Caress of the Stars

By Viola Grace

Huana Marsh was ready and eager for an assignment off world as a seeker for the star Dekkar. Imbued with his power, she sets off to find the lost world of H’skar, origin world of the Hashka. Yaedo, the security officer for the temple is her chaperone and bodyguard and after a few days in his company, Huana knows why. Dekkar has selected her perfect mate and has locked him in a shuttlecraft with her. Since her body is demanding the attentions of its mate, their assignment is going to get a lot more complicated before it simplifies.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eXtasy Books Inc
• Release date: Feb 9, 2012
• ISBN: 9781554879403

Viola Grace

Viola Grace (aka Zenina Masters) is a Canadian sci-fi/paranormal romance writer with ambitions to keep writing for the rest of her life. She specializes in short stories because the thrill of discovery, of all those firsts, is what keeps her writing.An artist who enjoys a story that catches you up, whirls you around and sets you down with a smile on your face is all she endeavours to be. She prefers to leave the drama to those who are better suited to it, she always goes for the cheap laugh.

Book preview

Huana Marsh was ready and eager for an assignment off world as a seeker for the star Dekkar. Imbued with his power, she sets off to find the lost world of H’skar, origin world of the Hashka. Yaedo, the security officer for the temple is her chaperone and bodyguard and after a few days in his company, Huana knows why. Dekkar has selected her perfect mate and has locked him in a shuttlecraft with her. Since her body is demanding the attentions of its mate, their assignment is going to get a lot more complicated before it simplifies.

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Caress of the Stars

Copyright © 2011 Viola Grace

ISBN: 978-1-55487-940-3

Cover art by Martine Jardin

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

Published by Devine Destinies

An imprint of eXtasy Books

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Smashwords Edition

Caress of the Stars

A Hashka Chronicle

By

Viola Grace

Prologue

The darkness of space had been filled with searching minds.

Having left their bodies behind, the minds of the newly evolved race experienced everything by watching the races that their group consciousness drifted past, millions of minds acted as one. For thousands of years, they watched species grow and flourish, simply remaining in their invisible cloud until a growing dissent appeared in their midst.

Three thousand of the gathered minds were tired of their aimless existence and wished to take a more active role in the lives of the species around them. An unseen civil war took place and two thousand five hundred minds separated from their energy mass, taking up residence in a quiet star system.

Now that they were alone, they had time to plan for what they wanted in a species to call their own.

The stars planned out a sturdy race, blue skin that was sensitive to the touch but difficult to pierce. They could survive on any of the occupied worlds without requiring life support, their lungs able to process a number of gasses into a usable form.

The minds of the species was a matter for some debate and finally, they came upon the idea of creating a lobe in the brains that would allow the stars to visit any of their people at any time.

One of the females brought up the problem that while they had designed an intelligent and worthy people, there was no guarantee that they would not die out in less than a generation, so they needed to work in an incentive to mate.

They discussed the remembered senses that they used to have and it was in agreement that they would create signals that the males and females could not ignore. The females would go into heat and receptive males would scent it. To let the female know she had found a good match, the voice of an appropriate male would intensify her heat.

With their list of what they did and did not want in a species, they now needed to craft it. Their thoughts and attentions turned in two directions. One group sought technologically advanced species who would be able to create the race. The others sought a race of sufficient population that a few thousand folk plucked at random would not be noticed.

A human colony abandoned in a dead sector contained a population that was trapped and slowly dying, using up their supplies as time passed, fit the bill for building blocks of their ideal race.

When the techs were located and in transit, the stars used their energy to put the people of H’skar in stasis. The researchers went to work immediately. If they delivered the transformed creatures, they would be allowed to live.

It took two years to get a working example of a successful design, but once the prime Hashka had been created, the rest were transformed in a matter of months.

With their minds blanked and their bodies remade, the Hashka race began to thrive.

The stars guided them, nurtured them and occasionally used their bodies to remember what the feeling of touch was. The stars were delighted when it was apparent that they could build their power from the energy expended when their new creations either fought or mated.

The planet of H’skar bloomed. The star named Dekkar poured all of his power into keeping it a living place. He watched over the primes and their children, keeping the temperature of the surface at the most pleasing for the precious new ones who appeared with every generation.

When the other Hashka began to leave for other worlds to colonize, Dekkar asked a few of his chosen families to return once they had seen the star systems. They agreed and as they took to other planets, they remembered their promise to return to the world they had called home.

While he would become the patron of three other planets, he would always remember the first world that he touched and the people he nurtured from their pale pink origins.

Imagine Dekkar’s surprise when H’skar disappeared. It was five hundred years before he found the right Hashka to help his beloved find it again.

Chapter One

Huana Marsh looked up from her research and blinked at the contingent of priests in her office. May I help you?

Seeker Marsh? The male at the front of the contingent bowed low. You are requested at the temple.

She stared at the men in surprise. You have to be kidding. I am not exactly your type.

Usually, the priests only came searching for women who were unmatched and about to go into heat. Huana had at least six months to go before she went into her first heat and she was far from a stunning beauty.

They blushed at her honest assessment.