Alarmed, she grabbed his arm and made another desperate effort to tug him away from the data. “Snap out of it, soldier, you’ve done enough, we’ve got to go.”
He ignored her.
Sara took a deep breath, made a fist and socked him in the jaw with a roundhouse punch, putting all the power of her body behind it. She was afraid she’d broken her hand, the pain was so bad, but Johnny staggered and fell. With her good hand, she got a grip on his sleeve. “I know how to get out of here, come on.”
He focused on her and rose to his feet, rubbing his jaw.
Takin his silence for assent, she grabbed his hand and moved cautiously into the corridor, checking first to be sure it remained empty. The ghost creature did a number on the facility when it blew itself up but they couldn’t count on infinite time to escape. Together they ran to the first branch she’d seen on the diagram. She drew Johnny into the right hand fork and sprinted. “Not too far now, a door to the outside.”
Sara counted as she ran and almost overshot the portal she was aiming for. She couldn’t see any controls or buttons. “How do we open this?”
Johnny touched one of the many symbols incised into the door itself, which obligingly slid open. “Trick we learned on a previous mission.”
She smelled the fresh air. “Come on, let’s go.”
A strange noise began, grating on the ears, emanating from everywhere as it ululated from loud to earsplitting
“Alarm,” he said. Grabbing her good hand he ran through the open door and they sprinted into the Farduccir foothills.
“Do you know where we are?” she asked in between gasps for air.
“Yes, close to one of our own bolt hole facilities. We get inside there, we can seal it off and the Mawreg won’t be able to get at us. If the systems are activated or can be booted up.” He looked her over for a moment. “Are you ok?”
“My hand hurts where I hit you. I think I might have broken something.”
He’d have to deal with the injured hand later. Escape was the priority right now. “Can you run?”
“Sure.”
“I’ll check your knuckles later. Not much I can do for a broken hand in the field.”
“No worries, I understand.” She nodded. “Let’s just get going.”
They ran as long and a far as they could, stopping several times while major quakes shook the ground beneath them. A pillar of light and smoke rose in the sky behind them at one point. As far as Sara could tell, there was no pursuit.
“Do you think maybe we destroyed their base?” she asked during one all too brief rest stop.
He shook his head. “Part of it maybe. Mawreg facilities tend to be huge so damage was probably localized. I hope they think we died in the blast.”
“Yeah, I saw how extensive the place was, when I read the diagram displayed in the room where you were capturing data. There were hundreds of levels below the one we were on.”
He gave her a strange look. “You found a layout of their base?”
“How did you think I knew a way to get us out of there? “
“I was dazed from the memory download, not thinking too clearly,” he admitted. Hands on his hips, he stared at her. “You seemed pretty confident so I followed your lead. Do you remember it in detail?”
“Yes. I figured you didn’t have to be the only person acquiring data.”
He laughed and clapped her gently on the shoulder. “Well done. Command will salivate over a schematic of the base. Not too much further now and we can relax for the first time in a long time.”
She was dubious about any installation staying viable for fifteen years after abandonment. Sure, parts of Ancient Observer bases stayed powered and viable for a million years—she ‘d seen the reality for herself, having studied the mysteries of such an outpost — but the ancients controlled mysteries of science and technology so far advanced from anything humans had as to be magical. Unfortunately the Sectors tech wasn’t designed and built by AO.
He led her at a tangent into the foothills and then climbing through brush clinging to steep inclines again. They edged along a crumbling narrow ledge over a gorge so deep she wanted to shut her eyes and refuse to move another step but Johnny patiently coaxed her and praised her into doing what he wanted.
“I hate you,” she said at one point when the anxiety became overwhelming, eyes shut against the terrifying drop. “You move like a damn mountain goat. Have you no fear of heights?”
“No,” he answered in a voice so cheerful her anger ratcheted even higher. “Just a tiny bit farther, Sara, and then I promise, we’ll be safe where no one can find us, much less get at us. You have to take maybe twenty more steps on the path.”
“I’m counting,” she said. “And I’m not going a single step more than the twenty you promised me.”
He laughed. “I take bigger steps than you do, so it might be a few more.”
Teasing, keeping his grip on her hand, he got her to shuffle to the spot he designated, where the path, which was too grandiose a name for the track she was following at his insistence, ended at a dead end wall of stone.
“Don’t tell me we took a wrong turn?” she said, sinking to her knees and breathing hard, cradling her aching hand in her lap. “And here I thought you were infallible, soldier. At least give me a break before we have to retrace our steps over the crumbling excuse for a ledge.”
“Watch the magic happen.” With a mischievous expression, Johnny rested his open right hand on a piece of the rock identical to every other piece of the slab. Under his palm there was a green glow and a number pad appeared in lights to his right. Reaching over, he tapped in a code. The lights winked out and the rock slid to one side, vanishing into the mountain as if it had never been there. A long corridor beckoned, lights coming to life.
“Allow me to welcome you to Special Forces outpost 12,” he said, giving her a bow. “All the comforts of home. Well, selected amenities. Ladies first.”
She gave him a giddy hug and stepped into the corridor. Johnny was right on her heels and the portal slid shut immediately behind him.
“Straight ahead,” he said. “There’ll be another coded entry and then we’re inside the outpost.”
Sure enough, five minutes later she was walking into a brightly lit chamber reminding her of a conference room or a masculine-themed living room, with chairs and a trideo caster, AI panels, a table.
“As if whoever owns this recently walked out,” she said, gazing at her surroundings wide-eyed.
“Fifteen years ago or more.” He went into a small kitchen off the main room. “Hungry? The squad left odds and ends of rations.”
“Sure, berries and energy bars have lost their appeal for me.” She joined him.
Grinning, he held up a packet of freeze dried meat. “How about a taste of home? My home.”
She took it, flipping it over to read the label. “Varone Terran Descent Beef, Azrigone’s Finest.” She read. “Special Forces eats well, don’t you?” As he continued to grin at her, she checked the label once more and did a double take. “Lords of Space, your Mike is one of those Varones? I never made the connection when you talked about him.”
He took the package. “Yup, the family outfit all right. Let me cook this and we’ll have fine dining. It’s a good omen, don’t you think? Can you check in the pantry and see what else there might be?”
She wandered into the cupboard area he indicated. A lot of the shelves were empty but at the rear she found a stack of sealed containers boasting vegetables, most of which were alien to her, and brought those to him.
“Have a seat and watch the magic happen.” He’d washed his hands and was fussing with an instacooker, to prepare the beef. “One thing all of us in the extended family know how to do is cook beef to perfection. Even with the limited facilities here.”
She dragged one of the stools to the edge of the kitchen and sat. “Why would the soldiers leave all this? I’m grateful but it seems wasteful.”
Taking the
meat from the cooker, he was adding spices he’d apparently found. “Withdrawal from a planet is a chancy thing. Depends how much time Command allows and the priorities set for logistics. The last people to use this outpost may not have known they wouldn’t be spending any more time here. Or they may not have made it back from their last mission.”
“I recommend we don’t think along those lines.”
“Right.” Carrying two plates, he passed her, going to the table. “Can you get us water? I didn’t see anything more interesting to drink.”
“Water is fine.” She walked into the kitchen, found a couple of mugs and rinsed them under the water, using hot water. Struck by an enticing idea, she turned. “Johnny?”
“Problem?”
“If there’s hot water in here, is there a shower somewhere in this complex that might also have hot water?”
“Sure, all the amenities powered up when I logged in at the door.” He grinned as she came to the table with the two mugs of water. “You can have first dibs on the shower. I gotta call in; send the word about the Mawreg. I should have done a transmission first but I was thinking with my stomach.”
“Beds, real beds?” she said longingly.
He jerked his head to indicate a door on the far wall. “Bunkroom in there.”
“How long are we staying here?” She cut into the steak and lifted a bite to her lips. Chewing slowly, she savored the taste. On her salary she couldn’t afford Azrigone beef and this was amazing. Juicy, tender and full of flavor.
He was watching her. “Good, yes?”
“Heavenly. Do you eat like this all the time on Azrigone? Cause I might have to emigrate.”
“We don’t eat beef three meals a day, every day.” He laughed. “But yeah, it’s part of the regular diet. The grasslands on Azrigone have special minerals enhancing the flavor of the meat. To your question, I’m not sure how long we’ll be here. Depends on what response I get to my message.” He cut off a chunk of his own meal, speared a helping of veggie pods and took his time enjoying the mouthful.
“Can the ship pick us up from here? Send a flitter?” Sara hoped desperately the answer was yes. She was so tired of hiking all over the planet and afraid memories of the near death experience with the Mawreg would never leave her. She’d do anything to avoid taking the chance of encountering them again.
He was already dashing her hopes. “Nowhere to land or even hover. Strictly foot traffic in and out. This was an operator bolt hole, not a base. There is an emergency exit, remind me to show you later. Our ultimate destination is still the bigger outpost to the north. But we may be here a few days. How’s your hand?”
Sara held it out to him, wincing at the ugly black and purple bruises. The ridge of knuckles looked wrong, a bit sunken in one spot. There was an odd, fierce pain, unlike anything she’d experienced before.
Johnny examined it carefully, his grip firm. “Broken all right. There might be pain killers if the medical cabinet wasn’t emptied when the team redeployed elsewhere. I can’t set the bones or do a repair.”
She pulled her hand away, cradling it against her chest protectively. “I’ll manage till we reach a ship, thanks.” She took a few more bites of the delicious meat, then set her fork on the edge of the plate and took a deep breath. “We’re going to talk about what happened at some point, right?”
Eyebrows raised, he gave her a questioning glance.
“What that creature was, how it set us free. How you called it, or whatever happened. Why it helped us. I— I need to know.” Sara was desperate to understand what had gone on in the Mawreg installation because it was so far outside her own experience as to be magical. She believed she knew Johnny pretty well, understood him…and then this ability to summon raging psychic creatures left her grateful but a bit scared. And the words he’d said to the creature about her —how much might he have meant by them?
“I can tell you now, although you’ll have to suspend disbelief to accept what I’m going to say.”
“All right. But remember, I’ve studied AO installations so I’ve seen pretty unbelievable things.”
He sat back in his chair. “The creature is a cherindor. It’s an allegedly mythological animal from Shalira’s home world.”
Sara picked up on the name immediately. “Mike’s wife?”
He nodded. “Cherindors are associated with her family.”
“It was the animal from your medallion, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.” Automatically he touched his neck but the chain had broken and the medallion disappeared when the cherindor came to life. “I think the presence of the Mawreg summoned it to help us. When we were on Mahjundar, Shalira’s planet, there was a run in with an alien god who reminded me a bit too much of the Mawreg.”
“I heard the cherindor call them a name I can’t even begin to pronounce.”
“Tlazomiccuhtli.” He gave her a halfhearted smile. “I’ve met the dude and I can barely say it.”
“You’ve obviously seen the Mawreg before too.” She tilted her head, hoping for more details.
“Run enough missions and you run into them.”
Sensing there was more, she waited to see if he’d add anything.
Johnny shoved himself away from the table and paced the small room, coming to stand close to her. “I need a drink.”
“If it’s so hard to talk about, then don’t.” She regretted pushing him now.
“I—I want to tell you.” He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it. “The enemy captured me once before, on our last mission before Mahjundar. I came to in one of those floating cage things like we did earlier today, only there wasn’t any cherindor to rescue me. They— they tortured me, Sara. The Mawreg do things to a human body you wouldn’t dream in your worst nightmares could be possible. And then they patch you up somehow, good as new, if less than sane, and start over.”
She left her chair and gave him a hug, holding him tight. “I’m sorry I asked. You don’t have to say any more.”
But it seemed he couldn’t stop. Wrapping her in a hug as if he was hanging on for dear life, he said, “I only went through one session before Mike and a bunch of Team guys who volunteered broke into the Mawreg base and rescued me. I had to have pretty intense therapy, even did a session with a Mellurean counselor once after Mike pulled strings, but the flashbacks are an ever present threat. I should have killed myself but I didn’t.”
Horrified, she pulled his head down so she could look him in the eye. “Don’t you ever say that to me. You did what you had to do to survive and there’s nothing wrong with your choices.”
“Sara—” He captured her lips, holding her close and kissed her in a fiery, passionate embrace. He ran his tongue along her lips, seeking entry, which she gave him with a little moan. He locked his arms around her, Sara squirming to get closer because she couldn’t bear to have any distance between them. He ground his hips against her, the hard steel of his arousal undeniable proof of his desire for her. Rubbing herself against the heat and power of his body, she felt as if she could climax just from the pressure of his sex against hers, even through their clothing.
He broke off the kiss to pick her up, before he was seeking her lips again while she clutched his shoulders, trying to get as close to him as she could. As he strode toward the bunkroom, Sara unfastened his shirt and slipped her hand inside, caressing his hard chest, skimming her palm over his flat nipples, delighting in the feel of his warm skin, his scent, her power to arouse him.
Johnny didn’t wait for the portal to open fully before he turned sideways, careful not to bump her head on the door, and carried her inside the bedroom. Three steps and he set her gently on a mattress.
Sara expected him to join her. She reached up to grab at his open shirt when he didn’t. “Johnny?”
Fists clenched, he took a deep breath and then another. Face full of worry and concern, he said, “I am so sorry. That never should have happened.”
She eyed his crotch, where his erection presse
d against the fabric of his pants, and cupped him with her free, uninjured hand. As he thrust his hips instinctively against the pressure she was applying, she said, “I don’t understand. You— you do want me, don’t you?” The unmistakable evidence was right there, in front of her, so his hesitation was puzzling.
Gently he brushed her tousled hair off her face. “Of course I do, I’ve wanted to make love to you for days now. But after all you’ve been through, the way the warlord’s men abused you, what kind of bastard am I to just grab you and throw you on a bed? Without even asking you if you want this? If you’re sure? You must be terrified right now. I-I swear I won’t touch you again. I can’t bear for you to be afraid of me.”
She sat up, circling his hips with her arms, hands on his ass, holding him close. The impressive bulge of his arousal was impossible to ignore, enticing, promising. She kissed him through the fabric, hearing him bite off a moaned curse as she blew her hot breath into the cloth. She tugged him onto the bed by the belt loops, forcing him onto his back, correctly figuring he wouldn’t resist for fear of hurting her. Climbing onto him so she could straddle his hips, Sara rocked slightly on his trapped cock, enjoying the pressure on her own sensitive inner folds through the fabric of her pants. “So you didn’t ask me in so many words. Next time you can get permission in advance.” She trailed one hand across his hard abs. “But give yourself credit for pausing when you realized I might be scared. Even if there’s no need for you to restrain yourself.”
He started to protest and she laid her fingers over his lips. “Surely you can tell I’m willing? I want you, in all the ways a woman can want the man she – she loves.” Deliberately she let herself say the word, even as she blushed, because it was the truth. She couldn’t meet his eyes. Putting her heart out there for him to crush if he chose was one of the scariest things she’d ever done. “You’re not like the warlord’s thugs. You’re you. I know the difference and I trust you. You’ve shown me in so many ways how much you care about me and I believe you’d never hurt me, never do anything I didn’t want. I’m not afraid to tell you no if I need to.”
Hostage To The Stars: A Sectors SF Romance Page 11