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    Taijiku
    Taijiku
    Taijiku
    Ebook93 pages2 hours

    Taijiku

    By Elizabeth Andre

    3/5

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    About this ebook

    “I love this short story. It's tightly packed with action, romance, setting and tension.”-- Clare O’Beara
    “Intriguing and adventurous.”--Ameliah Faith
    “Cute short story about a juvenile delinquent's adventures in life and love aboard an advanced submarine on a near future Earth. Godzilla fans should check this one out!”-- Heroes and Heartbreakers
    Angela's past is more than a little rocky, and that rocky path has led her to finish up her juvenile detention sentence on the Yemaya, an alien underwater ship devoted to observation and research. Part of its maintenance crew, at the bottom rung of the status ladder, Angela doesn't see much excitement forthcoming.
    But that was before encountering the fearsome Taijiku or meeting her crew mate Stella, leaving Angela with a completely different problem and unable to say which is the greater challenge: giant sea monsters or falling in love.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTulabella Ruby Press
    Release dateDec 27, 2017
    ISBN9781370026180
    Taijiku
    Author

    Elizabeth Andre

    Elizabeth Andre is a lesbian in an interracial same-sex marriage. She lives in the Midwest and loves things that go bump in the night.

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      Book preview

      Taijiku - Elizabeth Andre

      Taijiku

      by

      Elizabeth Andre

      Second edition published by Tulabella Ruby Press/2017

      First edition published by Less Than Three Press/2015

      Copyright 2015 Elizabeth Andre/All Rights Reserved

      Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favorite authorized retailer. Thank you for your support.

      All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is strictly coincidental.

      Click here to sign up for Elizabeth Andre’s email newsletter and never miss a new release, a book sale, a chance for a free story or other important news.

      Other titles by Elizabeth Andre:

      The Curse of the Old Woods

      Tested: Sex, love, and friendship in the shadow of HIV

      The Time Slip Girl

      Learning to Kiss Girls

      Love’s Perfect Vintage

      Lesbian With Dog Seeks Same

      Bodies in Motion

      Right Time For Love

      Landing Love

      Lesbian Light Reads Volumes 1-6 Boxed Set

      The Beauty Queen Called Twice

      Skating on Air

      Someone Like Her

      Roll With Me

      Stop and Go

      Nice Jewish Girls

      Lesbian Light Reads Volumes 7-12 Boxed Set

      Love Most Likely

      Editor: Cassandra Pierce

      Table of Contents

      Taijiku

      The Time Slip Girl/Chapter One

      About Elizabeth Andre

      Connect with Elizabeth Andre

      Other titles by Elizabeth Andre

      Taijiku

      by

      Elizabeth Andre

      Angela Russell pushed her food around her plate with her fork before stabbing at a chunk of beef with more force than she intended.

      It’s already dead, Lionel observed.

      Angela snorted and then deposited the chunk of beef into her mouth and chewed. She’d known when she was assigned to the Yemaya that her responsibilities would be limited. She had been surprised, however, that maintenance didn’t simply mean cleaning toilets as she had feared. A few months after arriving on the Yemaya, Lionel had started teaching her about the engines that powered the underwater ship. Angela had recently begun helping Lionel with minor repairs around the ship, too. Her service on the Yemaya wasn’t anything close to what she thought it would be like. It was far more than cleaning toilets and mopping floors all the time.

      The Yemaya was a third generation ship in the Oceanic Consortium’s fleet. It was developed with both Earth and Irriganthian technologies and first launched the previous year in 2163. Five hundred military and civilian personnel called it home.

      And there were perks. The mess had an observation window that afforded a spectacular view of the aquatic life in which the Yemaya was immersed. Today, Lionel had managed to snag a table for his crew that was right next to the window. The window tables were prime real estate in the mess and even the executive officers scrambled like children for them at meal times. However homesick executive officers, cadets, and crew members from Earth got for land, sitting and gazing for just a few minutes out the observation window in the mess at the dark blue water teeming with life that was indifferent to their presence worked as a balm on that malaise. The other members of Lionel’s crew were still chatting about the announcement at the morning meeting that the Yemaya was to join other waterships in the fleet off the China coast.

      We’ll be too late again. We’ll miss Taijiku! Angela said.

      Angela, you know this isn’t a hunter ship. We are observation and research. We, and I mean that very loosely, support the hunter ships in the missions. You and I and these other goons, Lionel said, gesturing at the other crew members at the table, support the research and observation.

      Yes, we support them by cleaning up after them and covering up for their mistakes, said their resident smart-ass, Etienne.

      Lionel turned a baleful glance on Etienne, who smirked.

      I know you don’t like to hear it, but it’s true, boss, Etienne said.

      Angela’s roommate and potential girlfriend, Stella, giggled and rolled her eyes.

      "Not here," Lionel hissed to Etienne. The tentacles that Lionel, like many Irriganthians, could extend and retract from his cheeks were partially extended. They fluttered in front of his face to show his irritation. At the moment, he resembled a bilious cat without fur.

      Angela glanced around, but it appeared that no one, save one of the officers seated at the next table, had heard Etienne’s outburst. Ensign Castañeda looked over, cocked an eyebrow and smirked at Lionel. The others were more interested in the brilliantly colored schools of fish the Yemaya was passing.

      Stella leaned over and spoke to Lionel in his native language. Angela saw the tentacles begin to recede into Lionel’s cheeks. Stella kept talking and pointed to the sea plants on Lionel’s plate. He let out an Irriganthian laugh, a high-pitched, barking sound, and shared some of the plants with Stella.

      Angela made a face. You like that stuff?

      Stella beamed. Yes. It’s sharp. Mmmm… Invigorating. Good for the blood.

      Angela had been impressed for a while now with Stella’s facility for languages, even Irriganthian, and now she had a grudging admiration for Stella’s apparent fondness for the bitter sea plants that Irriganthians favored.

      Calmer now, Lionel said, "Look, Angela, we have our role here, and we simply must perform it the best we can. I came to Earth hoping only that I would be able to see some of the wonders I had heard and read about. Serving on the Yemaya has been better than I ever could have imagined. You didn’t really think they’d let you be a kaiju killer, did you?"

      Angela sighed and tried to keep her irritation to a minimum. Well, I thought I might at least get to see it, she said.

      Stella touched Angela’s thigh and then moved her hand down to Angela’s knee where she let it rest. Angela did her best to suppress a dreamy smile. Stella’s touch always had a calming effect on her.

      Lionel chuckled. "I can assure you, Angela, that no one on the Yemaya has ever seen a kaiju, least of all Taijiku. I want to finish out 2164 without ever encountering Taijiku. In fact, when support crew like us get assigned to the Yemaya we are relieved because we know we will never see Taijiku or his brethren except in photos and sonar readouts."

      A conviction on a charge of drug possession with intent to distribute had landed Angela in the Youth Detention Center and her eventual assignment to the Yemaya. Lionel had never said it, but she knew he thought that Angela was lucky to be on the Yemaya, that she was lucky not to have been tried as an adult, that she was lucky the warden had taken seriously her interest in her desire for something better, and that she had the good sense to accept the terms of her release to the Yemaya.

      Angela had indeed dreamt of being a kaiju killer as she slept in her cell at the Youth Detention Center, also known as YDC. It was a juvenile jail, really. Her fantasies since she had first seen a news report on TV in the YDC rec room had been about nothing but triumphing over

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