“Merely reminding you where you fit into the scheme of things, animal.”
“Have you consummated this mating?” Lampergg held the edge of the antigrav litter to prevent the techs from leaving with Megan.
To be discussing these intimate things in front of the guards and the techs. Furious, embarrassed, glad Megan wasn’t conscious to hear him, Mateer shook his head. “Not yet. The human women require more time to accept the idea, to be ready. Aydarr and Jill had the same experience. It seems we Badari are sure before the woman is.” He hated sharing any information about Aydarr and Jill and lying about his relationship with Megan made his head ache, but he’d say anything right now to get Lampergg to help. “I understand we’re an important experiment to you.”
“Yes, indeed you are. You did well, 802.”
Lampergg might as well pat me on the head, like a household pet. Again Mateer kept a tight hold on his instinctive reactions and compelling desire to shred the Khagrish surrounding him.
“You do realize although our knowledge of humans has recently increased, we’re not set up to treat her as her own doctors would. Our drugs may not work on her.” Lampergg watched him closely.
Refusing to let himself think about how exactly the Khagrish had augmented their knowledge about the humans, Mateer clenched his jaw and strove to sound obsequious. “I know you’ll do your best. That’s all I ask. All I’m begging you for.”
Lampergg released his hold on the antigrav litter and gestured to the waiting tech. “All right, Dregsorm, take her away and prep her for treatment. I’ll join you in the lab shortly. Lock 802 in a cell,” he said to the guard captain.
“Please, I need to be with her—” He hadn’t considered the Khagrish would separate them. “She’s my mate.”
“And you put her into my hands.” Lampergg smiled and walked away.
Mateer couldn’t stop himself from going after the scientist. He got five steps before the guards brought him down with the bracelet, administering a paralyzing blast then taking turns kicking him a few dozen times while he was on the floor, helpless. Still paralyzed, he was carried into the prison wing and thrown into a cell. From the safety of the corridor, outside the force barrier, the guard captain released the bracelet’s hold on Mateer’s nervous system.
Using the wall to hang onto, digging his talons in with the effort it required to get to his feet after the merciless beating, Mateer bared his fangs and roared his defiance at them. He’d soon be healed, thanks to his genetically enhanced metabolism, but he feared greatly for Megan.
The guards marched away, and Mateer surveyed the cell, big enough to hold his entire pack, and bare of anything useful to him in the current situation. He threw himself onto a bunk and reached out with his telepathic sense, but found no answering echo from any other Badari. He wished he and Megan were linked mind to mind. Aydarr had said something similar once, frustrated he couldn’t communicate with Jill the way the packmates did. Now he understood the depth of his alpha’s dissatisfaction with the lack.
The next day was like being trapped in a nightmare to Mateer. The guards refused to tell him anything about Megan’s status each time they brought the mush that comprised his meal allotment. The captain paralyzed him each time rather than allowing him to stand on the muster line.
“Not taking any chances with you, 802, not after your display last night. Lampergg wants you in one piece. And I want my troops to stay in one piece as well.”
After the midday meal, when the guards refused to tell him if Megan was alive, he went on a rampage, breaking apart the majority of the bunks in the cell and hurling the pieces at the barrier holding him in. He knew it wouldn’t do any good, but worry and rage boiled up inside him like magma in a volcano, and he had to vent the emotions to retain control. His only consolation was realizing Megan stood no chance of survival in the Preserve, so bringing her to Lampergg had been the one action open to him.
After he’d worked off his strong emotions, he retreated to his bunk, facing the wall and praying to the Great Mother until a mocking voice from the hall broke his grim concentration.
“Someone had a tantrum—did you enjoy yourself, 802?”
Mateer rolled over and slid off the bunk, making it to the barrier in a few hasty steps. “How is she?”
Waiting in the hallway, a slight smile on his thin lips, Lampergg rocked back and forth on his heels. “Holding her own, but not doing as well as we’d hoped. She hasn’t regained consciousness. This is an interesting situation—the Chimmer will be quite pleased with me for discovering the potential lethality of the insect venom.”
“The other humans were fine.”
Waving away the point as if it were one of the insects in question, Lampergg shrugged. “The mere fact the venom can kill a certain percentage of humans implies a course of study worth follow on studies and experiments. Later. I’d let her expire and document the process except for one thing—”
Mateer’s heart stuttered at the mere suggestion of his allowing Megan to die. “I’ve claimed her as my mate.”
“Exactly.”
“Please, let me see her.” He wasn’t too proud to beg in this case.
“I intend to. I want to see if your presence—if the alleged mating bond—has any effect on her condition.” Lampergg raised one hand to forestall whatever Mateer might have been going to say. “And I have one other thing I want to try. Beyond those measures, there’s nothing I can do and the experiment will go to its inevitable conclusion.”
“No!”
“You can choose another human woman as your mate and we can begin again,” Lampergg said. “Inside the lab, I think, to minimize the random factors such as this insect bite episode. We’ll have to forgo the charms of the outdoors.”
Mateer shook his head, repelled by the suggestion. “Mating doesn’t work that way. Not just any human woman triggers the bond—only the right woman.”
“We’ll see. I’ve reread your records, and you performed quite well with the professional sex workers who were brought in from time to time—”
“We had no choice about those encounters.” Mateer’s hands were fisted and his jaw was clenched. The memories assaulted him, roiling his gut. “The Badari had to participate, to ‘acquire those strategic skills,’ as Dr. Gahzhing described it, or we were all severely punished, not just the man who refused. The women were paid to sleep with us—it’s the way they make their living so I have no harsh feelings towards them. But as far as what I think of the Khagrish in charge—it was a perverted science experiment and business transaction combined into one repulsive package by your peers. If you think sleeping with sex workers under duress and threats has any relationship to what I feel for Megan—”
“Well, we’re trying to learn here,” Lampergg said mildly.
“We’re wasting time. Let me see her.”
Raising his hand and giving Mateer a threatening look, the scientist said, “I’m giving you more latitude than usual, 802, but don’t push me. You’re hardly in a position to make demands. Step back to the muster line.”
Swallowing hard, Mateer took his place on the black line where prisoners stood twice a day to be counted and assumed a parade rest stance, hands at his sides. The barrier buzzed out of existence, and five guards entered the cell. Three of them covered him with their weapons, while the others locked his hands into force cuffs behind his back and put him in leg shackles. Wordlessly, the guard captain shoved him into motion, and Mateer walked into the hall as best he could.
Lampergg was already heading away down the corridor while Mateer and his escort followed. The tight formation of guards with him in the center left the prison wing and entered the labs, stopping at a room where a lab tech waited outside the door, ready to give Lampergg status.. “No change in the patient’s condition, sir.”
“Not the best news, but far from the worst either, eh, 802?” Without waiting for an answer from Mateer, the scientist went into the room, sliding through the gap before the portal was fully open.
The guards shoved Mateer into the medlab so roughly he nearly fell.
Megan lay in a bed, ringed by instruments, with more devices hanging from the ceiling overhead if needed. She was unconscious, her face sunken, huge violet circles under her eyes. He was relieved to see her arm was less red and swollen than it had been, but she was so pale and motionless that he greatly feared for her. He paid no attention to all the readouts and equipment but pressed against the side of the bed, calling her name softly. Leaning over, he kissed her cheek and wished his hands were free so he could hold her, offer some comfort in this cold laboratory.
“Interesting,” Lampergg said in his dry voice. “Her vital signs are elevating. Anecdotal evidence the mate bond might have a beneficial effect.”
“You said you wanted to try something else—what was it?” Mateer asked, straightening and looking at the Khagrish.
“The Badari were bred to heal extraordinarily fast, to be resistant to infections and venoms alike,” Lampergg said.
Mateer hated to be reminded by this supercilious Khagrish that he and his kind were regarded as their experimental construct. “I know the history. Get to the point.”
“The point is, I intend to try infusing your blood into her and see if the healing effects carry over, species to species.”
He didn’t know what he’d been expecting but Mateer blinked and did a double take. “My blood could kill her.”
Lampergg didn’t deny this. “True. I found records of limited experiments, several generations ago, not with humans obviously and the results were, uh, unfortunate for the recipient test subject. But your species is now much enhanced, even if the Chimmer didn’t choose to keep you as the successful strand. I want to explore other uses for you. All the creative, innovative work my predecessors did, to develop the Badari from the original DNA shouldn’t go to waste. If your blood can heal, or bolster—”
Nauseous, Mateer interrupted him, “And you see no other way to help Megan? Then I say it’s worth a try.”
“I’m not asking for your permission.” Lampergg seemed genuinely surprised. “Merely explaining the parameters of the experiment to make you a more compliant subject.” He flicked his hand at the waiting lab tech. “Prepare 802 to donate.”
Forcing himself not to offer resistance, Mateer allowed the guards and techs to move him to a lab table on the other side of Megan’s bed. His restraints were removed so he could be fastened into the sturdy metal bands attached to the table and immobilized. A tech rolled up the sleeve of his jumpsuit and a second Khagrish brought over the blood extraction unit. Mateer had been through this and similar procedures at the hands of the Khagrish many times in his life. He had no expectation effort would be made to spare him pain or discomfort, but he felt compelled to say, “Be gentle with her, please. She’s human, not Badari, and fragile.”
“I’ve already drained some of her blood volume,” Lampergg said.
It was a good thing he was in restraints strong enough to hold a Badari or he might have gone after the scientist upon hearing the cold remark. As it was, he jerked at the metal bands hard enough to shake the table. “You bastard—of course she’ll die.”
“Not if your blood works as I’m hoping.”
The tech punctured his skin to access the big vein, and he watched the dark red of his blood flow through the tubes toward the machine which would transfer it into Megan. He prayed to the Great Mother this would help Megan, or else she’d be granted a merciful release from this life. Ignoring the bustle of the lab techs around him, as well as the guards, who’d withdrawn to the doorway, Mateer kept his attention firmly locked onto Megan. At first there was no reaction as his blood began entering her arm but shortly she gasped and shivered.
“That can’t be a good sign,” he said, searching in the crowd for Lampergg.
The scientist ignored him. “Bring heated blankets, elevate her body temperature and attempt to maintain equilibrium.”
Now large purple spots blossomed on her skin like deadly flowers, one after the other. Seriously alarmed, Mateer felt his talons and fangs appear of their own accord, as if he was able to spring to her defense and snatch her from this danger. But she’ll die for sure if we don’t finish this. He wished he could carry her outside, to the grove and hold her in his arms, to give comfort while she passed into the next life. No one – least of all Megan - should have to die in a cold, sterile Khagrish lab, watched by the cruel, uncaring aliens. I’m here, I’m with you. If he stretched his fingers to the utmost he might be able to graze her hand with the tips of his talons in a cautious caress.
Alarms blared from the medical equipment surrounding her bed. Lampergg and the techs sprang into action, although what they were doing was incomprehensible to him. One man hastened over to close the port taking his blood, letting the tube hang loose, the last few drops of his dark blood splattering on the floor. Mateer glanced at his arm, to see the blood clotting as it should.
“Give it time,” Lampergg was saying, as much to himself as to the techs. “Her organs have to figure out how to process the Badari blood elements. The fact her heart hasn’t stopped beating already is a good sign.” He and his assistants gathered at a console across the room.
Mateer released the talons on his right hand and strained his entire body to reach out. As he’d hoped, the tips of his two longest claws reached her and he was able to delicately stroke her hand. I’m so sorry.
Megan’s eyes opened and she turned her head to stare at him, the dark blue irises rimmed by the painfully bloodshot whites. “Mateer.” She whispered his name as she lifted her hand, palm up, and reached to squeeze his before closing her eyes and slumping onto the table.
“She’s regained consciousness,” yelled a lab tech.
Lampergg came hastening to the bedside, studying the readouts and then taking her wrist to do a manual evaluation. “Are you sure? Any flicker of awareness on her part would be a good sign but apparently she’s gone comatose again.”
The Khagrish clustered beside the bed and consulted with each other on readings and symptoms. Mateer focused on Megan, hoping for another flicker of recognition from her, happy the scientists seemed to have forgotten him, allowing him to maintain his watch over her.
“Yes, vital signs are definitely spiking now,” Lampergg said a few moments later. “I think the Badari blood has done its job. Speaking of which,” he wheeled to point at Mateer, “Get 802 to his cell. Give him two extra rations of liquid nutrients to compensate for the blood loss.”
“I should stay with my mate,” he said as the techs began to unfasten his restraints. “She needs me.”
“Not now,” Lampergg said. “I have more tests to run, observations to make. If she continues to progress, she’ll be joining you in the cell soon enough, and we’ll continue the mating experiment as planned.” He gave Mateer a sharp glance as the Badari slid off the table under the watchful eyes of the nervous guards. “Behave yourself in the meantime.”
Mateer refused to dignify the demeaning remark with an answer. He pushed past the guard as if the man wasn’t there and bent over Megan, kissing her gently on the lips even as the pain from the bracelet ratcheted up and the guards pulled at his arms. He stepped away from the bed and stood in stoic silence as the guard captain continued to apply pain via the bracelet, and the guards locked him into the force cuffs and shackles.
CHAPTER SIX
The next day was interminable to Mateer, locked in the cell and given no information about Megan. His badly bruised and sore arm healed itself in a few hours. Midafternoon he heard the sound of boots clattering in the hallway, which heralded the approach of the guards, and he left his bunk to go to the muster line. The squad had an antigrav litter with them.
“We’ve brought your mate,” said the guard captain. “Make one wrong move while we slide the litter into the cell and you’ll be on the floor begging me for mercy.” A trickle of pain came through the bracelet to serve as emphasis.
“Let me take care of her,” Mateer said, flexing his hands.
A narrow portion of the barrier opened, and the antigrav litter floated inside. It took all the self-restraint he had not to grab the stretcher as he saw Megan lying there unconscious.
“Are there instructions for her care? Medications?” he asked.
The lab tech shook his head. “Just keep an eye on her and hope she recovers. Dr. Lampergg stated he’d done all he could, and the rest is up to the restorative elements in your blood.”
The guard captain kept Mateer standing at the muster line for another five minutes in a pointless exercise of his petty power. Mateer made a silent vow to kill the man once his pack arrived and the facility was liberated. Imagining the creative ways he could make the guards suffer kept Mateer from reaching for Megan until he was given permission.
“All right, 802, get her out of the litter.”
Mateer scooped Megan’s limp form carefully from the floating platform and held her close as the medical conveyance was withdrawn from the cell
“She’s all yours now. Make the most of it.” The captain leered and ordered his squad away.
The lab tech lingered, stepping closer to the barrier. “Keep her warm. Make sure she drinks a lot of fluids.”
Surprised, Mateer nodded. “Thanks, I’ll keep her hydrated.”
Furtively, the tech glanced after the retreating guards and lowered his voice. “I slipped a special nutrition bar into her pocket for when she awakens. Her vital signs were stable for the last six hours so I think she’ll be okay.” The man hastened away without waiting to hear whatever Mateer might have answered.
Never trust a Khagrish was the Badari maxim, but every now and then there’d been techs less sadistic than the others, more sympathetic to the subjects of the experiments. Megan was fortunate this man Dregsorm fell into that category, at least where she was concerned.
Mateer pivoted on his heel, carrying her slight weight easily as he surveyed the grim cell. The ambiance wasn’t exactly improved by the mess he’d made while in a rage the other day, with broken and shredded beds and mattresses lying in piles. This chamber had been designed for a pack, so there was an alcove which offered the alpha the illusion of privacy. He was the second most dominant Badari in their pack, yet not an alpha. Still, Megan needed the best he could give her, and the alpha’s bed was slightly better quality than the remaining bunk beds. She might appreciate being in a nook versus lying in full view in the middle of the cell.
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