by Stone, Layla
That’s when he realized he was too late. They had been turned into Numan experiments. The female in front of him had glowing red eyes, sharp teeth, and speckled grey, tan, and white skin.
“What the hell?” he said.
“Still with my ladies, but if you need me, I’m there for fifty keleps and a bottle of whiskey,” Pax said.
Yon backed up and jerked when he noticed that all the containers with the floating black shadows were no longer unidentifiable. Now, each one had a person in it. Except they were males with silver and white skin.
One snarled, exposing his teeth, his eyes drilling into Yon’s. A threat.
“I’m going to assume you’re the one trying to spy on me.” The voice came from everywhere, which meant it was broadcast from hidden speakers. It also sounded like an old female. Her enunciation was slow and almost stuttering.
Yon wasn’t exactly the chatty type, so he ignored Veeda and looked at the container to see how to open it. When he couldn’t figure it out, he pulled out his knife and slammed it against the glass. He realized it was reinforced when his bones started shaking.
The person inside jumped and made a noise like a high-pitched cry.
“My containment cells are impenetrable.” The voice stumbled over the last word, and Yon wondered if he should have taken a look at what Veeda looked like before this.
Yon put his knife away, grabbed another piece of putty, and put it by the glass so it wouldn’t hurt the female inside. Then he stood back at a safe distance. When the blast went off, he covered his face to shield it from the debris. When he looked back, he noticed that the female was gone. In her place was a dark shadow, hovering over the ground.
Yon used his communicator speaker so the female could hear him. “I’m here to help you. I’m from the Federation.”
The shadow didn’t move.
Yon didn’t move either, but he did repeat what he’d said. “I’m here to help you.”
“How the hell did you get in here? Get out of here, Demon,” the old female yelled over the speaker system. Yon inwardly smiled. Pax had made it. Good.
Then, for no reason whatsoever, all the lights turned off, and Yon heard glass shattering and lots and lots of screaming.
Everything was pitch-black, and he couldn’t tell who or how someone grabbed him by the neck. Suddenly, he was vaulted into the air and hit the metal wall with his hands first and then his shoulder.
“Pax,” Yon called, wondering if the Demon was okay.
“I’m here with an unconscious Numan that looks like she should have been dead thousands of years ago. You’ve gotta see this. It will give you nightmares.”
Yon was glad his friend was okay. But then he heard another glass container shatter. Damn. “Stay out of the main room. Contact the ship. Take Veeda back. I’ve got it in here,” Yon ordered.
“That hurts. Are you disinviting me to the party?”
Yon didn’t care how Pax took it. All he cared about was keeping the shadows contained. They were experiments, and probably so messed up that they didn’t know they were safe. Scared and crazy people did stupid things. He would have to contain them.
Yon moved slowly to the door, needing to ensure that it stayed closed.
But then someone grabbed his ankle. He kicked out, connected with something solid, and screaming echoed through the large room all over again. The tension was gone, so he raced to where he thought the door was. His thigh snagged something, hit it wrong, and he tumbled over.
Another something hit his ribcage, knocking the air out of him. Instead of screams, he thought he heard a series of clicks.
Then he was up in the air again and landing hard against the wall. He heard more clicks this time from the other side of the room.
“Take it easy, I’m almost there,” Pax said.
Yon was hurt. He wanted to tell Pax not to come, but the Demon’s help might be a good idea. He lay flat until he felt pressure around his arm. He kicked out and moved on top of the body. Pulling his arm back, he estimated proximity and jabbed down.
The thing under him screeched.
He hit it again.
The air shifted, and he moved his arm out to stop whoever was near him. Too late, he heard the windup and saw the blast as it smashed into him. Piercing, white-hot pain shot through his chest. He couldn’t catch his breath, and he went down.
The thing under him shoved, and a second later, Yon was kicked in the wound, breaking a rib and making him black out. The last thing he heard was his own screams.
22
Boore
“Ansel, what just happened to the feed?” Yelena was in the virtual reality tube, watching the events unfold on another pod that Ansel had smartly sent down to the planet so they could keep track of what was happening. She had been monitoring Yon and watching him as he broke one of the experiments out of the round containers.
The video feed had stopped recording, though. Instead of seeing Yon, she saw a large screen that was completely black.
Pulling off the goggles, she stepped out of the tube and watched Ansel do the same. Then he told her, “The video feed is still receiving, so it’s not the pod. It’s the lab. Someone might have cut the power.”
Which meant that Yon and Pax were in the dark with Veeda. Yelena felt a shiver run over her skin just thinking about how horrible that would be. Pax and Yon wouldn’t know if they were in danger or if they were about to run into something with sharp edges. Yelena didn’t like it at all. Before she could stop herself, she said, “I should go down there.”
Ansel gave her a pointed look. “Pax and Yon are superior fighters. They will be fine. And the Garna is already on its way.”
Yelena tried to let those words console her, but she was still anxious. No one who was a natural day seer fought well in the dark. And with one of Veeda’s experiments loose, Yelena had no idea what that person would do. Whatever the old Numan did to turn them into those red-eyed monsters was no small thing. But more to the point, Yelena needed Ansel to understand that, without light, Pax and Yon were helpless. She, however, would not be. “I could help. I can see in the dark, and I know what it’s like to be held in a container scared and hoping for someone to save me. I know what to do for the captives. Let me go down.”
Before Ansel could answer, Sci walked in. “I saw the images in your mind. Those people with the red eyes are called Boore. They’re Outworlders.”
Ansel frowned. “The Federation is not going to like that.”
“That’s not the worst part,” Sci said. “They speak in sounds. They don’t have a written or true spoken language. No one will be able to communicate with them except for me. Telepathically. And I’m not overly confident about that.”
Yelena thought about what she would have done if some large male not of her race tried to talk to her in a language she didn’t understand. She wouldn’t trust him at all. And thinking of Yon and how he’d tried to speak to the Boore, Yelena knew that she needed to get down there immediately. That female was going to attack him. That’s exactly what Yelena would have done. “I need some food and water packages and for you to do the thing with the lifepod so I can get down there.”
“No. Rannn would rip me apart,” Ansel said.
Sci lifted his hand and, all of a sudden, a white Federation evo-suit was floating in the air towards her. “Then make sure to let Rannn know that I approved it.”
“You don’t have authority,” Ansel said but without any real anger.
Sci moved his hands again, and she saw a pack floating in the medical doors, as well. Then he told Ansel, “I don’t need authority, I just need to know the best way to help the people down there. They are from a small planet that isn’t technological. They are very primitive.”
Behind her, Yelena heard an alert. Turning around, she saw a Minky screen with two outlines of male bodies. Above the first outline was the name, Pax. He had several yellow dots on his body and a red dot on his shoulder. Over the second outline was the name Yon, and h
is entire body was blinking red.
“What does that mean?” Yelena asked.
Ansel cursed again. “Yon is going into shock.” She watched as Ansel stomped to the side and grabbed an evo-suit for himself. He unzipped it and shoved a foot in.
Yelena pulled her own suit on and zipped it up.
Another loud beep sounded, and Ansel started to double-time his efforts. Yelena looked at the screen and saw that Yon’s outline had turned black. “What does that mean?”
“His heart stopped. If you’re going, we need to go now.”
Yelena finished dressing, grabbed the pack, and followed Ansel out the medical doors. Sci turned and walked next to Ansel. His voice was low, but she heard him ask, “Are you going to be okay?”
“I have to be,” Ansel answered with a slight shake.
Yelena had no idea what that meant, and she really wanted to ask, but there was no time with Ansel pulling her into the rather small lifepod. They took off, and he started tapping on his Minky screen with vigor.
Her stomach lurched a little as they departed the ship and began descending, but as soon as they hit the atmosphere and the lifepod shook, she held her breath and hoped the small pod held up against the entry.
Ansel had slowed his typing and, all of a sudden, he leaned back with his eyes closed.
“Are you okay?”
“Good enough,” he responded.
The rest of the ride was silent until they hit the bottom. Ansel didn’t move, so she looked for a way out. Then she found the handle and popped open the door. When she got out, Ansel didn’t follow.
She didn’t know what he was waiting for, but Yon didn’t have time. “We need to go. Yon’s dying.”
Ansel opened his brown eyes and gave her a rueful look. “He’s dead. That’s what happens when your heart stops.”
Words spoken without any emotion. She wondered what had changed. “You acted like you could help him. Did something happen in the past few minutes?” Yelena considered if he’d seen something on his Minky pad on the way down. But Ansel didn’t answer until he was out of the pod. “Nothing changed. He’s still dead, but I’m going to bring him back and hope he didn’t suffer too much brain damage.”
“What?” Brain damage?
Ansel exhaled loudly. “It’s too much to explain.” Then he pointed to a spot in the ground. “That’s the vent they went down, but I’d like to take the front entrance.”
Securing the pack on her back, she was starting to feel more frantic. “If you can help him, we need to get to him as fast as possible. We go through the vent.”
Ansel groaned. “Fine.”
Yelena shook her head and headed to the space in the ground. She dropped the pack first and then jumped down. When she hit, her eyes took in the dark, and she saw large pieces of metal scattered over the ground. It looked like an android graveyard. When Ansel didn’t follow, she looked up, “Hey, you coming?”
“I’m coming.”
But he didn’t join her for another few seconds. Finally, he landed hard on his hands and knees. “The entrance would have been easier,” Ansel grumbled.
Frustrated, she told him, “Yon needs our help. Give me your hand, I’ll lead you.”
Ansel huffed again, pushing himself up. She grabbed one hand and watched as the Numan held out his other palm. “Doing a medical procedure in the dark brings back memories.”
“What does that mean?” she asked as she kicked away the metal pieces and took the path she had memorized from the lab.
“You don’t want to know,” Ansel said ominously.
Yelena didn’t ask anything else until they entered the medical bay, the office, and then the galley. As they entered the room, she saw three people crouched over a body. It had to be Yon.
On the other side, she saw Pax swinging a long medical blade back and forth as if he were trying to chop the air. Exhaling, she pressed forward in silence. Ansel, however, complained. “It’s been at least ten minutes. He’s dead. We should let him die. Death is peaceful.”
All three people who were crouched by Yon turned to her. The others might have too, but she didn’t care. She kept her eyes pinned to the red orbs. A female clicked at her.
Yelena used a deep chest chuff. The same sounds she would have used to scare off little prey.
The strange red-eyed female shook her head at Yelena as if Yelena had just insulted her.
“Are you trying to speak to the savage?” Ansel asked.
She didn’t answer him because the males had pushed the female behind them and had lowered their bodies in pre-attack mode. One male lifted his upper lip, and she saw his sharp teeth. Then he opened his mouth wide, and a war cry that sounded like metal rubbing against metal echoed in the room. It made her wince, but she didn’t stop moving toward Yon.
If she were reading the Boore’s body language correctly, he was warning her to get away. Which, of course, she wasn’t going to do. So, she did what any other animal would do, she sniffed the air loudly and snorted.
Both males turned their heads, recognizing the act as one of curiosity rather than danger.
Inwardly, she smiled. It was all coming back to her. Moving to the front and leading a male would make her look like the alpha. The males would recognize that.
She was still twenty feet away. Per animal protocol, she slowed her pace and kept her back to the captives and sniffed at Yon.
That’s when the lead male growled and made a horrible screeching sound again.
She growled back, but it was more of a defensive utterance, not one of aggression. The alpha took a step forward, getting lower to the ground. She kept moving to the side as if she were rounding them up.
The female whimpered at how close Yelena got. Darting toward the males, the scared female knocked into the lead male. The second male hissed at the female, taking his eyes off Yelena. It was the perfect opportunity to cover the last bit of space needed for her and Ansel to get to Yon’s unmoving body.
Ignoring the dark grey blood that surrounded Yon, Yelena held on tight to Ansel and then pulled as hard as she could, flinging the doctor. Then she jumped over him and launched herself at the trio of Boore, needing them to get as far away from Yon as possible. Because she didn’t know what she would do if he didn’t live again. Especially since she was the idiot who’d sent him down to the lab in the first place.
The alpha male was large, and when he hit her, it hurt. They both landed on the ground with a huff. Then the male grabbed her arms and rolled on top. She struggled, and the Boore grabbed her neck and clicked at her. When she didn’t stop fighting, he growled and squeezed harder, cutting off her air. That threw her mind into instant distress, releasing her illumia.
The alpha hissed, pulled back his hand, and his red eyes widened at the floating bursts of yellow electricity. He reached out and tried to knock them away, and Yelena watched as he swayed slightly. His head tilted back, and he slumped to the side like a limp piece of cloth.
When his weight was off her stomach, she pushed the body off and stood up. The second male who was guarding the scared female showed his teeth and growled. Before he attacked, he cried out. The sound grated on her nerves, and she used the distress to bring out more of her illumia.
The second male was in the air, knees bent and arms out. Yelena jumped out of the way but wasn’t fast enough. He grasped at her arm and took her to the ground again. He pulled her, sliding her along the floor, and then he leapt on top. He bent down and tried to take a bite out of her neck. Instead, all he got was a small scratch on her collarbone before he shook and then collapsed on top of her.
Kicking out from under the second male, Yelena scrambled back and looked around to see where the next threat was. She saw Ansel pressing on Yon’s chest and hoped that was a good thing.
Behind Yon were more shadows, and they were headed her way. Digging her nails into the ground, she used the leverage to run. Behind her, she heard a myriad of cries, and each one tore at her senses. It was too loud, an
d she wanted to rip her own ears off rather than hear the sound again.
As the screams got closer, it terrified her heart, and she felt like her illumia bursts were getting bigger, but she was too scared to turn around. All she knew was that her neck was starting to throb.
Up ahead, she saw the back wall and hoped there was a door on the other side. Looking to the left, she almost tripped over her own feet. Scanning to the right, she didn’t see an exit, but the pipes that ran along the wall were low enough to grab hold of. Veering in that direction, she felt movement right before a large body slammed into her from the side. His big body hit like he had been born with a mountain inside of him.
Yelena hit the ground hard. She skidded and hit the back wall with a slap. No time to waste, she crouched down, her teeth bared. Her illumia had come out in a single line, and the males had avoided being hit by it. All three weaved in and out of the light burst, knowing to avoid them.
Hunters.
Letting the illumia out, she hoped it would surround her in a thick bubble. But then one of the males clicked at another. That second male nodded and lunged at her, grabbing her clothes and yanking her into the air. She knew that he had been hit with her illumia, but he was still able to throw her before he lost consciousness.
Instead of landing on the floor, she hit one of the containers and bounced off. Then another male grabbed her ankle and pulled her back towards Yon. She couldn’t let them get to her warrior. Reaching behind her neck, she let an illumia burst fall into her hand. Pulling herself forward, she slammed it onto the hunter’s arm.
He hissed and shook off her hand. She crawled back, desperate to get away and keep him on the other side of the galley. The hunter tried to reach for her but ended up landing flat on his face. He didn’t move from that spot.
Yelena turned and looked for the last hunter, but he was behind her on the floor. She didn’t trust that he was unconscious, so she took another illumia from her neck, held on tight, and crept to the body.