Sons of Amber (3 page)

* * *

An hour later, Zeke threw the wrench he'd been using to the floor in disgust. "There's no way to conceal a transmission. The scrambler's dead."

"What does that mean?" Angela came up beside him, her warm presence reminding him of the reason for his haste.

"If I send out an unscrambled transmission, the Jit pirates will be able to see exactly what I'm sending. Even worse, the scrambling unit also holds the camouflage circuits. If I send out a broadband signal without them engaged, there's no way to hide its point of origin, so the Jits will know exactly where we are in addition to what we're saying."

Frustration ate at him.

"That's not good."

"You're good at understatement, aren't you?" He looked up into her eyes, finding humor there, and immediately his tense shoulders relaxed. There was something so comforting about her mere presence, even when the comm system was shot to hell and back. All she had to do was smile at him and everything was suddenly okay. Even if it wasn't.

"Is there a way to narrow your transmission? To aim it so that only your people receive it?"

Zeke sat back, thinking for a moment. "You just might have something there. It's old tech. Narrow beam hasn't been used in years since it requires precise calculations and maps, but I was on a mapping mission as I approached your planet, so I have the most up-to-date data available. If the mapper isn't fried as well." He stood, taking a quick moment to cup her shoulders and deliver a smacking kiss to her lips before putting her aside so he could get to a different console in the tight command area.

He felt her watching over his shoulder as he tapped some commands into the state of the art mapping unit. She jumped when the holo display zipped to life, its gentle glow lighting the cabin as he brought up a three dimensional representation of his route from the base on Atlantia Prime to his current position.

"Is that where you came from?" Her voice brushed past his ear, reminding him how he wanted this dark night to end—if he could just get his transmission sent. With the Jit threat looming, duty had to come first.

"Yes. Atlantia Station is headquarters for the Quadrant Regimental Command. If I get this right, I might be able to tight beam directly to them." He tapped out a few more calculations, feeding coordinates into two consoles now, utilizing both hands.

* * *

"How do you do that?" Angela was amazed by the way he could perform two tasks at once, as if both of his hands operated independently of the other. "Sweetheart, I was genetically engineered by one of the most brilliant minds in human history. All the Sons of Amber were designed to be multi-taskers with above average intellectual abilities. It's no big deal." He looked up at her and shrugged, his hands continuing their work all the while he talked to her, further astonishing her.

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"Amazing."

"Hold on, I think we're about ready to try this." He winked at her and put all his attention on the comm console, leaning in to the vid pickup. "There's some risk involved in this," he took a moment to meet her eyes, pausing before he input the final commands,

"but I believe it will work."

"Mother Rachel believes it's our only chance. Without help from your people, the Jits will find us anyway. If your signal goes astray, it will only speed up the inevitable."

He touched her hand with his, squeezing softly. "Have a little faith. I may be a Risk Taker, but I never take foolish risks."

"I trust you, Ezekiel."

"Call me Zeke, Angel." He squeezed her hand once more and turned back to touch the final sequence on the console. After a few flickers, the screen came to life.

"Atlantia Station, this is Ezekiel Amber. Mayday. Mayday. Mayday. Come in Atlantia Station. Over." He sat back and reached for her hand, pulling her down on his lap. "It will take some time for the signal to reach them and a few moments for any return signal. I'm keeping the beam open so they'll know to piggyback on it and not blow my location. It's standard operating procedure when comming with someone in my position."

"For a spy, you mean?" His muscles twitched slightly under her and she realized with some satisfaction that she'd managed to surprise him. "Well, isn't that what you are?

Why else would you be roaming out here alone, mapping empty space?"

He kissed her nose. "You're a pretty smart lady, but the proper term for what I was doing is
reconnaissance
. I was gathering intelligence on the buildup of Jit pirates in this sector and ran smack into the middle of them."

"Not such a good spy, then, are you?" She teased him, and he retaliated with a kiss.

His lips devoured hers, his tongue tangling with hers so deliciously they almost missed the crackle and hiss of the comm system as the response came in. She could see the excitement in his eyes as his gamble paid off. He had such beautiful eyes.

"Zeke! Where the hell are you, brother? I've mobilized half the fleet looking for you.

Over."

She pulled back, surprised by the handsome man's image on the comm screen. He looked a lot like Ezekiel in build and the sharpness of his attractive facial features, but his hair was dark as midnight, where Zeke's was a lighter shade of honey brown. His eyes however, were harder, harsher, and darker, almost as if they had seen too much of the worst of life.

Ezekiel didn't seem to mind that she was on his lap as he answered, though she was clearly in view of the vid pickup.

"Michael! I'm glad you're there. I got hit by Jit pirates and crash landed on a planet with binary suns. There are people here, Mike. An uncontaminated colony of humans. I repeat: uncontaminated. The Jits are coming back for me and I need your help, buddy, before they find me and bring the virus to these good folk. I'm sending the coordinates layered under the vid on this message, plus any other data that survived the crash. I hope your techs can make some use of it. Over."

He sat back again, taking her mouth with aggressive joy that she felt down to her toes. "We did it!" He came up for air long enough to beam at her. "Mike will send help.

I'm betting some of our ships are already in the sector, looking for me. We'll be able to defend your people against the Jits."

He kissed her again and again, sending her senses swimming as her passion awakened. The man knew how to kiss! And his hands weren't still, either. Those talented fingers of his were multi-tasking their way through her buttons and up under her skirt until one rested between her legs and the other inside her bodice, cupping her bare breast as he lightly pinched the nipple.

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She squeaked at the unexpected pleasure of his touch, but then the comm system crackled to life again and he sat back to listen.

"I'm sending
Regent
,
Regulus,
and
Reliant
to you directly. They'll secure orbit around the planet and keep the Jits away. Zeke, Dr. Waithe is here and she wants you to hang tight. She's readying the
Sultana
as we speak and they'll be heading for you. She wants to examine the colony, if they're agreeable. The first of the battleships should arrive within five standards. Dr. Waithe will arrive on board
Sultana
in twenty. In the meantime, you are to protect the colonists at all costs. I don't need to tell you how important they could be to the survival of humanity." Angela watched the harsh man's serious eyes turn amused as he winked. "And judging by the pretty little girl on your lap, you won't mind this duty at all. Over."

"You got that right. I can't complain at all." Zeke squeezed her waist with the hand he had thankfully removed from her bodice. She was covered, but just barely. "This is my angel of mercy, Sister Angela. She saved my life after the crash and healed my broken bones. The colony here, from what little I've been able to observe, is about fifty percent male, Mike. Regular, normal, healthy human males, like from the beforetimes. I never thought I'd see such a thing. They're led by a woman who claims to have the ability to see future and she believes the Jits will find us sooner rather than later, so we'll definitely need the firepower those three battleships can provide. My ship is badly damaged and not space worthy. The scrambler's toast, hence the odd manner of transmitting this message."

He raised his eyebrows as he looked around the command cabin. "According to my calculations, we'll be losing the direct beam in another few minutes, so this is probably my last transmission. The Jit pirates patrol this sector in force. Hopefully you'll be able to pull my logs off the sub-channel I've been streaming. I have a working handcomp and not much else. Please tell the captains to comm me directly when they reach orbit on my registered access number." He paused, and Angela could see the relief in his eyes. "And thanks, Mike. I owe you one, brother. Big time. Over."

He sat back and ran one hand through his hair in relief. Angela moved to cup his stubbly cheek in her hand, rubbing gently. He felt so good.

"Now, where were we?"

His eyes danced as he moved the chair back, hitting a lever that turned the command chair into a couch-like surface that many solo pilots used for sleeping on long hauls without leaving the command cabin.

Ezekiel's lips latched onto hers as his hands lifted her dress up and off, exposing her skin to lightly moving air in the ventilated cabin. It felt good, brushing delicately over her skin, but his hands felt even better.

He held her over him, her breasts dangling over his mouth as he raised her. With a playful snarl, he nipped at her heavy breasts, catching the nipples between his lips. He drew lightly on the tips, then harder as she began to shiver with excitement. He spent some time playing with her breasts while she squirmed over him, straddling his lean hips, placing her knees on either side as her dress bunched around her waist and hips.

His hands moved lower to pull up her dress. He pushed aside her panties and squeezed the globes of her ass in both hands while he continued to suck on her nipples in turn. Tugging her down, he pressed his engorged cock up into her folds, only the material of his pants between them now.

"We've lifted your data from the beam and I'm looking through it now," Michael's voice came back over the comm. She looked back to see the man's face on the vid pickup, glad the vid was in receive mode rather than send mode as Zeke let go of her and raised up on his elbows so he could see the last of his brother's message.

"The battleship
Regulus
should reach you first. They're closest. We'll upload your data to the other battleships as well. Holy shit, Zeke." Mike's face on the vid screen 15

showed him reading a smaller screen at his side. She guessed that one was probably scrolling the data Zeke had transmitted. "I knew you Riskers were all a little crazy, but you ran into a lot more than you bargained for if what I'm seeing in your data stream about the enemy force is accurate. I'm amazed you made it, but then you've always led a charmed life." On the screen, Michael looked up and smiled.
He has a beautiful smile
, she thought absently, one that invited a woman closer, though his chiseled features laid down the law about who would be in charge.

"I'm authorizing full deployment on this. If you really have found yourself a colony of uninfected humans, their protection will be our highest priority. Please reassure them of that and lay some groundwork for us. If that pretty girl on your lap is any indication, they seem to like you." The dark man chuckled wryly. "We'll be there as soon as possible. Hold on 'til then, brother, and be well. I won't expect a reply. We see your charts and the planet you're on will be occluded shortly. Stay safe. Over." 16