Freed

by Elin Wyn

  “Never mind what I said before. Kill them all. Every last one of them.”

  A low growl from the back corner of the room cut off Xander’s reply.

  We hurried over and found the others standing in a circle, staring down at another row of bodies, neatly laid out, five men, side by side.

  One glance, and I knew.

  These weren’t fully human. This was the rest of Ronan's pack.

  I slipped my arm around his waist and he pulled me to him, everything gone now but the need to be together.

  Ronan’s face was blank, as empty as it had been when he first found us in the cage in the lab, fixed on something I couldn’t see, locked in the past.

  I looked at the bodies again. All had wounds that seemed inconsequential, especially knowing their regenerative abilities.

  But all bore deep gashes across their necks.

  The shock of realization hit me. The angle of the scar on Ronan's neck that had always bothered me.

  This was the same. Beginning at one side, across but slightly down. If they'd been cut from behind, it would have pulled up. If the opponent had been to the front, the wound would have been straighter, not level, but close.

  But these. These were all self-inflicted. Through some unimaginable nightmare, they had all chosen to cut their throats.

  Just like Ronan.

  The Pack waited, silent and tense.

  “They told us to fight each other. They killed a human for every minute we refused.” The rasp of Ronan’s voice was so low I could feel it where my back pressed against his chest.

  “The pit was fielded, we couldn't get out, just watched the humans drop, one by one, while we waited.”

  He stepped forward, still holding my hand like a drowning man desperate for a rope, and paused by each of the bodies in turn.

  “Vinor. Tarkal. Javik. Lin.”

  He stopped at the last one, a tall man with a tangle of dark blond hair falling over his face. “Erich.”

  His hand had gone to ice in mine, and I studied the man who’d been such a part of Ronan’s life that, even when dead, his memory had served as companion, conscience.

  Across the circle, Aeden met my eyes, while Ronan spoke.

  “We didn't discuss it, make any plan. There wasn't any way to stop the Hunters, other than to refuse to be a part of their sick games. They couldn’t believe we wouldn’t take their orders. That's all they did.”

  I stepped closer, but he still didn’t see me, only ghosts.

  “I failed. I didn't cut deeply enough. When I woke up, the force field was down, the Hunters were gone. And everyone was dead except me.”

  There wasn't anything to say. ‘I'm sorry’ would've been pathetically inadequate.

  Grief would have to wait.

  Ronan looked around at his surviving brothers. "We'll be back to take care of them."

  They flowed around the bodies without a second look, not out of callousness, their stricken faces at Ronan’s story were enough. Focus cut through the freezing air like a knife.

  I didn't need to look back, either. I would never forget what had happened, not to the human victims of experimentation, nor to the Wolves who had been so cruelly toyed with.

  By the time we re-formed at the next door, cool resolution had spread through the group.

  My ear crackled. "Everyone, if you can still hear me, you're right next to where I see the red dots." Loree said. "They haven't moved. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it's something else. But it's weird."

  Hard glances passed between the brothers.

  "Weird we can handle." Ronan said.

  "I'm leaning towards we burn it all," Xander replied.

  My chest constricted as we waited for Loree to work around the seal of the door.

  "Here we go," came her voice finally. "Three, two, one, go!"

  Geir and Aeden slipped through before the door was all the way open, peeling off to opposite corners to cover the compartment.

  But the sounds of the firefight I dreaded didn't come.

  "Is it clear?" Ronan sent.

  "No. But they’re sleeping or something. I don't know." Geir answered

  "When he talks, he could use enough words to make sense," Ronan muttered and stepped through the door to check it out himself.

  In a moment I heard him over the comm. “Everyone come in, but move slowly.”

  Aedan before me and Xander behind, we stole into the room.

  After the bodies tossed away like so much trash, I didn't think anything would surprise me.

  But the rows of Hunters standing stock still, spread in a grid across the floor, knocked that assumption aside.

  “Are they sleeping?” Xander wondered.

  I shook my head. Despite my fear, I was curious to get closer. "I wonder if they're recharging. Look at the disks they're standing on. And I think some are missing."

  If you figured they were charging, and if you figured there'd be one charging stand per Hunter, you could count the number of Hunters the brothers had killed by the empty gray disks.

  Less than half of what must've been the original group of Hunters assigned to the ship remained.

  Still, more than forty remained. And while Ronan and his brothers were talented, I didn't like those odds.

  "They're not responding." I whispered. "If we snuck through, would we have to deal with them at all?"

  "Can't leave them at our backs." Ronan answered. "Besides, we may never get another chance this good."

  He nodded to everyone.

  "Fan out slowly. See how many we can take down."

  Ronan and Hakon slipped further along the side walls

  I could see what they were planning. It should have worked.

  But, as the first shots fired, the room erupted.

  In all the time I'd been on board, I'd never seen the Hunters fight, just carry out their orders, move methodically through the operations.

  Any doubts I had that they really were meant as combat drones was gone between the space of one heartbeat and another.

  Hunters twisted and spun from their stations and, even as the Wolves kept firing into the seething mass, they lashed out.

  One knocked Aeden's weapon from his grip. He didn't seem to mind, just dove into the battle, knives in his hands.

  I watched, pressed into my corner, with Xander in front of me firing at any of the domed heads that came too near.

  No wonder Ronan came back bloody and beaten. The Hunters were streaks of black, relentless power and speed.

  But as the fight wore on, I could see the Wolves were a match for them.

  They took them apart in twos and threes, separated lone Hunters from the rest, divided them so that no massed onslaught could happen.

  I stayed pressed into my corner, clutching the instrument pouch to my chest, hand over my mouth to keep from screaming. It wouldn't do any good. But the fight wore on and on.

  Hakon took a bone crunching blow to the spine that left him staggering. Geir whirled in front of him, ripping the arm off the opposing Hunter with a snarl until Hakon regained his balance.

  Ronan and Aeden fought back to back in the center of the room, the Hunters’ twitching bodies piling before them.

  I could tell it would happen before it did.

  Aeden stepped back and tripped on a Hunter’s sprawled leg. He twisted, rolling to the side, then popping up again, but leaving Ronan’s back exposed.

  Ronan fought in a blind fury, unaware of his vulnerability.

  Two Hunters attacked, knocking him down in a rain of blows, more piling on until I couldn’t see him anymore.

  “Help him!” I shouted to Xander.

  “I can’t get a clean shot from here.”

  “Then go where you can!”

  “Keeping you safe is my assignment. He’d never forgive me if-”

  He broke off at the point of the warming laser scalpel pressing into his back.

  “He’ll forgive you a lot sooner than I will if he’s killed. Go.”

&nbs
p; Xander shook his head, a flicker of his normal grin breaking through. “And we always thought he was the tough one.”

  He darted off, and together, he and Aedan tore through the attackers.

  The Hunters were defeated. There was no escaping it, they just hadn’t stopped fighting yet.

  But what sort of losses would we take?

  I’d become so involved in watching the fight, I’d stepped out of my corner, towards where Ronan still struggled under a diminishing pile of Hunters.

  Then I froze, as a black-gloved hand wrapped around my ankle.

  Ronan

  Through the limbs of the Hunters dragging me down, I saw Nadira fall.

  Red filled my vision, tunneling, until all I could see was her struggling under the Hunter.

  With a roar, I ripped the enemy from me, whipping one into another, cracking their domes until they shattered.

  They didn't matter.

  She was the only thing that was important.

  I fought my way to her side, backhanding Hunters that dared to cross my path and block my vision of her.

  My Nadira, with her gentle hands and strong spirit. She should never have been brought into a fight, never have had to see the violence that we lived with.

  When I reached where I had seen her last, she was gone. I shouted for her, then saw one pale hand protruding from under a Hunter’s corpse.

  I hurled the limp form off her and she sat up, choking for air.

  She clutched the laser scalpel with her other hand, and, upon a closer look, the dome of the Hunter who had covered her had been neatly pierced. The smell of cooked flesh wafting out turned my stomach.

  I gathered her up.

  “Are you alright?” I patted over her limbs, checking for injury, desperate to reassure myself she was here, alive, wouldn't join the ghosts who haunted me.

  “I'm fine.” She leaned into my chest and I held her close. I could feel her heartbeat, strong through her body. It may as well be my heartbeat now.

  Nadira wiggled out of my arms and headed into the room. My brothers had finished the last bits of the battle and looked as battered as I felt.

  A fast, professional triage, with wound sealant and painkillers applied despite our grumbling.

  I watched, waited until she came back to treat me.

  “I’m never letting you out of the secured area again.”

  “Yes, you will.”

  Sigh. She was right, but for now, I was going to pretend that as soon as this was done, I could tie her to the bed. And…

  “We’ll talk about it later.”

  “Later would be fine.” The knowing look in her eyes made me wonder if she was remembering the last time we’d ‘talked’ about this. “But first, let’s take care of why I’m here.”

  Hakon kept an eye on the terminated Hunters while Geir inspected the auxiliary control room.

  “All clear.”

  “Fine. Aeden, go with Hakon, I want a headshot in or on every one of those bastards. No surprises. When you’re done, check with Loree. See if there are any more heat clusters on her screens.”

  He headed out, and I returned to watching over Nadira while she worked.

  She examined the pink and gray form that covered the control panels. “Look here,” she pointed, pulling on thin translucent gloves. “I think this was the original point of… Void, I don’t even know what to call this. Infection?”

  A larger mass perched behind the center of the panel, almost as if standing guard. Thick ropes of flesh draped from it, encasing the terminal, spreading along the top and down the sides.

  “I’m going to start back here, see if I can tell what’s connected where.”

  Carefully she began peeling back the layers from midway up the mass. It all looked the same to me. “Quinn, we’ve started. Let me know if you see any changes on your end.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  Nadira shrieked, and I drew my blaster as, with a start, she jumped back.

  “No, don’t fire!”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Everything. Everything is wrong.” She gagged, then regained her composure. “Look.”

  The peeled flesh revealed a dark layer, but it didn’t make sense.

  “Look again. It’s fabric. I think from a uniform.”

  Now that she’d said it, I could see it clearly. The same black fabric the Hunters wore.

  “How did it get in there?”

  “Other way around, I think.” She took a deep breath, resumed her work. “I suspect it really was an infection, but deliberate.”

  Xander peered around me. “What does that even mean?”

  “I can’t tell, but I think this was a human. Assigned to come in here, work the controls. Did he volunteer? Was he even aware he’d been infected, changed?” She shrugged, cut away more tissue. “I don’t know. Looking at his metamorphosis, I hope he didn’t know what was coming.”

  “If this General Melchior took over the ship, he’d have sent one of his own to secure this place. Someone he trusted.” I stepped back, mind reeling. “Hell of a way to pay for loyalty.”

  “Whether he knew or not, it doesn’t much matter. Either way, I need to follow the tendons and ligaments down, extract them from the controls so Hakon can install the box.”

  The work was slow, painstaking, but bit by bit the console was revealed.

  Finally she stood up, stretched her back. “Hakon, is this enough to work with?”

  He didn’t seem to notice the piles of meat carved away, just examined the panel. “Should be. Maybe a little more clearance over here?”

  They conferred, cleaning tendrils from the interior of the controls for another hour, until Hakon decreed it done.

  “Let’s get that cube.”

  Nadira pulled the small machine from her pouch. “Do you really think it’ll block their attempts to take the ship back?”

  “Hey,” Loree crackled. “I’m still listening!”

  Hakon grunted. “Should. Probably.”

  “Hey!”

  When we got back to the secure area, all any of us wanted to do was den up, sleep, and let our bodies handle the damage.

  Apparently, having a doctor on missions with us meant that wasn't happening.

  “Debriefing in the medbay, everybody.” I tried not to grumble. We made it in, destroyed the Hunters’ lair, and took control of the ship. All without losses.

  I thought of Erich, the others, lying cold and still in that charnelhouse.

  All right. The day had had good points. Nadira examined Hakon’s back.

  It had been a good day.

  "I can't believe your kidneys aren’t damaged after that blow," Nadira said, switching off the scanner.

  “I’d prescribe bedrest for all of you for a week, but I know that won't happen.”

  She started towards Geir, who backed away into a wall. "I'm fine."

  "I'm sure. Seriously, this is scarier than the Hunters?"

  Scowling he took Hakon’s place on the examination table.

  "See, just a few scratches that I missed before. We’ll get them sealed up in no time. Even with your enhanced systems, it doesn't hurt to be sure.”

  Geir scrambled away and Nadira continued her work.

  "Hakon, how long until we know if we've got controls back?" I asked.

  “Quinn and I will start running diagnostics as soon as we…," he stopped at Nadira’s fixed gaze.

  "Have some rest." he finished lamely.

  She perched herself on the edge of her examining table, and I strode to her side.

  "Are you hurt, when that bastard grabbed you, did he break anything?”

  "No, silly, it’s just that up here I have a better chance of looking at you guys without straining my neck." She bit her lip. "What do you want to do about the others?"

  Her words made no sense. I looked around to the rest of the pack, but it was clear they didn't have any idea what she was talking about, either.

  "We could do some sort of fune
ral, or service, I don't know what traditions you guys have."

  Oh.

  "Hadn't thought of anything. We know more than most people that we're just meat."

  She frowned, eyes flashing. "You might be meat, and created deliberately, but there's a spark in there, too. Something that makes you different from the slabs of flesh I just carved through in the control room.” Her voice softened. “And the funeral isn't for them, but to close the door for you.”

  "Then we'll leave it open until we’ve finished avenging them."

  A murmur of agreement ran through the room.

  Nadira leaned into me, then straightened up. "Wait a minute. Where Xander?" She closed her eyes and shook her head in frustration. "Why do I even ask? Ronan, would you call him in here?”

  I stepped aside, triggered the comm. Listened.

  "He asked if you’ll come in there."

  Nadira put a hand on her hip. "Really? He doesn't need a house call. Just a little more patching up. I refuse to have any treatments given immediately after a fight be the final say. I want him on the monitors.”

  I slid my hand down her back, remembering an overheard conversation.

  “Loree's asking for you. She says it's time.”

  Nadira

  I rushed to Loree’s room. When I had checked on her after the mission, she'd sworn she was fine, just wanted to rest after talking for so long.

  I shouldn't have believed her. She lay propped up in bed, leaning against Xander slightly. Her face was pale, waxy, and she hadn't bothered to tie her hair back.

  He scowled at me as I approached the bed.

  “She needs another injection, something to fix her back up. Why aren’t you doing anything?" he demanded.

  Oh. This was a conversation I wasn't looking forward to. I looked at Loree again, at his arm curled protectively over her shoulders.

  And maybe I wasn't the one to have it.

  “You promised,” I chided as I pulled the vials we’d kept in reserve off the shelf. I grabbed the injector, put it all into the bag I still wore.

  She shrugged. Not much of one, just a millimeter of movement from her shoulders, but it was clear.