Courting Disaster: What's With the Helmet?

As promised in my last post, here's the scene from my upcoming release, Courting Disaster, where Captain Navene Jagger, a top tier military captain on the cusp of a big promotion to command a newly commissioned battleship, is struggling to make sense of his interim assignment...

...and the helmet he's been issued to go with it. 

If you missed my earlier post about an excerpt from the opening of Courting Disaster, you can find it here.

_______________________________________________

Jagger stood at the docking bay entrance, trying to find any positives in this gigadam boondoggle. He’d be flying solo, he reminded himself, just like the glory days of slicing through space in his Rimmcraft Stiletto. It might not be all bad. That thought tumbled and burned the moment he caught sight of the shipwreck at the end of the boarding passage.

He checked the bay number again. Yes. Right bay. He just couldn’t believe what was berthed there.

The Sheeban’s battered two-deck carcass could’ve been a clunky, mid-ranged compost hauler that had seen its best days centuries ago. They wanted him to transport an ambassador’s daughter through a very treacherous region of space in this wreck?

What was the story here?

And his newly requisitioned civilian attire? A worn set of coveralls, untailored, drab gray, and lacking any insignias. People were going to take him for a second-rate mechanic in these faded greaseskins instead of a top-flight Carduwan officer.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. The garb came complete with a battered helmet and face shield. What was he supposed to be—a pilot or a test-flight dummy?

Judging by the look of his vessel, it was the latter.

The admiral couldn’t be serious about this. Maybe this was Kareek’s idea of a joke? Or an elaborate hazing meant to take him down a peg or two before he was presented with command of the Meritorious?

He glanced at the small packet the quartermaster had pressed into his hand. “There’s a purser’s safe under the pilot’s console,” the non-com had told him. “Use these lock codes to open it once you’ve cleared station and are on course for the Rift. It contains your classified directive from Command.”

This “directive” would hopefully shed a lot more light on the situation. Jagger gave the aged ship another skeptical once-over. It was always an option to refuse a mission, but—he heaved a weighty sigh—that had Career Ending Catastrophe stamped all over it. 

_____________________________________

Thanks for stopping by to read a bit more of my upcoming release. 

I'll be taking a short hiatus from now until the New Year (hey, where did 2023 go, anyway?), but I'll be back with more posts in January. 

Have a wonderful holiday!

Courting Disaster is at the Top of my 2024 Resolutions!

Hmm, that may have sounded a bit like a prophecy of doom, but in reality Courting Disaster is my next project with a hopeful Spring-ish 2024 release date.

The original story was published as a part of the Pets in Space 2 anthology (when the series was still young), but the new incarnation is a much revised story with new, changed and expanded scenes. It's weighing in at roughly twice the word count.

Truth be told, although Courting Disaster was my second StarDog story in the Inherited Stars series, it's the one that required the most enhancing and tweaking because it's an important precursor to the grand finale of this timeline. (And yes, I'm an admitted perfectionist and that has sometimes pulled the rug out from under my schedule. I'd say that I'd try harder to be less of a perfectionist, but really....what reader really wants that?)

In hindsight, it actually will work out well with Courting Disaster being the final StarDog story released as a standalone, because it's the perfect segue into the novel that will wrap the timeline, Inherit the Vengeance. 

So in other words, it's all good.  :)

Let me leave you with an excerpt of the opening, where the reader meets (or gets reacquainted with) the hero, Captain Navene Jagger. If you've read the anchor novel, Inherit the Stars, Jagger might not have seemed like hero material....but there's a lot more to the man than his swagger. 

[But why is he wearing a helmet on the cover, you ask? Check back for the next excerpt where Jagger asks the same question. ;) ]

Here's a first look.

__________________________________________________

Captain Navene Jagger smiled as he gazed out the viewport of the immense space station. Talstar. Home of the Universal Flight Academy, orbiting the lush blue world of Veros. Good memories here. Heady times with his fellow cadets during the three calendars it had required to earn his wings. He’d left the program with salutatorian honors.

But without Drea.

His smile slipped. Not every recollection of Talstar was a good one. The broken engagement. The devastation in Drea’s eyes. Watching her walk away for the last time. It had been his greatest defeat—Hades, his only defeat. And he had no one to blame but himself.

He’d left Talstar the day after graduation, stripped of his plans to test her father’s Mennelsohn prototype, and promptly joined the Carduwan military.

That had been ten calendars ago. Ten very long calendars. He’d spent the first seven trying to apologize to Drea for the unforgiveable, trying to prove to her he’d changed, trying desperately to win her back.

Then Sair happened. Drea had fallen in love with an escaped slave. A nobody. Or so he’d thought.

That was when he’d finally grasped the scale of the wedge he’d driven between them by his foolish, ego-driven folly. He’d done this. He’d destroyed their relationship. Not Drea. And, gods knew, not even Sair.

That realization had sparked his transformation. He’d reinvented himself, stopped being a ladies’ man, stopped being anything other than a dedicated officer married to his career. He didn’t have love…but at least he had pride. And purpose.

_____________________________________________________

More excerpts will follow soon. 

SpyDog Snippet: Trouble in the Ranks

This is a scene from my story SpyDog in USA TODAY bestselling anthology, Pets in Space® 4!

Scene Set-Up

Rigel Blackline, a Network agent, 

Sona, a legendary warrior-class Rathskian female (and his potential enemy), and 

Captain Garr, the gruff pilot of their escape transport have a clash of cultures over breakfast. 

Rigel’s SpyDog partner, Maura, also puts in her two cents. 

[Edited slightly for context.]

Excerpt

“Excuse me, Captain. I’ve lost my appetite.” Sona pushed away from the table and strode away so quickly, Rigel felt the breeze of her passing.

As well as more than a little regret.

Maura gave two sharp barks over her shoulder as she trotted after Sona. “Mean Rigel.”

Damn.

“Pretty harsh, boy,” Garr muttered. “I don’t blame her for wanting to be elsewhere. What’s your issue with her anyway?”

Rigel stared a hole in his im-eggs. “I don’t have an issue with her.”

“To Hades you don’t,” Garr jeered. “Planet of origin doesn’t make her an enemy. Or you a friend, for that matter. They have dissenters, same as our side.”

“I’ll be keeping a close eye on her, all the same.”

“Yeah.” Garr gave him a crafty smile. “Kind of hard not to, isn’t it?”

Rigel shifted in his seat and chugged what was left of his mug of kinna. Was Garr intentionally baiting him?

“One thing’s clear, though,” Garr continued, adding more hot spice to his im-eggs. “She obviously doesn’t care much for your company, if she skips a meal just to be away from you.”

Rigel stared at her untouched plate. That hit home. His patronizing attitude hadn’t been called for and he’d obviously stepped on her feelings. It wasn’t right that she hadn’t eaten, especially after getting gigadam little to eat yesterday…and sharing the few bites of her rations with him.

Okay, he was a complete jerk.

Rigel got up from the table and took her full plate in hand. “I’ll take it to her.”

“You sure that’s a good idea, boy?”

“It’s a good idea,” Rigel said flatly then squared off with Garr. “But just for the record, you calling me ‘boy?’ That isn’t.”

Garr stopped chewing and narrowed his eyes.

Rigel paused just long enough to be sure he’d made his point then headed down the corridor to their shared cabin, Sona’s breakfast in hand.

_______________________________________

Just a reminder that Pets in Space® 4 will only be available for a limited time, and then--*POOF!*--it’s gone forever! This hefty volume of 13 original sci-fi romance stories will keep you in reading for days or weeks to come, since it’s the size of FIVE full-length novels, and all for the price of a cup of coffee!

If you haven’t grabbed your copy yet, you can find links and complete story blurbs here (once on the page, scroll down a bit for the blurbs and story info): 

Pets in Space® 4

P.S. Already have it? Makes a great gift, too! 

Give books for the holidays.

Have a wonderful week!

Get Ready For A Reunion #scifirom

I can't believe how quickly 2018 is passing, and that it's been almost a year already since I last released something. But finally, and after three years in edits (THREE YEARS?!), another chapter in Keir and Quin's adventures will be out. Reunion at Kasha Asor (set directly after Keir: Book One of Redemption) will be available from the 1st of September, but you can pre-order it now from all the main ebook retailers (just click the cover below for the sales links).
So here's an excerpt to tease you with...

The beating rain tore all the warmth from him as he turned, desperate to find a familiar landmark. Behind him, the jagged, broken spur of rock he and Quin had climbed to see S’rano’s distant island stood above the worst of the chaos, its water-drenched black surface gleaming.
Keir wrapped his arms around himself, shivering.
But that is not where I directed the gateway... 
Panic gripped him, stole his breath. He had focused on their hut, been sure of his target, however new to this talent he might have been. What power had sent him that astray?
The storm answered him with a blinding flash as lightning tore across the skies, matched by the earsplitting crash of thunder. The force of it drove him to his knees on the wet sand, and the sea took its chance to lash at him, almost pulling his legs out from under him. Gasping, soaked, Keir scrabbled for the safety of the nearby trees, but the ocean would not give him up so easily. It snatched at his ankles and ripped the sand from beneath his feet. Keir fell, clawing uselessly for a hold as another wave surged around him. As the ground shifted and washed away beneath him, sand and water filled his mouth. He choked, flailing for purchase, but the waves caught him, dragged him out, flipped him over. Hard rock smacked into his side then scraped his skin, tearing it as the sea threw him against the ridge of stone. For an instant, he surfaced, gasped a breath, before the water sucked him back under.
Blood pounded in his head, drowning out the crash of the sea and storm. His lungs burned.
No. Not again. 

Paradise isn't always what you expect it to be...

Returning to the island of Kasha-Asor, Quin and Keir need to reconcile a question of trust: of secrets untold and their precarious situation on a planet where Quin has already been betrayed once. Can they find the idyll they seek, or will they be forced to run?

A Travellers Novella and a side story in the Redemption series, Reunion at Kasha-Asor follows on immediately from the events in Keir: Book One of Redemption. 

A Quickshot for #PrideMonth #scifirom

As it's Pride Month and I'm busy both in real life and fiction right now, I thought I'd follow suit with my fellow crewmembers at Spacefreighters. So here's an excerpt from my SFR Galaxy Award winning scifi romance short Quickshot, featuring my trigger-happy, bi heroine Sal...

Sal stared at the multi-colored data streaming across her status display, using one foot to rock herself in her seat.

“Hey.”

Sal spun, double-barreled blasters in both hands. The dark-skinned beauty leaning through the hatch threw up both hands in surrender. “Whoa, t’hani!”

Damn. Sal sucked in a breath, lifting her fingers from the triggers and pointing her guns upward. “Sorry. Guess I’m still twitchy.”

“That’s more than twitchy.” Dela scowled, wrapping her shaking arms around herself. “One day you’ll blow someone’s head off. And I don’t want it to be me.”

“It won’t.” Sal forced herself to holster the guns even though every instinct in her body wanted her to keep hold of them. She slid from her chair, and had Dela in her arms faster than the woman could raise an objection. Dela’s heart pounded against Sal’s chest, a perfect match to the racing of her own pulse. She’d almost shot her lover, damn it. Why couldn’t she stop the automatic response to grab her weapon when startled? She held Dela tight as if clinging to her last hope.

Dela sighed. “Sal, I’m not Ehi. If you keep pulling weapons on me, more than my pride will get hurt.”

She’s right. “I know. I just—”

“Forgot I was onboard?”

“Yeah. I mean no. I mean—”

“Forget it.” Dela shoved away and stalked off, Sal in pursuit.

“Deh...” She caught her arm and turned the slight woman toward her. Away from the lights of the control room, Dela was almost invisible, except for the luminous amber eyes currently glaring at Sal fit to scorch her.

“Dela.” Sal softened and lowered her voice in the way she knew made Dela weak at the knees, and her lover quivered in response. Sal smiled and brushed her fingers lightly along Dela’s arms, feeling the goosebumps rise on the flawless skin. “Let me make it up to you, t’hani.”

For an instant the woman wavered, and Sal’s pulse quickened, an ache already spreading from her groin. Then Dela shook off her hand.

“No. You’ve pulled those pistols on me once too often, and there aren’t enough orgasms in the universe worth being shot in the head for.” Dela walked away.

Frustrated, angry at herself and now horny as Hades, Sal slouched back into the control room. She groaned as she slid into her pilot’s seat, considering some self-maintenance to ease the ache in her lower regions.

“Approaching drop out.” The soft voice of the ship’s computer stalled even that release.

Sal groaned again. “Let Dela know.” Once they hit port Sal could heal the breach by plying Dela with whatever she wanted. Maybe a bolt of those bright fabrics Dela adored, or a crate of her favorite tea that was so frigging hard to get hold of. Sal had contacts who could find those kind of things. She might even get lucky in bed tonight...

Find your retailer: Books2Read

Sal, a legal carrier (just about) of whatever comes her way, puts her trust in just two things: her guns.

Keeping out from under Imperium eyes—especially those belonging to a certain Ehi Wahu—while making a living, and trying to keep a lover who can tolerate her twitchy trigger fingers, are the extent of her ambitions. 

Then a kiss from a passing stranger, and a promise of the biggest score in a long time, tempt her. Devin fulfils more than one need, but he comes with more trouble than one woman can handle. And this time it'll take more than her guns to save her. She'll have to trust a man again.

WARNING: for over 18s only. Adult content including sex, bad language, & implied extreme violence.
A SFR Galaxy Award winner for Grittiest Hot & Fast Story. Buy now for just 99 cents!

Scene from StarDog #excerpt #amwriting

Happy Monday! I'm back today with another excerpt from my upcoming release, StarDog. This book is based on my original Pets in Space story, but it will be re-released this summer with new, expanded and revised scenes.

The following is an early scene in the book where the hero, Taro Shall, is sent on a mission by his captain--find an exterminator for their infested ship.

_____________________________________

Outside the ship, Carduwa’s warm, herbal-scented air ruffled Taro’s hair and danced along the pavement in gentle eddies. A friendly sun lit the heavy greenery of tall trees and dense shrubbery just beyond the spaceport grounds. This planet was nothing like the bone-dry dustbowl of Dartis where they’d last made port. Thank the Island Spirits for that much.

Taro made his way to the nearest street just off the spaceport exit and glanced down an endless row of brightly-colored vendor tents. Where to start?

He ducked his head into the entrance of the first two pavilions with a questioning, “Exterminator?” The answer on both counts was a brisk shake of a keeper’s head. Somewhere around vendor twelve, he got a lead.

“No exterminator, but you wanna see Dini Kemm. Red and yellow striper. Tiharra Lane. Three streets west.”

Taro plucked a citrus drink tube from the vendor’s laboring chiller, tossing the elderly man five replas. “Many thanks.”

A couple of streetgirls gave him the eye as he reached an intersection and made his way west.

“You wanna give it a go, Tectolie?” the taller of the two women purred as he passed their corner.

Taro gave the woman a crooked smile and a friendly “I’ll pass” wave of his hand. Nav work was a lonely occupation, but he’d never been keen on paying for female companionship by the hour. Besides, Cap Jordan would have his hide if he got waylaid from his mission.

“Pity that,” the second woman teased, giving him a seductive wink. “We give a nice discount to pretty nav-boys.”

Taro threw a grin over his shoulder and lengthened his stride. They had his origins and occupation nailed at first glance—probably not a surprise considering they worked a spaceport and saw hundreds of crewmen daily. His Tectolian subspecies had a penchant for navigating the stars, and women in their line of work could probably zero in on a lonely crewie in a nanosecond. It’d been a long time since he and Lyra had called it quits, and he needed to put some quick distance between himself and the twin sirens before he got all weak-minded and hard-bodied.

 

______________________________________ 

 

Commentary on this Scene

 

As with most of my Inherited Stars Series or Universe stories there are subtle connections within the story to other books or to the backstory of the series.

 

In this scene, the hero, Taro Shall, is searching for a vendor who happens to be located on Tiharra Lane. If Tiharra has a slightly familiar ring to it, it might be because Tiharra is the name of the heroine in Farewell Andromeda--Captain Tiharra Bell, deep space charter pilot--and both she and the street in this story are named for the same thing, the elegant species of tree called the Tiharra Angel Willow.

There's a reference to Dartis as being the last planet Taro and his crew visited. Dartis is also the planet where readers first meet hero Sair in Inherit the Stars, and it's also the planet where an important family heirloom once believed lost was recovered in Courting Disaster.

But two more subtle references in the story are about Taro and his subspecies, who "had a penchant for navigating the stars." Taro is Tectolian of planet Tectol, a population who legends claimed were descended primarily from the Pacific Islanders of Old Earth--the Polynesians who had a talent and cultural history of navigating the oceans as Taro and his Tectolian counterparts do for navigating the stars thousands of years later.

His homage to the "Island Spirits" in this scene is a cultural reference that has been carried down through the generations on Tectol, though many are no longer aware of the meaning behind the term just as we today are ignorant of many of our cultural references or their origins. As an example, many of us may have no idea what the meaning of "between the devil and the deep blue sea" really is. (You can look it up under "devil seam" here.)

To give you a sense of the Polynesian skills for "wayfinding" here's a quick video about a modern day journey to recapture the ancient ways of the Polynesian voyagers and to train a new generation of navigators.

Wishing you good breezes and happy sailing this week.

New Scene from StarDog #amwriting #excerpt

I'm in the process of expanding StarDog, originally one of the stories in the very popular 2016 Pets in Space (Volume 1) collection, with many new scenes and details for a planned re-release later this summer.

Because the story is no longer limited on length, I can now explore some of the remarkable--and sometimes dangerous--work that hero Taro Shall engages in, in a little more depth.

Here's a fresh-off-the-press segment in the POV of Taro, navigator of the starship Calypso, as the ship and crew are about to undertake a daring research mission near a volatile nebula.

_______________________________________________________

Cunari Nebula
15,000 Light Years from Carduwa

“Wouldja just look at that,” Pareen muttered from his Com console.

Taro took in the massive planetary nebula. A giant gas cloud--tinted to hydrogen blues, oxygen greens and scattered points of nitrogen reds by Calypso’s filters--stretched out across the cosmos framed by a great shining oval of brilliant dots that gave the nebula its class-name: necklace nebula.

Those points of color merged and blended in a spectacular aquamarine ellipsoid, the hues reminding Taro oh-so-poignantly of a certain female vendor’s unforgettable eyes.

“Heard it said that glowy ring is caused by one star eaten t’other,” Pareen drawled, “and then spittin’ out pieces from its belly.”

Photo credits NASA.gov, ESA,
Hubble Heritage Team

Close enough. In the endgame of a binary star system, one of the pair of stars could expand until it engulfed its smaller partner, causing a rotational spin-up that cast off gases from its equator, forming the distinctive necklace pattern.

Calypso was now parked at a relatively safe distance from the ballooning nebula to capture real-time images. The dangerous part came next, when they’d execute four sensor drops around the outer fringes of the gas cloud to collect the data Dr. Emboratyr required for his research. The good astrophysicist wasn’t aboard, of course. He preferred to play it safe back in his lab while his instruments weathered the chaos of the distant nebula’s maelstrom.

Getting the equipment deployed was only half the equation, however. They’d already placed the skip buoys at strategic locations on the flight out—or actually the series of hops across the cosmos—that would transmit their client’s data signals across the void in virtual real-time.

Taro set to work running the second of a set of three independent cross-verifications of his navigation calcs. The quad of jump-drops had to be absolutely precise and timed to the millisecond to ensure optimum placement and reduce exposure to ultraviolet radiation and charged particles.

His mouth quirked into a crooked smile. Feats of daring nebula-hopping. All in a day’s work.

___________________________________________________________

 

In my story, necklace nebulae is the class name given to a certain type of nebulae as described in the story. The inspiration was provided by NASA via Hubble Space Telescope images of the Necklace Nebula. You can read more on the NASA Mission Pages. And here's an article on Space.com about the discovery of the Necklace Nebula in 2011.

 

Thanks for tuning in. I'll be back with another excerpt and/or more commentary about StarDog next Monday.

 

Have a great week!

 

 

 

THE SETTING FOR NOT FADE AWAY, PART 2

Not all of my new contemporary SFR novel Not Fade Away, Interstellar Rescue Series Book 4, is set on Earth. A large part of the book tells the story of secondary character Del Gordon, father of the hero Rafe Gordon, who was witness to the secret development of a terrifying weapon of mass destruction by the alien Grays. This took place at a labor camp called T7where he was held prisoner, Conditions at the camp, located on a desert planet were, well, not easy. Check out the snippet below for a hint of what things were like. 

His friend found a seat beside him in the lee of one building and pushed the blond hair out of one eye.  “Gonna be hot.”  

Del glanced up at the white sun peeking over the horizon. “Freakng hot. Young sun. And have you noticed the air?”

“I noticed there’s not a helluva lot of it. I’m wheezing like an old geezer.”

Del laughed at that. Shef wasn’t too tall, but he was built like—what did they used to say back home?—a brick shithouse. Though he’d forgotten what that really meant.

“There’s some small earth-moving equipment.” Shef nodded toward one end of the compound. “Ten bucks says we’re here to dig.”

The bets were a joke between them, something to help them remember, though they hadn’t seen anything resembling cash money since they’d been Taken. “I wouldn’t bet it even if I had it.” Del shifted his gaze to a row of squat shipping cases stacked beside a building to his right. “Those containers hold blasting gel.” 

“You can read Minertsan now?”

“See the marking on the lower left side? Looks like an inverted chevron with a check through it? We saw that before in the Depara mine.”

Shef cursed. “I was too busy trying to keep my ass in one piece. If I saw it at all I figured it meant, ‘Watch your ass.’”

They would have shared the laugh, but the guards were circling now. They put on their blank faces and made like zombies. Then they got up and got in line with the others.

The guards marched them out through the only gate in the 18-foot-tall fence surrounding the camp and over a dusty trail through rocky scrub. They hadn’t been walking long—just long enough to build up a good sweat in the already-sweltering day—when they topped a low rise and looked down into a bowl full of jagged rocks and scraggly brush.  

Del lifted his gaze up to the relentless white sun and dropped it back into the cruel landscape of their workplace. He was careful not to look at his friend. He knew if he saw Shef’s face he would not be able to hide his own despair.

Not Fade Away, Interstellar Rescue Series Book 4, is available for pre-order NOW on Amazon.

Cheers, Donna

Snippet Saturday: Alien Contact #firstcontact #scifirom

Since Laurie has kicked off a new tradition of weekend excerpts, I thought I'd share one of my newest release before I go offline for Christmas. This is my first alien contact SFR, and in this snippet it's clearly not going well despite good intentions...

I will heal you... The voice, soft as starlight, caressed his thoughts and held the pain at bay. He floated in golden light, warm and comforting. The terrible agony and fear had faded to dim and distant aches, as if it had been nothing but a nightmare. He’d never felt so at peace or so safe. This was heaven.

The thought stabbed into his mind, jolting him from the calm. He remembered his ship rocking under weapons fire, shaking him in his seat like some helpless creature in the jaws of a predator. The blare of emergency sirens, and the irresistible yank of gravity pulling his ship downward in a crazy, out of control spiral. The impact that had shattered every bone in his body and left him choking in a toxic atmosphere.

Cold bled through him, and yet even facing those memories didn’t shake him out of the euphoria. Damn it, I must be dead. I was dying. And now I don’t care about any of it. That wasn’t normal. If he was alive he should be in pain, his craft a wreck around his equally broken body. He should be panicking over being stranded on an alien planet, while at the same time terrified his family would catch up with him. Especially dad. Yoran shuddered. Oh, frick. If he wasn’t dead, his father would surely kill him.

Relax. The voice that wasn’t really a voice poured more warmth and reassurance over him, and what little fear he’d felt through the fog clouding his mind disappeared.

Why worry? I’m dead. Nothing else can hurt me now. Except he was still thinking and, judging by faint twinges in his body despite the soothing warmth, still feeling. Remembering. Conscious.

Yoran opened his eyes, and white moonlight shone through the fractured plazglass of his front screen. Craggy spires of dark gray rock rose to either side of his view. The landscape was a stark, unfriendly monochrome, with no sign of possible civilization or help.

The euphoria sank into cold, gray despair. He hadn’t dreamt it. He’d crashed into that lifeless lump of rock he’d been trying to avoid as Chevelle’s siblings had pursued his ship and shot him down. Hell knew if he could take off again.

He groaned and closed his eyes, wanting to sink back into that sweet cloud of ignorance he’d surfaced in.

Wait a minute. If I crashed and was in so much pain, why am I okay now?

His eyes crept open again, and he dared to look down, half expecting to see the mangled mess of his body that somehow hadn’t woken him in agony. Instead, something the color and consistency of mercury wrapped his body like a skin suit, the soft gleam of moonlight undulating over it as it pulsed in time with his own heartbeat.

“Seksumi!” Yoran leapt to his feet, ignoring the sudden rip of pain through his body as his legs threatened to give under him. But the strange wrap of silver simply moved with him. Worse, he felt it creeping up his neck, warm but smothering.

“Get the hell off me!” He swiped at it, scattering globules of it across the spaceship. He backed away, heart pounding, still trying to swat it from his body. As he retreated, the globules reformed into domed beads on the floor and ran together, forming a larger and larger puddle of metallic liquid that kept coming for him.

“No!” Yoran yanked the weapon from his belt, and fired repeatedly into the silver mass. Parts of it exploded, scattering splats in all directions that simply ran down the walls like water to rejoin the mass. But now it had stopped trying to approach him, forming itself instead into a defensive huddle.

“Get off my ship! Get away from me!” His hand shook as he kept the gun aimed at it. It rolled a few centimeters toward him, and he fired again. This time the silver menace, in a frightening burst of speed, shot up the wall of the ship and squeezed through a hole in the ceiling to disappear.

Yoran collapsed, his shaky legs no longer able to hold him up. Panting, he leaned back against the wall and tried not to throw up.

Love can come when it’s least expected... 

When an injured alien crashes on her planet, Soraya follows her instinct to repair and restore it despite the challenge of their differing physiology. But as she gets closer to her patient and he recovers, Soraya confronts a whole new form of existence...and a desire that could destroy her completely. 

Yoran chose exile in order to release the woman he thought his soulmate from a marriage contract she had no wish to fulfill, and almost paid for it with his life. Now he finds himself drawn to his alien savior. But how can he ask her to give up the only existence she knows when he’s already suffered the consequences of such a sacrifice himself? 
Buy links: https://www.books2read.com/u/bOaJYW