Forbidden Planet Read online

  Forbidden Planet

  Rinelle Grey

  © 2013 by Rinelle Grey

  Previously published as Reckless Rescue

  www.rinellegrey.com

  All rights reserved.

  Cover design by

  Table of Contents

  Blurb

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  About the Author

  Blurb

  He needs a miracle.

  When Captain Tyris Bekkert crash lands on a planet that’s been deleted from the star charts, he’s sure he’s doomed. What he doesn’t expect is to find a village. The residents seem strangely reluctant to help him escape. All except Marlee.

  She needs a partner.

  For Marlee, trapped on a dying planet, Tyris’s spaceship is a lifeline--an opportunity to change her future. She agrees to help him repair the ship, if he’ll pretend to be her partner to appease the village council, who are obsessed with securing the next generation.

  As winter closes in and they’re cut off from their only means of escape, their pretence is tested to the limits, likewise Marlee’s own resolve. The handsome space captain is everything she’s always wanted.

  But what’s the point of letting yourself fall in love when you know it can’t last?

  Forbidden Planet is the first book in the Worlds Apart series. This series is currently complete. Each book can stand alone, but the series is best read in the following order:

  Forbidden Planet

  Regulated Planet

  Forsaken Planet

  Stranded in Space

  The first three books can also be purchased as together in the Worlds Apart Box Set.

  Do you want some Exclusive Extras?

  Visit my webpage at http://www.rinellegrey.com to sign up to my mailing list and gain exclusive access to novel extras like character bio’s, FAQ and deleted scenes, including the original prologue on Semala before the meteor hit.

  Chapter 1

  The phone buzzed on the bedside table. Tyris sat bolt upright, his heart racing. He took a few deep breaths before reaching for it, his hand shaking. Forcing his eyes to focus, he stared at the message on the screen.

  “Appreciate the help, Tyris. Hope you enjoy these tickets to the show next weekend as thanks.”

  Relief swamped him. It wasn’t signed, but he knew who it was from. Not the message he’d been dreading. That wouldn’t come by message anyway.

  Once his heart slowed, a tingle of anticipation ran down his spine.

  He’d got them.

  The bed was empty beside him, so Tyris smiled and lay back on the pillows, resting the phone on his knees. An image of the screen projected above it and he swiped his fingers across it several times, checking for the best space fares. It wasn’t easy to find a good deal from Urslat to anywhere else in the galaxy these days, what with the scarcity of anysogen, but price was no object. He couldn’t wait to be far away from here, where messages couldn’t reach him—where he could ignore the niggling worry that something was wrong, at least for a while.

  Instead he focused on the fact that he’d finally done it. He had the perfect way to top the anniversary gift Milandra had given him last year. A slow smile curved his lips as he remembered last year. He’d been so disappointed that he couldn’t make the shuttle races on Milat, but his leave application had been denied. He didn’t know Milandra had already arranged with General Harrington for him to have the time off, and had already bought the tickets in advance. Sometimes, being married to a general’s daughter had its advantages.

  He hadn’t even minded that they’d spent five of the seven days shopping. The race had been amazing. Hard to top. But he’d done it. Exclusive, invitation only tickets to a show by her favourite designer on the faraway moon of Pilar. He didn’t understand what was so wonderful about making new clothes out of old ones from three decades ago, but that didn’t matter. Milandra loved the stuff. Luckily, the designer’s assistant owed him a favour.

  Tickets booked, he set the phone on the nightstand, jumped out of bed, and went looking for his wife.

  He found Milandra in the kitchen staring into the freezer. The picture she presented, bending over, white silk dressing gown lifting to show most of her thighs, made him smile. He crossed the room and kissed the back of her neck as she stood up, sliding his arms around her waist. “Good morning,” he said huskily.

  Milandra laughed and twisted in his arms to return his kiss. “Good morning to you, too.” She wriggled out of his arms and poured herself a glass of orange juice. “There’s a letter for you.”

  Her off hand words sent a chill down Tyris’s spine. “There is?” His voice sounded faint, even to his own ears.

  Milandra nodded towards the kitchen bench where she’d thrown the mail, then started buttering her toast.

  Tyris stared at the mail from across the room. The pile contained mostly junk, but hidden under the stack was an official-looking letter with a government seal.

  He’d been dreading this moment for three days, since the announcement of the government’s radical new plan to combat the chronic overpopulation.

  It wasn’t the first time the Colonies had faced this problem. Thirty years ago, before the discovery of anysogen, when they were limited to the half a dozen planets they could reach via slow shuttles, they’d tried to limit population growth by suggesting that people stop having so many children. They paid scientists to draw up frightening graphs of how quickly food would run out.

  It hadn’t worked.

  Just as they’d begun tossing around ideas for more serious controls, anysogen and faster than light travel had been discovered. This opened up an enormous number of new planets, and in the rush to populate them, the government had encouraged people to have more children. Their population boom had rivalled their expansion.

  Until they realised the anysogen was running out. Then they were back to square one.

  Worse off really, because almost all of the farming had been moved off Urslat onto distant farming planets. No one knew how they would feed the billions of people who called the central planet home when they ran out of anysogen.

  Already, the climbing food prices and overcrowding caused more and more crime problems every day. Milandra had laughed when the government announced that anyone with a criminal record would be denied the choice to have children. It solved all the issues so neatly—reducing the population by targeting the most troublesome areas.

  Tyris had been unable to join in her mirth. Even though he recognised the neatness of the solution, a sudden fear had clutched at his heart.

  Milandra took a mouthful of orange juice and slid a meal into the microwave. The click of the door closing made him jump.

  “Are you going to open it?” She nodded to the letter. Then she stopped and looked more closely at his face. “Is everything okay? You look pale.”

  He didn’t trust his voice, just nodded. Trying to act normal, he took a deep breath, and crossed the room.

  Milandra leaned back on the bench, tossing her blonde curls over her shoulder. The bel
t on her silk dressing gown slid open, revealing the lacy negligee that showed off her slim figure to perfection. Moments ago, that sight would’ve stirred his desire, but now it barely registered.

  He slid his finger under the flap of the envelope, pulled out the folded paper and scanned its contents.

  “What is it?” Milandra asked. “Are you being deployed again? Hopefully not to one of the outer planets. Last time you came back from there I swear it took a week of showers before all the dirt washed away.” She wrinkled her nose.

  If only this letter contained something as mundane as deployment orders. The words blurred in front of his eyes. He skimmed through them, even though he already knew what they would say—

  “Report to your doctor at 3:15 this afternoon for insertion of a contraceptive chip. Damage or removal of this chip will constitute a federal offence, and may be subject to penalties up to and including incarceration.”

  This couldn’t be happening. Not to him. He hadn’t killed or hurt anyone. He’d been trying to do what was right. And where had it gotten him? He wiped one hand on his pants, but it still felt damp. The letter slipped from his fingers and fluttered to the floor.

  Milandra put down her orange juice and picked up the letter. “There must be a mistake,” she said, scanning the document. “You don’t have a criminal record. I’ll talk to Daddy and get this fixed.”

  “It’s not a mistake.” His voice echoed hollowly.

  “What?” Milandra’s eyes widened and her hand fluttered to her chest.

  “I participated in a protest in college, remember? I told you.” Tyris closed his eyes briefly. It was so long ago, why couldn’t it stay in the past?

  “You went to a protest? Are you insane?” Milandra stared at him as though she’d never heard the story before. “Why would you do something like that? What could possibly be important enough for you to risk everything?”

  “They withdrew the pensions for those who fought in the Off World Wars.” A flicker of anger stirred in his belly at the thought, but he squashed it. He couldn’t afford those feelings—they’d already cost him too much.

  “You took part in a protest for that?” Milandra’s voice rose a notch, and Tyris winced. “Do you have any idea what this could mean for us? For me?” She covered her face with her hand. “What will Daddy say? What will the papers say? How could you be so thoughtless, Tyris? Why would you do something so pointless? That’s what we have a Justice Department for! They appealed the decision and reinstated the pensions.”

  Because we protested. But he didn’t dare say the words aloud. “They shouldn’t have done it in the first place,” he mumbled. “Those people fought under government orders. They earned those pensions.”

  “What do you care? Because of your Uncle Max? He didn’t even need a pension. He had more than enough money of his own.” Milandra shook her head in disbelief, her mouth a thin, angry line.

  How could he explain to her? Explain that while his Uncle Max had never wanted for money, the war had broken him. The guilt, the nightmares, the constant drinking to dull the pain. So many people had come back from that war damaged forever. They would never be able to work again. And without those pensions, children would go hungry, families would be homeless.

  He’d already paid dearly for his part in the protests. Ten years ago it had nearly cost him his position in the Space Force. Now it was going to cost him again. But he wouldn’t have been able to live with himself if he hadn’t spoken up.

  Had he made any real difference? He hadn’t been the only protestor. The outcome probably would have been the same without his presence.

  He let out a deep sigh. “I don’t know.”

  Milandra stared at him. “You don’t know? What kind of answer is that?”

  “Look, does it really matter? You didn’t want kids anyway. Last time we talked about it you said that you liked our life the way it was. Just us.”

  Milandra had always been the one to say that they weren’t having children. Building her career took all her time. What was left, she wanted to enjoy. He’d accepted her answer, even though he’d always hoped she would change her mind.

  Milandra’s eyes were cold. “Does it matter? How can you even ask that? Everyone is going to know. I won’t be able to look my friends in the eyes anymore.”

  Tyris shrugged, the movement stiff. “So what? So people will know we’re never going to have kids. It’s not like they couldn’t guess that anyway.”

  “They’ll know you have a criminal record,” Milandra said flatly. “This will destroy everything I’ve dreamed of since I was a little girl. I’ve worked so hard to get where I am, and this could bring it all tumbling down in an instant. Can’t you see that?”

  Milandra’s nose tilted up, the way it always did when she talked about her TV show. As though it made her a star.

  “Come on, Landy, it was just a little protest, for a good cause even. It’s not like I murdered someone.”

  Milandra didn’t even seem to hear him. “We’ve been married for three years, God, four years next week. How could you keep this from me?”

  “I didn’t keep it from you. I tried to tell you about it the night I asked you to marry me, don’t you remember?”

  Her nose wrinkled. Then realisation dawned. “You were droning on about the Off World Wars and stuff you regretted. I thought you meant something you’d done in the Space Force. It’s normal for officers to have to follow or give orders they disagree with. I know Daddy has a few he won’t talk about. You didn’t mention a protest or, more importantly, that you’d been arrested. That’s the bit that’s a problem.”

  “You interrupted me before I could get that far! You said that nothing I could do would stop you loving me. Guess I was naive enough to believe it. And to think that after nearly four years together, something like this wouldn’t be a big deal. It doesn’t change who I am or how we feel about each other. It’s not really going to change anything in our lives.”

  “Maybe not in your life. But when this comes out, it could ruin mine.”

  “Celebrities have scandals all the time,” Tyris said. “It’ll blow over. Besides, you always said that any publicity, even bad publicity, would still bring in new viewers. You can use this, can’t you? Make a point of it. There are a lot of people out there who will be angry at this decision. Work with it.”

  Milandra shook her head. “My viewers support the new laws. They aren’t the sort to be dealing with this issue themselves and they don’t want to be sympathetic to criminals.”

  Her words cut. “So I’m a criminal now?”

  “What do you think Tyris? You’re forbidden to have kids. You’re going to have a contraceptive chip implanted, whether you like it or not. This sort of thing just doesn’t happen to people like me!”

  “It’s not happening to you. It’s happening to me.” Anger bubbled in Tyris until he lost his usual sense of self control, releasing the pent up feelings he’d been suppressing for years. “Can’t you stop thinking about yourself for one second and realise that I’m hurting here too?”

  Milandra stared at him. “You’re hurting? You should have thought about that before you went to a protest.”

  “I should have known you wouldn’t understand.” Tyris’s shoulders slumped. Suddenly he was very, very tired. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s just forget about it, okay?”

  Milandra stared at him. “I can’t forget about it. This changes everything.”

  The complete lack of emotion in her voice scared him and spurred him to action. “Look, I’m sorry Landy. I should never have gone to that protest in the first place. I know that now. I can’t go back and change the past, but we can work this out. Can’t we?” He reached for her hands, but she backed away, shaking her head. The fear growing in the pit of his stomach intensified.

  “I... I can’t right now, Tyris.” She shook her head again.

  This couldn’t be happening. He searched for the right words, the ones that would fix this.


  “Daddy will have a fit,” Milandra said quietly to herself. “But he’ll get over it. I can stay there for a while until I decide…”

  This sounded serious. Milandra didn’t make plans. She blew up, let off steam, and stormed out. Then when she calmed down, they worked things out.

  Or they always had before.

  “Landy, are you leaving me?” He hated the way his voice sounded.

  She didn’t even flinch. “I don’t have any other option, Tyris. I’m not giving up everything I ever worked for.”

  Tyris licked his lips. His mouth felt like sawdust.

  Milandra tied the belt around her dressing gown and grabbed her purse. “I’m never going to forget you, Tyris.” Her voice wavered and he wondered if she was about to cry. Before he could reach for her, she whirled around and ran out of their apartment.

  Tyris stared after her, flinching when the door slammed.

  He took a step towards the door. He wanted to go after her, to try to make her see reason, but he stopped himself. She wasn’t even dressed. She’d be back. Hopefully she’d be a bit calmer. Maybe they could discuss this then. They could sort it out—they had been married for four years.

  It couldn’t be over that quickly.

  He paced the room, anxiety crawling along his veins, making every part of his body restless. He couldn’t imagine life without Milandra. There had to be some way to win her back…

  Life had always just fallen into place for him. His parents paid for a good school and he’d achieved high marks with little effort. Since childhood, he’d dreamed of being a pilot and of flying a spaceship. The only thing that had ever gotten in his way had been that stupid protest. Fortunately, General Kendal, a friend of his Uncle Max, pushed for the board to accept his application despite his record.

  He’d met Milandra in his first year in the Space Force, when she’d been visiting her father. Their romance had been one of those whirlwinds everyone talked about, sweeping him up in its inescapable vortex. She’d been everything he hoped for in a wife. So free and vibrant, so focused on what she wanted to achieve in life. They’d had so much in common.