A woman who lives as an oasis of calm meets a fighter who enjoys waking her senses and shaking her composure.

Jewel’s ability to broadcast calm made her no fun at parties but perfect for a life in peacekeeping. She Volunteers and goes to the Nyal Imperium for duty as the forerunner of the peacekeeping force on a mining colony.

Taken by an unmanned ship, Jewel finds herself on an arena station, cruising through space. The medics use her skills for calm to keep a patient calm who cannot be sedated, and when their eyes meet across the crowded med bay, she finds herself pulled into a state of confusion. She has finally met a man who shakes her calm, and his slow smile says that he knows it.

Excerpt:

She joined the others on the launch deck of the peacekeeper headquarters. The crew met her and nodded as they armed their weapons.

Commander Teffrin addressed them. “We have an unauthorized landing craft that doesn’t answer to hails. We need you to go and investigate the craft, restraining any occupants and bringing them here.”

Jewel slid her shock sticks into the holsters on her thighs. She settled onto her riot runner and checked for the coordinates. The rest of the team finished gearing up and when they took off, so did she.

The line of riot runners ejected from the launch bay with the door grinding shut behind them. Fourteen officers flew out of the base at her side, and Jewel followed the cloudy streak from the sky to the clumsily landed ship.

She took in the details and noted something very odd. “Team, has anyone else noticed that that was a highly controlled landing?”

Peacekeeper Wehn agreed. “It looks like they deliberately made it into a skid. Why would a ship do that?”

They were coming in too fast to stop at a safe distance. Jewel said, “Suggesting overshoot and approach from the other side.”

“Negative. Land and we will make the best of it.”

Jewel made a face and pulled back, dropping to the ground as far from the ship as she could. With her riot runner safely disengaged, she walked toward the rest of her team.

“Springs, take the lead.”

She nodded. It was standard procedure to send her first. She usually calmed whatever was going on.

As she made her way toward the ship, she kept her stun sticks in their holsters. The cargo seal of the ship opened and a platform extended. Jewel saw the figures moving toward her down the ramp, and she stepped back.

“Bots!”

She pulled out her shock sticks and flicked them to full charge.

The other peacekeepers trooped up behind her, but the bots moved beyond biological speed.

Jewel felt that she was being tested as she struck and knocked over bot after bot. The bots were conversing with each other at rapid speed, and when they all chirped, a gas cloud enveloped Jewel and the peacekeepers nearest her. She heard the others falling but had no idea how many were down.

Everything got bright and then went dark and cold.