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    Gaea's Chosen: Heavenly Bodies
    Gaea's Chosen: Heavenly Bodies
    Gaea's Chosen: Heavenly Bodies
    Ebook96 pages1 hour

    Gaea's Chosen: Heavenly Bodies

    By Cara Michaels

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    About this ebook

    You are cordially invited to the wedding of Francesca Tomei and Jackson Danes...

    After an unexpected awakening in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way, the crew of Gaea’s Shadow is ready for a celebration. Of twenty original crew members, Jack and Frannie are the only paired couple still alive and their wedding is certain to be the talk of the quadrant.

    But an unexpected enemy has plans for the systems engineer and the operations manager. Kidnapped and cut off from their crew, Jack and Frannie must use their wits to thwart a deadly plan to steal Jack’s life, and with it one of the galaxy’s most valuable companies.

    Gaea’s Chosen: It’s the 224th century, the galaxy is far from friendly, and waking up thousands of light years off course is the easy part. Fortunately, heroes come in all sizes.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCara Michaels
    Release dateOct 30, 2013
    ISBN9781311998163
    Gaea's Chosen: Heavenly Bodies
    Author

    Cara Michaels

    Cara Michaels is a dreamer of legendary proportions (just ask her about the alien pirate spaceship invasion). Her imagination is her playground and nothing is quite so much fun for her as building new characters and new worlds with at least an edge of the fantastic. She's writing whenever the opportunity presents itself and can typically be found tinkering with half a dozen projects. Occasionally all at once.She calls Florida 'home' when she's not busy swearing about giant bugs and humidity. She has one super-cool fiancé who doesn't (usually) mind the hours spent writing, editing, writing some more, and editing a lot more, one son with aspirations of becoming either a great wizard or an artist, and three cats who enjoy sleeping on her works in progress.

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      Book preview

      Gaea's Chosen - Cara Michaels

      Gaea’s Chosen:

      Heavenly Bodies

      Cara Michaels

      Sometimes the hardest stories to write are the ones I love best in the end.

      Thank you to my writing sisters Siobhan Muir and Miranda Kate for finding the best in this story… and then shooting off a few flares to show me the way.

      Thank you, Mom, for your help, your faith, your dreams, and your love.

      Gaea’s Chosen: Heavenly Bodies

      By Cara Michaels

      Copyright 2013 H.L. Carmichael

      Smashwords Edition

      Cover Photo: Copyright Designersart | Dreamstime.com

      Cover Design: H.L. Carmichael

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      01

      02

      03

      04

      05

      06

      07

      About

      01

      Francesca Tomei

      |Proximity alert. Juggernaut-class Henjin’s Might is on final approach to loading bay two. Atmospheric lock in sixty-five seconds.|

      What? I touched just below my left ear, where a discreet, state of the art shiplink implant nestled. The new tech allowed me to talk to my crewmates and Gaea, the governing artificial intelligence of our ship, Gaea’s Shadow. Gaea, everyone’s kinda busy here. You know, the wedding and all? A wedding I needed to be dressed for about an hour ago. I drew my data tab from the utility case strapped to my right leg and opened the transit messages. Crew botanist Kat Drummond was about to be happy, but— Aw, you’re killing me. Kat’s new lab is here and almost a full day early?

      |Apologies, Specialist Tomei. Shall I tell them to come back later?|

      I snorted a laugh. No, no. This is Kat’s baby. She will kill me for real if I delay it. I’m on my way.

      |Affirmative.|

      Let’s make this quick, though. Slipping a diamond stud into my left ear, I raced out of my quarters through the ship to loading bay two. I slowed to pass my captain, Gemma Bryant. She carried her loaded arc blade harness in one hand and sleek new body armor in the other. She gave me a head to toe study.

      Interesting choice of attire. Doesn’t look much like a wedding dress, Tomei.

      And you don’t look much like a wedding guest, Captain. I thumped the body armor with my knuckles. As shiny and dark as volcanic glass, it absorbed all sound from my touch. Whoa.

      Wicked, huh? Gemma grinned. The latest in stealth armoring.

      Are you going to be my honor guard?

      She rolled her glass-pale eyes. Armor instead of heels? Don’t tempt me, Frannie.

      |Atmospheric lock in thirty seconds.|

      Go finish getting ready, she said. One delicate black brow winged up. Or… start getting ready.

      I’m working on it. And I’ll finish as soon as I get this delivery unloaded and logged. I pointed to my ear. I’ve got my something borrowed.

      Half of it, anyway. Don’t forget the other one.

      I touched my bare right lobe. Oops.

      I think we can handle one delivery without you.

      I’ve seen your methods of organization, Captain.

      It’s one delivery, Frannie. How much trouble could I possibly cause? She held up one hand. I promise not to unpack anything.

      I’m just—

      |Atmospheric lock complete. Receiving personnel to loading bay two.|

      I bounced on my toes. I want to see it for myself. Make sure everything has arrived.

      Every shipment. She shook her head, her mouth curling at the corners. Doesn’t matter if it’s protein supplements, you’re like a kid at Christmas. Can’t wait, can you?

      And I’d better hurry or I’ll be late to my own wedding.

      Her laughter trailed off behind me as I sprinted for the loading bays.

      Once upon a time I’d dreamed of a different sort of life.

      I’d found it in the Gaea Project, privately funded by the Extraterrestrial Aeronautics and Space Administration, an endeavor so big and bright and exciting. Who couldn’t redefine life with a mission across space to settle a new planet some twenty light years from Earth?

      Had I ever thought to wake from stasis some six thousand light years from home, in a section of the galaxy people had yet to even dream of visiting when my journey was planned?

      Yeah, not so much.

      But running along the narrow halls of a 224th century, catalyst-class ship, excitement and joy bubbled inside me. This was my adventure and I loved it.

      Twelve months ago, I woke up thinking my ship, Gaea’s Ark, had landed at our destination on the cusp of our new lives. The second part came true, but not in ways any of us had imagined. We had a new ship, Gaea’s Shadow, and new crewmates in metahumans—the evolutions of the plain old humans of my generation—Ruarc Ferrante and Adelina Agathon. Despite the disaster that brought us here, with each day my sense of home and family grew.

      I stopped hard in front of the doors to loading bay two, slapping the access panel with my palm. Claxons sounded as Gaea adjusted the atmospheric pressure and gravity within to human norms.

      And the bride wore spacer black. Familiar hands curved around my waist and lifted me off my feet. My shrieking laughter bounced along the walls as I was spun around in a circle. Unexpected, but you make duty gear look outstanding, babe.

      Jack, put me down.

      The world kept spinning even as he let me slide to my feet. He turned me in his arms and I looked up into sandy brown eyes. Leaning close, he brushed his lips over mine. The warm, woodsy scent of him wrapped around me and I sighed into his kiss.

      Jackson.

      I’d signed up for the Gaea Project trials hoping for adventure, or at least something not boring. And some benevolent force, be it God or the Universe or whatever, put Jackson Danes in my path. Jack always made me laugh, and I’d nursed a mad crush on him during the testing stages of the project. The night we’d received our acceptance letters from EASA and learned we would be partners—chemically and biologically

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