Ignite by Tana Stone
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kalex
I stood from my desk when Zoey barreled into my strategy room. She was the last person I’d expected to see coming through the door, especially since I was in the middle of briefing High Commander Dorn about the incident.
The holoprojection of Dorn in his full Drexian uniform, the sash heavy with medals crossing his chest, pivoted to appraise Zoey. His mouth quirked at the corners though he didn’t crack a smile. “Who are you making deals with now, Captain?”
Vekron, who’d been half-sitting on the corner of my desk, stood at the astro-architect’s bold entrance. “This is a pleasant surprise.”
Zoey looked stunned, her bravado melting away and her tight fists uncurling. Her gaze quickly swept the small room, lingering for only a moment on the view of space before returning to the life-sized holoprojection, the semi-transparent image of the Drexian flickering slightly. “I didn’t know…”
“It’s fine,” I said, waving her inside and walking around the desk to stand beside Vekron. I inclined my head at the holo-projection. “High Commander Dorn, I’d like you to meet the station’s astro-architect—”
“Zoey,” he finished for me, his attention fully on her. “I’ve heard of you. The first human astro-architect.”
She shifted under the scrutiny, and I almost felt sorry for her. I’d been the recipient of Dorn’s intense attention before. Even when he was pleased with you, it could be an overwhelming experience.
“That’s right,” she said, her voice lacking its customary edge.
Dorn nodded, clasping his hands behind his back, which made his broad chest look even larger and his rows of colorful medals more prominent. “I’ve heard positive reports about your work.”
She glanced at me for a beat before returning her attention to the High Commander. “Thank you, sir.”
I watched with amusement as the usually fiery woman stood at attention as she faced the commander. Part of me wished she’d show me that kind of respect, but another part of me was glad she didn’t. Even though I’d never admit it out loud and certainly not to her, I preferred her when she was snapping back at me and firing my own temper. I had enough officers who saluted me.
“Send me those reports, Captain,” Dorn said, finally turning from Zoey to me. “And I’ll be interested to read your take on the frequency disruptions, Vekron.”
Vekron and I both threw back our shoulders and thumped our fists across our chests. The former Inferno Force commander returned the salute, giving a curt nod to Zoey before his image vanished.
Instantly, the tension that had been crackling in the room dissipated, and we all exhaled.
“He’s intimidating,” Zoey said, her eyes still wide.
“He used to be Inferno Force,” I said. “Now he serves on the Drexian High Command, which means he—”
“I know what it means,” Zoey interrupted me. “I did study up on the Drexian military culture and governance before coming here.”
There was the Zoey I knew. I almost grinned at her snappy response. “Good. Then you know that all captains and commanders in the fleet report to him.”
“Is that why you’re here when you told me you’d let me know what you discovered on your fly-about?”
Vekron leaned back on my desk, hitching one leg higher than the other and observing us as if he was watching a performance. My friend was clever, and he knew me well. If I wasn’t careful, he’d figure out that the tension between us had become something more.
I braced my hands on my hips and modulated my voice. “My first duty is to the safety of this ship and to the Drexian empire, not to mention the human tributes who’ll be living here.”
“You think I don’t get that?” She glared back at me, the fight returning to her with admirable speed. “I’m just as worried about this station as you are.”
Vekron stood. “I think we all want the same thing, right?”
Neither of us answered, so he barreled on. “Dorn was right. We still don’t know exactly what happened or why. Kalex is still gathering the data from the station’s systems to figure out how they were disabled, and I’m studying the energy fluctuations and reverse tracking them so we can determine from where the Kronock are attempting to jump.”
I closed my eyes for a moment as Zoey sucked in a sudden breath. So much for keeping the Kronock involvement secret.
“Did you say Kronock?” she asked. “As in the horrible aliens who tried to invade Earth and wipe out our entire civilization so they could wipe out yours?”
“Yes,” I answered for Vekron while shooting him a murderous look. “All the evidence is pointing to the blackout being a part of a coordinated attempt by our enemy.”
Zoey shook her head. “But I thought they’d been beaten back. Didn’t they slink off with their tails between their legs?”
I was reminded that Zoey’s knowledge of the Kronock was limited—we hadn’t wanted Earthlings to know all the horrors the species had inflicted on the galaxy—and she didn’t know that the vicious creatures had gone dormant before and returned more determined than ever to rain destruction and death on us and on Earth.
“The Kronock never go away for good,” I said. “If they’ve been quiet, it’s only because they’ve been planning and waiting for the right time to strike.”
“And you think that time is now?” Zoey’s voice cracked.
There was no point in keeping information from her to protect her. Now that she knew the Kronock were involved, she needed to know everything. “I think they’ve been testing a way to get to us without risking what ships they have. The failed invasion of Earth decimated their fleet, and they haven’t had enough time to rebuild. That doesn’t mean they haven’t been working on alternative technologies.”
“Alternative technologies?”
I glanced at Vekron for help. Technology, especially as it related to the Kronock, was his department.
“The last time our enemy went quiet, it was for decades,” he said, running a hand through his loose hair. “But in that time, they developed tech to enhance their own biology, and they managed to steal the basic formula of our jump technology. They haven’t mastered the intricacies of it, which means they haven’t been able to jump large vessels like battleships.”
“Until now,” I grumbled. Now, more than ever, I was convinced it was a Kronock battleship I’d seen for a fleeting moment.
“What does this mean?” Zoey asked, looking from me to Vekron.
My friend strode to the door. “It means time’s up for me to get our shields working at maximum capacity. But it also means that our Kronock friends got impatient and tipped their hand. If they’d been counting on the element of surprise, they just lost it.”
He nodded to both of us before walking back out to the bridge.
Zoey whirled, one finger leveled at me. “You knew about this.”
I thought about denying it but decided against it. Lying wasn’t in my nature. “Yes.”
She advanced on me, eyes blazing. “You kept it from me. Why?”
“I wasn’t certain—and I didn’t want to scare you.”
“I don’t scare easily.” She bit out the words as she stood in front of me, anger radiating from her. Even as she claimed not to be scared, I knew her anger was mixed up with a healthy amount of fear of the unknown.
“You’d be crazy not to be a little scared of the Kronock.”
“A lot of people already think I’m crazy for taking a job on an alien space station in deep space.”
I eyed her. I’d never given much thought to how brave it was for a human to volunteer to live and work in space when their planet had only recently become aware of our existence—and of the existence of the Kronock. I closed the gap between us, feathering my fingers through her short hair. “Not crazy. Brave.”
She drew in a quick breath at my touch, biting her lower lip as if holding herself back from something. My cock stirred as I watched her chest rise and fall.
“You should have told me.” Some of the anger had left her voice, but her eyes still held mine in challenge. “I thought I’d proven to you that I’m not fragile.”
I slid my hand from her hair to cup her chin, dragging my fingers across the smooth skin of her cheek. Her touch sent electric pulses skittering up my arm, and my cock stiffened. “That doesn’t mean I can’t protect you.”
“I don’t need your protection,” she whispered.
I tilted her face up to mine. “What do you need?”
Her plump lips parted, and a small breath escaped from between them. Her pupils were dark pools of desire, luring me to their depths. It was all the invitation I needed to wrap my other arm around her waist and jerk her body flush to mine, crashing my mouth onto hers.