Glint (Phoenix in Flames Book 5) Read online

  Never before had he felt such a strong desire for a female. What did that mean? Gods, he wasn’t sure he was ready to mate yet, but he didn’t want that woman to get away. He knew he’d felt something as soon as he’d met her, but he hadn’t understood it. It was clear now, she was the one.

  He finished up his shower after he’d found some relief. It didn’t help much, but it took the pain down a level. How was he going to live here with his gorgeous female and not make a move on her? What would she do if he did? What would he do if she rejected him? Hell, this was a mission and he needed to concentrate on the task at hand. Right now he wasn’t even sure she could handle what he’d brought her along for.

  Love needed to be put in the backseat until the work was done. Right now he had the equipment automatically checking for communications and marking where they appear. In the morning they would begin the tedious task of sorting through all the places the computer had marked and separating out the sounds that were communications. Then those that were regular messages would be dismissed leaving the coded and suspect ones.

  That’s when George would get to work. Once it was translated into regular language, he would make the final decisions on what action if any would be taken. This was a dangerous mission if they were caught. The potential of facing an enemy was there because the little they had gotten out of the messages they had already gotten but only managed to pick little out of, made it sound as if the labs had found a new ally.

  Anyone that would ally with such an evil organization, was bad as well. Whoever this group pf aliens were, Razar was sure they were unknown to them and at the least, more advanced than Earth. If true, that was one more reason he worried that George would be up to this task. He hoped she was in bed getting a good night’s sleep as he was about to do.

  His bed was calling his name and the hot shower had made him sleepy. “Computer, set alarm for in eight hours.” A guy could hope he’d get a full night’s sleep even if he rarely did. He laid down on the bed and was asleep before he had time to worry about it.

  Dreams filled his head as he pursued his mate. She ran, but not in a way that made him feel she was rejecting him. It was more on a playful, sexy manner. George flirted as he’d never thought to see her before which surprised but delighted him. The loud annoying noise shocked him and made him freeze just as he was about to catch her. His luck didn’t seem to be as good as before.

  “Argh!” He groaned as he stretched on his bed.

  “I didn’t understand what you said.” Ladonna’s voice, she had programmed it with it, said.

  “Turn off alarm and make sure you wake up George.”

  “Don’t worry, Honey. George is cooking breakfast for both of you. It looks delish.”

  He immediately jumped out of bed, dressed, and headed to the kitchen area. The aroma of bacon, coffee, eggs, and sausage gravy made his mouth water. His superior sense of smell let him know exactly what George was cooking. At least the meal would get them off to a good start. Normally, his partners didn’t cook or do much in the way of seeing to their personal care.

  George was already showing she was different in a good way. She’d gotten the towels last night and not just her own and now she was fixing food. It smelled perfect, so she knew how to cook. With the advent of the prepacked meals on Earth, not many people cooked fresh food. The packaged food required little preparation and was the most affordable way to provide food for a family. They just tasted bland and were filling rather than tasty.

  Mazlans had access to those packaged foods and used them for their soldiers in situations where they had no access to fresh foods or preparation facilities. He hated them as did most of the soldiers but understood they were necessary at times. They were an improvement over the old field rations they used on many planets previously.

  “Good morning.” He said.

  “Morning’, I hope you’re hungry.” George said but she didn’t make eye contact.

  It was obvious last night would affect her. She was embarrassed that he’d seen her body uncovered. Was it best to ignore the pink elephant between them or try to reassure her it wouldn’t matter? How could he even attempt to pretend that was true? Ignore it then.

  “Starved. We both need to eat good because we’ll be working hard. There are weeks of recordings to go through.”

  “No one else has been going through them?” She seemed surprised.

  “No one could decode them so there was no point.”

  “These must be complicated that none of Razar’s specialists have managed to break the code.”

  “Razar has no specialists in this area. I don’t think you’ve studied the history of Oison. When Mazlan was destroyed, none on Oison had any education, it was a prison colony. It’s been five years or so since they were freed and while some have begun to get educations, none have as yet expressed interest in your field. Even those who came in, except for you, had only a basic knowledge ion that field. Ladonna and Patty are exceptions but not always available to Razar.”

  “It’s nice to be needed, I suppose.”

  “If you do well during this mission, I’m sure you will be rewarded.” He pointed out.

  She dished up a plate for him then did her own. “What are we waiting for? Let’s eat and get to work.”

  George seemed excited about seeing what was being sent and how it was encoded. He took that as a good sign since she didn’t feel overwhelmed and was confident. They ate and the food was great. Once it was done he sent her on and he cleaned up, washing the dishes and wiping everything down.

  He entered the communications room which was bigger in this outpost since this was a listening station. Much of what they did while they were here would occur in this room. George was relaxed with her feet propped up and headphones on. She had a controller and her hands flew over it.

  Deciding to leave her be, he looked up what she was working on and started at a different point. After an hour, he only had one small snippet that might or might not be an actual message. George was still at work with no signs of being bored or ready for a break. He was going to take a short one anyway.

  After using the facilities, he made them each a cup of coffee. Ladonna was priceless, she had supplied them with a few luxuries not usually available, well anywhere. Now he returned with a mug for each of them. Touching her arm, she jumped and her eyes opened. Holding her mug up made her smile and nod.

  It was time to get back to work. This was one of the dullest parts of his job. It wouldn’t be as bad if he could hear and understand what was being said. As if she read his thoughts, George pulled off her headset. “We don’t really need to listen to any more of this unless you want to.”

  “Why is that?”

  “While this is another language, what makes it so hard to understand is its being played at a low range. Humans barely hear it and even you supersensitive types are picking it up like someone mumbling. Once I raised the range, it was clearly words. After running it through several searches, I found a similar language. It’s an ancient one known to early Mazlans. Not all the words were decipherable, but most were.”

  “Are you going to give me a hint?”

  “Yes, we need to be ready for war. They’ve been working with some of the high level people associated with the labs. They plan to try to take over Oison. They’ve already got some people on the inside. I think it’s lunch time now.”

  “You’re hungry at a time like this?”

  “Why not? This has been going on for months. The enemy is slowly seeding spies inside Oison and the shops so when the time comes they will have few losses. They know what you’re people are and what the Mazlans are. Interesting reading. They think they have your weaknesses worked out. I traced where the calls are coming from and where they are going.”

  “How did you manage that? No one could get a trace on any of the calls.”

  “This is what I do.”

  He looked at George. Razar was going to want her to handle communications for his whole f
leet. He had no one that could do anything like what she’d just managed. That might not work if he wanted to get closer to her.

  “Let’s eat lunch then decide what we need to send Razar. He’ll want just the facts and the important ones.”

  George looked at him a moment. “I’ll have the computer identify and isolate all calls of that nature. Then it’ll translate them into an understandable message. We should be able to speed through them picking out the urgent matters, like if any spies are identified. We can also print out a map that shows the general locations of the calls on each end. That will get things started.”

  “You can do all that?”

  “Me and the computer can do almost anything.” George smiled and he melted. He’d never seen her smile before.

  “I’ll cook lunch.” He offered and she nodded.

  He left to get things started while she worked with the computer to do all those things she’d said could be done. By the time lunch was cooked, she was headed into the dining room which was open to the kitchen.

  “Get everything done?” He asked then he thought that was a dumb question. She wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t done.

  “Piece of cake.”

  Chapter 3

  Enemies All Around

  The food smelled delicious. She’d not seen many males that could actually cook or that were willing to do it. Mazlans and Phoenix were different from humans. The plates were piled high and she was sure she was going to gain weight if they stayed here long. What he had made tasted wonderful and she finished her all her food.

  “That was so good.” She complimented.

  “Ladonna sent the best. It’s easy to make a good meal with great supplies.”

  “I was wondering if the station had defensive or offensive protection.” She asked.

  “Not much. It generally goes unnoticed. Why do you ask?”

  “The computer just alerted me to a ship of unknown origin heading straight for us. There is nothing else that it can be headed toward in our vicinity. It will be here tomorrow at the current speed and heading.”

  “Do you connect to the computer like Ladonna does?” He asked clearly unnerved.

  “Sure I do. This is the part of my brain I connect with. She pulled something loose and tossed it to him. He jerked as he caught her ear phone.

  “Very funny.” He commented as she laughed at him. ”You have a nice laugh. It’s good to see you loosen up even if it was at my expense. Here, take it back.” He handed her ear piece back to her.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pick on you.”

  “It’s alright. I have a sense of humor. I just wasn’t expecting that from you.”

  “What about the ship?”

  “That wasn’t part of the joke?”

  “I don’t find incoming enemy ships funny.”

  “We’ll go sleep for a few hours while the computer does its work. When we get up, we’ll load the ship and send the station in closer to Mazlan territory. Maybe a warship can make it in time. I’ll call Razar and see if that’s possible.”

  “Won’t it be dangerous to delay leaving?” She asked.

  “Everything about being a soldier is dangerous.” Glint admitted.

  “True, but they said to take no unnecessary risks.”

  “They don’t tell all of us that.”

  “Only the females?”

  “Those and the tech heads. They have too few to risk the ones they have. We won’t be taking many risks. Our scout ship has camouflage.”

  “So does the station but they found it.” She replied.

  “The station is larger and has been sending out unprotected signals.”

  “You were hoping to lure them in.”

  “Hoping is a strong word. We wondered if they might respond if they feared they would be revealed.”

  “You could have warned me.”

  “It was on a need to know basis.”

  “Yes, yes. And I didn’t need to know my life was being risked.”

  “We don’t feel that it is. I’ll protect you if you trust me.”

  “I barely know you, Glint.”

  “You will before this mission is done.”

  “There’s more?”

  “It depends on what happens next. Meanwhile we should get some rest.”

  She simply nodded unsure of what to say. It was alright to be frightened, she’d always heard. That was good because she was, but courage was to do what you were called on to do anyway. She would do that when the future called on her, hopefully.

  Cleaning up quickly with Glint’s help, they parted ways to catch some sleep. She wondered what it would be like to spend the night in his arms. Naughty thoughts for one as innocent as herself. But she had found such thoughts came at her more and more the longer she was around Glint.

  Maybe her shy girl ways were being slowly dissolved. Or maybe she was maturing sexually. It was hard not to notice how handsome and exciting Glint was. She felt a warm sizzle when she looked at him. It was something she’d never felt before and she didn’t really understand what it was. Hopefully it would just go away.

  Settling in to sleep. She hoped things would go better once they woke. Her mind ran a hundred miles a minute and just when she feared she’d never sleep, she must have drifted off. “Wake up, George.” It was the computer.

  “Yes, I’m awake. What is happening?”

  “The ship headed here has increased its speed. Glint has told me to wake you and advise you that he needs you to help prepare to take off.” The computer directed.

  Hopping up, she dressed in moments and grabbed her duffle. Her computer bag was also ready in moments. Those she would load first then she would help him prepare whatever was needed. A strange sense of movement hit her.

  “Computer, is the station moving?”

  “Glint had instructed me to move in the direction of the nearest warship which also happens to be away from the encroaching ship.”

  Wise, she supposed even if it gave them little extra time. The station couldn’t move at light speed as the oncoming ship was. Their small scout ship could, but they needed to load it and head out. Moving quickly, she loaded her bag and as she was leaving the ship, ran right into Glint’s hard chest.

  His arms moved up catching and holding her against him. Breathing in deeply, she loved his spicy masculine smell. When had she ever noticed how a male smelled unless it was bad? “Excuse me. I loaded my personal gear and I’m now ready to assist you.”

  “Yes, well let me unload my personal gear and we’ll get to it.” He said and she noticed he had a bag in each hand. She nodded and stepped around him to wait for him to be done.

  “We need to get the computer off here. It’s not a huge one, but it’s heavy and we’ll have to haul it on a cart. I’m sure we can lift it together.”

  “I’ll help as much as I can.”

  “Just follow me to the computer room.” That also happened to be the communication room.

  She supposed the computer was an expensive piece of equipment. “Why are we taking the whole computer?”

  “We need to be sure we have all the information the computer has.”

  “We can take the software and any stored information without taking the heaviest parts.”

  “Are you sure we’d not leave anything behind?” Glint asked.

  “Yes, it’s even marked so an untrained person can take it in an emergency situation. See those marks here?”

  “Yes, I do. How do you know so much about computers?”

  “I had a dual degree. I actually started out working with the computers when I was working on my degree then decided communications suited my talents better.”

  She hurried and pulled the needed sections that stored information as well as the heart and brain of the computer. They were the lightest parts. “We could, if needed, hook this up to the ship’s computer so we can access anything we need.”

  “That was amazing and I liked the way you simplified things so I would understan
d.” She grinned at him. That he had noticed she had broken things down for him surprised her.

  “Let’s get this loaded and we can take off. I’m hoping the Night Wind will get here before the unknown ship does.”

  “Will we meet the Night Wind?”

  “No, we will go to the right instead of straight as we intended to all along. There is another place we will check out. Several actually are where messages were intercepted from by locals acting in the best interest of the Mazlans and themselves.”

  “I’m not very good at secret spy stuff.”

  “You’ll just pretend to be a boy. That way no one will notice you. You can carry a bag for me like a porter. They’ll assume what they wish, but they won’t think you are anyone important.”

  She didn’t know how she felt about that. It was true she had perfected the art of disappearing from notice. That meant she shouldn’t be offended if Glint appreciated that talent now. He’d noticed her in the bathroom the other day. There had been no doubt that he had. Her cheeks pinked at the memory.

  They finished loading the ship and locking everything down to make it harder to access by unauthorized people. As soon as that was done, they hurried away to their scout ship. Glint went through launching protocols and they were shooting off the station in minutes. She should be excited about seeing things she’d never seen before and going places that were unexpected. That might be the case if danger didn’t hang over everything they were about to do.

  She stole a glance at Glint and recognized the look of worry on his face. It seemed he wasn’t confident about their plan of action either. As she observed him, a flutter in her stomach distracted her. What did that mean? It only occurred when she looked at him. Hopefully she wasn’t becoming drawn to him. This was the worst time to become attracted to someone. They both needed their heads and hearts clear and their eyes on the prize. Otherwise they might not live to tell about this adventure.