Lethal Impact Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  About the Author

  Living as human prey beneath the Earth, Fiona knew that anything would be better than the life that stretched ahead. The stars made an offer, and she took it.

  Used as a sexual trading card between the rich and powerful survivors of the lethal impact has left Fiona with an urge for change. She needs out, and the offer from an alien race to be a bondservant until she paid out her transport and training is an offer she wants to take them up on.

  Once on the education base, she gets the help she needs to feel something again, and that training is going to come in useful when her test results come back and place her in an elite group of humans who can be of use to the Hmrain.

  Aarak has just learned about the humans from his sibling, and as he was in the area, he decided to see if another human could be found with the high sensuality rating that his people needed to feed. He wasn’t thinking of his people, he was thinking of securing a long-term bond mate that would serve him as he needed it. He could never have anticipated the wounded woman with a heart of gold who brought up instincts he never knew he had.

  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Lethal Impact

  Copyright © 2017 by Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-987969-44-3

  ©Cover art by Angela Waters

  All rights reserved. With the exception of review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the express permission of the publisher.

  Lethal Impact

  Published by Viola Grace

  Look for me online at violagrace.com, Sea to Sky Books, Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, B&N and other ebook sellers.

  Lethal Impact

  Shattered Stars Book 2

  By

  Viola Grace

  Chapter One

  Fiona fought the rising nausea and pulled her shirt closed as she left the general’s bed.

  “Aw, Feefee, can’t you stay for a bit? I am feeling inspired.”

  She shook her head. “No. I have to be back on duty tomorrow morning. I am working in the gardening centre.”

  He got out of bed and went to the bureau. “Well, here you go. I must say, I don’t know where you put it all.”

  She smiled weakly and fought her shudder as he ran his hand down her spine and trailed a wet kiss across her lips. She took the month’s worth of credit chits and smiled slightly at him before she took her leave.

  Fourteen months of hell had locked her into the cycle of whoring for her boss. He had been a green senator, and she had been on her first day as his aide’s assistant when the asteroid turned the world into a haze of cloud, ash, and static storms.

  Her boss had died the day that the dust wave had hit them. Her asthma had locked her airways as it had so many others. The senators ahead of Senator Cormin had been killed in a variety of ways, and so she and her new boss had been shuttled into an underground facility to wait out the toxic storms.

  In a very suspect decision, few—if any—families had been evacuated to the bunker. It was military men, politicians, and theoretical scientists trying to guess a way out of the eternal winter caused by the planet-killing asteroid.

  With Fiona being one of the only women on the base, sex had come into the equation at the six-month mark. Instead of trying to seduce her, they had begun to go to the senator who simply ordered her to their rooms at odd hours. When she hesitated, he fired her. Not having a job in the base meant that her rations were no longer a right. She had to earn them in other ways. She began to whore herself out to eat, and the senator offered to reinstate her, for a price. He connected her to the most influential of the men—she got protection during the day, and the price was a visit at night, once a week.

  She had seen enough wrinkled skin to mentally craft an elephant.

  “Did you get them?” The senator was waiting for her outside her room.

  She handed over the ration chits, good for a lot of favours and more influence.

  “You know, the line of men wanting to get inside you is getting ridiculous. Some of your old favourites can’t even make it to the list. You might want to start giving it away now and then, just to keep them happy.”

  He cupped her cheek, and she jerked her head away.

  With a deep sigh, she entered her quarters and locked the door behind her.

  She hadn’t told him, but she was already giving it away. If her body were the price for a chance somewhere else, she would take it.

  Months ago, a signal had come through their systems, and an invitation rang out for those who wanted to leave the dying world that they had been born on. The first round had left already, and Fiona was planning on being in the next batch.

  Thanks to using her more obvious skills, she had gotten a breather and exo suit. She had a week of rations, and all she needed was to get to the doors and out of the base. Her pass had been paid for in advance.

  Every kink, every role play, and every sweating body that she had lain under or over was etched in her memory.

  She would be able to get to the rendezvous coordinates in three days. The big holding point was her ability to leave. If her guard changed his mind, she was fucked.

  She headed to the shower and scrubbed herself from head to toe. The general wasn’t a bad lover, but he was quick and lost his erection if he tried anything to make him last.

  Fiona shampooed her hair and braided it tight. It would still be damp in the morning, but she couldn’t stand to leave it loose if she didn’t have to.

  She looked at the shower stall wistfully and spent the same glance on the toilet. It was going to be rough in the wilderness.

  Fiona headed to bed and forced herself to sleep. It was a skill she had learned over the last year.

  Survival counted on her keeping her wits about her. The senator would have had her staked out while he collected funds and favours with a line spreading through the commissary.

  He was trying to urge her into multiple partners, and that was why she was running. Now it was coaxing, but soon, it would be a command.

  Leaving now was her best chance at something new—air she could breathe and food she didn’t have to sell her body for.

  She had a bright mind, an eagerness to learn new things, and here, her prospects were sliding backward.

  Fiona had another year on her birth-control shot, and she had probably already picked up some kind of venereal disease that hadn’t yet manifested. It would be astronomically unlikely for her to have come out of this mess without a problem.

  Her body unclenched, and she dosed into a stupor. In the morning, she would make her move.

  She spent her morning in the hydroponic centre, harvesting food and working with some of the other lower functionaries at the base.

  At lunch, she mentioned that she was heading to her room, and she headed toward the quarters until she was sure she was alone, and then, she veered off in the direction of the public showers, grabbing her go-bag from the lockers and slinging it over her shoulder like a gym bag.

  A relaxed saunter took her to the gates where Arthur was waiting for her. To satisfy the cameras, sh
e kissed him slowly before picking his pocket in the agreed-upon manner.

  The passkey wasn’t a key, it was a ratchet. She was getting out through the air system.

  Fiona slipped the ratchet down her pants and smiled at the guard. She wanted to run, wanted to charge out for freedom.

  Instead, she stroked her hand down his chest, caressed his erection through the fabric, and then, she headed down the hall to the access panel.

  The ratchet took a few tries before she was able to pull the bolts and get into the air systems. She crept through the ducts with her bag on her back until she reached the filtering centre. This was the easy part. The codes to open the outer door were known to the high councillors inside the base, and she had slept with them all.

  With swift punches of her fingers, she opened the door, slipped outside into the toxic air, and closed the door behind her.

  Moving quickly, she changed into the exo suit and breather. Without hesitating, she ran away from the base as quickly as she could. When she knew she was lost in the grey dust and fog, her heart beat a little easier.

  Behind her, she heard shouting and male voices calling her name. She charged into the dimness as quickly as she could, following the path laid out by the directional system.

  Fiona had one chance to start over, and even death in the wastelands was better than life being used without thought for her in any way.

  Circumstances had screwed her over, now it was time to take her own back. Her life was going to get under her own control, even if she had to sell her soul to get it. Freedom wasn’t something she took for granted. She was willing to sacrifice some of it to gain control of her future.

  She kept crashing through the dead woods and down the hillside until she was sure that they wouldn’t follow. The wind blasted at her suit, pushing and pulling her with every step.

  Fiona needed to hike for six hours to get halfway to her target destination. She was going to be sore when she reached the rendezvous.

  Camping out in the wind and dust was difficult. She huddled against the trunk of a tree and covered herself with a thermal blanket. The few hours of sleep that she was able to get were all that she needed to get to her feet and march through the still grey air of morning.

  Fiona stumbled through the ash and brambles, sucking air through the breathing mask. She kept going, checking the compass as she went.

  When she spotted the surprisingly new structure in a hazy meadow, she headed for it.

  It was in the right direction, and at least it was shelter for a few hours before she continued again.

  She stepped inside and was in an airlock. Through heavy, clear panels, she saw a variety of aliens and several humans. The humans were eating and getting some kind of scans.

  At this point, the interior looked far more comfortable than what was howling outside, so she pressed her hand to the interior door.

  A gas struck her from all sides, sending her senses into fight-or-flight mode. When the onslaught was over, the inner door opened and a man reached out to touch her hand. She flinched and pulled her hand away from the golden-skinned man.

  He looked at her with soft amber eyes and smiled. “You are safe here. No one will harm you.”

  “Thank you. I am just... I would prefer not to be touched.”

  She recognized a few faces from the base, and to her horror, they recognized her.

  Two of the men elbowed each other and smirked at her. The man speaking with her turned and eyed them. “Would you prefer to change in the privacy of a concealing curtain?”

  “I have to change?”

  “Yes, you will be given a shift and slippers so that all the med scans can be done easily.”

  She sucked in a deep breath and stiffened her spine. “Where should I go?”

  He led her to an alcove and handed her a folded soft fabric with ballet-type slippers on top.

  She stepped into the relative safety of the three walls. The curtain was slid across the opening, and it was time to make her final decision.

  If she took off her clothes, she was peeling away her home, her family, ancestors, and all she knew. On the other hand, if she put on the shift, she would start with a clean slate. She had taken her clothes off for less potentially profitable reasons; before she could change her mind, her pack hit the floor, and her fingers went to the dirt-stained clothing that she wore.

  The coveralls dropped, and her hands went to her underwear, unsure if they meant everything.

  Shrugging she stripped completely. Standing with her feet on the cool, tiled floor of the prefab building, she took the shift and pulled it over her head. It fell to her knees and covered her completely. The slippers moved against her skin and snuggled into a comfortable fit.

  Automatic slippers were a new one for her, but she ignored their movement and headed toward the medical area that had been pointed out to her.

  Her metallic-gold alien came to her side and smiled, though the slits he had instead of nostrils were a little off-putting. “None of the scans will hurt, but some might tingle. Are you ready for them?”

  “Don’t you want my name?”

  “Your name does not matter to me, nor mine to you. After you leave, there will be another human, and when you are on the station, there will be other guardians shepherding you. Remember them.”

  Fiona smiled slightly. “You are the first friendly face I have seen in a very long time. I will remember you.”

  “As you wish. Please, step into this scanner, and we will begin.”

  She nodded, stepped into the machine, and settled into place as it began the scans. It was the most relaxed she had been since the impact. She was safe, no one could grab her, and for this one moment, her life was her own again. She fell asleep.

  Chapter Two

  Fiona woke up on a lounge with her golden companion next to her. “Sorry for falling asleep.”

  “It is understandable. Your scans indicated a state of exhaustion as well as several sexually transmitted diseases.”

  She flushed scarlet.

  “Do not worry. They can all be easily treated; in fact, you are only two days from recovery. We administered the treatment. The concern is that there was quite a bit of internal tearing and bruising. You have been forced?”

  She swallowed and looked out through the transparent walls to the men who were watching her and leering. “Yes. I was not in a situation to support myself, so if I wanted to eat, I had to submit.”

  “Ah, right. So, no sexually based posts for you.”

  “No, please. So, how does this work? I had to get the information third hand.”

  He smiled. “Well, you sign an indenture contract, and the postings that bid on you will determine your final price. The job you are taken on for will determine the length of your indenture, and after that, you will be given citizen rights on the last world you were posted on.”

  “So, slavery.”

  “It is life. It is a life on a new world, with new species and a chance at thriving and, more importantly, surviving. The persons, companies, and worlds who are bidding are not charities. They are expending resources to gain personnel, and they must be paid in return.”

  “Do you work for a company?”

  He smiled and nodded. “I am indentured to the education station. I work in assessment and examination.”

  “Ah. Okay. When does the assessment start?”

  “It has already begun. You have administrative skills?”

  “I do. Also, public speaking and customer service work is in my repertoire. In the past, I have been a pleasant person to be around.”

  “How are you with languages?”

  “Fair. I can learn, but it is difficult to advance if there is no opportunity to practice.”

  “Excellent. That is what the scans indicated.” He smiled, and his teeth were astonishingly sharp.

  He leaned to one side and returned with a tablet. “So, here is a contract, written in you
r language, with a full explanation of what would be expected of you in your service. You have an hour to sign, or you will miss the shuttle, and this post will be moved elsewhere. You will be ejected and left to face your fate.”

  She inhaled slowly and nodded. “Right. Of course. I will have this done in a moment. Wait, can I sign addendums into the contract?”

  “Yes, but it will limit your appeal to employers.”

  “I understand, but at no time do I wish to be sold by my contract holder or traded sexually.”

  “That is a reasonable request. May I?”

  He took the tablet, and his fingers flashed over the screen. Under possible duties, the addendum had been filed.

  She smiled slightly and kept reading. She could be expected to work up to fourteen hours a day. Clothing appropriate to her station and environment would be provided, as would food that she was capable of digesting. Her life would be hers to do with what she would the moment that she paid out her contract, which would include her purchase price, her education, and all medical care leading up to her debarkation from the education station.

  There were other minor details, but it was enough for her to be able to control her sexual freedom to some extent. If they tried to bend the contract, it broke, and she was free as if she had gone through the entire payout period. In case of a broken contract on the part of her employer, she would be paid the entire cost of the contract and delivered to a world of her choosing within three systems. If she broke the contract by refusing to perform her job, she could be resold, and the contract term began again.

  Fiona signed it. She had already seen the end of her world, why bother pretending that there was something better out there.

  “Excellent. The other contractees are a little too interested in you, so you will remain with one of us as an escort, and the station will know your situation before you arrive. Therapy may be involved.”