Page 4 of Mated to the Alien Rogue

Wrin

“Captain.” Kirel strode onto the bridge, his tone urgent.

I halted the simulation I’d been running, and the screens of everyone’s control stations froze in the middle of battle. The main viewscreen that took up the front wall of the room showed a miniatureDaredevilleading a mixed group of Zaarn, Sjisji, and Tula warships against the might of the Grug.

Even with all three species banding together, it did little to even the odds against the gray aliens. The Grug dominated technological advancements in the seven sectors, and their telepathy meant they could coordinate their movements in a way no one else could match. They had over a hundred warships, easily, and some estimates took that number even higher.

Not to mention we’d recently found out the frekkers had also been doing lots of hidden experimentation over the years. They’d made a new, two-legged soldier form to fight all of us better. Who knew what else they now had?

Besides, the simulation also relied upon the people of my home world joining the fight. And no one on Zaar would even speak to me since I was one of the banished sent to Roam.

Not even my mother.

“Take a break from the sims,” I said to the bridge crew. Kirel wouldn’t interrupt for something trivial.

Everyone turned back to their individual stations and started work. The main viewscreen cleared to show outside, where the blocky Hyoo-mon shipARK 1floated beside the large gray asteroid of the Breyva space station.

I spun my chair to face Kirel. “What is it?”

“I found the Hyoo-mon captain.” As the Daredevil’s computer expert and one of the finest hackers in the seven sectors, Kirel had been digging through the Grug networks to discover where the gray aliens had taken the missing females.

His blue face lost all its usual charm, hardening into an unusual expression for him, and his lips curled back from his teeth, displaying his fangs. “You’re not going to believe where she frekking is.”

“Since we’ve already pulled over a thousand of them out of the Abyss, I’m not sure you can find any place worse,” I said. That entire sector was the horror story of space—a treacherous region infamous for swallowing ships and crews never to be seen again.

“Yeah, well.” He huffed out a breath and shoved his comp in front of my face. “She’s on Zaar.”

“Zaar,” I echoed, shock rippling through me. “They don’t let aliens on Zaar.”

My people walked a very hard line when it came to protecting our world’s ecosystem. It was hard wired into our genes—literally, when we cast off unmated males as a form of population control—and also codified into law.

Zaar was also the one place in the seven sectors any of us were forbidden to go.

“Can you ask your mother for help?” he said.

The words felt stiff and awkward as I pushed them out. “Senator Devalia has refused to return my calls.” I’d been trying for over a week. Since we’d told the Tula and Sjisji Hyoo-mons existed, it had seemed logical to try to tell the home world, even if communication with a banished like me was forbidden.

“What are we going to do? We can’t just leave Captain Lee there.” Her name, a simple sound more familiar than most of their alien words, rolled off his tongue easily.

“We won’t.” I pushed to my feet, a steely resolution straightening my spine. “I’m going to get her.”

Kirel gaped at me. My pilot gaped at me. Frek, the whole room spun as one to gape at me.

All Zaarn males banished to Roam were utterly forbidden to set foot on Zaar again.

If caught, my familial connections might assist me. As Senator Devalia, my mother held to the letter of the law, but I hoped she still loved me. She’d help me if possible.

If any of my crew were caught, they would have no such recourse. And I’d recognized the location of the place keeping Captain Lee. It stood right in the middle of the grivwood forest I’d vacationed in every summer as a boy. I knew it better than anyone on board, and that knowledge could make or break the mission. Even a slim hope was better than none. There could be no one else I would allow to do it.

“It’s a death sentence if you’re caught.”

“Then we better make sure I’m not caught.” I pulled out my comp and called my infiltration specialist, Raxnor. “Assemble everyone you think can help with an infiltration mission. My ready room, now.”

Seven minutes later, I opaqued the ready-room windows looking out onto the bridge but left the viewscreen of the other long wall on, showingARK 1framed against a scattering of stars. A mix of blue Zaarn and Hyoo-mons in various shades of brown surrounded the rectangular conference table. The room devolved into a swirl of agitation as Kirel told everyone the news about the Hyoo-mon captain and I announced I’d go after her. The only thing that kept it from descending into pure chaos was they’d thankfully left all their pets outside.

Gravin scowled, but then, he often scowled. “It’s a death sentence.”

Car-Raa flicked her long brown hair over her shoulder, her tan face determined. “Yeah, but we’re rescuing Captain Lee.”

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