Dawn, Autumn - Ride the Stars

Title: Ride the Stars
Author: Autumn Dawn
Series:
Pub: New Concepts Publishing
Pub Date: August, 2003
ISBN: 1-58608-668-8
Genre:
Time Period:
Setting:
Hero: Skye D'rath
Heroine: Jaide Calanarre

Summary:

Augmenter Jaide Calanarre has three goals: to be debt free, stable, and free of men. Being kidnapped with her partner by a crazy band of Draconians doesn’t fit in with her plans. Neither does Skye D’rath.

Skye wasn’t looking for a woman to complicate his life. Meeting Jaide changed all that in a hurry. Fire lurked just underneath the surface of the independent, quarrelsome woman, and he knew the right man could set it loose. He was confident he was up to the job.

But there’s more to worry about for Jaide than fending off Skye’s determined pursuit and revving up his captain’s ship. Someone wants to kill her, her partner is falling for the captain of their captors, and she’s beginning to suspect there’s more to their abduction then meets the eye. As everything she thought she knew is turned upside down, dare she overcome her distrust of men and reach for a love as powerful as the chance to Ride the Stars?

Excerpt:

    Chapter 1


Lunar Base, 2785



Her tea had gone cold.

The control panel beeped. Jaide shot it a look of dislike and closed her eyes.

“Your turn,” she told her companion, Sesame. Arms crossed and feet propped up on a box under the control panel, she continued to half-doze. The flight control computer beeped again, and she cracked a midnight blue eye, nudged the sleeping Sesame none-too-gently with her booted toe.

Sesame came half-awake. “It was my turn last time,” she mumbled. “Don’t try to con me.”

Jaide sent her a dirty look but dropped her feet to the floor and sat up. Her nearly empty cup thumped down on the stool next to the console as she stared at the blinking blue light, not entirely sure what to do with it. Swamp stink; after working for two shifts straight, going on three, she wasn’t entirely sure she could still find her own numb behind without help, let alone run traffic control for the entire base.

Unfortunately, there was no one else.

“Base control,” she snarled into her headset, flipping a toggle like it was a finger. “What do you want?”

Sesame muffled a snort of laughter as a surprised male voice answered doubtfully, “Permission to enter.”

Grumbling, knowing she was being a grouch, Jaide scanned the readouts, looking for nasty surprises. There had been a rash of terrorist takeovers and sabotage lately, and the respective lunar governments had cracked down on safety protocol, even on remote bases such as this one. The regular controller, Rob Jackson, had drilled her ad nauseam on safety procedures, so fortunately she could do it even in her sleep. Heck, if she was stuck up here in the tower any longer, she might be doing just that.

“Great, I’m starting to see things,” Jaide muttered.

Sesame rolled her head to stare at her. “What?”

She squeezed her eyes shut to clear her vision. “I thought I saw an abnormality on the readouts, but it’s not there now.” A quick check of the data revealed nothing.

More animate now, Sesame sat up and double checked her findings. “I don’t see anything.”

The name and registry of the ship was nothing to get excited about, just a run of the mill transport, and a scheduled one at that. Still, the remote possibility of action left Jaide feeling slightly more alert.

“Are we clear, control?” the voice asked again, somewhat impatiently.

“Give me a minute, will you?” she snapped. Her hand reached for the release switch. Something stopped her. Closing her eyes, she debated with herself and opened a channel to security. “Whoever’s on duty, I had a blip on my screen. Might be just sleep deprivation, but I’m covering my butt. Send someone to check it out, would you?” She toggled off, changed her mind and flipped it on again. “And send someone to take over here; we’re no longer competent.”

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