Kragyn (Farseek Warrior Series Book 1)

by Clarissa Lake

  “By the way, Oxiris, what did you do before the Sargans made you a slave and you ended up here?”

  “I ran a plant nursery and taught children about growing things.”

  “Have you ever heard of Farseek?”

  “Is that where you’re going?”

  “Yes, but you can pick somewhere else on the route to get dropped off.”

  “It’s as good as any place. Feranda has been destroyed. Away from here is the only place I wish to be.”

  Kragyn told him where to be and when then he returned to Reanne. He no longer cared whether he fought that night or not, as he draped an arm around her.

  “I spoke to Elcara and Maselle. Elcara won’t leave without Arak, but she is sure he will go with her. Maselle wants to get away from Lorn because he abuses her,” she said.

  “Can she get to the meeting point without him?”

  “She doesn’t think so. Lorn tracks her every move.”

  “Tell her to let him come. I’ll see if we can split them at the rendezvous. If not, we’ll have them put into separate quarters on Kurellis. If he makes trouble he’ll land in the brig,” Kragyn said. “While he is still fighting, go tell Maselle to let Lorn come if she can’t slip away without him.” There was an unspoken ‘please in his eyes as well as a heart-melting smile he knew she couldn’t refuse.

  Reanne gave him a smile and moved toward the table where Maselle sat watching the fight. Kragyn watched his mate approach the other female humanoid. She sat down and spoke to her quietly, and Maselle smiled gratefully. If she arrived with Lorn, one of the Farseekans could stun him and leave him behind.

  The night dragged on as Lorn the female abuser beat his opponent. Oxiris had his match next, but Kragyn could see his heart was no longer in it. He had never shared the Fenandan’s vulnerability, but anyone who saw Kragyn beat him might remember. Even if the Farseekan hadn’t spoken to him earlier, he would think Oxsiris took a dive.

  The big Fenandan was no great fighter, but Kragyn was sure he seemed more inept than usual because he lost a match he should have won. That left Kragyn to fight Lorn because Samo refused to fight Lorn.

  Kragyn hadn’t fought Lorn before, but he felt sure he could hold his own. The match would at least pass the time. Now that his ordeal was almost over, he would rather be with Reanne. But he would fight Lorn mainly because he wanted to punch him a few dozen times for his abuse of Maselle.

  Lorn was a little heavier than Kragyn and a little taller but fought more like a boxer than mixed martial arts. He had power in his punches, but so did Kragyn who was more agile.

  The Farseekan played with him for a while trading punches and dancing around him. Lorn was growing frustrated with Kragyn who was landing more punches and dodging his blows. He punched Lorn in the face a few times, cutting his lip and causing an eye to start swelling shut. He gave the alien humanoid a thorough beating before he kicked him in the head for a solid knockout.

  “That was for Maselle.” Kragyn kicked him in the ribs then raised his fists in triumph, walking a circle around Lorn’s still form. Then, before he left the pit, he checked to make sure Lorn was still breathing. Then he decided it would be a good time to take Maselle and Elcara to the evacuation point.

  Some of Hoker’s thugs, dragged Lorn from the pit while Kragyn hustled Reanne and the other two women from the building into the starlit night.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Do either of you have any belongings you wish to get before you leave?” Kragyn asked as they headed for the old mining operation.

  “Nothing we can’t live without,” Maselle asserted, and Elcara confirmed it.

  “Lieutenant Degatu said that new clothing will be issued to all of the people we rescue,” Reanne said. “And they have medics to treat anyone who needs it.”

  “What about Arak?” Elcara asked.

  “He will meet you at the shuttle,” Kragyn assured her. “It won’t be leaving for a few hours, but the extraction team is armed and can protect you until lift off.”

  “Kragyn and I will be guiding people in from the entry point of the old mining operation,” Reanne said. “We will make sure he gets there.”

  By the time the fight finished and Kragyn hustled the women from the building, it was only an hour before dawn. Dreadnaught Four sent down a second team to help with the extraction from the three brothels. Kragyn was leading one of the three groups. Reanne wanted to go with him. She had been upset when he told her she wouldn’t be allowed…

  “I want to go with you,” she said. “I can help.”

  “They won’t allow it, sweet one,” Kragyn said. “You are not trained for this kind of operation. You’re not military.”

  “But you’ve been training me.” Reanne looked up at him, her beautiful blue eyes pleading.

  “In Uatu fehiatu. That skill could be useful, but you are not trained in extracting innocents from hostiles.” He’d rested his hands on her shoulders and gave her a tender understanding look. “Solmatu, I know you are strong and capable, but I would still worry about you. That would distract me from my job. I could get someone killed.”

  He’d cradled her face between his hands and kissed her slowly and thoroughly. By the time he’d lifted his lips from hers, she almost forgot her own name. The next thing she knew clothes came off, and she was naked with him fucking her deliciously senseless. When it was over, they held each other for a long time.

  “Sweet one, you know it’s not because I don’t want you with me. I love you, and I just don’t want anything to happen to you. You will be waiting with the guides at the rendezvous point, and I will meet you there.”

  But what about you? She thought.

  “It will be fine,” he assured her.

  Then she had just sighed and hugged him, knowing he would not change his mind about this. Even on Earth, she would not have been allowed to accompany her mate on a military operation. He had survived thus far; she refused to think he would not survive this. Imagining the rest of her life without him was like a knife being driven into her heart. She loved him that much.

  Kragyn and the three women arrived at the shuttle in time for him to suit up in combat gear. They weren’t wearing body armor because the caliber of weapons they were likely to face was primitive. Reanne and the other guides brought up the rear of the militaries, dropping off at the halfway point between the village and the old mines.

  The extractions went pretty well as there were only a few guards at each brothel. There were some males still copulating females who were interrupted and separated from them. Kragyn’s team used their stunners to dispatch them.

  The females were of a variety of humanoid species that vaguely resembled homo sapiens. They were terrified by the soldiers who came to rescue them. Initially many thought they had come to be serviced sexually.

  “Listen up, women!” Kragyn shouted from the hallway. “We are here to evacuate you from Julconi. We are not here to be serviced, and we will not harm you.”

  It took a few moments for his words to sink in. Then there was laughing and cheering and even some weeping. The soldiers passed out the lightweight thermal blankets. To their chagrin, the women didn’t even have the simplest sandals to wear on their feet. Some of them were chained by their necks naked inside their rooms. They used laser tools to cut the chains as short as possible without risking injury to the females.

  It wasn’t a brothel so much as it was a rape house. Kragyn was angry enough to hunt down Hoker and kill him, seeing how badly he treated these women. They were undernourished as well when he had plenty of food from his enterprise to feed them.

  Kragyn’s team pulled fifteen women from the house they raided. Some were so weak they had to be carried. The others had trouble walking on the dirt covered streets. Their bare feet were very tender, and there were little stones embedded in the soil. At the rate they were moving, it would take way too long to get them to safety before Hoker, and his thugs discovered their exodus.

  Kragyn commed Pazel
and learned that all the females were in the same condition, so Pazel commed the shuttle to send them a hover tram to move the women. It was usually only big enough to carry twelve people at a time, but when it came, to Kragyn’s team they loaded the fifteen they had rescued into it.

  They’d rescued forty-seven women from three homes. When Kragyn saw the conditions of the women and how they were held, he berated himself. Hoker had offered him females for sex many times in the year he’d been there. But like most Uatu, he was holding out for solmatu. The handful of times he’d had sex with females who were not solmatu it had barely been more satisfying than his own hand.

  If he’d gone just one time, he would have tried to help them. But he had been so broken by the time the Sargan’s had dumped him on Julconi he could hardly think beyond his own anguish. Not until he found Reanne had his life changed for the better. The growing bond between them pulled him from the past to live in the present.

  At times he worried about the future. What would happen when Reanne’s birth control implant failed? He wanted nothing better than to have children with her, but not on Julconi. The ratio of males to females in Dezron # 2 was close to 10:1. Even boy children weren’t safe there.

  Most of the children Varnis and his male love mate cared for were unwanted due to lack of birth control. Some females died in childbirth, sometimes the babies died and sometimes both died, too. The Sargan’s didn’t care if the inmates on Julconi died or killed each other.

  Kragyn was glad they were taking them to Farseek. They could have a good life together there when they rebuilt. Pazel told him rebuilding had already started.

  With the females in such bad condition, Pazel contacted Command to have another shuttle sent. He wanted to get the women aboard the Kurellis for medical care as soon as they could in their shuttle.

  Three of the women insisted they were well enough to walk in Kragyn’s group. It was full daylight when they got to Reanne’s station. She called out, “Jaeli!”

  The elfin female looked up, and when their eyes met, both women started crying. Reanne ran to her, and they hugged each other like long lost sisters.

  “I can’t believe you’re here.”

  “I am no slave,” she sniffed. “They deemed me untrainable and sent me here. When Hoker offered his protection, I thought he wanted me for himself. But he made me a whore instead.”

  “That’s all over now, sweetie. You’re going to be free now. They will take you to the passenger ship, a medic will check you, you will get new clothing and a cabin either by yourself or with someone compatible.”

  “Anywhere is better than here. Will you be there?”

  “Eventually we’re going to Farseek, but I will be going to a different ship with my soul mate, Kragyn,” Reanne explained.

  They parted and wiped away their tears with their fingers. “Then I better go,” said Jaeli. “I know you are alive and well. Perhaps we will meet again on Farseek.”

  “We will,” Reanne assured her. “I will find you.”

  Jaeli hurried to the shuttle. It took all the women and some people who came to the rendezvous early. Maselle and Elcara were in that group.

  As the shuttle was taking off, Arak arrived with Lorn. “Kragyn, where’s my fucking woman!”

  Recognizing the voice, he reached for his sidearm and stepped in front of Reanne. Lorn had a crossbow pointed at him, and both men fired their weapons at the same time. Lorn’s bolt tore into Kragyn’s left chest just below the collarbone; it’s razor tip protruding from his back.

  Lorn fell dead as Kragyn staggered and sank to the ground. The last thing he heard was Reanne scream, “Kray!”

  Then, nothing.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Reanne ran to him as he lay on his right side on the ground bleeding, but he was breathing, she noted hopefully. The wound looked hideous with the razor point of the bold sticking out his back and the other end protruding from his chest.

  Reanne had only rudimentary medical knowledge. She knew from TV not to remove the object from the wound as the bleeding could increase. “Help! Somebody, help him!” she screamed.

  Pazel was instantly on the ground beside her. New tears were streaming down her cheek. “Damn, the medic just left with the women.” He reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out a preloaded syringe and pressed it to Kragyn’s carotid artery.

  “Don’t worry Reanne. I injected nanites that will start to repair the damage in till we can get a medic to safely remove the bolt.” Pazel patted her arm supportively. “See, the bleeding has slowed already. From what I can tell, it may have punctured the upper edge of his lung, but I think he will live until the medic gets here.”

  Meanwhile, Arak stalked forward. “Where did you take Elcara?” he demanded. “I want to know now!”

  “Sir, calm yourself, the female Elcara is safe,” said Corporal Karsetu. “We have evacuated her to a passenger ship in orbit.” The corporal held up a hand as Arak seemed to grow angrier at that revelation. “You will be taken to join her on the next shuttle. She wants you to join her. Maselle wanted to escape Lorn, but Elcara wants you to join her.”

  “Why didn’t she just wait for me?”

  “She was worried about Maselle. We promised her that we would let you know and provide transport,” Reanne said without looking up.

  “You can ride the next shuttle,” Pazel said. “But we’re taking Kragyn to Dread Four first.”

  “Why were you with that barbarian?” Reanne cried. “He abused Maselle terribly, and she was desperate to leave him. But Elcara was adamant she would not leave without you.”

  “I’m sorry Lorn shot him. I was only with Lorn because our females are friends, and I figured we’d find them together.”

  “That bastard didn’t even wait for an answer before he just shot Kragyn,” Reanne snapped angrily.

  Just then, Kragyn groaned, drawing her full attention. “Stay still, Kray. Pazel gave you a shot of nanites, and Dread Four is sending a shuttle.”

  Pazel squatted down beside Reanne. “Sir, if you’re in pain, I can give you something for it.”

  “Please. I could take it if I had to…” Kraygn said as though each word caused him pain.

  Pazel pulled another syringe from a different pouch, injecting Kragyn in his arm. Time seemed to drag as they waited for the next shuttle to come down but it was only a matter of twenty minutes since Pazel had commed when it finally arrived.

  By then, about another fifty people arrived at the extraction point. The Farseekans held them back while an auto stretcher was dispatched from the shuttle’s cargo bay for Kragyn. They had sent another troop shuttle with its own sickbay, a medical android, and a life support chamber.

  Three men lifted Kragyn carefully on to the stretcher and followed it with Reanne into the shuttle through the cargo bay. Once they were inside, the remainder of the teams ushered the rest of the refugees into the shuttle. The medical droid signaled Pazel that Kragyn was stable, so they waited for a few stragglers who had been promised extraction before they lifted off.

  Reanne followed the stretcher into the cubicle but stayed back out of the way. She was only mildly surprised that the medical droid looked like a robot and had six arms with various tools. The stretcher landed on a stand in front of the medic and a spiral of light arced over Kragyn from head to feet.

  “Scan shows lung puncture with minimal blood loss due to nanites repairing tissues. Two posterior ribs nicked on exit and muscle damage. Removal of the projectile will accelerate healing of the wound.”

  The droid used one of its tools to cut off Kragyn’s shirt, then another to cut the end of the bolt protruding from his chest. Another arm injected something into the wound, then it pulled the arrow out from the back. He felt no pain, and the injury didn’t bleed.

  Reanne later learned that the nanites healed the wound from the inside, and destroyed foreign bacteria that were introduced into the wound.

  “Patient Kragyn Vermaktu expected recovery time one rotati
on. Discharge to quarters on arrival.” The droid informed Kragyn and Reanne. The droid then rolled him onto his back.

  The whole procedure was finished by the time the shuttle docked with Dreadnaught Four. It only docked long enough to leave Reanne, and the Farseekans off then took the rest of the passengers to the Kurellis.

  A young female Farseek warrior met them in the cargo bay and escorted them to Kragyn’s quarters. It wasn’t the cabin he had before his captivity, but it was comparable. “Sir, all of your belongings have been retrieved from storage and returned to your quarters,” she said as the door slid opened and they moved into the cabin.

  The ensign waited while the stretcher carried Kragyn to the bedroom. He sat up slowly, and Reanne helped him stand and transfer to the bed. As soon as he was in bed, the stretcher left on its own power, and the ensign took her leave as well.

  Reanne gazed around the small room. She guessed it was about eight by ten feet. The large bed was recessed between two closets with drawers under and above it with a tiny bathroom to the left. She looked at Kragyn lying in bed shirtless with the hole in his shoulder covered with a clear layer of skin sealant.

  As she looked at it, she had a flashback of seeing him shot down and the terror she’d felt that he had been killed. She tried to choke back the sob that tore at her throat, but she was not feeling that strong just then. She burst into tears and stood there sobbing.

  “Reanne, baby, come here,” Kragyn reaching for her with his right arm.

  She sank down on the bed and lay beside him with her head on his uninjured shoulder crying, unable to stop.

  The night before the fights they had not slept well or long enough. That was almost a full rotation span ago. “It’s okay, sweet one. I will be okay. I have survived worse than this.”

  “I know,” she whimpered and sniffled. “I’m being a baby, but seeing that horrible arrow sticking out of your back. I don’t think anything scared me more than that in my whole life.”