Ecstasy Bound (3 page)

Nav-Control Ship FSMF-36, Deep Space

Frost stood by the main navigational control panel and stared down at the insignia she had ripped off a Warrior’s jacket years ago. “Braden Koll,” she murmured.

Right after he’d received word of a long-awaited promotion, she’d pulled off his old patch to make room for the new one. The rise in prestige had been exhilarating. She’d been elated for her lover. And for herself. Unfortunately, that feeling hadn’t lasted. Nor had their tumultuous relationship.

“Such potential wasted. He could have had it all.” Instead, he’d sacrificed what could have been for an uncertain future at best. And that future hadn’t included her.

Braden had since Branded a DNA-compatible woman from Earth. A Super-breeder.

Branding joined two mates for life. They would be able to sense each other’s location, know each other’s feelings. For months, talk of Braden and Alexa had spread across Marid, even running down through the mining camps and through the Slave Masters’

sex camps on the Sand Moon, for the woman was with child.

Braden’s mother had also been a Super-breeder, so many were saying that he and his mate would likely produce impressive offspring. Little did they realize just how impressive those children were destined to be.

Their joining had been deemed quite a coincidence, given the rarity of Super-breeders. But actually, probably not a coincidence, from what she had uncovered.

If examined closely enough, one usually could find that more than fate played into the seemingly random events of life. She saw Laszlo’s hand all over this joining. One manipulator always recognized another. Or so she’d believed, up until she had become a victim of betrayal herself. Recently, she’d let her guard down. She never intended to repeat that mistake.

Her second-in-command approached. He kept his voice low as he spoke. “We remain on course. What if your assumptions are incorrect? Do you have a backup plan?”

“I always have a backup plan. And my assumptions are not incorrect. Braden and Alexa, as well as several other high-ranking Xylons disappeared before the bombing of Xylon. The missing Warriors still live. To believe otherwise would be foolish on my part. And I’m far from foolish.”

“Commander?” a technician interrupted from a nearby station. “I need the communication frequency information.”

Frost nodded and her second-in-command turned. Her own thoughts remained focused on her recent discoveries. The Triad would be protected. She knew the secret.

The relationships. And the possibilities, depending on the birth of Alexa’s children, which hadn’t yet been confirmed. She was working on that and intended to use the knowledge to her advantage. Regardless of Braden’s involvement. Any feelings she might have had for him had waned long ago. For the most part.

Still… She couldn’t help thinking about what might have been had things turned out differently. She and Braden could have been quite formidable together if his sense of duty hadn’t been so strong. He was so well respected, it would have been easy for him to lead an uprising and overthrow not only Xylon’s Council but Laszlo as well if he’d had the ambition. In her opinion. When she’d mentioned it seemingly in jest one day to gauge his reaction, he hadn’t been amused. She’d known then that things would never work between them.

So one night soon after, she’d stolen top-secret military base codes from him. With the codes, she or whomever she gave them to, would have massive control over the Lair and the planet. It always amazed her how much power and information a woman could attain simply by fucking a man.

After that night, she’d left Braden and aligned herself with Daegal to destroy the Warriors, in exchange for the promise of power. Real power.

However, destroying the planet itself and killing everyone on it had never been her wish. If she’d known Daegal’s ultimate plan, would she still have given him the codes?

Considering what he’d promised her, she honestly didn’t know.

Her second-in-command turned back to her. “The frequencies have been set.

Nobody should be able to tap into the system now. What do you think Daegal’s true motive was for the annihilation of Xylon? It seems an act of sheer desperation.”

“I don’t know. And that is bothersome.” She felt as if he’d killed a giant sea-spurter with an atomic space torpedo. It would do the job if aimed correctly, but the residual destruction would be excessive.

“Why he’s so unwilling to try to adapt to what the future could bring doesn’t make sense. All he would have to do is use the knowledge he’s gained to his advantage instead of totally devastating every obstacle in his path. More must exist to this than we know.”

“That’s certainly a possibility,” she agreed. Whether Daegal realized it or not yet, his plan of destruction had failed. He hadn’t aimed the AST correctly, or in his case, the PowerIIRad bomb. Sure, he’d destroyed most Xylons but not the ones he’d
needed
to destroy. She could almost guarantee it. “Daegal is not unintelligent. Maybe he eventually plans to destroy every moon and planet in the quadrant not under his reign.” She shuddered at the thought.

“He must have been tortured as a child. His brain has certainly gotten scrambled somehow. Abuse would at least explain all his evil actions.”

People always sought to explain evil. Even with h
er. Many believed her evil too
longer cares about anyone or anything. Retaliation against whomever he perceives as an enemy is all that fuels him. We need to be cautious. He’s already deceived us once.”

Recently, she had aligned herself with yet another ally. Someone who could better get her what she wanted after she’d found out the promises made to her by Daegal were less than originally agreed upon.

Instead of settling for only a portion of the power she’d been promised, she would attain and hold all the power that existed in this quadrant of the galaxy and maybe even beyond. Ultimate power.
Yes.
That would indeed be sweet.

As long as she appeared loyal and true and she took things one step at a time, her ambitions would finally be realized. She could do this, for everyone always believed her loyal, even Braden, while she’d been with him. She squeezed the patch in her hand.

But they were all wrong. She would forever be loyal to just one person. Herself.

“The plans are progressing well then? You have yet to inform me of all the details.”

“Yes. The plans are moving along perfectly.” And she had no intention of telling him or anyone else all the details. She was too smart for that. “Our new ally is more controllable than Daegal. He holds great power. That’s all you need to know. Together we will be successful.”

Actually, she was the one who would be successful. Once in position, her new ally would be in for a very large shock, for he was only a means to an end. Just like all the others.

She fingered the small remote control device hanging around her neck. Yes, a means to an end. The device she guarded so protectively was connected directly to the implant in Class 2 Warrior Kam Nextor’s throat.

He had survived. Somehow. Somewhere.

The device recorded his vital signs. Just not his location. She had techs working on an upgrade now—a special plug-in with a locater designed to home in on the internal tracking chip in his brain, which all Xylons possessed. She’d obtained the frequency code on the Sand Moon during his implant surgery of a sonar device.

She hadn’t expected him to escape when he had, otherwise she’d have been more prepared and would already have had the locater in place. She should have known better and not underestimated him.

A beep drew her attention. She shoved the Warrior insignia into her pocket and followed the navigational change that popped up on her computer.

“He’s changing course.”

“Yes, I see,” she said as she studied the screen. Daegal’s ships had switched to his final heading. “Send a message for our ships to follow, then recheck the coordinates to make certain we’re exactly mirroring his path. I want our cluster of fighters and nav-control ships to simply look like a shadow in space if picked up by his onboard monitoring system.”

Her second-in-command nodded and turned on his heel to carry out her orders.

Frost turned from the screen. Daegal was headed for his final target, confident of his success and power. Though armed with more than scout orbiters, he’d still brought only enough ships, weaponry, Agents and Egesa to defeat the planet’s military. A mistake. She wondered what humans would think about the Egesa once they saw them in force. The half-lizard, half-humanoid Slave Masters would cause quite a stir, she imagined.

Daegal didn’t need to worry about Xylon’s Warriors and their military defense fleets interfering, but they were not his only formidable enemy. He just didn’t know that. Yet.

Still, she knew from past experience to be extra careful. Not to trust anyone. And certain people raised her warning meter more than others.

As she looked over her current crew, the female Agent sitting at the engineering controls caught her eye and her warning meter spiked to full capacity, like an Egesa’s cock during breeder-release. Rave. A former Class 1 Warrior who had turned. She’d worked for Daegal after her banishment from Xylon. Now Rave worked for
her
.

The woman was a Sensor Reader and a valuable asset, even though her powers had waned. Sensors could read emotions. Their abilities, boosted by specially constructed and assigned electronic equipment, made them an asset to any leader. Rave was also a trained Pain Master—a torture specialist. Her talents might come in handy once Frost had Kam in her clutches.

Frost had connected with Kam on the Sand Moon after he left the Warriors to join with Daegal’s Agents. She’d considered his switch in alliance a victory but she hadn’t gotten much information out of him, beyond what he’d initially promised to provide.

He’d gotten plenty out of her though. He’d set her up, lied to her and sabotaged their main computer systems. He’d been nothing more than a damn spy. He’d played his part well.

Revenge was going to prove tasty indeed.

She had plans for Kam. Eventually, he would take Rave’s place. His sensor skills were greater, for his equipment had not been neutralized and stripped as Rave’s had.

He would be more useful to her in the end. More powerful.

As long as she possessed the controller, she could make him do as she pleased. Not totally, but he’d have a hard time resisting the impulses she intended to send his way.

She had a job she needed him to do to solidify her position of power, provided the others lived, as she suspected. Otherwise, she’d have blown the device in his throat as soon as she’d discovered his betrayal.

The sonar device could not be neutralized. It would only appear dormant. And it couldn’t be removed without causing Kam’s death.

“The Xylons think themselves so smart,” she murmured, remembering Kam’s time on the Sand Moon. He had undergone a re-initiation to serve as an Agent while there.

Beforehand, he’d been injected with some substance by a Xylon Healer in an attempt to counteract the rite’s chemicals. It had shown up on his XBST blood and semen screening, an advanced test recently developed by Daegal’s Healers.

The chemicals injected by the Xylon Healer hadn’t worked, much to her delight.

Though Kam and everyone else would think that they had.

His Initiation and pending switch of alliance was now controlled by a trigger—a trigger that Kam himself would engage at the most opportune moment, or the most inopportune, given one’s perspective. This alternate method of Initiation trapped the chemicals from fully entering his system and had been done on Kam so he could remain undiscovered in the heart of the Warriors, once he returned to them as
her
Agent, right where she needed him to be. She chuckled.

If he hadn’t betrayed her, he would have knowingly been sent back as a spy, with the device in his throat, masking the chemicals. With him there unknowingly as her Agent, things might take a bit longer but would still work in the end.

“Power is such a rush.”