Defying The Alliance: INFERNO (Novokin Alliance Invasion 2) (3 page)

This is one helluva shit storm you've gotten yourself into Caspia.

I crashed down on my unmade bed and stared hard at the ceiling. I know they're willing to follow me anywhere. A warm feeling infused my wounded heart thinking of my crew’s loyalty. I can’t let them down and yet I couldn’t help but ask myself.
Did we even have a chance?

Since the day the United Worlds Protectorate surrendered to the Novokin Alliance, I hadn't been able to get comfortable on my mattress. Rolling onto my side, I confronted the stark image of a captain who looked much older today. Dark circles had taken up permanent residence around her eyes, proof she never managed to get enough sleep. Faint lines of constant worry etched their edges.

"Who are you kidding?" I said to the distressed brunette in the mirror. "It's one thing to hide, but the risk you'll be taking… you could take everyone down with you."

On a small bureau in front of the mirror were two framed photos my father had given me when I took captaincy of the razor. A beautiful woman with brown hair and brown eyes same as mine albeit a shade darker smiled back at me. A smile that seemed to elude me now. My father's arms encircled the woman’s shoulders. They existed together in a state of perpetual laughter. I wished I was with them at that moment sharing in their joy and happiness. Even if only for a moment. 

Neither of them were still alive. My heart welled up. She died young, a transport accident. I didn't remember her all that well, but my father said I was just like her. Determined, headstrong and an overachiever. Sometimes I closed my eyes and tried to bring back the fading memory of her gentle caress. The smell of cinnamon and Gelarpian roses. That’s all I could remember about her, aside from the stories my father told me. Her absence never troubled me though, because I had him.

He was always there for me, more than making up for my mother’s absence. He attended every piano recital, footsball practice and every kina-judo match. My sister and I always came first in his life and he showed us just how much every single day.

I missed him so much.

He was on the home world when the purple sheeteks struck. He was cross-teaching both quantum dynamics and philosophy at Kalsin University in the capital city on New Astoria. His was one of the first names the Novokin Alliance released as a freedom fighter and later martyr for the Novokin Alliance Independence Day. Bile rose in my throat.

My father was a man of peace but he would have fought those purple bastards with pencil sticks and prose to the death to defend the Protectorate. Angry tears threatened my eyes and I yelled at the happy couple in the frame. "These sheeteks desecrated your memory dad, and aren't worth your compassion. They usurped your good name and status for their own praking propaganda campaign. They're doing it again. I don’t care about me, but they dragged my crew into this. They've turned the people I swore to protect into criminals, and set the entire galaxy against us. There's nowhere to run. There is nowhere for me to go. I just wish you were here dad. I wish you were here…” I mumbled like a praking ten year old girl.

I hurled the data pad in my hand at the mirror, forgetting that it wasn't glass. It ricocheted off and crashed into the second frame. My arms flailed wild in the air trying to catch the frame as it flew off the bureau. It hit the ground with an audible crack.

On my knees, I carefully scooped up the fragile frame praying I hadn't destroyed the picture inside. The glass had broken but the picture inside was still intact. Involuntary laughter escaped my lips every time I looked at the photo. My sister always seemed to have a permanent scowl on her face. I used to tease her about it, swearing to her that her face would eventually freeze that way if she kept it up. This picture of her and I on my graduation day from the Academy was the only image I had left of her.

I brushed the pieces of glass into a corner, the best I could do without leaving my room and calling somebody in to take care of it. Not that there was anyone to take care of anything these days. Being captain had lost most of its privileges. I put the frame photo back in its place, next to my parents, and plunked back down on the bed.

She would've been on the home world too at the time, but plasma bombs rarely left behind bodies to bury. Tightening my hand to keep it from shaking, I fought hard to hold back the scream I knew was building in my chest.

So many dear and close to me were gone. I couldn’t bare to lose any more. I threw my palms to my face trying to escape the pain in my heart. A pain I realized I shared with one other. His pain was worse. Much worse. He not only lost his family and his friends but his whole planet to the Novokins. Four trillion of his people died in a matter of minutes. The pain in his furious, green eyes mirrored my own. The same way his smoldering gaze seemed to always see through me. A deep connection seemed to have sprouted between us. Was this a bond simply built over our shared hatred of a common enemy, the Novokins? Or maybe something more. Not quite sure.

My rage slowly seeped out like air from a leaky balloon, turning into something else as that big golden hunk alien thrust himself into my thoughts. It’d gotten a tad hot and heavy between the two of us in the training room, and I’d surprised myself at the length at which I let the hate go. Mmmm... Maybe it was exactly because of its length. I've never felt anyone so… so excited before.
Caspia, shame on you!

Lying on the bed I knew thinking about a member of my crew like this was inappropriate. Especially now when we relied so much on each other to just survive. Major violation. Yet I couldn’t help myself. It’s been so long since my body reacted to a male and never before like this.

I slid my hand down between my thighs and could almost feel him pressed up against me, grinding up and down. The soft flesh of my lonely crease was warm and already wet. Imagining his hardness rubbing against my entrance as I caressed myself sent waves of wicked tingles through me. I slid my hand up through my shirt. Lifting my bras off, I let free one of my soft breasts. I cupped its roundness while gently fondling it and imagined his calloused hands around it instead. I moaned lightly as heat and arousal took over my body. Then my mind strayed...I should stop this right now. My mind waited for my body to obey its command. Yet my hands kept squeezing and stroking.

I couldn't have a relationship, it just wasn't in the cards for me. I needed to remain focused – I focused on when his wicked lips nipped and pulled at mine – focused on the crew, and the well-being of the ship. I needed to keep my head and look toward the future, toward survival – toward his deep hazel eyes, let myself be drawn into the want and need that I sensed so strongly in them.

With small rhythmic thrusts of my fingers, I matched the rhythm Trex's length had made against me in the training room. I pictured losing myself in his hair, engulfed in the scent of summer and apples, then his lips licking and nipping at the nape of my neck.

My left hand slid along his hard muscular thigh, as my right held onto the back of his well toned ass while his large palm kneaded mercilessly my breast. My nipple, now hypersensitive, pleaded for release poking at my tight white t-shirt.

I knew I should stop, but something more than my lower half reached out to him. Something that had never, reached out to anyone in that way. I rubbed harder, and faster, remembering his hungry mouth on mine. Our tongues twisting and teasing and foretelling.

That big golden hunky alien was on me, around me and I needed him inside me. The more I worked my hand, the more vivid the image became of him unveiling what I knew would be a long, massive, throbbing–.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

"Argghh! I'm comming!" I snorted at the comm signal like a Talailian buffalo facing down a red eared wolf. If I was up to facing another lecture from Anya, I would've gladly broken the damn buzzer. Again.

Out of breath and wrenching the last damnable zipper back into place I stood in front of the hatchway to the bridge. Pushing my hair back I hoped the worse they would think was that their captain was just getting some shut eye in the middle of the day. I pressed my hand to the entry panel and the doors hissed open.

Everyone was busy working on their assigned task, except for Trex. He had the audacity to take a deep sniff at the air then crack a sidelong lip curl at me. He went on to nod like he was giving me a seal of approval or something. My cheeks blared hot. Praking thermostat must’ve been broken. It felt like sauna on the bridge. Yeah, that's what I'm going with, a broken thermo.

Keeping my walk tight and as asexual as I could make it, I made my way to the captain’s chair. Once seated, I turned to my first officer. "Hit me with it Jaxx."

His gaze directed up at the view screen, his fingers dancing over the consul. "I think we found a target Captain."

"Will this target that you found cause the same stir as last time Commander?" I held to a formal tone.

"I believe so Captain." The large green pregnant man deadpanned.

"Good."

Jaxx slid into tour guide mode. I felt like I was eight years old and back on New Astoria, touring the Highlands Natural History Museum. "What you’re looking at is a small mining colony on a habitable asteroid near the outer rim. They recently suffered an outbreak of a rare parasitic xenovirus. It causes something called Rendalt fever that is very contagious and very lethal." 

My eyebrows jumped up and hit my hairline.

A knowing smile split Jaxx's face. "And very curable. No one has died from this in centuries. A simple injection of Gilardian Lithrosnake antivenom will take care of it, at any stage in the illness."

Whew!
"So tell me why is this something we should focus on, if it's so easily handled?" What the heck would they need us for, if it was such an easy fix? I mean even the Alliance couldn't refuse them med supplies for this.

His face when rigid. "Because Captain, the Alliance is refusing them med supplies for the outbreak."

Holy skeck.
“Of course, it’s an unimportant little colony on the outer rim nobody cares about. Its Dymatherlorium ore is quite common so the colony itself has little monetary value.”

"They don't want to spend the effort. They'll just replace the colonists," Julie chimed in.

"Exactly." I missed Trex coming to stand by my side. I was both annoyed and comforted by his proximity. Plus he smelled divine. I absently lifted a finger to my mouth for a drool check, when he let a hand drift over and gently brushed against my shoulder. Even through my uniform his caress was electric. I shook it off.
Focus Caspia.

"So the next logical question is where can we get enough of this antivenom for the colonists?" Taking the opportunity the moment provided I pushed to my feet and made my way towards my first officer. I made sure to sashay past Trex allowing my posterior to give a first rate performance. I reached the commander’s console before reigning it in.
Had I just done that?
Sheepishly, I peered around. No one else seemed to have witnessed the show my ass had just starred in. No one but the big golden alien with his head buried in his console, sporting a big, goofy grin.

Jaxx was furiously typing into a screen. "Captain, I thought you'd never ask. There's a Novokin regeneration hospital about two parsecs from here." He pointed to the blue circle on the view screen, nearly smack in the middle of the flight path he laid out between our current position and the mining colony. "And if you believe in coincidences, it happens to be right in route to the mining colony.”

I slapped my good friend on the back. "That's not the only coincidence Commander. I think it's time for my annual checkup."

Anya worked her magic once again. She forged Razor’s signature to match exactly that of a standard Novokin transport ship. We landed undetected and strolled through the Novokin regeneration hospital with ease. Except for the usual disinfectant smell that plagued most hospitals, the trip so far had been wholly uneventful. So peaceful it reminded me of lazy summer afternoon walks to watch the geese with my father around Lake Freedom in the capital city. Assuming every tenth or so goose was brandishing a plasma rifle.

Every once in a while a pesky Novokin Imperial guard poked his ugly purple head out. Only to have his hat size reduced. Permanently. But we made sure no hospital staff or patients were ever at risk of being caught in the crossfire. No matter how pathetic those so-called 'patients' might have been.

A door in front of us swung open emitting a rotund balding man in med garb. Darkened blotches crowned his purple head. He decided his position gave him the authority to bark us into submission. "Stop this at once! Guards! Guards! This is a place of healing! This is a hospital – how dare you!"

I've had enough of the charade he called a hospital. With an openhanded strike to his gelatinous midsection, I knocked the breath out of him. A moment of fear that he might be pregnant streaked through my mind, but I pushed it down.
Wow
,
this whole impending godparent thing was messing with my head.
I caught myself looking at baby clothes on the inter-web last night. Like we could afford new clothes. My first officer was lucky he wasn't barefoot and pregnant as it was.

Grabbing the collar of the pseudo-medical man I pulled him toward me. I used his weight to execute a modified hip throw, slamming the rotund man into the wall. I kept a firm grip on his collar as I got close enough to smell the remnants of the liver sandwich he had for lunch. "Really Doc? Then where are the praking sick people? Where are the injured people? And it's funny, because all I see here are Novokins, and they don't look sick. I don't see any broken bones, or lacerations or even scars. Because this isn't exactly a hospital, is it? It's a rejuvenation center. Isn’t that right, dear Doctor? This is where you re-inject life essences you stole from your victims, to give yourselves and your rich Novokin clients that youthful look. Isn't it? Why doctor, if you can even be called that, how old are you? Really?"

He coughed and sputtered, still gasping for air from the initial attack. Everyone knew the stories of the regeneration facilities. Non-Novokins went in, but only Novokins ever came out. His eyes boiled over with a poisonous hate. "I'll make sure you're executed for this."

Wow, was this guy going for sheetek of the year? Or was he just that stupid?

He tried to lurch forward, but I sidestepped his attempt. I used his own momentum to throw him away from me and into Trex's waiting hands. A small electrical jolt delivered from his golden hotness left the man quivering on the floor. If my nose wasn't deceiving me, the so-called doctor's bowels seemed to have given way during the shock. At that precise moment a nurse came through the same door, oblivious to the situation unfolding right in front of her. Brandishing the biggest and cheesiest grin I could muster, I gave her a gentle touch on the arm.

"Excuse me ma'am, where is the actual hospital?"

Slipping her hands into her uniform’s pockets, she took in the scene around her. “What do you mean by actual hospital?” Her eyes narrowed.

“You know exactly what I mean,” I said pointing a gun at her midsection. “So for the last time, where do you take your sick people?” I asked again nicely.

Unable to find her voice she pointed a shaking finger at a small corridor that branched off just in front of us and to the right.

“Thank you ma’am. Now you can take a nap with your friend over there.” I pointed as Trex came from behind juicing her just enough to lose consciousness, but not wake up embarrassed like the doctor would. He caught her before she hit the ground and set her on the floor. 

A plasma burst blackened the wall next to Lieutenant Cobbs.
Prak.
Behind us and from the left branch of the corridor, Novokin Imperial guards poured into the hallway. They had us pinned down. Even moving into the hospital proper was no guarantee we’d be able to escape such a large force. The last thing I wanted to do was split up, but it seemed our only option.
Prak.
I grabbed the only one of my team that was plasma bolt proof. "Trex, you draw them off while we round up the supplies."

"I do not wish to leave you Captain." His resolve was earnest, and even as he said it I didn't want to leave him either. Reaching out I cupped his face, and he nuzzled into my hand. Then I whirled back and...
SLAP!

"That's an order Trex, now move!"

In the speed of a snake’s strike, his massive chest was an inch away from mine, his smell filled my senses. A soft growl reverberated in his chiseled chest inciting a tightening in my core. Smoldering, hazel green eyes pinned me in place stirring the burning coals of my heart. The air between us crackled and my breath caught in my chest. His luscious lips eased into a lopsided grin before he was off into a hail of plasma bursts.

"I don't want you to leave me either." My words were but a whisper and lost to him in the ensuing firefight.

Strong hands pulled me toward the opposite direction, toward our primary goal, the cure.