The First Starfighter by Grace Goodwin (lightweight ebook reader txt) 📕

not thought of what any of this would mean for her. She’d played a game, not trained for battle as I had.

“Jamie?”

Startled, she crawled out of our ship, and I held up a hand to assist her down the retractable steps. Even though she placed her palm in mine, she didn’t see me. She appeared to be so tangled up in her own thoughts it was as if she were on another planet.

Maybe she was wishing she were back on Earth. Maybe she’d changed her mind and wanted me to return her. I’d promised to do so, which did not bode well for me or for Velerion.

“Jamie?” I said her name again, softly. The input from the space battle had been an onslaught. She didn’t need more from me.

“What?” She was looking at her hands, turning them this way and that as if inspecting a wound.

“Are you all right?” I set my hand on her shoulder, and I felt a shiver run through her small frame.

That got her attention. She removed her helmet, and I did the same as I waited for her answer.

“No. I’m not.”

She looked up as we both heard a wave of people moving forward in the docking bay, their excited shouts reaching us long before they would cover the distance. With narrowed eyes, she watched as two service techs ran forward to grab our helmets for us. They would be cleaned, inspected, and placed back in our ship within the hour in case we needed to go back out. I glanced at the battered and blasted areas of our ship.

“How do soldiers do this?” she asked without looking my way.

“Do what, exactly?” I asked. “Save lives? Fight for what they love? Protect people who can’t protect themselves?”

“Kill.” She lowered her hands to her sides and looked at me with a sadness in her eyes I remembered feeling a long time ago. “I’m not a Marine, Alex. I’m a delivery driver. I know it’s not a game, not after that. But I played your training program as one. I got good because it was fun, not because I was trying to save a planet full of people.”

I pulled her close and breathed a sigh of relief when she allowed the contact. I hugged her to me, kissed the top of her head. She was soft and warm, and I could feel her breathing. She was alive. She was in my arms, and that was what she needed.

“This,” I said, giving her a squeeze. “Me and you. No matter what you think, we’re not a game. Never.”

She nodded, her forehead sliding against my chest. Fuck, holding her was what I needed. Fighting the Dark Fleet had never weighed so heavily on my chest before. While working undercover on Asteroid Syrax, I’d felt the pressure to find the traitor, but this with Jamie was so much more intense, the threat of losing her much more painful than anything I’d faced since my brother’s death.

“You are an Elite Starfighter, bondmate,” I reminded. “We were in the Valor together. We are a team. Nothing you do is done alone.”

For me, I would be alone no longer.

People came closer, at least twenty of the Arturri base’s crew forming a loose circle around us, eager to share their pride in our success.

Jamie had no idea what she was to everyone on this moon base and the entire planet below. She was hope. Protection. Strength.

“Jamie, we have a welcoming committee,” I murmured in her ear.

She opened her eyes and lifted her head to look around. The shy smile on her face was all Gus and Ry needed to pounce.

“Jamie! By all that is holy, you are amazing. Three Scythe fighters and a shuttle in your first battle? And you saved Gamma 4. We are so proud of you!” Gustar pulled her from my side into a giant hug, which was quickly joined by Ryziz. After that, everyone gathered around in a large circle, wrapping their arms around one another with myself and Jamie in the center of the adoration attack. They were shouting and singing and jumping like maniacs. Some of them were shouting, “Earth! Earth! Earth!”

The service members working on the moon base knew as well as I did that Jamie Miller might be the first from Earth, but she would not be the last. Even now, her two teammates were close to completing their training. There were dozens more a few weeks behind them.

Soon, the Starfighter numbers would begin to increase for the first time since the original attack.

And I would do anything and everything I had to in order to make sure the traitor was caught and eliminated on the Asteroid Syrax base. I wasn’t sure how now that I was stationed on Arturri, but I would help my Nave and Trax see it done by feeding them intel I learned from here. I had more than duty and my people to protect now; I had Jamie. And she was mine.

“Okay! Okay! You are all crazy! Put me down!” Jamie’s laughter was music to my ears as Gus and Ry finally put her on her feet. She was relaxed and smiling now, picking up that they were pleased not only with her but with the outcome of the skirmish.

The outer crowd dispersed at once, stepping back to form a line on both sides of us so that walking between them created a sort of corridor to the exit from the docking bay.

I took Jamie’s hand as we walked past the now quiet but still smiling welcome crew.

When we cleared the tunnel, the bright, open center area was bustling with activity, and standing in the center was General Aryk of Velerion.

“Welcome back, Starfighters.” General Aryk walked to greet us, and I was shocked to see the streaks of silver at his temples. I’d heard rumors that he’d been badly wounded in battle and when he’d recovered, his black locks had been streaked with silver. His eyes remained the same piercing pale gray