Alien Games (18 page)
Authors: Claudia Rose
“There is nothing I can do. We have no other defense. Your
arrogance has doomed us and denied our race its chance of survival. I must
contact the Homeworld and try to inform the Council. Without the Terran female
all is lost.”
Psi276 turned to the communication board. Alpha19 searched
desperately for a weapon of some sort. But nothing was at hand.
Then a great thumping began on the door. With each blow the
metal bent and buckled until, with one thunderous crash, it burst open to
reveal Mort and Zhorta, roaring with rage and towering to their full heights.
The Reven had no defense. One blow from Mort decapitated
Alpha19, splattering its skull and contents across the bridge’s viewing window.
Without its head the Reven’s body collapsed to the floor in a quivering
clattering heap, the wound where its head had been leaking slimy gray pus.
One second later Zhorta reached Psi276 and ripped the
creature limb from limb even as it was attempting to communicate with the
Homeworld.
The others crowded in behind the fearsome Gorts.
Fritti and Mmerr were screeching with joy, but Bruce and
Jenna both felt ill as they looked at the mangled remains of the Reven
splattered around the bridge.
Ghanjihi and Ranisha, ignoring their dead foes entirely,
rushed to the controls of the ship and expertly spun it around to race back the
way they had come.
“We must fly swiftly,” explained Ghanjihi. “The Reven have
much larger craft, and they will be after us very quickly. There may well be a
cruiser or two in the area also. I won’t be happy until we are back within the
defensive shield of the Vedian system.”
Epilogue
There had been no sign of pursuit, and all attempts by the
Reven Homeworld to contact the ship were ignored.
Bruce and Jenna quickly settled into a comfortable rhythm of
shipboard life. Ghanjihi was teaching them the principles of space flight and
Ranisha had been giving them instruction in advanced tantric meditation.
They also spent much time enjoying the company of the
others. According to Mmerr, Jenna was becoming an expert at zero gravity
acrobatics.
But the greatest gift was the hours they had to spend in
each other’s company. Between themselves they had taken to referring to the
space voyage as their honeymoon. They were enjoying a growing physical intimacy
and reveling in every opportunity to be together. They were deeply in love.
Naturally they had talked seriously about what they would do
now. Would it be possible to return to Earth and their normal lives after
everything that had happened? Did they even want to?
Their deliberations were thrown into much sharper
perspective a few days later when they were alone on the bridge with Ghanjihi
and Ranisha having a navigation lesson. The Vedi were pointing out to them a
distant star-cluster that contained the Vedian system.
“Perhaps I will get to see your world after all, Ranisha,”
remarked Jenna.
It was Ghanjihi who answered, and he spoke with greater
earnestness than they had ever heard from him.
“I hope that you both get to see our world. In fact I
entreat you to return there with us. I owe you too much to force you to do so,
but I also owe you a fair assessment of the current situation.”
Bruce and Jenna listened as if their lives depended on it.
“Every Reven in the universe will be looking for you.
Alpha19 told me that you, Jenna, had proved to be the key to completing their
DNA sequencing. In addition, the record of Psi276’s final transmission shows
that he had enough time to tell them that in your sexual union you were able to
damage the controller chips. Such information is priceless, and they will now
be desperate to obtain you both.”
Bruce and Jenna looked at each other with alarm. Clearly
this thing was by no means over.
“If you return with us to Vedia, you may be able to help us
find a weapon that is effective against Reven technology. And we may also be
able to offer you better protection than you will have on Terra.”
“And I may also be able to continue with your training,”
added Ranisha. “Also, I would like to show you my world. It is a place of much
beauty.”
“Think it over,” Ghanjihi urged them. “The fate of the
universe rests heavily upon you.”
Jenna looked up at Bruce. Already they had arrived at a
place where each was learning to know the other’s mind and so he simply
returned her gaze and nodded.
“There is nothing to talk over,” said Jenna, speaking for
them both. “Bruce and I have never avoided a contest, and there is more at
stake here than in a lifetime of triathlons. You have opened our eyes to the
beauty, power and importance of sexual love, but we know there is much more we
need to learn. So take us to your world, Premlord Ghanjihi, teach us your
secrets, and show us what we can do to help.”
* * * * *
Three Months Later
An exclusive apartment in the palace of Premlord Ghanjihi…
Jenna awoke with a sense of anticipation. Today was the day
that she and Bruce were to be admitted to the ranks of Vedi adepts.
Her mind whirled as she thought of everything that had
happened in the short time since they had escaped the Reven. The training
Ranisha had been giving both she and Bruce had proceeded quickly, and when they
weren’t learning the mysteries of the Vedian Tantra, they were busy with
Ghanjihi and others in the development of plans to defeat their enemy.
There had also been memorable times with the wonderful
friends they had made. Fritti, Mmerr, Mort and Zhorta had all remained on
Vedia, evidently as reluctant as she and Bruce to break up their fellowship.
The one downside was that with everything else going on she
never spent quite as much time alone with Bruce as she’d have liked. Jenna
smiled lovingly at the handsome man sleeping soundly next to her in the huge
bed that was the centerpiece of their palace apartment.
If I were alone with
him twenty-four hours a day it wouldn’t be enough time
she admitted to
herself.
I never imagined love could be this good
.
Sometimes Earth, and her life as a triathlete, seemed a
distant memory. But thinking of Earth reminded Jenna of the only shadow that still
remained in her life.
Katie, my poor dear sister, where are you now? Oh
Katie, I hope you are all right. Perhaps one day I’ll see you again
.
But before she could slip into gloom, Jenna reminded herself
of one of the Tantra’s key tenets—
I will commit the things I cannot change
to the future, and prepare for the future by living fully in the now
. The
thought made her feel much better and, deciding that Bruce had slept long
enough, she turned her attention to waking him by tickling his nose with her
left nipple.
The same time, in a rundown part of New York City…
The lift was out of order again, so the quiet, dumpy young
woman labored up the five flights of steps to her tiny apartment. New York
might be the greatest city on earth, but her corner of it was small and
uninspiring.
Her home, when she finally entered, looked as if no one
lived in it. There was a minimum of furniture and no sign of any attempt to
decorate or beautify the place. She sat down heavily at the small bare table
with her dinner (a bag of donuts) and opened the paper. The headline gave her a
shock—”Jenna Walsh and Bruce Glenn Officially Dead.” It had been so long since
the disappearance had been front-page news that she’d stopped trying to avoid
hearing about it. She could feel tears welling in her eyes and an awful
tightness in her chest.
So now it’s official, I am totally alone
.
Then a strange rasping voice spoke directly behind her.
“Katie Walsh?”
She screamed and jerked around, but what she saw struck her
dumb with terror.
A dark blue man with four arms was in the room with her. His
face was plump and autocratic, his jet black eyes were cruel, and he was
immensely obese.
Katie fainted.
“This must be her. Bring her with us and let us leave this
dung heap of a planet.”
“Yes, Lord Tirsa-Singh,” answered a second blue man who had
been standing in the shadows. He was a veritable giant whose his head all-but
touched the roof. Without another word he picked up the unconscious girl with
one hand as if she were a rag doll. Then he touched a stud on his belt and a
shimmering door opened in mid air. They stepped through it and disappeared.
About Claudia Rose
A native New Zealander, Claudia is an avid writer who has
been published in many fields and loves to hear from her readers. In addition
to writing erotic romances, Claudia also collaborates on horror novels and
screenplays (horror and romantic comedies) with fellow EC author Jaid Black.
Their joint pen name is Millar Black.
Claudia welcomes comments from readers. You can find her
website and email addresses on her
author bio page
at
www.ellorascave.com
.
Tell Us What You Think
We appreciate hearing reader opinions about our books. You
can email
the
author
directly or you can email us at
[email protected]
(when
contacting Customer Service, be sure to state the book title and author).
Also by
Claudia Rose
Ellora’s Cave Publishing
Alien Games
ISBN 9781843600411
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Alien Games Copyright © 2002 Claudia Rose
Cover design by Fiona Jayde
Photos: Mircex/Dreamstime.com, RomanceNovelCovers.com, Daz3d.com
and Melkor/Renderosity.com
Electronic book publication December 2002
The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of
Ellora’s Cave Publishing.
With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not
be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written
permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home
Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.
Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this
copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or
distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without
the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including
infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is
punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
(http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/). Please purchase only authorized electronic or print
editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of
copyrighted material. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons,
living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The
characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
The publisher and author(s) acknowledge the trademark status and
trademark ownership of all trademarks, service marks and word marks mentioned
in this book.
The publisher does not have any control over, and does not assume
any responsibility for, author or third-party websites or their content.
Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the
multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Be sure to visit EC on the web
at www.ellorascave.com to find erotic reading experiences that will leave you
breathless. You can also find our books at all the major e-tailers (Barnes
& Noble, Amazon Kindle, Sony, Kobo, Google, Apple iBookstore, All Romance
eBooks, and others).
