Return to Earth: Mike Stedman: Book 3 Read online

  Return to Earth

  Mike Stedman: Book 3

  Author: D. R. Rosier

  Copyright 2017. This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Epilogue

  Afterword:

  About the Author

  Other erotic fantasies by D. R. Rosier:

  Non-erotic Fantasy titles:

  Book Description

  Chapter One

  The hot sun mixed with the cool breeze felt good against his face. The water was blue and it was a perfect seventy-five degrees out as he and Chrystal laid on the deck of the yacht, which was somewhere in the Caribbean. The soft rocking of the boat was relaxing.

  Of course, the weather was guaranteed to be perfect because they were logged into virtual world. His real body was back in his bed on their ship, the one in space. They were still a few hours away from Miroth, and still in the dark void between galaxies.

  He felt a twinge of uneasiness, as he went over what happened just a week ago. He’d held back, and allowed them to retreat, even after they had attacked him. There was no doubt he’d gotten the best of the confrontation. He’d lost fifty cruisers, and a carrier ship, but no lives. His attackers however had lost six thousand attack fighters, and probably twice as many lives when he’d overloaded the ships shields, and caused a subspace energy explosion.

  He could have attacked the Canosians, perhaps even defeated them though it would have been close. He’d gambled on the idea though, that if he had done that the Canosian people would start a hunt immediately. He hoped that allowing them to pull out, would slow them down. He was sure one day they would meet again, but he hoped that day would be far in the future.

  “What’re you thinking?”

  He smiled when he looked over. He never failed to be deeply affected by her beauty, both inside and out. When she smiled at him, he could easily forget to breathe, not that he needed to, breathe that is. In her latest incarnation with the new destroyer ship they now called home, she hadn’t changed much. She still had honey brown hair, lightly tanned skin, and a body that was more waspish than hourglass. She was sexy, but also cute with a heart shaped face that dimpled when she smiled.

  There were only minor changes, small tweaks. Ones that a human might not even notice. Her eyelashes were a little longer, and her lips were a little fuller than her old ones. She was also a half inch taller. The changes were very subtle.

  She was his lover, his ship, his friend, his advisor, and when he had doubts about his course, she was his conscience. She was the first woman he’d ever loved, and she would be with him until the day one, or both of them, went offline permanently. She was his rock. She was also a bit of a nympho, something he’d never complain about.

  He reached over and grabbed her hand before he answered.

  “Evaluating the past few months, and thinking about how damn lucky I am to have you in my life.”

  Chrystal smiled, “Do you have doubts? I don’t, we did the universe a favor, and safeguarded our own galaxy.”

  He shook his head, “Not exactly doubts, not moral ones anyway. Just about the… execution of what we did. Just wondering if I could have done it better.”

  She nodded, “Hindsight is twenty-twenty, try not to waste too much time on it. We have now, and the future to worry about.”

  He shrugged, “What are you up to?”

  “Mostly more of the same. I’m working on our implant tech, both health nanite and VR, to adapt it to other races like I did for the Miroth. I’ve made some progress with other races, but the Esari isn’t one of them. Damned telepaths. You?”

  She did a lot more than that of course. She was his ship, and did everything a crew would as well. She also watched to make sure he didn’t go around the bend, or… something. It was her hobbies and work in medicine that changed, and they hadn’t spoken about it for a while.

  He replied, “Nothing technical right now. Just… focusing on visiting who we need to visit, and then finally getting around to that exploring we planned to do. Probably because I’m stubbornly wanting that vacation and honeymoon we earned before I even think about what technological limits I want to break next, but now for four of us I guess? Though it seems like Dahlia wants to come along, or maybe stay at Mars after we get there?”

  She snorted in disbelief.

  He peered at her, “What do you know?”

  She shook her head, “You’ll have to hear it from her, if you can’t figure it out yourself.”

  He sighed, “Fine, I guess she told you in confidence, or did you guess?”

  She just shook her head again, refusing to even clarify where she’d gotten the information she couldn’t share, so he changed the subject.

  “I did think of an idea for our world though, a commercial venture. I’m not really interested in doing it myself, but now that our second level subspace access isn’t a secret, Mars could make a lot of inroads in the empire moving things and people around the empire. Same day service etc… Instead of days, or weeks.”

  She replied, “Mars is pretty self-sufficient, and if we run out of resources we have the matter/energy device.”

  He nodded, “I was thinking more along the lines of being a good way to get to know our neighbors, and having them get to know us. Maybe just a passenger service, and special express packages so we don’t run anyone out of business. I don’t know, I’ll run it by the family, let them run with it if they want.”

  “That’s not a bad idea, the other A.I.s will probably love it.”

  The A.I.s on Mars were rather service oriented. Thought that mostly meant toward humans, it would carry over well enough to the other species in the empire. He thought so at least, and apparently Chrystal did as well.

  Chrystal said, “We only have about an hour left before the humanoids wake up.”

  He raised an eyebrow, “And?”

  She glared at him, “And, shut up now and come make love to me.”

  He snorted, “Sometimes I wonder which you love more, me, or my dick.”

  She giggled, “I’ll think about it and let you know, now get over here. You have husbandly duties to see to.”

  He opened his mouth to retort, but before he could speak her clothes just disappeared, and she stretched languorously before him in a seductive manner. It really wasn’t fair, he didn’t have a chance to resist… not that he even wanted to try. Still, even if he’d lost this round, he’d so won. He smiled
, and spent the next hour to sate both his first love, and himself.

  Chapter Two

  “Penny for your thoughts, regrets?” he asked Nadia in a soft voice.

  Unlike Chrystal who was an A.I. and extremely unlikely to change her mind, or even Alyndra who owed him her life under the customs of the Esari, Nadia was human. He didn’t want to take any of his lovers for granted, and he had three of them. But above all Nadia was the one that would keep him on his toes in that way.

  He’d come out of the shower a few minutes earlier, and found Nadia seemingly lost in thought as she sipped her morning coffee. She looked a million miles away. She was truly stunning, even in a simple robe, no makeup, and with her hair a mess. Mess or not, her raven black hair still shone like silk under the soft lighting in the kitchen. Her intelligent and piercing green eyes looked miles away as she took a sip and turned toward him. She had the face of a model, a beauty that never seemed failed to affect him. Her body was voluptuous, her waspish shape apparent even in a loose robe.

  She smiled brightly as her eyes focused on him, and she pointed at the mug.

  “First cup. Still a zombie.”

  He laughed, and took a seat at the table.

  She said, “No regrets. While you were a part of the decision to move on to something else in my professional life, you’re far from the only reason. I love you, but I had other reasons too. I feel like I can have an even greater impact where I am now.”

  He nodded slowly, he didn’t want to appear to be less than confident, but it still worried him. She’d basically left her government service, and went to work for his own father. It was a huge change, and he didn’t want her to regret it, or worse, come to resent him for it. He was an explorer and inventor, or would hopefully be one soon. That kind of thing wasn’t for her at all.

  During the day, she would be in an android body, on another world, and working for his father, and perhaps even feeding occasional tidbits back to Australia, gratis out of loyalty to her country. When she was here with him, that was her off time.

  They’d had a lot of idle time to think lately. After the battle last week, they were busy building the defenses and mines around the Kascorix worlds. Right now, they were still on their forty-one-hour trip back to the Milky Way.

  His second worry was jealousy of course, which so far didn’t seem to be a problem at all. In fact, sometimes he thought she was closer to Alyndra and Chrystal than he was. Still, he couldn’t afford to become lax about his lovers, any of them really, but Nadia drove that home more than the other two.

  He felt like they should go to the bridge, but with the battles over, there really was no reason to. They’d be reaching Miroth in just a few hours in their ship. The other fifty destroyers though, were going straight to Mars and being transferred to the people there. Miroth was an ally, and he had a good professional relationship as well as a friendship with commander Dahlia.

  Still, it wouldn’t be prudent to show up at Miroth with a fifty-one-ship fleet of destroyers. Even if they didn’t take it as a challenge, it would be rude.

  He took a sip of coffee, more out of habit than anything else. Coffee would never do anything for his android body, it was simply a habit, something familiar. He’d never had a human body, but his father had at one time. Like most children, he’d done more than his fair share of imitation of his parents. Coffee was one of those things that stuck. There might not have been a physical dependency, but psychologically, part A.I. with an android body or not, he enjoyed drinking it.

  Nadia said, “I have to log in soon, but I’ll log out at lunch. I want to be there to go down to Miroth.”

  He grinned, “Half day already?” he teased.

  She smirked, “I have an in with my new employer.”

  He laughed, “What’s that exactly?”

  She winked, “I’m practically family. Besides, he hates politics as much as you do, he’d much rather be in his lab engineering something.”

  “True.”

  He looked up when Alyndra walked in. She was Esari, from the planet Selana-Esari, but she appeared to be right out of human myths and legends with her thinner face, long graceful neck, and especially her pointed ears. She looked not quite human, and had an alien type beauty about her that made her striking.

  She was willowy with soft curves and her movements were graceful. Her hair was a white blonde that only existed on Earth in a box of Clairol. She had exotically purple eyes, and high cheekbones. He still found it hard to read her, the Esari were a race of telepaths, which meant they didn’t evolve the body language that humans had. It was impossible to read one by looking at their face, and Alyndra was no different. It made her striking alien beauty look severe, but he knew that wasn’t the reality.

  One thing that was expressive and full of emotion was the tone of her voice, of course that didn’t help that much since she was normally very quiet, unless she had something to say. Over the last few months she tried to express emotions for her companion’s benefit, but it was a little stilted and didn’t look quite right. He thought that was most likely because of the lack of micro-expressions which were automatic, and not something that could be done consciously. As a result of that, she’d stopped doing it as often.

  He did spend most afternoons with her playing chess, or simply talking. He loved her very much, but was cautious in their relationship. She was sworn to him, and committed to doing whatever he asked. That was a lot of power over another person to have a balanced relationship, but he was doing his best and refused to abuse it. She was wearing nothing except the ship suit that hugged every curve, and she was very alluring.

  “Good morning Alyndra.”

  She nodded and went straight to get her own coffee before she sat down.

  “Good morning Mike.”

  He smiled, as her voice had been relaxed and happy sounding despite the glacial beauty of her face. He knew after Miroth they’d be going to Selana-Esari, she was life bonded to him, but now that they had more time he wanted to get to know both her world, and her father, a little better. He also believed visiting may relieve the mind of her father when he saw his daughter was being well treated as she discharged her debt. Last, but not least, he wanted her to have a chance to connect with her old life as well, though he was keeping that to himself.

  It seemed wrong, but he knew she would be more comfortable if she thought he was doing it for his benefit. He wasn’t exactly lying, since it was for his benefit, he just didn’t mention the secondary reasons for visiting her world.

  After that, it would be time to visit his own family, and then maybe he’d finally get to what he wanted to do in the first place, with a short meeting every ten days on Xaran as the only interruption. He wondered though, if it would actually turn out that way, since life and responsibilities had a way of pulling that rug out from under him.

  He looked up again as Dahlia walked into the room. She wasn’t in her armor, just the emergency pressure suit below it. She looked mostly human as well, except her blue eyes were a little bit too blue, and her long golden blonde hair was a little bit too golden to be naturally human. Her face looked very humans as well, just a little too fair to be human skin.

  Her body was in shape, she looked like an athlete, and was neither willowy nor voluptuous, but average in a way that seemed perfect. She was almost four hundred years old, but didn’t look a day older than twenty-five.

  He’d been curious more than once what it might be like to lay with her, but there were reasons that never came about and they stayed as friends. The major reason was that though no other race outside of humans were as caught up in sex, the Mirosians did have their sex drive tied to violence. After each battle, when there was time anyway, they had a celebration. Which was their word for describing an insane orgy between thousands of people.

  Another reason was that… actually, he couldn’t really think of any other reasons. She’d even made it quite clear he was invited to their celebrations. She was attractive, outgoing, and
fun to be around. Still, he didn’t regret it or really even worry about it. She was a good friend, and that was enough. Especially since he already had three lovers, it wasn’t as if he was deprived in any way.

  It wasn’t that he judged her in any way either for her race’s appetites after battle, it was just that what he believed in regards to polyamory and multiple mates meant that sex should be meaningful, and anyone added to his family, or circle, was to be done with respect and love with all involved. That meant no one night stands, much less indiscriminate orgies.

  It was also a little bit of a mystery why she wanted to come along. Apparently, she’d decided to retire a few years early since she’d had her fill of true battle during the short war. She didn’t want to spend the next few years training just to retire, she was done with that part of her life. What wasn’t apparent was her personal reasons for why she wanted to come with them, and so far she’d refused to explain it to him, but she was more than welcome to join them.

  “Morning,” he got out after swallowing the last sip of coffee.

  Dahlia smiled broadly, “Morning Mike, Nadia, Alyndra. Where’s Chrystal?”

  She moved over to get another coffee.

  He shrugged helplessly, “Last I knew she was talking to one of my mothers online. Mia specifically, the doctor in the family. I think they’re colluding on Chrystal’s project to port medical implants for other species like she did for yours.”

  Dahlia nodded when she sat down, “You working on anything?”

  He sighed, “Not specifically, although…”

  He took a minute to organize his thoughts.

  “I’ve been worried about what we did, was it right? We took out the Kascorix, but found another race that might not eat us, but is probably just as bad. I think I’ve decided that’s a good thing?”

  Dahlia asked, “Good thing?”

  He nodded, “The Canosians were always a danger to us, they just haven’t expanded into our galaxy yet. Imagine what would happen if they moved four carriers into our galaxy, and had a hundred thousand fighters, before we even knew they existed. We would have lost, fast. Now that we know about them, we can prepare for when that day comes, and develop weapons and strategies designed to meet their swarming techniques.”