The story:
Meg Antille works long hours on the charter cruise ship Far Horizon so she can send credits home to her family. Working hard to earn a promotion to a better post (and better pay), Meg has no time for romance.
Former Special Forces soldier Red Thomsill only took the berth on the Far Horizon in hopes of getting to know Meg better, but so far she’s kept him at a polite distance. A scheduled stopover on the idyllic beach of a nature preserve planet may be his last chance to impress the girl.
But when one of the passengers is attacked by a wild animal it becomes clear that conditions on the lushly forested Dantaralon aren’t as advertised – the ranger station is deserted, the defensive perimeter is down…and then the Far Horizon’s shuttle abruptly leaves without any of them.
Marooned on the dangerous outback world, romance is the least of their concerns, and yet Meg and Red cannot help being drawn to each other once they see how well they work together. But can they survive long enough to see their romance through? Or will the wild alien planet defeat them, ending their romance and their lives before anything can really begin?
And the excerpt:
“Can I get two volunteers to help us get Sharmali
settled at the ranger station?” Meg asked. “Keep an eye on her?”
“Well,
don’t look at me,” Harelly said, as several of the other guests glanced in his
direction. “I only play a doctor on
the trideo shows. The sight of blood makes me ill.”
Callina
and her husband, Peter, volunteered. As the other passengers slowly hiked
through the sand to their pavilion by the lake, Meg, Red, and the volunteers
headed for the ranger station on the far side of the landing pad.
“What
about him?” asked Bettis, who Meg remembered was Finchon’s employee, a personal
assistant or something. He and his wife filed past the groggy charter Primary,
who was sitting now, holding his jaw.
“I’ll
deal with him later,” Red said.
“He’s
gonna be pissed. He’s gonna sue you and your company for every credit,” the man
predicted, excitement in his voice. “He’ll probably end up owning the whole
cruise line before he’s done.”
“Not
my problem right now.” Red’s voice was cheerful.
Meg
admired his attitude. She was dizzy with anxiety and worry, happy to follow his
lead for the moment. What in the seven hells had Drewson been thinking, taking
off without them?
The
ranger station was ominously quiet. The storm shutters were latched and the
usually immaculate landscaping had become overgrown, weeds running riot,
untrimmed vines establishing a foothold on the ornamental fence, and even
scaling one wall.
“How
long do you guess the rangers have been gone?” Meg said, eyeing the building.
She glanced at the living quarters to the left, noticing the same general run
down air. The three small houses were tightly sealed, as if hunched against a
coming storm.
“The
forest grows fast,” Red said. “Probably not more than a few months. I wonder
why we weren’t warned, though.”
“Warned?”
Callina Bettis picked up on his remark. “Are we in some kind of danger?”
Red
and Meg exchanged glances. “He means we should have been notified there
wouldn’t be any immediate help onsite,” Meg said, forcing herself to speak the
lie calmly. “In case of an emergency, like the unfortunate bite Sharmali
suffered.”
Setting
the injured woman on a picnic table, Red went to the front door of the station,
Meg on his heels. She tried activating the portal to no avail, punching the
tabs hard. “You think the last person out would have left it set to open,
general access, in case anyone needed help the way we do.” She thumped her fist
on the door.
“Unless
the staff didn’t expect anyone to be here,” Red said. “Are you sure there’s not
something you forgot to tell me?”
“I
swear, you know as much as I do.” She leaned closer and lowered her voice.
“Drewson was boning Pirankai in the private cabin when I got to the shuttle, coms
off, so if there were any bulletins, he missed them.”
“Idiot.”
Red retreated a step or two, eyeing the door. “Well, nothing for it.”
“Are
you going to break it down?”
Eyebrows
raised, he gave her a glance. “Thanks for the compliment but it’d take a battle
robo to get through this storm portal by brute force.”
“What
then?”
He
stepped to the keypad, flipping open the cover, and entered a series of numbers
and symbols so rapidly she had no idea what the sequence might be.
“You’ve
been here before?” Meg asked.
He
shook his head. “Special Forces, Team Twelve. We each have a special access
code enabling our entry into any door, ship, vault, or facility in the
Sectors.”
The
storm door jerked away from the threshold and then began to roll into the roof
recess. The window shutters on all four sides of the building followed suit a
moment later. Meg knew her mouth was hanging open. Biting her lip, she tried to
make sense of this new information. “You’re on active military duty, but working
as crew on a charter ship? Are you undercover or something?”
“Retired.
Wasn’t sure my code would work, but we have a saying in the Teams—no one is
ever completely released from service.” He grimaced. “Not until we die or the
Mawreg have been erased from the Sectors. I should live so long.” He pushed the
inner door open. “Let’s see what we have here. Stay behind me.”
The
lights didn’t respond to voice command or their physical presence. “I guess the
rangers powered down before departing. Shutters must be on auxiliary. I’ll have
to check the situation out later,” he said, pausing on the threshold. “At least
the windows let in enough ambient light for now.”
“How
long do you think we’re going to be here?” Meg was disturbed by his mention of
later.
“Depends
on what the problem in orbit is.” He stopped, giving her a hard look. “Anything
like this ever happen before?”
“No.
Drewson is an idiot, but he’d never abandon us. And Captain Jonsle certainly
won’t maroon us.”
“He
may not have a choice. I don’t want to alarm you, but we could be in a bad
situation here. I hope not, but just between the two of us, I’m not feeling too
positive. Whatever spooked the TDJ captain into recalling his people had to be
damn serious. I don’t want to alarm our passengers because panicked people are
hard to handle. Drewson’s takeoff seems like the act of a panicked person.” He studied
her face, the expression on his serious. “You’re not going to panic, are you?”
“Of
course not.” She straightened her spine, irritated he would even ask.
He
squeezed her shoulder. “Good. I didn’t think so. Stay here, let me check the
rest of the place, and then we’ll bring Sharmali in.”
Moving
so quietly she couldn’t hear his footsteps, Red left her. Meg sank onto the
nearest chair, resting her head in her hands. If she and the people she was
responsible for were in survival mode, even for a short time until someone sent
help for them, she had to reprioritize her thoughts...
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