Page 57 of A Mate For Matrix
Jana huffed. “You can’t tease a girl with the future and not share.”
Matrix tuned them out for a moment. He couldn’t help it—his nerves were on high alert. The presence of an unknown entity aboard The Nebulosity who resembled the Hive species from his neural encounter… it twisted his gut into knots.
I’m not going to harm them. I promise. Ti’Death would gut me if I tried.
The voice rang suddenly in his mind.
Matrix stilled. His eyes snapped to Seal.
The man’s mouth didn’t move. His body remained relaxed.
But he met Matrix’s gaze evenly. Calm. Controlled.
Bulldog likes the little furballs and your charming mate. I’ve been shot enough by the Triterian to know better than to mess with something he cares about. Your mate reminds him of his daughter. He loves Skeeter very much. Not to mention, Krac wouldn’t be happy, and I have no desire to upset him.
Matrix narrowed his eyes, replying cautiously through their mental link. Explain.
Seal answered by sharing a memory—clear, visceral, as if Matrix was there. He saw Bulldog standing with another man—one who looked like him.
Who is he?
He is like me. He is Section K Replication Alluthan Clone, also known as Krac. He was created using Alluthan technology and rescued by a direct descendant of the original Freedom Five, a human warrior called Anastasia Miller.
“Where is he?” Matrix asked aloud, unable to hide the tension in his voice.
Seal’s eyes darkened. “He helps protect a human woman named Gracie Jones. She is mated to Kordon Jefe. Jefe is the former Grand Admiral of the Confederation and is now a lead council member for it.”
Jana frowned before her eyes lit up in recognition when Seal mentioned Gracie Jones’s name.
“I met a little girl back on Earth called Gracie Jones. Wouldn’t it be weird if she and your Gracie were the same person?” she joked.
“She is,” K-Nine stated, his voice coming over the comlink from the bridge before he continued using the neural link between him and Matrix. “I’ve accessed their database. A facial comparison based on the file on Gracie Jones in the ship’s database is a 99.9% match. She was a resistance fighter against the creatures who tried to override my system and whom you connected with.”
Matrix frowned at Jana. “You met her?”
Seal stiffened and asked in unison, “You know Gracie?”
The tension in the room shifted. Bulldog stopped playing with Biscuit. Jana’s smile faded as she looked between them.
“I met her,” Jana said, her expression softening with memory. “Briefly. She was traveling with her family from a conference. She was bright, curious. She said she was seven, almost eight.”
Seal inhaled. “That little girl… grew up to save not only Earth but the Confederation.”
The silence was instantaneous.
“She learned the Alluthan language and uploaded a virus to the mothership after the waves of attacks nearly wiped out Earth. If it hadn’t been for her and the Freedom Five, there wouldn’t be a Confederation,” Bulldog said.
Jana’s lips trembled. “Earth was attacked? But I thought killing the Crawler meant the alien threat was over!”
“So did we,” Matrix replied in a grim tone, looking back at Seal.
“I have no records of Crawlers, just the Alluthans. They decimated the Earth. Billions of your species were lost. Gracie fought back. She cracked their systems, their defenses. The planet owes her everything. She is called the Mother of Freedom—just don’t say that in front of her. Krac says she doesn’t like it,” Seal said.
Bulldog leaned forward, his tone grim. “Let me give you a little context. A very long time ago, I was part of an elite scouting team. Our job was to go where no others could or wanted to go. During my tenth year, we were at war with the Octoply. They had attacked several of the outer colonies, hoping to take over some of the most profitable mining operations we were running. While on patrol, I watched a squadron of them come out of nowhere, but they weren’t alone. There was a brief battle between the Octoply and the alien ships that had followed them. The unknown alien ships’ coordination was unbelievable. It was as if they acted as one. After the battle, they turned and disappeared as if they had never existed.”
“What did you do?” Matrix asked.
Bulldog huffed out a breath. “I followed them. I discovered an anomaly, almost like a rip in space. When my fighter went through, it was as if time and space had folded in on itself. The next thing I knew, I was here. None of my instrument readings made sense, so I began recording everything I could. On my second day, an unusual signal lit up my sensors. Something told me I needed to go silent. My scout fighter was designed with a special metal that helped hide our presence. That is probably the only thing that saved my hide,” Bulldog said, looking at Matrix. “Your ship has something similar, I noticed.”
