The Covenant (5 page)

“No problem, General. What can I do for you?”

“How bad is it?”

Short and to the point. Well, he didn’t really blame the man. “I assume

we are talking about Rapt One. Please, sit down. I’ll tell you what I can.”

“I’m cleared on the highest security levels, sir.” Thorne chose a chair

and sank into it, his gaze direct.

Ran had the ability to tell what other people were thinking with uncanny

precision and he could feel the other’s man’s tension, his worry, and

underneath it all, a sense of outrage under the calm façade.

He didn’t really blame him.

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Annabel Wolfe

“I know your clearance, General. Rest assured, I’ll tell you what I know,

but it really isn’t much. I received a communiqué recently that there was

what we think might have been terrorist activity directed at the Rapt One

colony. I’ve spoken with the governor there and he feels the problem is

contained, but we are at a loss as to who might have been behind it. As you

know, it’s one of the outermost planets, so we monitor security there at the

highest level.”

“I hope so. I understand my daughter is there. I am not happy about that

on several levels at this moment. I came to request she be recalled.”

Ran had a feeling that was what this visit was about. Unfortunately,

even though he understood the general’s point of view clearly enough—he

had a daughter himself—his hands were tied on the matter. “The quarantine

is a necessary step, wouldn’t you agree? Until we figure out how and why

the first contaminated individuals became infected, we can’t trust the fate of

thousands of citizens on the hope no one else has been exposed.”

“She’s an officer with a spotless record of service.”

“Yes, she is I understand. Congratulations, you must be quite proud of

her. But,” Ran paused, searching for the right thing to say, because he truly

was sympathetic, before continuing quietly, “but it does not make her

exempt from possible contamination. The virus could have come from

anywhere. It’s been substantiated it’s synthetically engineered, it’s fatal, and

no risks are being taken.”

“I could pull York’s personnel file but know nothing about Armada,

except his reputation as a talented engineer. He isn’t a solider.” The general

stated the words without inflection but the unspoken question was there.

Well, Ran supposed if his daughter was trapped on a distant planet

locked in with two S-species males, he’d also be damned concerned about

her welfare. “I know nothing about the pilot myself, but I can tell you

Armada is not only brilliant intellectually but he will treat your daughter

well.”

“You sound sure.”

“I know it to be a fact,” Ran said bluntly. “I traveled with Armada on a

diplomatic mission and we became good friends. I trust him.”

Thorne sighed. “She’s half-human,” he admitted, and added on a

murmur, “and very beautiful.”

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29

Not something either male would likely overlook, not for that length of

time.

Sometimes it was hell to be a father, Ran thought with silent sympathy.

* * * *

The warm water ran in streams over her skin and Aspen tilted her head

back, wetting her long hair, one hand braced on the wall of the washing

cubicle. The dried residue on her thighs was sticky and she rinsed it off,

amazed at the prodigious amount of sperm produced by S-species males.

Doing her duty hadn’t been quite as much of a sacrifice as she thought.

To her chagrin, it had turned out to be disturbingly wonderful.

All her life she’d been taught the merits of order and control. There had

been very little control in the way she’d responded to first Larik’s

lovemaking, and then succumbed to the impudent F-level pilot, no doubt

fueling his already formidable confidence. By the stars he’d even tasted her

pussy and she was pretty sure there wasn’t an inch of her he hadn’t touched.

They’d promised she would enjoy it and she had. Both males knew it.

Surely there were worse things in the universe than having two wildly

attractive, considerate lovers, wasn’t there? Of course there were, she told

herself with prosaic meditation, but the trouble was she had always

imagined her sexual life would be in tune with her emotional one. Maybe it

was her human side, but Trey was right, she did have a romantic ideal over

what she wanted when it came to choosing a mate. Physical desire was

important, of course, but she liked the notion of love. Her father had mated

with her mother for strict procreation purposes and after her birth, they had

gone their separate ways. Like most half-breeds, she had been given to her

father to raise because humans were considered inferior and given very few

rights. He had graciously allowed her to actually journey to earth and meet

her birth mother, but she knew many half-bred children not given that

opportunity.

In her opinion, both Larik Armada and Trey York typified their

dominant race. They were highly intelligent, confident, virile males.

Apparently they were
her
males for the next eight weeks.

Or rather, she thought with wry resignation, she was theirs. They had

each mated twice with her the night before and she had the feeling that

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Annabel Wolfe

however inexperienced she’d been before their arrival on Rapt One, by the

time the quarantine was over, she would have made up for lost time.

She finished bathing and stepped out, drying off and following the

instructions on the plaque on the wall, much like in the cubicles where

they’d changed their clothes. Nothing would be brought in so they had to be

careful so they would have clean linens and clothing the entire duration of

their captivity. The same thing with food and drink. There was plenty as

long as they didn’t waste any or overindulge.

She slipped into the regulation issue generic pants and shirt, brushed out

her damp hair, and left the cubicle for the main area of their sparse quarters.

There she found York in the galley, and Armada at one of the screens, a

slight frown on his face as he stared at what looked like a computer model

of the inside of a building. He glanced up as she came into the room. “Good

morning, Lieutenant.”

By the stars, she blushed like an idiot. “Good morning,” she said

briskly, trying to ignore the warmth in her face.

“Hungry?” Trey rummaged in the cooling unit and took out a package.

He set it on a shining metal ledge flanked by chairs supposed to serve as the

eating area and gave her one his devastating smiles, a hint of cocky male in

the lift of one brow.

She was hungry, actually. Aspen inclined her head, hoping she looked

cool and calm. “Thank you, yes.” The dignified effect was spoiled when she

went to sit down and winced.

“Sore?” he asked bluntly, unwrapping the food and setting it on a

serving disk.

An embarrassing question but he was right, she was a little tender. No

wonder, since they’d both been, well,
extremely
enthusiastic over the 051

regulation. “A little,” she admitted as she accepted the food. When he

handed her the disk, their fingers brushed and she couldn’t believe the

answering shiver that went through her body.

Trey York had very talented hands and it wasn’t confined to the controls

of a transport craft.

He looked thoughtful. “I’m going to bet there are lubrication capsules in

the med kit. I’ll look.”

“I’ll be fine,” she said hastily, wanting to change the subject.

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31

“Oh, Lieutenant, you are more than fine, let me tell you.” He winked,

the look in his crystal blue eyes telling her he found her morning after

embarrassment amusing. “Your enthusiasm for doing your duty has made

the next weeks trapped here sound like a vacation in paradise instead of a

prison sentence.”

“Is sex all you think about, Pilot?”

“That and flying,” he admitted, unrepentant and teasing. “Two of my

favorite things.”

Not a surprising answer. He was as good as lover as he was a pilot. Still,

Aspen wanted some measure of control over the situation. The night before,

she hadn’t had any. They’d taken over everything, her body, her senses, her

will…

“Aspen, when you’re done eating come look at this. Tell me I’m not

wrong here.”

The familiar use of her first name without her permission made her

stiffen, but then again, she supposed considering she’d been intimate with

him in the most basic of ways a female could be with a male, maybe

Armada felt entitled. She didn’t wait but got up and carried her plate over

and stood behind him where he sat by the screen, staring at the model.

“What am I supposed to be looking at?”

“I accessed the colony database. Here’s our energy station. This isn’t the

same—”

She interrupted, “You did
what
?”

Larik looked up at her, his sapphire eyes glimmering. “Broke in.

Hacked. Bypassed their defensive walls, whatever you want to call it.”

She swallowed because her mouth had been half-full and she stared at

him. “That’s impossible.”

“I was bored. It took me about two seconds. Anyway—”

“Armada, have lost your mind? It’s a capital offense.”

He shrugged his broad shoulders. “I used the governor’s link. Right now

the system thinks I’m him.”

She wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or horrified. That Larik

Armada was a genius wasn’t a surprise, but this recklessness was just why

she had been sent along, she guessed. It was supposed to be her job to make

him stick to regulations and impersonating the governor of a prestigious

colony was definitely not on the agenda. Besides, it really was punishable

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Annabel Wolfe

by some not very desirable consequences and she found she didn’t want

anything like that to happen to Larik.

Shit.
She could also get into trouble for this.

“Sign out,” she ordered tersely. “Get off there before they trace this

breach back to us. Here.”

“They won’t.” He disregarded the order and pointed. “Stop worrying

and look at this.”

York had seated himself at the ledge. He said with a laugh, “If he says

they can’t trace it, Lieutenant, they can’t. Trust me on that one. I think his

brain is a machine.”

That neither of them was worried didn’t surprise her, for that same selfconfident bravado seemed to seep from their very pores. In resignation, she

leaned forward and focused on the image Armada wanted her to see.

It was the same energy station they’d been called in to assess, and at

first glance all seemed to be in order. The blueprint she’d been sent to look

at prior to their departure had a conventional design and gave no reason for

the constant failure she could see, hence the trip to actually look at it

firsthand.

“That’s the station,” she said slowly. “I’ve seen the design before. It

shouldn’t fail, but then again, there could be a defective part, a flawed

transom—”

“Or,” Armada said without inflection, “there could be some reason

there’s an extra circuit in the main control panel. It isn’t in the original plans

at all.”

Until he pointed at it, Aspen would never have seen it. She furrowed her

brows. It existed. A tiny innocuous line in the center of the screen.
No one

would notice it by glancing over the plans.

No one but Armada.

This was puzzling, no doubt about it. “What makes you think it doesn’t

have a purpose? Sometimes things are changed or added by the design

engineers, you know that.”

“Oh, I think it does have a purpose. It kills the power to entire thing.”

“In one switch?” she objected, shaking her head, her food forgotten.

“There’s no way. The system has a dozen safeguards.”

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33

“Sure it does.” He tapped a few buttons, and a new screen came up, an

entirely different angle of the same plans. “All of those safeguards are shut

down by this one small switch.”

“You can’t know that.”

“I can know it. I
do
know it.” Larik rubbed his jaw, narrowing those

remarkable eyes. “The question is why? It isn’t included in the plans

originally sent to us. Why does someone continually shut down the power?

Why would they want to?”

Aspen looked at the screen, her mind processing the information as a

feeling of unease settled in her stomach. Her hunger deserted her all at once.

“You think the failures are on purpose?”

“I think that someone put in a way to constantly shut off the entire grid

when it is absolutely against all regulations and that means two things.” His

handsome face was set. “At the very least the chief engineer is involved and

the governor has no clue what’s going on or he wouldn’t have sent for me.”

York said coolly, “Because you spotted it at a glance. It kind of makes

me wonder if we aren’t stuck here to keep you from seeing anything else.”

The same thought had already occurred to her. Unfortunately. She

looked at York. “You honestly think there would be a plot to infect an entire