Taken (Warriors of Karal Book 3)
Chapter Twenty-Three – Chrissi
Chapter Twenty-Seven – Chrissi
Warriors of Karal
(Book Three)
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Note from the author:
My books are written, produced and edited in the UK where spellings and word usage can vary from U.S. English. The use of quotes in dialogue and other punctuation can also differ.
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All rights reserved. This book, or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written consent of the author or publisher.
This is a work of fiction and is intended for mature audiences only. All characters within are eighteen years of age or older. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, actual events or places is purely coincidental.
© 2016 Harmony Raines
Silver Moon Erotica
Kindle Edition
Chrissi always dreamed of being an astronaut, just like her dad, devoting her whole life to Operation Saviour, the human race’s last ditch attempt to find a new home. But days before her first launch, the project was cancelled, leaving her to pick up the pieces of her life. All thanks to the arrival of the Karal. With no real life qualifications, the only job she could get was in a factory keeping the machines running.
Now, her six-month trial is up, and her manager makes it clear; to get the job, she will have to earn it ... in his bed.
Malik is part of the ground crew for the deep space missions to find a new home for humans. But a last minute hitch means he is asked to replace one of the pilots and go into space with a female from Earth. As a Karalian warrior, he carries out his duty, but like many on Karal, he does not see why they are helping humans, when they could just take what they want.
However, Chrissi is different to how he thought a female would be, and he soon learns to enjoy her bright and resourceful company… he might even think he is in love.
As a warrior of Karal, he knows the mission is the most important thing. So when Chrissi is taken by slavers, he has to make a choice. Go home with the information they have gathered, or risk it all for the female from Earth who has taken hold of his heart.
Join Chrissi and Malik on an adventure into space, where they will find love and the strength to endure, no matter what the cost.
Chrissi looked up as the alarm sounded. Her shift had ended, she could go home. And what? Sleep. Sleep gave her an escape from this world, a chance to dream about how she once imagined her life would be.
“Chrissi, in my office, please,” the manager, Mr. Murgrove, called to her.
Smiling falsely, she replied, “Sure, I’ll just wash up and then I’ll be in.” The guy gave her the creeps, but he was the one who got to decide if she had passed her six-month trial. Six months of proving she was good enough to work in a manufacturing plant.
“No need. Now.” Mr. Murgrove’s face didn’t convey whether this was good news or bad. He wore the same expression as he did every day, sneering and privileged.
“Is this about my contract?” she asked hopefully as she reached his office.
The six months she had been here, she had worked hard, kept the machines going, and always stayed late if there was a problem. Overtime was never mentioned on those days. But she had taken it as a challenge. Because she needed the job.
Chrissi was a highly trained astronaut, but that meant nothing in the real world, and ever since the space program was shut down, that was exactly how she had felt—like nothing. The arrival of the Karal had made the President think twice about all the money he was spending trying to get humans into space. He had hitched his wagon to the Karal; if a new planet was going to be found for humans, then the Karal were the people to do it.
Chrissi might not have been so pissed at the whole thing if she hadn’t based her whole career on Operation Saviour, humanity’s last-ditch attempt to save itself by finding a new planet to colonise.
Career
didn’t quite cover it; she had put her personal life on hold to train hard and pass all her exams. Her first space mission was only a month away, when the President had shut it down.
Mr. Murgrove studied her for a moment, as if assessing her, before speaking. “I like your work ethic. And have decided to offer you a placement here.” He handed her a piece of paper. It had her name at the top and room for two signatures at the bottom; in the middle was her lifeline, words that would give her security, and a chance of a normal life.
“Thank you.” She held the contract in her hand, trying not to let him see how much she needed it. “This means a lot to me.”
Like the difference between starving on the streets, and having a roof over her head and food on her plate
.
He got up and approached her, making her feel instantly nervous. “Yes, I like watching you work. You are strong, resilient, resourceful. I like that in a woman.”
She swallowed down her rising panic. Was this some kind of a come-on, or was she mistaken? All she knew was she needed to get out of there, and fast. “Shall I sign it now?”
“Not so hasty, Chrissi. I think we need a little chat first. You see, I have been looking for a woman I can have a little fun with, and you might be just the thing.” She got the feeling, he wasn’t asking, that it was a requirement of the contract, and a shiver of fear passed through her.
“I’m flattered,” she said, although in her head, she screamed:
No way!
“You should be, Chrissi.”
“Then I’ll give it some thought,” she said, unsure what would happen if she said no straight away. She could read the data that computers spat out with ease, but humans were more difficult, no, humans were impossible.
“I’ll hang on to this while you do,” he said, taking the contract from her. As the piece of paper slipped out of her hands, she felt the lifeline being reeled in, out of her reach.
Without another word, she slipped out of the door, and closed it behind her. Without pausing, she ran down the stairs, taking them two at a time, knowing he would be watching her through the clear glass window of his office. Was that what he did all day? Watch her work?
Chrissi shuddered. What was she supposed to do? It had taken her weeks to settle into the small room she laughingly called an apartment after she left the Saviour. Now she was faced with a choice: leave the factory and have no income, or stay here to be Mr. Murgrove’s—what? Girlfriend.
Whore
.
She headed straight for her locker, getting changed quickly, just in case Mr. Murgrove decided to make advances to her again, and exited the factory. Out into the darkening night, she hurried across the road and turned the corner, ducking down an alleyway and then out into the market.
Shaking her head to clear her troubled mind, she ducked into the store to pick up some simcoff. There was no way he would follow her. He didn’t have to; her home address was on her employment records.
All you have to do is say no
.
Would he take no for an answer? If she turned him down, would he fire her? No, she was a good worker, he would surely take her on regardless of her answer. He was just testing her out, trying to figure out if she was interested.
She wasn’t
.
“Two coins,” the bored girl behind the scanner said. “And can I scan your tag for the lottery?”
“Sorry, no,” Chrissi said.
“I get a bonus if I can get another hundred women to enter,” the clerk droned, as if she had said the same thing a thousand times already today.
“No, thanks,” Chrissi replied, handing over her coins.
The girl took the coins, and then said, “Woman like you could do worse.”
“What does that mean?” Chrissi asked, picking up her simcoff and taking a step towards the door.
“Nothing,” The girl wiped her hands on her overalls, as if Chrissi had contaminated her. “But you have dirt under your fingernails and smudges of grease on your cheek. You really think that’s a life for a woman?” The girl dropped the coins into the cash register, and then added dreamily, “I would love to be chosen.”
“Some of us don’t need to be rescued by aliens,” Chrissi said.
“Suit yourself. Next.” The girl turned her back to Chrissi and began to serve the next customer.
Chrissi left the store, thinking no more about it, until she glanced up at the moon. It was hidden from view behind the cloud of pollution that permanently enveloped the planet. Maybe she should enter, what did she have to lose?
A crappy job, a manager who wanted her in his bed,
or up against the filing cabinet
.
And once that happened, you would have no choice
, she told herself. All the women who entered the lottery had to be virgins.
If she entered, it would be a chance to go into space, even if it was just once, one journey to Karal. Wasn’t that better than nothing, better than losing all of your dreams? She stood still, people tutting as they had to go around her as she stared at the moon, so high above the Earth.
Before she allowed her practical mind to talk herself out of her spontaneous decision, she headed back to the store.
“OK, enter my tag,” she said the girl.
“You’ll have to join the queue,” the girl said.
“It will take you, like, two seconds to scan me,” Chrissi said.
“You’ll have to join the queue.”
Chrissi hesitated, her enthusiasm waning. This was her excuse, her moment where she could change her mind and not enter the lottery, allow her life to go on, never leaving Earth. But the moon would still be hanging in the sky, beckoning to her every night. And Mr. Murgrove would still be her manager, with his leering looks
and control over her life
.
Slowly, deliberately, Chrissi went to the back of the queue; there she waited her turn. As the four people in front of her were served, she began to feel deflated. Just because she entered, didn’t mean she was going to win. This was the trouble with the lottery, it gave you hope, where you had no right to hope. Her dream had already been snatched from her once. Dare she allow herself to dream again?
Shuffling forward, she fought with herself over what she should do. And then she heard the machine beep. “Scanned,” said the girl, not even looking at her, before saying, “Next.”
Chrissi went back out into the night and walked home, refusing to look at the moon. It would probably always be out of her reach. She should get used to the fact. But inside, deep down, she allowed her hope to spawn. Suddenly the thought of going to work every day for the rest of her life, while the vastness of space grew dimmer and dimmer underneath the polluted air seemed stifling.