through the stars?” I prompted.

  “Celestriads,” Kovor supplemented. “Fascinating creatures. I’ve only seen them a handful of times in the Star Fields.”

  “Do any other creatures live out here in deep space?” I asked.

  “Oh, most certainly,” Kovor nodded. “The problem is, they’re difficult to find and even more difficult to study.”

  “Have you ever seen any?” I asked.

  “I thought I did. Once,” Kovor explained. “However, I was new to traveling in deep space and I’d had more than a few drinks that night.”

  “Tell me anyway.” I slid closer to him and he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I slid my own arm around his waist and hugged myself against his side, reveling in his touch, the ease and magic of it.

  I’d turned it into a game for myself. I liked seeing how long I could go without feeling the urge to wrap myself around him. The record was not more than a few minutes. I adored being close to him.

  He pressed a kiss into the top of my head before continuing with his story.

  “I was one of the few still awake,” he said. “To this day, I can’t tell you why I came up here. There’s something about being up here alone, with only the endless expanse of stars for company, that makes one feel small and vulnerable. I don’t care for either of those feelings, so I avoided this place when it was empty. Except for that night.”

  “I was sitting over in the corner there,” he gestured to the far side of the room, “right on the floor, too drunk to care. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something moving in the dark spaces between the stars. At first, I thought my inebriated state was making it impossible to see clearly. Then I realized that the creature was transparent! It was only visible when light reflected off it.”

  “That’s incredible!” I gasped.

  “It gets better,” Kovor grinned. “The thing, whatever it was, was at least three times the size of the ship. It drifted up to the Rogue Star and glided parallel to us. Its eye was the only solid part of the creature. Its eye took up the entire window.” Kovor made a sweeping gesture with his free arm.

  “What did you do?” I asked.

  “What could I do?” he laughed. “I just stared at it, mouth hanging open like a fool. I don’t know if it saw me. Thankfully, it decided the ship wasn’t worth attacking. It drifted away and disappeared.”

  “That sounds like a definite encounter to me,” I said. “Why do you think you only might have seen something.”

  “The next thing I remember is waking up in my own bed, fully clothed and terribly groggy,” Kovor chuckled. “I haven’t eliminated the possibility that I was imagining it in my inebriated state.” />
  “Well, I believe you saw something,” I said with certainty. “I want to see it, too.”

  “Do you?” Kovor smiled down at me. “How do you propose we do that?”

  “I think we need our own ship,” I grinned up at him. “It doesn’t need to be big. We can pilot it ourselves.”

  “You, me, and a fast little space cruiser sound ideal,” Kovor sighed wistfully.

  “We should scrap the Skimmer and replace it with a cruiser,” I suggested. “That way we won’t have to totally abandon the Rogue Star crew when we fancy an adventure.”

  “Clever idea,” Kovor nodded. “Being captain of a little runabout wouldn’t be too horrible, either.”

  I tipped my head back and laughed. “Cute that you think you’re going to be captain of our cruiser,” I giggled.

  “I’m going to be the one paying for it. I get to be captain,” Kovor insisted.

  “You’ll have to defeat me in honorable combat if you want to give the orders,” I shrugged. “Those are the rules.”

  “Can the combat take place in the bedroom?” Kovor winked.

  “That’s the only acceptable place.” I trailed my fingers up his arm. Kovor slid two fingers under my chin and tipped my face up so he could kiss me. My whole body tingled from his kiss.

  “We’ll do it someday,” Kovor said when he pulled away, “when we no longer have to worry about the Dominion, Enclave, or anything else. You and I will sail off between the stars and see the entire universe.”

  “There’ll never be a shortage of adventure,” I grinned.

  “Even if we never leave the Rogue Star again, being with you is all the adventure I could ever want.”

  Letter from Elin

  You knew there had to be more to Kovor, right? And Aryn was just the person to bring it out of him.

  Next up, the sweet, kind doctor of our crew. She’s going to go for someone nice and light, right?

  I don’t know if I can save Valtic from the darkness. But I’m damn well going to try.

  Every day I make a choice. Spread the light. Help where I can. Make sure my friends, my new family, are safe.

  But the darkness inside of Valtic calls me. I can see him fighting it with every breath.

  I want to, need to, help him.

  And not just as a doctor.

  His heated glances and fiery touch beckon me.

  I’ll follow and hope that whatever luck kept us all from dying on Persephone Station can help me keep him from giving in.

  Well… this should be fun :)

  XOXO,

  Elin

  P.S. After the sample of the next book, I’ve added the first chapter from Given, the first book of my Star Breed series, and Vrehx, the first of Conquered World.

  Give them a try and let me know what you think! You can always reach me at elin@elinwynbooks.com

  Rogue Warrior

  Lynna

  I missed duct tape.

  I tried not to let my frustration show as the bulb attachment belonging one of the Rogue Star’s pieces of medical equipment fell onto the floor for the third time that day.

  This time, the fragile bulb cracked.

  I picked it up and examined it. It should work just fine if I screwed it back in, however, I had nothing to stop it from falling out all over again.

  I’d recently learned how to use everything in the Rogue Star’s med bay, sometimes in crisis mode. Despite long hours with the auto-tutor, I didn’t know the technical names for all of the equipment, but even I could tell that everything was in dire need of replacement.

  It was a good thing I didn’t have any patients to tend to at the moment.

  The Rogue Star was en route back to Katzul. Unless someone was particularly stupid, I wasn’t going to be patching anyone up until we’d made port.

  Considering that we were wanted criminals and all, we’d been lucky in terms of injuries.

  Kayln’s leg wound had been bad, but the worst was Orrin when he was shot close range by a bounty hunter. If it weren’t for Zayn, the Rogue Star’s medic, I wouldn’t have known what to do.

  It still made me shudder.

  I didn’t think Zayn would like me when Captain Dejar asked me to take on some of the doctorly duties.

  Turns out, Zayn had no issue with letting me have free rein in the med bay. He came in every once in a while to check supply levels but, for the most part, he seemed to enjoy taking a break.

  It made me wonder what the Rogue Star crew got up to before myself and the other human women ended up here.

  “Lynna!” Kalyn burst into the med bay, startling me so I lost my grip on the bulb.

  This time it shattered. I pressed my lips together to hide my annoyance.

  “Sorry!” Kalyn gasped. “I shouldn’t have burst in like that!”

  “It’s okay,” I managed a smile. “It was already cracked. It was going to break sooner or later. Is everything all right?”

  “I need you to come with me.” Kalyn extended her hand, practically vibrating with excitement.

  “Why?” I swept up the shards of broken bulb and tossed them.

  “You’ll see!” She squealed. I’d never seen her so animated. Deciding to humor her, I took her hand as she pulled me out of the med bay and dragged me through the ship’s narrow corridors.

  “The mess hall?” I asked when we approached the double doors. “If you wanted to get lunch you could’ve just said so.” Kalyn didn’t say anything, she just grinned. She pushed both doors open with a flourish.

  The lights came on to reveal the other human women standing around a table. On the table was a white, square cake with Happy Birthday Lynna! written in sloppy red cursive.

  “Surprise!” Everyone exclaimed. “Happy birthday!”

  My hand flew to my chest and my eyes widened.

  “It’s not my birthday, is it?” I looked at Kalyn.

  “It is,” she confirmed. “I’m your Commander. It’s my job to know these things.”

  “I must’ve lost track of Terran Days,” I laughed. Now that we weren’t in Terran space, I found it difficult to stick to the old calendar.

  Kalyn held up her watch, which still reflected the Terran day and time. She was right, it was my birthday.

  “Thank you, everyone,” I said. “You really didn’t need to go to all this trouble.”

  “You would’ve done the same for us,” Kalyn nudged me gently.

  That was true. Back on the Persephone Station, I loved organizing things like this. It brightened up the monotonous day to day of life on the station.

  “Sorry there aren’t any candles on the cake,” Kalyn said. “I couldn’t find anything safe enough to light on fire, and we can’t waste the oxygen, anyway.”

  “Understandable,” I laughed.

  “Speaking of cake, let’s cut into this one,” Maris exclaimed. “I’m starving.”

  “It’s still not exactly the kind of cake we’re used to,” Shenna explained quickly. “Sars and I got it as close as we could, though. We’re getting better.”

  “If it’s anything like the stuff we made on Valentine’s Day, I’ll be happy,” Maris declared.

  “We have to wait for the others to get here,” Kalyn insisted.

  “Others?” I asked.

  “I invited Dejar and the rest of the crew. They’re family now, after all.” Kalyn shrugged.

  “Yes, they should be here,” I agreed, a tiny bit of amusement making me smile. If we’d stayed on Persephone Station, it wouldn’t be much of a family. And to think Kalyn of all people had been the first to…well, integrate so well with the Shein.

  “If they aren’t here soon, I’m calling for a free for all on the cake,” Aryn declared as she swiped some icing off the side of the cake with her finger.

  Shenna smacked her hand away, but Aryn triumphantly sucked the icing off her finger.

  “Are we late for the party?” Dejar said as he strode into the mess hall with Aavat and Orrin in tow. Other crew members filed in behind them
.

  Including someone I didn’t expect to see.

  Valtic, the head of ship security, stood in the doorway with his arms folded over his chest.

  I looked away quickly. My cheeks were warm because so many people were close by.

  That was it.

  Really.

  I liked to say that I considered everyone on the Rogue Star a friend, even the deck hands and cabin workers.

  Valtic, on the other hand, was still a mystery to me. I rarely saw him. I wasn’t sure where he spent his time. I was sure he had an office somewhere.

  To my embarrassment, I only learned his name just the other week. Since then, I decided to make an effort to get to know him but that was proving to be a difficult task.

  Especially since every time I saw him something in me fluttered.

  “Of course you’re not late!” Kalyn exclaimed. “There’s still cake!” The crew members stepped into the mess hall and helped themselves to pieces of cake cut by Shenna.

  Dejar lifted Kalyn, kissing her deeply before turning to me, one arm still wrapped around her waist.

  “I’m afraid I don’t understand the occasion,” he confessed. “Kalyn just said cake.”

  “Lynna was born thirty-one years ago today on the Terran calendar,” Kalyn explained. “Humans celebrate their birth annually with a gathering of friends, cake, and an exchange of gifts.”

  “Please tell me you didn’t get me anything,” I warned.

  “Okay. I won’t tell you,” Kalyn grinned shamelessly.

  She turned to Dejar. “Traditionally, the guests wish the birthday girl happy birthday,” she urged.

  “Happy birthday?” He said hesitantly.

  “Well done,” I grinned. “And thank you. Go help yourself to some cake.”

  “I’m supposed to be the hostess,” Kalyn chided. “You just focus on enjoying yourself.”

  “Done and done,” I replied.

  Kalyn and Dejar laced their fingers together and moved off toward the cake table. I took a moment to survey all of the wonderful friends I made. Contentment bloomed in my chest.