“Take this chance to rest—you don’t have to chat with us,” Aydarr said. “I know from experience how stressful life inside a Khagrish lab is, so I’m sure you probably need to decompress. We have a few hours of flying time before we reach Sanctuary Valley.”
“How safe is it there? Mateer and I didn’t discuss it much.” She made herself take a lighter tone. “Too many other things to focus on.”
“MARL keeps the entire area safe from being scanned or even flown over. He says if there was a ground attack, he could repel even overwhelming forces, but my men and I remain vigilant.”
“Am I going to meet this MARL?”
“Absolutely. You can’t avoid the encounter, in fact.” Aydarr’s grin was wide now. “He sticks close to Jill so, when you see her, you’ll see him.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
She didn’t think she could sleep, not after all the events of the last day, but Megan woke with an instinctive flinch as the flyer landed with the slightest of bumps and realized she must have dozed off. Immediately, she conducted a visual assessment of Mateer’s condition.
“He seems better, more naturally asleep,” Timtur said. “I’d have awakened you if anything changed but speaking as your healer, you needed that nap.”
With a start she realized Timtur probably was going to be her physician, unless the Khagrish had kidnapped any other human doctors. She could take care of herself to a large extent, but it was reassuring to have a Badari with at least some medical knowledge. Of course, her nurse Rikhal was among the rescued prisoners, and his training and expertise would be invaluable. She wondered if he’d ever delivered a baby because for sure the Badari medic hadn’t. I’ll have to give a crash course in obstetrics to both of them in the next few months. Or at least as much as I remember myself.
The cockpit opened and the pilot peered in. To her surprise he was human, giving her a jaunty salute. “Glad to meet you at last, doc. Jill’s been talking about you literally since the moment we met.”
“Thanks for the smooth ride,” she said, somewhat at a loss. She found it disconcerting that her fate had been such a topic amongst the Badari and their allies from the original lab. They seemed to know a lot about her and she knew next to nothing about them.
“Where will we take Mateer?” she asked Aydarr and Timtur. “Do you have a clinic or sickbay established?”
“A small one, yes,” Aydarr said. “We can handle transporting him. Jill and Lily are waiting anxiously for you.”
“I’ll say hello then go with you.” Megan wasn’t about to be separated from Mateer again, especially while their telepathic link was inactive. Of course she wanted to see her sisters, but her mate came first.
The Badari efficiently offloaded Mateer’s antigrav litter, with Megan walking down the ramp behind them. Jill and Lily shrieked with joy as they saw her, and she was engulfed in a sisterly hug, all three women laughing and crying at the same time, trying to talk.
“I want to hear all about your adventures,” she told Jill. “I met your victim Gahzhing—he’s one repulsive and scary guy. Maybe not even sane.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” her sister said. “Come on, I’ve got refreshments waiting and clean clothes for you at our cave—you must be exhausted. There’s a pool fed by warm springs too—all the amenities.”
“I have to go with Mateer—” But when she pivoted to check on him, Timtur and Reede were walking away with the litter holding her mate, heading toward a cluster of small, well-camouflaged buildings, apparently assembled from prefab slabs. Hands on her hips, annoyance pricking at her, she said, “I told them I was going along.”
“I ordered them to go ahead,” Aydarr said. “Mateer will be fine—he’s in good hands and, when he wakes, you’ll know at once. I told you before, he’d never forgive me if I didn’t take good care of you, and you’re weaving on your feet with exhaustion and hunger besides, I’m guessing.” And my mate has worried about you unceasingly since she woke up on this planet so I’m requesting you to give her some time, let her take care of you.
Megan remembered she was the only human who could go mind to mind with the Badari. She embarrassed not to have been as warm with Jill and Lily as she would have been normally. She’d been so caught up in worry over Mateer that everything else got pushed aside. “All right,” she said out loud. “Sounds good, and we have a lot to compare notes on.”
Head tilted, Jill watched her with a smile. “Were you talking to Aydarr just then?”
“Yes, do you mind? He spoke to me first, but if it bothers you to have me go all telepathic with your husband, I’ll try to remember not to.”
“He’s my mate, not husband,” Jill said. “Means the same – a loving lifetime commitment, but I prefer to use their term. Aydarr’s also the alpha so if he speaks to you, by all means answer.” She laughed. “He’s so jealous of you and Mateer having the mental link. If it wasn’t so complicated to achieve, he’d be demanding I agree to have Timtur do the blood transfusion protocol on me.”
“It was quite a process,” Megan said. “We don’t know what exactly the Khagrish did to his blood before transfusing me either.”
“MARL might be able to find the records when he goes through the data,” Jill said.
“I keep waiting for the gift to fade. Blood cells don’t live forever, you know. But now I’m beginning to think there was a change at the DNA level.”
“The Khagrish specialty.” Jill made a face. “Only with a good outcome this time.”
Arm in arm, the three sisters strolled toward the nearby cliffs, where Megan observed a number of cave openings. She stopped in her tracks as a metal ovoid rose from the ground and flew behind Jill. “What is that?”
“Meet MARL,” her sister said.
“I’m honored to finally meet the other Garrison sister.” Pale turquoise and pink colors washed over the skin of the device as it hovered near Jill.
“Pleased to meet you as well,” Megan said. “Mateer mentioned you fairly often, but he neglected to mention you were an artificial intelligence.”
“Oh, it gets better,” Jill said as the sisters began walking again. “MARL is an Ancient Observer creation. Well, maybe not actually a million years old, but at least 10,000 years. His pilot crash landed in the lake and then died in one of the caves, and MARL’s been here on standby ever since. When I escaped the lab and came here, he decided to become my sidekick.”
Feeling as if she was living in an action adventure trideo, Megan shook her head. “And he keeps you safe here?”
“MARL has a lot of capabilities,” Jill said with confidence. “He’s been the key to most of what we’ve accomplished to date.”
Megan was surprised again when she stepped into the cave to find it well-lit and warm, with a few pieces of furniture and a rug covering part of the floor. “How did you manage this?”
“MARL provides the power for amenities. Also, each time we take down a Khagrish lab, we do as much looting as we can. We liberated the building supplies for a few huts. The Khagrish like to live well when they’re not in the lab, wearing green coats. Quite the fashionable beings in fact. And now we’re benefitting from their greed, which only seems fair.” Jill grinned. “I have decent clothes for you too, mostly taken from the inventory at the lab’s employee store. The pool’s over this way, in the next small cave. The water is so relaxing—you can soak and the three of us can talk.”
Megan found she was more than willing to take off the dirty, blood stained, torn prison uniform and slip into the inviting pool, where the water was warm and a bit tingly on her skin. “Minerals?”
“No need to worry—I had MARL run an analysis before any of us dipped a toe into the water. The mineral content and the temperature are within norms for humans, even pregnant ladies. Aydarr and I spend a lot of time here when we can get away from the demands of running the pack and planning to defeat the Khagrish.”
“TMI,” Megan said. She waded deeper into the pool. “Anything I should b
“No predators, no hot spots.” Jill made an expansive gesture. “Better than the best resorts in the Inner Sectors. Please, indulge yourself in a swim.”
She and Lily sat at the edge of the pool, dangling their toes in the water while Megan swam a bit and enjoyed the sensation of floating while the minerals and the water cleansed her pores and relaxed her jangled nerves.
“It’s not too hot for the baby, is it?” Lily asked.
Stroking the length of the pool lazily, returning to where her sisters perched, Megan shook her head. “No, this water temperature is well within acceptable range.” She sat on a handy ledge in the pool.
“The Badari are so thrilled about this child,” Jill said.
“Mateer was too.”
“And you?” Her older sister handed her a thick towel.
“I’m happy—I always wanted kids. It was a surprise, though.” Climbing onto the lip of the pond, swathed in the towel, Megan took another and dried her hair. “You know me, I painstakingly plan everything down to the last crossed T and dotted I, and this event involved no planning at all. I invited Mateer into the shower with me and next morning it was a surprise to both of us when he scented my changed hormones—Sectors injects don’t work on women with Badari blood transfusions given by mad alien scientists.”
“Mateer didn’t give you a mate mark when he claimed you?” Jill asked, glancing at Megan’s bare shoulder.
“A what?”
For answer, her sister tugged aside the neckline of her top and showed off a small mark resembling two entwined circles on the back of her shoulder. “Aydarr said he was driven by instinct—he asked permission first. For all that he’s this ultimate alpha, he’s considerate of me and my wishes.”
“He has to be,” Lilly said with a laugh, “You don’t cut him any slack.”
“None. Give him an inch and he’d take a lightyear. It’s the nature of an alpha.” Sounding indulgent and amused, Jill rearranged her shirt with a smile. “We have fun with the negotiations and the concessions.”
“So, how exactly did he mark you?” Megan asked.
“You’ve seen the Badari fangs? It didn’t hurt at all,” Jill added hastily. “We were definitely in the heat of the moment as it were. I said I got to bite him too, and he does have a circle mark on his shoulder now where I made my puny human effort to claim my mate.” She made a show of chomping her teeth then giggled. “Aydarr believes their Great Mother caused the bruise to become permanent in the form I showed you.”
“Like a wedding ring. Well, a circle anyway,” Lilly said dreamily.
Megan looked at her closely. “Any particular Badari you’d like to have bite you?”
Her twin blushed to the roots of her hair.
“Our baby sister’s got a thing for the healer,” Jill said, giving Lily a gentle bump on the shoulder. Giving her attention back to Megan, she said, “Hey, don’t worry about it. Maybe the claiming mark is special to the alpha and his mate.”
“No, I think Mateer wanted to give me one, although he never came right out and said it.”
Jill gave her a hug. “You’re getting all prune-y. If you’ve soaked enough, I have choices of clothing laid out for you to try.”
“And we have food,” Lily said. “I requested goodies from the communal kitchen for us.”
“You must be ravenous for a good meal. I remember the awful institutional Khagrish mush they called food at the lab.” Jill wrinkled her nose. “So much better out here, with fish and game, fruit and a sprinkling of vegetables.”
“So we’re in essence founding a new colony here.” Megan dressed in one of the colorful tunic-and-leggings sets Jill offered her. “I wonder how that realization will affect the people you just rescued?”
Jill perched on the edge of the bed. “Gabe—you met him, he was your pilot—is desperate for a spaceship. I think he’d try to salvage MARL’s from the bottom of the lake somehow if he had the slightest hope there was a chance it could be made to fly again. He insists we have to contact the Sectors and get help soon. No offense to MARL, but Gabe believes if the Khagrish and the Chimmer get aggravated enough by us, or desperate enough to recapture us, MARL’s defenses might not hold.”
“I agree with him,” Lily said. “I love it here, but the constant threat from the enemy is stress inducing.”
“Does anyone know where we are in relation to the Sectors?” Megan asked, smoothing the tunic and admiring the slight sheen to the turquoise colored fabric.
“No idea.” Jill shook her head. “Gabe’s trying to talk Aydarr into making the next priority an effort to hijack a Khagrish ship. Or even a Chimmer. So far it’s all talk. I do think the Sectors needs to know what’s going on here. I’d like to have communication and reinforcements, but once I became Aydarr’s mate, I committed to this world, as long as he wants to stay here.”
“The Badari feel strongly about this being their home, since they have no idea where their ancestors originally came from,” Lily said. “Reede teaches a unit on Badari history for my curriculum, and it’s been sad but fascinating.”
“I can stay here on this planet, no problem, as long as we can kick the Khagrish off and keep the Chimmer out,” Megan said, “Or I’d go elsewhere, if Mateer did. Being a doctor is a portable skill set. I never did establish permanent roots on Amarcae Seven. My roots are the two of you.”
Lily and Jill came to hug her again and more tears were shed. Megan’s eyes were stinging and she had a hard time breathing as she let go of all her pentup stress and terror, weeping uncontrollably now that she was safe with her sisters. Jill patted her back and made soothing noises while Lily hugged them both and the three women comforted each other.
Eventually Megan had no more tears. Wrung out and ready to start over, she sniffed. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m hungry now.”
“Probably a good sign.” Jill laughed and led her to the table in the next chamber.
They’d just taken the first few bites of the meal Lily’d brought, when a sensation of concern and love and desire and warmth rolled over her like a breaking wave, carrying the unmistakable tone of Mateer’s communications. Megan sat up straight, dropping the piece of fruit she’d been nibbling on. “I have to go. Mateer’s waking up.” She rose and jogged toward the entrance to the cave. “Where’s the sickbay?”
“We’ll come with you,” Lily said.
“Partway at least,” Jill said, catching their younger sister by the elbow and shaking her head. “I think Mateer’d like a private reunion.”
Megan followed Jill down the path from the cave’s entrance as fast as she dared, berating her amused sisters to walk faster.
Megan?! Mateer’s telepathic message was more like a shout.
She rubbed her temple. On my way to you. Confident in her own skills, she knew she’d done her best surgical procedures under trying circumstances, and she was sure Mateer’s Badari constitution had him fully restored to prime health and heartiness, but she wasn’t going to relax until she’d seen him
Give me a few moments to shower and make myself fit for your company.
I’ll walk more slowly, take your time. Although she was wildly impatient to be in his arms, she respected his desire to be at his best for her. As she and her sisters proceeded more slowly along the grassy path from the caves to the small set of prefab admin buildings, she ‘overheard’ a few snippets of Mateer arguing with Timtur over his demand to leave the sickbay. She knew who’d win the argument and it wasn’t going to be the healer. A few minutes later she could tell from Mateer’s subliminal thoughts that he was heading out to intercept her. She took comfort in the rapid Badari healing powers and assumed he’d be okay so she didn’t waste her time issuing pointless doctor’s orders about him staying in bed.
Then he was running toward her, and she quickened her own pace as her sisters paused so as not to intrude.
She met him at the edge of the flyer landing field, Mateer catching her in his arms and giving her such a big hug she had to laughingly ask him to let her breathe.
He set her on her feet but kept his hold on her hand. “You’re all right? The bomb blast didn’t cause you any harm? The baby’s fine?”
“Yes to all the questions. You shielded her and me, and I didn’t even get scratched. Of course, then I had to operate to get all the shrapnel out of you.” Megan shook her finger at him, a bit giddy with relief. “Lucky for you I’m considered to be a topflight trauma surgeon in the Sectors. Do you feel all right?”
Grinning ear to ear, he flexed his shoulders. “Good as new.” He pulled her in for a long kiss.
Breathless by the time the embrace was done, Megan realized there was a growing crowd of gawkers around them. The onlookers were smiling, clearly enjoying the show, but she wanted privacy. “Is there somewhere we can go? Do you have a favorite place by the lake maybe? With fewer interested bystanders?”
Mateer glared at the crowd, and suddenly everyone seemed to recall a need to be elsewhere, the crowd melting away. A few Badari clapped him on the shoulder as they passed and greeted Megan, but the spot was soon deserted except for the two of them. “I live in the barracks,” he said hesitantly. “The cave serving as the barracks anyway.”
Knowing you two were mated, the pack pitched in and outfitted a private cave for you. Mates need privacy. We did the work while waiting for the rescue mission—see how confident we were of our success? Aydarr’s voice was strong in Megan’s mind, and she could tell by the way Mateer’s eyes widened that he was hearing the alpha as well. There’s even a small hot spring pool, which I’m sure you two will appreciate. Now she could tell Aydarr was laughing and trying to hide it. I’ve sent Mateer the location.
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