Awakening Defiance: (The Saoirse Saga Book 2)

by Teagan Kearney

  The guards tensed, taking a step forward.

  The emperor raised his hand and laughed. “Of course not. Simply speculating.” He gestured at the clones. “Your brothers are waiting to be filled with your nanobot blood, and the good doctor needs his supply replenished. Lead on, Doctor, and the lovely consort can observe how obedient and helpful my son is to me.”

  Kia’s mind was churning as she followed. She couldn’t imagine what more horrors were waiting here. They entered a large room devoid of windows with a bed in the center. Various machines stood on both sides of the bed. She kept her mind blank, not wanting Teyrn to pick up any subtle clues her reactions might give away.

  Nobody spoke as two of Teyrn’s men escorted Rial out of the room. He returned a few minutes later, barefoot and wearing a pair of loose white pants with the guards gripping his arms.

  As she watched him stumble toward the bed, his tremors visible, she understood why they held him—he was unable to walk without their aid. Her heart ached for him. He had such innate grace and power within himself that to stand by, unable to help, and see him treated as nothing but an experiment deepened her antagonism toward the emperor.

  Once he lay down on the bed, Onde’s assistants placed tight restraints on his forehead, neck, arms, chest, hips, thighs, and ankles, and placed body monitors on his torso as he continued to tremble.

  “Sometimes I think he’s genetically programmed to resist,” Teyrn laughed. “But it pleases me to witness his defiance. You must understand, my dear,” he spoke over his shoulder to Kia, “he and I have a lot in common. I hated my father, too.”

  Kia wished he would stop calling her ‘my dear’, as it made her skin crawl.

  Rial lay with his eyes closed, his trembling violent enough the bed vibrated, while she, Nagavi, the emperor, the doctor, half a dozen nurses and guards watched his humiliation.

  “A little sedative to remove his resistance, Doctor, and you can get to work.”

  The weaselly little man scurried over to Rial and placed a small translucent patch on his carotid. Within seconds Rial’s shivering stopped, and by the time a cuff was placed around both his upper arms, needles inserted into both veins and taped into place, he was unconscious.

  Kia couldn’t look away from the seeping flow of red blood oozing from his arms along the tubes attached to the needles, mesmerized as they filled large bottles beside the bed.

  “They will drain him of blood, place him in a stasis chamber while he recovers, and repeat the process. They will stop when my good doctor has replenished his stores and has enough blood to work with for a while. Nagavi, take the beautiful consort and return to the Kadaugan. You can pick him up in a month.”

  “Yes, your Highness.” Nagavi bowed.

  Without a glance at his son, the emperor and his guards marched out.

  Kia stormed into the Kadaugan’s meeting room with Nagavi on her heels. “We have to do something. We can’t leave him at the mercy of that… that…. animal.”

  The half dozen men and women studying their comunits or chatting perked up.

  “Everyone out!” Nagavi barked.

  The room emptied within seconds.

  “You heard the emperor. What do you suggest we do?”

  “Yes, I heard that monster.” Kia’s brain had been in overdrive since the second she left Rial lying on a bed having the life drained out of him and helpless to do anything about it. But she wasn’t helpless. “Tell me, Nagavi, who is the commander of this ship while Rial is… is… incapacitated?”

  Nagavi’s eyes narrowed. “You heard Rial as clearly as I did. As co-commander, you are. Where are you going with this, Kia?”

  “Who do the Chenjerai, and you, answer to in Rial’s absence?”

  “To you.”

  “Does Rial need that implant removed and to be free of the constant threat of having to return here and be tortured?”

  “Yes.”

  She remembered the look the two men had exchanged when Rial agreed to put her in charge. You'll save me, I know you will, he told her once. Had he planted a seed, knowing she’d end up in this quandary? Had she unintentionally handed him a way out when she’d asked for a position of power? But he wouldn’t have known for sure what action she’d take. “One thing bothers me. I don’t understand why you didn’t do something to help him when you were left in charge before.”

  “To start with, I was never given command of the Chenjerai or the Kadaugan in the same way Rial made you co-commander. I was charged with following the orders he gave me. He was very specific I did nothing to endanger my position or that of the team. Secondly, we were both depending on getting his implant removed by other means, and he didn’t want to raise the emperor’s suspicions that all wasn’t as it should be.”

  True, without the Chenjerai, what could Nagavi have done on his own? Any attempt would have been doomed, and Rial would have been devastated to return to his ship and find Nagavi had been executed for treason. But her situation was different, The grit and tenacity that had kept her alive in the mines rose to the surface. Whether she’d been manipulated or not, she’d given him her heart and refused to do nothing. There had to be some way of freeing him. “Okay. Let’s break in, force Onde to remove the implant, and bring him back here. What I’d truthfully like to do is blast the lab out of existence. Will you help me, Nagavi?”

  The silence lasted all of two seconds.

  “Yes, lass. I suggest you call a meeting because, while they’ll follow your commands on the day to day matters, this mission isn’t a case of you telling them what to do. You won’t have to say much to convince them, but you will need to explain.”

  “You want me to make a speech?”

  One corner of Nagavi’s mouth lifted into a wry grin at the dismay on her face. “Yes, a speech will go down fine.”

  “Can you step in and take the questions I don’t have answers to?”

  “I’m yours to command.”

  Kia raised an eye at him but said nothing. After five minutes of lip chewing and pacing up and down as the unit filed in and sat down, she sucked in a deep breath and faced the group.

  Most looked curious, but several stared at her with a challenge in their eyes.

  “I guess you’re wondering why the newest member of the team is standing here as your commander in Rial’s place. If you have any answers to that question, please let me know, because I’m as confused as you about this decision.”

  A few smiled, and the tension eased.

  “How many of you are aware of what happens to Rial when he goes down to that laboratory?”

  Annen, Cheydii, and Nagavi raised their hands.

  Kia nodded. The response was as she’d expected. Rial would have ordered his commanders to keep such information confidential. “They strap him down, drain his blood, put him in a stasis chamber, and when he’s recovered enough, they repeat the process and do it over and over and over. I saw them do it, but there’s probably other horrors I don’t know about.” The fury she felt at how his father used him mounted, and she glared at them. “Who knows what else they do when there’s nobody watching.”

  Mutters of outrage from some and disbelief on the faces of others.

  “Rial is the heart of this family, and deprived of him, we’re nothing. He’s the reason for the Chenjerai’s existence, and I’m not familiar with any of your stories, but I owe him my life. Without Rial, I would be dead.”

  “Is that why you argue?” someone piped up, and Kia flushed bright red as a ripple of laughter ran around the table.

  “You’re the commander now. What do you want us to do?” Cheydii’s words silenced the group.

  “I want to rescue him and destroy the lab.”

  All at once everyone erupted. Some shouted questions while others argued with each other.

  “Quiet!” Nagavi barked. “If you have a question, put up your hand, and treat the consort with the respect Rial would expect of you.”

  A few shame-faced looks were cast her w
ay as half a dozen hands shot up into the air.

  She nodded at Ohiko. She hoped he was on her side and wouldn’t give her a hard time.

  “Is this what Rial wants?”

  “Yes, and I say that without a shadow of a doubt.” She wouldn't explain the details of the implant and the nanobots. The fewer people were privy to that information, the safer she and Rial were, even among the Chenjerai whom Rial said he trusted implicitly.

  “What’s the plan?”

  This was Toinen, her friend Shaba’s partner. If he was onside, maybe she had a chance. “Rial met with a friend at Ylväs Suq.” She shot a sideways look at Nagavi. “I’m hoping we can contact him. He’ll provide a diversion while we go in and rescue Rial.” She caught Nagavi’s nod out of the corner of her eye.

  “But the Kadaugan can’t land without permission, and their defense system will detect the ship the second we enter Tajriba’s airspace and blow us out of the sky,” Annen threw in.

  “What if the friend either doesn’t want to or can’t help?” Cheydii asked.

  Kia suspected Navagi’s lieutenants were testing her proposal for weaknesses. At least that’s what she hoped.

  “We go in and rescue him ourselves. Use the gokas—cloaked, of course—workout the trajectory, cut the coms, and fly in, well, glide in blind.”

  The lines around Nagavi’s mouth and eyes creased as his face lit up with a rapacious grin. “Right, we have plans to make. Let’s get down to details.”

  Chapter Sixteen: An Appointment To Keep

  Kia stood behind the pilot’s chair watching Tamaiko tap the control deck. She beckoned Nagavi over. “How fast is Gorau’s ship if it’s taking him five days to arrive here and we took fourteen?”

  Nagavi’s look was sly. “He’s in a hurry, Rial wasn’t.”

  Rial had done everything within his power to delay his arrival at Tajriba, and Kia’s heart warmed as her mind returned, as it did at every opportunity, to the days and nights they’d had together. He’d promised her a lifetime of memories and gifts and she’d had days. It hadn’t been long enough, but she’d do her best to make sure he fulfilled the rest of his promises.

  After the initial shock of Kia’s announcement, the team was keen to rescue Rial, especially those who’d been with him for years and witnessed the devastating effects of his visits to Tajriba without knowing the reasons. Rial didn’t confide in most of the Chenjerai to the same extent as Nagavi, Cheydii, and Annen, who participated in his most clandestine projects, but their loyalty was to Rial and not to his father. He was their heart and soul, and they had sworn to lay down their lives for him.

  Later Kia sat and listened as Nagavi distributed the tasks of gathering the data they needed; detailed maps of the site, guard numbers and movements and locating the defense systems missile sites. The second-in-command was in his element. He knew each person’s strengths and weaknesses and allocated duties accordingly. They checked and rechecked the gokas and did the same with every single weapon on board. The plan was studied, restudied, broken down, reassembled, and backup plans made for every contingency they could imagine. Kia insisted the strategy be as adaptable as possible to ensure its success, and after four days, each member of the unit could recite every detail of their own assignment, as well as everyone else’s, in their sleep.

  At the end of the fifth day, as nightfall inched across the luxuriously verdant planet below, Kia prowled back and forth behind Tamaiko’s chair while Nagavi leaned on the command center door. Gorau had sent a message twelve hours ago informing them he would attack at dusk—the same time the laboratory’s lights came on. The lights, the solitary indication of human habitation on the entire planet, created an easy target.

  Kia was dressed, as was every member of the Chenjerai, in combat gear, appreciating how little difference to her movements and how much protection the lightweight kevtimaterial gave. As on the Emankoran mission, her weapons belt had two hand pulse laser pistols and two knives sitting in the holsters and sheaths. In addition, more for luck than anything else, she’d tucked the new knife Rial had gifted her in Ylväs Suq in her boot sheath. Her helmet and a phaserifle lay next to her gunner’s seat in the goka.

  Now and then, Nagavi flicked the tannoy button and said, “Check.” Shortly after, a chorus of “Okay, boss” issued from the comunit.

  Kia was grateful as, for at least a few minutes, the tightness in her chest abated. Then she’d consider the lunacy of what she was doing, go over the proposal seeking for loopholes—something, anything—she’d missed, find nothing, but cycle through unease, worry, fear, and dread as the pressure ratcheted once more.

  The laboratory complex flashed up on the viewscreen, a few twinkles amid the stygian night of the planet.

  “Okay, Tamaiko. You’re in charge.”

  “Thank you, Commander Kia.” It seemed bizarre for Tamaiko to address her in that manner. Their relationship had changed the most since she’d arrived at Rial’s palace for training. She squeezed his shoulder. “Good luck.”

  “Thank you. You, too.”

  Five minutes later, Kia donned her helmet and dropped into the gunner’s seat as Nagavi settled himself in the pilot’s chair. The other gokas were ready and waiting for Gorau’s signal before Tamaiko released the fighters. Kia’s gaze flicked between her display and weapons panels and her helmet infoscreen receiving Tamaiko’s transmission. She blinked as Gorau’s ship, no, Gorau’s fleet flashed onto her infoscreen, and missiles streaked toward them. An alarm shrieked as several pulse beams skimmed close to the Kadaugan’s hull.

  Tamaiko’s voice came through the goka’s comunit. “Calling Tajriba defense command, this is the flagship Kadaugan. This is an emergency. We are being attacked and there are too many ships for us to fight. Please lift your defense shield. We request your assistance.” He repeated his pleas for shelter from their unknown attackers as more missiles lit up the sky.

  “Commander Ibidi calling the Kadaugan. Descend. We have your location and will provide cover for you. We’ll drop our defense screen when you’re close and raise it after your entry.”

  “Descending,” Tamaiko responded as Gorau sent more pulse beams near enough to make the pilot squeak.

  The Kadaugan adopted an evasive route, and as the ship slipped through the raised shield, barely escaping another pulse beam, four gokas, cloaked, with their engines unengaged and silent, slid from their berths into the night skies and fell toward the planet. The correctly calculated glide ratio for the descent to the planet’s surface went exactly as planned. However, landing turned out to be an unpredicted bumpy skid scraping the treetops as they slowed and finished with a violent crash into a very large tree trunk.

  “Are you okay, Kia?”

  Kia shook her head. “Better than the goka. How far away are we?”

  “A couple of miles.”

  “Let’s get going.” Kia dropped to the ground, the fecund scent of the earth and growing plants filling her lungs as she settled the phaserifle’s three-point sling, checked her weapons belt, and set off for the rendezvous with the other three goka teams. Jogging behind Nagavi’s dark form as he slipped through the bushes, a bare flicker of a shadow, she reviewed the plan.

  Tamaiko and those left on the flagship were to disable the guard unit, the missile defense system, and the perimeter barrier. The goka teams would meet up, enter the laboratory, find the physician, remove the implant, and return to the Kadaugan with Rial. After they’d left the surface, Gorau’s fleet would destroy the complex.

  The scheme sounded simple, but in practice, there were always surprises. Kia was certain the scheme had a chance. Either way, it was too late; she was committed and would succeed or die trying.

  Twenty minutes later, along with the rest of the gokas teams, who’d all made safe landings, she squatted in the bush outside the perimeter fence listening to Tamaiko’s updates.

  He’d disabled the compound’s defense control center, and they could hear distant shouts as Gorau’s pulse laser attacks l
it up the sky. A fizzing of sparks from the fence indicated it had been deactivated. Within seconds, Shaba hacked through the magwire with her long knife. Thus far everything had gone as planned. From here on, the rescue was trickier as the lab security was separate from the lab's external defenses, and their entry would be observed. The guards would be on a priority alert.

  The rear exit lock was easy to crack, and then they were moving fast through the corridors—the same white corridors Kia had followed Rial along a few days ago.

  Shaba, Cheydii, and Toinen ran in front, Kia and Nagavi behind them, with the final three covering their rear, phaserifles lowered but ready to use.

  “Halt!” A man shouted as a small squad of guards appeared at the far end of the corridor with weapons raised.

  Without slowing, in one smooth practiced motion, the Chenjerai’s phaserifles rose, fired, and the soldiers slumped to the floor. This was a kill mission, and they moved on without breaking step.

  “Left at the next junction,” Nagavi ordered.

  Turning the corner, they came up behind another company of guards running toward the main entrance who saw never saw their deaths coming.

  “The third door on the left,” Nagavi’s voice barked.

  Toinen’s fist came up, and the door flew open.

  “Doctor Onde?”

  “Who are you?” A frightened voice quivered from the dim interior.

  Nagavi tapped his rifle, and the tactical light imprisoned the little man in its beam, revealing his panicked expression. He’d heard the noise and was sitting on his bed, his lab coat on, putting on his shoes. The commander grabbed his collar and yanked him from the bed. “We require your services,” he hissed in his prisoner’s ear, “let’s go.”

  The room they wanted wasn’t far, and they hurried through more empty corridors, hustling the doctor along between Kia and Nagavi. They heard weapons fire and men thundering along corridors, but the fight was on the far side of the building, and they pressed on.