Noxx (Alien Adoption Agency #1) - Tasha Black Page 0,1

thousand or more languages, but context was important.

Was she about to get a bath?

Or a hysterectomy?

There was no point asking now. Whatever she had to do, Luna was already all-in.

Her whole family was gone. This baby would be the world to her, and she would do anything to have him in her arms.

In spite of the frightening flight and the alarming announcement, she felt her heart melt and leap at the same time at the thought of the little one who would soon be hers.

I’m going to have a family again.

They would be a very small family, but it was more than Luna had dared to dream of in the lonely years she had spent trying to find work in a universe that seemed determined to overlook her.

Adopting this child came with a built-in home and the means to support herself. Luna felt as if she had won the sector lotto when she was told her application was accepted. She’d wandered in a kind of haze for days, unable to believe her luck.

Her seat suddenly seemed to drop out from under her, jerking her out of her thoughts.

Phoebe let out a startled shriek, and Aurora wrapped a comforting arm around the blonde’s shoulder.

Luna closed her eyes again and tried to remember the Traveler’s Prayer. But gravity returned with a concussing thud as the craft hit the ground and slid.

The view of blue and green blurred past out the window.

The inertial arrestors screeched and the whole ship shuddered so that Luna was afraid it might be torn apart.

Finally, they came to a whiplash halt.

“Please remain seated until your escorts arrive,” the captain said.

Luna was pretty sure she wouldn’t have been able to stand up quickly, even if she wanted to.

“You okay?” Aurora asked her.

Luna nodded.

“How about you, Phoebe?” Aurora asked softly.

“What did they mean by sterilization?” Phoebe asked, burying her face in her hands.

“Probably just a bath,” Aurora said quickly. “So they can be sure we aren’t bringing in any off-world pathogens.”

Luna’s eyes widened.

Aurora only shrugged at her.

“Two people can’t run a farm,” Phoebe said, lowering her hands. “I’ll have to start a tribe if I really want to work the land.”

“I don’t know,” Luna said. “Did you see how lush it is here? There’s so much water.”

She didn’t bother to mention that a barely inhabited frontier moon was hardly a place to meet a nice man and start a big family.

There was a snap and a hiss as the hatch opened to reveal the inside of a white medical tent.

The sterilization crew must have put it up around the hatch while they waited.

“Please exit one at a time,” the captain said.

Phoebe clung to Aurora, so Luna unstrapped and headed out into the tent first.

Two men in bio-suits stood in front of her holding what looked like crop-sprayers.

One of them pointed to a small table that held three masks. She picked one up. It was soft, like silicone, with no strings or elastic to hold it in place. One of the men impatiently indicated that she should put it to her face.

She lifted it up and it instantly suctioned to her face, sealing off her eyes, nose, and mouth.

Panicked, Luna tried to pull it off, but it wouldn’t budge.

She couldn’t breathe. Did these alien men know she needed her mouth and nose to breathe?

Her heart thundered in terror.

Then the first man began to spray her.

The caustic gas stung her skin and she was suddenly grateful that her face was protected. The second man was spraying her from behind.

Luna shivered as her lungs screamed for air.

The spraying stopped and there was a whoosh and a rush of air like a mini-tornado. Then gloves touched her face and the mask fell away.

Luna gasped in a breath.

One of the men spoke, it was a deep, groaning language.

“Be still,” her chip said.

As the first man held her face, the other approached with a dropper.

“Eyes open,” the chip announced.

She braced herself as they slowly applied icy cold drops into her eyes and nose.

“Mouth open,” the chip added.

She opened her mouth and a device was inserted.

A buttery mist coated her teeth and tongue.

“Finished,” the chip said. “Bring luck on Clotho.”

One of the men pointed to a flap in the tent.

Luna exited in a daze. Everything was still a little blurry after those eye drops, but the world was slowly coming into view.

She stood on the grassy surface of a meadow overlooking all of Clotho. There really was a massive water source below them. And on the crest