Defying The Alliance: INFERNO (Novokin Alliance Invasion 2) (6 page)

Overcome by the desire to have this beautiful, golden mountain satiate my building needs, I relaxed into his grasping hands, and let my leg shift open ever so slightly. Moistening my now parted lips I raised on my toes and willed his luscious mouth onto mine. His silky golden-brown hair feathered my flushed cheeks. As if long time choreographed, hungry lips tugged on mine as in an attempt to devour me. He nipped and sucked. There was nothing soft or tender about his kiss. It was hard, demanding, ravenous.

His warm tongue pushed and probed parting my lips and taking possession of my mouth while his grip tightened. Light pain coursed through my wrists. I moaned lightly and his pressure eased off. His massive, naked chest rubbed against my excited breasts over my skintight uniform top, invoking a deep need inside me for his large hands to cup and mercilessly knead my aching breasts. My pebbled nipples pushed hard trying to escape my uniform’s top begging to feel the heat of his bare, golden skin, the tight squeeze of his calloused fingers. The craving was overwhelming, all consuming.

My aroused, undulating body strained under his possessive hold while my mouth relished the sweet taste of him. Being captured and pinned with my arms stretched above my head against the bulkhead, rendering me completely vulnerable to his powerful need was even more thrilling than planet fall with nothing but an EVA suit on.

For the first time ever I was enjoying giving up control, surrendering to the animal inside him, his strength, his will. Never before had I allowed my guard down, not like this, not with any man. Opening myself like that to him infused my veins with scorching hot sexual desire and rushed my essence with electrifying tendrils of heated pleasure. My body craved for his touch, for his hands’ caress and sinful ministrations.
What a predicament!
He would have to let me go to give me more of what I needed. As if reading my mind, I felt the strength of his pull on the small of my back. Then sliding down over my ass it forced me to wrap one leg around him, moving him closer to my heated entrance. His chest rumbled with a soft growl. His eyes gleamed with a craving that rivaled my own.

“I want you Caspia,” his voice rough, strained. “My body calls for yours, to claim you, to make you mine. But I-.”

I sealed his lips with mine, not wanting to hear the “but” ending to his sentence. It might weaken my resolve to pluck this one moment of happiness out of life for myself. I didn’t want it to stop. It felt right. It felt good. Nothing had felt good since three years ago when I became a fugitive for refusing to betray the people I’d sworn to protect. I’ve been running ever since afraid, hunted, homeless. Then I met him. Against all odds, I felt safe, protected, like I belonged. I belonged to him. And he belonged to me. Now there would be no more running.

I was powerless when he squeezed and then slid up and down the inside of my thigh. I opened my thigh giving him more access to the soft swelling of my entrance. Circular, back and forth, rhythmic brushes assailed my mound over my tight, syntho-leather pants while his hips ground hard and demanding against mine, arousing endless waves of pleasure. Painfully aware of our not so private surroundings a scream almost slipped out of my lips while my body shuddered from multiple orgasmic attacks. He wasn't even inside and I was already gone.

I couldn't restrain myself anymore. I wanted to reach out and grab him by his neck. I needed to pull him closer, to touch and feel every inch of his scarred flesh against mine. I tried to move my arms...
Surprise!
Both my hands were still pinned over my head by both his hands. A brief wave of panic blew through me.

If both of his hands were up there, what on Astoria’s sweet earth was rubbing against me?
I craned my neck to see, but his grip became tighter. I thrust my pelvis into, whatever it was. Trex arched his back and I was able to see down between us. What I had once thought was his only fashion accessory, a fuzzy belt, was actually a sinewy, golden tail.

It redoubled its efforts, and a small involuntary gasp escaped my lips. Apparently it was a prehensile tail.

Closing my eyes, I opened up my body to every stroke. Every heavenly caress. I couldn't hide my smile.
Oh you wicked woman, what have you done to deserve this?

The golden appendage slid back and forth, restless and begging for entry. Its velvety smooth round tip slid across my belly tugging at the top edge of my leather pants, slowly trying to sneak in and down my pants. My breath was caught in my chest, my body trembled with anticipation. I wasn’t sure how I felt about his sinewy, very skillful tail entering my most intimate area. All I knew was that I needed him inside. To take me hard and long until I screamed in ecstasy, spent in his arms. The skintight pants of my leather uniform were getting in the way of my happiness.

“The zipper,” my voice sounded commanding and raspy.

He released his grip and slid those large hands down the underside of my arms, his fingers gently grazing my tingling skin. One hand stopped to palm my breast, squeezing hard, and I choked back another scream. The other teased at the zipper of my uniform.

"Pull," I urged, wild with want as both hands and tail drew me in.

Beep! Beep!

The comm signal from the bridge beeped in my ear. Not again. I steadied my breath just as Trex brought down the first zipper.

"What?" I snapped, cool air teasing my skin as he brought down the second.

Jaxx's voice was devoid of his usual mirth. "Captain, you're going to want to see this. Now."

No praking way!
I slammed my eyes shut...

Commander Liam sat in the captain’s chair of his ship the Vorce. Dark wavy hair slightly askew, a look of vague amusement punctuated his rakish persona. His striking looks had helped him capture the eye of more than one crew member or fellow officer in his days with the United Worlds Protectorate. Even the deadly and beautiful Captain Caspia Jones was an achievement that he could lay claim on.

The edge of his eyes creased and the muscles in his face tensed contemplating his recent reunion with the indomitable Caspia. There was no way in the God's infinite universe that she had been able to double back and assassinate the Prime Minister of New Astoria and his entire crew without being seen. He didn't care what Asmot said, it made no sense. It wasn't something she’d do.

His ship’s sensors had confirmed there were multiple life signs on board the prime minister's ship when he and his small fleet of five Drang fighters arrived on the scene. The thought of her tugged at the corners of his mouth. If possible she was even more beautiful than their last time together a little over three years ago. Five glorious days spent entirely in bed with the vivacious Captain Caspia Jones. He sighed audibly before catching himself, and playing it off as a cough. His data pad lowered to his lap, a necessary shield.

He shook his head to force himself back on task.
What the hell had really happened that day?
After she had disabled his ship and the small fleet under his command?
He thought she escaped. She must have escaped. And the prime minister's ship was in full view the entire time, even though she disabled his ship’s sensors. No one boarded that ship. There was no landing party sent in and the Razor didn't dock with it. We didn't dock with it, and when we finally restored power Asmot ordered that no one boarded the ship.
So what happened?

"Captain." His communication officer interrupted his musings.

He stood from his chair and casually strolled over to the young officer's console, data pad in defense. He was one of the few Terran officers that had survived the initial Novokin Alliance attack and subsequently had been conscripted into their military along with Liam. He despised his Novokin overlords as much as Liam did. He was one of the few crew members left he trusted.

"Captain," he whispered, "that matter you had me looking into, listening for – there's been a hit. Two hits in fact."

Liam cocked an eyebrow. He had set this man to his task covertly, and it seemed that he had made the right choice. "Where?" Liam asked, placing a hand on the man's shoulder. He leaned in so that their conversation wasn't broadcast across the entire bridge.

"One appears to have been a regeneration facility on Clussera 3, Captain," the young officer reported. He tapped a few more keys on his console. "It appears that was last night. The other is from the mining colony on an asteroid in the outer rim."

"When was this?" Liam's voice was devoid of its usual mirth.

"The second was less than thirty minutes ago Sir."

He knew Caspia far too well to believe she was attacking hospitals and defenseless miners.
Orders be damned!
He most definitely would get to the bottom of this. Spinning around, Commander Liam spouted off orders all the way back to his chair.

"Set a course for the mining colony."

Liam watched the helm officer key in the coordinates provided by the communications officer. He dropped into the captain's chair. This time his posture rigid and his keen senses aware of everything and everyone around him.

"Leave all channels open as we approach. I want to hear everything that's going on in that sector," he ordered the trusted young officer. The fierce Protectorate Captain that had gone soft under Novokin rule was rearing its mighty head once again. He swiveled one last time back to the helmsman. His balled fist slammed down on his armrest punctuating his final declaration.

"Get us there yesterday."

"That's one big bastard," Lieutenant Dodson whistled.

The entire nineteen member crew of the Razor had gathered on the bridge. We all stood in silent awe as the massive Novokin Jarl class warship rose in front of us. A giant black nebula swallowed the stars. An obvious portent of our immediate future, or lack thereof. Its mass even eclipsed the mining colony below, shrouding it from its sun.

"They're hailing us Captain." Jaxx barely looked at his consul, unable to pull his eyes from the view screen.

"Alright people, spread out and look less impressed by the giant death machine," I commanded. The nonessential to the bridge personnel could watch from my adjacent situation room. When I finally shooed everyone into position, I nodded to Jaxx. "Let's see who we’re dealing with."

An image materialized on the left half of the screen. A striking man with long angular features and cold, amethyst eyes shrouded in darkness was smirking at us. A full head of perfectly coiffed black hair complemented his tightly trimmed beard like he was trying to tell us his day job might be soldier, but his real work was fashion model. The telltale light purple hue of his skin denoted him as being Novokin. The five golden bars gleaming on the stiff collar of his military uniform revealed his rank as Captain. The smirk screamed sheetek.

"Greetings illegal Protectorate ship. I am Captain Veldar Asmot, Commander of this ship, the Harbinger.” He regarded me with an appraising look that twisted my gut. “If I'm not mistaken you must be the infamous Captain Caspia Jones, are you not?”

“Yes I am and you must be the I've-never-heard-of-you Ass-mot." I deadpanned.

For a flitting moment a glint of pure malice flashed in the void filling his dark eyes.

His face strained to unveil perfect, white teeth. “It's so nice to finally meet you, Caspia Jones." He meant the omission of my title as an insult. Just looking at the maniacal psychopath made me feel dirty like I had just bathed in a fetid carcass-laden cesspool. Looking around the bridge it was obvious that my crew felt the same, except for Trex. Couldn't quite read him at the moment.

"I can't say the same," I replied.

He allowed a fake laugh to slip through his polished and unnaturally uniform teeth. "Now now Captain, manners please. You've had your little fun, but now playtime is over. I'm here to accept your surrender on behalf of the Novokin Alliance, and allow you to reap the consequences of your deluded actions." His smile was so practiced I thought it would crack the unbreakable glass of my forward viewer. That's fine, I'd play this sheetek's game.

"What actions would those be?" I inquired. Then the dick-nose had the nerve to 'tsk' me. Tsk, like I was a five year old caught sneaking cookies before dinner.

"Come Captain, surely you can't tell me that you've forgotten about your nasty business with the Prime Minister," he lied. I felt my blood begin to boil. "There's also your theft of property on both the Deep Proteus space station five and the Novokin regeneration facility on Clussera 3. You must understand as a civilized race we cannot allow assassins and thieves to run amok in our system."

It was all I could do not to pull the gun from my side and shoot his ugly face off my view screen. My knuckles whitened on the arm rest of my chair, my voice rough and raw reverberated through the com.

"It's NOT your system," I hissed back at him. Shoulders raised, head leaning forward I challenged the big bad wolf.

All pretenses of this being a friendly chat dissolved along with Asmot's plastic smile. "Your people and New Astoria's provisional government would say otherwise," Asmot balked. Then a practiced look of utter despondency painted his face, "and that included, I might add, the former Prime Minister of New Astoria. May his soul rest in peace."

"You know that wasn't us," I spit through gritted teeth.

He waved his hand dismissing that particular detail like an annoying Floturan harvest season ChuCheye gnat. "Of course it wasn't Captain, but let's not muddy ourselves over details. On that note, are you going to surrender or is this going to have to get difficult?"

This guy was praking nuts, and that scared me. His voice, his eyes were completely devoid of emotion. We were nothing to him. Nothing more than flies to swat. Sheeteks I could deal with. Megalomaniacs, power-hungry warlords, pregnant Floturans sure, but the crazy ones always gave me pause.
Unpredictable.
Operating from a moral compass so far left from center that they'd get lost on a straight line.

I guess I was taking too long for tall, dark and purple. That would be another thing I would have to remember about him.

"Listen Captain," he began, trying to control the look of ominous glee in his face. "I'm going to give you a choice, so you can never fault the magnanimity of the magnificent Novokin Alliance. If you surrender now, I will allow your crew to not only live, but go free. I can also guarantee you that there will be no retribution taken on the inhabitants of the mining colony for the charges of aiding and abetting a known criminal. Furthermore, there will be no charges of receiving stolen merchandise from said criminal. And since I'm feeling generous today, I’ll allow you ten minutes to decide." He waved a hand and his image faded to black.

Trex piped up first, "You cannot believe him Captain. He's a butcher, destroyer of worlds. His words smelled sweet but tasted of acid." I could see the veins in his neck pulsating as he spoke. Skeck, the pain in his eyes made me want to run over and wrap my arms around his big golden neck. But then everybody on the bridge would expect me to cuddle them too. And I don't have the time for that.

"Obviously, surrendering to that pompous ass isn't high up on my to do list. So let's open the floor, give me options people," I called out.

My chief engineer raised a finger. We all waited while she presumably finished her scan of the enemy ship. Anya shook her head. "They've upgraded Captain, at least compared to the other Jarl class ships we’ve seen. It's possible that what he has out there is more than a match for us, at least firepower wise."

"Meaning…?" I prodded.

"Meaning that we have maneuverability and structural integrity on our side. The Razor’s solid. That thing out there is gigantic, a monster even, but she's put together piecemeal."

“Like Frankenstein’s monster,” Julie chimed in causing everyone to look her way wide-eyed for a second before they turned around resuming their jobs. Often I wondered what planet she was raised on. 

My engineer kept tapping buttons and scrolling through schematics as she spoke. "It seems like they've kept adding to it. There are independent energy supplies all over the ship to power weapons, propulsion and the like." 

"Like the Borg." Julie offered. After a moment of us staring at her she used both hands to wave off our dumbfounded looks.

I turned back to Anya. "Meaning that it also has a whole lot of weak points. Some of which I assume maybe less protected than others?"

"Exactly," she answered, giving me her full Duskanite sharp toothed grin.

"Could we disable their ship like we did last time?" Jaxx interjected.

"Maybe, but only maybe," she mused. "Like I said it's got a number of independent power supplies. There'd be no way to take out all the generators. And there's no doubt that some will have better shielding than others. Maybe we could affect a handful of systems, but most likely a ship this size would just shake off any kind of EMP we throw at it. Worse off Captain, even if that ship was falling apart, Goddess hear my words, most of its big guns would still be firing at us. It would take half a dozen warbirds to make it through battle with that monstrosity and come out intact."

"We have to consider the miners too, " Jaxx chirped in.

Skeck, there had to be a way out of this, I just couldn't see it. If we ran, the colony could be in danger. If we fought, there was a good chance we'd lose. Something that Anya said about the ship being piecemeal was niggling at me.
Hmm...

"Captain, something’s happening with their ship!" My ensign yelled, cutting off my train of thought.

"It's moving," Jaxx reported. We all stood paralyzed and watched as the behemoth maneuvered itself closer to the mining colony. "They've positioned themselves dead center over the settlement."

Double skeck
. Asmot wasn't gonna make this easy for us.

Anya was already on it, relaying real-time info from her scans. "I'm reading a large energy buildup. It's more powerful than anything I thought a ship like that could produce." Anything that confused Anya was of great concern to me. I was about to ask for clarification of the energy type, when she cut me off. "And it just launched five torpedoes."

We tracked the lethal projectiles. They seemed to spread across the outer atmosphere of the colony.

"Captain..." Anya's voice seemed hollow and distant, a far cry from her usual snark.

We could just make out something resembling a gun extending from the bottom of Asmot's ship. It crackled with a crimson energy, before an angry scream of red tore through the vacuum of space. It hit the inner stratosphere of the colony’s asteroid. In an instant, the sky caught fire, blazing like a sun in the dark expanse of space. It was all the oxygen from the planet's surface being consumed by it. The breathable atmosphere of the mining colony was gone.

They were all dead.

A tomb like silence filled the bridge as seconds stretched into what felt like hours. Unable to stop my teeth from chattering, I looked to the others. My chief engineer's face had lost all color and emotion. Julie comforted my weeping and pregnant first officer. My ensign shook his head back and forth as if willing what he had just witnessed out of his mind.  

A strong solid hand found my shoulder. I met his eyes through my tears, his stone like gaze, his meaning understood. I gave him a terse nod.

"Charge all weapons!" I shouted in my fury. No, wait. Maybe, just maybe… "Belay that order. Launch all escape pods, and target them at the largest concentration of life forms on the colony. Do it now!"

A ship this size was meant to have a crew well over one hundred souls. Subtracting the life pods that had been damaged in the first Novokin attack, and the few who had decided to flee only to be blown out of the sky during the second wave of the invasion, we still had over sixty functioning pods with their own individually functioning air reclamation units. If the Kalemta people of the mining colony could get themselves into one, they could survive for weeks. Or at least until someone picked them up. Either way, they were going to have to save themselves.