Alex Wales: Promise

explore.

Alone.

Anteris was now nothing more than a gray dot in the rearview monitor to her left. No bigger than the multitude of shiny stars surrounding her in the dark edge of space.

As she absently reached for the bronze key dangling from her leather choker, she cursed herself. Damn!It wasn’t where it was supposed to be. She’d probably forgotten the choker in Ulric’s bedroom. Her good luck charm was sitting in someone else’s home. No wonder everything had been going wrong since she left Ulric’s side.

She took a deep breath. Calm down, there’s no need to worry. I’m sure Ulric has already found it and is keeping it safe for me.Besides, she would return to Anteris soon enough.

The emergency lights suddenly flashed on the dashboard in front of her. Out of nowhere, everything seemed to be flashing red and green-mingling together. To have so many lights from several components blink rapidly was bad news. Alex had overhauled her ship only weeks ago, even splurged on paying a professional cleaner to make the exterior gleam. Now, everything seemed to be failing.

That wasn’t technically possible.

The ship was old, but mostly reliable.

Alex secured the seatbelt over her shoulders and around her hips. She swiveled in her seat, rolling it forward to take manual control of Promise. Most of the time, cruising on automatic did the job after she programmed the destination codes, but not with everything blinking. It had been a while since she’d completely taken over the wheel.

“Damn this!” she cursed as the colors burned into her nerves more than her eyes. What the hell was wrong? She couldn’t even get a reading on her location or what the problem with the ship was. According to the controls, everything was failing.

She switched from auto to manual control, and wrapped her right hand tightly around the lever.

Anteris was too far to try and make it back, now. There weren’t any planets nearby, but Alex decided to press the communication button, anyway. “Hello, can anybody hear me?”

The response was nothing but static.

“Hello, I need help. This is Promisecalling for help.” She hoped someone would at least hear her call. Her system might be too fried to receive any signals, but if someone heard and took note of her location, there was the slight chance they would come out and search for her.

Yet, with no planets or moons nearby, she could be left circling in space for a long time. That’s if anyone bothered to come out to search for her at all. She was just a courier. There were plenty more around. No one would care enough to save her.

Well, no one but Ulric. Suddenly, she saw an advantage to his newfound affection for her.

Promisejolted. The control panels were all buzzing like annoying insects.

As she put all of her strength into trying to keep the ship steady, the rounded edge of a moon appeared from out of nowhere, right in front of her. So close that it threatened to consume her. What the hell was going on? How could a moon magically pop up?

She checked the map. It showed nothing but clear space in this area. The closest habitable places listed were Anteris and the planet Lark, which is where she was headed.

Steering to the right, she managed to swerve enough to avoid being dragged by the gravitational pull of the moon.

Alex sighed in relief, her pulse beating a tattoo inside her head. Her relief was short-lived, though. As soon as she’d cleared the bluish tinge of the moon, a planet appeared before her. It had been hiding behind the moon. No matter how hard she tried to manually steer her way around, she wasn’t heading anywhere but straight for it.

The steering lever was jammed in the one position-forward.

The engine droned out, and the ship took a nose-dive.

“My ship is failing, and I’m going down. I repeat, I’m going down!” she yelled into her comm- unit.

She was falling into the planet, and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do to stop it. She peered out the window. What the hell?There it was-a green and brown globe.

I’m plunging into a planet that doesn’t show up on my navigation charts.

Alex tried to adjust the steering lever, but her effort was in vain. The ship continued its downward trajectory. She wasn’t sure how she’d managed to get herself into this situation, but this unfamiliar planet was sucking Promisein.

The dash in front of her sparked. All the competing noises suddenly stopped as smoke and flames ignited simultaneously. The emergency siren echoed around her, adding to the panic already gripping her.

She reached forward and pressed the extinguisher button. At least that worked. The white spray killed the flames but probably ruined every control panel on her dash.

Her grip on the manual control lever slipped from her clammy hands. Her heart beat so rapidly, she thought she might be having a heart attack.

She tightened the belt around her stomach and chest. There was nothing else she could do. Flames shone brightly outside the window in front of her, indicating Promisehad entered the foreign planet’s atmosphere.

I hope I make it alive.

Alex managed to wrap her shaky fingers around the oxygen mask she kept above her and pulled it over her face seconds before darkness washed over her vision.

Chapter Four

Ulric intended to surprise her.

There was no way Alex would ever expect him to do something this crazy. He never left the space station. There was no need to. Until now, he hadn’t seen any reason for doing so. Why would he? He had everything he needed within reach, and if it wasn’t there, he could order someone to get it for him. Everything was delivered, given to him. He could afford all of life’s desires, and sometimes people even gave them away to impress him.

After the way things had ended inside his room with Alex, he hadn’t seen any other choice but to follow her. Make her realize he meant what he’d said.

When he eventually showed himself, and they were too far out in space for her to return to Anteris, she’d have to spend more time alone with him. That’s all he wanted-to be with her.

Just when he’d stripped off every stitch of clothing and was about to make his entrance, the ship tilted dangerously forward. He lost his balance and smacked his forehead hard against some of the metal framing.

“Fuck!” It was almost impossible to find a safe spot in this blasted ship, without adding this stroke of bad luck. Some of the barrels around him shook, but none moved an inch. They were strapped in with chains. Where the hell was she delivering these?

His bare spine pressed painfully against the metal wall, scalding his skin.

He wrapped his right hand tighter around the only token he’d ever given her. The one she’d