Shield of Drani (World of Drani Book 1)

by Melonie Purcell

  She thought about arguing with him, but it would end the way it always did. Her with her theories, and him knocking them down like twig houses. Instead, she took another small bite and waited for Nevvis to start his rare explanation again.

  “That was the raid that hit Newete. Only it happened much sooner than I had planned on. Everything wasn’t ready. I had a plan—a good one.” He smiled at her before looking toward the door. “I was planning to use the raid as an excuse to get you off of Drani. You were supposed to get on the Shreet space station and maybe destroy it, and then just disappear with Jalkean’s help. After that, he was supposed to come back, but he is the one who disappeared. And as it turns out, I had to go get you back.”

  The sandwich hit the bedcover, forgotten.

  “Your mouth is open.”

  Taymar just stared.

  “No really, your mouth is open and it’s gross. There is partially chewed food showing. Close your mouth.”

  “Are you serious? I can’t tell. You have to be making some kind of joke, but if you are, it isn’t funny.” Taymar swallowed the bite that had turned to a glob of paste in her mouth and stared hard, trying to see what her klonide-coated mind couldn’t.

  “I’m serious, and you are right; it isn’t funny.” He shifted against the armrest. “I don’t know what happened with Jalkean. At first I thought he just got ahead of me, but now I’m not so sure. I’m not sure whose side…I just don’t know what happened. He left without you for some reason, and he didn’t come back. And…” Nevvis trailed off, searching the air for words, but coming up hollow. “We have to destroy the space station the Shreet are building,” he said, turning his full attention back on Taymar.

  “What?”

  “The Shreet are building a massive space station to act as a launch point for their colonization of this side of the galaxy. I am sure you know at least that much. Someone had to have talked about it on Daryus.”

  “I know about the space station,” she said, tucking her feet under her. A flash in the window caught her attention, and she stretched to look around Nevvis. “I don’t know what that has to do with Jalkean. I think something’s out there.”

  “I think he might be on it.”

  “On whatever is outside the window? What’s out there? I’m lost.”

  Nevvis glanced over his shoulder at the window. Whatever had flashed was gone. “It’s probably the Shreet ship.”

  “They’re back?”

  “So it would seem.”

  “And that’s where you think Jalkean is?”

  “No. Well, maybe.” Nevvis turned back to Taymar. “I suspect he’s on the space station.”

  “As some sort of spy?”

  “Maybe. But whose spy, I don’t know anymore.” Nevvis ran his hand through his hair. “Either way, that station has to be destroyed.”

  “What does that have to do with me?”

  Nevvis looked over at her with no hint of his usual calm smile. “You may be the only one who can find a way to do it.”

  “What?” That seemed to be her theme for this conversation. She jumped off the bed and faced Nevvis. “This isn’t funny, Nevvis. This joke isn’t funny. I can’t even teke open a door half the time, but I am supposed to destroy a space station that’s apparently the size of a moon? How? Why?”

  “They will have their own telepaths. The less you know…” His statement was lost in the sound of the door sliding open.

  Nevvis spun to face the opening, his brow creased in confusion. Kellin stepped through the door.

  “You?” Nevvis said, stepping away from the couch.

  In answer, Kellin tossed a small backpack to the floor and swiped the door closed.

  “You are not taking her,” Nevvis said, centering himself. “Computer. Notify the captain that there’s an intruder in my quarters.”

  “The computer cannot hear you. I cut contact to your room before you arrived. As far as the computer is concerned, you are still in the medbay.” Without another word, Kellin stepped in to fight, his hands slicing the air as he attacked.

  Nevvis scrambled to block the strikes. Whether it was due to Kellin’s massive size or Nevvis’s obvious shock, he was having some difficulty holding his own against the hairy man. And whatever restraint Kellin had shown Taymar in the glass room earlier was not being extended to Nevvis. Kellin was on a mission, and that mission was terming Nevvis.

  Kellin planted a powerful side kick into Nevvis’s abdomen and followed it with a punch to the face. Nevvis slid across the floor and crashed against the bed table. Instinctively, Taymar doubled up her fists, ready to jump into the fight, but she couldn’t honestly say whose side she was on. Adrenaline coursed through her veins, lighting that familiar fire that begged to be released as she turned on Kellin, hoping he would make a move against her so she could decide on her target.

  Other than a brief glance, Kellin ignored her, opting to focus on Nevvis instead. The Dran was pushing himself up as Kellin moved in again, but Nevvis’s slow movements were a deception. When Kellin tried to plant another kick, this time to Nevvis’s face, Nevvis caught Kellin’s foot and jerked it sideways.

  Unfortunately for Kellin, it was his bad leg. Kellin yelled out in pain, falling to one knee, which allowed Nevvis time to get back on his feet. He wasted no energy enjoying his small victory. Instead, Nevvis dropped down on Kellin, ramming his elbow into the other man’s furry back in the process. Kellin’s breath whooshed out, but he didn’t go down. With a full body twist, he jumped back to his feet and headed toward Nevvis.

  This time, Nevvis only managed to fend off about half of Kellin’s strikes, so when Kellin planted his second kick to Nevvis’s midsection, the Dran was unable to defend himself. Nevvis slammed into the wall, the sound of his skull cracking against the couch table echoed through the room as he slid to the floor, leaving a streak of red to mark his path.

  Taymar glanced at the pool of blood forming under Nevvis’s head and spun to face Kellin, hands up, ready to finish what Nevvis had started.

  “We must go,” Kellin said, wiping the blood from his nose with the back of his hand. “There is no more time.”

  “What?” There was that word again. But it fit. “Go where? I’m not going anywhere with you. What did you just do? Did you kill him?”

  Kellin snatched the backpack from the floor and glanced over at the unmoving Dran as he positioned it across his back. “If he isn’t dead, he will be soon. Come. We have very little time.”

  “I’m not leaving with you.” The adrenaline was still pumping through her system, setting her reflexes into light speed and killing any semblance of patience she ever hoped to have.

  “You would prefer to go back to Drani?” Kellin asked, pausing by the door.

  Taymar didn’t answer.

  “Then you must come with me. This will be your only chance at freedom. You will not have another.” Kellin swiped open the door and glanced up and down the corridor. “Taymar, now!” he said, waving for her to follow as he slipped around the opening.

  Taymar glanced over at Nevvis’s still form. If he was dead, there was no decision to make. After checking over the door to make sure the dinisolate field hadn’t been set, Taymar ran through the door before it could close and caught up to Kellin before he rounded the first corner.

  Kellin pushed Taymar in front of him, and it was all she could do to control the impulse to punch him. He wanted it to look like he was escorting her, that much was obvious, but he had no idea how tenuous her hold on her self-control was at the moment. If he did, he wouldn’t be pushing her around.

  The few people they passed didn’t look twice as they hurried by in the dimmed light. Taymar stopped in front of a deck shuttle, but when she reached out to swipe the scanner, Kellin pushed her hand away. After double-checking the hallway, Kellin opened a panel on the wall that had been invisible a moment before and pushed Taymar toward the gap. She jerked her arm out of his grasp and started to push him back, but he stepped into the tiny cham
ber and pulled the panel closed behind him.

  “Stop grabbing me!” she whispered, pressing her back against the wall as far as she could and locking them in darkness.

  Furry arms brushed up against her, and then light spilled out of a tiny flashlight clenched between Kellin’s teeth, illuminating his frown. With some effort in the tight space, he pulled off the backpack and unclipped a small palm-size black remote from one of the utility loops. The smell of sweat filled the room, and Kellin’s heavy breathing whistled past the tiny light as he tried to manipulate the pack back over his shoulder. A sudden jolt of the ship sent it sliding under Taymar’s feet instead as Kellin planted his free hand over her shoulder to block his fall.

  “I’ll get it,” she breathed, feeling a little ridiculous for earlier.

  He didn’t comment, but his furled brows in the dim light spoke volumes.

  The chamber was so small that Kellin elbowed Taymar twice trying to tap settings into whatever he was holding. After another jolt from the ship, he grabbed Taymar by the shoulder and punched a button on the device. A blue swirl of light formed around them, blurring the room and sucking her guts down to the floor. In an instant, the blurred chamber was replaced with the interior of a shuttle like the one she had stolen before, but without the extra seats.

  “Brilliant!” Taymar said, taking in the familiar control panel.

  Kellin’s answer was to shove the light and remote transtrem at her and run for the pilot’s seat. She shoved them into the bag and was wobbling her way to the only other chair in the shuttle as the ship jumped and lunged beneath them. She managed to grab the seat harness as the shuttle was lifting into the air, but only one buckle locked in place before it lurched forward. Taymar yelped and slid down the seat. Her chin caught on the belt, saving her from hitting the floor, and nearly choking her at the same time.

  The shuttle spun again, but Taymar clung to the belt and finally managed to pull herself back into the seat just in time to see the screen phase in front of them to show the shuttle bay. Two security personnel were running to get clear of the shuttle as it barreled toward the massive shuttle bay doors. The closed shuttle bay doors.

  “What are you doing?” Taymar asked, still a little shaken from seeing Nevvis dead. “You can’t just crash through them. Can you?”

  “Get your harness on,” Kellin said, tapping furiously at the control panel.

  Taymar didn’t need to be told. She was already locking the final buckle into place, and the click didn’t happen too soon. The huge doors pulled apart with the speed of rotting wood while the shuttle slid back and forth in the shuttle bay, keeping the security people from locking it down or getting to the control panel to close the door.

  Kellin didn’t wait for them to open all the way. Taymar could just see the distant stars and the flare of laser fire through the opening when Kellin rolled the control ball forward and lurched toward the doors.

  “I don’t think it’s going to…” Taymar broke off her prediction as the shuttle bounced between the doors and broke into open space.

  “That wasn’t good,” Kellin said, pointing the shuttle away from the ship.

  “What do you mean? Don’t say something like ‘that wasn’t good’ when we are in a shuttle in the middle of space and could die.”

  “Death is the only outcome for life,” Kellin said.

  “Okay, fine. But not right now.” Captain Sean’s ship jumped sideways amid a huge flash of light, which outlined the silhouette of another ship in the distance. Another streak of light shot through the void and exploded in an array of colors around the attacking ship.

  Kellin moved the shuttle so it flew just under the belly of Captain Sean’s ship, so close he had to swing out three different times to avoid being hit by the other ship as it maneuvered away from the attacker.

  “Is that ship here for us?” Taymar asked, watching the small inset viewer to see if she could catch a glimpse of the silhouette behind them.

  “No,” Kellin said. “They are here to distract the Regal.” He pointed to a tiny dot on the screen. “They are here for us.”

  “Are they with the Shreet?”

  “No.” Kellin reached up and tapped a switch, sending the shuttle into darkness. “They are the Shreet.”

  Streaks of white light exploded into blinding blues and greens on the inset screen as the Shreet ship continued to attack the Regal. The instant the metal over their heads gave way to black space, Kellin slapped his hand on the control panel. The shuttle leaped forward, knocking Taymar back against her seat and making her extra thankful for the harness that now held her in place.

  As they approached the dot, it grew into a stretched out sphere that was fatter on one end and remarkably smooth. A flash of light exploded on Taymar’s side of the shuttle, momentarily blinding her as the shuttle skipped sideways. “Was that from the Shreet or the Regal?” she asked, trying to keep the terror she was feeling squished down. She didn’t want to be the only one screaming in panic, and Kellin’s methodical resolve told her he wouldn’t be joining her if she lost it.

  “I do not know, but it won’t matter if it hits us. We have no defensive reflectors. We will die.”

  “Well, thank you for all that encouragement.” Taymar looked away as another burst of light flooded the shuttle cabin. “So glad I am in safe hands.”

  When she chanced a glance over at Kellin, he was smiling, but he didn’t answer.

  The closer they got to the ship in front of them, the more amazing it became. The shell looked like it was formed from one solid massive piece of metal that blended in so completely with the black of space she had to focus hard to not lose it on the screen. Not until a tiny white light formed near its center was she able to see its outline clearly.

  On the smaller inset screen, Taymar watched as the Regal backed toward them while keeping the other ship engaged in front of it. Captain Sean was trying to block the shuttle, but he couldn’t turn around. Either the majority of his weapons were on one side of his ship or the long black ship was too far away. Whichever it was, the Regal couldn’t back away from the battle fast enough to stop the shuttle from sliding into the white opening of the Shreet shuttle bay.

  Kellin tapped in a code on the control panel and spoke in that strange click and whistle language she had heard the Shreet using before. On the small screen, she watched the Regal disappear from view as the Shreet ship turned and the door slid down.

  For a moment, neither of them moved. When Taymar finally reached up to wipe the sweat from her temple, Kellin looked over at her and gave her one of his rare smiles. “Were you worried?” he asked, disengaging his harness.

  “Was I worried? Are you joking? I still am worried. Why did you do that?”

  “You do not deserve to be a slave to other people’s will.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question. Why did you risk so much to bring me here? I didn’t do anything for you, so why did you do this for me?”

  Kellin lost his smile. He studied her for a moment before speaking, and she knew he was looking for something deep within her.

  “I did it because I know you are what we need. You cannot understand now, but in time you will see I’m right. The Shreet is an organization worthy of you. The Alliance is not. You will see soon enough. Until then, will you trust me?”

  Taymar looked at him long and hard before answering. What she knew of him, she liked, but that didn’t count for much. People were capable of all degrees of deceit, and he would be no different. “No,” she stated honestly.

  Kellin’s expression didn’t change, so she went on. “I don’t trust you because I don’t know you, and because I don’t know the Shreet. But, I will give you both a chance before I decide against you.”

  Kellin nodded, showing his approval. “You are cautious. That is good. I knew the moment I saw you with Nevvis that day in the retaining room that you were what we needed. Now, I know I am right.” Kellin swiped his hand over the activation panel. “You are right to res
erve your trust. I would expect no less, but know this. The Shreet will win you over. You will see. Come. I will introduce you to my zoe.”

  Surprised, Taymar followed him. She was not aware he had been in the retaining room the day Nevvis arrived. As they stepped out of the shuttle onto a narrow platform that carried them to the main floor, Taymar felt she at least owed him a shred of honesty. “Nevvis said the Shreet were bad.” She jumped off the platform before it carried her back. “He said they wanted to enslave everyone.”

  Kellin braced himself against the deck shuttle door as the ship leaped forward beneath them. “You will have to decide that for yourself,” he said as he swiped the door. “I think you will be surprised.”

  The battle outside raged on as she followed Kellin into the main interior of the ship. It looked remarkably similar to the Regal. Light poured down from the ceiling instead of the walls, but computer panels and sensors dotted both sides of the narrow passageway, flickering and beeping as skinbraids squeezed past each other. It was smaller. Kellin barely cleared the entryway. And the writing on the walls looked more like scratches than letters, but it was a space ship just like the Regal.

  Within seconds of entering the main corridor, a short, milky-skinned figure ran toward them. The creature could not have reached Taymar’s waist if it stood on its toes. It had no hair and its skull formed a high ridge down the center of its too large head. She was sure she had seen some of them on the Regal, but they had worn robes. This one wore only a loose red smock and a worried expression.

  Stopping directly in front of them, the stout little creature gave a short bow and then clipped off a series of questions in a language of clicks and whistles that Taymar remembered from Nevvis’s house the day she was abducted. The only word she recognized was Kellin’s name, which came out as Kellindii. When the creature finished speaking, Kellin nodded, clicked something back, and then dismissed the messenger with a flick of his hand.

  “What was that?” Taymar asked, watching the creature scurry down the hall.

  “That was Yarnit. They are very helpful if you can keep up with them. There are many of them working with the Shreet. We had a few of them on the Regal as well.”