Challa

by Linda Mooney

“Yeah! There’s one in the back of my cruiser,” Klotsky answered. “Here. I’ll come help you. Reynolds! Give us a hand, would you?” The man motioned for the deputy to join them.

  “I was thinking we could stick it into that hole Jeb is chipping away and maybe pry that cocoon open,” Compton told him. He turned to wait for the sheriff and deputy to catch up with him when he heard Challa’s scream in his head. Looking over at her, he felt her terror slam into him. Instinctively, Compton dropped to the ground.

  Klotsky grunted. At almost the same time, the sheriff appeared to trip over something lying on the ground. The big man fell without uttering another sound.

  “Compton!” Challa screamed again. Compton started to rise to see if he could spot what terrified her, when he sensed her coming toward him. She literally jumped over him as she shrieked again, anger overriding her fear. Right behind her was Tiron.

  Compton got to get to his feet to see what the two Ruinos were going after when incredible pain charged through his body. He barely had the chance to gasp when he fell heavily back onto the ground, on his side. Stunned, he tried to roll over but his body wouldn’t obey him. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t call out. He was totally without any control over his body.

  He couldn’t see what Challa and Tiron were fighting, but he could hear them. He could taste Challa’s anger, bright and rancid, like chewing on aluminum foil.

  Someone grabbed him under the arms and hurried to pull him out of what must have been the line of fire. He swore he heard some kind of buzzing or electrical sound as he was propped against a tree. Unfortunately, he remained staring upward, unable to look down or around.

  Breathing was difficult. The best he could manage was to gasp for air. In his head he sensed Challa fighting within a mist of hot blood.

  Compton fought the debilitating effects of whatever was affecting him as he listened to his mate and Tiron fighting. There was a rifle blast, which told him DeGrassi had entered the fray, plus the burr of chainsaws. He wished he could see how the sheriff was faring, but there was nothing he could do but stare up into the night sky and listen to the chilling sounds he could not identify.

  Somehow the lone Arra who’d escaped earlier must have gotten reinforcements and returned. Compton cursed himself again for not paying closer attention. He tried once more to move, but he still felt as if he was encased in invisible concrete. Even his throat was numb, preventing him from speaking or calling out.

  Where are you, Challa? What are you fighting? How many are there? How are you managing?

  A trembling sensation went through him. It was a fluttering as faint as a leaf moving in a breeze, but it was enough to let him know the effects of whatever he was suffering was beginning to lose strength. It gave him hope.

  There were more screams. More Ruinos shrieks of anger. Another gunshot blast. But the sounds of fighting were gradually lessening.

  There was a twinge of pain in his real leg. Compton recognized a cramp coming on in his calf. He managed to grunt, and he felt the rough seam of his jeans under his fingertips. The immobility was slow to fade, but it was fading.

  Hold on, Challa. Hold on. Another minute. Hold on for another minute.

  Unfortunately, he knew all too well that a lot could happen in sixty seconds.

  Chapter 45

  Trojan Horse

  Something crawled up the side of his neck. Compton’s automatic reaction was to reach up and brush the insect away.

  I can move!

  Only partially, he quickly found out. Freedom was restricted to some arm and hand movement. But from his waist down, the novocaine effect of the Arra’s paralyzing ray kept him pinned down. At least the heavy weight had lifted off his chest, and he could breathe more easily.

  Fortunately, having his arms back under his control was enough to allow him to roll over onto his belly and crane his neck for sign of Challa.

  Compton stared in wide-eyed horror. Three Arra stood in a small clearing approximately fifty yards away. Before them was a diamond-shaped bubble—with rounded edges, glowing butter yellow in color, and sending out yellowish rays in every direction.

  On the ground, from what he could see, four piles of steaming Arra were all that was left of four more Arra. But that’s not what horrified him. It was the limp, humanoid forms lying scattered across the grass and tarmac.

  Challa. He sent a mental nudge, hoping he was doing it right. Hoping she would respond.

  There was nothing. No answer. Not even the sense of her sweet presence filling his head or heart.

  Challa!

  From where he was laying he couldn’t tell which forms were human and which were Ruinos. With the Arra watching the diamond ray keeping everyone at bay, Compton didn’t dare draw attention to himself. Not when he could feel a tingling in his good leg. He was almost back to one hundred percent. Whoever had moved him to the tree had done him a favor. The tree had blocked the ray from hitting him full-on, and lying flat on the ground had kept him underneath more line of fire.

  He kept his eyes focused on the Arra. At least some of his unasked questions were answered now. Sometimes slavers had to chase down single individuals, or small groups. For the Arra, the paralyzing disk sufficed. But there would also be times when the Arra would face large crowds, and that was what Compton had wondered about. How did these walking lumps of putty handle bigger numbers of recalcitrant victims?

  The diamond made no sound as it hovered four feet off the ground. The rays were not direct or solid like rays of sunshine, or beams of light from a flashlight. These rays were glittery, broken mirrors varying in color and intensity. They vaguely reminded him of the reflective flecks in Challa’s eyes, only larger and broader.

  Apparently the lone Arra that had escaped earlier had gone back and gotten more than reinforcements. Compton wondered what their next step would be. There was no doubt in his mind that every logger and law enforcement officer, not to mention the Ruinos, was unconscious.

  The silence was agonizing.

  Compton knew the Arra would take the Ruinos with them. That had been their prime mission—to retrieve their escapees. However, there remained the question of the blood mates, and Compton was willing to bet the Arra were just about to realize they may have made a mistake. They must know the blood mates were among the others lying on the ground, but which ones were they?

  Compton silently uttered a challenge to the Arra. What are you going to do? Take all of us up in your ship, and slowly weed out the wrong ones? What will you do to those who aren’t their mates?

  He couldn’t get the image of the exploding deputy out of his head. The horror of that moment would stay with him forever.

  Two Arra moved away, leaving one behind to stay with the diamond. Compton remained silent and still, and watched as they moved among the bodies. One Arra produced what looked like a foot-long length of silver pipe. They bent over, lowering the pipe. A minute later, they straightened, lifting the pipe between them. But there was a body attached to the pipe. A Ruinos. A female.

  Compton went numb with fear. Challa!

  Her head lolled forward between her up-stretched arms, her body limp as it rose on invisible wires. Her hands appeared to be inside the opposite ends of the pipe. It reminded Compton of handcuffs.

  A sudden gust of wind came down over the road, sending debris flying. Compton narrowed his eyes and resisted the effort to turn his head, afraid the movement would alert the Arra that his paralysis was gone.

  The Arra continued to glide slowly over the ground until they reached the blacktop road. Challa remained suspended between them. The wind increased, almost gusting like a gathering storm, except this wind wasn’t being generated by Mother Nature. The distinctive smell of ozone that announced a coming rainstorm was missing

  It had to be the Arran ship.

  Gritting his teeth, Compton closed his eyes and willed himself into a state of preparedness. Reverting to methods the military had drilled into him. He had made too many mistakes in not trusting h
is training, or allowing his training to guide his common sense. He swore to himself it would not happen again.

  Rule Four: Never try to guess what the enemy will do next. Go with what you know for sure.

  The Arra had Challa and were taking her to their ship. He couldn’t waste time wondering or betting that the Arra would take every Ruinos, also. Whether or not they would also take the humans with them and weed them out one-by-one as they paired up blood mates was a moot issue. He had to stop them from taking Challa, but how? No telling where his rifle was.

  If I get up to look for it, or to go after Challa, the rays will get me. But how do I get them to turn off that damn thing?

  And do it now. The wind was kicking up, becoming more turbulent as the ship approached.

  There was a groan coming from a few feet behind the Arra with the diamond. The creature moved to look. That was Compton’s cue. Reaching behind his fake knee, he lifted it until he could find the bottom of his jeans.

  The Arra turned back around. The other two Arra continued to wait for whatever the ship was going to do, and weren’t paying attention to what was going on behind them. Obviously that was the diamond Arra’s job.

  Slowly, agonizingly slow, his fingers crept up his fake leg, looking for the seam.

  Off to his left, someone moved. It alerted the Arra with the diamond, and a sheet of golden light lanced outward, striking whoever had moved. There was a grunt and nothing more.

  Compton waited until things had settled down again before he continued to reach for the gun hidden in the compartment of his prosthesis. Glancing over at where the two Arra stood with Challa, he found the small panel. It worked with a simple magnetic latch. Push on it, and it opened outward. Compton pushed it, letting his fingers slide over the small door.

  The gun dropped into his hand, as welcome as an old friend. Now all he needed was another diversion. Something to attract diamond Arra’s attention so he could rescue Challa.

  His whole focus was on getting her away from them. The Arra had given him no choice when they’d selected her to be the first one to take aboard. And even if they hadn’t…

  He had the pistol firmly in hand and clear of his jeans. Diamond Arra remained statue still. Compton cursed the fact that there was no way to tell if the creature was looking in his direction or not.

  Rule Eleven: If the enemy won’t do what you want them to do, then give them a reason to.

  Everything suddenly became crystal clear. If he waited for someone else to attract the Arra’s attention, it could be too late to save Challa. Therefore…

  Compton sat up, aimed at the diamond bubble, and fired four swift rounds directly into it.

  The object shattered like a crystal vase. The Arra behind it squealed in pain as it was embedded with hundreds of sharp splinters.

  Before the other Arra could react, Compton swung around, lined up on the silvery pipe suspended in midair, and fired. The bullet hit the pipe and ricocheted off, but he got the effect he was hoping for.

  The bullet’s impact made the pipe jump out of their grasp. Challa slumped onto the road as if someone had cut her strings. Taking aim again, Compton put four slugs into the two Arra. The creatures screamed shrilly and moved backwards. Compton was about to fire a third time when he heard a loud blast. The alien in front of him lost the upper third of his body and dropped to the ground. A second ear-splitting blast followed immediately after, and the second Arra exploded like a milk-filled water balloon.

  Compton stared at the Arra as they slowly oozed to the ground. The things were either dead or permanently down for the count. Either way, neither they nor that diamond bubble would ever hurt anyone again.

  “Comp?”

  It was DeGrassi’s voice.

  “Over here!” He scrambled to his feet and rushed over to where Challa remained unmoving on the ground.

  “Compton!”

  Hannah. It was as though a switch had been thrown. Everyone began to rouse since the diamond bubble no longer had any control over them.

  Falling to his knees, Compton gathered her up into his arms. Challa remained completely out of it. There was no use in trying to talk to her or call out her name. She couldn’t hear him, much less sense he was with her. Or even know that she was safe.

  “Compton?”

  Jebaral reached him. The alien was still in his Ruinos form. He laid a hand on Compton’s shoulder. “What happened?”

  “That Arra that got away earlier came back with reinforcements and some kind of ray that knocked everyone out. But the tree protected me, and I managed to get to my pistol I had stashed in my prosthesis.” He looked up at the Ruinos male. “Can you help me get her out of this fucking thing?”

  “It’s a burla,” Tiron hissed, coming to stand beside her mate. “We have no idea how its locking mechanism works.”

  Compton glanced up. Overhead, the Arran ship remained where it was—unmoving, silent, and invisible to radar. “I wonder what they’re thinking up there? I wonder if they know what’s happening down here?”

  Lawson Hall limped over to where they were gathered. The carnival owner snorted at the questions. “I don’t care if they know now, or find out later. Sooner or later those walking zits are going to have to learn that they better not fuck with humans if they know what’s good for them.”

  Compton looked over at Hall, who was standing near DeGrassi and Tiron. Behind them, he could see… He started, surprise and relief sending goosebumps over his skin. “Simon! Thank, God! Simon!”

  Simolif nodded weakly, held up with the help of Sarah and another man as they joined the group.

  “One of the deputies got the Jaws of Life over to the bubble and managed to pry Simon out of it before it was too late,” Sheriff Klotsky explained, coming up from behind.

  Simolif placed a hand on Compton’s other shoulder and nodded at the woman lying unconscious in his arms. “Can you sense her?”

  Compton shook his head. “No. I can’t sense anything.”

  Tiron growled softly. “Then we’ll have to wait for her to come out of it on her own.”

  It was Sarah who asked, “What if they send more down here?” Like the others, her attention was divided between Challa and the ship hovering almost directly overhead.

  “Good question,” DeGrassi said. “How many more do you think are up there?” He pointedly asked Jebaral, “Is that the mothership?”

  Simolif scowled, shaking his head. “It’s a slaver. A slave ship. A cargo carrier. The mothership looks different.”

  “We don’t know how many Arra it takes to run a slaver,” Jebaral added. He started to say more when an immense wave of air slammed down on top of them, knocking everyone to the ground. Before anyone could cry out, the Arran ship lifted upward in a straight line. It took off perpendicular to the Earth until it disappeared in the night sky.

  They waited, watching, straining their ears for any sound that would signal the ship’s return. Finally, Hannah murmured, “Think they’ll be back?”

  “Count on it,” DeGrassi answered.

  “I don’t know,” Compton said. “Maybe they realized that we’re not a species to be trifled with. In all the years those creatures have spent roaming the universe, dealing in slave trading, don’t you think they’ve encountered a world or two where they realized it wasn’t worth the headache? Maybe…if we’re damn lucky, maybe they’ve decided to write us off. If we’re this dangerous over a handful of Ruinos, imagine what kind of shit we could deal out if there were more of us.” He gave them a weak smile as relief filtered through him. As much as he wanted to hope this was the last they’d see of the Arra, there was no way anyone could guarantee the possibility.

  Hell, maybe the Arra couldn’t make the same prediction. What were the chances those creatures would change their minds, if not tomorrow, then in the near future?

  “Come on.” The sheriff gestured for them to follow him. “It’ll be daylight soon. We can take a couple of the county squad cars to get you home.” Motioning
toward Challa, he added, “By that time maybe we can figure out how to get that thing off of her.”

  Chapter 46

  Freedom

  Compton rode in the backseat with Challa held tightly against his chest. She remained out of it, although her breathing was more like someone who was in a deep sleep.

  “What did those fuckers do to her?” he asked Tiron, who sat next to him while DeGrassi sat in the front seat with Klotsky.

  “It has to be the burla,” the female Ruinos told him. “There’s something inside that gets into the bloodstream, keeping her docile. Makes it easier for the Arra to cart away the unruly prisoners. Some Ruinos succumb completely to it. My guess is as soon as we get her out of it, she’ll come to.”

  DeGrassi turned partly around in his seat and glanced back at them. “Roni, do you remember how you got out of your burla?”

  “No. Sorry. All I remember is waking up with it already off. Either it wasn’t locked properly, or…” She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  Compton glanced down again at the pipe keeping Challa trapped. He gave a huge sigh and leaned his head back against the seat. He was exhausted. The adrenalin was gone, leaving behind a dozen aches and pains from their ordeal. He could still feel the pistol poking him in his pants pocket where he’d stashed it, which reminded him…

  “Hey, DeGrassi. Guess things are going to be a bit different in Tumbril Harbor, now that a lot more people know about the Ruinos.”

  The deputy nodded as he watched the road. “But I have a feeling this is going to draw the community closer together. Tumbril Harbor has always been a tight-knit town.”

  “Yet they accepted aliens from outer space?”

  Klotsky spoke up. “Jeb and Hannah earned the town’s respect by fitting in without causing any problems. They get along with the townspeople, and they actively participate in a lot of our community activities. Same goes for Thom and Roni, although Thom grew up here. He’s considered a local, anyway.” He chuckled, then added, “Of course, every time they’re in public, Roni and Jeb are human. So is Simon when he and Sarah come to visit. I think tonight’s the first time the men have seen them as they really are.”