Starkissed by Lanette Curington Read Free Book Online Page A

mercilessly.
    Hancock landed the lifecraft in a grassy meadow near the foothills of a mountain range. A herd of horned, quadruped creatures scattered in graceful leaps and bounds.
    The whine of the engine wound down as the doors rose.
    “Welcome to Paradise!” Hancock said and got out. The front seat swiveled aside leaving room for the occupant in the back to emerge—an occupant of smaller stature than J’Qhir. They’d had to remove the cuffs from his ankles for him to fold his large body into the seat. Now, he twisted himself out, fiery pain stabbing his thigh repeatedly.
    When he straightened, the saàloh was by his side, the delicate arches of hair over her eyes wrinkled. “Are you all right?”
    He wanted to smile at her—for encouragement?—but he thought he might scare her.
    “I am…sssomewhere in the middle.”
    Her brow smoothed as she smiled her understanding. Her smile did not scare him at all.
    “Paradise is in the center of the Arreisan Neutral Zone,” Hancock explained. “It’s one of the few known Terran-class planets not colonized or plundered.”
    Hancock hauled out a flightpack. He led them several meters away from the lifecraft and tossed the bag to the ground.
    “You’re leaving us here?” the saàloh asked, a hint of panic in her voice.
    Hancock nodded. “You and the Rep will be the only two sentient lifeforms on the planet. No one ever comes here, Leith. It’s under Arreisan protection. Every pirate, every rogue, every starman and starwoman knows better than to piss off the Arreisans. They’d www.samhainpublishing.com
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    Lanette
    Curington
    restrict access to Trader World in a nanosecond and no one wants that. So everyone leaves Paradise alone.”
    J’Qhir felt her disappointment and anxiety. If no one dared to defy the Arreisans and visit this planet, then they were as good as dead. It must be true or Hancock would not chance leaving them here at all.
    “How do you intend to explain our disappearance? The Commander will have an entire government looking for him. Dad knows enough people on the Galactic Alliance Board to get them involved.”
    Hancock smiled chillingly. “After the Rep notified his ship the cargo was ready for transfer, another ship was stolen out of the port, and a message was sent to the Zi warship that the transfer had been delayed indefinitely. You see, Rep, I’ve been recording our meetings for a long time, preparing for this day. When you and Cameron spoke your primitive language, excluding me from the conversation, you made it so much easier for me. I had to ask Cameron to teach me so I could understand what you were saying and carefully cull the message from all those hours of recordings. At that time, my plans included your immediate demise, but things change.”
    J’Qhir clenched his jaw. The Zi communications system was not state-of-the-art.
    They simply could not afford the latest equipment in all areas and communications was not deemed an immediate need. The crackling static of the old and worn out system would hide any signs that the message was cut-and-spliced from other recordings.
    “When we return to Arreis, the ship will release a statement, in the Rep’s own words, that he has renounced the Zi government and taken a human, Leith McClure, as hostage.
    Demands to be given later. Of course, another statement will never be released. The stolen ship will fly straight into a sun, to vaporize without a trace.” He glanced back to make sure that Phillips was still out of earshot, then lowered his voice. “We’re supposed to rendezvous with the lifecraft in a few hours, but I think we’ll find the ship malfunctioned and poor Wiley crashed and burned with it. With Wiley gone there’ll be larger shares for the rest of us and fewer witnesses.”
    “No one will believe any of that!” the saàloh snapped angrily. “You really have lost your mind, haven’t you, Steve? The Zi government will never believe their top gun has gone rogue. Dad certainly