Stolen and Seduced - Christine Pope Page 0,271

physical presence without seeing them.

“Check shoulder flashes,” the senior one said. “This one looks like an officer, but not the commander.”

“Same here, Kaljeet,” Penrath said from the other side of the bridge.

“So, that means this one must be the commander.” The more authoritative one, Kaljeet, was beside her now. His crisp woodsy- jasmine smell reached her. A pair of gentle hands unfastened her harness, lifted her out of her seat, and laid her on the floor as effortlessly as if she’d been a sleeping cat. “They’re puny looking, aren’t they?”

It took every ounce of willpower for Adriana to keep her eyes closed, to continue the pretense of unconsciousness. She longed to see the creature handling her, the one who spoke with both curiosity and disappointment. But she maintained her possum strategy because as soon as she engaged with them, the conversation would be more guarded. She’d learn far less.

“Is she angry?” Penrath asked.

“I don’t think so.” Kaljeet ran a large hand through her thick copper-colored hair, loosening the braid that had held it in place. “This species may be like Kedrants. Perhaps their hair never changes color.”

“Ugly pasty skin,” Penrath said with derision.

The last of Adriana’s resolve evaporated at that remark. She’d been living in a starship for two years with only occasional refueling stops. Shore leave for senior officers was always heavily restricted. Of course, she was pale. What starship commander walked around with a golden tan?

The comment struck her as absurd. Once she began to chuckle, she couldn’t stop. Her anxiety over their predicament of so many months, along with the overwhelming relief that they had finally landed, poured out of her in a long, deep belly laugh.

Her eyes flew open and she gasped in astonishment at the two blue faces staring down at her. They were both wearing masks fitted with breathing filters and she wondered if the atmosphere on this planet was dangerous. Had the Condor6 sensors failed to catch a threat?

Kaljeet was kneeling over her. His amethyst eyes studied her the way her biology professor used to examine samples collected from other planets. She laughed harder at the notion of being someone’s lab specimen, even though part of her brain was screaming at her to stop. She might be in danger. Her response was inappropriate to her situation.

Penrath stood a few feet away, his arms folded over his chest as though to protect himself from whatever mania had seized her.

She pushed herself up to a sitting position and struggled to suppress her giggles. The harder she tried to stop laughing, the funnier her situation seemed.

“She’s got vildehair fits,” Penrath said from his safe distance.

Kaljeet’s long blue hair turned from blue to black as he watched her. The expression in his eyes changed quickly from cool indifference to something much more dangerous. Now he regarded her with a sharp primal hunger that was the same across all species everywhere.

He stood and raised her to her feet. “Kaljeet,” he said, pointing to himself.

Adriana bit her lip to sober herself. “Greetings Kaljeet. I am Captain Adriana Brennan, commander of the Condor6, a starship from planet Earth. Thank you for allowing us to land on your planet.”

“It is good that you have excellent interpreter technology. I think you will be guests on our planet of Devmaer for a long time.” Kaljeet made a sweeping motion around the bridge. “As you can see, your craft has landed with an impact that means its days of sailing the galaxies are over.”

His statement was like a bucket of ice water thrown in her face, even though she’d already guessed the situation. Hearing it declared out loud made it more final. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying welcome to Devmaer where you and your crew will learn to serve me, your new lord, for the years to come.”

As his words sank in, Adriana fought the urge to both laugh and cry at once. This was a bad dream which was odd because all her nightmares had been about her crew starving to death in the infinity of space. She’d never imagined her people, the crew she was bound to serve and protect, becoming enslaved to an alien species.

She couldn’t allow this to happen. She wouldn’t allow it to happen.

She drew herself up to her full height of almost six feet and found she still had to bend her neck to look up at Kaljeet.

“We are a free people from a free planet.” She spoke evenly, calmly. “We will be subjugated to no one. If