Nate's Fated Mate
Author: Donna McDonald
Chapter One
Universe 1, above Dargoona Castle located on a privately owned island …
"Dr. McNamara?"
"Yes," Sheena answered, lifting her gaze from the useless staring she'd been doing at her hands to look at her pilot.
She uncrossed her long legs, surprisingly long for a woman with her average height, and checked to make sure her long blonde hair was still caught up in its clip.
"I greatly appreciate you coming to pick me up here. Please remember to remove the island's exact location from your flight log. It's a Level 1 priority to protect the residence of the existing AAS Matchmakers."
"Yes, ma'am," he answered. "My orders from central said as much."
Sheena sighed internally. She hated lying about her deceased parents, but her sister was still on that alien ship. She'd left several of her older, reprogrammed droids behind with Carleton and Elsa at her parent's castle. She hoped they would be enough to keep them safe until Brianna's future was more secure.
"Are you sure you want to do this? People who visit the Alien Abduction Services airship tend not to return. There are few exceptions."
Her conscientious airship captain was used to flying her all kinds of questionable places, but it was not surprising that he'd been reluctant to make this particular flight with her. She completely understood his concern, shared some of it even, but worry over things out of her control would not change her decision. Nothing could lessen the burden of what she had to do to help Brianna, but they were all each other had now, regardless of what the damn planet thought.
"Don't worry about me, Captain Jordy. As a precaution, I'm taking a few of my special boys with me," Sheena replied, wishing she felt as confident as she sounded. It wasn't getting back off the airship she feared. She'd been to the ship many times and left when she wanted-or at least she had a hundred years ago when she'd been married to the man now its current admiral.
The rumors most believed about the airship-and the ones about the danger were all true-tended to keep the airship safe from hostile takeovers. She accepted that her nervousness merely validated what might be the most propagated political ruse on New Earth. The real reason for her apprehension, which was having to deal with her ex-husband again, only made Sheena angry at herself. Such a personal issue wasn't something she'd be sharing with her worried pilot though.
"How will you recharge the SDDs on the floating airship? It's not really equipped for the kind of power they require, is it?"
Sheena was glad their discussion was moving to more comfortable ground. She could talk about her self-directed droids all day. "The boys are self-charging now. Their batteries are good for fifty years so long as they can shut down for a few hours a day to rest their processors. I intend to rotate them on guard duty to make sure that happens. That's why I brought all four. I'm well prepared for whatever happens."
Sheena wanted to smile, but didn't, when her pilot's interested gaze went to the four walking weapons sitting behind her. All four were staring off into space, but instantly turned to smile and nod at the pilot in recognition of his gaze. She was still very proud about teaching them to respond normally when someone looked their way. And to think, it was nothing more than a simple face recognition program. In every case where they had tested self-directed droids interacting with humans, the responses of hers were so human-like no one knew the difference until an arm suddenly transformed into one of several dangerous weapons.
"No offense, Dr. McNamara, but I'd feel much better if General Montgomery was accompanying you like he usually does. At the risk of sounding as sexist as my wife accuses me of being at times, I wish you had some supportive human company for your trip."
Sheena sighed again internally, fighting hard not to let it out.
She'd inherited the sighing tendency from the woman she considered her mother who coincidentally was also her biological egg donor parent. She'd inherited her quick temper from her father, the man contributing the sperm that had no doubt eagerly invaded that donated egg.
The woman scientist who'd actually carried her in her womb had contributed nothing genetic that managed to stick, or at least nothing Sheena had ever been able to identify under the best of electron microscopes. However, what she had gotten from that woman was an insatiable curiosity about her beginnings that had led her to her current life's work.
"General Montgomery was too busy to come on this trip. Also, he has no involvement with its purpose or outcome. Unfortunately for me, this is more of a personal quest than an official mission," Sheena said stiffly, her gaze dropping to her hands again. "If successful, we'll be adding a person to our return trip, Captain Jordy. I'll keep you posted about my progress to that end result. The identity of the passenger needs to be kept secret until I've secured her agreement to return with me."