Chapter 8

Captain Jennifer Brooklyn hadn’t known what to expect from her rescue mission to an alien world. One thing she hadn’t counted on was being locked in the engine room of her ship with a bossy, albeit handsome, extraterrestrial while the rest of her crew was at the mercy of a six-foot tall block of jelly.

Some days in outer space were better than others.

“We need to see if we can override the lockout.” This coming from her companion; a tall, well-built alien with midnight black eyes, dark tendrils for hair, and the ability to shoot electricity from his hands.

He also had the ability to change color faster than she could change clothes, and currently he was hovering somewhere between yellow and mint green.

Only an hour ago she and her crew had been headed toward the planet classified as JL-398, on a mission to locate the missing scientist Dr. Sylvia Cohen. Dr. Cohen had come to the planet due to a NASA probe revealing that signs of life did, in fact, exist.

She hadn't been heard from since her ship entered JL-398's atmosphere.

Brook's mission was to locate Dr. Cohen, or her remains.

Before the Earhart could reach the planet, they'd encountered a massive alien ship and had been forcibly boarded by Major Ontarii and his two goons. Ontarii had revealed a plot by the Zantharian's enemy, the shapeshifter race known as the Hareema, to infiltrate Earth and JL-398, the homeworld that the alien called Zanthar.

While searching the ship for missing crewmembers, she and the Zantharian major had been locked in the engine room. This was after they'd watched the Earhart's security specialist be blown away by a sentient rectangle of jelly.

Nothing made sense at present.

“The controls are behind this panel here,” Brook said, kneeling on the hard metal grating and removing the panel underneath the button that controlled the door. “We might be able to open the door with the manual override.”

The Zantharian, Major Ontarii, stood close behind her, bending over to watch as she removed the panel and peered inside. She could feel his warmth at her back, which only seemed to distract her. He had a scent that reminded her of playing in the ocean as a child. It was a comforting scent, but the major was turning out to be anything but comforting.

Brook couldn't describe the feeling the alien major inspired in her. Like her, he was powerful and no stranger to authority. He was capable, smart, and in control. She glanced back at him and scowled, hoping to hide the hint of lust that rushed through her.

Good thing he was turning out to be a complete ass. Otherwise, she might consider taking a detour from the drama and entangling herself with him for a less than appropriate encounter.

“Can you override it?” he asked, his impatience palpable.

“Give me a minute,” she said, turning back to the contraption and blowing her bangs out of her face. “I’m not an engineer, you know.”

She fumbled with the mass of wires and connectors, looking for the small lever that activated the manual override. In the event of a system-wide failure, manual fail-safes were built in so that the crew could open doors without power.

“Every moment we waste here is another moment the Hareema could be taking over your vessel.”

“You think I don’t know that?” she snapped.

Ontarii might be handsome in an exotic-ET-kind-of-way, but he could annoy her faster than an itch she couldn’t scratch when she was wearing an EV suit.

Her fingers fumbled over the lever and she let out the breath she’d been holding. “Found it,” she said, pulling back on the lever.

Nothing happened.

“Well?” he asked, watching the door.

“See if you can pull it open now.” She motioned toward the still-closed door.

There was nowhere to grip the door so Ontarii put his hands flat against its surface and pushed. She could tell he was putting all his strength into it by the way his muscles twitched under his glossy yellow skin.

He may be the most well-built male specimen I’ve ever seen.

His uniform didn’t leave much to the imagination and she watched as his chest and abdomen muscles flexed. He had to have a mate. Surely someone as strong, healthy and good-looking as him did.

“It won’t budge,” he groaned after pushing against it for a minute more.

“Dammit.” She poked through the door’s wiring with more force as anxiety crept into her chest.

“My sentiments exactly,” Ontarii grunted softly.

“That creature must have shorted something out on the other side.” She pulled back the midsection foil to reveal burnt connections. “Yep. This thing is fried.”

Brook stood up, dusting off her knees. “I don’t have the means to repair it here, and even if I did, I’m not an engineer.”

Ontarii scowled down at her. “There has to be another way out of this room.”

Brook shook her head. “Unless you want to crawl down through the engine to the rear ventilation hatch. We’d have to avoid the energy module on the way down. If we made it past the module, the rear hatch is less than half a meter wide and I don’t know if you could squeeze through it.”

Ontarii’s expression straightened. “Get me there and I’ll make it through.”
“Even if we make it into the hatch, we’d have to crawl through several meters of ventilation shaft until we could get back to the cargo bay.”

“I said I’ll make it. Stop wasting time and start climbing.”

Brook’s hands settled on her hips as she glared up at her companion. “Look, I realize that you’re used to commanding an army of soldiers, but on this ship, I’m the captain. So stop giving orders and start taking them, or there’s no way we’re gonna make it out of this room alive.”

The alien’s mouth opened as if he were going to say something, but he didn’t. His face was as dark as a storm cloud, and his coloring was brightening to canary yellow.

Unexpectedly he laughed. His skin faded back to a light green and he shook his head, closing his eyes and pressing his hand to his face. “Understood, Captain. Lead the way.”

Brook was shocked by the quick turnaround. Her heart froze in her chest when he smiled, revealing even, white teeth, and a surprising dimple on his left cheek. He was even more attractive than before.

Focus, Brook! It took a minute to follow her inner voice’s command, but she finally pulled herself together. This is absurd. I’m about to make a dangerous climb through the ship’s engine with an alien who’s clearly a maniac. What else could go wrong?

She should have known never to ask that question, even if she didn’t say the words out loud. At that moment the ship shifted, shaking back and forth and emitting a loud groan.

“The ship is trying to break the tractor lock.” Ontarii’s face turned grim, all humor lost.

“We better hope they don’t,” she said, slipping under the railing to climb down the small ladder into the engine works. “If they kick on the propulsion, it’s all over. We’ll be burned to a crisp.”

Like Alvarez. Sadness rushed through her at the thought.

“Let’s move,” the major barked.

Brook ignored the desire to snap back and simply hopped off the bottom of the ladder and onto a narrow ledge that circled the outside of the engine. Faster-than-light travel depended on a high-energy source. Her ship ran on fusion power, and although the elements that were used in the fusion process were well shielded, the energy output itself could not be, which meant that during propulsion, this entire room was essentially a ball of energy.

She was careful to tiptoe around the ledge, making sure she didn’t slip. One false step and she’d fall into the core. Although she tried not to look down, she couldn’t help herself. She blinked away from the fusion generator itself, then noticed a small piece of fabric lying next to the generator.

It was a piece of Alvarez’s uniform. Scorched around the edges, it was the only evidence left of her crewmember’s demise.

Brook bit her lip and tried to concentrate on her steps, but her limbs had started to shake. Get ahold of yourself. If you don’t calm down, you’ll never make it out of here alive.

Halfway around the circular enclosure, Brook squatted and pointed to the next step in their progress.

“There,” she said, indicating a shelf that was about two feet long and a foot wide. “We need to step there so we can swing over to that ledge.”

Ontarii frowned. “That isn’t much space.”

Brook shrugged. “It’s all we’ve got.”

She took hold of the one-inch rim around the landing and used her upper-body strength to support her as she stretched her legs out to reach the shelf. Once her feet were there, she pushed off, then slammed into the wall above the shelf.

For a scary second she thought she might slip. There was nothing to grab on to along the slick surface of the wall. But after a moment her balance kicked in and she was able to steady herself. The next part was slightly terrifying. She had to grab a bar that hung about a foot above her head, then slide along it to jump to a platform along the other wall.

As easy as the monkey bars in kindergarten, she thought wryly.

“What’s the holdup?” Ontarii asked, his face a mask of impatience.

“Just gaining my bearings.” She took a moment to wipe the sweat off her palms and onto her flight suit. She couldn’t afford to lose her grip.

Brook stared down at the danger below them. Between the fusion generators enclosure was a series of slats that could shift to funnel the energy during propulsion. Right now they were all locked in the upright position, meaning that below them was a minefield of sharp steel edges that would slice them to bits if they fell.

So don’t fall. She took a deep breath and leapt up to grab the bar. She held on tightly, starting to move hand-over-hand towards the opposite ledge.

A commotion rose behind her, and she couldn’t help but risk a glance backward.

Ontarii had made the jump from the enclosure onto the small ledge. He wobbled slightly and she held her breath.

If he falls, how are you going to explain it to his soldiers? It would create an intergalactic incident.

With surprising grace, before he’d even properly balanced, Ontarii leapt off the shelf and grabbed the bar over his head. He hung a few paces behind her and immediately started moving toward her with a speed she couldn’t match.

Brook concentrated on moving forward, one hand over the other. The trek took longer than she could have expected, and as she dangled, she regretted not training harder before the mission. Being in close quarters in space didn’t provide much exercise, and despite running on the treadmill in her cramped quarters, she wished she were in better shape.

She could feel her palms start to sweat, becoming more slippery on the cool metal bars. Just a few more feet.

Suddenly she lost her grip and started to fall. Brook closed her eyes, not wanting to see the sharp metal edges below before they cut her to pieces.

Then a hand was holding her as she swayed above certain death, Ontarii having kept her from falling.

“I’ve got you,” he grunted, then with one hand he proceeded to move himself along the bar and over to the ledge. “Just hold on and don’t look down, okay?”

“Okay.” She tried like hell to keep the terror out of her voice. Her position and pride were everything to her.

When they were close enough, Brook managed to swing herself over and land on the ledge. She scooted down to make room for the major.

He leapt off the bar, making it look easy, like he was an Olympic gymnast ready to claim his gold medal.

She looked up into his midnight eyes. “Thank you.”

He nodded. “No problem. Now, get moving.”