Alien Romance: Caged By The Alien: Scifi Alien Abduction Romance (Alien Romance, Alien Invasion Romance, BBW) (Celestial Mates Book 4) Read Free

green on this end. You are cleared for launch. Beginning countdown in..."
    Penny took a deep breath, checking that she was strapped in and her helmet was secure, fussing as last minute nerves fluttered like a cloud of butterflies in her stomach. The countdown dwindled lower as the roar of the engines grew louder and louder in Penny's ears, drowning out everything else.
    She closed her eyes, not sure if she was trembling or the ship was shaking. The count hit zero and several Gs of force hit her in the chest as the rockets kicked on and threw the Oshun and the Hermes into the atmosphere.
    Riding waves of fire they soared six miles straight up. It was a tense ride, Ian and Rivera trading data and orders with ground control in rapid fire as they carefully guided the ship into the sky. Penny, not a critical part of the launch sequence, could do little but watch, fingers crossed that nothing would go wrong.
    And then suddenly, they were in orbit. Penny felt the crushing resistance lift off of her all at once, her auburn hair drifting around her in her helmet as gravity let them go. The ship shuddered as the boosters decupled and floated away from them. Through the view screen, the Hermes was right beside them, doing the same.
    "All good so far," Rivera reported with a relieved sigh, "Just waiting on alignment. Tell me when, Dr. Maurea."
    "Won't be too long," Ian reported, staring down at his console, "Everything is going surprisingly well. I'd say it's safe to turn off the fasten seatbelts sign and move about the cabin."
    "Agreed," Rivera nodded and Penny, excited, followed the others in unbuckling herself from her seat and floating upwards, weightless and graceful. Zero gravity was without a doubt one of the best parts of being an astronaut.
    "Hey Salome," Cho called as she drifted upwards from her seat, "Do you have the files for the new transmission?"
    "I had them transferred to the ship so I could she them to you," Salome confirmed, "I don't know why the keep skipping over you for me. I can tell them a lot they already know about its radiological make up and where it came from, but all they care about these days is what it means, and that's your area."
    "That's what I keep saying," Cho huffed, "They don't take me seriously. No one does."
    "They will after this," Penny reassured the other woman, "You're going down in history books today, whether we succeed or not."
    "Do you want to come look over the files now?" Salome asked, "Since we're waiting on alignment anyway."
    "Absolutely!" Cho agreed, grinning excitedly at the prospect, "Want to come with, Ambassador?"
    Penny shook her head.
    "No, that stuff all looks the same to me," she said, "Once you guys figure out the language, I'll start learning it, but until then it might as well be Greek."
    "Except you actually speak Greek," Salome chuckled. Penny shrugged modestly.
    "I'm going to go get the cryo pods ready," Penny said, drifting towards the hall as Salome pulled up the transmission files on the console, "Give me a shout when we're clear to move."
    The ship was long and wide, tapering at both ends for a shape not unlike some kind of seed. At one rounded end was the bridge. Between was the kitchen, lab, and storage. At the far end was the bunk room. Currently empty, as Penny tapped on the touch pad near the door, five round, person-sized pods slid out of the walls in a configuration not unlike the chairs on the other end of the ship.
    These were where the crew would rest in cryo sleep in between the long, uneventful portions of the trip, waking at scheduled intervals to check on their course, make necessary adjustments and repairs, and stretch their legs. During the portions of the trip where they'd be awake, the pods would slide back into the walls and be replaced by actual beds.
    Penny waited for the pods to slide into place and began checking each one to make sure they were all functioning correctly, prepping them for the first cryo sleep of their journey.
    It was a long