Venomous: Erotic Science Fiction Romance (Alien Warrior Book 1) (31 page)

Venomous shouldered past. “Get to it then.” He had no problem with constructive objections to his plans, or suggestions to improve them for the betterment of all.

He did have a problem with dithering and fear-mongering.

No matter what they did, they were at a disadvantage.

His plan gave them their best chance at survival, and survival was something he’d learned well.

He took Lumen to the command hub that stood isolated on the middle of the deck.

Sinking onto his buttocks, he pressed the length of his spine to the console stand, bent his knees then planted booted feet flat against the other.

The block shaped columns were no more than the width of a body apart, waist high, so he was able to exert enough force to be reasonably certain he could keep them secure.

Lumen’s eyes were bleak pools. “B-Babe?”

“Hush.” Tucking her close, he wrapped his lower arms around her trembling body then stretched his upper arms over her head to anchor his claws into the metal of the command column. “All will be well.”

Glowering when he received the signal to commence, Fiercely addressed Krait that Shines. “Reverse. Set bow thrusters to maximum then lock yourself down.” Grim, he glanced behind him to the a’Rä manning the communications centre. “Send a ship wide alert to brace.”

The ship’s aft-most outer hull collided with the battlecruiser pincers.

Their bodies rocked as they changed direction to accelerate forward.

Jerking to a stop, the Trekker reared again with more force, using its stern as a battering ram to force its way out.

With a deafening screech the craft ripped through the metal cage to pull free.

Humming engines exploded into a growling purr as they shot backwards.

Looming on a giant web of stars, the Dei San battlecruiser shrank then passed from sight.

“
Ready
.” Fiercely ducked under Venomous’ arms to wedge himself into their clinch.

It made the fit tighter, safer.

He braced his legs outside of Venomous’ at his waist then dug his upper claws into the command column to create another set of bars.

His lower hands settled on Lumen from behind.

She ended up huddled in the middle of their caging limbs.

“
Fire
,” he roared.

The Trekker released a fiery barrage from its maser cannon.

The explosion was small.

A fraction of a nanosec skipped by then the hot pinprick expanded into a cutting flash of luminous light.

The blinding shockwave hit the retreating Trekker like a sledgehammer.

Catapulted off course, shuddering in bone-wrenching vibrations, the vessel tumbled, spun and twisted in a geodesic hurtle through the black nothing.

The force hammering their bodies increased to crushing degrees as the ship accelerated.

They were shoved along the explosive path as if part of the battlecruiser debris, the deafening sound, so loud as to be silent, a harsh counterpoint to the nauseating churn.

Temperature skyrocketing, the wafer thin, metal panels that encased the workstations began to glow and bend.

The engines failed then the lights cut plunging them into darkness.

Around and around they flipped, faster and faster still.

Venomous and Fiercely bared fangs at each other in support of their efforts to keep their Rä’Na pinned.

She was held fast between them instead of ricocheting off the unforgiving surfaces of the command deck shell.

Other Rä who’d lost hold on whatever equipment they had braced against suffered this fate, but they had armoured scales.

Lumen’s delicate skin punctured at the lightest scratch.

She had fainted at the first neck-snapping judder.

Her limp body pressed into them at awkward angles, her head bouncing back and forth on their chests.

Even that scared Venomous, knowing her skull was hard, but not harder than his chest plate.

Muscles locked to bear the agonising strain, he felt the moment they reached terminal velocity.

The brutal drag on his body became an endless wrench.

He feared his scales peeled from his flesh and whisked his organs off with them.

Fiercely’s claws began a horizontal scud as he lost grip.

If he slipped he’d drag them out.

Doused in the terror of what came next, their gazes locked.

The chance of Lumen surviving without snapping her neck, breaking her spine or having her head caved in was not only slim, but simply
not possible
.

“
Do not dare
,” Venomous mouthed. “
Hold
.”

Those brief heartbeats lasted an eternity.

Finally, mercifully, the density of the explosion waned.

The spiralling rotations slowed, the Trekker’s mainline system’s rebooted, and the thrusters engaged.

They steadied.

The abrupt transition from chaos to calm caused a wave of queasiness.

Thumping to the floor, or trapped under workstations torn from their moorings then scattered across the rumpled deck many hunched over and were violently sick.

The astringent tang of singed metal stung the nostrils and overpowered wisps of smoke.

Static electricity crackled over the interior skeleton in a neon fizzle then was absorbed into
the mother haze
, dissipating with a plosive pop.

A broken energy conduit flipped and coiled across the floor like a writhing Zýt, showering the pitch-black enclosure in fiery sparks.

Gulps for air and breathless wheezes from the pummelled warriors echoed over the clanking engines.

A groan ghosted through the ship as its sizzling hull cooled.

Swallowing, Fiercely rasped, “
Report,”
as soon as he regained the ability to speak.

A battered warrior crawled to his station.

He lurched onto his knees wiping grit from the monitor glass. “Compression from the blast has fractured the outer hull causing the artificial atmosphere to leak. Thsst! It is localised to the cargo area. Stronger than Mountain Rock is supervising engineering on the level above. He is headed down there to visually assess the damage.”

Venomous listened to the rest of the report with half an ear, most of his attention centered on his Rä’Na.

He stroked her hair then shakily pressed his fingers to her throat.

Her pulse was as expected, he no longer worried at the slight tap of it.

She was unconscious, but no more damaged than before.

Coughing, the back of his head hit the console.

His mind raced over the last rotation, and he had a series of striking realisations.

Life was too short to waste on petty jealousy, and deny another’s right to happiness.

It was too changeable to fret over a touch that might be considered unseemly.

It could all be over in a blink.

They had to live.

Live hard and wild, laugh, touch,
kiss
, love make, do fucking, and eagerly consume whatever rich crumbs fate saw fit to pass their way.

Honour demands I do what is right.

“If she accepts you,” he murmured shifting his gaze to the male easing away from them, “I will not stand in your way.”

Stilling, Fiercely stared.

Hope brightened his sullen countenance then he dared a smile.

With a brief yet longing gaze at their unconscious mate, he strode away to secure the ship.

He returned. “What is dick?”

L
umen stumbled into the cleanser. She leaned against the cubicle wall and wriggled her fingers. “Abracadabra.” When nothing happened she gazed up and made a noise of aggravation. “No motion sensors? How do you turn the water on?”

Pressing into her from behind, Venomous gripped her nape. He murmured in her ear, “You tell it so, dearest.”

“How does that even work?” She turned to him as the water began to flow. “Is the ship, like, alive or something?”

“Nothing as fantastical as that.” He chuckled at her fanciful imagination. “There are thread sensors worked into the metal of the inner hull. They are attached to nodules that are connected to the ship mainframe. They are also present in the fixtures and most of the enclosure mechanics. They are calibrated to pick up cerebral frequencies.” He tapped her temple. “Brainwaves flowing in certain patterns correspond with specific fibres and trigger actions. It is not artificial intelligence, merely pre-programmed responses. This is why you have to concentrate, or at least think clearly. If your thoughts are jumbled the command is muddled. The sensors cannot interpret what you want.”

She blinked. Smiled and touched his jaw. “You have nice lips.”

Venomous laughed then soaped up a cloth to scrub her down as she lacked the energy to do for herself.

He washed her hair, her graceful back and shapely legs.

Skimming his lips over the outer curve of her hip and thigh, he was gratified to see, though bruised, nothing was punctured or broken.

As he washed her face, she tipped her face up.

Venomous covered her mouth with his then submerged himself in the firm glide of her tongue.

The moist rush of her breath, and her sweet sigh of pleasure blended with his groan in an abandoned melody of carnal wanting.

Heat pooling in his gut, he held the back of her head and deepened the contact, melded them, her fresh taste, musky scent and cool skin a riot to his senses.

The smooth texture of her tongue was a delight as it caressed his, her leisured sweeps rousing an intoxicating kind of desire.

This passion made him wonder how he had survived the solars of his lifecycle without it.

Lumen responded with a fervour of her own, rubbing her soapy body against his, wet spirals of hair slicking his flesh.

She wilted and whimpered when she broke free. “I’m sorry, babe.” She kissed the scales over his hearts. “I’m exhausted.”

“Yesss, I see this. We shall go to nest in our quarters after this.”

He managed to wash himself with her slumped against his front, her slender fingers tracing his lower abdominals as she dozed while standing.

Chest throbbing with the ache he associated with her endearing quirks, he lifted her up and cradled her.

Warm air dried them.

“Your hair is fluffy,” he murmured.

“Frizzy,” she mumbled then tugged at it.

She grabbed one of his quills and stroked it, ran it across her lips.

He quaked, feeling the touch to his marrow.

“Your quills are like silk ropes.” Her head lolled on his shoulder. “I need to go, babe.”

“Go where?” Hearts clenching, he held her tighter. “You stay with me. We have discussed this many times. You are mine, my Rä’Na, and we are going to Rök where we will be happy.”

She was quiet. “I meant I need to void.”

“Thsst! Where would you like to go?”

“Well, we’re in the bathroom. Where’s the, um, bodily waste disposal?”

“There is no bodily waste disposal.”

Another quiet moment. “Babe, I think you’re so cute, but now is not the time for jokes. I’m tired, I need sleep, and I seriously need
to go
.”

“But, my Lumen,
where
? Rä anatomy does not have such an inefficiency.”

“Are you saying you don’t void
ever
.”

“My appetite has increased because I am producing seed, and have matured, but never will I produce waste.”

“How does your body rid itself of impurities?”

“The
shedding
occurs when we take heavy damage or fall to sickness.”

“Shedding. Sounds like a snake moult.”

“Thsst! Krael moult chitin, Rä shed scales.”

“Does this mean you have no....”

She struggled, so he set her down, and she slid a hand along his flank to his buttocks then her fingers delved....

Brow scales hitting his quill line, Venomous made a pitched noise then went up on his toes.

Clasping her arm, he stilled the startling inspection that made the backs of his thighs tingle.

He did not mind her touching him, truth, he yearned for it, but it was the
way
she had done it.

It seemed forbidden.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Having a ‘my lover is an alien’ moment.”

“I am no more alien than before.”

“Yes, I know. It’s just you seem
normal
to me now. You’re not an alien, or Rä, you’re my Venom. So when I find out you have no anus it freaks me out. That explains why you were confused when you–” Her expression stiffened with rigor then blanked. She sighed. “You realise your human needs something permanent for wherever we live?”

“It will be taken care of,” he promised as they dressed then snapped off an oil vial to tend to his quills, rubbing the lengths in brisk sweeps of his palms. “For now use the container for the purification tablet then dump it in the waste receptacle.”

He showed her the chute aperture.

“Where does that go?” She grimaced. “You don’t dump it into outer space do you? Because that would be weird.”

“It is incinerated. The ash from a cycle of general waste is compressed into discs no bigger than my fist and stored. We jettison them into any sols we pass. The matter is obliterated by the solar flares.”

“Works for me.”

Breaking an oil vial in her palm, giving the lucid ointment an appreciative sniff, she ran it through her coiling spirals.

She used the excess on her face and body drawing his interest.

“Next time I am going to oil you up.”

She paused then slanted him a look. “Oh?”

“Yesss.” He gave her a mouth touch, suckling on her lips, reluctant to let her out of his sight. “Call to me when you are finished.” Venomous headed outside to where he heard muttering and pacing. “What are you doing here, Fiercely?” He leaned against the bulkhead then crossed his arms. He stretched his neck until he heard ligaments pop. “We can find quarters on our own.”

“I noticed you were gone and I ... I missed her.” The other male stopped. His jaw clenched and his brille narrowed. “What do you mean what am I doing here? You said you would not stand in my way.”

“Yesss, I recognise your claim, but you will not push her. This journey has been hard. Humans are not hardy like Rä. She needs time, and you
will
give it to her.”