CHAPTER 23, Dragon's Revenge

Konner made an adjustment to their altitude. The extra bodies in Rover made their flight home slow and ponderous. Too slow. The IMPs could probably fuel up one of their fighters and get it airborne before Rover landed and cloaked.

The Sam Eyeam shrugged. “I am who I am. I do what I do.”

Kat almost doubled over in laughter at that answer. But her mirth carried the edge of hysteria. She held the flywacket too tightly, almost crushing the big cat with both arms wrapped around it. The flywacket didn’t seem to object.

“What’s the joke, baby sister?” Konner asked, only slightly pleased at the emergence of her sense of humor. He wanted answers before they reached the village at the base of the cliff. Answers to questions and solutions to dilemmas.

“You might as well tell him, Bruce. If he can’t pry the answers out of you, he’ll turn Loki loose on your mind with his telepathy,” Kat said. She sounded as if she only half believed her words.

“Take over the controls, Loki,” Konner said. “And don’t deviate from the flight plan. We can dispatch a dragon later to check on Paola and her Amazons.” As soon as his older brother transferred the operation of the shuttle to his station, Konner swung his chair around to face his sister and the Sam Eyeam in the cockpit of the shuttle.

“There is no such thing as telepathy,” the stranger said quietly.

Konner and Kat both cocked their left eyebrows at him.

“But on this planet, with flying cats and dragons and such, maybe . . .” His words drifted off as Konner and Kat continued to gaze at him fixedly.

“You mean . . . ?” he choked.

“Yes,” Konner replied quietly. “Psi powers work here. Maybe not elsewhere, but on this planet they do.”

“It’s the ley lines,” Kat added.

“My name is Bruce Geralds, Sr.,” the Sam Eyeam gulped. “I was hired by your wife to find you and bring you back to Aurora for Martin’s fourteenth birthday. We missed the date.”

“Melinda Fortesque is my ex-wife. Dalleena Farseer is my wife,” Konner corrected the man. Did Geralds truly believe the story he spouted? Had he memorized it at Melinda’s command? If he believed it, he was too gullible to be a successful Sam Eyeam. But then, maybe that was why Melinda hired him, because he believed her lies and she could manipulate him.

“Not according to Ms. Fortesque,” Geralds replied. “And not according to GTE law. In fact, by my reckoning you are a bigamist and the only way to straighten this out is to return to Aurora with me.” Geralds grinned.

Konner’s stomach sank abruptly. He knew Melinda’s tricks. Why was she working so hard to get him back when she had gone to great lengths to get rid of him?

“Actually, Ms. Fortesque is guilty of lying to you.” Konner leaned back, assuming an act of casual confidence he did not feel. Melinda was up to something and he did not trust her or her Sam Eyeam. “I have copies of the annulment papers, all properly signed and sealed.”

“Then that makes Martin illegitimate and any claim you might have on him null and void,” Geralds returned with a smile that did not reach his eyes.

“On certain worlds in the Galactic Free Market, that might be correct,” Kim interjected. Leave it to the family professor to come up with the facts. “In the GTE, if the child is conceived within the bounds of a legal marriage, even if that marriage is later annulled, then the child is legitimate and both parents have claim to custody until settled irrevocably in court.”

“And that court date has passed.” Konner swung his chair back to his console. He did not want to think about it. If he concentrated on one thing at a time, he could hold off the bad thoughts that threatened his sanity. If he concentrated upon Dalleena, the future had hope. A future he planned to share with his son.

“While this conversation is very interesting, it does nothing to save the people Amanda Leonard enslaved on this planet,” Jetang M’Berra said. His black skin gleamed with perspiration. “Nor does it explain why you kidnapped Chaney.” He and the medic knelt beside the wounded Raaskan on the floor. She tested pulse and temperature and read off numbers to M’Berra who stayed within touching distance of her at all times. Her blonde fairness made an interesting contrast to his nearly blue-black skin and hair.

“We came specifically to persuade Dr. Lotski to come with us. My wife is in labor after a difficult pregnancy,” Kim said. He held his hand across his middle as if he shared the birthing pains. Knowing Kim, he just might.

“Sheesh! I haven’t delivered a baby since medical school. I’m a military medic not an OBGYN,” Lotski protested. Still she crept closer to the cockpit. “What have you got in the way of medical databases?” She and Kim dissolved into a conversation about swollen ankles and back pain.

“I need to go back,” M’Berra insisted. “Now that I know Chaney is safe, I need to do something about Amanda Leonard. I need to liberate her slaves and lock her up with reinforced force bracelets.”

“You can’t do anything behind a locked and guarded door,” Konner reminded him. “Which is where her Marines will put you once you return.”

“But . . .”

“Our villagers will be safe for a while. Most of them escaped in the fray created by the flywacket.” Konner tried to keep the worry out of his voice. “Smart of Yaaccob to use that old superstition about flywackets being connected to the plague we cured. Now they know Gentian had nothing to do with the disease. But they created quite a diversion.”

In the midst of the fray, Konner had whispered to Yaaccob that all from the village would be welcome in the south.

If they could find a way to feed them. If the villagers could travel five hundred klicks on foot.

The weight of responsibility pressed heavily against his mind. At this rate he’d never get away long enough to untangle the skein of lies Melinda had woven around their son Martin. He’d never regain custody of the boy within or outside the law.

He needed to use the Sam Eyeam, Bruce Geralds, to get to Martin, but how?

If only he had four pairs of fully charged fuel cells, he’d grab Dalleena and fly back to Sirius alone. With the mother ship he could get to Aurora in about four jumps, a little over a week’s travel.

Without the fuel cells he was stranded, and they’d just used up most of their remaining reserves on this latest crazy mission.

Cyndi gasped for breath. Her lungs resisted life-giving air.

The pressure on her chest increased.

“Get off of me,” she ordered. She had no breath to scream.

Setting her mind, she thrashed her arms at whatever tried to crush the life from her.

Her blows hit only cold night air.

She smelled sulfur over the salt that permeated the air of this coastal village.

Something hot breathed on her neck. Do not resist me. The words sounded raspy, nearly as breathless as she.

“No man rapes me,” she said or thought with all of the formidable determination her father had instilled in her.

I have need of your body.

“So do I.” With a tremendious heave, she rolled to her side. The pressure moved to her back. But that allowed her to grab some air.

Harder on both of us this way.

“I have no intention of making this easy for you or any other.”

Why couldn’t she hit the man? Why didn’t she recognize his voice? After nine months in this filthy village she knew every one of the natives by their voice, their posture, their smell.

This assailant was a stranger.

How had he gotten past the guards? She could have sworn the warriors who prowled the perimeter by night could see in the dark. She’d never been able to sneak past them. And she had become an expert at eluding the best security systems in the galaxy when she thought she loved Loki. She’d managed to meet him in the most obscure and the most obvious places without detection.

You are weak. You grow weaker.

“Never!”

A sharp stab to the back of her neck felt like a medical probe. She twisted and shrugged and rammed backward with her elbow.

She met only air. Hot, rancid air.

Give in to me. I need your body.

“The seven rings of hell around Perdition take you,” she screamed.

Cyndi got her knees under her and reared back. The pressure fell away. She panted for breath, head down, hands resting upon the floor of the cave where she slept with five other women.

Somehow she’d managed to roll all the way to the back of the cave. A little niche beneath a sandstone ledge offered her refuge. She squeezed in, confident that no one could reach her there.

Why hadn’t anyone responded to her screams? In the dim glow from the fire outside she discerned the shapes of five other women where they sprawled awkwardly upon their mats in the areas each had staked out as her own. One snored.

Still they all remained deeply asleep.

They cannot help you. They cannot hear you.

The pressure came back, this time atop her skull. Her temples screamed with pain. Her eyes felt as if they would bulge out.

“You cannot have me.” She rammed her head against the ledge above her. The pain felt almost good in contrast to the pressure.

Cease! I cannot use your body if you damage the skull.

“I will kill myself before I let you have me. I will smash my skull so badly my brains will leak out. You.” Bang. “Will.” Bang. “Not.” Bang. “Have me,” she breathed in relief as the pressure evaporated, leaving her with a monstrous headache.

She closed her eyes and fought to manage the new pain. If she concentrated just so, she could imagine the pain and bruises liquefying and draining out of her body and mind.

Some time later she came to her senses with a dull roar in her ears and a new, warm pressure upon her chest. She opened her eyes.

Daylight streamed into the cave. The other women stretched and yawned and prepared to start a new day.

Cyndi lay upon her own mat near the back of the cave, her meager possessions strewn about her. Her head ached and she felt a lump on her forehead that must have bruised into an ugly purple and black.

Then she became aware of a huge black cat sitting and purring upon her chest.

(You had need of me.) The cat levered itself off her chest, stretched and yawned, in mimicry of the humans who shared the cave.

Then it sauntered toward the entrance. Each of the women sharing the cave paused to scratch its ears. But it kept moving toward the cave mouth and the open air. At the arched opening it spread glossy feathered wings and took off.

Cyndi held her breath a moment, watching the magnificent animal.

“This place is getting to me. The nightmares are getting weirder. Or I am going insane. I have to find a way to leave. Soon. With or without Loki O’Hara. I don’t care who wins possession of this place anymore. I want out. I want my husband who appreciates who and what I am.”