Her Commanders - M.K. Eidem Page 0,1

the Commander was nearly three hundred kips of solid muscle. She cringed when he hit the floor with a hard thud. Switching her grip to the back of his collar, she used both hands and began dragging him toward the only remaining escape pod.

'Warning. Breathable atmosphere at forty percent.'

"I know!" Cali muttered. She didn't need the blaring alarm to tell her they were almost out of oxygen. Her burning lungs told her that.

When her ass hit the closed pod door, she jerked the Commander up into a sitting position, then braced him against her lower legs so she could slap her hand, with the embedded bio-chip, against the security panel. It took a moment for the bio-scanner to recognize her code, but when it did, the door slid open. She'd forgotten about the Commander's weight, and it had her falling back, her butt hitting the hard, cold floor inside the pod. That took time she didn't have to get out from underneath the Commander's dead weight. When she did, she cursed, seeing the Commander's legs hanging outside the pod's hatch.

'Stupid, credit-pinching bastards!' she thought of the transport owners because of the escape pod designed for only one standard-sized pilot. Well, it would just have to accommodate her and one over-sized Commander.

'Warning. Breathable atmosphere less than ten percent.'

Reaching down, she pulled the Commander in as far as she could, then, standing on the single bench seat, pulled him up into a sitting position. Climbing over him, she pulled on first one muscled thigh and then the other until she finally had his entire body inside the cramped pod. Diving for the emergency release, she flipped up its protective cover and hit the red button. The hatch of the pod slammed shut just as the computer spoke one last time.

'Zero atmosphere.'

She barely had time to wonder whose brilliant idea it was to install that particular alarm since, without atmosphere, there would be no one alive to hear it. The pod's engines engaged with a whoosh, and her body was brutally slammed against the hatch by Jamis's weight from the thrust as they hurdled into the cold void of space.

Cali's last thought before she blacked out was that her parents were going to be royally pissed.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Jamis frowned at the unconscious female sharing the cramped survival shelter with him. He'd woken up to find her floating beneath him in the tight confines of the escape pod just moments before this planet's gravity grabbed them. He hadn't had time to prevent his larger body from slamming down onto hers, and he'd feared he'd killed her until he finally felt the gentlest of breaths on his cheek.

Who was she?

What had happened?

And how the ruk had they both ended up in the pilot's escape pod?

Reaching up, he carefully touched the large lump on the back of his head. The last thing he remembered was trying to stabilize the transport after he'd found the pilot dead in the cockpit. Then…

Nothing.

Not until he'd woken up in the pod.

With her.

Somehow, he must have gotten them into the pod, but why had he chosen the pilot's pod and not one of the larger multi-being ones? Looking at her, he remembered she'd been seated several rows behind him in the transport. It had been her hair that had caught his attention. It hadn't appeared to be anything special at first, just long and brown, typical for many species. She had it pulled back from her face, restrained by a tie at the back of her neck, but when she turned her head, for just a moment, he could have sworn some of the strands had pulsed with power.

He'd planned on speaking with her during the flight until a beautiful, sensuous Si female sat down next to him. He'd forgotten all about her. Looking at her now, he wondered how. She was beautiful with her heart-shaped face and pale, flawless skin. Finely-arched brows rose over two eyes that closed horizontally, and a straight nose centered between them. Sharp cheekbones drew his eyes down to a lush set of naturally-colored lips. She should have color-enhanced them because even the slightest touch would have made every male that saw them want a sample. He knew he wouldn't have forgotten her so quickly if they had been.

She was also quite small in stature and light, something Jamis had discovered when he'd carried her out of the pod. Once in the shelter, he'd wrapped them both in the extra protection of the survival