Page 9 of A Delicate Conquest

FOUR

She hadher own private shuttle—as if she were some sort of VIP.

The sleek, black craft had picked her up from the rooftop garden of her modest apartment, hovering silently without even a gust of wind or an engine roar.

It was invisible, too, its presence only revealed to a select few—her included.

As far as the neighbors were concerned, it might as well not have existed.

She’d walked up a set of momentarily visible steps into the cool, dim cabin, feeling a little giddy as her feet left solid ground.

Inside, a softly-spoken crew member wearing a black uniform escorted her to her seat. Once she was secured by a set of seamless safety restraints, the spacecraft took off, and the only way she could tell was because of the view out the window.

The rosy pink sky of late afternoon quickly turned into the star-speckled black of space.

It was surreal.

The cabin was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

She was floating, drifting through space.

Bea had never been to space before. Even though space travel was fairly accessible these days, she’d never had the urge. She’dalways had this fear that something bad would happen—that the ship would malfunction or crash, leaving her stranded and ultimately leading to her demise in the cold, silent vacuum of space.

Funnily enough, she wasn’t nervous about traveling in a Kordolian ship. That was her logical brain taking over, telling her that these guys had been doing space travel before humans had even made it out of the Dark Ages.

The stillness and quietness of the ship as it hurtled through space kind of confirmed her hunch.

She was safe here.

She didn’t really understand why or how, but she was a guest of these people—thesealiens—just like her friend Clarissa.

So far, everything they’d done had been perfectly decent and courteous. She didn’t have a single bad word to say about the silver aliens, which was completely at odds with what the talking heads on the Networks would have her believe.

Apparently, Kordolians were absolutely ruthless. They were powerful beyond imagining—with an unrivaled fleet presence throughout the entirety of the Nine Galaxies.

They were warmongers.

Colonizers.

They dominated everything they touched.

If they wanted, they could hold this planet hostage and bring the entire human species to heel.

If some of the pundits were to be believed, they already had.

Andyet…

They were surprisingly chill. At leasthehad been chill… that guy.

Mavrel.

That day, when she was working front reception at Garner Tower, when the Kordolians showed up unannounced with thatbig-shot Jerik Garul at the helm, the whole thing had devolved into a ridiculous hostage situation.

Being Kordolian, Mavrel had been on the receiving end of some really shitty treatment from her boss’s hired mercenaries, who had tried to force Jerik Garul’s hand—the formerHigh Commander,Jerik Garul.

What idiots.

Mavrel had endured it all with a slightly bored expression--as if this sort of thing happened all the time.