Love, Encoded (Selected Evolution Series Book 1) Read online

  She reached out to the instruments on the table. Her hand hovered for a moment then she closed her fingers around one. She made an adjustment here, a reconnection there. Another instrument, another adjustment. Now, if she took that biomorphic conducer . . . where was it? She hefted a purse-sized, clear polymer bag so the room’s light backlit the golden gel. Several dark green blooms became highlighted.

  Hmm, it seems to have an infection.

  She slipped on a pair of spectrum glasses and, holding the bag this way and that, studied the molecular structure of the disease.

  Okay, where’s that . . . yes, that one.

  With a slim stylus she tapped instructions into a syringe-like instrument then injected the conducer. Within seconds her treatment eradicated the disease and the power pack returned to healthy.

  So, now to . . .

  Concentration slipped her tongue out the side of her mouth to ensure the correct calibration of the energy pack.

  Good.

  Dock it on the vest here, press that switch and . . . A soft hum buzzed.

  Excellent! Field-test time.

  She slipped the vest on.

  Nice. Light. You wouldn’t even know you had it on.

  Now all she had to do was get somebody to throw something at her.

  “Would you care for something to eat?”

  Sarah blinked from her absorption and turned to the door. “Marnia. Good, here,” she grabbed a small stone sculpture from the dresser and shoved it at the other woman. “Chuck this at me, would you?”

  Marnia placed the tray she carried on what little space remained on the coffee table.

  “You’ve repaired the personnel shield?”

  “Is that what you call it? I gave it the grand tag of Personal Defence Shield.”

  Hope flared in Marnia’s eyes. “You will help us?”

  “I’m considering it. Depends what Paul thinks. So, are you going oblige?”

  “Hmm? Oh!” Marnia hefted the small projectile, a doubtful frown on her face. “I suppose.”

  “Throw it so the trajectory rebounds away from you.”

  “Why?”

  “You’ll see.”

  Marnia held her arm out to one side and gently lobbed the figurine. It struck the force field generated by the vest, rebounded, whizzed passed Marnia’s ear, slammed into the wall with a solid thunk, then fell to the carpeted floor.

  Marnia’s eyes widened, glinting with surprise and awe. “What did you do to it?”

  “Made an addendum to Newton’s third law.”

  “Sorry?”

  Sarah walked over and picked up the missile. “I decided the equal and opposite reaction needed tweaking. Feel like putting some effort into it this time?” She offered the figurine.

  Marnia shook her head. “Not without some protection and not in here. I’m already going to have to explain to Draken how a hole got in an internal wall. I don’t need to have to explain why the house is suddenly dynamic with ancient artefacts masquerading as projectile weapons.”

  Sarah darted a glance at the figurine. “This is old?”

  “And valuable.”

  She raised her eyebrows in dark humour. “Just as well we didn’t damage it then.”

  Marnia relieved her of the treasure and replaced the improvised missile on the dresser.

  “I really do hope you choose to help us, Sarah.”

  A mouth-watering scent seduced Sarah’s nose and she turned to the tray Mania had placed on the coffee table. “Food?”

  Marnia nodded. “Nick and Adam thought you should eat something—and your brother is here.”

  A split second later Paul strode through the door. He marched towards her, his intense, protective gaze scanning every inch of her.

  “Sarah,” he murmured on a ragged breath, then enveloped her in a fierce embrace.

  Chapter 9

  Three weeks later, deep within the bowls of the crashed Anaconian ship, Sarah carefully replaced a lambent electron adjuster on her tool belt. She rubbed a hand over her tired, aching shoulders and stretched her neck.

  Right, that’s the cloaking unit, embryonic and cryogenic chambers’ trimary systems re-routed to independent power sources.

  An uncomfortable twinge twisted through her protesting body as she straightened limbs forced by the confined space of the access niche to hold odd angles for too long.

  How the devil did anyone big work in here?

  She longed to relax in sunshine. It had been days since she’d last felt its homely warmth. Who’d have thought the crashed Anaconian ship was located at the bottom of the lake she, Nick and Adam had been swimming in?

  After conferring with Paul and negotiating advantageous rights for his company she had agreed to help the Anaconians and spent the time since working flat out. She grinned at the memory of Paul’s flabbergasted face when Draken insisted on leaving the Foundation in his capable hands, because Draken did not want the humans who worked for the Foundation disadvantaged by his departure.

  She chuckled. Paul should be careful what he wishes for—and Grant’s responsibilities have increased tenfold.

  No wonder she hadn’t seen much of them. Between inspecting this ship and formulating plans to integrate the life chambers into the craft under construction, the Umdya, she’d barely had time for more than a few words with Nick and Adam. A hollow ache filled her chest. She knew she’d hurt them by asking for space, and for that she was truly sorry, but she’d needed the distance to wrestle her emotions and thoughts into some order.

  They’d given her room for a week, and despite that on one level she’d been grateful for the break, their absence leached all colour from her world.

  Then sexy little text messages had started arriving once or twice a day, bringing a splash of vibrancy to her monochrome life. The next week they’d upped the ante to phone calls, ringing just to say hello and find out how her day was going. She’d convinced them to continue their preparation with the Anaconians because she hadn’t felt comfortable carrying the load that maybe she would be the death of their dreams. In truth she’d been hiding from them—and herself—by burying herself in work.

  Oddly enough coming to terms with the fact she was a hybrid human/alien had taken less effort than accepting Nick and Adam’s love as real.

  She’d needed the time away from them to sort out and at least begin to resolve her myriad misgivings and doubts. And to be truthful, coward that she was, she hadn’t been able to face the prospect of seeing the hope in their eyes every day as they waited to see if she had come to terms with something they already had.

  Surely if they were prepared to brave the consequences of their unconventional love, she could do no less? They offered her everything and asked nothing in return. She needed to get an emotional backbone and explore the possibility that Nick and Adam could be her forever loves—engineered or not.

  She also harboured some mistrust about the authenticity of her own feelings. Just how much did the alien DNA in her body influence her own devotion? Marnia assured her not at all.

  Does it really matter?

  She heaved a thoughtful sigh.

  Well? Does it?

  Love never came with a guarantee. The very least she could do would be explore the connection between the three of them, discover just how compatible they were.

  Was she brave enough to leave Paul? Leave behind all that she knew? Her heart demanded she join with Nick and Adam, but also recoiled at the prospect of leaving the only family, the only security, she had. She’d felt so very lost when her mother died, until Paul had come and provided an anchor for her drifting spirit. She knew if she chose a life with Nick and Adam she couldn’t ask them to abandon the Anaconians.

  No—She hung her head and pressed her brow into the w
all, pursing her lips in rueful acknowledgement—The problem isn’t our compatibility, I’m just afraid. She straightened, determination coursing through her like a tide through the ‘horizontal waterfall’ in the Kimberley Ranges. Well I won’t let fear rule my life, not when the prize is so great.

  Performing a feat of great gymnastic difficulty, she slipped to her hands and knees into the cramped access shaft and crawled along. At least the passageways that navigated the new ship’s systems were lined with something softer than these hard-on-your-knees polymeric panels. The crown of her head rammed a bulkhead and pain ricocheted through her skull. She gritted her teeth.

  And they’re bloody larger.

  She unwound into main engineering and carefully straightened complaining muscles. A couple of hybrid women nodded to her as they worked on minor sub-systems due to be transferred into one of Paul’s secure warehouses.

  “All good?” she asked her staff.

  “Ah-huh.” “Yes.”

  She halted at a terminal, tapped an access code and requested readouts. The re-initialization of her modified cloaking matrix for this ship remained stable and the containment fields for the stasis chambers were . . . acceptable for their removal to the Umdya. Given the urgency to get them installed she’d have liked to use the now operational teleporter, but their sensitivity demanded they take the long haul by conventional transport. She pursed her lips and scheduled the transfer to begin immediately.

  “’S’up, chicky-babe?”

  She looked up from the console, knowing she’d be forever grateful that Tammy had unstintingly agreed to help. Heck, her entire team had worked their butts off, not to mention some of the tech-mechs from Astra Projections, over the previous weeks.

  “Hey, Tam, how’re you holding up?”

  A bright smile lit her friend’s face. “Great. You know I’ve always believed in alien life, I just never expected to encounter it in my back yard.”

  “Or for it to belong to your closest friend,” Sarah added dryly.

  “That’s a bonus. Besides, you know I’d give my right arm and leg just to have a look at their entanglement communication device, even if it is partially trashed. You ready to go over the engines here and see what we can salvage?”

  “Just about. What’s the progress on the Umdya’s stardrive? Got it sorted?”

  “Pretty much. It probably helped that it’s all Earth-based manufacture, if not design.”

  “I doubt that had anything to do with it. Nobody picks up engineering concepts like you do, Tam. You’re one of the few people I know who really ‘gets’ physics.”

  Tammy lifted a work tablet. “Run your eye over these mods I’d like to make to the tolerances of the main drive engines. I reckon it’ll increase the power output by about fifteen per cent.”

  “If you think they’re good, run with it.” Sarah returned her gaze to the console and pulled up a diagnostic. “I don’t think we’re going to get much in the way of spares from the engines on this ship. Looks like the coolant sleeves are trash, half the injectors seemed to have had an unfortunate encounter with the anti-matter they were supposed to regulate—I’m surprised the whole ship wasn’t annihilated—about sixty per cent of the magnetic flux valves are depolarized, and the list goes on.”

  She scanned another analytical report and lifted a dubious eyebrow. “As for the time drive, the primary tachyon accelerator appears so damaged it couldn’t excite a photon into blinking let alone thrust an elementary particle into the fourth dimension. The ancillary accelerators present as serviceable, the rest of it . . .” She shook her head and pulled a thoughtful sigh. “I’ll make a list and get you onto salvaging what we can.”

  “You’re the boss.”

  “Thanks, Tam. I couldn’t have done this without you.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll think of something you can do to make it up to me.”

  Sarah smirked at her. “I’m sure you will.” She re-arranged her ‘must do’ list and headed for the access door. “I’ll catch you later.”

  “Will do.”

  One more brush fire to put out and then look out Nick and Adam.

  Her heart beat a little faster and a fine quiver of anticipation caressed her nerves. Ten minutes later, hunched over in more cramped quarters, she stared at the colourful fractal fluctuations pulsing within a crystal power web. She tilted her head to one side and frowned. Why were they out of balance? There didn’t appear to be any obvious reason. She stared at the pretty patterns then ran a couple of tests and frowned at the results.

  Why would anyone store a personal log here?

  It didn’t make any sense. She synced a biomimetic translator to the power web and frowned again.

  And an encrypted one at that.

  Curiosity got the better of her and she hunted around in her mind, found a decoding algorithm that should do the trick to decipher the lock and left it running to go in search of Marnia. On the threshold of the bridge she waited for her eyes to adjust to the dim light produced by systems running on reserve power. Marnia’s features reflected the pale green and yellow glow of the console at which she worked.

  A transmorphic, or merman as she liked to think of them—funny how she could now differentiate them—leaned over her friend’s shoulder and pointed to something they both seemed to consider significant. As she approached he straightened, lowered his head in a respectful gesture and took a step back. Marnia’s glance lifted to hers and she smiled then dismissed the man.

  “What can I do for you?” her friend asked.

  “I want to steal some of your time.”

  A smile twitched the corner of Marnia’s mouth. “Sure. I’ve been monitoring your progress. I see you’ve applied the same principles to both ships’ shields and those on the new shuttles as you have the PDSs.”

  “I have, with the Denacons still unaccounted for, I figured it wouldn’t hurt. Not that they’ll attain their full force without the power of in-flight configuration, but they’ll take a beating as they are. Besides, it was good practice for me to apply the knowledge to this ship before I added them to the others.”

  “Understandable. Why’d you expand the cloak?”

  She smiled. “I thought you transmorphics might like to have a decent swim. You should be able to go almost to the shoreline now.”

  “That was thoughtful, thank you.”

  She shrugged. “Nothing to it, but you’re welcome. Can I interest you in a drink?”

  “Sure, I’m in the mood for coffee, with the strong possibility of a pastry chaser. What’s on your mind?”

  “Men. Protector men to be precise.”

  Marnia’s eyebrows rose then her gaze turned speculative. “Always an interesting subject. Have you come to terms with their loving you?”

  Warmth skittered through Sarah’s chest. “I have begun to.”

  “Good. I’m glad you feel more able to accept things.”

  A discreet, iambic bib pierced the soft murmur of voices on the bridge. Sarah reached into her top pocket, withdrew her work tablet and checked the screen. An icon flashed the completion of the de-coding sequence she’d left running. Surprise flickered through her.

  “That was quick,” she muttered.

  She tapped the review button and scrolled through the report.

  “What was quick?” Marnia asked.

  “I found an encrypted log buried in a power crystal. What the . . .?”

  “Something wrong?”

  “According to this, a section of the ship marked ‘Extremely Hazardous’ was jettisoned during the uncontrolled descent.” She pressed her lips together. “If something toxic’s been dumped into the atmosphere I’d better get on it. Of course I don’t even know ‘when’ it ended up, let alone where.”

  “Why hide an important report like that wh
ere only a senior engineer would find it?”

  Sarah shrugged. “Buggered if I know.”

  “Any indication of what to search for?”

  “Nope, not a damn thing. It could have burned up in the atmosphere, the damage could have been done years ago, or it could be lying somewhere just waiting to create a disaster.” She narrowed her gaze on the tablet. “Guess I’ll have to scan for the composite material this ship’s constructed of.” She lifted her gaze and gave Marnia a resigned smile. “Guess the sex talk will have to wait for a bit.”

  “We were going to talk about sex?”

  A wicked grin stretched her lips. “Yep, Tamm’s shared everything she knows about fully human men, I figured you could give me a few pointers about protectors.”

  Marnia’s smile mirrored her own. “That I could—and will.”

  “Great!” She stared back down at her tablet. “Think I’ll use the sensors in the new ship, they’re more accurate and sensitive than the ones here. I’ll catch you later.”

  “It’s a date.”

  Sarah turned and made her way to the teleporter room. Three minutes later she stepped off the telepad in the starship Umdya and breathed in the pristine smell.

  Ah, just like a new car.

  With a crew of fifty-six Anaconians and hybrid women to accommodate, the starship was impressive. Engineering seemed completely deserted when she arrived and she made her way to a rear console, leaned over the touchscreen and began to programme the scan she required.