Alien Dragon's Baby: A Scifi Alien Romance (Red Planet Dragons of Tajss) Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  About This Book

  Copyright

  1 Calista

  2 Calista

  3 Calista

  4 Ladon

  5 Ladon

  6 Calista

  7 Calista

  8 Ladon

  9 Calista

  10 Ladon

  11 Calista

  12 Calista

  13 Ladon

  14 Calista

  15 Ladon

  16 Calista

  17 Calista

  18 Ladon

  19 Calista

  20 Calista

  21 Calista

  22 Calista

  23 Calista

  Full Copyright

  Join Miranda Martin's Sexy Aliens List

  ALIEN DRAGON'S BABY

  Red Planet Dragons of Tajss

  MIRANDA MARTIN

  & JUNO WELLS

  Hi! I'm Miranda Martin, and I wrote the book you are about to read with my friend Juno Wells. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, and I hope you read the rest of our books!

  If you'd like to get emails about our new releases and opportunities to read our new books for free, please sign up for our mailing lists by following this link:

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  Copyright © 2016 Miranda Martin & Juno Wells

  All rights reserved.

  1 CALISTA

  I'm late. I hop from foot to foot as I wait in the security line. Damn it, I'm late hurry up! The guy in line ahead of me looks like he is in his eighties and apparently he forgot his ID so they're going extra slow about checking him out. He's eighty, who cares! Let him in!

  "Hell, I work here, show some damn respect," the old guy grouses.

  "You work here then you know the rules Mr. Chamberlain," the burly security guard frisking him says.

  "Here now, you touch the merchandise you better be ready to finish what you started!" the old man cries out as the guard pats down his leg.

  I snort.

  "Sorry sir," the younger guard, Charlie says.

  Bert, the burly guard just grunts unamused. I shake my head and look at my phone checking the time. Gershom is going to give me so much shit. Damn it. I need this like I need a hole in my head.

  "Bert?" I ask and he looks past the old man to me.

  "Anyway I can get passed through this?"

  Bert's pissed, which is nothing new, but apparently today he wants to piss on the entire world as well. This becomes abundantly clear when he rolls his eyes.

  "Oh I'm sorry, you think I asked this guy to forget his ID then expect to get through anyway? Am I putting a cramp in your style by doing my job?"

  "Bert, I didn't mean-"

  "Didn't mean to put down us poor guards who look after you eggheads?"

  "I didn't say-"

  "Didn't say please? Yeah, I noticed. Thanks for the respect by the way. Goes a long way. Now get in line, please, while we clear this snafu up."

  "You never get laid do you?" Chamberlain quips at Bert.

  Bert's eyes widen and his face turns purple as his blood pressure soars through the roof. He's so angry he apparently can't speak. His mouth moves and he's making a sputtering noise but no words come out.

  "What? You think you can talk to a pretty girl like that and expect her to give you any honey?" Chamberlain continues and I snort.

  Charlie is doing his best not to laugh as he stands up in front of Chamberlain but he's about to burst himself. Chamberlain grins looking back at me with bright eyes and a grin that goes from ear to ear.

  "I'd say if I was twenty years younger I'd be asking you out," he says to me. "But hell with that, you need a good time, I got just the equipment to show it to you!"

  Heat rushes to my cheeks and I want to crawl under the security machines and hide. I'm not that girl and have no idea how to respond. Should I be flattered? How about embarrassed? Is that close enough?

  "You're cleared sir," Charlie says pulling on Chamberlain's shoulder forcing him to take his eyes off of me.

  "About damn time," Chamberlain mutters and wanders off without another word.

  "Sorry Calista," Charlie says as I step up to the security checkpoint.

  "Wow," I say uncertain still how to react or what to say.

  "Yeah, he's… different," Charlie says.

  "You deal with him often?"

  "More than I'd like, he constantly forgets his ID too," Charlie answers.

  "I hate that son of a bitch," Bert mutters.

  Bert is back at the scanning machine that monitors everyone entering the sector. I'm not sure why they think we need this degree of security on our area. We do research that no one is really going to care about. It's not like we're designing weapons. My team is working on new strains of wheat. Whoopee! Prime target for terrorism I guess if you're a wheat hater. Is there such a thing? Does anyone really care what we're doing?

  No matter how seriously I doubt that, the security has now made me twenty minutes late for work. Gershom is going to put me through a ringer. God he's a douche. Bert and Charlie pass me through and I run for the elevator. The ride will take another five minutes and then I have to go down the hall to where my team is. I'm going to be twenty-nine minutes and twenty-four seconds late. It's just under the thirty minute cut off so I don't have a second to spare. Thirty minutes late and Gershom can dock my pay half a day. Anything under that and it's only a reprimand, not that I need anymore of those either but screw losing half my day's pay.

  The elevator crawls up. I swear it's moving at half pace. I'm back to dancing from foot to foot as I watch the number slowly climb. It reaches the fourth floor then the doors slowly slide open. I dive out them the moment they're wide enough for me to squeeze through then run down the hall. Thankfully I wore sneakers today. Dress code in the lab is pretty casual since we're all either wearing lab coats or the special suits that prevent cross contamination.

  "RUN FORREST! RUN!" a high pitched voice yells down the hall as I do just that.

  I break into a full sprint seeing my best friend Jolie waving me on and holding the door to the lab open. Jolie is short and super cute. She has a hint of Asian in her genetics that gives her the almond eyes and the petite body blessed her with an ability to eat anything and everything without worrying about her weight.

  "JOLIE SHUT THE DOOR!" Gershom's baritone rings out.

  "Yes sir!" she yells. "I'm doing just that, holding the door!" she calls over her shoulder grinning at me.

  I skid to a stop with squeaking sneakers just inside the door and hit enter on the time computer. Jolie had my employee id already punched in and waiting for me. It's a fudge but not a flat out breaking of the rules. It flashes clocked in just before the time changes. I made it! I'm panting heavily and leaning over when Jolie grabs me in a tight hug.

  "Calista," Gershom says, stalking towards me like a cat prowling towards a bird. It's creepy.

  "Yes?" I ask.

  Gershom is older than me with gray at the temples of his dark hair. He has a deep tan, lined face, and big hands that constantly grip a mug of coffee. He sips it to accent his statements. He seems to think it makes him cool and hip. The suspenders he wears kills any hip or cool. He's our supervisor but he's not a scientist like the rest of us. I think this makes
him insecure and is part of the reason he likes to enforce his authority.

  "You're late," he says sipping his coffee.

  "Yeah, sorry about that. Problem at security."

  "I see," sip, "well we have rules around here," sip.

  "Yes sir," I say.

  "Rules that are made to be followed," sip, "Perhaps you were out too late last night?"

  "No sir," I say.

  I think he's hitting on me which makes me even more uncomfortable than Chamberlain downstairs. He's constantly making remarks or inquiries about what I did the night before. It's not something he does with the other workers.

  "I see," sip "well that's too bad." Sip. "Then you'd have a reason wouldn't you?" Sip.

  "I suppose so sir."

  "Well, half a day's pay," sip.

  "I was within the time limit sir," I reply.

  His eyes widen and he turns to the time computer. He punches in his security code and reviews the logs. When he turns back to me all pretense of control is gone.

  "Get to work," he says pointing with his coffee cup.

  I try to contain my laughter as I follow Jolie back into our lab. Gershom disappears into his office as Jolie and I slide on our lab coats.

  "That was close," Jolie says.

  "Yeah," I agree.

  "Where the hell were you?"

  "I overslept."

  "Again? Hot date last night?"

  I snort. "Yeah, right. No one wants the nerdy librarian outside of movies."

  "I call bullshit."

  "I call bullshit on your bullshit."

  "You need to put yourself out there! Come on girl, you got the goods, under that nerdy smile and behind those glasses."

  "Uh-huh. Well for now I'm going to stay focused on work."

  "Bah, work is boring!"

  "We're close to breaking through though," I say.

  "Yeah I do love the science," Jolie says and laughs. "I guess I'm just as big of a nerd as you are."

  "I want to see how the new seeds are doing. I'll find you after I'm done in the clean room."

  "You'd better," Jolie says smiling.

  I head into the clean room and check on all the new seeds. Biochemistry is fun. Well I think it's fun. It's also vitally important if we're going to feed the world, we need to keep evolving better strains of food. So I work and the day passes. I'm at my desk punching in the results of my latest round of tests and the reports to end the day when Gershom walks up again, coffee cup still in hand.

  "So, yeah," he says without preamble.

  I look up at him over my glasses. No one else is in the lab and with the way he's looking at me I feel suddenly self-conscious. I push my hair back behind my ear waiting for him to speak.

  "Yeah?"

  Gershom clears his throat and looks around the office.

  "I thought you'd like to go out to dinner tonight?"

  "Me?" surprise makes my voice come out higher than normal.

  "Well, of course," he says. "You, me, dinner, maybe some other entertainment."

  "I don't think that'd be appropriate," I say my cheeks burning hot.

  "Oh, well, uhm, why not?"

  "Work?" I say quickly trying to cover over.

  What do I say? I find you repulsive and slimy? God, months without a date or a hint of one and all I get is Gershom hitting on me.

  "Ah, yes, of course," he says.

  "Hey Calista, you about done?" Jolie asks walking up behind our boss.

  He stiffens immediately and then waves his coffee cup around.

  "Yes, well, very good. Make sure you fill that report in fully," he says then walks off.

  Jolie and I watch him go. When he turns out of sight she whirls on me with a grin from ear to ear.

  "Did he again?" she asks.

  "God, yes," I say.

  "Man he's got it bad for you. You could use it later for a raise or something if you wanted to," she laughs.

  "Ugh! No!"

  "Hey, just saying," she laughs. "Scratch that itch and all that."

  "I'd rather die," I reply.

  "Yeah, can't blame you there. Well day's over, ready to go?"

  "You bet," I say shutting off my monitor and rubbing my eyes.

  We make our way out of the lab and past security without incident. Outside on the thoroughfare we walk along quietly.

  "Dinner?" she asks. "Or straight back to our dorms?"

  "Dinner would be great. Think we can get into Cosmos?"

  "No clue but I love that place," Jolie says. "Let's give it a shot!"

  We work our way through the end of day rush crowd as people all over are heading for their homes or out for the evening. When we reach Cosmo's there's a line but they let us into the bar to wait.

  "What are you drinking?" Jolie asks.

  "Bloody mary tonight," I say.

  She holds up two fingers and orders our drinks. I grab mine and walk away from the bar.

  "I want to see the view," I say.

  "Sure!" she says following along.

  I lead us through the packed bar until we go through the small door to the observation room. There are small tables each with three tall chairs. I pick one closest to the window that's empty and hop up in it. Jolie sits across from me. I turn and look out across the empty blackness. Small twinkling lights so distant they look like sparkles wink at us.

  "Lucy in the sky with diamonds," Jolie hums, holding her drink up and swaying back and forth.

  "No doubt," I say admiring it.

  "What galaxy is that?" I ask, pointing at a nebulous cloud which must be a few hundred light years away.

  "I'm not sure, I don't know where we're at in the journey right now," she replies.

  I lean back and sip my drink. Looking into the big black I feel small and complete all at the same time. The black emptiness yawns all around us but at the same time we've conquered it. We're the third generation aboard the ship and we'll never see our destination. Two more generations will live here before that happens. I chuckle, thanks to great Grandpa and Grandma, life as we know it is confined to the ship.

  "So what do you think?" Jolie asks.

  "About what?"

  "Love! In the grand scheme of all things what about love?"

  I smile and stare out at the black. Jolie has love on the brain. It's all she thinks about. She loves watching romantic movies and dreams of her knight in shining armor which means she also dreams of me finding mine.

  "I think," I say sipping thoughtfully. "That the nerdy science girl only gets the guy in the movies."

  "Bah," she says. "Art imitates life and life imitates art!"

  "I'm not sure that Notting Hill is 'art'."

  "Oh my god, wasn't Julia great in that? And Hugh, to die for!"

  "Yeah," I say sighing. "That's not me though."

  "You have no idea how cute you are do you?"

  "What?" I ask looking at her in surprise.

  "Cute, you," she repeats. "Lots of guys would love to go out with you."

  "Sure," I say shaking my head.

  Jolie rolls her eyes. "Trust me, I know what I'm talking about."

  "I'll stick with my science, thanks," I say.

  "We'll see about that my dearie," Jolie says laughing.

  In the distance there's a fast flash of light that catches my attention. I stare where I thought I saw it but it doesn't repeat.

  "You see that?" I ask.

  "Hmm? What?"

  "Flash of light off that way," I point towards where I saw it.

  "Nope," she says uninterestedly.

  "Huh," I reply.

  The night passes by quietly while we visit and have dinner then go to our dorms and I'm out like a light.

  2 CALISTA

  Morning is always so early. Ugh. I roll over and stretch then hit the switch on the wall that stops my ceiling light from blinking. The universe's most annoying alarm clock. Rolling out of my bunk my feet hit the floor and I stumble over to the inset replicator. Three beeps and the smell of fresh cafe v
erona coffee permeates the room. I sit on the edge of my bunk waiting for it to finish then grab it and sip the warm, delightful beverage. As its warmth spreads through my system I slowly come awake. I step into my bathroom and let the warm air filled with ion particles scrub me clean then care for my teeth and fix my hair.

  Dressed and ready, I step out of my room into the common area I share with two other girls. The dorms are all designed like this, just enough privacy to keep us sane but space is at a premium on a colony ship. Jolie is curled up on the couch with her feet tucked under her sipping her own coffee. She looks alert and ready to go, damn her. She's always full of energy and I'm jealous.

  "Morning sunshine!" Jolie smiles.

  "Right," I grump.

  "It's another bright and beautiful day. Time to rise and shine, let's rock and roll!"

  Jolie climbs to her feet as she sing-songs her morning routine.

  "For the love of god could you please shut the hell up!" Amara yells stepping out of her bunk.

  "Don't be a bear," Jolie says, spinning on her foot to face Amara.

  Amara is loud, brash, and used to giving orders. There's a harsh beauty to her face. She has a strong jaw and sharp nose that conveys an air of authority. Her short dark hair is standing on end and her eyes look exhausted.

  "Did you not sleep at all last night Amara?" I ask.

  "No and Miss Happy is not helping at all," she grouses.

  "Why not?" I ask.

  "Because she's annoying?" she responds with a glare at Jolie who sticks her tongue out at her.

  Amara rolls her eyes.

  "I meant why didn't you sleep last night?" I clarify.

  "Course corrections, kept us all up late," she says.

  "I thought that was all automatic, the computer does all that."

  "It is but it detected something it couldn't figure out and we had to adjust for it."

  "Isn't that weird?" Jolie asks.

  "Yes," Amara replies not looking to elaborate.

  "Well is everything going to be okay?" Jolie prods.

  "Why don't you stick to growing weeds or whatever the hell it is you two do? Leave the piloting to those of us who know things okay?"