“You mu— should remain here, Kathryn.”
Huh. Yeah, sure, while you two go off and try to annihilate each other.
She crossed her arms and gave him her best stern look. “Yes, I’ll just stay here and wait for something to come along and sting, bite, peck, eat, or generally savage me.”
His lips compressed. “There could be Bluthen in the towers.”
“There could be something equally obnoxious in these woods.” She let him stew on that for a moment then shrugged. “Or I could just follow you at a distance.”
His eyes narrowed and his fingers drummed over his left leg, just above the pocket in which he kept the mono-rope.
She tapped her index finger on her bicep and cocked her head to one side.
“I might let you do that one day, T’Hargen, but not today.”
His eyes widened, a blaze of shock quickly followed by acute interest shooting through them.
“Why don’t we let TL venture to one of the towers?” she suggested. “If he can’t detect any Bluthen, we follow.”
His features firmed with doubtful consideration.
“You know he won’t put me in danger.”
T’Hargen’s gaze shifted to TL, a warning implicit in the green depths. “Do it,” he growled.
TL bowed his nose to her, farted at T’Hargen, then spun and jetted away. She pinched the bridge of her nose between thumb and forefinger and slowly shook her head.
Boys, boys, boys. When are you going to learn to play together nicely?
It took TL only moments to reach the left tower. T’Hargen’s scanner bipped. She glanced down at it. Text scrolled across the screen. She tilted her head to one side to read the upside-down message.
“All clear,” T’Hargen muttered, his reservations about the report apparent in his tone. He turned a serious face to her. “Please remain at my back, Kathryn.”
She inclined her head towards him. “As you wish.”
He drew his weapon, placed a foot onto the surface of the burnt umber casement, waited a moment before stepping fully onto the surface then held out his hand to her. She slipped her hand into his and joined him, panning her gaze ahead. Wonder slid along her veins at the sheer, simple beauty before them.
T’Hargen tugged her forwards and she followed in his wake, letting him guide her as she admired the smooth olive limbs of the dwarf trees. Their buttery, elongated, diamond-shaped leaves dangled like chandelier crystals. Amethyst drops seeped from the ebony roots, trickled down, and lay a film of lavender over the water.
Her senses sent a sudden and urgent demand for attention regarding depleted support beneath her left foot. She stumbled, lurched towards a pond, and scrambled to regain her balance. T’Hargen’s grip on her hand strengthened and he hauled her upright.
“Sorry,” she murmured and concentrated on placing her feet carefully.
An almost nostalgic quality imbued the air as though the entire place was lost in memories of a graceful past.
And I’m being fanciful again.
She peered around T’Hargen’s broad back and examined the towers they had nearly reached. Swirling symbols in the same style as the ones she’d seen in the cave on New Earth, and on the trunk of the tree before its entrance, covered the exterior. The substance of the casing seemed to capture the sunlight and coil it below the surface in long glittering currents. The towers appeared to have a diameter of about thirty feet, tapering to a sharp point some fifty or so feet in the air.
A line drawn between each of the bases would describe—I should have known—an isosceles shape.
A cool breeze puffed against her cheek, lifted strands of her hair, and brought the scent of . . . an awful, bilious odour with a dreadful undertone of sweetness. Conjecture and dismay coiled through her.
“Do you smell that?” she whispered.
T’Hargen’s head snapped towards her.
“Bluthen?”
She drew another cautious breath in through her nose, analysed the scent that drifted with horrible suggestion on the breeze then shook her head slowly.
“No, well, maybe, but not a live one.”
T’Hargen’s big hand cloaked her shoulder and his fingers gave a brief squeeze.
“What is it, Kathryn?”
“Decomposing body, I think. It’s faint, possibly a few weeks since death.” She lifted her chin towards the damaged tower. “Coming from that direction.”
T’Hargen’s lips compressed into a straight line. She marshalled strength and resolution and straightened her spine.
“Come on, it’s not like it’ll be the first dead body I’ve seen.”
“I would not have you view one more if it were in my capacity to avoid that.”
She sent him a wan smile. “I know, thank you. TL, can you locate the corpse, and at least verify my hope that it is only one?”
He whistled a sharp acquiescence and shot away towards the damaged tower, angling for the gaping rupture. Like a small, dark speck, he hovered before the opening then disappeared inside.
A few minutes later T’Hargen’s scanner bipped receipt of a communication. He stared at the screen and his mouth tightened then he turned the device away from her.
“Show it to me, T’Hargen.”
For a long moment he stared at the horizon, his lips pressed against his teeth, then without a word he handed her the device. She stared at him then dropped her gaze to the screen.
A semi-decomposed, mutilated corpse sprawled in the remains of a control chair. Teeth protruded from decaying gums, the lipless mouth stretched in a grim parody of a smile. The jaw, lax in death, gaped open. Gruesome lesions marked the darkened-to-charcoal skin of the oddly tilted, bald, elongated skull while black shadows filled its eyeless sockets. Fluid stains, quite probably the internal organs liquefying, soiled the tattered remains of clothing, possibly a uniform of some sort.
“If you can, perform a DNA analysis, please, TL.” She flicked a glance up at T’Hargen. “It’s difficult to be sure, especially with the distortion of the face, but the cadaver appears Bluthen. If so, and without closer examination, I’d hazard death occurred about three weeks ago, assuming they decompose in a similar manner to humans. TL, can you take recordings of the surrounding equipment—”
“And of the damage to the building itself,” T’Hargen interrupted, his gaze calm on her. “I might be able to ascertain the cause of the destruction.”
TL chirruped his willingness to comply.
“Do you need anything, Kathryn?”
The gentle concern in T’Hargen’s voice and the graveness of his features gave her resolution an extra shot of vigour. He knew what she’d been through as a prisoner of the Bluthen, every detail, and his consideration heartened her. She placed her palm on his chest and drew fortifying spirit from him.
“I’m fine, T’Hargen, thank you. That chair and the machinery behind the corpse look like associate equipment to a Brain Machine Interface.”
“I concur.”
She gave him an appreciative smiled. “Is that the basis of your concern for me?”
He nodded. “Partly.”
“And the other part?”
His features softened and his lips curved in that devastating, thought-snatching grin. A sweet tingle zapped through her veins, dragging fiery hunger in its wake.
No drooling! No drooling!
“I fear you freaking out on me.”
What? She re-ran his words then slapped him on the chest in mock offense.
“Tease.” She turned her gaze back to the screen. “Do you think he was linked to the BMI? If he was, what did they hope to accomplish, and more importantly, were they successful?”
“Not if the corpse is any indication. But then, the Bluthen would not be concerned w
ith the death. Their only consideration would be what information it could impart.”
“You think they could have buried the poor bugger.”
T’Hargen’s disgustedly resigned shake of the head reminded her of the intrinsic, callous nature of the Bluthen.
No, perhaps not. She still harboured hope it was only the military that acted in that manner and not the entire race. That the females had some scrap of compassion in them and that the children were not born without empathy.
“If they could not profit from a burial, they would not provide one.” His glance shifted to the broken tower. “Or perhaps they intend to return to investigate. As for what they hoped to accomplish”— T’Hargen shrugged—“that will depend on the purpose of the tower or towers. Perhaps their intent was simply to determine if a Bluthen could activate the machinery in it.”
She ran her gaze over the other buildings then began to circle this one. A low-pitched whistle, confirming the corpse as Bluthen, pealed from T’Hargen’s scanner.
“Thanks, TL,” she replied absently, using her own scanner to seek signs of an access point in the structure. Nothing showed. “I wonder how you enter.” She halted, turned her mouth down, and lifted her eyebrows in a considering grimace. “If you’re supposed to enter.”
T’Hargen leaned close. His breath brushed her ear. Goose bumps tripped down the side of her neck, flashed across her breast, and nestled in her aureole.
Was she becoming more sensitive to him?
“Maybe you should try touching it,” he murmured.
The teasing, suggestive note in his tone amplified the goose bumps to a full on erotic tingle, flushing them over every erogenous zone of her body.
She turned an innocent gaze on him and lifted a hand to trace a swirling, engraved line with her forefinger. “Like this? Or”—she included her other fingers in the caress, running them back and forth—“this?”
T’Hargen swallowed, his body swaying towards hers. She grinned then sighed. This was hardly the appropriate place.
Oh!
“Maybe that’s what happened to the Bluthen.”
Confusion reigned on T’Hargen’s features. He blinked. “I beg your pardon?”
“Maybe that’s what happened to the Bluthen. He was where he shouldn’t have been. In a place not appropriate for him, and he paid the price.”
T’Hargen stepped closer, wrapped a hand around her hip, and ushered her into the shade of the tower.
“So, being where he shouldn’t have been, he caused a malfunction that ended in an explosion or was caught in an explosion, cause unknown?”
“Mmm.”
She allowed herself the pleasure of leaning into him, to enjoy the bond forming between them, then lifted a hand and placed it on the cool surface of the tower and stared up its height.
“I wonder how he gained access, though.”
“Perhaps the only way in is via beam transport.”
“You might be right.”
TL’s excited hooting zoomed towards them. T’Hargen’s head whipped around to stare at her friend.
“Did he just say he has confirmation of life? And a definitive position on the captives’ whereabouts?”
Wary hope rose in a hot tide through her chest.
“Yes.”
A second later, TL hovered before them, whistling and warbling and flitting from side to side like a line dancer on a three-day sugar high. She held up a hand to him.
“Calm down, TL. You extracted an encrypted data stream from the masterframe. You know the location of the abductees on this planet, and some of them are still alive, is that correct?”
His confirmatory squeal stabbed into her eardrums. She winced. T’Hargen almost doubled over, slapping his hands over his ear-ridges. He growled something more than a little obscene.
Well, that’s a new cuss. I’ll have to remember that one.
“A little quieter if you will, please, TL. Yes, I’m excited too, you’re a good friend. Now, send the information to T’Hargen’s scanner and let’s go!”
“Not so fast, Kathryn.”
T’Hargen waylaid her with a hand to her elbow then his gaze turned to TL.
“How many Bluthen will we encounter? What are their positions? Armament? Where is this structure? What are its fortifications?”
TL replied with impatient piping. “The people are in the water haven. Security is minimal. Come! Come!”
“Water haven? How many is minimal?” T’Hargen demanded, not budging an inch and holding her secure.
“Minimal!” TL whistled, frustration at the delay turning his tone shrill. “Not many. Even you can overcome. With me, Katelena safe.”
T’Hargen’s gaze turned to her and she shrugged. “It’s what he calls me.”
“You will explain this water haven. How deep is the water?”
“Water haven has no depth,” TL sneered. “It is haven from water.” He scooted closer and nudged her shoulder. “Come, Katelena, come. We will rescue. Aid them. Come!”
She flicked her glance to T’Hargen. He didn’t appear as though he’d be moving any time soon, not without answers. TL’s urgency burned through her veins, adding to her own agitated need to move.
“TL, why don’t you cloak and give us an aerial scan of the terrain ahead? That will give us the information we need to choose the best route, and while we’re travelling, you can update T’Hargen with all the information you have regarding where we are going and any obstacles and or opposition we may encounter. Is that acceptable, T’Hargen?”
For a long, mute moment he stared hard at her then nodded once. Still retaining his hold on her elbow, they strode briskly towards a low ridge.
~ ~ ~
An hour or so later, T’Hargen lay full length on short, tufty, coastal grass, grinding his molars flat. The damn drone’s cryptic replies to his queries hadn’t provided much more in the way of information. They wouldn’t meet resistance until inside water haven. The masterframe would prevent any Bluthen from making visual contact with them on the outside and also provide an edited stream of data to any surveillance monitors that would exclude their presence.
Kathryn rested behind him in the shelter of a dell where he’d deposited her. He stared down a narrow, grassy gully, over a bluff to the sea and their destination. Fatalistic dismay tightened his jaw, and he suppressed a tremor of paranoiac disgust.
Of all things, it had to be water. Haven from water meant their destination was surrounded by the hideous stuff, not as he’d naively hoped, cover from rain.
A line of sheer, white, chalky cliffs topped with beige-green pasture curved away from the land to form a solid, semi-circular seawall protecting a large, half-moon cove. Clouds and the undulating cliffs reflected in the still, sheltered waters. A small, rocky island sat within the natural harbour. He sharpened the focus on his fieldbinos.
I can see through the water all the way to the sea floor.
Horror punched him in the gut while at the same time the clarity of the water astonished him. He’d never seen anything so . . . frighteningly beautiful. A slim, floating platform of some pale-blue material stretched in a long arc from the mainland below them over the deep water to the island. Nothing moved. Anywhere.
Where in Trog’s pits are the Bluthen guards? Are there really none outside?
The drone perched beside him on a flat rock and his distrust of the creature again calculated the likelihood of betrayal. He’d yet to determine what motives drove the drone, so any data it suppled could only be viewed as suspect. The one fact he could be sure of was that it wanted them at these coordinates.
To rescue people? Possibly. If you believed the prime directive claim.
To deliver them to the Bluthen? His gut now doubted that, but still he could not bring himself
to believe in the creature’s integrity. Kathryn, unfortunately, regarded the ASI as implicitly trustworthy and would no doubt follow the thing into deep waters, or over them in this case, especially if the lives of Bluthen abductees hung in the balance.
T’Hargen stared at the horrifying depth of the bay and swallowed.
He would not abandon her, no matter what the challenge. He wouldn’t have before she’d laid hold of his heart.
His thoughts screeched to an abrupt halt and he examined the unguarded admission. Yes, he believed she was his future, but it was more than that. Her empathy and intrinsic warmth had driven away the doubts warding his emotions. She made the pieces of himself fit. Smoothly. Effectively. She made him feel . . . alive. Whole. Undamaged. No one had ever bestowed him such a gift.
And I love her for it.
The sun exploded in his heart, galvanising his spirit. He felt her gaze on his back, her confidence in him, waiting for him to detail their next move. His resolve hardened. He could do this. Floundering in wretchedly deep water would not become a factor. The stumbling beat of his heart gave its wholehearted endorsement. They could cross the floating walkway, free the captives, and return.
He checked his scanner once more. Apart from themselves, nothing large existed here.
Where are the guards?
The only explanation for a lack of sentry posts would be a complete absence of need for them.
Why would there be no need for them?
Where the Alliance was concerned, the Bluthen left nothing of value unprotected. Was that the answer? Were the captives deceased? Did the drone lie? Or—
Are we so far from Alliance space no external guards are necessary? Cold dread crept along his nerves like the inexorable footsteps of death. Where in Frack’s guts are we?
He glanced at the drone.
“Did you receive the spatial coordinates of this planet from the masterframe?”
Alien, Awakening Page 14