Collateral Lives

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Blown Away: Collateral Lives

Copyright 2018 by D.L. Jackson

ISBN: 978-1-68361-226-1

Cover art by Fantasia Frog

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole or in part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

Published by Decadent Publishing Company, LLC

Look for us online at:

www.decadentpublishing.com

About nine years ago I started my Blown Away Series. Collateral Lives had always been one of my favorites, but I didn’t submit it for publication until the time was right, and I could bring all of the standalone novels of this series together.

The inspiration from this story came from how mankind trumps technology—how human emotions and senses can’t be duplicated, and when disarming dangerous alien technology, the best choice is a living and breathing person with a desire to stay alive.

I hope you enjoy Collateral lives, and fall in love with my EOD prisoner team, Avery and Trouble, who despite their death sentences, find a way to beat the odds.

I love to hear from my readers. Please feel free to email me at: dlareejackson1@gmail.com .

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Also by D.L. Jackson

Carnal Desires

Carnal Attraction

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Seducing Liberty

This Endris Night

Her Boogie Woogie Bugle Guy

Being Prince Charming

Beauty and the Brigadier

Rebel Souls

Last Flight of the Ark

Courtesan Boot Camp

Prepper Romance

Finding Mercy

Shockwave

Slipping the Past

The Willfully Wedded Virgin

Moon Crazy

Dangerous

Bringing Down Romeo

Wedding Moon

He Sphinx I’m Sexy

Blown Away: Detonate

Blown Away: Explosive Affairs

Blown Away: Bomb Voyage

Collateral Lives

Here comes Trouble.

Sergeant Aristasha Trouble Devoe, you have been accused of multiple crimes against the citizens of Trios Port and the League of Planets.

When the League hands down their sentence, it’s not exactly what Trouble expects. A lifetime sentence, for however long that may be, in the League’s Company X, onboard Eternity Space Station, an inescapable prison in space. Nothing like being the newest member of X, as in exterminate, a suicide company, and she’s landed herself on the EOD squad, disarming bombs. Shit! She doesn’t know anything about disarming ordnance.

Captain Marc Avery is serving a lifetime sentence for blowing his commander’s head off. When he meets his new remote, she’s nothing like he expected. Sure, he’s guilty of murder, but he had his reasons, and that they didn’t happen to align with the League, well, let’s just say he doesn’t believe in killing thousands of innocent men, women and children for the League’s agenda, even if he’s handed a death sentence for it.

But the punishment doesn’t end there. The little lavender Droxie doesn’t know how to shut her mouth, and good gods, though she’s small, she’s a handful. In her case, it’s true that explosives come in small packages, and Avery has been handed more than he might be able to control.

Now their linked, through special hardware installed in their heads, each seeing, feeling and experiencing what the other does, the nightmare only gets better. If Avery doesn’t keep the little bundle of dynamite with a death wish alive, he’s going to go down with her. Hard.

Problem is, he’s already started to fall, and when your next mission is to save the galaxy, love has no place in your heart or mind. If they fail, not only will they die, billions will serve their death sentence along with them.

Dedication

This one is for the Science Fiction Romance Brigade, bringing stars to the romance world.

Collateral Lives

By

D.L. Jackson

Chapter One

The prisoner will rise while the judge advocate reads the charges against her.

A bailiff with a black eye and fat lip pulled Trouble to her feet. She stumbled over the shackles, unable to catch herself with her wrists cuffed to the iron girdle at her waist and her ankles fastened together by an iron bar. The bailiff yanked her arm, keeping her upright, preventing her from landing on her face, but damn near dislocating her shoulder at the same time.

Sergeant Aristasha Trouble Devoe, you have been accused of multiple crimes against the citizens of Trios Port and the League of Planets.

Trouble lifted her chin and pinned the judge with her best look of contempt. They had no right to try her. She hadn’t even wanted to be in their military. Her dark-purple hair hung in her eyes, but she couldn’t raise her hands to brush it out of her face, so she stared through the curtain, hoping he got the full brunt of her glare. If he had, he didn’t react.

On either side of the judge advocate, a total of six military officers sat, each from a different branch of the LOP. None represented her home world of Odroxia, but she hadn’t expected someone to be there, either. Odroxians outside of Odroxia were rare. They liked to keep to their own and had recently broken from the LOP. In fact, she’d only served in the League because of a family requirement. All children of commissioned officers were required to give four years of their life to serving the League. Since her adopted father was a base commander, she’d no choice but to enlist or seek a longer-term commission. Of course, they’d failed to tell her the term could be indefinite in times of war—much like waiting for her court martial.

It seemed this day had taken forever to come. A couple of the prison guards had found the balls to sleaze into her cell a few days ago with an interesting offer. Trading sex for an escape, where they’d probably nab her outside the jail anyway. Whoring herself hadn’t been on her agenda, so she’d passed on their offer as only she could. A knee to the groin, a couple of fat lips later, and they had her in a security girdle to control her violent outbursts.

They’d taken the additional precaution of chaining her to a bench for the remainder of her stay. She wrinkled her nose. They’d been thoughtful enough to leave a clay pot under the bench for her to relieve herself, which she’d used to baptize the bailiff who’d gotten a little too familiar when he’d come to collect her for her hearing. He hadn’t had time to change and smelled like he’d slithered from the sewers. Fitting.

A grin tugged at the corner of her mouth.

Do you find something humorous about this trial, Sergeant Devoe?

"All kinds of shit. Sir. Why the formality? You can just address me as Trouble. I’m no longer in your military. Am I or am I not accused of desertion?"

Silence. The judge slammed his gavel down. The prisoner will hold her tongue until asked to do otherwise.

Well you asked, but I say no, I just don’t feel…. Hundreds of volts slammed into her from the center of the iron girdle where tiny needles stuck into her midsection. She dropped to her knees on the stone floor, the pain stealing her wind and any further words she wished to utter. She sucked in a breath and lifted her face to her accusers. She’d be damned if she gave them the satisfaction of defeating her, so she smiled, beaming as though she’d received a gift.

Seconds later, the bailiff hauled her to her feet. He also managed to grab one of her breasts as he manhandled her to face the judge again. Most definitely intentional, and if her feet weren’t cuffed, he’d have to pack his balls on ice after he untangled them from his brains, where she’d gladly send them. Wait, they were already there.

Get your paws off me, she growled between clenched teeth and twisted her upper body, attempting to break the bailiff’s grip.

The metal pins dug in, the sharp spikes gouging her flesh when she moved. Trouble focused on slowing her breathing, controlling any reaction that might reward her captor. No whimpers, groans, or flinching. When she twisted to glare at him, he winked and blew her a kiss. Nobody noticed, of course, and if they had, they’d elected not to take action. Assholes.

Enough.

The bailiff let go, and she snapped her teeth at him, sending him a step back and out of her space. Something warm trickled down her sides, most likely blood from the spikes, but she didn’t care.

She returned her attention to her accusers. Let’s get this over with. Slap her hand, throw her in lockup for a couple of months, and put her back on the front line. No matter her crime, they always let her off easy. This would be no different.

Her adopted father, a fleet admiral now, had clout and never let her suffer long—regardless of their verdict. Besides, the League needed her for recon on the Odroxian planet. Anyone else would stand out. They were putting on a big show, and everyone knew it. Nobody would toss the base commander’s daughter in jail—adopted or not.

Sergeant Devoe, the judge advocate continued, you have been accused of abandoning your military post, grand theft of a star-cruiser, armed robbery, the unlawful release of indentured servants, theft of a valuable animal, and assaulting your commanding officer with a…what? The judge narrowed his eyes and squinted at the holo-screen on his desk. He motioned to the officer on his right to come closer.

The man leaned over, and the judge pointed at the screen.

The officer lifted his chin and made eye contact with Trouble. A smirk sat on his face, plain to everyone but the judge. Poodle, sir.

Poodle?

Small, fluffy canine from Earth. Supposed to be hypoallergenic….

I know what a poodle is. The judge cleared his throat. And assault with a poodle, he said in a most grave tone.

The courtroom burst into laughter.

Order. The judge beat his desk with his gavel, certain to pulverize the wooden hammer if he continued. Just as she thought it would splinter, the room went silent. How plead you to these charges, Sergeant Devoe?

They had to be kidding? How did she plead? She’d been forced to join the League and decided she’d had enough when they’d insisted she open fire on a crowd of her own people—diggers, who’d refused to leave their mining colony on a small moon outside Trios Port. They were only trying to defend their freedom from League tyranny and hold their claim. The League had drawn the line—she’d stepped across it. A no-brainer. Guilty, of declining to commit humanoid rights violations. Guilty, for giving a shit if innocent people died. Guilty, for fighting tyrants who deserved a rebellion and a whole lot of chaos. Guilty, for setting sex slaves free.

It seemed the only thing they couldn’t charge her with was not being resourceful. Trouble fought the smile creeping onto her face, unable to stop the smirk that emerged. She’d ripped the nasty little ankle-biter from the old bitch’s arms and thrown her in the captain’s arms. Pookie didn’t like men and had taken a chunk from his face when he’d caught her. The poodle had survived the encounter without injury, but Captain Terrance Walters…. Trouble glanced in his direction.

His stare and the hard line his mouth had settled into promised retribution. A jagged injury, recently fused shut, covered his left cheek. Yeah, he had a reason to be angry, and she couldn’t blame him. He’d only been doing his duty and hadn’t deserved what she’d done, but she hadn’t wanted to go back, and he’d seemed to think otherwise. He worked for the enemy.

At least the distraction had helped her to get away. Besides, she’d done him a favor. The scar would look dashing on his otherwise plain countenance. Women would love it.

Of course she wasn’t completely without heart. Not wanting the poodle to catch the brunt of the captain’s fury, she’d grabbed the little dog from the floor of the bordello and run, adding theft of the poodle to the long list of charges. If it hadn’t been for the bio-tag inside the dog, they would’ve never caught her. If only she’d known.

How. Do. You. Plead? We don’t have all day, Sergeant.

Fine. Whatever. Time to get this sideshow over with. Guilty.

They’d captured her entire crime spree in full digital glory. When she’d flown back to base to face charges for refusing to obey an order, she’d decided to go into Trios Port instead of reporting to her CO and had ducked into one of the seedier brothels to hide when she’d been spotted by people from her unit. No use in denying what they had evidence to prove without a doubt. Yes, she’d abandoned her military post. Yes, she’d thrown the poodle, and then scooped the canine up to take with her. Yes, she’d taken the ship without authorization and given a few unfortunate women a ride off the planet, but she’d returned it, abandoning it outside a military outpost in sector three, near Odroxian space, so technically she’d borrowed it. Yes, she’d robbed the bank. The women were hungry and needed a fresh start, and she’d had to find some funds to catch a ride out of Trios to Odroxia. At least she hadn’t killed anyone—especially one of her own.

Freeing the prostitutes had been a spontaneous decision, one she’d been certain would make it more difficult to track her flight from the cathouse. Multiple woman running in every direction—what wasn’t to love? And it