by neetha Napew
“Vlaav didn’t signal security.”
The words didn’t make sense, but there was a lot of buzzing in my ears. “Excuse me?”
“I ordered him not to signal them,” my husband said. “It would put RrissVar and his men at risk.”
The shock was momentary. The outrage wasn’t. “You’re worried about your lizard buddies?”
“Cherijo, we cannot charge in there.”
“Maybe you can’t.” I tried to reach around him for the panel. “I can.”
“If the Jorenians learn of this, they’ll kill everyone.”
“Which I will enjoy watching.” I shoved him back, disabled the stop-hold, and rekeyed the lift for eighteen.
He hustled me aside and re-enabled the stop-hold. “Listen to me!”
“No!” I threw a hemostat at him, which smacked into his left cheek and left another contusion. “You son of a bitch. They took our daughter. You come with me now and you help me get her back!”
“Through you she is kin to the Torins. As soon as they know, they will declare ClanKill and slaughter everyone on that level.” He didn’t touch his face, but he didn’t let me touch the panel. “Think, beloved. What if Marel is caught between them?”
“No.” I felt the blood draining from my face. “No, they won’t hurt her.”
“The Torins will not. The League will use her. You know they will.”
If the Hsktskt didn’t grab her first. I took out a pair of razor-sharp scissors, and held them pointed at his heart. “You have another idea?” He nodded, and I placed the scissors in his hand. “We’ll do it your way. Let’s go.”
He touched the panel, and the lift began to descend.
“About the Hsktskt.” Despite the pleasure I would have taken in screaming at him, I kept my voice at a reasonable decibel level. “If it comes down to a choice between your pals and my daughter, I won’t hesitate. I’ll even help Xonea rip some intestines out. Yours and theirs.”
Frigid, cutting thought blasted into my mind. Do you think I would sacrifice our child for the Hsktskt?
You seem a hell of a lot more concerned about them than Marel. When nothing came of that, I closed my eyes and felt him edge even deeper inside my head. What’s the matter? Trying to figure out how you’re supposed to feel about this by using my emotions?
You’ve already made your anger toward me plain. Allow me the same courtesy.
Instead of sifting through my thoughts, Reever funneled his into my mind. I staggered back and slammed into the interior lift panel as a deluge of savage, homicidal desires poured over me. League soldiers being ripped apart, tossed about like bits of junk, blood on Reever’s hands. Blood everywhere.
I opened my eyes, saw him standing over me, hands on my arms, lips peeled back in a ferocious snarl, superimposed over the murderous fantasies. Duncan. Duncan, stop it!
The flux of thoughts abruptly shut off, and he released me as swiftly as he’d grabbed me. Tell me now I care more for the Hsktskt than our child.
I didn’t know. On top of my frantic terror over Marel, his fury proved too much. I started to crumble, and tears welled in my eyes as I remembered how tiny she’d seemed, sitting next to the centuron. She’s so little, oh God, Duncan, what if-
She is the daughter of Faction members. RrissVar will protect her with his life. He paused another moment, as if composing himself. We have to stop at level seventeen.
“Why?”
“They will have guards blocking all access routes except one.”
The gyrlift came to a halt, and as we stepped out into the corridor, I heard the sound of pulse fire below our feet.
“No.” My stomach surged up into my throat. “They’re shooting at each other.”
Duncan seemed to concentrate for a moment. “The League are trying to force their way into the cargo hold. The Hsktskt are keeping them at bay.”
I knew his telepathic abilities were miraculous, but this was new. “How do you know that?”
“I will explain later. For now, we must go through one of the maintenance passages.”
“I’m not playing hide-and-seek with them. They’re shooting around my kid.”
I whirled around to go back, but Reever stopped me by taking over my brain. I will control you, if I must.
I couldn’t move. Don’t.
Then do as I say. He released the mental hold, lead me to a maintenance panel, and opened a hatch in the floor. Quickly.
I climbed down after him to the next level’s access hatch.
Be silent now. He opened it, then lowered himself into the hold beneath and helped me down. I went to the door panel and listened. Everything outside was very, very quiet.
I can sense Marel’s presence nearby. Reever went to the door panel, pressed his ear against it, and listened. The Hsktskt have barricaded themselves in a hold across the corridor. He went to a console and called up the level’s environmental controls. I’ll shut down the optic emitters on this level, then open the door.
Brilliant. How am I supposed to find Marel in the dark?
Use this. He handed me a small proximity detector. Squilyp put a transmitter wristband on her yesterday.
I tightened my fingers around the unit. Hurry up.
I’ll go first. Stay low, and if anyone shoots, drop to the deck. Ready? I nodded. One, two, three... now!
All the lights went out, then the door panel slid open and I blindly followed Reever out. Angry shouts and pulse fire erupted all around us. Something hit me on the arm, sending me sideways just as a blast passed directly by my head. I hit the deck, smelled burnt hair, and slapped a hand to my skull. A few singed strands came away in my fingers.
I hated being burned almost as much as I feared it, but I shoved my pyrophobic anxiety aside. Can’t lose it now. With a shaking hand I held up the proximity detector, which showed a signal nearby. I started to crawl, feeling along the deck with my hands.
“Marel? Baby?” I whispered. “Where are you?”
“I have her.” Qonja knelt beside me. “Here.”
The sweet smell of vanilla filled my head. “Mama?”
I snatched her out of his arms. Someone barreled into Qonja, knocking him into me.
“Go!” he yelled.
I rolled, cushioning her against me until I found enough space to stand. Marel hung on, her face buried in my hair.
I felt something warm and wet on the front of her tunic, and pulled back. “Baby?” I felt my heart drop into my stomach. “Are you hurt?”
“Widow, Mama.”
The soldiers were still shouting and running all around us, while weapons fired over our heads. I became oblivious to it as I pulled Marel’s tunic open and ran my hands down her torso. Beneath my fingertips, I felt three shallow, parallel gashes that followed the line of her right ribcage from back to front.
The buzz in my ears became a roar. Someone hurt my baby.
A familiar membrane landed on my face. “Cherijo?”
“Thank God.” I caught Squilyp’s hand with mine. “Marel’s got some torso lacerations.” I guided his membrane down so he could feel them. Then something dripped on my arm. “Are you bleeding, too?”
“Ruptured some gildrells. It’s nothing.” From the mumbling I could tell he was lying. “We have to get her out of here.”
“Come on, baby.” I shielded her with my arms and body as best I could. “Squilyp, hold on to me.”
“Mama, get ‘Sawa and kiddies?”
“What?” I stopped in the doorway to the cargo hold.
“’Sawa bawd kiddies for Uncwip check. Dose bad men dook dem do.”
Could things possibly get worse? “Where is she, Squilyp?”
“The Hsktskt grabbed her away from the League soldiers. She’s in with them.”
Of course, it could get worse. “All right.” I carried Marel and led Squilyp into the cargo hold and put my daughter in my best friend’s arms. “There’s a hatch in the upper deck, over here. I’ll find something for you to stand on. Grab the la
dder rungs inside and haul yourself up. Get her to Medical.” To my daughter, I said, “Hold on to Uncle Squilyp, baby.”
“Yes, Mama.”
I groped until I found an empty utility cart and shoved it under the hatch. “Climb on. I’ll brace it.”
The Omorr grabbed my arm. “You’re coming with us.”
“I’m going back to get Fasala and my cats.” And Qonja, but only if I tripped over him.
“Use this.” The Omorr pressed a surgical instrument in my hand. I felt the outlines and realized it was a suture laser. “It’s calibrated to the lowest setting.”
I adjusting the beam width to the widest possible application, which transformed it into a weapon that would leave a huge, nasty burn on any flesh I pointed it at. “Thanks.”
My second trip into the corridor only took a few seconds, because I ran and lasered anything that got in my way. I had to pry the door panel open with my hands, then shoved through the narrow gap, and directly into a huge, scaly body.
“I want the other girl.”
Powerful limbs lifted me off the deck. “Your kind send physicians into battle, HalaVar?”
The lights came on a second later, and I saw all the Hsktskt standing armed and ready to shoot something. Reever was leaning over one of the exam tables, where Fasala Torin lay stretched out and unconscious. Three tiny silvery bodies huddled beside her, and my husband’s hands were stained with green and red blood.
I looked into RrissVar’s huge yellow eyes, and pointed my suture laser at the spot in his skull where his optic nerves were located. “Down, or I blind you.”
“I can see why they do.” He set me down, and I ran to the table.
“Out of the way.” I pushed my husband aside and began assessing Fasala, who had a huge purple bruise on her face and green blood in her black hair.
“Squilyp said the League soldiers saw PakVar’s insignia in Marel’s hand, and Brlety asked her where she got it.” Duncan handed me a sterile pad and a bottle of saline solution. “She told him. A few minutes later, they took hostages, and left the rest of us in Medical.”
“Which one of these bastards clawed my daughter?” I demanded.
PakVar appeared at my side. He looked ready to eat something that was still breathing. “She was wounded by one of the League fodder when we took her from them.”
“And Fasala?” I found the shallow cut beneath her hair and cleaned it. “Did they do this to her, or did you?”
Now RrissVar came over. “We did nothing to the young.”
“I’m not going to thank you.”
His tongue flickered out for a moment. “No, I can see you will not.”
The door panel opened behind us, and Xonea and a team of security guards strode in.
“Weapons down on the deck,” the Captain ordered in a harsh voice. It deepened into a low rumble when he spotted Fasala. “Out in the corridor. Now.”
The Hsktskt looked at RrissVar, who inclined his head, then slowly obeyed Xonea’s orders and filed out of the hold. Reever picked up Fasala while I quickly checked the kittens. They had some minor cuts and bruises, but otherwise were fine. I emptied my tunic pockets, put the kittens inside, and followed him out.
Thirty Jorenian warriors, including the Captain, Qonja, and Salo, each had a Hsktskt or League soldier in front of them. Every blue hand had claws out and curled for a death-strike blow.
“Hold it!” I turned to Reever, who was carrying Salo’s daughter like a baby. “You wanted peace talks? Time to start talking.”
Reever shifted Fasala in his arms as he approached her ClanFather. “Salo. Your child needs your attention.”
“Take her to Medical, Linguist.” Salo’s claws gleamed as he lifted his hand. The League soldier he was holding against the wall panel by the throat stared up with terrified resignation. “This business requires my attention.”
Obviously, the males were all too emotional to get a handle on this situation. Reever was never good at this stuff to begin with. Which left me, the outraged mother, to call a halt to the hostilities.
“Some father you are.” I went over to Qonja, and swatted him on the arm. “And you. You took an oath. Show some professional restraint.”
He turned his head to look down his patrician blue nose at me. The friendly, handsome face was etched with blind rage. “Kin have been injured. Leave us to our work.”
“Kin will be just fine. Take the rest of the day off.” Seeing that that wasn’t working, I tried my Clan-Brother. “Xonea. Don’t.”
Reever handed Fasala over to one of the nurses who had entered the corridor with a gurney, then came to stand beside me. “I shield these soldiers.”
Thirty pairs of white eyes went from me to Reever, and if the stares had been any hotter, his face would have been scorched off. After heaving a mental sigh, I slipped my hand in his. “Me, too. Consider everyone shielded.”
Xonea released the soldier he had pinned. “Our children have been injured.”
“We know.” I saw Fasala’s father digging his claws into the chest of the man he held, and blood running down his arm. “Salo! Stop it!”
“You dare lay your filthy hands on my child,” Salo said through clenched teeth. “I defend my House.”
“Blood fever is upon him,” Qonja said, while Reever held on to my hand. “He must have taken the herb. He will not listen to you.”
Blood fever meant Salo had ingested jaspforran, a Jorenian botanical with chemical properties that enhanced aggression and blanked out pain in the natives. AKA “Beserker Herb.”
“Reever, turn me loose. Salo!” I grabbed Fasala’s gurney and pulled it over until the unconscious child was right next to her ClanFather. “Release that man and take your child to Medical.”
The sight of his daughter distracted him for a moment, then he dug his claws in deeper. The alien blood that had been trickling down his arm now became a small stream, and the League soldier uttered a weak moan.
“Salo, damn it, get your claws out of him!”
The warrior’s knot in his hair gleamed as he turned to look at me with rage-blind eyes. “You betray our HouseClan.”
“You swore to me on Joren that your life was mine.” I hated reminding him of that, but when this berserker state fell over them, very little could stop them from tearing their victims apart. “I’m calling in that favor now. A life for a life.”
Appealing to his sense of ritual and formality worked. The herb-induced insanity slowly cleared from the big warrior’s face, and the soldier fell from his hands and slid to the deck.
When Salo flicked the blood from his claws, it was with the same contempt that coated his voice as he spoke to me. “You dishonor our kinship.” Then he took Fasala’s gurney and pushed it toward the gyrlift. After giving me a strange look, Qonja went with him.
I knelt down and pressed my hands against the soldier’s chest. “Reever, somebody, give me a hand here.”
We dealt with the wounded, including the trooper Salo had nearly divested of his heart. Qonja for once had nothing to say to me, and left Medical as soon as one of the nurses stitched him up. I dealt with Squilyp, who had made light of his injuries, but proved to be in no shape to stay on his foot. After I bullied him into a berth, Vlaav and I took care of the mostly uncomplicated surgical cases.
Adaola kept watch over Marel for me, and brought regular updates. Her lacerations were only minor, but I had the Jorenian nurse put my daughter and Salo’s into an isolation room, well away from all the League soldiers who had hurt them.
Fifteen hours later, I left my sleeping daughter in the care of my staff and went to take care of the last of the day’s business.
Qonja didn’t seem surprised to see me his time. “Yes, Healer? Are my services needed?”
I walked past him into his quarters and pointed to a chair. “Sit.” After a moment, he sat. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“I don’t know-“
“You’ve been watching me since I came on board. Following m
e. Taking notes. Trying to insinuate yourself into my life. Today you saved my daughter.” I tapped my foot on the deck. “Why?”
He seemed tired, and wouldn’t look at me. “I admire you.”
“I’ve had other people admire me. They don’t put recording drones in my quarters.”
His head snapped up. “You found them?”
“Uh-huh. I checked Jorenian law. I can have you imprisoned for what you’ve done. And I will, so convince me not to.”
A minute of silence passed, then he said, “I cannot.”
“All right.” I went to the door. “As soon as your wounds heal, report back to Medical.”
Then came the confrontation I wasn’t looking forward to. I was exhausted as much from the marathon of patching and suturing as from the emotional overload, and the bizarre calm I’d enjoyed for the last shift seemed to be dissipating fast. Duncan and I had been through plenty, and I was prepared to trust him with my life.
My daughter’s life was another matter.
He seemed to be waiting for me, I saw as I walked in, as he sat on the chair facing the door panel. Jenner was in his lap, but not for long.
My darling pet took one look at me, and sat up. Uh-oh. He jumped down and hightailed it back to Marel’s room. I’m outta here.
I said the first thing that came into my head. “You didn’t come to Medical to see how our kid is. What, you were too busy checking on the lizards?”
He just sat there and watched me. “I signaled one of the nurses to apprise myself of her status, several times.”
“You’re such a good daddy.” Hands clenched, I went over to the prep unit and briefly rested my brow against the polished alloy upper cabinet. “This isn’t going to turn into yet another screaming match between us.”
“I never scream.”
“True.” My fingers jabbed the console, and something hot and liquid poured into my empty server. “I’d feel better if you would, once in a while, but then, one can’t pick one’s destined life mate.”
“I agree.” He made a casual gesture. “Will you hear what I have to say, or would you prefer to vent your frustrations first?”
I was a surgeon, a mother, a survivor. I could be a mature adult. For a few minutes. “Oh, please, be my guest.”