Haldis imperium, p.1
Haldis Imperium, page 1
The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal, and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Champions of Terra Book 5
Haldis Imperium
Copyright © 2006 Viola Grace
SERIES ISBN: 1-55410-732-6
Cover art by Angela Waters
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
Published by eXtasy Books
Look for us online at:
www.extasybooks.com
Champions of Terra:
Haldis Imperium
By
Viola Grace
To Gophers. Caddy shack wouldn’t have been the same without you…
Prologue
Amanda Tyrell has been inside her suit for over five years. The reasons behind her extended stay included the facts that she wanted the first champions of her race to go to mates that would take good care of the extraordinary women, and that the planet of Admar needed to be found again. The Alliance needed the human race to find it and Amy was willing to negotiate.
The Alliance Trade Federation depends on Negotiators. Perfectly unbiased beings that hide their gender and species beneath an armored life-support suit.
The suit allows for complete autonomy in the worst of atmospheric conditions, and all-terrain motion on land and in the water. All food requirements are met by the suit, as are all bodily functions.
The beings chosen to be Negotiators are hard wired to the suit, which allows them to access a variety of case histories and databases for information and languages. The negotiators themselves are locked into the suit, which can be opened only by Alliance technicians after the assignments are finished. The recovery process takes weeks.
While on the job they arrange trade agreements for land, resources, minerals, technology and personnel. Each trade assignment lasts under three months. That is, of course, unless a request for a specific assignment of longer duration is issued.
Amy was such a Negotiator, and she had traded more time in the suit for the benefit of the Terran species. Each ‘favor’ granted by the Alliance had cost her eight more months in the suit, working for the Imperial family of the planet Torgny. Being a transport hub, it was vital that they have a Negotiator on hand at all times to assist in the contracts and agreements for trade routes. Her predecessor had only been able to stand it there for six months. His Highness was a little difficult to deal with.
Chapter 1
“…and so Negotiator Tyrell, you’re being freed from the Alliance Negotiator Corp. We thank you for having attained the rank of Champion for your species, while providing exemplary service to the Alliance. A Medical ship, suitably outfitted, will arrive in six days. They will give you the necessary treatment to complete the last portion of your contract. Good luck.”
The transmission winked out as it was completed. Amy thought that it was too good to be true.
At last…she was being recalled. Five whole years in the suit, years in which she couldn’t see anything with her own eyes, or touch anything with her own hands. She only had to record her request for a replacement and she would be on her way out of the palace, off of the planet and out of the goddamned suit. Six days…only six days.
She quickly contacted the Corp and requested her replacement be dispatched immediately. The com officer greeted her with a smile and said, “We have been waiting for your transmission. I guess that the wheels of the Alliance bureaucracy have been grinding exceedingly slowly with regards to letting their best Negotiator go.”
“Yeah, well, I just got off of the com with Councilor Naveel. He didn’t seem too pleased, but hey, with an Ontex, who can tell?”
A not so muffled snort came through the noses of the com officer.
“Ok, now, onto business. I, Negotiator Amanda Tyrell of the Alliance protectorate of Earth, hereby request a replacement be sent to the planet Torgny, to be employed in the service of His Imperial Highness Palden VII, of the House of Haldis. I will be leaving the surface in six days, and do not anticipate being able to return.” She paused for a moment. “Good enough?”
“Perfect, and not to blow the surprise, but your replacement has been sent out already. We knew last week.” He grinned and wiggled his fingers at the screen. “Negotiator station out.”
Amy sighed and pulled herself away from the screen, viewing the gifts and knick-knacks that had been given to her over the years. The bio-chess game was her absolute favorite, even though she was not yet able to play. Her suit precluded her from placing her skin against the playing board to control the pieces. It had been given to her as a bonus upon her successful mediation of the Binat/Torgny treaty. Both representative Ambassadors had thanked her, and sent her the gift as a gesture of unity. She had had the toxic injectors removed—installed courtesy of the Binat, who came out on the short end of the treaty—and the unit disassembled and reassembled before she moved it into her quarters. No further surprises were found.
To her, it symbolized both the dangers and the rewards of the job.
Now, the only task left was to speak with His Imperial Majesty, Palden the VII. She just hoped that he was not ‘entertaining’ in his quarters at this time.
“Bad luck always seems to follow me.” The mechanical faceplate that was devoid of all features issued the vocalizations from small speakers on either side of her head. Her cloak swirled around her as she walked the halls of the Imperial Palace. She nodded to the guards that she passed at their duty stations and then paused for a moment.
“Reynal, you owe me three hundred credits for the outcome of the Arena trials. I told you that they would be sentenced.” She was smirking behind her mask, having known the outcome before the trials had even begun.
The Azon had not been happy to have their Prime Ambassador kidnapped and forced to fight for his life in the arena. They had pursued prosecution with intense diligence for the last two years, and were not a species to be gainsaid. Two Azon battle cruisers had guarded the Alliance High Court Station until the sentence had been declared.
“Life imprisonment on Falloth. No parole. Hard labor. Wow, it would probably have been better if they had died in the station attack.” She shook her head and waited for a response.
He held up a credit chip and flipped it to her. “I always pay my debts. But how did you know?”
“Easy, I was there at the station during the attack.” She gave him a sweeping bow and continued down the hall, tossing the chip in the air and catching it as she walked.
At the royal quarters she stopped. “Xalli, Dekor, good evening. May I go in?” The guards bowed to her as she waited.
“Of course, Negotiator Tyrell. Not that we could stop you.” Xalli grinned at her. The one time they had attempted to bar her way, she had used the added strength in the mechanics of the armor. The wall was repaired a few days later.
Dekor opened the door for her, allowing her entrance into the antechamber.
The sounds of rutting coming from the royal bedchamber were unmistakable, and unless she missed her guess, he and his friend had just begun their evening.
After a perfunctory knock, she entered, completely unperturbed by the sight of two adults in the act of copulation. The Tival female was very vocal, obviously impressed with both his enthusiasm and his technique as his head moved between her thighs.
Amy stood and dispassionately watched the female clench her hands in Palden’s hair as she reached her climax, her screams echoing in the stone chamber. Amy thought to herself that the acoustics in the room had been designed in such a way as to maximize the sounds of pleasure.
With his companion lost to her pleasure, Palden climbed up her body and with a smooth shift of his hips buried his cock inside her. Sweat coated his muscular back as his hips began to pump, driving for his own release.
Neither occupant of the bed noticed her, so she waited until her employer was approaching his own climax before speaking. It was one of her personal quirks that she wanted to disturb him as much as possible.
“Your Majesty, I am tendering my resignation as your negotiator. A replacement for me has been requested and should be with you shortly. In six days the shuttle arrives to collect me.” She knew that all activities within his private chamber were recorded, so if he did not hear her this evening, he should stumble upon the tapes sometime tomorrow.
She gave the little bow that she reserved for him alone and swept out of the room.
“Tyrell, wait!” A masculine voice cried out. “You can’t do this to me.”
She turned to face him, the mirrored finish of her armor reflecting his flushed face and perfect physique. His erection was still rampant, the head flushed and a violent purple, covered in the juice that his companion had generated within her heat. Fortunately, Amy’s faceplate could not give rise to expression, or he would definitely have noticed the bolt of lust that ran through her.
Had she been a
“I am not doing anything to you except depriving you of a Wings of War partner. I am sure that my replacement will pick it up soon enough. I have been recalled, there is nothing that I can do about it.” She gave another short bow, and with a final glance at his naked and aroused glory she returned to her quarters to recharge the suit.
It was only six more days to freedom.
* * * *
For the next six days Palden desperately contacted her superiors in a frantic attempt to keep his favorite negotiator. He offered exorbitant sums to the Corp., but they declared that it was out of their hands. He and Tyrell had become friends despite their differences in station, and only Tyrell was adept at picking suitable partners for the bonding, as his time grew closer.
His people were frantic that he had not produced an heir as of yet. His researchers had been required to search abroad for a perfect genetic match. He needed a ’class zero’, a woman who would contribute almost none of her genetic material to her offspring. Women of this sort were hard to find, but his people would tolerate nothing less. He declared that he also needed someone with whom he could have a conversation. Sex wasn’t everything.
No matter whom he talked to, whom he tried to bribe, Tyrell would leave in a few hours. On the plus, side the rep informed him, they had found a female who met the genetic criteria and was reasonably attractive and very intelligent.
She was from a planet called Terra, of a species called human, and was very compatible with his own physiology. She would be arriving in two weeks; he would only be allowed introduction and communication with her then. Should he choose her as his bonded mate however, the fee would be astronomical. Her species was rare, and not yet fully accepted into the Alliance.
The time had arrived and Negotiator Tyrell took her leave of a pouting and cranky highness, and introduced him to his new negotiator, Marvick.
“Your Imperial Majesty, I would like to introduce you to your new negotiator, Marvick. Negotiator Marvick, His Imperial Majesty Palden VII.” She paused for a moment, unsure of what else to say. “Goodbye Palden. It has definitely been an experience working for you. Be well.” For the first time since taking this assignment, she gave him the full bow due to his rank and station. Then she slowly and carefully removed the cloak that had marked her place in his household. Draping it over her arm and walking up the dais to give it back to him, she had to hold back a sob. The look on his face was tearing her heart apart. It looked as if he was losing his best friend. She had never been so glad to have the support of the armor as now, her knees buckling as she left the main audience chamber and walked to her private shuttle.
With a few final glances behind her, Tyrell entered the shuttle and was off to the orbiting Medical ship. As soon as she docked, a swarm of technicians grabbed her and dragged her off to surgery to remove the suit. They sedated her, and her grief-stricken heart was finally silent. She hadn’t realized how attached she had gotten to their knock-down-drag-out fights.
Thirteen torturous hours later, she was floating in a suspension tank with an oxygen mask while the fluid began to close the wounds left by the wires and cables that had had to run through her body to sustain her. Her hair was about one inch long after the helmet was removed, and the rest of her body was so white as to be almost blue. On the plus side, she hadn’t aged a day.
Walking up to the tank, an Alliance Representative began to outline her next assignment after her recovery.
“Negotiator Tyrell, you may recall that when you entered into this particular branch of service you were asked to sign another contract as well. One that, if you were successful in your assignments, indicated that you would be required to produce one offspring before the termination of your employment with us.” He took a deep breath and continued.
“We have chosen a mate for you, and you are a ninety-nine percent match genetically. If you were any closer, you would be the same species. The fact that genetically, you are a class zero makes you the ideal match for him.”
“When you complete your recovery, you will be given all of the details of the male in question. However, please remember that we only need you to produce one child via direct copulation…this does not have to be a permanent arrangement.”
“Oh and congratulations, you have been marked with your Champion rank. You are now wearing the mark of your planet and your status as Champion. You are the first one of your kind to be marked this way, but the Alliance is finding that an outbreak of abduction has been occurring surrounding your species. This is to safeguard you. It guarantees an exorbitant reward for your safe return.”
“Your record for successful negotiation in the most difficult circumstances has been recorded and upon assessment, for someone with the Corp. for only five years, your accomplishments are phenomenal.”
The officious little rep shuffled away, leaving her to gasp incoherently at the statements laid out before her. A mating, a breeding, a champion? She looked down at her body through the repairing liquid, and saw her new Terran tattoo, overlaid by a swirling silver galaxy and rank markings in Alliance common. The buggers had marked her while she was out.
She would think about this later, after the healers had completed their work.
A week later she was feeling a lot spryer. She had begun to move under her own power and was finally beginning to rebuild some of her lost muscle mass. She tried to plead her case for recovery time but there was no negotiating with the council decision to demand an offspring, now. They also were not forthcoming with the information on her match.
The next week passed, she packed a bag to prepare for wherever they might send her. She had almost no clothing to pack aside from the ship suits that they had given her after the surgeries. She went through the necessary hypnotherapy for agoraphobia. It was mandatory treatment after spending so much time in the suit.
Apparently, the chemicals and nutrients given to her through the suit had had a bleaching effect on her. Amy’s hair length was now regenerated, but was completely lacking in pigment. Waves of white now reached down to her butt. The vivid blue of her eyes and the red of her lips were the only spots of color on her face.
She had begun sampling food again, trying to get her body processes moving. Her systems had been dormant but were now functioning again. One of those systems was her taste buds.
In one week, she had gone through an astonishing amount of food, enjoying the luxury of tasting again.
She now had contacts that kept her eyes from being burned out by the lighting on the ship, but she knew that light was yet another thing she would have to rediscover.
Chapter 2
An Imperial Messenger was sent to bring her to the shuttle bay, and she began to get a suspicion that her new assignment might have something to do with Palden. The trip back to the planet she had just left seemed to take five minutes. Torgny was a beautiful planet, green and alive with golden cities gleaming in the bright dawn of planet fall.
The shuttle vibrated lightly upon entry to the atmosphere, then swooped and spiraled onto a landing pad near the palace. An Imperial Representative was present when she left the shuttle.
“Terran Representative Amanda, welcome to Torgny. My name is Wiagh. I will be your liaison to his Imperial Majesty.” The female was a native of Torgny, and one of the court hangers on. She had hovered in the vicinity of the Imperial Court
hoping to draw the attention of someone in a position of power. Amanda noticed the omission of her last name and took the hint. No one on Torgny was aware of her full name, and previous occupation.
“I have no intention of requiring a liaison. I am only staying for the six months stipulated in my contract. Interaction with his Imperial Majesty is not high on my list of priorities.” She walked over to the ground craft and signaled the driver to take her to the Palace. Her liaison was left standing on the landing pad, mouth open and eyes wide.
