Alien Guardian's Baby (Scifi Alien Romance) (Zoran Warriors) (3 page)

G
eneral Drax towers over me
, his massive blue and yellow cock so close it nearly touches me. Only moments ago I felt it press against the lips of my pussy. I could sense the powerful throbs of his cock all the way in my clit, driving me up the wall. I yearned to feel him inside of me, to fill me up with that blue cock of his.

It’s the biggest I’ve ever seen in my life.

And I can’t seem to look away. A yellow vein runs up the length, pulsing with energy, and a glimmer of pre-cum wets the golden head of his cock. Unconsciously I lick my lips.

What would a Zoran cock taste like?

Then, he saw my accursed mark, and the mood was ruined. His eyes went big when he saw it, as if he recognized the strange, alien symbols, but unlike any human male, he hadn’t called me a freak.

His fingers find my chin, tilting it up, forcing me to stare right into his brightly-colored eyes. He leans in and I close my eyes, waiting for his firm lips to crush mine…

“General?” The com creaks. “You’re going to want to see this.”

Drax squares his shoulders, a frown forming on that strong brow of his. He taps a button on the wall, opening communications. “Talk to me, Sern. Is it urgent?”

“Yes sir,” Sern answers. “I’m seeing multiple unidentified objects pop up on the radar, seemingly out of nowhere. They’re not responding to my hailing, but according to my readings, they’re heating up.”

Drax’s lips form a line, all his features tightening. “Stealth ships.”

“Stealth ships, sir?” the pilot answers hesitantly. “In this sector? I thought only we possessed that technology?”

The Zoran general taps in a code on the wall-panel and a loud klaxon instantly starts blaring, the lights on the ceiling all flashing a deep red.

“Wait here,” he says.

Like hell I am!

He slips into his obsidian armor easily, the strange material fitting his musculature perfectly, as if he was poured into it. He pulls a frost-colored axe from a drawer and slips it into the holster on his hip.

“What’s going on?” I ask Drax as I towel myself dry and get dressed as quickly as I can, the incessant blaring of the alarm nearly drowning out my voice.

“Take this,” Drax says, ignoring my question. He places a silver gun into the palm of my hands. “If anyone but me comes through that door, you fire.”

Before I get a chance to react, the alien general strides out of the room, the black, metallic door closing with a snap behind him. I can hear countless footsteps marching through the halls, and my stomach drops.

I pound my fists on the door, but it’s useless. I run back to the elevator I used to get up here, but that metal door won’t open either. I’m locked in here.

I sit down on Drax’s bed, holding the silver gun in my hand. It barely weighs a thing. I keep it pointed straight at the door, taking deep breaths to calm my nerves.

If there’s
any
place in the galaxy that’s safe, a Zoran general’s private quarters should be on the top of the list…

…but a sudden explosion rocks the ship, and my blood runs cold.

I wish I was back in Drax’s arms.

“
G
ive me an update
, Sern.”

“I’ve got six bogeys, sir. They’re closing in fast.”

“Got a visual?”

“Negative, sir, but I will in a minute.”

I tap my com, opening a line to Vukota, who is down in the weapons hangar. “Are you seeing this?”

“Yeah,” he growls into my ear. “Want me to open fire?”

“Affirmative,” I say. “Fire torpedoes.”

I’m standing on the bridge, behind Sern, watching the readouts on the multitude of screens in front of me. Vukota is trying to get a lock-on on the incoming ships – and failing.

“They’re scrambling our targeting,” he barks into my earpiece. “Impossible!”

All the facts are all telling me the same thing.
We’re fighting Zoran stealth cruisers. Thundercats.

No one else has this technology but us. The only thing in the universe that can threaten the
Eternity
is a squadron of highly maneuverable stealth fighters, and that’s exactly what seems to be closing in on us.

“Sern, are they still refusing our calls?”

“Yes, sir. They’re now thirty seconds away, and locking their weapons systems onto us.”

“Vukota, fire a barrage of torpedoes, then get ready to switch to manual control of the cannon. Give them all we’ve got.”

“I think I can get a lock,” Vukota says. “I’m close. Give me five more seconds.”

“I’m not getting us all killed because you wanted to save a few torpedoes,” I say. “Fire everything!”

“Yes, sir,” Vukota answers.

A moment later the torpedoes fire, and we bathe the sky in nuclear fire.

“Did we get them?” I ask.

“Negative,” Sern answers.

I curse under my breath.

“We’ve got a visual, sir,” Sern says.

From a tactical point of view, it doesn’t make much sense that the ships would come close enough for us to get a visual reading. That brings them in range of our cannons, while they’re most likely equipped with plenty of long-range weaponry.

Unless they plan on boarding us.

The screens fill with images of the ships coming down on us. To my surprise, they’re not Zoran
Thundercats
, although the design is eerily similar. Their V-shaped wings are decorated with a red circle, with a slash through it. The design is sloppy, as if someone slapped it on in a hurry.

It’s the symbol of the Flaming Fang, a well-known crime organization, though they shouldn’t possess such firepower. Their members are exclusively Prymetas… of whom we already have a whole pack on board.

Fuck.

“Vukota, come in,” I say. “Vukota?!”

The ship rocks from a sudden explosion, tilting us a few degrees starboard.

“Weapon system is down. That came from the inside,” Sern says. “Ships didn’t hit us.”

“Vukota, come in!” I yell into my com.

“We’ve got a situation here, Drax,” Vukota groans. I hear gunfire in the background, over the sound of my men screaming.

“The Prymetas?”

“Yes,” he says, out of breath. “They overran the armory.”

Vukota was right – this was a trap. Perhaps I should have trusted him and let the
Mongoose
drift through space… but then I never would have met Isabella. Vukota will call me a fool for arming her and leaving her in my private quarters, but I have a niggling feeling at the back of my scalp that she’s important. More than even she knows. That symbol on the inside of her wrist was strangely familiar, but I can’t quite place it. It’s on the tip of my tongue.

But I don’t have the luxury of thinking about that now. We’re being boarded, and my weapon systems are down. If the invaders take either the bridge or the engine room, the ship is lost. The Prymetas will gain access to all the secrets the Zoran military has to offer: As a flagship, the
Eternity’s
database contains information on all our operations, all our ships’ layouts, all our weaknesses.

That can’t happen. No Zoran ship has ever,
ever
been successfully boarded.

I don’t plan to be the first general to bear that shame.

“Can you reach the engine room?”

“Already on my way,” Vukota answers.

“The ships are boarding us, sir,” Sern says. “And I’m reading more on the way as well. Wait, I’m getting a transmission! Patching it through, sir.”

A large, silver-haired ape comes into view. He’s wearing tattered leather armor, and a necklace of teeth hangs around his neck. A large scar runs across his left eye. He snarls, baring his large fangs, before growling something unintelligible.

A moment later, the auto-translator relays his message.

“Surrender, Zoran. The mighty Flaming Fang has brought you to your knees. Surrender, and I might let you live.”

Sern turns back to me. “Do you want to respond, sir?”

I shake my head, my jaw clenched shut. “No.”

I pull my axe from its holster. If any ape is planning on taking the bridge, they’ll have to do it over my dead body.

T
he sound
of gunfire creeps closer and closer, and I have my finger resting on the trigger of the silver gun. My palms are sweaty, and my heart feels like it’s beating inside my throat.

Suddenly, the metal doors slide open, and I squeeze the trigger as fast as I can. A bright, white light shoots forth, the power of the blast sending me tumbling backwards.

“Do I look like an ape to you?!”

I look up to see Drax towering over me. He is dripping with blood, his armor covered in bite and scratch marks, his chest heaving. The shot I fired bounced off his chest like it was nothing.

“Wh-what do you mean?” I ask. “What’s going on?”

To answer my question, a Silverback runs around the corner on its hands and feet and tries to pounce on Drax from behind. In one quick motion Drax turns and plants his frost-colored axe in the beast’s forehead. It slumps to the ground, dead.

“We’ve been boarded,” Drax says. “We have to evacuate.”

The door closes behind him, and he strides over to the bed.

“Evacuate? How?” I ask. I can’t believe what I’m hearing. The
Eternity
is the flagship of the Zoran military, right? How could it possibly be lost?

Drax reaches for his nightstand and hits a switch I didn’t know was there. Suddenly, the round bed rises up with a whirr, exposing a metal cylinder with a hatch on it. The bed is built on an escape pod!

“Like this,” Drax says, opening the hatch. “Come.”

The entire ship shakes from another loud explosion, this one even closer than the last. I hop into the shuttle, and Drax closes the hatch behind me.

His fingers go up to his earpiece. “Vukota, I’m in position.”

I could hear Vukota’s strained, out-of-breath voice even from where I’m sitting.

“You got it, Drax. It’s been an honor serving beside you, sir.”

“Likewise, Vukota. Likewise. Drax out.”

Drax pulls the earpiece out and throws it so hard on the floor it shatters. He hits a red button next to the hatch, and the pod starts to rumble. A female, mechanical voice starts counting down.

“Ten seconds to launch…”

“Strap in,” Drax growls.

“Eight…”

I fidget with the straps, my fingers trembling. “What’s happening?”

“Six…”

“Vukota’s initiating self-destruction,” Drax answers coldly, his voice devoid of any emotion. His face is unmoving, like granite. His stare seems to cut right through me.

“Four…”

Self-destruction?! He’s blowing up the entire
Eternity
? How…?

“What about the others?” I ask.

“Two…
”

Drax’s eyes find mine, but his eyes are like ice.

“There are no others.”

“Ignition.”

W
e’re launched
from the
Eternity
with an enormous force. The skylight above my bed has opened, sucking all my personal belongings into the emptiness of space, creating our exit. I glance out a small porthole at the side of the shuttle, casting one last look on the greatness of the
Eternity
.

“Goodbye,” I say under my breath.

A second later the entire sky is lit up by a brilliant, dazzling flash, as the mammoth-sized engines overload and explode.

Killing everyone aboard instantly.

I rest my head in my hands, my conversation with Vukota playing itself in my mind, over and over again.

“We can’t hold them, you have to evacuate!”

“I’m not leaving you behind!”

“Drax! Listen to me! We lost! Make the call!”

“I…”
For the first time in my command, I’d hesitated. I knew Vukota was right. I knew I had to make the call. Sacrifice my entire crew, and the ship, to keep it from our enemies. I’ve always known that was a possibility… but making that call was the hardest decision of my life.

“…do it, Vukota.”

“You got it.”

I rushed for the escape pod in my private quarters, Sern by my side, close-quarter combat taking place on every level of my ship. The Prymetas’ fighters had already destroyed all the regular escape pods, save my secret one, trapping my crew onboard. One of the beasts got to Sern, attacking him from behind. His neck was snapped before I’d even turned around.

General Drax. The first Zoran general to lose a capital ship. And I didn’t even have the decency to go down with my ship.

I look up to see the human female stare at me, her eyes wide, her hand in front of her mouth.

“I’m so sorry,” she says. “All those people…”

“It had to be done,” I answer.

I hope that’s true.

“Are we safe?”

I nod. “This escape pod is equipped with stealth technology. As far as their readings are concerned, we’re just another piece of debris being flung from the explosion. We’re safe.”

“What…what happened?” she asks.

I wish I knew
.

I get up and climb down the hatch. This shuttle has four different levels – it could house a squad, if needed. Now, it’s just me and the human. I pour myself a
cuhla
and knock it back. And another. And another.

The human follows me down, and I hand her a glass.

“Drink.”

She sniffs it, and makes a face like a Ygg just urinated in the glass.

“To our fallen comrades.”

We clink our glasses together, and she hesitantly takes a small sip – only to spit it out a moment after. I crack a smile, to my own surprise.

“Good, huh?”

She wipes her mouth, sputtering. “Ugh! That’s the foulest thing I’ve ever tasted!”

“Then you’ve tasted nothing yet,” I answer, taking another swig of the spicy, jet-black drink before smashing it against the table.

“So, Isabella Parker. Care to explain why you were on a vessel filled with Flaming Fang members?” I say.

“What?” she says. “Are you accusing
me
?”

“I’m not accusing you, I’m just stating the facts. I just lost my ship to Prymetas, who were on the
Mongoose
. As were you. What were you doing on board?”

She avoids my inquisitive gaze, her fingers fidgeting with the sleeves of her vest.
Her mark
. She’s excellent at hiding it, but I remember what I saw. A triangle burned into her wrist, glowing brightly.

“I’m just heading to Vortex Station,” she says, her voice barely a whisper. “That’s all.”

“You just witnessed the greatest loss to the Zoran military fleet in all its history,” I say. “I need a better answer than that.”

“How do I know I can trust you?”

“I just saved your life,” I growl, my fist hitting the table. “All my crew is dead. Vukota, Sern, Zyn, and hundreds more. All of them. Gone. Dead. Taken by a bunch of backwater apes who suddenly possess enough firepower to take down a capital ship. And in the midst of it all I find a human female, light-years from home, who won’t even tell me what the hell she’s doing?! No. You don’t get to choose if you trust me. Too many men have paid the price. Something’s going on, and you know more than you let on. You’re going to tell me everything you know
right now,
or you can spend the rest of the journey locked up.”

Isabella rises from her seat.

“
No
,” she says.