Mission Read online

  A woman who lives as an oasis of calm meets a fighter who enjoys waking her senses and shaking her composure.

  Jewel’s ability to broadcast calm made her no fun at parties but perfect for a life in peacekeeping. She volunteers and goes to the Nyal Imperium for duty as the forerunner of the peacekeeping force on a mining colony.

  Taken by an unmanned ship, Jewel finds herself on an arena station, cruising through space. The medics use her skills for calm to keep a patient calm who cannot be sedated, and when their eyes meet across the crowded med bay, she finds herself pulled into a state of confusion. She has finally met a man who shakes her calm, and his slow smile says that he knows it.

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  Mission

  Copyright © 2014 Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-4874-0135-1

  Cover art by Carmen Waters

  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.

  Published by eXtasy Books Inc or

  Devine Destinies, an imprint of eXtasy Books Inc

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  Mission

  Terran Times Second Wave

  By

  Viola Grace

  Chapter One

  Jewel Springs was nervous, but everyone around her was completely calm. She was in a room full of men who had just finished combat training, and while a few were giving her sly looks, the majority were relaxing and sitting back.

  “Well done, Ms. Springs. Your sister was correct.”

  Amanda was standing next to Recruiter Norz and smiling like a fool. “Told you.”

  The men in the room were staring at Amanda, and she began to preen under all the attention.

  Jewel stepped toward Amanda and the men calmed down. Her sister put her hands on her hips. “See?”

  Jewel sighed. “Fine. I see. I understand and I will go.”

  Amanda sighed. “I am not telling you to go. I am just saying that you actually have the ability to calm people down. That has to be good for something more important than Thanksgiving with the family.”

  Jewel sighed and smiled. “If I leave, I will miss this year.”

  “I look forward to the fistfights.” Amanda hugged her. “I mean it. Knowing that you are out there and using what you have been given is an amazing gift, but don’t think that I won’t be expecting something for Christmas or my birthday.”

  Jewel looked at the Recruiter and he nodded.

  She smiled and muttered. “I will try to send you something.”

  Recruiter Norz called out, “Dismissed!”

  The security detachment got up and filed out of the room. The recruiter herded them into the hall and down to a meeting room where Jewel signed away her right to her own world.

  “You can return in three years, if you so wish, or stay out there if you find that you are doing well. It will be up to you, Jewel.” Norz’s voice was kind.

  Amanda looked at him curiously, “What job do you think she could do?”

  He looked at her and then Jewel with a slow smile. “I think she has a career in riot control ahead of her. The ability to calm folk is not a common one, or at least it is not as obvious as hers is.”

  Jewel leaned back, “I always strive to be unobtrusive.”

  “That is what makes you effective. Be at this address in ten days. Your future awaits.”

  Jewel took the card and nodded.

  Amanda snatched it. “She will be there.”

  Her sister bustled her out and took her for a celebratory coffee to toast the new direction in her life.

  Jewel blinked. “Why are you so excited about this?”

  “Because it is exciting, Jewel. I know you can’t recognize it when you see it, but trust me, this is a good thing.”

  Jewel sipped at her coffee and smiled. “I trust you, Amanda.”

  Amanda looked at her and there was sadness behind her bright and determined eyes. “I know you do, so I am making this choice for you, but don’t trust anyone who hasn’t proved to have your best interests at heart.”

  Jewel wrinkled her nose. “How can I figure that out?”

  “You have to watch them and wait until they put themselves between you and trouble without asking for anything in return. Someone who does that, you can trust.”

  Jewel nodded and finished her coffee. “You can tell Mom.”

  “Talk about potentially hazardous duty.” Amanda grinned.

  * * * *

  Jewel smirked and struck at her opponent with the batons and whirled, kicked and hit the other two from her position on her knees. She rose to her feet and waited for another holographic opponent.

  “Done. You are done, Jewel.” Her instructor came up and patted her on the shoulder. “You are on your way to your first mission in twelve hours.”

  She nodded and holstered her batons. “Okay. I will pack up.”

  He nodded and smiled. “Good. Good luck, Jewel. Your fixation on combat has been a welcome change from those who only do it because it is part of their mandated training.”

  Jewel shook his hand and headed for her quarters. She had packing to do.

  Adapting to life as a peacekeeper on Frekiad mining colony was rather fun. Jewel still didn’t have a good grasp of emotion, but here, she didn’t need it.

  Anytime a riot situation started, from ball game to bar fight to political uprising, she was there and calming things down.

  “Peacekeeper Springs, please report to launch deck.”

  Jewel got to her feet and put her data pad away. Her ability to study had flourished with her biological capability in the field. The faster her body got, the faster her mind got. It was rather entertaining to deal with. She had no casual friends, but she didn’t need them, her books were very entertaining.

  As her first six months in space passed, she learned that she was uniquely suited to life as a solitary Terran in an alien environment. Any sentient being in her vicinity was immediately calmed and she couldn’t turn it off. After acknowledging that she was responsible for saving lives and broken limbs, she had made peace with her mental makeup and the effect it had on others. She didn’t have a lot of friends, but she wouldn’t have enemies either.

  She joined the others on the launch deck of the peacekeeper headquarters. The crew met her and nodded as they armed their weapons.

  Commander Teffrin addressed them. “We have an unauthorized landing craft that doesn’t answer to hails. We need you to go and investigate the craft, restraining any occupants and bringing them here.”

  Jewel slid her shock sticks into the holsters on her thighs. She settled onto her riot runner and checked for the coordinates. The rest of the team finished gearing up and when they took off, so did she.

  The line of riot runners ejected from the launch bay with the door grinding shut behind them. Fourteen officers flew out of the base at her si
de, and Jewel followed the cloudy streak from the sky to the clumsily landed ship.

  She took in the details and noted something very odd. “Team, has anyone else noticed that that was a highly controlled landing?”

  Peacekeeper Wehn agreed. “It looks like they deliberately made it into a skid. Why would a ship do that?”

  They were coming in too fast to stop at a safe distance. Jewel said, “Suggesting overshoot and approach from the other side.”

  “Negative. Land and we will make the best of it.”

  Jewel made a face and pulled back, dropping to the ground as far from the ship as she could. With her riot runner safely disengaged, she walked toward the rest of her team.

  “Springs, take the lead.”

  She nodded. It was standard procedure to send her first. She usually calmed whatever was going on.

  As she made her way toward the ship, she kept her stun sticks in their holsters. The cargo seal of the ship opened and a platform extended. Jewel saw the figures moving toward her down the ramp, and she stepped back.

  “Bots!”

  She pulled out her shock sticks and flicked them to full charge.

  The other peacekeepers trooped up behind her, but the bots moved beyond biological speed.

  Jewel felt that she was being tested as she struck and knocked over bot after bot. The bots were conversing with each other at rapid speed, and when they all chirped, a gas cloud enveloped Jewel and the peacekeepers nearest her. She heard the others falling but had no idea how many were down.

  Everything got bright and then went dark and cold.

  Jewel woke in a holding pen with the floor under her carrying the hum of artificial gravity. She looked around and saw Officer Shivohn.

  Shivohn shifted down a few bunks and sat down next to Jewel. “I thought you were never going to wake. They threw you around like a doll.”

  Shivohn was wearing a soft blue gown that matched the gowns on half a dozen women who were visible down the expanse of cells that stretched to the left and right.

  Jewel was dressed in a matte grey that did nothing for her, or so her sister had always said. Her body was spotted with aches and pains but nothing worse than she had experienced during training.

  “Where are we?”

  Shivohn rubbed her forehead. “We are on a fight station. We were taken, and from their comments the guys in medical, they only took the females.”

  “Why?”

  “For the fighters. Four of the fighters are my species and they want a playmate. That is what the blue gown denotes.”

  There was something in Shivohn’s features that indicated she was not telling the truth. “Why you?”

  Shivohn sighed. “It is my husband. He is the reason they came for us. They weren’t sure which one was which, so they grabbed all the female peacekeepers. I got them to give you a different assignment.” It came out in a rush.

  “And the others?”

  “They are being ransomed back, but if you perform well, you will be allowed to work here the same way you did at the base.”

  “Why separate me?” She cocked her head.

  Shivohn took her hand. “Because I needed to give him something to apologize for my absence. I chose you. I didn’t think you would mind.”

  Jewel crossed Shivohn off her possible friend list. “Why did you offer me?”

  “Because not all fighters can be given sedatives, and you can be the one to keep them calm. If I am back in this life, I want someone that I can trust, that I can call upon. Will you help them?”

  “I can’t help but do what I do. It doesn’t matter to me where I do it.” It was a lie but no one could tell. No one could ever tell.

  Shivohn stood and went to the glowing, transparent wall of the cell and tapped on it. A grim-looking set of guards walked up to the wall and looked at her. The one on the left jerked his head. “Come with us.”

  Shivohn stepped toward the wall and they held up a hand.

  The man was grey and resembled a flat-faced rhino. “Just her. If she doesn’t do what you have promised, Jermino will discuss it with you. If she works out, you will be taken to your husband in an hour.”

  Shivohn scowled. “I was told that her cooperation would reunite me immediately.”

  “And it will, when she cooperates. Come with us.” He beckoned to her with his right hand.

  Jewel shrugged and got to her feet. She swayed a little but straightened and headed to the opening in the cell wall and past Shivohn. The guard gripped her arm firmly but gently. She was placed between the two men, and after her former associate had been locked in, they walked her through the halls filled with women and young men all wearing colour-coded clothing.

  They walked through halls where display screens showed two fights and countdowns to the next fight.

  She was escorted to medical.

  One of her guards growled, “How close do you need to be?”

  “Twenty feet. I can’t control it, so I will calm the medical team as well.”

  He nodded and led her into the medical unit where men were being patched up and injuries tended. She heard the shouting before she saw him.

  He flexed and fought as the medics tried to hold him down. Jewel noted the horns on his head and his agitation. She stepped toward him and her guards let her go.

  She approached and the waved of calm ran over the room. The man straining with the gagged wound in his abdomen slowly relaxed and the medical team calmly went to work.

  The horned man turned his head, and she met his dark amber gaze with her own. He nodded his head slightly, and she returned the gesture.

  “What did you do?” The guard spoke softly.

  “What I always do, I calmed things down.”

  Chapter Two

  After the man on the med bed had been repaired, Jewel was returned to the cell.

  Shivohn was taken away and a food dispenser, tiny toilet and sink, and privacy shading was added to Jewel’s space.

  “I guess they like to reward people immediately.” She worked out the dispenser and summoned a hot meal, carrying it to her bunk to eat. There weren’t any utensils, but she managed to work on her finger-eating precision.

  She watched an endless parade of guards collect and deliver women and men. The women didn’t seem too upset by their situations, and she could hear a few of them bragging.

  Jewel heard the word chosen being thrown around a lot, but since she had no frame of reference, she just tucked herself in and got some sleep.

  A hand shook her awake. “Come, you are needed.”

  Jewel swung to her feet and walked to the doorway where the second guard watched her warily.

  They didn’t touch her this time.

  “What is different?”

  “The station has decided to keep you, so we were all asked to watch the vid of your acquisition. The medics had to argue to keep you for their use instead of your being placed in the female fighter quarters.”

  Jewel smiled. “It is nice to be wanted.”

  He snorted, and they arrived in medical where more than a few pairs of eyes pointed in her direction.

  Her patient from the night before was there again with a long slice to his bicep. She admired the tone of the muscle under the fawn-coloured skin. He was sitting up, but she could see the pounding of his pulse in his neck.

  The doctors beckoned her closer and her guards nudged her gently.

  She stepped toward the patient, and the frantic beat of his heart eased. He extended his hand to her. “Come here, mistress.”

  She cocked her head. “Why?”

  The medics and attendants froze in place.

  “Because I wish to take in the texture of that skin.”

  “That is not why I am here.”

  He tilted his head and thought for a moment.

  Jewel took in the black lining around his eyes that seemed natural, the smooth texture of the skin, slightly flat nose and the
amused curve of his lips. His wide neck suited his head, the myriad black braids spilled back from his forehead leaving the horns exposed. She had seen Dhemons before, but he wasn’t one of them. These horns were more elk and less sheep-like.

  “Please take my hand, mistress.” He nodded his head, dipping his horns toward her.

  “Of course.” She stepped forward and placed her hand in his. His fingers swallowed hers in a warm, comfortable grip.

  He leaned back in the chair they had him in, and the doctors immediately began repairs to his flesh.

  Idly, Jewel experimented with her calm. The patient received the full force of her peculiar aura, but she rotated the exposure around her, watching the people around her calm in waves.

  When the doctors completed their work, they nodded at her and her guards stepped forward.

  Jewel tugged at the grip on her hand. “Your healing is complete. You must let go now.”

  He opened his amber eyes with a lazy smile. “Why?”

  She frowned at the echo of her own question. “Please, let go of me.”

  He released her and smiled. “Thank you, mistress.”

  Out of reflex, she said, “You are welcome.”

  The guards took her by the arms and escorted her back to her cell. Her duty was done for the day.

  * * * *

  The security supervisor watched the scans of medical, and he chuckled. “She is playing.”

  The medical administrator frowned. “Shivohn said she had no emotions.”

  “Not that are readily apparent, but watch, she is sending waves of calm through medical and retracting it in a wheel-and-spoke pattern.”

  The administrator ran his hand through his feathers. “Is it dangerous?”

  “No, but it could be beneficial. If she can calm all of medical, we can reduce the amount of sedation used and reduce recovery time.”

  The administrator looked at him. “Are you sure you aren’t a doctor?”