“There was every need. We can’t eat without the full pack being present and accounted for,” he said. “I want you to formally meet my men—your men now as well.”
Starting with Mateer, each man in turn bowed his head and gave her his name, welcoming her to the pack and swearing their loyalty to her.
“I’m honored,” she said, overwhelmed and at a loss for words. There seemed to be a lot more to this mate title than she’d realized. And did Aydarr think he now had permission to take this into a more physical relationship? If so, he was in for a rude surprise. The two of them had to have one hell of a conversation after dinner. “Please, you’ve waited long enough for dinner, everyone be seated. You must be hungry—I know I am.”
“Wait until you find out what swill the Khagrish feed us,” Reede said as he ladled a serving of the mushy casserole onto her plate and added a hunk of bread. “There’s no rush to eat this. Not like the fresh caught meat we had in the Preserve.”
Mateer raised his drink. “A toast to the Alpha’s mate and her bravery.”
She blushed and fidgeted while the pack shouted for her and drank. “Thank you. Any one of you would have done the same, I’m sure, if you hadn’t been paralyzed by the bracelet device.”
There was little conversation during the meal. Reede had taken on the task of keeping her plate full, and Jill choked down as much of the food as she could. Aydarr ate in silence, although she was very conscious of him beside her. When the meal ended, the cadets cleared the table and dropped all the refuse into a recycling chute. Pratym knelt beside her chair.
“Thank you for saving my life today. Your action was unexpected and courageous.”
“I’m amazed they listened to me.” She patted his hand. “Don’t go getting cut up again. The argument I used might not work a second time.”
Aydarr took her hand and drew her out of her chair. “You shouldn’t have given up your advantage, not even to save a pack member. Now the Khagrish know you’re immune to the bracelet’s effect, at least at this level.”
Jill stopped. “I can’t sit idly by when I can take action to help someone.”
“And your determination to do the right thing is part of what I admire about you, but the choice wasn’t strategic.”
She studied him. “Tell me you wouldn’t have taken action to save him if you hadn’t been paralyzed.”
He leaned close enough to whisper in her ear. “I already did. I put myself and my pack at risk to save you from Gahzhing.”
Silenced by the undeniable truth, Jill blinked and allowed him to draw her forward. “I’m grateful, of course.”
“We have to talk,” he said, echoing her thoughts. “Come.” He led her to an alcove, slightly off the main cell area, dominated by a wide bunk. “The Khagrish give me my own space, humble as it may be, in deference to my rank. The scientists value the hierarchy of the pack insofar as someone has to be in command when we deploy. The men must obey without question. So the staff reinforces the status of the Alpha.” He flashed her a rueful smile. “As half-heartedly as they can.”
“About this mate business.” The bed made her uneasy. And there really was no privacy in this alcove.
“You and I are not mates in anything but name, to fool the Khagrish.” He gestured at the bed. “Please, sit.”
She glanced at the bed but stayed on her feet. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining that you aren’t stuck on this mate stuff when the Khagrish aren’t in the vicinity but—”
“I find you very attractive. I admire your courage and bravery. I want to know more about you and the world you come from.” He ran his hands through his hair and frowned. “I’m probably saying this wrong. I don’t mean to be insulting.”
“You’re doing fine. I find you attractive too.” Feeling heat in her cheeks, she was annoyed to be blushing furiously. Again. “I wish we’d met somewhere else, under other conditions.” Deciding this was awkward enough without both of them facing off as if preparing for battle, she sat on the hard mattress and reached for his hand, drawing him to sit beside her.
“The Khagrish believe we’re lesser beings, mere animals, so I knew they’d accept my statement we’d bonded as mates. I hoped it would intrigue them enough to buy you time. Although in this hellhole of a prison, you may regret what I did. The Khagrish are cruel and merciless in their pursuit of so-called science.”
“The new arrival, Sheyall, doesn’t seem happy to be here. She might be helpful.”
“She’ll come to embrace the way the others think and act, or at least learn to keep quiet if she doesn’t. Or she’ll disappear. We’ve seen this pattern before. Don’t get your hopes up.” He studied her face. “And don’t trust her.”
Jill glanced at the walls. “Do I see a surveillance vid, over there in the far corner?”
“Yes, the Khagrish watch us all the time, but there’s no voice recording as far as we can tell. Those in charge don’t think animals like us are capable of talking about anything they need to know.” His voice was scornful.
“Convenient for you but not thorough of people who call themselves scientists.” Fidgeting with a string on the badly frayed blanket, Jill believed she should confess her lapse. “I let it slip to Sheyall that you and your men have names for yourselves. I’m sorry. I’ll be much more careful going forward, I swear.”
“Don’t worry. They discount any sign we’re more than dumb beasts to wage war for them on command. Or subjects to experiment on. The Khagrish are arrogant and unfeeling for the most part. The weaker ones take refuge in the belief we’re beneath them, animals, as I said before. There’s much you need to know about us.”
“I got into an argument with Sheyall on that very point. She told me you and your men were bioengineered animals, not human.”
“And you said?”
“I don’t care. You’re just as much a full-fledged sentient as I am, or she is.”
He laughed. “An unpopular viewpoint here in the labs. The Khagrish do their best to convince us—and themselves—we have no souls, no claim to personhood.”
“Why did you rescue me, out there in the Preserve? Why didn’t you leave me to die?”
Aydarr frowned and his eyes glowed golden. “I wasn’t going to abandon a smaller, weaker being to perish.”
“What if I had been bait in a twisted Khagrish trap?”
“Then we would have dealt with you once we had proof. In the meantime, you clearly needed help.”
“Thus proving my point again you and your men are every bit as human, to express the idea in my terms, as I am.”
“Ah.” He smiled. “I have to warn you there’s no guarantee the other packs would have reacted the same. Jamokan’s probably would have. The Tzibir, I don’t know. They have less of the root stock remaining than we do, more of the reptilian gene splicing.” He reached out to push an errant lock of her hair off her face. “You appear to be tired, circles under your eyes.”
“Yeah, been a long day. I kinda bawled in the shower. Wore myself out.”
“We can talk more in the morning, if you’d like to catch some sleep.” He left the bed to kneel at her feet. “Let me check your injury first. Timtur has been trained as a combat medic, in addition to his healing abilities, if we need him.”
“I think it’s healing nicely. I looked at it in the shower.” But she sat back and enjoyed the careful way he removed the flimsy shoes then held her foot as he examined the wound, stroking the skin. Aydarr’s touch was soothing. “Let me guess—I’ll be sleeping here with you?”
“We slept well together in the cave,” he said, confirming her guess. “There’s no other empty bed, and we must maintain the appearance of being mates for your protection, flimsy as it may be.”
Wondering why there weren’t any Badari women, she scooted against the wall as he spread the blanket and moved to join her. She decided to ask something else rather than venture into the unknown territory of what the Khagrish might have done with female captives. “How do you
and your men stay so strong in this awful place? So fierce?”
He glanced at the others, most sitting at the table playing a game with crude cards, a few others in their bunks. “We must, we have no choice. We can’t allow the Khagrish to win. Someday the bastards will be made to pay for what they’ve done. I pray to the Great Mother I’m alive on that day to extract a measure of vengeance. Our very name, which we gave ourselves, means the undefeated.”
“What about escape? Has anyone ever made it out of here?”
“There’s a legend of one man who was able to flee, from the early times, before the packs were established. But no one knows the truth of his story. We pass it among ourselves, to give hope. But the Khagrish are careful, and their technology gives them the upper hand.”
Intrigued, she had any number of questions but could barely keep her eyes open. “Is there anything I absolutely need to know tonight?” She yawned. “Anything essential for survival, I mean?”
Coming to sit next to her, he pulled her against him and lay down, spooning together on the bed as they had in the cave. “No. More information can wait. Fortunately, we’re in the ramp up period for our next deployment, which means training time, not experiments. Not torture. I don’t expect them to send you with us—I don’t know how I’m going to protect you then.”
“Hey, I can watch out for myself too, you know.”
“I have no doubts.” She heard a smile in his voice. “But you don’t know the full extent of what you’re up against. I’ll give you a full briefing when the situation changes.” He hugged her closer. “I preferred the impractical pink garment you wore in the Preserve to this.”
Jill figured it would be unwise to admit she preferred his loincloth and the view the skimpy fabric provided of his sculpted muscles, along with the blatant physical evidence of his interest in her, pressing against her backside like a steel rod. Now wasn’t the time to take the discussion into potentially sensitive territory. Not with the rest of the pack an arm’s length away and the Khagrish viewing devices watching her every move.
A blaring siren awakened her in the morning as the lights flashed on and off in the room. Sitting up with a gasp, she was disoriented, alone in the bed.
Aydarr came to her. “I was letting you sleep in as long as I could, but now we have to line up and be counted.”
Rubbing her eyes, she stumbled from the bed and walked with him to stand on the black line at the edge of the cell, in front of the force barrier, where the rest of the pack waited. Three guards stood on the other side, along with a robo floating on anti grav, holding bowls of fruit and other foods.
“All present and accounted for,” Aydarr told the guard as he and Jill took their places.
“Don’t make us wait tomorrow.” The man was impatient, gruff. “Or you won’t be getting any breakfast for three days. I got better things to do than stare at you.”
Petty dictator. Jill watched with interest as he punched a code into the pad on the wall outside the cell, allowing the robo to drift into the room through a narrow gap that briefly opened in the force field. Pratym and the other cadet stepped forward to take the trays of food and carry them to the table. No one else moved until the robo had left the cell again.
“Dismissed,” the guard said. He pointed at Jill. “Except for you. Come closer to the barrier. I gotta scan you for signs of breeding. Now.”
Fuming, she walked to the barrier and stood while he aimed a scanner at her abdomen.
“Negative. Dr. Gahzhing isn’t going to like my report. Better work harder tonight.” With a leer, he added a few choice suggestions before signaling to his comrades, and the squad marched away, the robot following like a dog.
“I’m sorry you had to endure their scan and insults,” Aydarr said.
“These bastards won’t wear me down with crap like that.” Jill straightened her spine. “Where’s the food?”
Over breakfast, she asked, “What’s on the schedule for today? Or are we left here in the cell to twiddle our thumbs?”
“We have training of various kinds all day,” Aydarr said. “I assume the Khagrish will leave you here since you won’t be deploying with us.”
“I’ll try not to get bored.” She bit into the slightly spoiled fruit Reede had set at the edge of her plate after searching through the entire bowl to find her the best there was. Actually, the day’s agenda suited her. She wanted to go over the cell in minute detail, see what she could learn about Khagrish tech. Jill wasn’t worried about what the constantly watching guards at the other end of the vidscans might think—she was a highly intelligent sentient so of course she’d examine her environment. For damn sure if I find any chinks in their precautions, I won’t be signaling my excitement.
Shortly after breakfast she waved goodbye to the pack as they departed from the cell under heavy guard. True to her promise to herself, she checked out the entire room, Aydarr’s alcove, and the semi-private bathroom inch by inch. The Badari had nothing technical in the cell, no vids or coms of their own, no handhelds, not even a way to warm up the disgusting food. The chute where the cadets packed up the remains of each meal and the disposable utensils had a shredder where the appliance met the cell wall, no escape possibilities there.
“Wow.” Dusty and tired, she sat on the end of the bed she shared with Aydarr and reviewed what she’d observed. The only thing of direct interest to her were the ventilation shafts, one here in the alpha’s alcove and the other in the bunk room area. The opening was much too small for a Badari to squeeze into, but she probably could wriggle her way through. Unfortunately, the heavy grille over the vents was electrified, as she discovered when she casually kicked off one of her sandals in the direction of the grate to test it.
The sound of the force field door opening drew her out of the alcove to see Aydarr and the others file into the cell. Each man was carrying an electronic tablet.
“What have you got there?” she asked, going to meet him.
“This is how we get the full situation report briefing on the next mission.” He showed her the screen. “Details on the planet, the population—”
“Are you going into the Sectors?”
“Not yet. I told you, we weren’t the forces that kidnapped you. I suspect the Shemdylann carried out the operation, no doubt commissioned to do so by the Chimmer. But the long term goal of all of this, as I understand things, is to use us as scouts, advance forces, behind the lines terrorists on Sectors worlds. That’s why we were trained in Basic. We shouldn’t discuss this too openly. Ask me questions later, when we’re in the hole in the wall passing for our bedroom.”
“All right.” She took the tablet and scanned a few screens, all in a language she guessed was written Khagrish but gibberish to her eyes. There were visual aids as well, which sprang to life when she touched them. “You can read this then?” Seating herself at the table, guessing dinner would arrive soon, she continued to play with the tablet, her excitement mounting. This kind of tech she could do something with.
“We’re taught as cadets.” Aydarr held out his hand. “I need that. Mateer, Reede and I have to go over operation strategy, so we can pass along the parameters to the rest of the pack and make assignments.”
“You’re welcome to come sit with us,” Pratym offered. “I can lend you my tablet, if you wish to learn. Dekan and I would count it as an honor to assist you, my lady, if the Alpha permits.”
Aydarr shrugged. “Whatever pleases you.”
Delighted, she sat with the boys at the end of the table and took over Pratym’s device, accepting their shy assistance in a beginning lesson on the written form of Khagrish. Dinner was even quieter than usual, with the pack members concentrating on the copious briefing materials.
When Jill and Aydarr retired to their alcove for the night, she was impatient to ask questions. They’d hardly curled up together before she started in on what she wanted to know. “Why don’t you and your men escape when you’re gone on one of these sorties? You said you’r
e fully armed, right? Surely anything is better than coming back here at the risk of your lives?”
He nodded. “We’re transported in cryo sleep, then awakened when it’s time to fight. Khagrish and occasionally other soldiers fight beside us, but keeping an eye on us as well. At the end of the mission, the Khagrish debrief the alphas before we’re all put under the sleep again and returned here to captivity.”
“But why—”
“The Khagrish hold hostages, our next generation. If one of my men or I were to attack the Khagrish commander while we were away, for example, several Badari cadets would be killed in retaliation. If they brought me back alive after committing such a crime, I’d be forced to watch the younger ones die before I too was killed.”
“These people are utter barbarians.”
“The long term goal of this program is to decide which of the three templates for the perfect soldier works best. When the Chimmer make their choice, the other packs and the cadets of those breeds will be killed, used for experiments, or sold to the Shemdylann as gladiator fodder. I believe we’re coming closer to the time of decision. I represent the eighth generation of Badari.”
She gasped. “They’ve been conducting these experiments for that long? I knew the Mawreg and their client races worked on extended timetables in their planning but this is incredible.”
“You know I want to escape, to take vengeance but, while the enemy holds my next generation hostage, I can’t risk more than token resistance. They have carried out their threat. When I was a cadet, newly graduated to the pack, there was a problem, and the Khagrish killed three other cadets and my Alpha. It wasn’t an easy death for any of them, Jill. And then I had to fight for dominance, to take over the pack, or die myself. I had to kill the old Alpha’s two enforcers in combat because the Khagrish wanted to observe the pack dynamics after such a change.”
She turned in his arms and gave him a hug, resting her cheek against his. “I can’t imagine the life you’ve been forced to lead here. I’m so sorry.”
AydarrGoogle Page 5
