Chapter 4

FOUR

She had her own private shuttle—as if she were some sort of VIP.

The sleek, black craft had picked her up from the rooftop garden of her modest apartment, hovering silently without even a gust of wind or an engine roar.

It was invisible, too, its presence only revealed to a select few—her included.

As far as the neighbors were concerned, it might as well not have existed.

She’d walked up a set of momentarily visible steps into the cool, dim cabin, feeling a little giddy as her feet left solid ground.

Inside, a softly-spoken crew member wearing a black uniform escorted her to her seat. Once she was secured by a set of seamless safety restraints, the spacecraft took off, and the only way she could tell was because of the view out the window.

The rosy pink sky of late afternoon quickly turned into the star-speckled black of space.

It was surreal.

The cabin was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

She was floating, drifting through space.

Bea had never been to space before. Even though space travel was fairly accessible these days, she’d never had the urge. She’d always had this fear that something bad would happen—that the ship would malfunction or crash, leaving her stranded and ultimately leading to her demise in the cold, silent vacuum of space.

Funnily enough, she wasn’t nervous about traveling in a Kordolian ship. That was her logical brain taking over, telling her that these guys had been doing space travel before humans had even made it out of the Dark Ages.

The stillness and quietness of the ship as it hurtled through space kind of confirmed her hunch.

She was safe here.

She didn’t really understand why or how, but she was a guest of these people—these aliens— just like her friend Clarissa.

So far, everything they’d done had been perfectly decent and courteous. She didn’t have a single bad word to say about the silver aliens, which was completely at odds with what the talking heads on the Networks would have her believe.

Apparently, Kordolians were absolutely ruthless. They were powerful beyond imagining—with an unrivaled fleet presence throughout the entirety of the Nine Galaxies.

They were warmongers.

Colonizers.

They dominated everything they touched.

If they wanted, they could hold this planet hostage and bring the entire human species to heel.

If some of the pundits were to be believed, they already had.

And yet …

They were surprisingly chill. At least he had been chill… that guy.

Mavrel.

That day, when she was working front reception at Garner Tower, when the Kordolians showed up unannounced with that big-shot Jerik Garul at the helm, the whole thing had devolved into a ridiculous hostage situation.

Being Kordolian, Mavrel had been on the receiving end of some really shitty treatment from her boss’s hired mercenaries, who had tried to force Jerik Garul’s hand—the former High Commander, Jerik Garul.

What idiots.

Mavrel had endured it all with a slightly bored expression--as if this sort of thing happened all the time.

From across the room, he’d subtly caught her attention on more than one occasion, comically rolling his eyes or frowning in an exasperated way.

Not at her— with her.

As if they were partners in crime.

“ Don’t worry ,” he’d told her afterward. “ We know you weren’t involved in any of this. You won’t get any trouble from us.”

She’d laughed, hardly believing the absurdity of it all. “ Professionalism dictates that I say nothing that would incriminate my organization right now, but I can at least apologize on behalf of all humans… for human stupidity.”

“ You don’t need to apologize. You obviously aren’t one of the stupid ones.”

He’d left her with a strange feeling—light, fluttering, almost giddy.

Bea stared out the small window, observing the fantastic stars. They looked different from up here: sharper, more brilliant, glittering like tiny diamonds.

She tried to distract herself with the stars when all she could see in her mind’s eye was his face.

Why were all Kordolians so damn striking?

Every single one she’d encountered in the flesh looked like a character out of a holomovie. They were lean, hardened, and sharp-edged.

Beautiful.

Especially him.

Tall and elegant, he’d moved with leonine grace. He had shimmering silver skin and long white hair that was casually, insolently tousled.

And then there were those golden eyes of his—so unusual, burning a pleasant hole in her memories.

She’d never paid much attention to Kordolians before. Everyone knew they were around, and they were here to stay. Bea was well aware that their appearance in Earth’s orbit marked a seismic shift in the course of human history, but she’d chosen to ignore the implications.

After all, she could only deal with what was right in front of her, day to day.

There was no point in worrying about things she had no control over.

There was a slight shift in the shuttle’s movement, and suddenly, she saw nothing but black.

The stars were gone.

The ship was perfectly still.

“We’ve arrived in the airlock,” a disembodied voice explained over some hidden speaker. It sounded like the crew member who’d greeted her earlier. “Please remain seated until the ship has docked.”

Bea shook her head in amazement. It wasn’t as if she could get up anyway—the safety restraints they’d put on her had her snugly secured in the big, curving chair—but at least they had the courtesy to make an announcement of some sort, as if she were flying on a human transport.

There was a slight delay as they floated in darkness and silence. Thank the stars for the dim blue cabin lighting. Without it, she’d be completely blind.

Kordolians had natural night vision, didn’t they?

Here, the conditions were in their favor. She was the one who had to adapt.

The thought was a little sobering.

What the hell am I doing here?

Before regret could properly take hold, the crew member appeared again, approaching her with alien precision, his expression perfectly unreadable, his head tipping in a slight bow.

This one was so different from Mavrel. He was guarded and restrained, polite but detached.

“Thank you for your patience, Miss Maina. We’ve arrived.”

The restraints slid away from her body. Before she could help it, Bea let out a soft sigh of relief.

“You may exit via the main ramp. A transport will arrive shortly to take you to the event location.”

“Thank you.” Bea rose to her feet, smoothing her dress around her hips, her skirt draping elegantly, falling to her ankles. She wore a strapless deep blue silk gown with a cinched, ruched waist and a skirt with a thigh-high slit, the cut of the dress accentuating her hourglass figure.

Her hair was done up in platinum micro braids—a nod to the Kordolians themselves—her natural dark brown interwoven with lustrous extensions. She’d had it fashioned into an updo, leaving her neck and shoulders bare and unadorned.

The only jewelry she wore was a pair of brilliantly colored deep violet tanzanite drop earrings, the gemstones teardrop-shaped and surrounded by tiny diamonds.

They were precious to her—they’d belonged to her grandmother.

Bea’s eyes widened as the wall of the ship unraveled before her very eyes, millions of dark fibers splitting apart to reveal an oval-shaped doorway.

Huh. Will you look at that?

She followed the nameless crew member as he led her through the door and down a gently sloping ramp.

Bea looked up in amazement. They were inside a vast space—an intergalactic aircraft hangar of sorts—filled with ships of varying sizes. There were big, menacing-looking ones with sleek lines. There were smaller ones that looked relatively benign—like the ship she’d just arrived on. There were at least a dozen Kordolian workers on the floor, assigned to various tasks.

“Welcome to the Fleet Station,” her guide said dryly, not even bothering to look over his shoulder.

That was fine with Bea.

She was totally overawed with the place.

She took a few steps and then…

Crack.

“ Ow ,” she gasped as her ankle rolled, and she promptly fell off the side of the ramp, landing on her ass on the hard floor.

Pain shot through her ankle.

She winced and gasped in dismay.

So much for her grand entrance.

So much for looking like a billion bucks.

Bea glanced at her foot. Her much-loved silver high heels had let her down.

The stupid heel had broken.

Now, of all times?

Just her bloody luck.

The crewman rushed to her side and put one arm under hers, helping her to her feet. Bea blinked tears from her eyes as the sharp pain in her ankle intensified.

She held up the offending heel. “I don’t suppose you have superglue and an ice pack, do you?”

The Kordolian gave her a blank look. “No. But we can heal that and synthesize a replacement for your damaged footwear. It won’t take long. Wait here with me while I summon a transporter.”

He allowed her to lean on him as he spoke into his comm in his lyrical mother tongue.

What a beautiful-sounding language it was.

How polite and courteous they all were.

Bea had rarely been treated so well on Earth.

“Thank you,” she said to the Kordolian, her face flushing with embarrassment, her heart sinking in dismay. Of all the stupid things to happen.

The crewman barely noticed as he stood next to her, offering his arm for her to lean on in a purely professional manner.

And Bea couldn’t help but wonder— absolutely hypothetically —what it might’ve felt like to have that other guy beside her…

Would she even see him tonight?

Now that she’d been sidelined, her chances were looking pretty slim.