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Still, as I gazed at my apartment, my haven from a busy, stressful job, my tension released. Every piece of furniture had been selected for rest and relaxation. I loved my comfortable sofa with the matching ottoman and oversized side tables that put my favorite drink within easy reach. There were plenty of soft pillows and throws, and the gray-and-lavender color scheme was easy on the eyes.
Natural light streamed in through the surrounding windows. I was fortunate to be able to afford the expansive corner unit in one of the most secure buildings in the capital. Until now, I’d taken good security for granted.
New Terra had a homogenous population—we were all descendants of the original intrepid settlers who’d shared an esprit de corps, further strengthened by the tragedy on Earth. Over the centuries, we’d maintained our unity and patriotism. We did not divide ourselves into us and them; hence, we enjoyed a low crime rate. Violent crime was practically nonexistent.
However, that didn’t mean everybody agreed with everything the government did. Nor that a rare few might not act on those feelings. As deputy secretary of state, I ranked high in the government chain. There were only two degrees of separation between me and President Erika Stadler.
So, better safe than sorry. Apartment security was like the insurance you hoped you’d never need.
Little had I known how great the dangers were. But they didn’t come from within; they came from outside. Off planet.
Humans were being abducted by aliens by the hundreds, possibly the thousands.
I’d come home to sound the alarm.
My new friends, the Star Cross passengers I’d been locked up with on the slave ship, had chosen to remain on planet Nomoru. Holly Winter and Kat Whalen had met and married alien princes, sons of the king who’d rescued us, and Millie Rogers had married the monarch’s chief advisor. Giselle Cartier, who’d been the physician aboard the Star Cross, had hooked up with an undercover agent with the League of Planets and become an agent herself.
Thank the stars for Giselle. She saved the day.
I would miss all of them. Going through hell together had bonded us. I probably could have stayed on Nomoru, but somebody had to alert the president about the crisis. The LOP damn sure wasn’t doing it. My government position made me the best person for the job.
First thing this afternoon, I’d brief Garrison Keller, my boss, and have him set up a meeting with President Stadler.
I pushed off from the door and stepped farther into the living room. The floor-to-ceiling windows had been treated to enable me to see out while blocking others from seeing in. Hovercars zipped by. The apartments across the flight zone didn’t have privacy glass. I observed a man put a dish into a flash cooker. A woman squinted at a computer screen. A couple in their bedroom was disrobing.
I averted my gaze to my gray-velour sofa and ran my hand over the back. “Hello, couch. Good to see you again. I missed you.” I chuckled.
I strode into the bedroom decorated in soothing tones of gray and periwinkle. Full-length drapes framed the expansive window and matched the quilted coverlet over the queen-sized bed flanked by two nightstands. An enormous closet, the sliding door ajar, spanned the entire wall opposite the window, eliminating a need for a chest of drawers.
Off the bedroom was the bath. I shed my clothes, but rather than put them in the dirty laundry, I folded them up to take to the office for testing. Although the hip-length, pale-green tunic and dark leggings didn’t look out of place, the fabric originated from out of this world. Nothing organic or synthetic of ours compared to it. Nor had the tunic and leggings been sewn. There were no seams. The clothes appeared to have been created by some sort of advanced 3-D printer.
After turning on the water and adjusting the temperature, I stepped into the stall.
“Oh, shower, I missed you, too.” I groaned as hot water rained over me. One could argue ionizing units sanitized better, but they couldn’t beat the sensual pleasure of hot water. Sometimes simple trumped advanced.
I remained under the spray until I started to get pruney then reluctantly shut off the water. I toweled dry, donned my fluffy robe, and then ran a comb through my short hair, noticing I needed a trim. By my time, I’d been gone a couple of months. It had been hard to keep track. I’ll dry my hair after I eat. I need food!
I’d worked up an appetite. I’d last eaten yesterday evening. This morning, the ship had landed, and I’d eschewed breakfast, anxious to get home. Although rendered invisible by shimmer technology, the ship had set down quite a distance from the city to avoid any chance of detection. The hike from the landing site had taken longer than I’d anticipated.
My stomach rumbled. Cheeseburger? Lasagna? Pizza? Pot roast? Lunch on my mind, my mouth watered at the options. It wouldn’t take long for the flash cooker to heat up a meal from my well-stocked cold storage.
Upon reentering the bedroom, I curled my toes into the fluffy area rug. For cleanliness and ease of care, I’d opted for heated synthetic solid surface floors throughout the unit but had added a rug for comfort in the bedroom.
Grrrr. Grrrr. James growled from under the bed. This was where he always went when he was angry or scared.
What is with him? “James? James Bond! Here, kitty, kitty.”
I got down on my hands and knees to peer at him. Ears flat, he hissed and scooted out of reach—not that I would dare to touch him in his current mood. “What’s wrong? Why are you acting this way? Are you mad because I left you?” I’d gone on a vacation before, and he’d never acted this way. “Be nice.”
He hissed.
“Fine. Be that way.” He’d be more sociable when he got hungry. I got to my feet.
A muscular arm wrapped around my neck. Another clamped around my waist and lifted me off my feet. A hard body pressed against my back. “Where is it?” a gravelly voice growled in my ear.
My heart rate shot into the stratosphere.
Well, now I know what freaked James out, I thought wryly, disassociating myself from the fear so I could remain calm, the way I’d been taught in security training.
