~ ~ ~
Regret and the fire of revenge for the device’s treachery blazed through T’Hargen. Within his embrace, atop the wall, Kathryn had felt like a safety line, a net against a devastating plunge, and he hadn’t even realised he’d been falling. And that contraption endangered her.
“I am not so inept as you would presume, Kathryn. My ability to sense when events do not form a cohesive whole has kept me alive innumerable times. This entire series of incidents does not follow a natural pattern. Your friend lied to you. It was he who transformed the pillar and he who set us on this path.”
And I was so gullibly willing to search out means to defend the Alliance.
“Really. What proof do you have of that? Or is this another assumption? Besides, if that were so, why would he take us via another planet?”
“Perhaps distance required we travel there first in order to reach this one. The transporter beam would have limits.”
Her shrug and features held an element of disdain that threatened to cut him loose to resume his plummet. A definite reluctance for that to occur blazed through him. He caged the fledgling, alien warmth stirring at the core of his being and fighting for freedom. If the price for saving Kathryn’s life was to suffocate the spark that could be his salvation, so be it.
“He could have killed you at any time,” she argued. “Particularly when we encountered you on New Earth”.
“Not without upsetting his plan. You would not have continued.”
Her expression clearly revealed that continuing without him now was an attractive option.
“He could have lasered you on the second planet.”
“Possibly, though I suspect he would prefer my demise to appear as an accident. I’m sure my presence is an unlooked-for complication to his plans. Why do you think he took an immediate dislike to me?”
He guessed her answer from her sardonic look.
“Gee, I don’t know. Maybe it was because you tried to kill him then.” She held a palm up towards him. “We could argue this until the cows come home. The fact is neither one of us will change our position.”
The drone’s deep humming grew louder. He lifted his laser and aimed over Kathryn’s shoulder where the thing rose into view. She sent him a glare brimming with angry exasperation and she landed her hands on her hips.
“Really? We’re back to that?” She turned her head and spoke over her shoulder. “TL, do I have your word you won’t harm T’Hargen?”
Even he could recognise the grudging tone in the drone’s reply, but his doubt about its honour did not lessen.
“You’re free from any threat of assault from him,” Kathryn said.
The unspoken words in her statement hung clearly in the air between them.
But you refuse to include yourself in that promise.
The thought of her ‘assaulting’ him ignited a wave of sensual anticipation in his lower belly. g’Nel she gets me riled up and in a state. He let the sensation roll through him, welcoming the feeling of unusual vitality it induced.
“I expect you to reciprocate, T’Hargen.”
It would be my pleas— Ah, I’m sorry?
Kathryn’s piercing stare reminded him he still held his weapon against the drone.
Oh, that.
Holstering his handgun was not an option. He lowered its focus, but maintained an alert gaze on the drone’s weapons for any sign of activity.
“I agree, with the corresponding amount of sincerity as the drone. And providing he always remains in front of me.”
Kathryn’s eyelids lowered over a roll of her eyes and with an abrupt shake of her head she turned away from him.
“TL, do T’Hargen’s accusations have any basis in truth?”
The thing replied with a short, fluted cadence.
Kathryn’s mouth fell open and she stared at the traitor.
“Which parts?” The choke in her voice pricked his protective instincts, urging him to terminate the distress being caused her.
“What was its answer?”
She flapped a hand at him, her focus intent on the drone.
“Was it just me, TL, or did you want both of us to come here?”
It emitted a sharp whistle followed by a long warble. Kathryn turned a grave, shocked face to him.
“Apparently we’re both needed here.”
“Why?”
Her gaze turned back to the drone as it trilled an answer. Colour fled her face and concern drove him forwards. He dared her censure and lifted a hand to her shoulder. In the soft light of his torch, she looked at him with anxious eyes.
“There are people—TL uses the word ‘descendants’—here that need our help.”
A gust of distrust sparked against the urgent need to rescue anyone under the heel of the Bluthen.
This thing knows Kathryn, understands her character. What better way to ensure her compliance than a cry for aid?
“How does it know that? Why didn’t it say something on New Earth when a proper rescue could have been organised and mounted?”
“He says he received a distress call on the first planet we were transported to and that he wasn’t aware of the need before then.”
T’Hargen pondered the viability of questioning the drone further, and the veracity of any answers he’d receive.
“Can one or both of us activate the transporter beam? Does the drone know how to navigate the teleportation system so we can return to New Earth?”
Beweeble-weeble.
Was the pitka trying to sound vulnerable? Probably. An unvarnished attempt to influence Kathryn.
“Yes, instructions on charting the teleportation system were embedded in the distress call. He’s been able to access the teleporter computer here and inserted your DNA profile as an”—her brows lowered in consideration—“adjunct, that gives you teleporter authority.”
Is this information factual? Could they risk employing the drone’s guidance?
Dare they not?
“He also says that you will find information here on the transport beam’s technology.”
And now the thing attempts to play me, offering technology I would do much to secure for the Alliance.
“Kathryn, please touch the pillar.”
A sonic screech drilled into his hearing. Pain lanced his brain and he clamped his hands over his ear-ridges. The sound ceased. Deafening silence rang for endless seconds. Kathryn stared at him with wide, shocked eyes, her face blanching in the faint light.
“He says we must save the descendants now. They are in imminent peril. The time required to return and organise a rescue also increases the likelihood of the trespassers uncovering the knowledge of the pathways.
“The number of planets connected via the teleporter system is vast. The trespassers must not be allowed access to it.”
“Trespassers?”
“The grey ones.”
Bluthen.
He couldn’t let them acquire such knowledge. Kathryn’s eyes searched his. The terrible dark fear reflected in them punched his heart. Her gaze sank to the floor and remained fixed on one point. “TL, you’re sure you can get us back to New Earth?” she asked.
The drone whistled a reply.
“He confirms he can. If I wish to return immediately he will tell me which path to choose.” She straightened and her gaze lifted to meet T’Hargen’s. “But Bluthen presence or not, we’re not going anywhere just yet.”
“Kathryn, we must leave this place.” He sent a look of disgust at the drone. “Even if you have to ask it. You believe in its integrity, we must at least try. But I warn you, if we do not reach our destination within two turns of the teleportation device, I will annihilate the drone.”
“We’re staying.”
Steadfast resolution flowed over her posture, strengthened her stance. He considered her bearing. Some matter of importance drives this decision.
“You believe there are those here who require our intervention?”
“I do.”
“On the drone’s say-so?”
“Not just that.”
“What then, Kathryn?”
Once again her gaze dropped to the floor. With a minute jerk of her chin, she pointed towards something. He turned to the barely seen object. A crumpled lump of pale tan lay near the shadowed base of a maze wall. The source of the Bluthen DNA.
“Have you run a scan for evidence of humans?”
Kathryn’s soft words vibrated with a tension that pricked his attentiveness.
“You recognise this material?”
“It’s a sticking plaster.”
“A small bandage? From Earth?”
“Yes.”
He adjusted the search parameters of his scanner and stared at the results.
It appears that our stay here will indeed be extended.
“I cannot determine how many, Kathryn, but yes, there has been a human presence here recently.”
“Doesn’t matter if it’s just one, we’re not going to abandon them, nor whoever else may be here and in peril to the Bluthen. TL, can you lead the way?”
A long, tone-alternating, oopling ensued and T’Hargen wondered if the unblessed thing was providing step-by-step instructions. Irritation flared and rasped against his distrust, aggravated his precarious calm. With iron purpose he shoved the chaotic emotions into a dark corner of his soul. Kathryn turned to him, hope and purpose shining in her eyes. g’Nel how he wanted to be what she needed him to be, but gut-wrenching experience of Bluthen ruthlessness assailed him. He loathed the thought of hurting her, but she needed to be prepared.
“Kathryn, they could be dead.”
The optimism in her eyes never wavered. “I know, but I need to try.”
“Then try we shall.”
~ ~ ~
Mindful of T’Hargen’s stipulation, Kat asked TL to lead the way and they set off through the maze. Not that she could blame T’Hargen for his distrust. Though TL had never lied outright to her, as far as she was aware, she couldn’t help the shock and hurt of discovering he’d manipulated her. It appeared the little AI had far more intelligence and deviousness than she’d expected.
She tapped him gently on the back of his fuselage.
“Why the subterfuge, TL?”
He warbled a soft reply, full of remorse and apology of how he’d wanted to trust her, but he couldn’t be certain T’Hargen wouldn’t persuade her against following through and his primary directive would not allow him to jeopardise the lives of the descendants.
“Your primary directive is to protect descendants?”
Correct. People like her.
She did a double take. What? People like me? What the heck does that mean?
“Elaborate.”
People with the same genetic marker as she carried.
“Which genetic marker?”
One that makes me female? Human? Bi-pedal? Soft-skinned? Brown-skinned?
He didn’t have a name for it, just a specific sequence and position on an RNA thread, nor did he know its function.
And I wouldn’t have a clue as to what that was, even if you showed me its exact position on a double helix.
She rubbed her fingertips across her forehead.
“So, you consider me a descendant?”
Yes, but he’d like and protect her even if she weren’t.
She lifted the corners of her mouth in a small smile.
Somehow, it seems to me that I’ve managed to raise more questions than answers to them.
“Are you not placing me in harm’s way by bringing me here? Doesn’t that mess with your prime directive?”
Risk was minimal. She had him to protect her, the descendants here had no one. He could and would keep her safe.
She pulled in a deep, thoughtful breath.
“I think you’d better explain everything you know, from the beginning.”
He apologised again for not sharing information with her, pleaded he’d been seeking the right opportunity to do just that when she’d begun to question him.
She nodded acceptance of his apology then twirled her index finger to urge him on.
He had very little memory of events before her touch on the light sconce had reanimated him. He didn’t know who his creator was, nor why they’d programmed him as they had. He was not in collaboration with the trespassers. The very thought that he might betray her appalled and disgusted him.
“And you trust the source of the distress call?”
Yes, the transmission had been encrypted with a security protocol that corresponded with one embedded in his core. It had been routed through the masterframe computer on that planet. With the communication he had discovered that each planet with a teleporter had a masterframe and the masterframes were somehow linked. Unfortunately, he could not establish wireless communication with the masterframe on this planet.
“And what of T’Hargen? You said we were both needed here.”
The Angrigan would prove useful in helping to guard her.
“What answers has it given you?” T’Hargen demanded.
She relayed TL’s answers—mostly—then pulled a long breath full of regret and understanding. TL had probably been correct not to trust her. Initially she had been right on board with T’Hargen about returning immediately to New Earth. If she’d been in TL’s shoes—so to speak—she’d have acted as he had. His actions were, after all, driven by principle. What was it with her and males of principle?
He oopled a subdued, “Are we still friends?”
She eyed his little form. Hell, with no memory of his origins the poor little bugger was even more lost than she. Yes, she still considered herself his friend, and he, hers.
“Absolutely.”
Bottom line: She trusted him. Their relationship was still growing, meeting obstacles, overcoming them, and despite only knowing him for a limited period of time she couldn’t ignore the ‘recognition’ when she’d first stared at him. The profound kind of connection that happened when two people meet and instantly click, as though they’ve known each other in more than this lifetime.
How a biological shared that kind of link with an artificial intelligence, even if he was sentient, she could not comprehend, but it was there and she would not disregard it. Not when she’d felt a similar instant bond with Matthew and—
Her gaze flickered to the silent man by her side.
Noooo.
It hadn’t been that.
Had it?
Not that kind of cosmic connection.
She’d simply needed the anchoring strength of mind and body he possessed. Yes, that was it. She drilled down into her memory of that dreadful time when she’d blithely sacrificed principles to save his life, inspected each aspect from her now balanced perspective. Through a fog of two-dimensional details, of simple action and reaction, she recalled seeing his imminent peril, but could not drag to light her emotions of the time. Surely her savage defence of him hadn’t been driven by some profound feeling.
He’d needed her immediate help, she’d provided it. That was it, nothing more.
Or was it she’d been so used to penning the terror, the desolation of hope burned to ashes, that she’d ignored any flicker of emotion? Had hid behind her usual coping mechanism of flippancy? If she had felt that connection she was in more peril than she’d realised.
It was precisely why she could not let herself be drawn into emotional involvement with the gorgeous hunk of masculinity. Not with his dangerous line of work, nor his ingrained dedication
to avoiding commitment. No way. The pain that loitered at the end of that road would be . . . Her mind sheered away from the very idea and concentrated on their progress.
In the ambient light provided by TL they soon came to the exit of the maze and stepped onto a road of triangular green tiles. Striding briskly along the thoroughfare, magnificent building façades carved into the rock face of the cavern hovered at the edge of the barely lit gloom.
The huge, open space seemed to swallow the whir of TL’s drive system and the soft sound of their footfalls. Tension coiled around Kat’s muscles and seemed to constrict with every hushed second that passed. Soon they approached the dark mouth of a large tunnel. TL refocused his light to tight beams then probed the interior.
T’Hargen’s warmth invaded her space, brushing against her side as he moved close. His hand wrapped around her right hip and urged her to a halt. Tingling sensation buzzed through her flesh where his touch rested and she stiffened, dismayed at the increasing strength of her body’s welcoming response.
Have I no sense? No, wait, it’s simple appreciation of his ability to keep us safe.
Yes. That’s definitely the cause.
She found his presence heartening.
Good answer.
“Wait a moment, Kathryn, while I scan ahead.”
TL trilled at her, confirming the security of the tunnel. She considered relaying the message to T’Hargen.
Probably not a good idea.
All distrust aside, these two seemed to be not just having a measuring contest, but a hose-down-the-decks-with-testosterone one as well. She contained a sigh, sent an encouraging smile at TL, and waited for T’Hargen’s ‘all clear’.
Just call me Ref.
“Proceed, Kathryn, though please remain by my side.”
Alien, Awakening (Alien, Mine Series Book 2) Page 10