CAPTAIN SANTIAGO AND THE SKY DOME WAITRESS By Tracy Cooper-Posey

Interspace Origins Story 4.1

Science Fiction Romance Novel

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He thought he buried his past—until she walked back into his life, wearing the face of the woman who destroyed him.

Captain Elijah Santiago is one of the most successful fleet merchants in the known worlds. Rumors claim that even though he is human, he is more machine-like than any Varkan.  With iron discipline, he powers through his lucrative days with a complete lack of emotions.

Lucie is a newly minted Varkan, formerly a city-mind, but now with a human body.  She finds her new physical world challenging, sometimes frightening, and always emotionally draining. 

When Santiago spots the diminutive dark-haired woman on his ship, old wounds are opened, for Lucie has the appearance of a woman that tore Santiago’s life apart; Blake.  The exact appearance; for Blake donated her DNA to the public pool for Varkans to use, and Lucie literally has Blake’s cloned body.  Santiago must avoid Lucie, or risk ripping open his heart once more.

Only, Lucie has taken a waitressing job at Santiago’s favourite sky dome restaurant….

This book is part of the Interspace Origins series:
1.0: Faring Soul
2.0: Varkan Rise
3.0: Cat and Company
3.5: Interspace Origins (Series boxed set)
4.1: Captain Santiago and the Sky Dome Waitress

A Science Fiction Romance Novel.

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The series Special Bundle
Tracy Cooper-Posey’s Super-Bundle

{Also see: Romance, Science Fiction Romance, Novels}

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Excerpt

EXCERPT FROM CAPTAIN SANTIAGO AND THE SKY DOME WAITRESS
COPYRIGHT © TRACY COOPER-POSEY 2024
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The ship shivered beneath her feet. Lucie felt what seemed to be a wave of cold air wash over her. It made her blink, and her thoughts to stutter, just for a second.

Then she was aware once more of the seat beneath her and the kicking heel of the child next to her. Of soft conversations around the room. A man yawned and went back to his reading.

That was the jump?

They had really crossed 1,200 light years…and just shivered?

A jump of that magnitude really should be announced. Received with more fanfare than a yawn.

The ship moved sideways. It felt sideways to Lucie for her row of chairs ran parallel to the spine of the ship. The ship was really moving forward.

Oh, how she wished there was a window! Or even a screen showing the view beyond the fuselage. Something to show her what hung in front of the ship’s nose.

The surge halted but Lucie could tell from the subtle vibrations through her feet that the engines were still working to push the ship through space at an even speed.

Then, the ship settled, dropping a few meters, and came to a halt.

Instantly, everyone got to their feet and retrieved packs and luggage. The mother rose and pulled her children in around her and shepherded them toward the wide door they’d entered through.

So did everyone else.

They’d arrived at Charlton City.

Lucie remained in her seat, staring at the shuffling wave of humans and Varkans pushing toward the door, which was now opening. She saw bright lights beyond the door. Heard the clank of machinery, hissing steam vents, and the ticking of cooling metal. And voices. Shouts and directions. The clang of tools.

It was so prosaic that Lucie had to sit a moment more while she adjusted to the simplicity of it. The ordinariness.

She got to her feet and pulled her pack from under the seat and shouldered it. Then, reluctantly, she joined the end of the thick line of people moving off the ship.

As she climbed down the ramp, she looked around. Never mind trying to look like she did this every day. This was Charlton City! If there was a home world for Varkans, Charlton City was it.

Charlton was a sprawling city hanging in space over a planet no one could ever remember the name of. It was the city where Varkans had first come together in large numbers, and from where they had saved human civilization from the Periglus—the freaky, noncommunicative giant aliens who had taken over both the Soward system and the Sunita system, forcing millions of humans and Varkans to give up their homes and evacuate.

So far, thanks to the Varkans, the Periglus had not harmed a single person. Instead, the aliens and the rest of the known worlds stood apart and incommunicado.

Lucie didn’t realize she was holding her breath as she looked around the landing bay, while also trying to stay within the safety lane painted on the floor, and at the same time, trying to glimpse the city itself through the large windows running down one side of the bay. The safety lane directed everyone to a small door in the far corner of the landing bay.

“Blake! Blake!” A man bellowed the name behind her. He wasn’t the only one shouting, although the other shouts were from farther away and Lucie couldn’t make out the words.

She tried to peer ahead over shoulders and around bodies to see what lay beyond the door of the landing bay. Once she had her hostel room sorted out for the night, she intended to visit Celestial, the village dome that was supposed to be breathtakingly beautiful. It was also the village where Yennifer Charlton and Connell had lived together for years after they had helped save the city and humans from the Periglus.

Of course, they didn’t live there anymore. That had been nearly two hundred years ago. But it would have been so much fun to actually run into them. To meet them. Maybe even spend a little time in their company and hear their stories about the dawn of the Varkan Age—

A hand gripped her arm and yanked Lucie around to face the other way, almost taking her off her feet. She dropped her pack, as her fingers went instantly numb under the power of the grip on her arm.

“What the hell, Blake? What are you doing here?” a very large man shouted at her.

Lucie stared at him. “Excuse me?”

He took hold of her other arm and gave her a little shake. “You’re alive!” His face worked with a range of emotions that Lucie didn’t have time to analyze. His eyes glittered…were those tears? “Blake…!” His voice was hoarse. His hands squeezed.

Lucie scrambled to understand what was happening. She felt flat-footed and stupid. The man holding her arms was taller than her. Maybe two meters high. But not spindly, not at all. His shoulders were wide and thick. He had muscle and strength, as his grip on her arms told her. His thick brown hair was not cut super-short, but waved back from a high forehead. Thick dark brown brows, and a sharp jaw. His chin had a dimple, and a prickling of whiskers.

Lucie couldn’t remember being this close to anyone since waking as a Varkan. The doctors, of course. Nursing staff. Physiotherapists who had to handle her while they taught her how to walk, how to feed herself and more.

But no one since, except for a child’s kicking foot. And now this man, who felt as though he could easily move her around to any area in the landing bay whether she wanted to go there or not.

This man, who was staring at her, his gaze moving over her face, while…yes, stars, it was grief playing in his eyes, making his features contort.

The moment only stretched for a few heartbeats, but seemed to last forever.

“Oh….!” Lucie whispered, as she put it all together so it made sense.

“Captain Santiago!” someone shouted.

The man’s gaze flickered sideways, then came right back to Lucie. His fingers worked against her flesh. “Blake…” he said again. His throat worked. “You’re actually here… I thought you were dead. Everyone thought you were dead.”

Lucie nodded. Pity mixed with her embarrassment. She was going to have to destroy this man’s hope, the happiness that was building in his eyes. There was nothing for it, but to do it as quickly as possible.

“I’m sorry, Captain,” Lucie said, as gently as she could. “I’m not Blake.” She looked into his eyes, because it was important that he understand this. “I am a Varkan.”

She saw his dawning pleasure die. Puzzlement replaced it. “Varkan,” he repeated, his tone wooden.