Tiger of Talmare
Authors: Nina Croft
by
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Melissa Stark will take on just about any job as long as the price is right. But this particular job she would gladly take on for free because Captain Zachary Knight has been a thorn in her side ever since she stole his starship ten years ago.
Back then he was a genuine hero and poster boy for the army's hybrid breeding program. Now things have changed. Zach has been accused of a massacre on the planet of Talmare and is being shipped home to stand trial. But certain influential people want to make sure Zach never reaches Earth and Mel and her crew on
The Revenge
have been hired to intercept him and return him to Talmare.
It should have been easy money. The problem is, Zach is impossible to resist and once Mel gets her hands on him she's doesn't want to let him go. Now those same people are also after Mel.
Copyright 2011 by Nina Croft
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author or publisher except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.
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Year: 3036
Intergalactic Agency Space Liner: The Orion
"What the hell just happened?"
Mel picked herself up off the floor and put her hand to her head. It came away wet. She stared at the blood on her fingers before glancing around the cell. Darla was already on her feet. Leila was sitting up; she appeared dazed but otherwise unharmed.
Crouching down in front of her, Mel brushed a strand of pale blond hair from Leila's face. "Hey, sweetheart, are you alright?"
"I'm fine, I think." Leila blinked a couple of times, rubbing her forehead. "I felt something strange. There was someone...." She frowned. "No, they're gone. What happened?"
Mel cocked her head, listening. Silence, where before the ship had hummed with life. "I'm not sure, but a wild guess is we've crashed."
"I've never heard of an Agency Space Liner crashing before," Darla said.
"Me neither." Mel straightened and peered out of the small rectangle of glass in the cell door. "One of our guards is down, the other gone." She turned to Darla. "Can you do something with the locks?"
Darla grinned. "I've been itching for the chance."
It took her only minutes. Once the door slid open, Mel searched the area. Nothing moved, and she stepped over to the fallen guard and took his blaster. "Okay, let's see if we can find a way off this thing."
Mel let Darla lead the way; she'd travelled on one of the huge Space Liners before and knew the layout. Leila followed with Mel close behind, covering the other two. The main power was down, and the emergency lights cast only a sullen red glow. Breathing in, Mel caught the faint tang of burning metal hanging in the air. Her heart pounded in her chest, her whole body tense, ready to run. But they encountered no one. The liner appeared deserted, eerily silent.
Darla finally brought them out onto the cavernous freight deck. Mel came to a sudden standstill, her eyes widening. A battleship stood on the deck—black, sleek, and beautiful. Her name written on her side in gold:
The Valiant
. It was love at first sight, and Mel coveted her with every bone in her body. She could be free with a ship like that. Go anywhere in the Universe.
She nudged Darla. "Over there. That's the one we want. If we get her, can you fly her?"
"Either that, or I'll die trying."
Mel looked at her curiously. The three of them were all being shipped from the space brothel to the asteroid mines and a slow and certain death. She knew why Leila and herself were there. Despite her pretty face, Leila had had a certain way of making the customers feel uncomfortable. And Mel had earned her place by killing a man. She didn't regret it—he'd deserved to die, and besides, she'd rather be in the mines than chained to a bed in that stinking brothel. But she had no clue what Darla had done to deserve the death sentence. Or what the other woman had been before she'd found herself an unwilling guest in the brothel.
"Where did you learn all this tech stuff?" she asked.
"My dad had a ship. He taught me everything I know. How to keep them running, short cuts when the money was low, how to steal them." She grinned. "My dad wasn't exactly legit. It's how I ended up at the brothel—a job gone wrong. They killed him and took me in lieu of bad debts."
"Bastards. What was your dad, some sort of smuggler?"
"He preferred to call himself a pirate."
Mel smiled. "Hmm, pirates. I like the sound of that."
Leila tapped her on the arm. "There's someone on board."
They all ducked behind cover and watched as a man emerged from the open hatchway; tall, broad at the shoulder, lean at the hips with short hair, streaked black and gold to match his ship. He wore the uniform of an army captain, fitted to his figure like skin.
"Who is he?" Mel asked.
Leila closed her eyes. "His name's Captain Zachary Knight.
The Valiant
is his ship."
"No," Mel said, "actually, she's our ship."
"Can we kill him?" Leila asked.
Mel shook her head. "At least not yet. I've got a plan."
A few minutes later, she stood back and inspected Leila. "Okay, make it realistic."
Leila grinned. Then the grin faded and pain etched her features. "Like this?"
"Yes, just one thing." Mel leant across and tore Leila's shift baring her shoulder and the curve of her breast. "There, a perfect damsel in distress. Off you go."
Leila limped across the freight deck. She looked so small and helpless, even younger than her sixteen years, her fine blonde hair loose around her shoulders. The soldier glanced up, caught sight of Leila, and came running toward her.
"Help me," Leila whimpered. She stumbled and collapsed at his feet. Limpid blue eyes blinked up at him. He crouched down beside her, his expression still wary. "Please, Zachary, help me."
Leila's voice was like liquid honey, and Mel watched as his face softened. Then he frowned.
"How did you know my name?"
"A good guess?" Mel said, stepping up behind him. She placed the blaster against the back of his neck. "Stand up slowly."
He straightened and turned toward her, towering over her, and Mel had to force herself to hold her ground. She stood firm and stared up, straight into the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen. They were a clear greeny-gold, slanted like a cat's as they flicked from her to Leila and back again.
"What do you want?" he asked.
"Your ship."
His brows drew together. "You're joking, right?"
"Believe me," Mel said, "I have absolutely no sense of humor."
He shrugged. "You'll never get her off the ground."
"Darla, what do we need?"
"The access codes would be good. They're an eight-digit sequence. I might manage without them, but they would make things easier."
Leila lowered her lids. When she opened them, she was smiling. "Got them. Can we kill him now?"
Mel hesitated.
"He'll come after us," Leila said. "And he won't stop until he catches us."
He stared at her, his gaze unwavering. "She's right."
Mel had killed before. She knew it was the sensible thing to do now. But somehow, she couldn't make herself pull the trigger. She switched the blaster to stun and shot him.
"Come on, let's get out of here."
As she led them up the ramp into their new ship, she couldn't resist smoothing her fingers down the sleek side. "I'm going to rename her
The Revenge
." She grinned. For the first time in her twenty-one years, the future did not look bleak. "Hey, you two, we're going to be pirates."
Darla grinned back. "Rob from the rich and..."
"Keep it ourselves."
