Love Unbreakable
A Second Chance With The CEO After Divorce
Bound By Love: Marrying My Disabled Husband
A Second Chance With My Billionaire Love
Addicted To The Genius Lady With A Thousand Faces
Sweet Submission: Reclaiming Her Love
Mated To Big Brother-in-law
When Love Comes Late
The Substitute Wife: My Poor Husband Is A Billionaire
The Almighty Alpha Wins Back His Rejected Mate
Chapter One
Jal Noridden stood on the view gallery of the starship Starfinder. He was heading for earth. The planets governing council with five of the founding war lords and leaders of their clans of Celestia, had insisted that he be the one to head to earth to retrieve the earth female. The council had been in contact with earth’s space program for a few years now learning about their technology and the fact that earth’s women were highly compatible with the Celestial warriors. Since then they and had written up a contract for earth to find females that could help repopulate Celestia, their negotiations had lasted six earth months with each side getting what they had bargained for. The council of the space federations and NASA had finally agreed upon a contract for one female from earth to begin with. Even the DNA was clear the two species were compatible. Celestial and Earth females would still need to live with the Celestial men for a year. If they should get pregnant, they would stay on Celestial until the child was born and the female could return to earth, leaving the youngling with the father.
It would be a trial to see if the two species could even procreate with each. This would be the first endeavor of its kind for the Celestials, might open the possibility for other brides from Earth to come to Celestia to ensure their planet’s species would survive. It hadn’t been a tough decision for the council to make in the face of the Celestials facing extinction. With no females to continue their lineage.
The one point of the contract that bugged Jal was that the council had insisted that he be the first one to take a bride, the council felt it would be a gesture of goodwill on his part for his warriors to see that he would be the first male to mate. They’d hope the other warriors would be less restricted about mating and see this as a positive thing, wanting the same thing for themselves. Jal had never thought that finding mates was a negative thing? But he understood his men’s hesitation since it had been years without females.
The council of five wouldn’t listen to reason, so here he was heading to the Nox spaceport where he would take the Phoenix, a space shuttle, that would take him to the Battleship Dragon star. While on the Dragon star, they jump through the wormhole and into the space around the earth, where NASA’s Challenger space shuttle would transport him to the Johnson Space Center NASA base in Houston. He’d been told it would take a week for the journey.
Jal pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to stave off a headache. Just thinking about all the spaceships, space jumps and hours, he would miss working his farm. Thank the gods he had his brothers to run the farm along with Koch. He still was not happy with the council’s choice. They should have chosen his brother Axel or even Tavin. They didn’t have as much responsibility as he did. Shaking his head, he placed the palm of his hands on his eyes. His head hurt just thinking about it. Not only did he have to worry about finding this Catrina Cartwright, but then he would have to mate with her. He did not know even how to go about that, since I had never mated before him and didn’t know the first thing about how to go about it.
NASA had sent files to the council of five who then insisted that Jal read the downloaded files from earth to give him an idea of what to expect, but, never being off his planet, the files were still did not help his understanding. As a young male, he’d learned about the mating gland from his father, but knowing about glands gave him a reference to make love. Even the downloaded files were purely clinical. How was he supposed to feel? What if he didn’t do it right? Damn, he was the Chieftain of Celestia, and he felt like a damn youngling.
Jal was a powerful leader, with a stronger personality. He had always been an honorable warrior who’d fought in many battles. He was a decorated warrior with many medals to show for the battles he’d fought alongside his father. Jal looked like he was only twenty earth years old, but on his planet, he was over eighty. During that time, an alien species had designed a virus and sent into the air of their planet, killing every female young and old. After losing his mother and watching his father die of grief, he knew then what his planet needed and was determined to do whatever it took for the Celestials to survive. His mind still worried, his skills were that of a warrior, not a mate, but somehow, he would make this matting work because it was what his planet and people needed. This was the focus of his goal for his planet. This major goal was to ensure that his race continued; he just wished it had been someone else the council chose.
Jal had read the bride contract over and over. One part of the bride contract was earth would give Celestia new weapons and better technology. When the council had proposed the bride contract, Jal had been researching weapons technology on other planets. He knew the technology would really benefit their ongoing war with the Juggernauts. The council had reassured him that as soon as he picked his mate up and returned, while he was on sabbatical, he could begin work on implementing his ideas into their military technology. The council had insisted thought his priority was to impregnate his bride. They had just jumped to earth’s space, and they had informed Jal that the Challenger would meet them tomorrow if the weather held.
Unbuckling his safety belt, he stood, stretching. He met the ship’s purser where the young female officer led him to his cabin to rest. By Jal’s time, he’d been awake twenty-four hours. In his room, he undressed and lay on the bed. He wasn’t sure if he could sleep. He worried he would be too aggressive with his new mate. How would she react to his aggressive behavior? Would she end up hating him? Gods and goddesses, he had a ton of questions finding no answers. He had always resented the council’s authority, thinking they often overstepped their boundaries. Now here he was, submitting to the council’s authority yet again.
His eyes grew heavy as he relaxed enough to fall into a deep sleep. He was dreaming; he felt so helpless. How could he help his people? Fighting in the war with the Juggernauts, he had been determined to end this war. He hoped in the ending he would figure out how to resolve Celestia’s problem of no females for regeneration. The council had been in contact with earth’s space program for a few years nows learning about their technology and the fact that earth’s women were highly compatible with the Celestial warriors. Their DNA matched with the warriors making procreation possible. Their anatomy was similar and mating, with the men from Celestia could produce off springs that would ensure Celestia’s future. “If their mating produced younglings”
In his dream, all he saw was failure. His failure, and he saw his world ending. No children, no mates, no people. He woke with a start, his face drenched in sweat. He rose from the bed and entered the cleansing chamber when he heard the knock on his door. “
Chieftain Jal Noridden, the Challenger will be here in thirty minutes.” Jal thanked him and then went and showered, changing into a clean uniform.
Sitting inside one of the enormous dome on New Earth, which shielded the lower half of what used to be known as Texas, from the radiation, Houston housed the medical buildings, technology buildings and NASA Spaceport. After the humans had a nuclear war, it destroyed the land, water and much of the atmosphere. It had put the earth into an apocalyptic state. The scorched earth no longer grew vegetation, leaving earth to purchase their foods off world from other planets and species. The effect of the nuclear war was over a hundred years ago. People only survived because of the Cold War and the underground bunkers that saved a fraction of the earth’s people, living underground until they could build the dome and cleanse the air inside. NASA had spent trillions of dollars with other planets to build the port that would allow NASA’s shuttles to enter and exit the dome.
Jal had watched as the Challenger had entered the dome, nothing of the scorched earth outside the dome. Arriving at NASA’s headquarters, he met the human part of the coalition, while there he would sign the contract between Celestia and Earth. Handing Jal another file on Catrina Cartwright that would tell him where she lived and how to get in touch with her. They had set him up in a hotel where he could stay until he and Catrina Cartwright left earth for his planet. NASA drove him to his hotel in downtown Houston. Exiting the car, he took his bags and entered the lobby of Mars Starlight Motel, taking him to his room, then leaving him to look around. He’d seen nothing like this on any planet he’d been, but that wasn’t saying much since he rarely left Celestia unless they were at war.
In the first round of communication with NASA, they had sent a picture of his mate, Catrina Cartwright. He’d set his one suitcase on the where he sat opening it, removing the first file he’d received and adding the new file he just gotten. Taking her picture out of his leather bag, he'd looked at her picture now, not that he needed to refresh his memory. Jal had studied it for hours, getting lost in her soft blue eyes. She was a beautiful female, with long blond hair and bright blue eyes. Every chance he got, he took it from his leather pouch and studied her image. Even though he’d not been happy with the council’s insistence that he retrieved her, bring to the planet, then mate with her, his one reward was at least she was beautiful.
Jal rested that night and the next morning finding the address of Catrina Cartwright’s office. He left to go in search of the female he would soon mate. Outside, the city bustled with activity. The dome sat on four hundred sixty-nine square miles of land, having a population of three hundred thousand people; he had learned these facts from the earth files NASA had sent to Celestia. There were other domed cities on earth as well. These now housed and protected humans from the earth’s sun and its harmful rays and the residual nuclear radiation.
After reading the earth files and seeing the devastation firsthand, Jal thought that earth could use Celestia’s biologists who could help them to replenish the earth’s resources in as few as a three hundred sixty-five earth cycles a year period. Look at the address to where Catrina was location, he left the hotel walking north. He looked at the funny covering on the dirt where people were walking took off, following others looking around as he went. He didn’t think her location could be that far away from his hotel.
Everywhere he looked, there were odd shops with humans and other aliens milling about. He noticed there were shops for dry goods, produce and food vendors. In some ways, it reminded him of the open markets in the Capitol City of Narrac on Celestia. He continued his journey, studying each building, trying to find the medical building that NAASA had showed on the city map. They told him he would find Catrina Cartwright there.
He had been walking for what had seemed liked hours. Before he finally stopped at one of the food vendors, ordering a drink, he turned to find a table, sitting he looked around, taking a drink from his cup. Seeing an elderly woman who smiled at him, he started up a conversation with her. She reminded him of his mam. Putting his cup on the table, he bowed his head and smiled. “Madame.”
“Hello young man, you are not from earth, are you?” She took him to note that he wore black and light blue uniform. The entire uniform was made of a soft black material, which clung to his muscular body. There were light blue stripes running over the material in a geometric patter. Smiling at him; she may be too old for him, but she wasn’t too old for that. She couldn’t appreciate his handsome figure. He wore knee-high boots on his feet. She smiled. He reminded her of her son, who was in the military space program.
“No madam, I am not. I am from the planet Celestia, and I am looking for a healer.”
Pulling back slightly, she , “A healer? Are you sick, young man?” Worry furrowed her brows.
“Oh no, no, I just need to find one to ask some questions for the healers on our planet.” He grinned at her.
Relaxing, she beamed at him. “Oh, well, in that case, the nearest medical facility is on Medical Lane, about four city blocks north of here. If you can wait, you can catch the public bus. It will drop you off right in front of the medical building.” She continuing to grin at him.
“Thank you very much.” He stood, then bowed to her. “Where do I go to find this bus?” Not sure what a bus was.
Pointing to the wide path covered with a strange material, and colored a deep yellow, he nodded his thanks. “Oh, you can catch it right there. Just stand there and they will stop for you.”
“My thanks.” Jal walked to the place, she had showed to him to wait for the strange conveyance called a bus to arrive. Standing there only a few minutes before it arrived. He stared at the hovering bus that was filled with people, some standing, some sitting, as it hovered over the odd-looking material that was on the ground. He watched as people disembarked, stepping down on a step that made reaching the ground easier. Jal stepped up on it, looking around the bus. It had bench like seats in rows. Twenty rows, with ten rows on each side, and a walkway between the seats.
The driver spoke, “Find a seat, please.” Sitting on the bench nearest the front, he looked around in wonder at the strange individuals that were on the bus. It surprised him to find what a smooth ride this unusual conveyance had. Leaning forward, he spoke to the driver. “I need to find the medical building.”
The driver nodded. “That’s coming right up.”
Seconds later, he was standing in front of a large dark azure glass building that looked like it reached to the dome ceiling. Now to find the healer, Catrina Cartwright. Inside of the building were stark white walls devoid of anything other than the white paint and a blue stripe dividing the wall from ceiling to floor. The floor was a white color, and the chairs were covered in white material as well, the only relief in the stark white color was the blue stripe on the wall diving top from bottom, the chrome on the chair legs and the transparent azure glass that separated smaller areas where people sat waiting.
He walked through one area to a set of double doors. Behind these, there was a cacophony of activity. People seemed busy rushing here and there. Jal stood back and watched in wonder at the sight of the people in front of him. He wondered who all these people were. Many of the others milling around were dressed in white, others wore colorful clothing. Wrinkling his nose, he thought how drab the ones in white were and determined they must be the healers. He much preferred the bright multi colors of their healers on Celestia. Standing here looking around would not help him find out where Catrina Cartwright was located. Seeing a human female sitting at a desk behind the blue transparent glass, he went to her. “Do you know the healer, Catrina Carrington?”
Looking up from her chart, the nurse eyed him wearily. “Who wants to know?” she inquired of him.