My excerpt for Teaser
Tuesday is from “Captured by the Hawk” This space operetta is one of 8 inspiring
stories in “Sing a Song of the Stars.” This great SciFi
Romance Bundle released today at the bargain price of $0.99.
Buy links:
Here, the thief Kat meets Captain Black Hawk.
Excerpt:
Two armed men escorted her through the ship’s narrow
passages and into a large cabin. A tall man stood by a table displaying
galactic charts. Strikingly, he was clothed entirely in black. He wore black
leather boots, black gloves and a black turban covered his head. Even his face
was wrapped in folds of black cloth, exposing only his piercing green eyes. She
stared at him curiously. Sexy outfit, she mused, and judging by his broad
shoulders, he would strip well. But, why did he have that black mask over his
face? Was it a cultural obligation, or was he hiding some hideous facial deformity?
He
scrutinized her small figure with equal intensity. He saw a slim woman with
alert tawny eyes, short brown hair and skin. She was dressed in coveralls of a
faded, nondescript brown, almost matching the color of her skin.
He spoke in
a cool, dispassionate tone, “My men say you are the cunning thief who stole the
secret codes from the Emperor’s Revenge. Where are the codes?”
She stared
back in silence, tilting her chin in defiance. Who was he to question her?
“I am the
Black Hawk. You are on my ship, the Rogue Star, and utterly in my power. I
recommend you tell me what you know.” His deep cold voice sent a shiver down
her spine.
The Black
Hawk, she thought. He was a renegade captain of uncertain allegiance who
terrorized interstellar space. His ship raided isolated ports and boarded lone
ships, especially those registered in the Emperor’s sector. She could never
admit to her identity as the wealthy Mistress Sligo to such a rapacious pirate.
Only her secret persona as the insidious thief, the Grey Kat, from the sleazy
side of the docks was viable in this situation.
“Ain’t got
nothing!” Kat whined like a wretched dock rat, as she resumed her role as the
desperate thief, using the dialect of the seedier docks.
His fierce
eyes probed her. She flinched involuntarily and lowered her eyes, while
stalling for time or inspiration.
“Are you afraid of me?” he asked.
Kat raised
her head, gazing boldly into his green eyes, and sneered, intending to confound
him, “What me? Why’d I fear a slick spacer like ye?”
“What did
you steal from the Emperor’s Revenge?” he said in accusation.
“Wha’ ship?
Didn’t take nothing from no ship!” she spat out, pursing her lips as if in
perplexed anger.
“My men saw
you creep out of the Revenge’s cargo bay.”
Oh, no, Kat
thought, I must be getting careless. I didn’t spot his men.
“Ain’t bin
in no ship! Ye put me back on dock,” she pleaded, chin tipped impudently.
“Ain’t done nothing wrong!”
“My ship has lifted from the spaceport. You cannot return to
Hassam.”
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