Reede

by Veronica Scott

  She appreciated the matter of fact briefing. Taking a deep breath, she rose, evading the hand Reede automatically extended to her, relieved not to be lightheaded. “I’m ready. Let’s get this done and be on our way to your base.” She owed it to these brave men to do her part as a soldier and complete the mission so they could all go home.

  Reede was right—her second viewing of the plateau was less of a shock and she was able to keep walking toward the ship, although sorrow invaded her mind. Fallyn blinked furiously to keep the tears away. If she let even one fall, she’d never hold the emotional storm off and the job wouldn’t get done. She focused hard on the mission and the reassuring blaster in her hand. Time enough to mourn later.

  As she crossed the meadow, dodging chunks of the ship and torn up ground, Darik indicated a spot where the grass was trampled and she realized there was dried blood.

  “We figure this is where your teammate dragged you free of the wreck before he uh checked out,” the Badari said in a quiet voice. “He must have been a helluva guy, managing to land the ship in that condition and get you clear while mortally wounded. Wish I could have met him and shaken his hand.”

  “Fred was something else all right,” she said, the mental picture of her captain fresh in her mind. She was remembering the last meal they shared before jumping into this fucking star system and getting blasted by the Chimmer. He’d been a tough soldier with a good sense of humor and an utter devotion to duty. As she passed the spot Darik had indicated, Fallyn made a vow to avenge her friend’s death.

  “We’ll make them pay,” Reede said. “With your help.”

  She forced herself to look at the ship, assessing the condition. “I should set it to self-destruct once we’re done.”

  To her surprise, Reede disagreed, shaking his head. “We don’t want the Khagrish to even know we were here. The less idea the enemy has about our movements, the better.”

  Instantly rebellious, she briefly considered telling him where he could stick his order but deep down she knew he was right. His assessment of the local situation had to override her standing orders from the Sectors Command. Scouts had discretion when it came to even the most stringent rules of engagement, like the one about slagging nonfunctional ships.

  Not waiting to see if she’d raise an argument, Reede had moved ahead. “All right, Lt. Damara and I’ll go in by ourselves, with MARL20 and see what we can do. Eyes on the skies and alert me the instant you see anything out of the ordinary. This would be a bad spot to get ambushed in.”

  The Badari spread out smoothly, only Darik continuing on to the ship with them. He took them to the lee side and the three of them stood and contemplated the huge gash in the wreck. MARL20, flashing orange and green bands of color, drifted ahead and into the hole, disappearing from sight.

  “Guess he’s not very patient,” Darik said. “MARL and his endless quest for fresh data.”

  “Or he has a bad feeling about this like the one in my gut.” Reede’s frown was epic, forehead furrowed. “Give us a boost and take sentry duty here.”

  Reede went first and then Darik lifted Fallyn to allow the commander to pull her to stand beside him. Fallyn found herself in a world gone mad, nothing like the tidy, orderly ship she was used to. After a moment, as Reede illuminated the space with a hand lamp, she switched on her own light, got herself oriented and led the way through the chaos toward the bridge access point. Ahead she could see a glow from MARL20.

  She ascended the dangerously loose emergency ladder since of course the antigrav lift wasn’t working and she and Reede crowded into the small cockpit with the AI.

  Fallyn sighed in relief, hardly able to believe their sheer good luck. “The astronav module is over here, in the relatively undamaged section. Can you point the lights at it? I’ll see if I can disengage the clamps and pop it out.”

  Reede moved carefully to position himself as requested. Fallyn marveled again how such a huge man could maneuver so lightly. MARL20 got in her way, however.

  “I should attempt to collect the data before you take action,” he said, yellow and orange swirling through the green. “Just in case.”

  Fallyn lifted her hands and retreated a step. She was impatient to leave the ship, with a tingling in the back of her neck usually indicating serious trouble ahead but the signals she’d gotten from the Badari so far were what MARL20 wanted, he got. “Go ahead, be my guest.” Raising one eyebrow she checked with Reede and he nodded approval.

  The AI hovered right in front of the panel and thin, spiky bolts of white light arced back and forth from him to the instrumentation, which as far as Fallyn could see, didn’t activate in any way. She exchanged a second glance with Reede, who merely shrugged.

  “Speed it up,” he said to the AI, tapping the metallic ovoid’s top with one long talon. “Is there anything else, anything personal you want to try to recover before we go?” he asked Fallyn.

  She thought about her tiny quarters and the few mementoes she’d had from worlds she’d visited on her missions and explored in her rare downtime. None of the items would have survived the crash. “Anything I genuinely care about is in my personal stasis vault at my home base,” she said. “But thanks for the consideration.”

  The lights emanating from MARL20 shut off with an audible buzz and he retreated, heading for the emergency ladder. “We must leave at once.”

  Reede jumped in front of him and the AI had no room to maneuver in the small space. Talons bared, the Badari demanded answers. “Why? What’s wrong?”

  “I detect a signal originating from this vessel, going to the Khagrish security net.” MARL20’s surface was entirely red now as he bounced up and down in midair. “Our presence here has triggered an alarm.”

  “Bastards booby trapped the ship in case anyone came to investigate,” Reede said. “You have two minutes to get the module loose and we’re leaving, Fallyn.”

  She moved to the panel and fought with the clips. “Shouldn’t you warn the others?”

  I already did. His voice was in her ear, almost inaudible, and she remembered the Badari were telepathic with each other although he had to use the MARL20-generated com to speak to her subliminally.

  “Help me force this one?” she said through gritted teeth, banging on a hinge with her hand lamp.

  Reede put his huge hands on the pressure points and pushed. The module slid out of the console and she hastily unhooked the connections. Reede grabbed it and her and raced to the exit. “Darik says we have incoming. Damn they got here fast.”

  Instead of using the ladder, he jumped the distance to the ground, holding her securely by one arm, and then cleared the ship in seconds. He tossed the module to Darik and handed Fallyn to Timtur, who was waiting. “Get her and the navcomp out of here. Get her to the valley, no more delays. The Khagrish don’t know you’re here—they’re hunting me so we have an advantage if you hurry.”

  He sprinted toward a nearby formation of boulders and took cover, firing at the oncoming flyer.

  “No, we have to stay, we can’t leave him here,” Fallyn yelled as Timtur dragged her to the rear of the wreck, hoisted her over his shoulder and ran.

  “You heard the orders. He’s going to distract them, delay them so we can get you safely away,” the healer told her. He did the descent from the plateau in a rush that was so barely under control Fallyn had to close her eyes, terrified the next rash step would be their last and they’d go plummeting into the deep valley below. MARL20 flew alongside, no colors at all showing.

  “The AI’s projecting a disruption field,” Timtur said. “So the Khagrish won’t see you and me, but his range is severely limited.”

  Timtur kept going, joined by the other men as he ran, and didn’t stop until they were deep in the forest. Then he lowered Fallyn to the ground and stood breathing hard.

  “Reede?” she said, bouncing to her feet, full of adrenaline and determination. She looked from one man to the next. “We have to go back. You can’t let him make a last stand
and die—surely we can provide cover for him to get away too. Or maybe even capture the flier and use it ourselves.”

  Jaw clenched, Darik shook his head. “You heard Reede. We have to get you to the valley. Then the Alpha will send a rescue mission out for him. Badari prisoners are considered too valuable to the Khagrish to be killed out of hand. They’ll make every effort to capture him.”

  Anything could happen to Reede once he was in the scientists’ hands. Fallyn’s adrenaline was high and she couldn’t understand the others’ refusal to take action to save their fellow. “But if we can extract him now—”

  “He’s already been taken,” Timtur said. “He’s a prisoner on the flyer right now.” The healer tapped his temple with his right index finger. “Telepathic, remember? He’s reiterated his orders to us.”

  “Where are they taking him?” she asked.

  “He says the flyer and the guards are from the lab you escaped. He says Dr. Enishiggama sent them after him and apparently she doesn’t give a damn about you right now.” Darik flicked a glance at her. “He told them you died from their overuse of the bracelet’s pain feature, humans being weaker than Badari, and he left your body in a ravine. They don’t even seem to care how he got out of the force field fence, which is odd, or why he was at the crashed ship, which is also strange.”

  “More interrogation to come later,” Camron said with a frown. “Although I admit their reaction to the situation is odd.”

  Fallyn kept arguing. “Tell him—”

  “He cut us off.” Camron gave her a sympathetic glance. “He wants us to focus on getting you to the valley, not go after him. Doesn’t mean we don’t care but we have our orders. It’s time to figure out a safe extraction point and call for our ride.”

  In total disbelief she flicked a glance at each man in turn. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing right now.”

  “I know it probably sounds harsh to you,” Timtur said. “We don’t like leaving a brother in Khagrish hands but Camron’s right—we have our orders. Reede knew the dangers and he knows we’ll be back to get him out as soon as we can mount the operation.”

  “No,” she said, retreating a step, so she had the forest at her back. “I’m not going. You do whatever the fuck you need to do but I’m not in your army or your pack or whatever you call it. Reede’s orders don’t mean diddley squat to me but he does. Take the module and go home with my blessing. I’m going to the lab and I’m getting him out.”

  “Lady, don’t make us do something we’ll all regret.” Darik stood tall, his eyes glowing nearly red.

  “I’m not a lady, I’m a recon scout, I know what I’m doing and I’ll shoot the first man who tries to stop me.” She held her weapon perilously close to a threatening positon and retreated another step. “I’ll admit this would be easier if I had help—it’s your planet and you know the lay of the land and the enemy’s strategies—but if you won’t help then stay out of my way.”

  She was sure the men were conferring telepathically, although to outward appearances they remained riveted on her. Fallyn didn’t delude herself—these highly trained warriors with their superfast reflexes could take her out if they didn’t mind a couple getting shot in the process but she hoped her determination would sway them.

  “Goddess, you humans are stubborn,” Darik said with a laugh, breaking the tension. “Are you by any chance his mate?”

  “He did mention that once, as kind of a possibility. I didn’t understand all of it, frankly,” she lied, confident she’d certainly gotten the gist but unwilling to talk to these men about the topic. And what would Reede think if she did? Surely this mate issue was private to the two of them. “What does us being mates or not have to do with anything?”

  “Only that the Alpha might forgive us if we play the mate card hard enough, for why we disobeyed orders and went after Reede’s ass right now.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Wedged into the nest of boulders, Reede had been able to avoid being stunned from above. His pulse rifle wasn’t enough to bring down a flier, although he inflicted damage. He actually had a little hope of escaping but then a second craft arrived as a reinforcement. One craft stayed overhead, pinning him in place with precision targeted scorching blasts and the other landed at the far end of the meadow, disgorging a fairly large group of black clad Khagrish security officers. Enishiggama must have sent all the spare men she had in her guard detachment.

  His weapon was nearly out of charge so as the guards advanced, he threw it aside, deployed his natural weaponry and attacked them head on, growling and roaring his defiance. He wanted to keep them so concentrated on him they wouldn’t spare a thought for Fallyn.

  He killed the first two guards he attacked and mauled a third but then he was hit with multiple stun charges and fell crashing to the ground helplessly. The plan, such as it was, was working. As he’d gambled, they wanted him alive He lay breathing hard, waiting for whatever might happen next, struggling to stay alert for any opportunity to resist. Five Khagrish security guards came into his limited field of vision and one man advanced to kick him in the ribs.

  “Don’t know where you believed you were going, 803,” the guard said, squatting down to look Reede in the eye. He coughed and rose to his feet, stumbling to the side awkwardly as if unable to stem the reflex, continuing to hack and wheeze. He moved out of Reede’s line of sight.

  “Get the animal loaded onto the flyer,” said the next security officer who arrived to stand gloating over Reede, although he seemed distracted by the physical problem his team mate was having . “Dr. Enishiggama wants him back in her lab with no delay.”

  “What’s the rush?” The guard standing beside Reede asked the very question he would have voiced so he waited with interest for the answer. “Shouldn’t we check the area, see if we can find the human woman? He’s at the site where she crashed after all. Or if he has any buddies who helped him escape?” Weapon at the ready, the Khagrish displayed uneasiness, scanning the edge of the forest.

  “With Enishiggama, who in the name of the under demons has any idea? Our job is to say yes, doctor and make it happen.” The officer spread his hands, a clearly exasperated expression on his face. “She’s responsible for the science priorities—I only work here. And my bonus is under her scrutiny, so get a move on.”

  The guards placed Reede on an antigrav litter and he could only stare at the sky above. He exchanged a few quick telepathic messages with his team, emphasizing his order to get Fallyn to the valley. After he’d updated them he was aboard the flyer and there was no possibility of a rescue, he closed the mental links. No Badari wanted his brothers to listen in while he was tortured. The pack had a protocol for how a man handled himself while the Khagrish conducted their experiments and punishment. When the rescue team came for him—and it would, he had utmost faith in his Alpha—they’d do a telepathic ‘knock’ and then he’d communicate if he could.

  Reede needed to concentrate on himself right now anyway, to survive whatever was coming. He needed to achieve a certain state of mental detachment, be prepared to take advantage of any slipup on the part of the Khagrish and to withstand whatever Enishiggama planned to dish out.

  At least Fallyn was free and clear.

  He indulged himself in thinking about her for a few more minutes because while he and his captors were in the flier on their way to the lab, there wouldn’t be any serious abuse or chance to resist. Then he’d resign all wistful thoughts of the woman who could have been his mate under other circumstances and focus on his immediate challenges.

  Soon enough, the craft landed and still strapped to the antigrav litter he was rushed inside the building.

  As he was taken through the halls, Reede noticed things were abnormal. A light had burned out and not been replaced yet. A cleaning robo sat askew in the middle of a corridor, as if whoever had programmed it for the day’s tasks had been interrupted. His guards swore and detoured around the obstacle, their boots tracking through the puddle of cleaning
fluid leaked all over the tiles.

  Reede realized there were fewer lab techs and other workers in the hall than usual. He heard a lot of coughing from the Khagrish he passed and the guards closest to him were grim faced, exchanging meaningful looks, but not speaking.

  They took him to a different lab. It might not have been the room where he was tormented before but it was depressingly familiar to him as a Badari, with the metal examining tables and the plethora of equipment, all designed to inflict pain and suffering. The waiting lab techs with their grim faces didn’t faze him. They’d get no satisfaction from him. He settled deep into the calm center of his mind and waited. As the effects of the stunner pulse receded from his nervous system, he was stripped and restrained on a big table in the center of the lab.

  Coughing heralded the arrival of Dr. Enishiggama.

  “You sound like hell,” Reede said to her. She was paler than she’d been before, her hair was limp, her eyes were feverish and she couldn’t stop coughing, holding one hand to her chest as she did so, as if in pain.

  “Clear the room,” the Khagrish said in a raspy voice, ignoring his gibe. “Lab techs only. He can’t cause trouble now he’s locked down.”

  Once the guards had departed and the portal slammed shut, she sat on a stool one of the techs brought for her and studied him with a clinical eye. Despite her having fondled him every time she put the sensors on his body for the mate testing, Enishiggama had never been one of the Khagrish females who forced Badari into their beds. He hoped her disinterest hadn’t changed in the years since she’d been assigned to the lab where he grew up. While she stared and pondered, he tested the restraints, subtly flexing his muscles. He might be able to rip at least two of them free from the table. This equipment hadn’t been well maintained, must have been quite a while since any Badari had been kept here.