The Marine's Queen

• Title Page
  
• Chapter One
  
• Chapter Two
  
• Chapter Three
  
• Chapter Four
  
• Chapter Five
  
• Chapter Six
  
• Chapter Seven
  
• Chapter Eight
  
• Chapter Nine
  
• Chapter Ten
  
• Chapter Eleven
  
• Chapter Twelve
  
• Chapter Thirteen
  
• Chapter Fourteen
  
• Chapter Fifteen
  
• Chapter Sixteen
  
• Chapter Seventeen
  
• Chapter Eighteen
  
• Chapter Nineteen
  
• Chapter Twenty
  
• Chapter Twenty-One
  

The Marine’s Queen

by

Susan Kelley

( c ) Copyright, January, 2013, Susan Kelley

Cover Art by Jenny Dixon, February 2013

ISBN 978-1-60394-783-1

Smashwords Edition

New Concepts Publishing

Lake Park, GA 31636

www.newconceptspublishing.com

This is a work of fiction. All characters, events and places are of the author’s imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or events is merely coincidence.

Dedication

To the men and women of our military and the

families who wait for them at home.

To my sisters for their continued support.

To the most wonderful daughter ever.

Chapter One

“
We’ll have heat for one more night.” Yalo swept her gaze across the stark landscape stretching toward the brightening horizon. “Then we’ll freeze and die.”

Queen Callie Adell shaded her eyes against the glare and stared at the wreckage of the military cruiser sitting nearly a half of a mile from their own crash site. “Maybe we should have tried to walk out of here.”

“
You made the right choice to stay, my queen. The heat limits travel to a few hours in the morning and evening. Once out of the ship, we wouldn’t have anything to protect us from the heat of day or cold of night. Even if we did, our water would have run out before we reached the little speck of greenery I spotted on the scanners before they went dead.”

The dawn lit the interior of the ship enough for Callie to see that the cold had roused all the others. Four year old Grace had cried off and on all night, sobbing complaints no one could answer. Not even those broke Callie’s heart as much as the frightening silence from Riba’s infant, Sally. Her hungry wails had stopped hours ago.

Yalo sat up in her seat. She’d positioned herself nearest the broken door as if her strength could keep out the killing temperatures. She stretched her arms over her head with a great yawn and then the desert rose up behind her and pulled her out of the hatch. Her startled yelp ended in mid shriek.

Callie rolled out of her chair, her legs tangling in the pile of coats and blouses she’d used as blankets. Screams echoed inside the ship from the other women, but Callie couldn’t make a sound over her shock.

A tall figure shaped like a man but covered with sand sprang into the doorway. It moved aside and another similar but shorter being joined it.

Callie finally found her feet and pushed the others behind her. Riba and Grace hushed their children as they could, but Sally’s mews continued. Her weak cries stabbed through Callie’s terror of the aliens looming a few steps away.

The first invader called out to something or someone outside the ship, using a dialect unknown to Callie but speaking in a human voice.

Human. Callie found she could talk. “What do you want?”

The first one, she guessed it was the leader, looked in her direction. The growing light revealed the material covering its head and the entirety of it body appeared to be a suit and not sand at all. Its colors swirled sickeningly to match the sand outside the open hatch and the walls of the ship with some type of camouflage technology. Protective goggles covered its eyes.

The leader spoke more strange words, and the second alien skirted around them. It moved with animal ease around their belongings and into the guts of their ship. Callie stood in silence between her people and the leader while the other one searched their vessel.

Callie’s anger and despair rose above her fear of the strange interlopers and the odd weapons they held in their gloved hands. “Who are you, and what gives you the right to enter my ship?”

“
Are there no men among you?” the leader asked in the common language of the Alliance.

Callie hesitated to give her answer to the fearsome apparition. At least it understood her words.

“
Does no one guard you?” it asked.

Callie gestured toward the hatch where Yalo had disappeared. “That woman is my guard.”

Sally whimpered in the silence, her tiny voice sounding frail after the deep tones of the stranger. The first rays of the morning sun edged in the door and brought a welcome warmth.

“
Tar,” the leader said over his shoulder. “Bring the woman in.”

A third alien lifted Yalo in the hatch and then sprang up beside her. It released her immediately and drew back to the edge of the opening.

“
How did you come to crash on this planet?” The leader seemed to be speaking to Callie, but the angle of its head indicated it tried to look behind her at Riba and Sally.

Callie shifted so she blocked her cousin and her baby from view. “Tell me who you are before we answer anymore questions.”

Again its full attention swung to her. She lifted her chin and glared at it despite her pounding heart. What type of humanoid might this be? She hadn’t believed any of the rare creatures lived anywhere in this civilized quadrant of space.

It swung its weapon around to its back using a long strap she hadn’t noticed. It pulled off its gloves revealing long-fingered human hands. The skin appeared sun-darkened at it tugged off its dark goggles and then its tight head covering. Eyes bluer than the cloudless sky of the desert planet stared at her. Short hair, dark as the bottom of a mine, stuck out at odd angles.

“
Joe.”

“
What?” Callie managed around her shock. No grotesque being stood before her but a man with the face of a god. No artist could have created more perfect lines to his jaw and cheekbones. Intelligence gleamed in his compelling eyes.

“
My name is Joe.” He gestured toward the other two men who had also removed their headgear. “Roz and Tar.”

Callie nodded at the other two men, each as perfect in his way as Joe. If it weren’t for the heat already building uncomfortably inside her damaged cruiser she might have thought she had died and gone to the afterlife. These men certainly reminded her of the glorious servants of the Spirit Father as depicted in paintings.

“
Roz and Tar? Are those their first names or last names?” Callie knew there were more important questions to ask, but she wanted to proceed diplomatically.

Joe’s expression didn’t change but Callie could see thoughts moving behind his eyes. Finally he answered. “Only.”

Yalo edged away from Tar and took up a protective stance in front of Callie. “Get out.”

“
Yalo.” Callie placed her hand on her guard’s trembling shoulder. Or was it her own fear coursing across her nerves?

“
Get back, your highness.” Yalo shot Callie a wide-eyed glance. “Don’t you know what these creatures are? One name like a pet or a savage guard hound?”

Wondering if the fall out of the hatch had rattled Yalo’s head, Callie spoke as calmly as she could. “They’re men, Yalo. Maybe they can help us.”

“
Men?” Yalo might have meant her laugh to be mocking but it sounded hysterical. “They’re not men! They’re recon marines.”

“
Fash take me!” The science officer, Acacia, swore from behind Callie.

Sally fussed again, and Riba hushed her with a quiet shaky voice.

Joe took a step forward and reached for something hanging from his belt. Yalo started for him, but Callie took a firm grip on her guard’s arm. The marine unhooked a small sack and lifted it toward them.

“
Water with amino acids and electrolytes dissolved into it.” His smooth expression revealed no emotional reaction to Yalo’s harsh words.

Callie took the water bag, her mouth salivating at the thought of a drink. They’d given the last of their water to Riba and little Glory last evening. Callie handed it to Riba who took it with an eager hopeful smile.

The other two men hesitated only an instant before offering their water containers.

“
Vin?” Joe said over his shoulder.

“
Here,” a fourth marine answered from outside.

“
Water.”

No one else spoke as the women passed the sacks around. Yalo continued to glare at the men, but she didn’t pass up the water. A quiet quarter of an hour went by before another beautiful man hopped in through the hatch. He carried more sacks of water and a few other packs.

Vin opened one of the packs and pulled out long stalks of some type of dried fruit or vegetable. He offered it to Yalo and Callie first. When they hesitated he took one of the stalks and bit off the end.

Callie reasoned the marines could kill them at will and weren’t likely to poison them after sharing their precious water. She followed Vin’s example. The food seemed a sour fruit and took a lot of chewing before it could be swallowed.

The other women each took a small piece, but four year old Glory walked a few brave steps forward and held out her hand. The marines didn’t move back, though they appeared to lean away from the child. A tension as if they thought to flee grew around them. Roz knelt slowly, staring at Glory. He pulled a short wicked knife from his boot and cut a piece of the fruit. With a strange wariness he held it out to the child.

Callie held her breath, while Glory walked closer to the marine. Sleep had left the child’s chestnut curls in tangles, and her eyes looked as large of coins. She took the fruit and put it in her mouth, all the time watched by the four marines.

Glory’s nose crinkled at the tart taste, but then a large grin spread across her face. “Thank you, sir.”