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LARIA
Whoever was responsible for getting the power to work on the lab level also got one of the lifts working. After leading us to the end of the passageway, Cara shuffled us inside the convenient conveyor, which was a lot faster and easier to use than the engineering tunnels.
After finding the passageway on the new level empty, Cara motioned to her left. “Doyle took everyone to his office. It’s down this corridor to the left. He only had one guard outside the room when I was scouting the area before. He’s armed with a laser pistol, so we’ll need to distract him.”
“How do you propose we do that?” I asked.
Sloane grinned. “We could just shoot him.”
“And I would agree with you if I wasn’t worried that Doyle might still be inside the room with our friends.” Cara held up a finger. “Wait here. I’ll go around to the other side of the corridor.” She winked and took another passageway. Unlike the layout on the lab level, this area was designed as quarters. Many of the corridors intersected, forming large squares in the layout. I always wondered if the architectural engineers who’d come up with the plan had purposely designed it that way to make getting around it easier or if it had been by accident.
A minute later, I heard Cara’s voice, and peeked around the corner. The guard’s weapon was still holstered to his waist, but his jaw was practically hanging on the floor. Cara had taken off her hat and tied the ends of her shirt into a knot around her waist, exposing a portion of her midsection.
“Carl, what the... You’re a girl, but how?” Confused yet wary, he took an uneasy step toward Cara.
She sauntered closer to the male. “Correction, I’m a woman.”
“I can see that.” The suspicion in his tone was replaced with lustful appreciation. When he started moving closer, Cara spun, leveling her leg with a kick that landed in the center of his chest. He expelled a groan as he staggered backward and slammed into the wall. The back of his head bounced off the metal hard enough to daze him, and he dropped to the floor.
Before he could recover, Cara pounced, then rolled him onto his stomach with her knee pressed firmly against his spine. She removed his pistol and tapped his shoulder with it. “Where’s Doyle? Is he still inside with the prisoners?”
“You can go fu...”
Cara cut off his words by grabbing a handful of hair and jamming the weapon into his neck. “Last chance.”
The rest of our group had joined Cara and were waiting for the male to answer.
His hesitation was brief. “Said he was headed for the lab.”
It was a good thing Cara hadn’t chosen a direct route to reach this level of the ship. Otherwise, we would have run into Doyle. If the lab really was his destination, it wouldn’t take long for him to figure out we were gone and where we’d headed. It also meant we didn’t have much time to get our friends and get out of here. “Are there any other guards inside?” I asked as I drew my sword.
When the male took too long to answer, Cara tightened the grip on his hair. “No, only me.”
Sloane already had the weapon she’d confiscated in the lab drawn and was reaching for the manual control on the door. After a quick glance inside, she gave Cara an acknowledging nod. “Celeste, are you...” Her voice faded as she disappeared into the room.
“Allow me,” Garyck walked up to Cara. As soon as she released the guard, Garyck grabbed him by the back of the shirt, yanked him to his feet, then shoved him toward Doyle’s office.
“Your friend is quite impressive. Does she match your skills with a sword?” Jardun hadn’t been far from my side since we’d left the lab.
“Her friend prefers to use her fists and her feet,” Cara said as she sauntered past them and headed inside the room.
By the size and interior design, this was one of the larger rooms on this level and, if I remembered right, was used as a meeting room by the ship’s old commander and the council. The conference-sized table and the adjoining chairs were still bolted to the floor. The shelves running along one wall were filled with valuables, an assortment of items that had made the trip from Earth. Items I was sure hadn’t originally belonged to Doyle.
“See if you can find something to tie him up.” Cara directed her instruction to Garyck. “We don’t need him sending out an alert before we get off the ship.”
After glancing around the room, Garyck pulled back his fist and swung, the punch catching the male’s jaw and knocking him out.
“Orrr that works,” Cara said.
I was glad to see that Celeste was okay, but could have done without her excited shrill when she realized Carl was really Cara.
Other than a few scrapes, Zaedon didn’t look too bad either. Burke, on the other hand, was in bad shape, most likely the result of an encounter with someone’s fist. One of his eyes was swollen shut. He had a split lip, and his jaw was red with early signs that there would be bruising. The pants covering one thigh had been sliced, and blood coated the fabric. Sloane had already cut the ties binding his wrists to the chair and was fastening one of the longer lengths around his leg to slow the bleeding.
I tried not to wince. “Burke, I hope the other guy looks worse than you do.”
Burke rubbed his wrists. “I wish. Doyle never was one to fight fair.”
Garyck helped Burke to his feet, then draped one of his arms over his shoulders. Zaedon took a few steps closer to Cara, tugging a curl as if testing to see if it was real. He took several long sniffs, then wrinkled his nose. “The male who is a female smells worse than a pile of chaugwas dung.”
“Zaedon, right?” Cara sneered and pushed his hand away.
“Yes.” He quirked a curious brow, clearly surprised she was aware of his name.
“We don’t have time to discuss my personal hygiene right now. It won’t be long before the cameras come back online and the others come after us.”
“Not to mention Doyle won’t be happy when he discovers Vurell isn’t in the lab,” I added.
Celeste grabbed their sheathed swords from a nearby counter in a wall unit. She kept Burke’s and tossed Zaedon’s at him on her way to the outside corridor.
Doyle’s room was located on the main level, which also happened to be close to the entrance at the front of the ship. Even with Burke’s injury, it didn’t take us long to make our way to the exit.
Jardun cautiously surveyed the area outside the vessel. “Where are the three males we saw earlier?”
“We took care of one of them. The other two accompanied Doyle,” Zaedon said.
“Head for that solarveyor over there.” Cara pointed at the largest of the transports. “The solars have been fully charged.”
“And how would you know that?” Sloane asked.
Cara grinned. “It’s amazing what you learn when no one pays any attention to you.” She leaned against the exterior hull and aimed her laser pistol back inside. “Now, go. I’ll catch up.”
Zaedon stepped aside, withdrawing his sword as the rest of us passed. Cara wrinkled her nose at his blade, raising her gaze to his face. “They have guns. What do you think you’re going to do with that?”
“Whatever is necessary to keep you safe.” He moved to the opposite side of the opening.
“Ketaurrans,” Cara muttered under her breath, then returned her focus to the dimly lit passageway.
I turned to stay with my friend, but Jardun grabbed my arm to stop me. “Where are you going?”
“I can’t leave Cara behind.”
“Zaedon will make sure she reaches the transport.” He gave my wrist a gentle tug.
Cara was a stellar fighter. I didn’t think Zaedon would appreciate hearing that it might be the other way around. I gave the two a frustrated glance, then groaned and paced alongside Jardun until we reached the transport.
Celeste and Vurell had helped Burke into a seat and were securing his safety strap. Sloane was hovering near one of the portals, her gaze focused on the ship. Garyck was in the control seat, his fingers flitting over buttons, the engine rumbling to life. He maneuvered the vessel as close to the ship’s entrance as possible, moving slowly but not stopping.
I braced my feet on the floor and clutched a bar near the open doorway, ready to give Cara and Zaedon assistance. They were already under attack and running in our direction. Cara aimed her weapon behind her, firing shots to keep Doyle and his men from following. One of her shots hit the control for the main door, and it started to close.
When they were a few feet away, Zaedon grabbed Cara around the waist, then hoisted her up and followed her inside. “Go,” I hollered at Garyck and hit the button to seal the door.
Jardun
It must not have taken the humans long to get the main doors of the spaceship open again. I notice two of the solarveyors trailing behind us in the distance. Currently, they were too far away to catch us easily. Garyck was pushing our vessel to its limit, the hull vibrating, the whine from the engine’s increased speed rippling through the interior. The additional speed we needed to outrun any pursuing vehicles would use the solarized energy reserves a lot faster than normal. I was not happy with our odds of making it out of the Quaddrien before the engines failed or we were overtaken by Doyle and his males.
I stared at the sunlight flickering through the clouds on the horizon, casting glints of green against the darkening backdrop of an impending storm, the rays too far away to come to our aid. If ever there was a time to hope that water wouldn’t drop from the sky, it was now.
Zaedon was at my side, a disconcerted frown furrowing his brow. “You know they will not stop until they get Vurell and the antidote back and we are dead.”
“I know,” I said, glancing at Laria and her friends. Unless they tried to fight, I did not believe the females would be put to death. I did believe that dying would be a better end than what awaited them at the hands of Doyle and his males should we be overtaken. The thought of any male forcing his touch on Laria repulsed me and further fueled my resolve to prevent our recapture.
“I’m sure my destroying everything in the lab didn’t help,” Cara stated in a matter-of-fact tone.
“What are you talking about?” Laria asked.
I was curious as well. As far as I was aware, the female had done nothing besides secure the males in the storage room.
“When I jammed the camera signals, I set a timer to release the agent in the ceiling used to extinguish fires.” Cara proudly cracked her knuckles. “That nasty foamy stuff has a long shelf life and is very potent. There’s no way it didn’t contaminate all the toxin samples. And yes, before you ask, I set it off in all the labs.”
Knowing the mercenaries would no longer be able to replicate the toxin designed to kill my people provided me with a small amount of relief. It did not, however, assist with our current situation.
“This will work.” Vurell approached from the rear of the transport, where he’d been rummaging through storage units. He smiled victoriously at the medical supply kit in his hands. He knelt in front of Burke and set the container on the bench next to him. Since leaving the lab, he’d kept the bag containing the vials strapped across his chest. Instead of removing it, he repositioned the bag so it pressed against his lower back.
“Can’t this wait until we reach the city?” Burke grumbled.
“Only if you want to arrive without any blood left in your body.” Vurell took the knife Celeste handed him and made a long cut in the fabric of Burke’s pants.
“Don’t be such a baby, Burke. Let the doc fix you up,” Cara said.
“I’d hoped that spending time in the wastelands would’ve adjusted that impertinent attitude of yours.” Burke hissed through his teeth when Vurell pressed on the skin around the gash.
“What attitude?” Cara chuckled. “I’m still the sweet-natured person I’ve always been.”
“This is going to hurt.” Vurell announced his warning at the same time he applied a liberal dose of an anti-infection herbal preparation. A preparation not known to possess soothing qualities.
“What the draeck, Doc?” If not for the safety strap holding him in place, Burke would have lifted off the seat.
It was comforting to know the time Vurell spent with Doyle had not changed his personality or the abrupt way he treated his patients. Vurell ignored Burke’s complaints and wrapped a sealing gauze around the wound. “That will have to do until we reach Aztrashar.” He closed the kit, then slid it in the empty compartment beneath an adjoining bench.
The transport rocked to the right as Garyck shifted directions to circle around the loicryn. Seeing the blur of blue as we rushed past the lush plant-filled area brought memories of my night spent with Laria. I glanced in her direction, noting the concern she held for her friends. If I had learned nothing else over the past few days, it was how precious the few gifts we received could be. She was one of those gifts, and it strengthened my resolve to do everything possible to keep her alive and in my life.
Laria must have gotten a glimpse as we passed and guessed the direction of my thoughts. She smiled, a hint of pink appearing on her cheeks.
“Hey, guys.” Sloane had been kneeling on one of the benches near the rear of the vehicle and staring outside. “They’re getting closer, so if you have any ideas on how we can slow them down, now would be a good time to share with the group.”
“What about the snakkrils?” Laria asked.
Cara wrinkled her nose. “What the heck is a snakkril?”
“They’re these snaky lizard creatures with huge fangs that live in the ground,” Celeste answered. “Oh, and they’re poisonous, as in you’re dead after one bite.”
“Yes, but they’ll attack anything that moves if they think their offspring are in danger. If we drive near their nests, maybe we can use them as a distraction,” Laria said.
I was reminded of the day before and how close I had come to losing Laria. Our situation was dire, we lacked resources, yet I had to admire her ingenuity for coming up with the solution, no matter how risky. There were very few areas along the rocky wall surrounding the Quaddrien where the terrain was low and level enough for a transport to travel. The site where we were attacked was out of our way, but not by much.
“Since we are aware of their location and the other males are not, it could work,” Zaedon added.
Celeste shook her head. “Or we could end up being their next meal.”
“What happens if they get underneath our vehicle and do something to the engine?” Sloane asked.
“They cannot get inside. The metal is too thick for their fangs or claws to penetrate,” Zaedon said.
“These things have claws too?” Cara sounded more impressed than afraid.
“And if we get stranded?” Celeste pressed one hand to her hip. “Then what?”
“Look guys, I don’t think we have much of a choice.” Cara blew out an exasperated breath. “Doyle is one mean, crazy asshole, and his men aren’t much better. Let’s not forget that they’re armed with laser pistols. One lucky shot to the solar drive...” She expanded her fingers to mimic an explosion. “...and we’re done.”
“I agree with Cara and say we go with Laria’s idea.” Burke fiddled with the latch, trying to free the strap keeping him in place.
“Where do you think you are going?” Vurell shoved Burke’s hand away.
“If we end up in a fight, I won’t be much good strapped to a seat,” Burke said.
“You will not be of help if you move your leg and tear open your injury either.”
“Here. Maybe this will help.” Sloane retrieved the gun she’d confiscated from Rick. She appeared reluctant to part with it when she handed it to Burke.
“Then it is agreed. We head for the nests.” I searched the faces of everyone around, receiving affirmatives. Celeste did not seem convinced, but finally gave me a nod. “Garyck.” I could have saved my breath. He was already manning the controls, the solarveyor vibrating with the abrupt shift toward our new destination.
