“We could get naked and be extremely comfortable,” he said with an exaggerated leer. Straightening his spine, he sighed. “But then we might never make it to Mara’s private party and this is the last night for you to see your friends. So I guess we’d better adjust our priorities.”
Jostled by another guest, Gianna frowned at the door they were waiting in front of. “I’m tired of waiting for this poky old fashioned elevator. I don’t suppose you know where the hotel staff gravlift might be?”
“A good operator always knows the layout of any building where he’s going to spend significant time.” Trevor made a path through the crowd of people who were also waiting for the guest conveyance. “It’s down the hall here and I gave our room steward an extra big tip this afternoon to tell me the access code.”
Delighted, she stopped to take off her sexy but uncomfortable wedding shoes. Wriggling her toes, she exclaimed with relief. “I love the way you think ahead.”
Sweeping her into his arms, Trevor covered the last few feet to the access panel. He punched in the code and stepped into the grav flow, allowing her to float free so she could enjoy the ascent fully. “I’ll do anything to make you happy.”
“Same here.” She twisted in midair so she could see his face. “Always.”
“Well then, I guess we’re a perfect match.” Heedless of the bemused maids and waiters sharing the gravlift with them, Trevor drew her close for another of his fiery kisses as they rose toward the penthouse level where Mara and Nick had their rooms.
Safe in his embrace, Gianna tilted her head to see how much further they had to go.
“I’m watching the levels,” he said. “I won’t let you bump your head.”
Floating beside them, spread eagled, long hair drifting in the antigrav, Verlaine barked his approval of this mode of travel and Gianna laughed from sheer joy.
“You changed my life completely,” she said to Trevor, hugging him hard.
“Likewise.” His voice was serious now.
So much sadness and terror had resulted from her first trip into interstellar space aboard the Nebula Dream as a child. Somehow it felt right tonight—life regaining a perfect balance—to have limitless happiness and hopes for a peaceful future with the man she loved, all because she’d had the courage to take a chance on the Nebula Zephyr and make the return voyage.
About the Author
USA Today Best Selling Author
Veronica Scott grew up in a house with a library as its heart. Dad loved science fiction, Mom loved ancient history and Veronica thought there needed to be more romance in everything. When she ran out of books to read, she started writing her own stories.
Seven time winner of the SFR Galaxy Award, as well as a National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award, Veronica is also the proud recipient of a NASA Exceptional Service Medal relating to her former day job, not her romances!
She read the part of Star Trek Crew Member in the official audiobook production of Harlan Ellison’s “The City On the Edge of Forever.”
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Also by Veronica Scott
Star Cruise: Marooned
Star Cruise: Outbreak
Star Cruise: Songbird
Star Cruise A Novella: Stowaway with Star Rescue and Golden Token Short Stories
Star Cruise: Mystery Dancer
Generals Holiday
A Project Enterprise Story
She’s a lady with a crazy story and a frog for a side-kick. He’s a general who has been waiting for his Picard moment for a long time.
General John Halliwell, Commander of the Project Enterprise Earth Expedition, has spent most of his time in the Garradian Galaxy being shot at and shooting back. When a mysterious and intriguing lady arrives on Kikk asking for some non-shooting help, he is intrigued enough to listen.
It doesn’t hurt that the lady’s easy on his eyes, close to his own age, and not under his command.
He doesn’t mind a chance to show the galaxy that their expedition can do more than point and shoot. That it’s the closest to a holiday he’s going to get for a while, might have tipped the scales too. The problem is, he believes she believes, but her story is too unbelievable to believe.
Or something like that.
All Naxe has ever known is a life of hiding and providing, but with the end of the war, freedom feels further than ever. Why are they still hiding from the rest of the galaxy? Why aren’t the ships of Scoyfol finally going home?
In a bid to break the stalemate gripping the ships’ company, she breaks all the rules and asks General Halliwell for help. It’s a bonus that he is the first man in her life to remind her she’s a woman, that life could be about more than endless scavenging runs to help feed her people.
But when she brings the general and his team to the Scoyfol ships, something has gone terribly wrong.
What is the true story of Scoyfol?
As Halliwell and Naxe get closer and closer to the truth, he realizes he’s getting his Picard moment, but with shooting.
Because shooting happens.
But if they can survive he might just get to kiss the lady.
1
General John Halliwell, United States Air Force and Commander of the Expeditionary Force to the Garradian Galaxy, woke when the frog landed on his chest and knocked the wind out of him.
Not that he knew it was a frog at first. He thought it was a dog until it croaked. Like a frog. A really big frog. It was close to his face and there was enough light to see the frog’s jowls. They reminded him of the ambassador he’d just sent back to Earth aboard the Apollo. The resemblance was heightened by its air of a potentate. Its purple eyes were on the huge side. It blinked slowly and croaked again.
He might have been relieved about the croaks. Thanks to his recent encounters with sentient talking animals, he’d halfway been expecting a speech to go with those jowls.
“Blooban,” the voice was scolding as someone scooped the frog off his chest, but it was also, well, a bedroom voice; sultry and rich in tone. “You woke him. That’s rude.”
It was rude, but her voice made it less rude, despite the unauthorized incursion into his personal quarters here on the Kikk Outpost. He felt conflicted. On the one hand, he’d like to close his eyes and just listen to her talk, but he also wanted to see the face that went with the voice. Unless it didn’t match. But he hoped voice and face matched, even though he wasn’t sure what that would look like. Mostly he needed to breathe so he could get his wits about him.
Halliwell blinked, surprised he hadn’t already secured his weapon. Two things stopped him. Her voice. And it was a frog. If either were a threat, Bangle, the self-named AI who…managed…the systems on this outpost, would never have let them get this far. It was oddly silent at the moment, he noted grimly. He considered asking it “what the hell” but his dealings with the AI usually ended up giving him a headache.
He rubbed his face, still trying to catch his breath, and shake off the remnants of sleep.
Which brought him back to the main reason he hadn’t grabbed his gun. That voice. Okay, the voice shouldn’t matter, because he’d met some seriously dangerous women out here, but somehow it did. He allowed himself this off-topic digression because he was alone inside his head—the one place Bangle couldn’t get to—yet. In fact, if the voice and the accompanying frog weren’t dirt side on the Kikk Outpost, and worse, inside his private quarters, he might have looked forward to getting to know the woman behind that voice.