Noxx: Alien Adoption Agency #1
Noxx
Alien Adoption Agency #1
Tasha Black
13th Story Press
Copyright © 2020 by 13th Story Press
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
13th Story Press
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Swarthmore, PA 19081
13thStoryPress@gmail.com
Cover designed by Sylvia Frost of The Book Brander
Contents
Tasha Black Starter Library
About Noxx
Noxx
1. Luna
2. Noxx
3. Noxx
4. Luna
5. Luna
6. Luna
7. Noxx
8. Luna
9. Noxx
10. Luna
11. Noxx
12. Luna
13. Noxx
14. Luna
15. Noxx
16. Luna
17. Noxx
18. Luna
19. Noxx
20. Luna
21. Luna
22. Luna
23. Noxx
24. Luna
25. Noxx
26. Luna
27. Luna
Kade - SAMPLE
1. Aurora
2. Kade
3. Aurora
Tasha Black Starter Library
About the Author
One Percent Club
Tasha Black Starter Library
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About Noxx
The Alien Adoption Agency is going to make all of Luna’s dreams come true.
At least, that’s what Luna believes when she boards a rickety space craft headed for a frontier moon to meet the child she will raise in exchange for 100 acres of land and a modest stipend. But she doesn’t count on the dangerous animals, the short but lonely nights, or the big blue warrior who informs her he is on permanent security duty for the baby.
Noxx is a proud dragon warrior of the Invicta, dedicated to use his strength, strategy and endurance to protect his homeland. When his commander assigns him guard duty for a baby, he resents the interruption of his career. It’s bad enough that he’s starting to bond with the little whelp, but the instant he sees the child’s adoptive mother, he knows she is his fated mate. Noxx will have to deny his desperate craving for the dark-haired beauty if he wants to hold on to his chance at redemption.
When a last-minute trek through the forest of Clotho gets them entangled in a dangerous battle, Luna will have to learn to trust the hunky blue warrior. But can the dragon let go of his duty long enough to let himself love someone, and be loved in return?
If you like strong women, sexy aliens, wild adventures, steamy sensual scenes, and happily-ever-afters, then you’ll love the world of Stargazer!
Alien Adoption Agency is a Stargazer Alien Series – read them all:
-Noxx
-Kade
-Tyro
Noxx
1
Luna
Luna clutched the armrests and tried to remember how to pray.
The tiny spacecraft was shaking hard enough to rattle her teeth. But at the moment, she was almost more worried about her dress. It was going to take nothing short of divine intervention to keep her breasts from evacuating the weirdly low-cut gown the adoption agency had insisted she wear.
She still wasn’t sure why they had dressed her up like she was headed to the red-light district of Cerros-3. Or why she was being flown out to meet her new baby in a contraption that seemed designed to orphan him a second time.
The struggling engine gave out a high-pitched whine and an acrid, smoky scent wafted toward her. Luna forced her eyelids open to check on the other occupants of the puddle jumper.
Opposite her, two more adoptive mothers, in identical purple gowns, clung to each other.
The one on the right, Phoebe, was looking as space-sick as Luna felt. She swore even Phoebe’s blonde hair had taken on a greenish tint.
Phoebe was from a Terran planet, like Luna. And Luna was willing to bet that she had never been on a spacecraft before they had each started the adoption process. Luna certainly hadn’t.
Phoebe had told them she hailed from a tribe of farmers. Adopting a baby meant she would be given her own plot of land so that she could continue in that tradition.
Beside Phoebe, Aurora’s bright blue eyes twinkled, even though her mouth was set in a hard line.
The three women had been through the strange intake process together and had quickly formed a strong friendship. But Luna was still afraid to ask Aurora her last name.
The thing of it was, Luna was pretty sure she had seen hologram images of her new friend in the dailies many times over, after the rebel bomb had gone off in New Samsara. Though the woman in the holos was a blue-eyed redhead, not a brunette. And the feeds only referred to her as “The Fox.”
No one had been killed, or even hurt in that explosion, but the factory that made the weapons used by the Cerulean soldiers on Terra-2 was destroyed.
There was a time when such an action would have been widely celebrated by Terrans everywhere. Aurora, if it had really been her, would have been considered a folk hero.
But now that Ambassador Serena Scott was working toward a fragile peace and removal of Cerulean troops from the Terran planets, no one wanted anything to mess it up, least of all a factory explosion the Ceruleans were calling a terrorist attack.
Citizens on both sides were furious, and the intergalactic military was on the hunt for the woman known only as the Fox.
Aurora winked at Luna and flashed her a sly, pirate smile.
She was clearly not as freaked out by the bumpy ride as Luna and Phoebe.
Maybe this was because Aurora had been on them before for rebel missions. If there was one thing most Terrans did not have, it was access to good spacecrafts.
Whoever Aurora used to be, what she was now was a woman expecting a new baby and a new life.
The Alien Adoption Agency offered an excellent, if inadvertent, safe harbor.
The three women were about to be dropped off on a frontier moon, far from Terran reach, where they would likely disappear forever to raise the orphaned pod babies of the planet Imber in relative peace.
“Ohh,” Phoebe said, her voice quavering from the rough ride.
Luna looked out the window to see what Phoebe was looking at.
The moon below was the most lush thing Luna had ever seen.
The tops of millions of leafy blue and green trees made its surface look almost soft. It was like something out of the books at the Terran museum with all the images of old Earth.
In the center, there was something oblong, blue, and shimmering.
It looked almost like…water.
Could there really be so much water in one place without a factory there to drain it and sell it off?
“Hot damn,” Aurora said, peering out the window.
There was a crackle and a buzz before the speaker came to life.
“We’re about to land,” Luna’s chip translator told her the captain was saying.
The whole speaker system was ridiculous, she could literally see the pilot through the opening in the small curtain that separated his seat from theirs.
“When we arrive, prepare for
sterilization,” he continued.
What?
Luna looked over at Aurora, who shrugged.
Phoebe shuddered and looked away.
Times like these, Luna hated her chip. She knew it wasn’t rational to expect to learn a thousand or more languages, but context was important.
Was she about to get a bath?
Or a hysterectomy?
There was no point asking now. Whatever she had to do, Luna was already all-in.
Her whole family was gone. This baby would be the world to her, and she would do anything to have him in her arms.
In spite of the frightening flight and the alarming announcement, she felt her heart melt and leap at the same time at the thought of the little one who would soon be hers.
I’m going to have a family again.
They would be a very small family, but it was more than Luna had dared to dream of in the lonely years she had spent trying to find work in a universe that seemed determined to overlook her.
Adopting this child came with a built-in home and the means to support herself. Luna felt as if she had won the sector lotto when she was told her application was accepted. She’d wandered in a kind of haze for days, unable to believe her luck.
Her seat suddenly seemed to drop out from under her, jerking her out of her thoughts.
Phoebe let out a startled shriek, and Aurora wrapped a comforting arm around the blonde’s shoulder.
Luna closed her eyes again and tried to remember the Traveler’s Prayer. But gravity returned with a concussing thud as the craft hit the ground and slid.
The view of blue and green blurred past out the window.
The inertial arrestors screeched and the whole ship shuddered so that Luna was afraid it might be torn apart.
Finally, they came to a whiplash halt.
“Please remain seated until your escorts arrive,” the captain said.
Luna was pretty sure she wouldn’t have been able to stand up quickly, even if she wanted to.
“You okay?” Aurora asked her.
Luna nodded.
“How about you, Phoebe?” Aurora asked softly.
“What did they mean by sterilization?” Phoebe asked, burying her face in her hands.
“Probably just a bath,” Aurora said quickly. “So they can be sure we aren’t bringing in any off-world pathogens.”
Luna’s eyes widened.
Aurora only shrugged at her.
“Two people can’t run a farm,” Phoebe said, lowering her hands. “I’ll have to start a tribe if I really want to work the land.”
“I don’t know,” Luna said. “Did you see how lush it is here? There’s so much water.”
She didn’t bother to mention that a barely inhabited frontier moon was hardly a place to meet a nice man and start a big family.
There was a snap and a hiss as the hatch opened to reveal the inside of a white medical tent.
The sterilization crew must have put it up around the hatch while they waited.
“Please exit one at a time,” the captain said.
Phoebe clung to Aurora, so Luna unstrapped and headed out into the tent first.
Two men in bio-suits stood in front of her holding what looked like crop-sprayers.
One of them pointed to a small table that held three masks. She picked one up. It was soft, like silicone, with no strings or elastic to hold it in place. One of the men impatiently indicated that she should put it to her face.
She lifted it up and it instantly suctioned to her face, sealing off her eyes, nose, and mouth.
Panicked, Luna tried to pull it off, but it wouldn’t budge.
She couldn’t breathe. Did these alien men know she needed her mouth and nose to breathe?
Her heart thundered in terror.
Then the first man began to spray her.
The caustic gas stung her skin and she was suddenly grateful that her face was protected. The second man was spraying her from behind.
Luna shivered as her lungs screamed for air.
The spraying stopped and there was a whoosh and a rush of air like a mini-tornado. Then gloves touched her face and the mask fell away.
Luna gasped in a breath.
One of the men spoke, it was a deep, groaning language.
“Be still,” her chip said.
As the first man held her face, the other approached with a dropper.
“Eyes open,” the chip announced.
She braced herself as they slowly applied icy cold drops into her eyes and nose.
“Mouth open,” the chip added.
She opened her mouth and a device was inserted.
A buttery mist coated her teeth and tongue.
“Finished,” the chip said. “Bring luck on Clotho.”
One of the men pointed to a flap in the tent.
Luna exited in a daze. Everything was still a little blurry after those eye drops, but the world was slowly coming into view.
She stood on the grassy surface of a meadow overlooking all of Clotho. There really was a massive water source below them. And on the crest overlooking the water, mountainous woodland extended as far as she could see.
In the sky above, she could see the glow of Hesiod-8, the planet they were circling. It was a desolate place, mostly used for mining gas. Lachesis and Atropos, Hesiod-8’s other two moons, were nowhere in sight. She knew they would only be visible at certain times of day, but she wasn’t really sure when that would be.
There was a commotion behind Luna as Phoebe staggered out of the tent, nearly crashing into her.
“You okay?” Luna asked her.
“I swear, no one ever used to have to ask me that,” Phoebe said in a disgruntled tone.
“These are trying times,” Luna said, trying not to smile.
“Oh wow, look at that,” Phoebe said gazing out over their surroundings.
“Gorgeous, right?”
“I’m just wondering how long it will take to clear a decent plot,” Phoebe said. “I had no idea the vegetation would be so dense.”
“Holy hell,” Aurora exclaimed, staggering out of the tent and joining them.
Luna gasped at the sight of her and took a step backward.
“What?” Aurora asked.
Aurora’s hair, which had been a mousy brown until now, was full out titian red.
Red as a fox.
Aurora’s hand went immediately to her hair. She must have realized that the sterilization process had revealed its natural color.
Luna glanced around.
There was a one-million credit reward on the Fox’s flame-colored head. Had anyone else seen?
For now, the two workers were busily disengaging the tent from the little spacecraft.
“Get my cape off,” she hissed to Phoebe, who was also staring at Aurora. “Now.”
Phoebe seemed to come to her senses.
She ripped the gauzy cape from around Luna’s shoulders and handed it to her.
They both ran to Aurora.
Aurora’s expression went slack, as if she expected them to try to tie her up.
“Don’t worry,” Luna murmured.
Phoebe put herself between Aurora and the view from the captain’s seat of the ship. Luna began wrapping the gauzy cape around her friend’s hair, hiding the bright color as best she could.
“Thank you,” Aurora whispered.
“It’s not the best fashion statement I’ve ever seen, but I think you can pull it off,” Luna replied, finishing her work just in time.
The workers freed the last contact point from the little ship and turned back toward the meadow to fold up their tents and pack up their equipment. Luna guessed there wasn’t enough traffic coming into Clotho to warrant a full-time decontamination setup.
While they worked, the ship rattled to life, and then sailed off in the opposite direction.
A few minutes later, the men in the suits disappeared down the hillside with the tents in tow. They didn’t even spare the three women a look back as
they headed out of sight.
Aurora let out a relieved sigh.
“Do you think they saw her?” Phoebe asked worriedly.
“If they did, there’s no way they would have left us here,” Aurora said, her voice lacking any of its usual melody.
Luna wrapped an arm around her friend.
It was odd to see Aurora shaken. In the time they’d spent together, she had naturally become the brave leader of their little gang of three.
“Good point,” Phoebe said, nodding. “What do you think we’re supposed to do now? Isn’t it kind of weird that they left us alone on a foreign moon?”
“I don’t think we’re alone,” Aurora said, looking up into the sky.
Luna followed her gaze.
Where before there had seemed to be only sky, something had begun to waver into existence.
The ship was egg-shaped, and made of some kind of gleaming metal, too big and shiny to miss. It must have been cloaked until just that moment.
As they watched, a hatch opened and a ramp slid out into the grass.
2
Noxx
Noxx watched from above as the ramp slid down from his ship to the grassy field.
The three women below clung to each other, as if they thought they were going to be boiled and eaten. Their low-cut, purple gowns swirled impractically in the wind.
Terrans were frivolous creatures. He knew this much already.