Alien Refuge

by Tracy St. John

  Rivek laughed from his prone position on the floor. “Indeed you did! Well done. But instead of celebrating, you should be grabbing a weapon and finishing me off or running and screaming for help.”

  “Picky, picky,” Iris said. She wrinkled her nose at the Imdiko. “Besides, I know more about defense right now than I do about attacking. With my luck, I’d only make you mad rather than hurt you.”

  Rivek was on his bare feet again, moving faster than her eyes could follow. “I realize I’ve only shown you how to avoid offensive moves. Still, I’d like to see some initiative, my Matara,” he gently rebuked her. “Now prepare yourself for another assault.”

  Iris crouched in the position he’d shown her, lowering her center of gravity when loud noises and yelling distracted her. She straightened and looked towards the open door. “What is going on out there?”

  Rivek grabbed one of the sticks off the wall. He opened one end and shook out a blade as long as Iris’ arm, making her gasp. She hadn’t known there were knives almost the size of swords in the rods.

  “That’s the sound of fighting. Stay here.” The Imdiko went out the door in a flash, leaving Iris standing there to stare uncertainly after him.

  Fighting in the temple? Rivek had gone out with a huge knife and intent in his expression. That meant he expected to find real trouble.

  As if to confirm her concerns, the distinctive shoo-whup sound of a firing percussion blaster echoed through the building. Adrenaline and abrupt terror coursed through Iris’ body.

  “Thomas!”

  Iris ran out of the room, not bothering to look to see if the fighting was anywhere near. She flew down the pillar-forested temple, heading straight to Copin’s consultation room where he worked with Thomas.

  The sounds of nearby battling and yelling behind her slowed Iris down enough for her to cast a look over her shoulder. What she saw stopped her in her tracks. Rivek was in the middle of three masked Earther men, whirling like a dervish with his blade flashing in the light. A fourth man was already down and bleeding from cuts to his chest and stomach. As Iris watched wide-eyed, the men jockeyed for space, trying to get a clear shot at the Imdiko.

  Rivek’s hand not holding the knife flashed out and grabbed the man closest to him. Another man’s percussion blaster went off. Rivek yanked the man he held in front of him, using him to shield his body. The unfortunate person took the brunt of the shot. His chest disintegrated.

  Rivek shoved the dead man at the closest assailant. While that gunman grappled with the corpse, the other went down under Rivek’s long knife.

  The remaining attacker shoved the dead body aside. The Imdiko moved fast, his muscled form a blur more often than not. An instant later, the last man was another corpse twitching on the floor.

  Iris was stunned to realize she had just watched Rivek kill three men. His face was a vicious display of cat-slitted eyes and exposed fangs. The priest, in his battle lust, was almost unrecognizable as the man she’d bedded.

  Without noticing her standing there staring, Rivek turned and ran in the opposite direction, from which the sounds of more fighting could be heard. Iris was left staring at the bodies of the masked men.

  They had to have been with the E.I.K. Had they come to burn down the temple? Or perhaps to attempt another abduction?

  Thomas.

  Iris turned her back on the dead bodies and continued her run towards Copin’s office. As she neared the open door to the younger priest’s room, she heard Thomas scream, his voice desperate.

  “Copin hurt! Copin all better. Copin all better!”

  Iris put on a burst of speed and raced into the room. Another masked man stood over a bleeding and unconscious Copin, holding a percussion blaster in a shaking hand. A fighting stick, much like the ones in Rivek’s room, lay on the floor next to Copin. From the multiple head injuries the kind Imdiko bore, Iris had the idea that it had been the fighting stick that had taken him down, not a lethal blaster wound.

  The one reason the masked man hadn’t fired on Copin and ended his life crouched between gunman and Kalquorian. Thomas screamed as he bent over his friend, hugging the aspiring priest’s head to his thin chest. Hugging was how the boy always made Iris’ ‘boo-boos’ better. He was trying to help Copin the only way he knew how.

  Iris sprang at the trembling attacker, using her speed and weight to knock him away from Thomas and Copin. He fell back, his eyes wide, the blaster going off into the air and sending bits of the ceiling down where the shot landed. He hit the ground with a pained grunt.

  Attack while he’s down or run. Rivek’s instructions rang in her head. Iris swung around, determined to get to Thomas and get the hell out. She gasped to see another masked man bent over the boy, yanking on his arm to drag him away.

  “Get off him!” Iris screamed. She launched herself at the assailant, fighting wildly with punches and kicks.

  Iris had no offensive skills; Rivek hadn’t gotten that far yet. Still, she possessed the wild terror of a woman whose child was in danger, and the fierce anger of any wild animal defending its offspring. The man grunted with the force of her blows, backing away from the violent assault. Iris kept coming at him, determined to hurt. To perhaps even kill. Rage pulsed in her head, driving away all other thoughts in a blinding rush of red.

  Shattering pain exploded in her lower back, knocking her down. She fell to the floor with a shriek. Hellish torment wracked her lower body, and Iris rolled over in agony.

  The masked man who’d been pointing a percussion blaster at Copin stood near, the fighting stick falling from his hand as he stared at her. The one she’d just been pummeling stalked up to stand over her. He kicked her hard in the ribs. Iris didn’t have the breath to scream from the horrendous pain.

  Thomas’ cries echoed in the room. “Mommy, Mommy!” resounded over and over as the man continued to kick her. Iris tried to roll away from the blows, but the man chased her, landing kick after kick. He grunted with the effort, determined to do damage.

  “Enough!” cried the other man. “I have the boy. Let’s go!”

  The voice was somewhat familiar, but the ski mask muffled it enough that Iris couldn’t place it. It was too hard to think anyway with her ribs, back, and kidneys bellowing with pain. All that mattered were his words. I have the boy.

  The man attacking her stopped. Huddled in a ball, Iris looked up through sweaty strands of her hair. The other man had a struggling Thomas slung over one shoulder. The little boy was still crying for her. Iris tried to get up, but her legs refused to move. She could only look up at the men as the one standing over her pulled off his mask.

  Conrad grinned down at her. “I always get what’s mine. If you want to remain my son’s mother, you’ll come back to me, where you belong.”

  He turned his back to her and walked out. The other man whispered, “I’m sorry,” and followed.

  Thomas lifted up from his position against the assailant’s back. His face was red, tears streaming from his eyes, hands reaching to her as he screamed, “Mommy, help! Mommy, help! Thomas go with Mommy!”

  Iris shrieked back, desperately inching after him on her hands, dragging her unresponsive legs behind her. “Thomas! Thomas! No!” But no amount of yelling or sobbing stopped Thomas from disappearing with Conrad.

  She screamed as the monster took away her reason for living.

  Chapter 15

  Ospar and Jol hurried through the colony’s medical care facility, which was administered by the Kalquorian government. They didn’t have much actual running to do as a result; the efficient in-house transport system did most of their moving for them. Nevertheless, once they reached the section of the hospital where Iris was being treated, they raced the short distance to her room. Doctors, nurses, and orderlies yelped in surprise as the pair swerved around them at an all-out sprint.

  The supposed attack on the space launch pad had never come about. They’d been nearly there when information came in that the gathering masked Earthers had abruptly disa
ppeared from the vicinity. Ospar had been following Jol around the site as the Nobek attempted to discover what exactly was going on when a new alarm had gone out: the Temple of Life had been attacked. Several people were dead, Iris was badly injured, and Thomas had been abducted.

  Ospar didn’t need Jol to tell him the armed men surrounding the landing pad had been a diversion. It was all too obvious they’d been set up, putting the majority of their security forces in the wrong place.

  Ospar crossed the threshold of the door that took him from the well-lit, nearly featureless corridor into the dim patient room where Rivek, alerted to their approach, waited just inside.

  Ospar gave his Imdiko no opportunity to speak. “Where is she?”

  Rivek moved aside. “Right in here. She’s heavily sedated.”

  With Jol following so close that he kept bumping into Ospar, the men went into the room to stand at their Matara’s side. Iris lay small and fragile in a medi-bed, the crossarms of treatment panels locked into place over her torso and upper legs. Ospar knew from bitter experience that medications, fluids, and rebuilding medical nanites were being fed into Iris right now through those panels in an attempt to fix the damage she’d taken. The machines in the panels hummed with quiet efficiency.

  Her head, shoulders, and lower legs were the only parts exposed. A sparkling waviness shimmered the air over her, indicating the field that would hold her in place should she attempt to move. It would also keep Ospar from touching her, which he badly needed to do. For not only his comfort though. Iris was unconscious, but her face betrayed tension. Wherever the sedating drugs had taken her, it was not a place of blissful ease.

  Rage exploded in Ospar’s head to see his Matara unconscious and wounded. He had the sudden urge to attack something, anything, to make it hurt as bad as she did. To make others suffer as much as he was. The bastards had injured his beloved. Stolen his son. Even though Iris and Thomas had been his official clan for only hours, it felt as if the very heart was being torn from his chest.

  Next to him, Jol shook violently with the force of his fury. “What do the doctors say?” Rivek’s usual calm voice crackled with his own anger. “She’ll be fine within thirty hours. The internal damage was not serious, and the breaks in her thighs, pelvis, and ribs are mending well, as is the bruising to her spine. I’m more concerned about her emotional wellbeing.”

  Ospar drew a deep breath to settle himself. He finally tore his gaze away from Iris to look over his Imdiko. Rivek had his snowpants on and the top of his armored formsuit was badly closed, as if he’d thrown it on in a hurry. There were some shiny red streaks on his chest and drying blood on his white pants. Memories of a much younger Rivek, lying in a pool of blood and near death, assaulted him. “What about you? How badly were you hurt?”

  Rivek tried to wave them off, but Jol pulled him close and opened his formsuit top. The Nobek ran his hands over the puckered but healing wound on his clanmate’s ribcage and growled.

  The priest insisted, “I’m fine. A couple of stab wounds, plus I took a glancing blow from a blaster. Everything has already been treated. Negligible blood loss, a few bruises.”

  “And your staff?”

  That got a growl from the peaceable Imdiko. “Three priests and two aspirants dead. Copin was badly hurt. The concussion he received damned near killed him.”

  Rivek abruptly rounded on Jol, getting in his clanmate’s face. “Enough of this. What about Thomas? Where is he?”

  Jol set his hands on Rivek’s shoulders. “I have every available squad out there looking for him, my Imdiko. After you answer a few questions, I’m going straight out to look for him myself. Who specifically attacked you in the temple, Rivek? Any Kalquorians?”

  Rivek’s eyes widened, and he shook his head. “Earthers, nothing but Earthers masked to hide their identities. No Kalquorian rebels.”

  Jol frowned. “Not inside the temple, anyway. The security team I sent over to guard you, Iris, and Thomas was found dead on the grounds. Four men, their main arteries slashed and throats cut as Nobeks are taught to do in sneak attacks.”

  “Another combined effort.” Ospar’s fists clenched. If he got his hands on the traitors—

  Rivek raked his hands through his hair. “Then it might be an E.I.K. and rebellion action? But Iris said Slade took Thomas. She saw his face. He’s the one who did this to her.”

  “Good. Confirmation that gives me leave to kill the gurluck when I find him,” Jol snarled.

  It was Rivek’s turn to grab Jol. “You can’t let him leave here with our son. We may never get Thomas back if they take him off this planet.”

  “I’ve grounded everything and Ospar backed up the order. No ships can leave the colony, especially with that transport from Mercy still in orbit. I don’t know who on my staff has been compromised, but Thomas will not be lost.” Jol reached to his utility belt to stroke one of his many knife handles.

  Ospar reminded them of the one advantage they still held. “Slade doesn’t have Iris back yet. He won’t leave without her unless he absolutely has to. He has Thomas to ensure she surrenders to him.”

  “Not for long, he doesn’t. Tell her I swear our child will be returned to her.” Jol turned on his heel and left after one last look at Iris.

  Ospar needed to put his own resources to work. Hopefully, Borl had returned to the office by now. He clicked on his com.

  “Ospar to Borl.”

  A long silence followed. When seconds passed without an answer, Ospar frowned. He tried again. “Borl, please answer.”

  Silence spun out, and the Dramok fought the urge to throw the com across the room. “Damn it, now what’s going on?”

  * * * *

  Father Stephen rocked Thomas in his lap. The child had not stopped crying since the priest had taken him from Iris and his father had beaten her senseless. Occasionally Thomas screamed, “Where’s Mommy?” A few times he had managed to lunge free of Stephen, shouting, “Goodbye, bad Daddy. Go away,” as he attempted to escape the room.

  Stephen held the agonized boy, trying to soothe him and keep him quiet, especially in the wake of Conrad Slade yelling, “Shut up or I’ll lock you in one of these bins!” That threat had set off the opposite effect of what they all wanted: Thomas had screamed with hysteria for a solid fifteen minutes afterward.

  Right now, the child was having one of his quieter periods of weeping and softly moaning. Stephen’s heart ached for the boy, particularly now that he admitted to himself that he had made such an enormous mistake.

  He, Thomas, Slade, Governor Hoover, and Dramok Borl were currently hidden in the basement of one of the colony’s grain storage buildings. Bins of tools and next year’s seeds for planting filled much of the packed dirt floor. It was cold in here, and Stephen had covered Thomas in his own coat to keep the boy warm as they sat on a black plastic bin. Members of the E.I.K. who had survived their attack on the Kalquorian temple were topside, keeping a look out for Kalquorian security patrols.

  A few feet from where Stephen sat clutching Thomas, the other three stood discussing their next move.

  An exultant Borl said, “Send a message to Ospar. Tell him that Thomas will be returned to his mother if all Kalquorians leave Haven without any Earther women.”

  Slade gave him a withering look that might have worked on the executives that jockeyed for his approval back on Earth. “I have no intention of giving up my son. And Mira will be with me as well. I should have brought her along while I had the chance. I’m no longer interested in helping your pathetic cause.”

  Dear God, how Stephen had screwed up. He could see how Slade didn’t truly care for Thomas. Except for screaming at the boy to be quiet, Slade had paid him no attention at all. And the way he had kicked Iris during the attack, making bones snap until the priest was sure she’d be killed, only made Stephen’s insides curl tight in revulsion. The disgust he felt was for both himself and Slade, in equal measures.

  I should have stopped him from hurting her. I should hav
e kept Thomas safe instead of bringing him here.

  The argument that Iris was damned because she’d chosen Ospar’s clan over a Godly existence no longer held water, in the priest’s opinion. No one deserved to be beaten as badly as she had. No one deserved to be handed over to a monster like Conrad Slade.

  Borl spoke gently to Slade, though there was a mocking light in his purple alien eyes. “Telling Ospar you’ll hand Thomas over is a lie, of course. Once Haven is emptied of Kalquorians, you can do as you please with your family.”

  “As is his right as head of the household,” Hoover asserted loftily. He had lost whatever reluctance he might have had over Thomas’ kidnapping in the excitement of striking such a blow against the Kalquorians, particularly Governor Ospar.

  Then again, he hadn’t seen the way Slade had beaten Iris either.

  Father Stephen thought, It’s up to me to make things right. I have to keep Iris out of Slade’s hands because the bastard will kill her. I have to get Thomas to safety because he’ll no doubt suffer too.

  It was the only way to alleviate the guilt filling his soul. This insanity of killing and hurting was not God’s will. Stephen was sure of it. He had to make amends no matter how it turned out for his own safety.

  He spoke up, keeping his tone as gentle as possible so Thomas would remain calm. “You need someone to present your demands.”

  Borl turned to him, one eyebrow lifting. “Yes, we do. Are you volunteering?”

  Stephen was a little surprised to hear how clear and firm his own tone came out. It only affirmed his resolve in the matter. He told the others, “Governor Hoover’s part in this must never be known, not as long as the Kalquorians hang onto their power here. He is the leader we Earthers need to keep our course strong.”

  He kept talking, gathering steam. “If you were to bring our demands to Ospar, Dramok Borl, he may suspect you are part of your own worthy revolution. No one else besides me has any real clout when it comes to Earther voice. Plus Ospar would not harm a religious leader despite the message, I hope?”