Free Forbidden Love by Kaye Manro Page A

FTL, a light speed jump through the Event Horizon leading back to Pegasus. When he pushed the throttle up to exit orbit, something went wrong. A sudden jolt caused his craft to lurch, knocking him against the console. He slammed his webbed hands onto the Nav panel, pushing the thruster slides upward in an effort to right the ship.
    Nothing happened.
    Plummeting out of control, his spacecraft scraped against Terrain’s exosphere. The stabilizers failed and he descended rapidly. He did not have much time. Calculating his trajectory, he plotted a dive for the nearest arid basin region. The sands should assist in diminishing the impact of his landing. He shut down the spatial propulsion system, relying on the drag of gravity and friction in the atmosphere to carry him. Leaning back in his seat, he touched a pad to activate the pilot restraint. A cocoon closed, encasing him in a protective shell.
    He was still coming in too fast; he sensed it. T’Kon knew the cloak would render his craft invisible and hold through entry. Yet his chances of surviving the impact could be bleak.
    Either way, his discovery loomed.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter One

    Desert Basin: Endangered Wildlife Project

    Maya Belle smiled as she held the small creature in her palm, stroking her fingers over its spiny scales and glossy, brown skin. She rested her hand on the desert floor and watched the lizard scamper away, tunneling under the sand.
    She pushed short-cropped curls from her face and took a swig of water from a canteen. Sand grains clung to her scalp, which was damp from the Saturday morning sun. She enjoyed the weekends when the other researchers went home and she could be alone for a few days in the desert with the little creatures she loved. As a natural scientist, she’d spent many months discovering and cataloging information about various desert reptilian groups. Inhaling parched air, Maya stood up from her research to stretch.
    Suddenly, an explosive, ear-shattering noise cracked across the clear, cerulean sky. Churning sand grew into a gale force as winds drove hard against her body and surrounded her. She rolled to the ground, knees to chest, just as the spinning desert kicked up into a wild fury. It came from all directions at once. The ground shook as if being ripped apart at its seams. Cocooned in a sandy burrow, Maya swore. She’d be lucky to survive this bizarre tempest of a sandstorm.
Then, an eerie stillness settled over the arid plane.
    Maya lay quiet, attempting to calm her erratic heart. She dug herself out, brushed sand from her face and body and peered around. Damn. The storm turned her research area into a disaster. Tents, lab equipment, research tools, even her notebook computer and cell phone, were all gone, buried under mounds of sand. Well crap! She doubted the project would ever recover.
    After digging and dragging heaps of sand from around her steadfast old Jeep, thankful that she’d left the hardtop on and the windows up, she leaned back against the door.
    That’s when she saw it, a massive, egg-shaped dune about 100 meters away. Desert sandstorms could establish odd sculptures but this one was especially unusual. She stared at it. Hmm…why not? The storm destroyed her work area, and she’d have to wait a couple of days for the team to return before they could consider what to do next. She hopped in her Jeep and headed toward the odd sand structure to explore it.
    Once there, she treaded around the edifice taking in its strange shapes and angles. Something curious stirred at its edges and a low, humming vibration emitted from within. The dune opened. Her eyes grew wide as a tall figure clad head to toe in an odd, body-hugging, shimmery gray suit, staggered forth and fell at her feet. Maya gasped and scooted backward. She paced in a circle, keeping a safe distance from the fallen body.
    It didn’t take long for the scientist in her to emerge. She deduced this probably was some sort of space experiment