“Poison, one of the few things capable of killing a Badari. The Director distilled this in her early years here at the Retreat. She always hated the fact we were bred to be immune to so many things. Said it was against nature and unfair.” Ashla gave him a twisted smile.
Saddened by her choice, he backed away from her as she headed toward the door. “Where are you going?”
Gagging and coughing, blinking hard, Ashla stood swaying in the aisle. “I’m not going to leave her lying on the floor. She deserves respect. We’ll sleep together, and I’ll guard her spirit into the afterlife, if the goddess is merciful. I’m not coming with you, human. No need to wait for me.”
He heard Palinna calling his name from the hallway. Raising his voice, he answered, “I’ll be right there.”
“Get out of my way.” Ashla stepped forward, walking in a crooked line as if intoxicated. “Time is short for all of us.”
He swore and left the lab, finding the other Badari clustered protectively in the hallway, guarding four antigrav litters. Gabe checked on Keshara, who remained unconscious, although he was relieved to see she had more color in her cheeks. Bending over the litter, he pressed a kiss to her lips. “I’m going to get you and your friends out of here, my word as a soldier.”
The Second Daughter Ashla had shot when she arrived on the scene was stretched on the floor, dead as he’d feared. The other one had her wounds hastily bound up with torn sheets from the pod room and was leaning heavily on Raeblin. The Badari scattered, making a path as Ashla continued on her determined journey to lay the Director and herself to rest in some other area of the building. Head high, spots of violent red in her cheeks, she didn’t make eye contact with anyone as she stumbled down the hallway with her burden.
“Let her go,” he said harshly as two of the Second Daughters seemed willing to take action. “She took poison. She’s chosen her own sentence.”
There were a few gasps, but Gabe shouldered his way to the head of the group. “We need to move fast. There’s no one else left alive here, so concentrate on making time and moving these litters. Follow me.” He exited the annex corridor and turned left, running through the hall and leading them at a fast pace. Now that he knew for sure there was at least one flyer at the installation, he was pretty sure how to find the landing field, based on the layout of other Khagrish labs.
Tremors rocked the building constantly, a few strong enough that Gabe’s party had to halt and sit down or risk being knocked off their feet. Gabe could feel the shockwaves of the earthquakes rippling through the ground under the building. Conditions were definitely growing worse.
He burst through the door to the landing pad which stood partially open, apparently warped as the building’s framework responded to the unexpected stress from the earthquakes. He sprinted toward the flyer. Luckily, the control to open the ramp for boarding was identical to the ships he was used to flying. The air was hot and thick with ash as lava bombs screamed overhead like old fashioned artillery fire. “Hurry.” He gestured at the Badari. “Palinna, give me the word to take off once everyone’s aboard.”
Giving Keshara’s litter a glance, he sprinted up the ramp and headed to the flyer’s cockpit. Sliding into the pilot’s seat, he scanned the controls and readouts before touching anything. Remarkably similar to the ones he’d flown, which was a stroke of good fortune. No innovation for five hundred years? How backward of the mighty Khagrish. The haughty aliens weren’t so technologically hot in all areas, despite their egotistical view of themselves.
He initiated the systems startup and heard the engines whine in response, the sound crescendoing as the power levels climbed. The vidscreens showed a sky lit up by lava bombs, and he prayed to the Lords of Space the Khagrish engines weren’t affected by ash. “Come on, come on.” He clenched his hands on the controls, waiting for the all clear from Palinna. As he was about to rise from the chair and go check on the situation in the cabin, she stuck her head into the cockpit. “You can close the ramp, and we can go.”
She hadn’t even finished the sentence before he hit the button to seal the ship and was lifting off. “Make sure everyone’s strapped down securely,” he said, keeping his eyes on the forward vidscreen. “Going to be rough maneuvers.”
As he directed the flyer off the pad and away from the mountain, the proximity alarms screamed at him, and the rudimentary Artificial Intelligence was trying to wrest the controls away from him. “Nothing doing, you need a helluva pilot who’s also crazy to navigate this mess. You need a human.” Gabe slapped the touchpad on the control panel, isolating the AI, and flew manually, dodging and jinking through the volcano’s barrage, striving to gain altitude and distance.
The flyer took a glancing blow from a large missile and the engines stuttered. Screams echoed from the passengers aft, but he gritted his teeth and stayed focused. The craft was dropping vertically hundreds of feet. Sweat beaded his brow as he punched at the control panel and finally managed to regain control by rerouting the nav system. Skimming just above the terrain, he boosted the power going to the engines and sent the flyer screaming into the sky.
The added airspeed was way beyond anything he’d ever dared before. He hoped the old craft’s frame could take the stress. How well had Blanggin maintained this baby anyway?
He shot out from under the cloud of ash and projectiles and banked, directing his viewscreens to where the Retreat sat on its small plateau. Whistling, he took in the fact that a large part of the structure and the ground underneath it had disappeared beneath a massive landslide from above.
He flipped the com. “Ladies, I’m putting the Retreat on the vids in the cabin for you, if you care to look. We’re probably not far enough away yet if this thing blows, so I’ll be applying maximum thrust.” Suiting action to words, Gabe used the last increment of power the engines had and the craft shot across the sky.
Suddenly, there was an explosion behind him, so loud he was temporarily deafened. In the vids there was nothing but boiling clouds where the mountain top had been, reaching into the stratosphere. The eruption created its own massive lightning, as if old gods were trying to destroy the planet. Gabe fought the turbulence, which could kill them all as efficiently as one of the lava bombs if he got caught in a wind shear or major downdraft. It was the hairiest five minutes of flying he’d ever been called upon to do and he was drenched in sweat by the time the flyer reached the end of the dangerous airspace.
When he emerged into clear air finally, he drew a deep breath of relief and flew for a few more minutes before setting the circuitous course to sanctuary valley. Neither he nor any of the rebel pilots ever flew directly to the area, in an effort to keep the Khagrish guessing. Rising from the controls, he stretched to unkink his muscles and headed into the cabin.
“Everyone okay? The flight should be smooth from here on out. Just a few hours to the valley and safety.”
Several of the women were pale, maybe a touch of air sickness, he guessed. Or delayed reaction to the end of the only life they’d ever known. Palinna and Raeblin were standing in the aisle, tending to Jezari and the other women on stretchers.
“We’ll be fine,” Palinna said. “Your mate’s awake and asking for you.”
Heart pounding, he hastened to the first stretcher, laid across a row of seats and buckled in place. “Hey,” he said, keeping his voice gentle as he stared into Keshara’s amber eyes. “Sorry about the rough flight.” He brushed her cheek with his hand and bent to kiss her. “How are you doing?”
“You rescued me,” she said, her voice raspy.
“Well, hells yeah. You promised me a mate for life, and I intend to live a long time.” Relief at their escape flowed through him in a tide of happiness like nothing he’d ever felt before. Carrying off this particular rescue mission meant more to him than any other victory in his entire life. “No reneging on those vows.”
Keshara struggled against the straps, and he immediately unfastened them, helping her sit up. She grabbed him as if she ne
A bobble from the flyer brought him sharply back to the present.
“You recovered enough to sit in the co-pilot’s seat?” he asked.
“Absolutely.” She nodded as he picked her up.
Palinna said, “Make her keep drinking this,” and handed him a container of nutrients. “She’s doing the best of the four from the pod room.”
“How’s Jezari?” Keshara clung to him, and he turned obligingly so she could see the other litters.
Raeblin shook her head. “Hanging on but alarmingly weak.”
Keshara raised one hand and studied her fingers. “I wish I could heal her, but the gift doesn’t answer me at all right now.”
Gabe hugged her tight. “Because the goddess wants you using your power to heal yourself. We’ve got a powerful healer at the valley if Jezari can hang on and stay with us that long.”
“I’ve sent her the message, implored her to endure,” Keshara said. “There’s no reply, no conscious thoughts in her mind, but I have the sense she’s present on a deep level. I have hope.”
His highly attuned senses told him he needed to return to the cockpit and even out the power to the engines so he pivoted and carried Keshara with him. “Let me know if you need anything,” he said over his shoulder to Palinna.
Carefully depositing Keshara in the co-pilot’s chair, he disconnected the AI and took the controls himself. “We’ll be at the valley in four hours,” he said. “Did you see the volcano explode or were you unconscious?”
“I saw it. Frightening. If you hadn’t come we’d all be dead. What happened to Ashla?”
He gave her a quick recap of events in the lab.
“I’m glad I have such a deadly and stubborn mate,” she said when he finished. “I claimed well.”
“As did I.” Gabe leaned over, meeting her halfway for a kiss. “Listen, you need to make decisions before we get to the valley and meet Aydarr.”
She tilted her head and raised her eyebrows. “Decisions? Didn’t you promise me they’d welcome us?”
“They will. I have no doubt on that score. But, I mean, are you going to be a pack? Are you the Alpha? He’ll expect all of you to swear allegiance to him, which I urge you to do because Aydarr is one of the truly good guys, and he’s fighting hard to protect the Badari and the humans.”
Eyes glowing slightly, her forehead furrowed in a frown. “What do you advise?”
“I’m no expert on Badari relations, but my gut instinct is to go in there as a pack, at least for now. Which, you realize, I’m a member of, since I’m your claimed mate.” He’d been giving the issue a lot of thought. “I think for now it’s better for you to be treated as a group, a unit the Badari will recognize. And, if you’re an Alpha, you’ll get to sit in on the decisions Aydarr makes with the other alpha and the enforcers.”
Keshara held up one hand. “You’re making me dizzy. Enforcers?”
“Top lieutenants. I’m guessing after eight generations of living in the labs, the Badari men have developed structures, like pack hierarchy being based on dominance, that don’t translate directly across to your situation. I’m guessing you’re closer to the original Badari in Generation One or Two.”
“So we should be a pack within a pack?”
He nodded. “Stay as a definable group. You can protect the others while all of you integrate into life in the valley. Badari women are going to be quite a sensation.”
“So, if the other women take mates, those males have to join my pack?”
“Now you’re making me dizzy.” He winked and rubbed his forehead. “You may decide at some point to dissolve the pack, since as you yourself said, you’re not alpha-born, but for now, use the structure to your advantage.”
“Will Aydarr accept me as an alpha when even humans can see I’m not?” She sounded dubious and smoothed the sheet fabric over her lap with one hand. “Healer is where my talents and inclination lie, although I’m happy to take on the responsibility of leader to take care of my sisters.”
Gabe frowned. “I think he will if we tell him you are. Things are different for the early generation you’re a member of. We’re not lying to him—which he’d scent in an instant by the way. We’re stating the fact you lead. I want you and the others to be accepted as equals from the beginning.”
“Alpha I am then.” Keshara laughed as she squared her shoulders as if to accept a physical burden. Reaching out, she tapped him in the center of the chest with one gracefully curved talon. “And I choose you to be my enforcer.”
“I accept. Just try installing any other guy as your top lieutenant.”
“Which will never happen under any circumstances,” she said. Keshara plucked at the fabric swathing her body and grimaced. “I’m not too excited about meeting this Alpha of yours and claiming to be alpha-born myself dressed in a sheet.”
He eyed her enticing curves. “I think it looks good on you.”
She punched his shoulder playfully. “No other answer will do from you, mate. The Alpha is quite a different matter. I think I’ll go into the cabin, talk to my sisters face to face about this issue of pack, and see what can be done regarding clothing. I should check on Jezari and the other two in any case.”
He caught her hand as she rose. “No healing, promise me. You need your strength to deal with Aydarr. You went through an ordeal too, you know.”
“Nothing as awful as she was subjected to.” Forestalling his next protest, Keshara leaned over and kissed him into silence. “I accept your advice.”
CHAPTER NINE
When he could com the valley, he explained he was coming in a different flyer than the one he’d left with, and he also requested the landing field be cleared of nonessential personnel. “I need Aydarr, Jill, and Timtur to be there, probably Dr. Garrison as well because we have injured with us, but otherwise I need to have a private meeting with the Alpha as soon as I land. Tell him I’m bringing him a huge surprise.”
Gabe leaned back and grinned, picturing Aydarr’s reaction when the Alpha realized he’d brought home a pack of Badari women. He probably should have given the poor Alpha a heads up but frankly Gabe anticipated with fiendish glee demolishing the accepted wisdom declaring there were no Badari women. Not only did Keshara and her tiny pack exist, the women were formidable in their own way.
Gabe set the flyer down as skillfully as he did everything, and came to escort Keshara off the craft to meet Aydarr and the others. She eyed her seven companions, with Jezari and one other still unconscious on the litters, and was pleased they’d survived to hope for a new start in this sanctuary. A bit ragtag, she herself wearing a skillfully wrapped dress made from the sheet, which would have to do for now.
“Ready?” Gabe asked.
Keshara held her head high and pivoted to face him. He had his finger on the button to open the ramp and, at her nod, he depressed the control. The ramp slowly descended. Taking his hand, she walked barefoot down the ramp, assessing those who waited.
Aydarr was unmistakable, taller than any of the others, heavily muscled, golden eyes glowing and power radiating from him much the way Gabe had attempted to describe. Now I get it. I’m certainly no Alpha if this is how they are. She squared her shoulders. But I lead.
Two more men, nearly as massive, stood slightly behind him. Keshara could see a faint familial resemblance between these amazing, giant warriors and herself and the other Daughters, in terms of facial features and certainly the amber eyes the Badari all shared. A human woman stood beside Aydarr, with the unmistakable stance of a warrior. A strange metal ovoid floated in the air next to her, flashing colors in rapid bursts over its surface.
Right now all the faces in front of her bore a remarkably similar expression of complete astonishment.
“May I present Keshara, Alpha of the Badari Daughters Pack, and my mate,” Gabe said. She could tell from the faint tone of amusement underlying his words he was enjoying this immensely. Well he earned this moment. Turning his head ever so slightly to her, he said, “This is Aydarr, Alpha of all the Badari, and Jill, his mate. Mateer, his chief enforcer, Dr. Garrison, who’s his wife, and Timtur, the pack healer.”
“I’m honored to meet you all,” she said before quickly naming her pack members. “And we have two more women inside the flyer who need medical attention as soon as possible. I should mention my mate Gabe is also my enforcer.”
Aydarr stepped forward. “I’m pleased to welcome you to the sanctuary valley. We had no idea we had long lost sisters on this planet, but it’s a delightful surprise.” He held out his hand and she moved to place her own in his. As Gabe had tried to convey, Aydarr was power personified, and she felt a bit ridiculous claiming to be an alpha now that she’d seen what one truly was. His grip was gentle and warm.
Welcome to my valley, sister.
Reassured by the complete sincerity and kindness of his voice in her head, she relaxed. “I believe the Great Mother sent Gabe to me, to help us escape. There’s much to tell, we have so many questions, and I know you must have even more, but truly Jezari and Vyddyn are in dire condition.” She held up her free hand. “I have the healing ability from the goddess—”
“But she barely survived a Khagrish experiment yesterday herself,” Gabe interrupted.
The healer, Timtur, stepped forward, the human doctor only a little behind him. “Don’t worry, sister, with your permission I’ll go see what can be done.”
“Please,” she moved out of the way, the other Daughters clustering behind her and Gabe.
Dr. Garrison paused for a moment before ascending the flyer’s ramp behind Timtur. “Well done, Gabe. Pleased to meet you, Keshara. I don’t normally work on the Badari, but you can trust me to help.” She glanced at Aydarr, “We should probably go straight to the hospital—it appears to me the others have minor injuries as well, even if they are presently ambulatory.”
-->