Excerpt from Chapter 1

Newton scooted up in her bunk, pressing her spine against the hull of the ship. The warm metal surface felt good against her aching muscles and she sighed, cherishing the sensation of heat on her skin.

“Hey, girl, you awake?”

Brian Cord was tapping on the steel frame of her bunk. He was the only untreated human Newton trusted in an ambush, and oddly enough like Newton he didn’t need much sleep.

“Good morning, Newt.” Brian jabbed her in the shoulder with his finger. “You up?”

“Yep, eyes wide open.” She squinted at him impatiently, having never liked that particular nickname. “And by the way, do I look like an extinct amphibian with short legs?” Leaning forward, Newton unfolded her long legs and swung them over the edge of the bunk. “And look, Mom. No tail,” she said, twisting her torso as she hoisted her butt off the mattress and pointed it in Brian’s direction.

“Okay, not an amphibian,” agreed Brian, smiling. “More like a tall mammal with a short memory.”

Now that might describe Newton better. She was nearly five feet ten, but that was the genetic engineering of her body type. Tall in stature with extra layers of smooth muscle tissue, Newton had superior flexibility and was extremely durable.  Her joints and tendons, reinforced with titanium, gave her the strongest muscle structure possible in a humanoid.

She reached her arms above her head and, pointing her toes, stretched into a full body yawn. Then she raised an eyebrow at Brian. “Shit,” she exclaimed, mildly agitated as she remembered Brian hadn’t been talking about her physiological distinctions.

“What did I forget?”

“A good morning wouldn't kill you.” Brian vaulted up onto the bunk and plopped down next to her. “Actually, I was talking about you forgetting you got promoted, remember? Congratulations are in order, you know? How's it feel?" He punched Newton in the leg playfully.

Newton liked Brian’s smile. It was infectious and she couldn’t help grinning back at him.
He was also a member of the 24th Squadron, although not one of Destiny’s Soldiers, but she’d known him since he was ten after he’d been admitted into flight school two years early. He was a natural prodigy, a human being born from the womb. Brian was brain smart. But his smile made his face glow and his eyes turned a shade of blue too vivid to describe. And Newton liked his eyes as much as she liked his smile.

Brian smacked her on her bare leg again, trying to get her attention she presumed.

“Ouch!” Newton grimaced, but quickly rolled her eyes, making certain he knew his wimpy blow hadn’t hurt her. “Thanks, but…” she paused, tucking a pillow behind her back. “I’ve still got to prove myself. Whatever I did before today is just that. Something I've already done."

Go to Linden Bay Romance.

 

 

Denny S. Bryce - All Rights Reserved 2006