The story:
Will an alien sleeping beauty awaken to save him, or destroy everyone around her?
When a Sectors Special Forces soldier and his team crash land on an alien planet, they’re taken captive and given a challenge–win at the violent ball game of sapiche and live. Lose, and they die, sending a mysterious, alien beauty to an even uglier fate. To survive, these soldiers must win the game and find a way to free the dangerous prisoner from her locked chamber.
Nate Reilly and his team are in deep trouble. Prisoners on a backward alien planet, they’re brought before an alien ‘goddess’, sleeping in her high tech seclusion. Nate is astonished when she awakes and establishes a psychic link with him. But her news is not good–he and his men must win a brutal challenge set by their captors, or they will die. She’ll give her aid, but in the end their courage and strength must win the contest.
Bithia sleeps in her chamber, as she has for thousands of years, since her own people unaccountably left her there. Viewed as a goddess by her captors, she must hide her ancient secrets to survive. But only the bravest of men may free her. Can she use her psychic powers to keep Nate and his men alive long enough to help her escape, or will her only hope of freedom die with them?
The excerpt:
He stood on the edge of a high-tech
chamber out of place on a primitive world such as this one. Ringing the room were
strange displays, blinking lights, roving green beams, unknown instruments. The
sophistication of the technology was well beyond anything the Sectors had
achieved, let alone the dwellers of this planet. Nate spared only a second to
glance at these wonders. His attention was caught and held by what occupied the
center of a large alcove directly across the room.
The cubicle was lined in shiny
metallic material and from the floor rose a graceful pedestal of the same
material, topped with a thin platform at waist level. Neatly arranged on a
layer of dark purple padding lay a woman, apparently asleep. She certainly wasn’t
from this planet, nor any world known to Nate. This mysterious female had ivory
skin with the palest of lavender undertones in her cheeks.
“I’ll be moon-damned.” Thom’s attention
was riveted on the sleeper as well. “An Ancient Observer?”
“Can’t be—no one’s ever found
actual remains,” Haranda said from the other side. “Although this room
certainly suggests a high level of technology, it’s not AO. Another sophisticated,
highly advanced forerunner civilization. The galaxy is a big place after all.” Roused
from his state of funk, he studied the walls, apparently more interested in the
devices and displays than in the woman. “I minored in AO studies at the
Academy.”
“I don’t think she’s a well-preserved
corpse.” Nate couldn’t take his gaze from her, not even to watch what their
captors were doing now. He took himself sharply to task for the lapse. What if we’ve been brought here as a sacrifice?
He had to be mentally prepared to fight, not gawk at a pretty girl. But the next moment he found himself
studying her again, unable to keep himself from indulging in another view.
The woman was tall, probably his equal
in height, definitely humanoid. She lay pillowed on her own hair, a thick,
sweeping fall of glorious blue mixed with amethyst purple, set here and there
with twinkling jewels. From his location across the room, he couldn’t see
whether she was breathing, yet he had a definite sense of a living presence.
Her clothing was a simple, silvery
white and lavender sheath, like finely woven metallic thread had been spun to
make the dress. Thin jeweled straps held the garment at her shoulders. The finely
pleated fabric clung to her curves sensuously. She lay on her back, arms
stretched out a little on each side, her graceful, six-fingered hands spread
open on the cushion. She wore no jewelry save for an elaborate bracelet on her left
wrist, studded with colorful stones whose facets caught and amplified the
lights in the main room.
Another little snippet:
