Were they bondmates?
Yes. It made sense, because in the game any player could choose any wingman. So, if I were attracted to women, I could have built a female copilot. I just hadn’t given it much thought after I’d created Alex.
But then, I hadn’t created him, had I? I’d chosen him from all the characteristics. My high school statistics teacher would have loved to figure out the probability of our pairing.
Alex. This alien man who was mine now. He’d been real the whole time.
He’d said he’d been watching me since I chose him. He’d chosen me as well. Had he gone through the same ceremony? Had he chosen the X button on his controller, too? He must have, for we’d been pair bonded. He’d come to Earth to bring me here. To fight together. To live together.
He led me to a section where others were eating at long tables. We sat side by side, and someone placed a tray of food before me, then Alexius. It smelled delicious even though I didn’t know what any of it was.
I dug in, eager to fill my belly. Besides knocking me out, the travel from Earth had made me ravenous. Only when I slowed did Alex stand.
“This is Jamie Miller of Earth, my bondmate and our newest Elite Starfighter.” Alex’s voice carried. Many in the large area stopped what they were doing and came toward us. Alex helped me to my feet. My introvert alarm bells were blaring like foghorns inside my head and my heart rate sped up to uncomfortable levels, but I plastered a smile on my face and stood there as they filed past us one by one, introduced themselves to me and took my hand. Their version of a handshake was to slide their palm along mine and curl their fingers. They clearly expected me to do the same, so I spent the next few minutes locking hands with every single Velerion who passed.
When the two male Elite Starfighters finally approached, everyone else had left. Thank God. I was toast from all the interaction.
“Welcome to the war, Jamie. We are glad to have you.” The taller of the two spoke. He had golden hair and skin the color of a mocha latte. His eyes were dark brown, and his chest was nearly the size of Alex’s. He was gorgeous and tall and totally in love with his copilot, if the look in his eyes was any indication.
I wanted Alex to look at me like that. While we were in bed. Naked.
“I’m Gustar and this is Ryzix.”
I locked fingers with the just-as-gorgeous second Elite Starfighter. Unlike blondie, his hair was the color of black coffee, his skin the color of melted milk chocolate, but his eyes were crayon blue. He looked human, mostly. But no human being I knew had eyes that color. Or were quite so… perfect. Alex was built like a G.I. Joe doll, his broad shoulders a touch too wide. His hips narrow. His thighs… thick. And then there was the other place I remembered where he was thick.
“We fly the Lanix.”
I blinked, getting my mind out of the gutter.
“The Lanix? I know you guys from the game… the training program.” I changed the word because yeah, not a game.
Ryzix smiled at me, a bright, welcoming smile. “Yes. We’ve been admiring your skill, and now you are here. Alexius take you to the Valor yet? It’s been sitting there, waiting for you for weeks.”
“It has?” My eyes widened at the admission. I looked at Alex, who shrugged.
“Once a Starfighter pilot nears completion of training, a ship is designated and named according to the pilot’s preference,” Gustar told me.
Alex leaned close enough that I thought he might kiss me again. His gaze even dropped to my lips. “Ready to see your ship?”
My. Ship. Mine. The Valor.
I had a real ship. A ship I knew how to fly? Would the controls really be familiar? Would I know how to run all the ship systems? Just how realistic was the game?
I nodded, then gave a little wave, pulling Alex so he would hurry. “Bye, guys!”
They were both laughing as Alex escorted me through one of those large archways, the ones big enough for trucks, and I gasped when I saw what was on the other side.
Holy shit.
Ships. A handful of shuttles of varying sizes. And starfighters. Rows and rows of them. Shiny. Perfect. Most of them so gorgeous they looked like they’d never been out of the hangar. “Are they all new?”
Alex gave my hand a squeeze and led me toward the end of the nearest row. “Yes. Most of them. When the Dark Fleet took out the Starfighter base, we lost the bonded Starfighter pairs and their ships. We are rebuilding from scratch.”
“How… how many survived?”
His jaw clenched; then he sighed. “Counting Gustar and Ryzix, twelve pilot teams survived. They have been split up, two teams per base.”
My eyes widened at the tally. “That’s not enough.”
He nodded. “We know. So far we’ve been able to hold off the Dark Fleet’s attacks, but only because they have not come at us in force. They do not know how many Starfighters we have left, nor that we’ve created the Starfighter Training Academy to find recruits from other planets. They know nothing of you or the others who will soon follow. That is the only thing that has saved us. That will save us.”
Shit. “So, we’re Team Three?”
“On Arturri, yes.”
“And there are only thirteen Starfighter pilot teams, including us, to protect the whole planet?” I felt nauseated again. The entire planet of Velerion and there were twenty-six people—and that included me—to protect them all?
“One bonded pair is worth a hundred Dark Fleet ships.”
“Sell that propaganda somewhere else, Alex. I played the game. Their ships are fast. Their pilots are sneaky. It took me months to win, and I’m the only one who’s done so. They’re that good. This is a disaster.”
His green eyes narrowed. His shoulders rolled up and back. “This is a war, Jamie. And you are a weapon. As am I. So is our ship.” He pulled me to a stop in front of a sight I knew by heart. My ship. My starfighter. The same ship I’d watched a digital version of Alex climb into literally hundreds of times on my screen back home. “Elite Starfighter Jamie Miller, I present you with your ship, the Valor.”
6
Alexius, Moon Base Arturri, Docking Bay
* * *
I stood back and watched Jamie. Took in her wide eyes. I was of the generation that had been raised to fight Queen Raya. Schooling had become more than just reading and mathematics. Planet history and other scholarly topics. Military strategy was added. Communications. Flight lessons. Ground skills. Tech basics. By the time I graduated from Velerion schooling, I was at a higher rank in the armed forces than those of my parents’ generation.
We were the youth who would save the planet.
I’d been adept at flying… hell, I’d loved every second of those studies. Except I’d also been adept at covert operations and had been tapped by Velerion’s intelligence agency within a few months of my twentieth birthday. I worked in that role until Jamie was matched to me. What I’d been doing on Syrax was important. All this time hadn’t been wasted. We’d almost discovered the traitor. Trax and Nave were still there even now.
Jamie’s skill as an Elite Starfighter wasn’t proven in the Velerion school system, but through the complex program she called a game.