Govern

A woman, with a foul temper and her own spaceship, ends up an escort for a stunned ambassador. Her perfect mate.

Leo runs her ship with precision and an attitude shaped by pain. Gathering an ambassador in stasis, she is surprised to find his ability to match her innermost desires, and he is surprised to find that she wants him in his own form and not the one she craves.

Ambassador Wikkio is a Beholder. Born to a race that can change to match any other species right down to venom or scales, he is an ideal representative for races who are skittish around strangers. Meeting Govern surprises him. He had not thought to meet the woman of his dreams when he woke from cold sleep and never had he imaged that he would enjoy his woman sharpening her wit on his hide.

The
Gold Fairy
brought them together, and now, she is determined to keep them that way.

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Govern

Copyright © 2013 Viola Grace

ISBN: 978-1-77111-654-1

Cover art by Martine Jardin

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

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Govern

A Terran Times Tale

By

Viola Grace

Leo was exhausted. With the last bit of energy, she recalled the final wave of bots and closed the ship. The
Gold Fairy
had a rendezvous with one of her sisters and it was going to take a bit of enthusiasm to get there on time. Unfortunately, Leo had always been short on enthusiasm.

Once she was sure
that the decontamination protocols had kicked in and her little beasties were all clear, she encouraged the
Fairy
to take off. “Come on, Goldie. Let’s go out to play with
Blue
.”

They gunned the engines together and lifted off the world that was being considered as a super-being penal colony. The planet didn’t have a name yet, but she sent in her report anyway—enough water, green space and atmosphere to maintain a large population with plenty of unoccupied space around it to reduce the chance of unexpected visitors or escape attempts.

The rendezvous with the
Blue Fairy
was their next stop, so Leo sent them to the jump site and pulled them through. It was six hours until the next jump, and Leo needed a nap.

“I am going to crash for a while, pardon the phrasing.”

A delicate chime rang with encouragement.

Smiling briefly, Leo opened the supports that kept her upright in her station and staggered free. “Thanks for that. Wake me at the next jump site. I will be grouchy, but I will be here.”

A medium to low tone chimed, and Leo laughed.

“I know. I am always grouchy, but I will be worse than usual. How long has it been since I slept?”

A set point of chimes in different tones rang out. “Thirty-nine hours. Huh. That is a record even for me.”

Leo was glad that it was only a few steps to her room. She was completely flattened when she hit the sheets. She felt the stroke of the fabric against her cheek before darkness swamped her. Damn, she was always so tired.

The heavy bong woke her. The weight of the noise ran through her joints, and she staggered up with a groan. Sounds worked on her all too well. Her only pleasure when she was growing up had become her ship’s way of bossing her around. Music called her to eat, told her when to sleep and even spanked her when her behaviour was a little too surly.

Everyone thought she could govern bots and mechanicals, but the
Gold Fairy
was both her charge and her boss.

A quick solar shower, a check of the suit’s systems and a baseline for her pain rating and she was ready to eat and get back to work.

Music filled the ship as she ate, and the Dhemon music soothed her. They really had excellent composers away from earth. Even the Enjel music was agreeable, though the Azon stuff was a little bit too passionate for her. The Nyal composers were hit and miss. After her meal, she stretched, twisted and worked her body into something resembling supple before she stepped into her control station.

“Two more jumps and you will be chatting with your sister while I get a new passenger.”

Leo pulled them through the first jump, and the ship moved swiftly to the next jump point.

Dispatcher Nitza contacted her. “How are you doing, Govern?”

“Oh, can’t complain. What’s up, Nitza?”

“Your passenger. Ambassador Wikkio is in cold sleep on board the
Blue Fairy
. We need him brought aboard and hauled to Gah-tosh.”

“All right. What is he going for?”

“He is going to negotiate for a deep-system satellite to be located in their space, so we need this to go well.”

Govern knew where this was heading. “You want me to stow the attitude.”

“Please. You are to act as his bodyguard while he is travelling. He needs it. His appearance brings on either hostility or extreme affection.”

That was intriguing. “What causes that?”

Nitza laughed, “You are going to have to see it to understand it.”

With that cryptic statement, her dispatcher disconnected.

Govern grumbled, shifted her body slightly and leaned back in the supports that had been sculpted to hold her. She had spent far too much time in her life sitting. Flying while standing might be weird as a concept, but it was easier than she had anticipated.

“Okay,
Gold
. Here we go.” She pulled them through space and jumped to the system where
Blue
was waiting.

Govern didn’t have to do anything else, the two ships swirled around each other like kids at a playground.

Through her connection to the
Gold Fairy,
she could feel the ships chattering, so she opened a com to Gaze. “Good afternoon, Gaze. Put your pants on.”

“Ah, Govern. You are still exhibiting your normal charm and delicacy. Good afternoon.” Gaze yawned.

“New mate keeping you up nights?”

“Nights, days, breakfast—”

“Yeah, yeah, keep bragging.” Govern smiled. It was nice to know that the other ships had found their matches. Govern had seen the image that
Gold
had commissioned, and it had a man in it all right, but his face was a blur. Not the kind of features that she could track.

“Oh, I will. Durz is great. You have got to get yourself one of these.”

Govern snorted. “Very funny. Well, I am here for an ambassador exchange. He is needed somewhere, and I have to deliver him.”

“As soon as the ships finish playing ring around the rosey, we will dock and I will get you the ambassador.”

Curiosity compelled Govern to ask, “What does he look like?”

“You know, I can’t remember. I mean I looked at him, but I was planning the escape, so I wasn’t very interested in anything but getting him out of there.”

“Interesting. I look forward to meeting him. Anything to break up the day.” A small curl of curiosity rippled through her, and she found herself looking forward to the newcomer. If both Nitza and Gaze couldn’t describe her guest, she was going to have an interesting time.

While they docked, she waited at the helm. The pitter-patter of feet told her that she was no longer alone.

“Gaze, good of you to join me.” Govern turned her head and smiled at the other transport specialist. “I am guessing that that cloud is Durz?”

The cloud formed a column and the column took the form of a Kozue.

Govern grinned, he was well built and stark naked.

“Shiver is my designation, but you may call me Durz.”

Govern grinned. “I already did. You might want to form some trousers. This isn’t a clothing-optional command deck.”

Gaze was hooting with laughter as her mate followed Govern’s directions.

Gaze sniffled. “Send your units in to grab the ambassador. I think a straight swap of tubes would be best. You don’t want to deal with him when he is awake.”

“Why ever not?”

“He can’t make up his mind. He is very easily confused.”

Govern sighed. “Wonderful. Well, he has an assignment, so as soon as we part, I will wake him up.”

She released herself from the command unit and hugged Gaze. “It is good to see you again, Gwyn.”

“You, too, Leo. You are looking a little less grumpy today.”

Leo smiled, “They have been tinkering with my supplements and there is a lot less pain.”

Gwyn shook her head. “I can’t believe that they can’t cure it.”

“My body is constantly attacking itself, the supplements are just keeping me one step ahead of the arthritis.” Leonora Webber flexed her hands in memory of their curled and twisted state. Her entire body had been contorted, and her joints had ground together when she moved. The Nyal scientists had not only used her physiology for their studies, but they had found a chemical balance that kept her immune system in check, though it had to be altered every six months or so.

“So, the same here as back home for you.”

Leo lifted her hands toward the ceiling and gestured to the ship around her. “Not really. Back home, I could barely move, and here, I fly across star systems. I am content with what I have. It is far better than anything earth could have offered me.”

Gwyn grinned. “Good. Well, now that Durz has put his pants on, I think we should wait for the transfer and then be on our way. He has other Guardians to deal with.”

“So, you are going to be a super-hero arrest team?”

Gwyn shrugged. “He catches them, and I will transport them. It is in our job description after all.”

Leo smiled and gave Gwyn another hug. “It was good to see you in person for a change. Sometimes, I forget what other people feel like.”

“I know exactly what you mean. You need to stop by Yaccaro and have a portrait done. You are the only one of us who is running around without a partner. Trust me, having someone to talk to is a relief and having someone to keep you company during the long stretches slows the crazy that works its way in.”

Leo sighed. “The crazy will still come. They warned us about that when we set foot onboard these ships.”

“Yes, but the men are so delightfully distracting.” Gwyn looked around and smiled when she saw her mate.

Leo looked over at Shiver. He was in earnest conversation with
Gold,
and she was chiming in response.

“Well,
Gold
likes him.”

“
Blue
likes him, too. Once he realized that she was alive, he included her in every conversation.”

Leo smiled. While they were talking, she had freed an empty stasis pod and had her bots transfer them through the connected hatches. Through the eyes of her robots, she identified the occupied pod, and while they continued to chat, Ambassador Wikkio was plugged into the
Gold Fairy
.

“Well, Gwyn, I have him. I suppose this is farewell.”

“Until we meet again, Leo. Keep well, head high.”

“Keep your eyes on the road, Gwyn.” Leo smacked Gwyn on the ass and said a quiet farewell to Shiver.

He put his arm around Gaze, and they headed back down to the connection between the hulls.

A few minutes of disconnection procedures, and they were drifting apart once again. It was back to work for the
Fairies
and their Terran pilots.

Govern sighed. It was time to wake Sleeping Whatsit.

Waking someone from stasis was always tricky. There was no telling how they were going to react, and with the ambassador’s face obscured by the pod, she had no idea what she was dealing with.

“Of course, it could not be easy,” she muttered out loud. “Come on, mystery man. Wakey, wakey.”

The pod slid open at her mental command.

The same procedures that had allowed her built-in pain control had caused a strange side effect. Her mind now accessed the same type of circuitry that was in her brain and made it do her bidding. Fortunately, she had command of all Nyal standard equipment. She loved being a generic model.

As the pod slid open, mist curled around the face of the ambassador. When it cleared, she blinked and blinked again to clear her vision. His features were blurred, literally blurred.