Jo's Journey by S. E. Smith Read Free Book Online

her lips to his.
    Manota groaned and decided he was going to find more things to make her excited if she acted like this.

Chapter 6
    “ Prepare the air bike for departure,” Manota ordered one of the warriors as he looked over the reports his second in command had given him. “Kev, have you made sure this area will be isolated enough that we should remain unseen?”
    Kev Mul Kar looked up from the scanner he was monitoring. He had joined the crew as Chief Security Officer after returning from a mission on Trolis ’ warship. He had returned from the Tearnat warship with star charts and the location of Earth. He was overseeing their trip down to the planet and had finally picked a location he felt would be isolated enough to hide them without being too far to contact Lady Jo’s parents.
    “ The area is primarily used for raising livestock on their world. The warship will be hidden at the bottom of the lake. All readings state it is deep enough to cover us. The submersible shell for the air bike can be hidden among the foliage near the edge of the lake. If you use the air bike at night, you should be able to move relatively unseen. I have met with Lady Jo and we have gone over the best area to set down. The cloaking device you have developed will work with helping to hide our presence until we settle underwater. K’tar is manning the communications and sensors of their world. We will appear as nothing more than space debris or a small meteorite as we enter. My biggest concern will be with whether Jo’s parents will believe her and follow her directions.”
    “ They will,” Jo said, biting her lip to keep the stupid grin of excitement and nervousness off her face. “Daddy and momma can be trusted.”
    She was so nervous, she was practically dancing. They had been traveling for over a month and the closer they got the more excited she became. There had been a short time during that trip she had been afraid that Manota had changed his mind. Something had happened and he had become very quiet and withdrawn for several weeks. He had told her it was nothing, just a few issues back home. Since his schedule was very erratic and it was hard to know when he would come to rest, she never had a chance to press him about what had happened.
    Jo had taken to going to the training room and doing her routines as a way to deal with the restless energy she was feeling. She always felt better when she was soaring through the air or up on one of the high beams. She loved the sense of being free. Several of the younger warriors had gotten up the courage to finally ask her how she did half the moves that she did. She began a class to show them how to climb the ropes, move from one to another and how to improve their balance on the narrow beams.
    During the weeks that passed, she had grown to appreciate the responsibilities that Manota had as she listened to the young warriors talk about his skills in battle. She could hear the respect and awe in their voices as they shared stories they had heard or feats they had seen him do themselves. Jo caught glimpses of his leadership skill throughout the trip as he worked closely with the others on board the Seeker , a sleek smaller warship that Manota had redesigned. It carried a crew of fifty, was a third of the size of the larger warships, and could move faster through space. Manota said the warship was used primarily for shipping military equipment and troop deployment when it was needed quickly.
    “ Jo?” Manota asked pulling her out of her reverie. “Are you ready?”
    “ Yes,” she responded breathlessly.
    “ Remember, do not tell them anything about where you have been or about us,” Manota reminded her.
    Jo rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t worry. If I told them I had been kidnapped by aliens and was taking them back to another planet they would probably arrive with the army and a padded wagon. I’ll keep it simple. I’ll ask them to meet us at the condo.”
    Manota nodded and