Maud has known that she is destined for life as a dragon’s wife, but she has contractual obligations that she has to finish first. On her last assignment, everything goes wrong and she goes from filing paperwork to being scooped up by Raiders for use in one of their arena facilities, providing black market fighting to an entertainment hungry universe.
Tridell has been patient, waiting as dragons do for his woman to come to him. When he finds out she is lost in space, he pushes to find her and puts his own life on the line to bring home the woman of his dreams.
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Intercept
Copyright © 2011 Viola Grace
ISBN: 978-1-77111-017-4
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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Intercept
A Terran Times Tale
By
Viola Grace
Chapter One
Maud hooked her arms under her partner’s arms and hauled with all her might. Breathing into the emergency mask was tough enough, but dragging an unconscious Kalordan with her was a workout she was not prepared for.
“Lekar, you are one heavy son-of-a-bitch.” She grunted again, but got him into the emergency pod. Gasping and shoving, she rolled him into a life-support chamber.
She leaned against the pod and sighed with relief as it registered his life signs. Pressing her fists to her forehead, she tried to run through what she needed to do as quickly as possible.
The protocol flashed in front of her eyes and she got to her feet. On automatic, she verified food and water supplies, sealed hatches, transferred breathable atmosphere and prepared to uncouple the emergency unit.
She counted down, watching the transfer of vital fluids and fuels until the pod was as ready as it could be. The release was on a timer, so she set it and climbed into her own safety pod. With her hands and feet hooked into the bands, she hung on as the lid of the pod came down over her.
A sedating gas hissed out of the ports and she let her head rest on the flat pillow. She had done what she could and if the planet beneath her was hospitable, then they would survive. If not, this was her last moment alive.
Maud bit her lip and thought of all the ice cream she had missed in her life as she slipped into a sedated sleep.
* * * *
The Raider ship swooped in and grabbed the low-hanging fruit that was the Alliance escape unit. They didn’t know what was inside, but the exploration vehicle that had been found dead in space was a two-man ship.
“Captain, do you want us to crack the unit when we get it on board?”
The captain shook his head. “With all of the trouble we have been running into lately, keep it sealed until we arrive at the base. They can deal with our findings there. I am not opening that box on my ship.”
If there was a talent inside that unit, he was not equipped to deal with it and if it wasn’t, there would be plenty of folk in need of a simple domestic. His ship would get the finder’s fee regardless.
He sat back and watched his ship approach the small capsule of life in the blackness of space, with the flick of his hand, his ship was set to intercept.
* * * *
Dimly, Maud felt the rocking of the emergency unit. She reached under the side of her bedding and clawed at the beacon activator. The minute hiss as the beacon rocked free was a comforting sound.
She had no idea how long she had been in the compartment, but she knew it wasn’t time enough for an Alliance ship to have answered the distress call. Maud wasn’t even sure that the shorted systems of their explorer vessel were capable of sending the message.
The storm that they had flown through while leaving the death throes of Jskor had started a cascade of disaster running through their systems. Lekar had been touching the controls when the jolt hit the navigation station and he had been thrown backward, whacking his head on another panel.
She had administered basic medical care to him and hauled his carcass to the relative safety of the separation chamber. Time would tell how safe it actually was and as the small escape unit shuddered again, she admitted that she had serious doubts.
* * * *
Containing his fury was difficult. “What do you mean they disappeared? They were finished with their assignment and on their way home. What happened?”
Tridell ground his teeth and started to pace, his wings opening and closing as he crossed the room.
“We have our best trackers looking for them, Tridell. Calm down.”
“I will not calm down, Vasu. Maud was on her last assignment before we were to meet face to face. Now, you tell me she has disappeared? What about her partner?”
“Lekar Wineholt is also missing. Their ship is not responding to any attempts at communication and our seekers and seers are looking for them. The moment we find them, you will know.”
Tridell gave the other Drai a long look. “The moment that you find their trail, you will let me know and I will come with you to find her.”
Vasu looked so formal in his uniform with its banding and a design that matched Livin’s, his mate. Tridell had met Vasu again when he needed his assistance with a fugitive on the world under his protection, it had been quite the reunion after centuries of separation. Drai always asked for permission when entering another’s territory if the Drai were of the old-shifter generation.
Vasu and his mate had helped Tridell find his own mate amongst the Terran Volunteers, a consultant named Maud Odette Mickaelson. Maud had greeted his formal overtures with amusement, but she had kept in touch every day of her assignments that she had a communications array. Their mutual attraction was morphing into something more lasting and for that to happen, they needed to meet in person.
When she didn’t call him at her normal time, he had contacted Vasu immediately and when the Sector Guard showed up at his door less than a day later, Tridell knew that something was very, very wrong.
Somewhere out in space, Maud was lost and alone and even if her partner was nearby, she was in danger. Tridell gave Vasu a terse nod and flew out the window to shift into his greater form. He had to burn off some energy, or he would rip his home apart.
As he moved his scaled dragon form through the sky and exhaled a gout of flame, he circled around and around the building he had created with his own hands. Maud was going to love it and if anything interfered with her coming to his home, that thing had better run.
* * * *
Maud yanked at the chain links that bound her to the wall in what appeared to be a medical facility. Lekar was next to her, bound in the same kind of heavy linkage that she was wearing.
“Well, this is just lovely. How are you feeling, Lucky?” Maud tried to keep her voice chipper even though she was freaking out. Every Raider report that she had ever read was scrolling through her mind and the chains really did not bode well.
“Just fine, Maud. Despite their rude behaviour, the healers here are fairly skilled. I barely feel like the ship tried to kill me and you bounced me across the decks.” He gave her a sarcastic look through his dark pewter eyes. His shaggy golden hair was lying in waves along his skull, mimicking his other form.
“Hey, you were just lucky that I have been working out, Lucky.” She jerked at the chains again. They had been left alone for hours with no one checking on them. Only the cameras aimed at them confirmed that they had not been abandoned.
She ran her gaze over him with concern. Lekar was like a brother to her. The moment that they had been introduced, they knew that a sexual relationship was out of the question. He simply wasn’t her type and she wasn’t his. They both were attracted to very different sorts of people, but they made an excellent team when it came to recording and examining dying worlds.
Lekar was the rarest of Kalordans, a geologist. With Maud’s simple skill of remembering everything she read, she had the peculiar status of Recorder. It was the perfect skill set to memorize the data that spilled through the instruments as a planet ripped itself to pieces. Lekar set the instrument packs and she verified and memorized the data that streamed into the ship computer. The electromagnetics of a dying world could easily blow out even a shielded computer, so Maud was the ideal backup. She read and absorbed the data before it entered memory, a living backup drive. It wasn’t glamorous, but she enjoyed her work.