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Chapter1
Louella Cordelia Jefferson—the middle name courtesy of Mama being a diehard fan ofBuffy the Vampire SlayerandAngel—shivered in the cold of the massive ventilation tunnel into which she’d escaped. Her hair grew out wildly from her head, matted and dirty. Her once plump limbs, thick thighs, wide hips, and generous breasts had shrunk to the waiflike skinny favored by supermodels and starving people in Sudan. Her filthy clothes had long since disintegrated into rags.
She peeked through a grate at the hideous insectoid being that herded a new cargo of slaves toward the shuttle bay. She wished she could save them, too, but they were too well-guarded. Ever since she’d taken advantage of a minute lapse in security, the Sivuul had been extra-vigilant in guarding their captives.
Louella gave thanks every day—not that she was sure how many Earth days had passed—that she’d managed to escape before the Sivuul had implanted one of those mind control devices into her head like they had every other poor soul she’d witnessed come through the spaceship—none of them human.
A spaceship.She nearly laughed, but caught the sound before it could escape and alert the Sivuulian guards of her proximity. The nasty, overgrown grasshoppers would tear the ship apart to get her. She supposed she was lucky they had an extremely poor sense of smell; however, their antennae caught the weakest of sound waves in the air, so she’d learned early to bevewy, vewy quiet. Thank you, Elmer Fudd.
She smiled at the memory of the old cartoons, one of the few times her mama had allowed the kids to watch whatever they wanted instead of her soap operas. Louella loved her mother, even though she acknowledged Dawana D’light Jefferson was the poster child for “welfare queen.” Louella had worked hard and studied hard to escape the generational poverty within which her extended family was mired.
She might not have had the wherewithal to pursue a degree in medicine and become a doctor, but she took pride in having earned a degree in nursing. She’d built a career as a licensed practical nurse and moved out of Mama’s run-down apartment in the Porter Place projects, setting herself up in a tidy apartment a couple of towns over. It was close enough to tend to Mama when called upon, but far enough away that her siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles didn’t often make the drive to beg her for money or to crash at her place. She’d purchased a used car that worked. The fifteen-year-old Honda Civic wasn’t fancy or even particularly pretty, but it was reliable and got great fuel mileage. She’d made more of herself than anyone else in her family, damn it!
Until that weaselly pig, Argosie, had sent her to An’hudin when she thought she was signing up for a civilian job at an overseas military base.Overseas, hah!He’d told her there were fine, upstanding soldiers at the base who were looking to get married and, if she agreed, he would add a note to her record that she was amenable to on-base socialization with an aim to marriage. Married soldiers, he assured her, made better soldiers because they were fighting for their loved ones, not just an amorphous concept. That made sense. She’d rather liked the idea of marrying a gainfully employed, upstanding soldier whowantedawife, not just a temporary bed partner.
Arriving on Ahn’hudin had been a shock, but not as much as actuallyseeingthe planet’s natives. Louella’s lips peeled back from her teeth in a silent snarl. She wanted to get her hands on that jerk, Argosie, but that was looking less and less likely. He had misled her.
First, she had to get off the Sivuulian spaceship.
Was “Sivuulian” even the correct word?Louella shrugged and scratched at her itchy scalp beneath the matted hair, because she really didn’t care.
She hoped Marisol was doing well. If she was, and at the first opportunity, Louella was going to kick her friend’s ass for convincing her to apply for the job that delivered them both into Mr. Argosie’s clutches.
Louella embraced her anger. It kept her warm within the chill ventilation tunnels she roamed. The air rushing by here was musty. The Sivuul stank. Their cargo often smelled worse.
Watching through the grate, she saw the big insects drive their latest batch of slaves into a transport. The slaves weren’t human. She didn’t know what species they were, but they obeyed without demur, their gazes blank.Ah, they’ve had the mind control implants installed.As the shuttle door lowered into place and sealed the slaves inside, klaxons blared and orange lights began to flash. The Sivuulian guards left their slaves locked inside the shuttle and raced to wherever the queen bug or whatever demanded they go.
Louella saw her opportunity.
* * *
General Superior Yas’kihn mek Kuresh’Zha led. He always led. An honorable and effective leader did not send troops where he himself would not venture.
He led the boarding party aboard the Sivuul mothership, the human-Ahn’hudi hybrid female’s muttered comment still ringing in his mind: “I’m not surprised.” The words disturbed him less than the tone. Why had she not been surprised at his failure to obtain a mate at the bride games? He was a valuable warrior: powerful, affluent, skilled, dominant. His people held him in deep respect and more than a little fear. Any female would be honored to have him as her mate.
So, why had he failed?
A flicker of movement caught his eye. Yas’kihn acted without thinking, aiming and shooting the insectile Sivuul that defended its ship from the Ahn’hudi invaders he had just led aboard. After the Sivuul’s latest attack, they deserved no mercy.
With a quiet hiss, he sent a team off to the left, while he and the primary team veered right, weapons blazing and blades swinging, slaying every Sivuul they encountered. A third team from the Ahn’hudi warship followed behind with a fourth and a fifth to back them up. Yas’kihn was taking no chances with his warriors on this mission.
He led by example, leaving a trail of twitching limbs and yellow ichor behind, the slaughter rote as his body reacted and acted by dint of predatory instinct, extensive and continued training, and great experience. His mind used the opportunity to ponder the subject of humans, specifically human females.
Humans were so terribly complicated. And treacherous. But for the desirability of human females, he would have categorized the species in the same class as the voracious, rapacious Sivuul in their quest to conquer and consume the universe. He needed to remember that humans in general were not to be trusted, as Colonel Horas’ mate had shown via her alert regarding dishonorable conduct at the Earthlings’ embassy. Ahn’hudin owed the feisty female a debt of gratitude.
He enjoyed the slaughter, but wondered how it was that they had caught the Sivuul mothership so unprepared.
“Cargo!” one of his team hissed after breaking down a door.
“Call in the primary extraction group,” Yas’kihn ordered, peering in to see a small cluster of Firnian slaves huddling in a corner. His tail lashed from side to side. He was no fan of Firnians, but these were younglings. All Ahn’hudi cherished younglings regardless of species.
“Aye, General,” the warrior replied as he summoned the primary extraction team.
“It’s a warehouse,” another of his team commented upon breaking down another door and finding another cluster of frightened captives.
Another Ahn’hudi warrior cursed under his breath as a squad of Sivuul rounded a corner. Yas’kihn leapt into action, blades swinging. He could have shot them, but dismembering them was so much more satisfying.
The Ahn’hudi boarding parties swept through the Sivuul mothership like a gale wind followed by a half dozen extraction teams who rounded up slaves and herded them back to the warship.
