Free Dana Cartwright Mission 3: Kal-King by Joyz W. Riter Page A

struggled into the other bedroom of the suite and entered the meditation ritual, only to find it was his brother standing above him, with Princess Shalee at Janz's side.
    Brother?
    A flood of images and memories flowed from Janz Macao in the role of Master, to Kieran Jai, the student, along with an emotional plea.  
    Come!
    Kieran wept.
    Brother?
    I can’t. I just found Dana, Kieran answered. See! He sent back a whirlwind of Dana Cartwright’s memories and his own, ending, I can’t leave her, brother, not just now.
    You liar! You promised to be here for me!
    Macao violently broke off the connection, leaving Kieran dazed and in a heap on the floor.

    The exchange with his brother tormented Kieran. There were no words to describe it. He pulled himself up, desperately struggling to recover his strength, hands quaking, knees still weak.
    He returned to the bedroom where Dana slept. She needed him to be strong. He knew he'd betrayed a promise to Janz, and that grieved him.
    He used a mastery technique, circling himself with energy. In his mind’s eye, he saw Janz was safe, in a deep, underground cavern, with warm water pools nearby.
    Dana, on the other hand, was in jeopardy.   She'd risked her life to save him; Kieran could not — would not — leave her this time.
    Once again, he slid down beside her, left hand massaging the nape of her neck, connecting in the Alphan way, telepathically. With relaxing kisses, he gently coaxed from her more deep and painful memories.
    He looked backward to their last parting, her return to the cruiser Lancer , of the court-martial for the officers accused of smuggling, and the feelings of betrayal.  
    She did not testify, however, against her colleagues.  
    Doctor Francis Calagura, her dear friend, managed to intervene, taking her to Scanlos.
    They learned the truth about a genetics experiment gone wrong, of cover-ups and subterfuge. Twelve embryos were carefully crafted, each with tiny differences programmed into the DNA.
    Dana learned that each of the twelve was smuggled out of the lab. Those with severe mutations were sent away…some died. Kyoko Dey-Cartwright rescued the first, the only one with perfect, unaltered genes, and took her to Earth, to be raised as the daughter of David J. Cartwright.
    Still, the records at Scanlos were incomplete. The sperm and egg donors were merely numbers. The records were resealed. Her mission to learn the names of her birth mothers failed. The Star Service would not grant her the information.
    Dana resigned her commission in protest. There were journeys on privateers and tours of duty aboard freighters. Then the offer came to captain the private shuttle for Ambassador Taurian of Tritia, and the explosion aboard Seraph . Four years worth of memories…  
    They gave him new insight into the strength and character of the woman he loved. Kieran kissed her again with a passionate fire he’d long kept in check. “The first time we were together, our situations were reversed, my love. I had crashed a shuttle and you nursed my body and my spirit,” he whispered.
    The memory never faded — never would — the memory of being pinned in the carnage of the ambassadorial shuttle for hours that seemed like eons. Of feeling hopeless…his hand smashed…his body broken. He’d thought of suicide even as the rescue teams worked feverishly to extricate him.  
    There was Dana, so petite and so daring. She had crawled into the space amid the mangled steel to tend to him. Her strong will and ministrations kept him alive. Back then, she was an ER doctor and surgeon, tutored by her adoptive father, a masterful surgeon of great renown.
    Even now the hand that gently massaged her neck still held the memory of the time it took to recover.
    “I owe you so much, Dana.”
    He kissed her again, thankfully, and slid his body closer, flesh against flesh, feeling excited and aroused. The telepathic link, though superficial, echoed back to him her pleasure as his advances made