Page 41 of All You Need is Alien Love (Tentacular Tales #4)

“Warning. Quantum containment shields unstable. Hull breach risk elevated,” the AI voice interjects.

“Fix this or die,” she snarls at the poor tech, her phaser now trained on him.

“I… I don’t know what’s going on. Our ship’s OS has been compromised somehow.”

Her face turns red with fury. “Then find a way to get us up and running again.”

The tech raises his hands in submission. “Sorry, but this is beyond me. I think we’ve been hacked by a rather sophisticated virus that has infiltrated the entire OS. That’s not something I can easily remedy. It’s above my paygrade, that’s for sure.”

“Why am I surrounded by useless fools,” Adeline vents as she attacks her keypad again.

“You don’t have access to that folder,” the AI voice tells her.

“Ahhh!” Adeline screeches, starting to lose her cool.

The AI voice comes over the speakers again, unrelenting. “System trapped in hibernation mode. Timeout period expired.”

“Motherfucking piece of shit,” Adeline growls as she rage-stabs the keypad repeatedly with one finger.

“This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. All navigation systems now nonoperational.”

Nonoperational is never a word you want to hear in relation to your ship.

For the first time since I’ve known her, Adeline pales, a frantic look twisting her face.

“Uh… captain? We c-can’t reach any of our sister vessels or our ship in orbit,” the technician interrupts, keeping a good physical distance from her.

Adeline stares at him like she’s contemplating the merits of murdering the poor guy.

This sort of nonsensical fuckery has River and Nirblob written all over it. My hearts soar and my chest swells with pride.

Good work, my mate. And… Nirblob. At this rate, I really am going to have to forgive him for kidnapping River… eventually.

I will throw a party for the little green guy after we send these assholes packing.

Adeline tries typing something into the main terminal a final time and then uses the voice-activated controls instead. “Requesting system override. Captain passcode alpha-zeta-97522. Initiate.”

A long beep sounds and then, “Error. User lacks necessary Operation CHAOS permissions.”

I choke back a laugh. Hell yes. It’s definitely my mate and Nirblob who’ve thwarted Adeline’s escape route. The two of them together are brilliant, but also dangerous. Thankfully, Nirblob takes his cues from River, and my mate is all about, as he says, the Light Side of The Force.

By now, Adeline looks like she’s ready to blow a fuse, and I wish I could take some pictures for everyone. She deserves to squirm after everything she’s done.

Just when I think she might use her phaser on the ship’s controls, Layne Madison finally makes his appearance. Now that trouble’s looming, he’s looking to flee like a space-rat running from an engine fire.

“We have a problem,” he grits out between clenched teeth.

I recognize him almost immediately, even though he’s wearing a different form—or “alter,” as Osairans call it. For some reason, he can’t seem to shed the smarmy side of his core personality that slithers through like a space-eel every time he morphs into someone else.

Today he’s dressed in a dark uniform and tactical gear, and he’s sporting dirty blond hair cut short and combed neatly to the side. His eyes are a bright blue color, but devoid of any emotion as he takes in the scene around him.

As River would undoubtedly say, the sociopath vibes are strong with this one.

“It would appear that our ships’ operating systems have been infiltrated by some type of virus-like program.” His mouth twists into a grim line. “We’re stranded for the moment. Contact with the ships in orbit has been cut off.”

“All of them?” The disbelief in Adeline’s voice is palpable.

River was right. These idiots have woefully underestimated us.

Layne Madison’s mouth twists with displeasure. “So it would seem.”

As they continue to bicker, I covertly begin working on trying to loosen my restraints.

Adeline scowls and runs her hand through her hair, tugging on the strands in obvious frustration. “How the hell could something like this happen?”

Layne Madison crosses his arms over his chest. “It seems the Alliance had a talent we were not aware of in their ranks.”

Adeline begins to pace. “Impossible. I was undercover there for years. I’m telling you, there’s no one with the ability to do something like this.”

Layne Madison narrows his eyes at her and then turns his probing gaze on me. I draw on my training and school my features, giving nothing away.

“Perhaps he can tell us who’s responsible for this little problem.”

His cold, dead gaze bores into me, but I hold my ground, refusing to show fear. It’s a bit of a challenge to remain defiant while strapped to a medical chair against my will, but I’m certain River would be proud.

“If you wish to extract information out of him, make sure not to damage his body. I still have experiments I need to run on him,” Adeline says.

Layne Madison narrows his eyes. “We don’t have time for either. But he’ll be a useful bargaining chip in hostage negotiations.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Our mission has been derailed.” Layne Madison’s expression darkens. “I’m loath to admit it, but we have sorely underestimated our foe.”

My tentacles roil with glee and one of the straps around my right arm gives a little.

Adeline scoffs. “I sincerely doubt that.”

The look he shoots her sends shivers down my spine.

“Despite being undercover for so many years, your information proved woefully lacking, Adeline.”

She moves a telling distance away from him. “No one suspected me and everything was going according to plan for so long.” She scowls. “Until that idiot, River Sullivan, showed up. He’s caused no end of trouble.”

My hearts pound in my chest at the mention of my mate. He’s the threat no one ever sees coming—including Layne Madison.

“If our initial plan had worked, that fool Nirblob would have ended River Sullivan’s life,” Layne Madison says. “It seems as though I’ll need to take matters into my own hands.”

I can’t help it. I laugh—and loudly.

He stalks over, a thunderous expression on his face. “You find this amusing? I’m going to kill your mate and you can watch.”

I shake my head, ignoring the pain it causes, and grin at him.

“I highly doubt that. None of your plans have worked out where River’s concerned.

Nirblob defected and joined our side. Then you tried hiring Shilgar the Deadly, and he failed too.

Hell, if the most infamous intergalactic assassin couldn’t kill River, you sure as shit won’t be able to. ”

That actually gives him pause.

Adeline gapes. “That half-human fool evaded Shilgar the Deadly? I don’t believe it.”

I attempt to shrug against my restraints without much luck. “And yet, here we are now, aren’t we?”

She whirls on Layne Madison. “Surely one idiot couldn’t have thwarted our entire operation. What about the Vroknu warriors? They were supremely confident in their ability to wipe out the Alliance members at this facility.”

He scowls once again. “They were defeated. Hylgarten is dead.”

My eyes go wide. Holy shit. Zamir’s father is dead?

Anxiety churns in my gut. I’m relieved to hear that our team has the upper hand—which I anticipated based on River’s plan—but I hope there’ve been no unnecessary sacrifices to achieve our goals.

Dear galactic gods, please let everyone be all right. Especially River.

“That’s fucking fantastic. Years of covert work down the drain because you couldn’t kill one half-human fool! Now we’re trapped on this backwater dump of a planet and only have one lousy hostage to barter our way out?” Adeline demands, her voice nearing a shriek.

“Tone down the hysteria and help me figure out a way to turn this to our advantage.”

“I can’t believe I trusted you,” Adeline mutters, ignoring his rather obvious misogyny. “This was all your stupid idea. You said this would be a cake walk.”

His eyes narrow. “And it would have been if you had done your job properly.”

“Fuck you, Layne, ” Adeline says, exaggerating his name. “Or whatever you want to call yourself these days. I did precisely what I was hired to do.”

As we suspected, Layne Madison was merely an alias.

They continue bickering while I quietly make progress on loosening my restraints.

“We need to get out of here,” Adeline says.

“Precisely why we need to make use of our hostage,” Layne Madison gestures toward me. “They care about this man. They’ll give us what we want. For now, we’ll have to settle for an Alliance vessel to get us off planet and back to our ship in orbit. We must retreat for now and regroup.”

She glares at him for a long, tense moment until she relents. “Fine. But I need to take my samples and finish the last part of my experiment before we leave.”

I do not like the sound of that and continue to fight against my restraints, making progress that feels far too slow. River should be appearing any moment now, right?

Adeline moves to the cabinet and pulls out a large syringe that she fills with a mysterious clear liquid.

“What the hell is that?” I demand.

She flashes me an evil grin. “Just a little something I concocted to induce an episode of Tentaculum Calefaction again.”

I blink at her in confusion.

Did she say again ?

She shakes her head. “Poor na?ve, trusting Kai. Do you know how long it took me to find a viable Iyaran male with the ability to gestate offspring? You are my crowning achievement!” The gleam of fervor in her eyes is terrifying.

“You’ve gone full mad scientist,” I whisper. River’s shown me enough of those films to know.

“Hardly. I’m one of the greatest minds in the universe.

And I’m going to create the first Iyaran male pregnancy in centuries.

” She points to a cooling unit nearby. “I even have samples of Fabian’s sperm to implant once you go into Tentaculum Calefaction again.

” Her grin is maniacal. “After all, we need you to gestate pure Iyaran offspring.”

I gag and have to concentrate on my breathing so I don’t throw up at her words.

“You’re sick and demented,” I grit out through clenched teeth as I fight the restraints. “Forced implantation is the same as rape.”

She sighs. “You’re failing to see the bigger picture. Sometimes sacrifices must be made in the name of science.”

I scoff. “This isn’t science. This is a creepy eugenics agenda.”

“The fertility of species like my own is declining. Additionally, birth rates of mixed-progeny are on the rise, meaning the purity of our people is at risk.” Her eyes hold a feverish gleam that’s terrifying.

“My work will save the Osairan race. The data from my research on you will enable me to increase fertility options among my people. Well, only for those who agree to keep the Osairan race untainted. You are serving a greater cause.”

I’m shaking with equal parts rage and disgust. “Was this your unhinged plot all along?”

“Why else would I have volunteered to come here? This godsforsaken outpost had a disproportionate number of Iyaran members. Your species is remarkably fertile, and at one time, all sexes could gestate offspring. What a gold mine of opportunities! I made it my mission to learn as much about Iyaran biology as possible and covertly studied all of you for years. Everything was going so well too…” Her expression darkens.

“Until River Sullivan showed up. He ruined everything. After all my efforts, he was the one to induce Tentaculum Calefaction in you.”

“He’s my life mate. No one but him could bring on such a response.”

She holds up the syringe. “We’ll just have to see about that, won’t we?

I’m quite confident that my research has led to a successful triggering mechanism for Tentaculum Calefaction.

Once you go into an episode, I’ll implant Fabian’s biological material to continue my experiment.

Later, I’ll be able to run tests on your offspring as well. ”

Panic washes over me and my tentacles thrash inside me, unable to come out thanks to the restraints over my abdomen.

This is all so much worse than we imagined.

Layne Madison is awful, but Adeline is truly terrifying.

She seems to be the true believer among the two, while her co-conspirator is more of a slimy opportunist willing to take or leave what best suits his goals at any given moment.

She swabs my arm and before I can even react, injects me with the mystery substance.

“It’ll all be over before you know it.”

I swallow back my fear and hold on to the trust I have in my mate.

River, get your ass moving and rescue me like we planned!