She rubbed her lower back. “Yeah, I ran into one on my first day.”
“The Khagrish allow us time in the Preserve after a successful deployment, like a treat for being well behaved.” His lip curled and his voice was sarcastic. “We believe the scientists watch everything we do here, that it’s included as part of the experiments.”
Jill stopped in midstep. “Experiments? These Khagrish are treating humans like—like zoo animals? Lab rats?”
He nodded. “Yes, they think we’re animals and no, we Badari aren’t human.” He rubbed the bracelet again.
“Is it bothering you today for some reason?” She pointed at his wrist.
“Don’t you feel it? The summons?” Eyes narrowed, her stared at her.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“To my knowledge you’re the first human brought here from the Sectors. Perhaps the techs failed to properly calibrate the bracelet to your physiology.” He leaned closer and spoke softly. “Take any advantage you can get. Do your best to hide the fact the bracelet has no effect on you.”
“As if I wasn’t scared enough already, you’re ramping up my anxiety with all this mystery. But thanks for the tip.”
He nodded. “The summons increases in intensity until it’s so painful my pack and I can’t resist the command. We have to report to the intake portal or die in agony, the weakest first.”
“How do you know?”
His mouth set in a grim line. “Resistance has been tried.”
She glanced at the opening of the cave where all the others waited outside.
“Can you walk today or do you need to be carried?”
Jill realized she hadn’t felt any pain from the deep cut on her foot and the dizziness from the venom had subsided. “Whatever you and Timtur did for me seems to have worked. Let me walk unless there’s a problem.”
He halted her with a gentle pressure on her shoulder. “Promise me you’ll speak up if either wound begins to bother you. Carrying you is no burden for me.” He laughed. “I have a suspicion—even on our very short acquaintance—that you can be stubborn, and there’s no need.”
“All right, I promise.”
“We have to make a side trip on the way, a duty we need to perform, but which we deferred since you were so ill. We couldn’t tend you properly on the march.”
“I’m sorry,” Jill said.
He shrugged as he directed her to sit on a handy tree stump so Timtur could check her injuries. “The situation couldn’t be helped. The intake summons is still low level, so there’s probably time for what we desire to accomplish.”
The pack set off as soon as Timtur had a chance to briefly examine her leg, wash off the remaining poultice and declare her fit to move. After asking Aydarr if there were any spare clothes or less bulky blankets she could use to create a more practical garment, and receiving a puzzled negative, she took her fur cloak.
The pack walked for several hours by Jill’s estimate, based on the position of the sun overhead. Aydarr had her hike in the center of the formation, and he called for a halt often which, she gathered from the expressions on her companions’ faces, was unusual. But she couldn’t bring herself to urge him to extend the time between rest stops because she was having a challenging time keeping up the pace. The Badari had immense stamina to go along with their imposing physiques. Pratym was assigned to walk with her and hand her the water gourd periodically. Try as she might, she couldn’t get him to talk to her.
Aydarr joined her and waved the boy away as another rest stop was declared. Sitting beside her, he said, “You look annoyed. Has the cadet committed an offense? Insulted you?”
“Just refuses to make conversation. There are so many things I want to know, about this place, about where we’re marching to…about you.” Jill gave him a sideways glance.
“First of all, he’s never been in the company of a non Khagrish female—”
“What are you guys, monks? I wondered where the women and the kids were.”
Aydarr was silent. She noticed his knuckles whitened on the gourd and she saw a flash of the deadly talons. “There are no women, no children among the Badari.”
She reached out to lay her hand on his arm. “I’m scared, and I’m trying to figure out what I’ve fallen into here. I’m not your enemy. It’s dangerous for me to walk into the situation at this intake place without understanding any of the background. Please, won’t you explain at least a little of what’s going on?”
Brows drawn together in a frown, he stared at her. He might have told her at least a few things, but Mateer, the senior enforcer, came up and interrupted the conversation. “We should be on the move. Most of the men are experiencing heightened symptoms, as we’re moving so slowly for her benefit.”
“All right, tell the pack there’ll be no more stops. By the landmarks, we’re close now.” As Mateer walked off, Aydarr rose from the boulder he’d been sharing with Jill. “The welfare of my pack comes first with me and, until I know why you were placed in my territory by those who keep us prisoner, I can’t extend the trust you ask for.” He touched her cheek fleetingly with one finger. “I’ll do my best to protect you, I gave you my word.”
As he walked away, she called after him, “I like to protect myself.” Rising, she joined the group. She couldn’t really blame Aydarr for his reticence. She’d have to remain in intelligence gathering mode for herself and stay nimble. These mysterious Khagrish had underestimated her once already, apparently, on the effectiveness of the bracelet. The enemy might make other mistakes that would work to her benefit.
The sun was close to the horizon when Aydarr called a halt, in a grove of towering, blue leafed trees. “We camp here and, at moonrise, we’ll conduct the ceremony.”
The men scattered, four going off to hunt for dinner while the cadets built the fire. Others stood watch on the perimeter of the grove,
“Are we expecting an attack?” Jill nodded toward the sentries.
“Out here we have to be ready for the unexpected,” Aydarr replied. “Anything can happen, from wild animals to another Pack being sent to test our readiness.” He flashed her a grin. “Or the arrival of a mysterious but beautiful woman.”
From the heat in her cheeks, she knew she was blushing, so she changed the subject. “What kind of a ceremony were you talking about earlier?”
“Pratym and Dekan have recently come into the Pack, promoted from the learning module. We welcome each new member properly, bind them to us and pledge ourselves to them in the eyes of our god.”
The idea sounded attractive to Jill, a lone human in the midst of an alien unit. She missed the camaraderie of her military days, the comfort of being with people who understood the galaxy the same way she did, and who would have her back unquestioningly. “Lucky Pratym.”
Eyebrow raised, Aydarr gave her a skeptical look.
“No, I’m not making fun of you—I get that this is a serious thing. It’s great to belong. May I watch?”
“Of course. We have nothing to hide from anyone but the Khagrish. This is a celebration.”
The triumphant and jovial hunting party swaggered into the cave with a brace of fat game birds, which were promptly spitted and positioned over the fire to roast, with members of the pack alternating on turning the spit as needed. The meal was delicious but eaten quickly, then the pack formed up to hike to the grove of nearby trees. Jill walked beside Aydarr as usual but, once they’d entered the ring of trees, he directed her to sit on a boulder.
The pack formed a loose circle with the two cadets in the center and Aydarr himself taking a position aligned with the northernmost star. The moon was rising. It served as a symbol of their Great Mother goddess, whose existence had come down to them through the ancestral memory encoded into what he preferred to think of as the original DNA, the men his people had been engineered from. Timtur, who had the best voice of all of them, and who was most closely connected to the spiritual essence of the pack’s beliefs, sang a
chant that resonated in Aydarr’s bones. The words were Badari, or what they believed to be their true language.
Not for the first time, he wished with angry frustration he knew more things about his people for sure. So much of what he held close, the beliefs and secrets he and the others thought were true from the time of the first men kidnapped to become the foundation of what he and his packmates were today, might or might not be reality. How much had those previous seven generations of Badari embellished? Or lost?
His attention kept wandering to Jill, sitting perched on her rocky seat, respectfully paying attention, hands clasped in her lap. The ridiculous pink garment glowed in the moonlight like a beautiful sea shell’s most intimate surface, accenting her attractiveness and curves, making the blood rush to his groin. He was glad of the shadows under the trees his predecessors had designated as their open air temple. A growl rose in his throat as he assessed the pack circle, the unbidden concern coming to mind whether any of the other males dared to eye her. The depth and ferocity of his reaction to her, and the sheer possessiveness burning in his gut, startled him.
Certainly, when the Khagrish brought in females on the infrequent compulsory visits, he’d never experienced this feeling about any of them. Those women were like the Khagrish lab techs to him in many ways—impersonal, there to do a job that was biological in nature but to be accomplished in the minimum amount of time.
He wished he had days alone with Jill. If she was willing, of course.
Her scent drifted to him on the breeze, delicate, floral, and he breathed deep. She was watching him, he saw with pride and a little consternation over his intense reaction to her, even at this deeply meaningful moment for the pack.
Mateer had finished lecturing the two cadets on the tenets of being a pack member, including the requirement to sacrifice their own lives if required to save another. Both young men had spoken their agreement.
Aydarr shook off his unprecedented preoccupation with Jill. He stepped forward. “Who sponsors these men?”
Mateer brought Pratym forward and Reede escorted Dekan. The enforcers stood behind their cadets as the younger men knelt in front of Aydarr. He let his claws and fangs extend and, as the moon rose to its zenith for the night, he said, “I will have your oath of fealty.”
“I swear to accept you as my alpha from now until death, obeying your orders in all things, fighting at your side, protecting the pack from enemies, keeping the Badari secrets.” Pratym spoke the vow in a strong, calm voice, and Dekan echoed him a bit more tremulously.
“In turn I give you my promise to put the welfare of the pack above all else and to rule as a just and fair leader, preserving the Badari tradition. Accept my mark and pledge your fealty to me.”
The cadets bared their necks, with their mentors stepping in to hold them steady as Aydarr blooded first one and then the other.
“It is done,” he said. “Welcome to the pack.”
The men cheered and rushed in to slap the two cadets on the back and congratulate them on achieving full warrior status. Mateer spun into the opening steps of a ceremonial dance, with much yelling and full throated song, and the others joined in. Aydarr watched the celebration before he pivoted almost without making a conscious decision and walked to where Jill sat.
“That was extremely moving,” she said as he came close. “Thank you for allowing me to watch. Should I congratulate them?”
He checked the activity. “Not right now. Everyone’s in a heightened mood. Tomorrow will be fine.” He plucked her from the rock and set her on her feet in front of him. “You didn’t find it off-putting? Odd?”
With a tiny frown, she looked up at him. “No, I thought it was solemn and appropriate. I can see what a strong bond you all have with each other. I envy you.”
“I’ll escort you to the camp now,” he said, taking her hand.
“Shouldn’t you stay with them? Celebrate?”
“You’re cold, even with the fur,” he said. “And still recovering from the vermore poison. I’m concerned about you. The others won’t mind.” He felt compelled to offer her a bit more explanation. “The alpha is part of the pack and yet separate.”
“Lonely, being in command,” she said.
Pleased she understood, Aydarr had to fight the odd temptation to bend his head and steal a kiss in the moonlight.
Next morning, the pack was up and marching early, with no breaks. After several hours of this, Jill toiled up one more in an endless series of rolling hills to join the silent line of Badari. A complex of buildings had appeared in the distance. Gleaming in the sun, the facility appeared high tech . As she shielded her eyes with her hand, a flitter spiraled in for a landing on the other side of the building.
“The labs,” Aydarr said to her. “Our true prison.”
Sure he wouldn’t answer any question, she nodded and trudged down the side of the hill. As the pack drew closer, sirens blared, and seven sentients emerged from the building to wait for their arrival. The first three didn’t look too imposing—humanoid in form, as were so many of the races to be found in the galaxy. They had pale skin, pink-yellow-white hair gathered into peaks on their heads and cascading over their backs in tightly controlled braids. Two were male and one was female. Four guards in full body armor, visors closed, carrying serious weapons, stood flanking the trio.
“Are those the Khagrish?” she asked Aydarr as she walked next to him, away from the hill and toward the waiting group.
“Yes. Don’t be fooled by their pretty appearance,” he said. “A more cruel and unprincipled race of beings never existed, as my people know to their cost. Stay close to me.”
“I consider myself duly warned.” Heart beating faster, she walked next to Aydarr.
The Badari came to a stop ten feet away from the waiting Khagrish, taking a position on a black line painted on the surface of the patio extending from the building. Aydarr took his place at the head of the formation, drawing Jill to stand between him and Mateer.
The woman appeared to be in charge. “You idiots,” she said to her two underlings, while the guards stood unmoving, their weapons now aimed at the line of Badari.
Jill blinked. The Khagrish scientist wasn’t speaking Basic, but her language was apparently close enough to something Jill had been hypno implanted with during her military days that the translator implant was able to make sense of the words. Lots of weird things rattling around in my brain, thanks to the Special Forces. The Sectors military liked to implant enhancements into their soldiers and nothing ever got removed. She wondered if Aydarr and his men understood Khagrish, but now wasn’t the time to ask.
Gesturing at Jill, the woman said, “The Sectors humans are not for this experiment. They weren’t brought here to be mixed into other, already established protocols. What the untranslatable is she doing in the Preserve? Mingling with the animals?”
One of the two men fidgeted. “We were bored. The animals don’t do anything new. We thought it would be amusing… um, scientifically enlightening to introduce a new factor into their playtime.”
“And there were so many humans delivered, we figured no one would miss one.” The other glared at Jill. She fought off the desire to take a defensive stand, keeping herself loosely at attention the way her companions stood. Was the entire population of my colony kidnapped? Her heart beat faster with dread, realizing her sisters, her friends and colleagues were held captive in the massive building, maybe already being experimented on.
“And you expected the Badari to do…what with her?” The female was contemptuous. And pissed, Jill concluded. “Fight over her? Tear her to bits? Assault her?”
The man evidently didn’t read emotions as well as Jill did. He nodded eagerly as if expecting praise for his enterprise, his ridiculous crest of hair bobbing. “Exactly. Any or all of those possibilities.”
“We were ready to take notes,” the other added. “We had the recorders running.”
Without warning the woman slapped him hard. “So yo
u were hoping to make credits on the black market.”
Holding his cheek, on his knees, the tech cringed. “We’d have cut you in on the deal.”
“We made a huge balance on the vid of two of the animals fighting to the death, after we jacked them up on the right drugs,” the female scientist said thoughtfully. “The question is timing, you fools. Anything like this has to be done while the boss is away so the traces can be sufficiently covered up.”
Jill calculated her odds of reaching one of the guards and grabbing a weapon. The situation was getting worse and worse. She barely controlled her involuntary startle when Aydarr touched her hand ever so lightly with his fingers. She wished she could look at him as he linked his fingers with hers. Was he telling her to wait? To go for it? Trying to reassure her?
The woman paced from one side of the pavement to the other. “You’re lucky the director of the lab isn’t here right now. We can probably get away with destroying the human, as you said, there were so many delivered, losing one shouldn’t matter. We can’t put her back, since she has to be considered contaminated now for any new experiment. But we’ll have to delete all evidence of her presence. We can think about how to do this safely at a later date.”
“Won’t the animals talk about it?” The tech gestured at the Badari as he rose to his feet.
The scientist strutted right up to Aydarr, staring him in the face. Although the alpha towered over her, he lowered his gaze to meet her challenge. “Not if they’re properly incentivized.” She tapped him on the chest with one long finger. “801 here cares more about keeping his pack alive than he does about one random human.”
“What’s going on here? What do the animals need to be incentivized to do? And why is there a human woman standing there?” The newcomer who’d emerged from the building and stood blinking in the sunlight was larger than the other Khagrish, his hair darker, with much more red, and he stood with his hands on his hips, head thrust forward aggressively. Several other sentients followed him onto the paved area, and Jill gasped, despite her best efforts to remain silent, as a tall, gray-skinned Chimmer joined the gathering.
AydarrGoogle Page 3
