The two men he selected exchanged wary glances before saluting and setting off, weapons at the ready.
The officer stomped back to his prisoners and yanked Elianna to her feet roughly. “What sort of demon spawn live in this forest? What killed my man?”
She was grinning. “A fearsome predator. You’re all doomed.”
“We’re doomed? What about you?” The second in command picked up on her odd phrasing and studied her pugnaciously.
“I think it must prefer the taste of Khagrish, don’t you?” she said.
Kierce reveled in her fearlessness although he worried the Khagrish would punish her for her impertinence. He was also glad she now knew he was nearby.
The two men sent to check on the status of their squad mates came running, out of breath and carrying their late comrades’ pulse rifles. “No sign of either Gyrraggi or Ninkamm, but we found their weapons cast aside in the forest.”
“All right, we push on to the flyer and everyone keep their eyes wide open,” the officer said. “Prisoners in the center, tight formation.” He kept his hold on Elianna. “You walk with me.”
“What about the Badari?” asked a guard. “He’s conscious now—he can walk.”
The officer shook his head. “Too dangerous. Until I get a neurocontroller on him, he stays restrained. Move out.”
Kierce sent a message to Camron. I’m trailing you and Brant is set up at the enemy flyer to pick a few more off.
Elianna is the most important person to rescue. She’s the only one who can finish refurbishing the spaceship. Camron’s answer was unflinching. Don’t worry about me.
Kierce decided not to answer. Elianna was the most important to him because she was his mate, but he fully intended to save all four prisoners before he was done.
As the depleted column set off again, he trailed them high in the trees. Not once did the Khagrish think to scan the canopy of branches above them. When he launched himself from above and took out the new rearguard in a flying leap, rolling into the underbrush with his victim the enemy was taken completely by surprise. He sprinted away in a burst of speed enabled by the tiger’s superior musculature and scrambled up another tree as soon as he judged he’d gone far enough, using his feline form’s massive claws and powerful hind legs.
The Khagrish fired a few shots that came nowhere near him, and now their ranks were down to four, the man in charge was leading them at a stumbling run, stubbornly clinging to his prisoners.
Nearly to your position, Kierce sent to Brant. Pick off their leader if you can, but be careful of Elianna. He’s holding her.
Kierce continued to trail the enemy, hoping for another chance to eliminate more Khagrish. He heard the officer attempting to call the man he’d left on guard at the flyer. Fear made the Khagrishi’s voice tremble, and he ran faster, pulling Elianna along with him and leaving his own men lagging behind. Without orders and clearly in desperation, the two guards abandoned the antigrav lift with the helpless Camron, one Khagrish taking a position as if to shoot the prisoner, but Camron gave a mighty heave against the restraints holding him and the litter veered off to the left, crashing into a tree. The shot went wide.
Hoping to protect Camron Kierce roared a challenge and the two Khagrish ran. He came at his best pace, descending from the tree at a breakneck speed. and bounding to the litter, slashing through Camron’s bonds with carefully placed claws. The other Badari was bound at the ankles and wrists with force bracelets, and Kierce used his teeth with exquisite care to rupture the locks. Stifling a groan, Camron lurched to his feet and took cover. Kierce followed him.
Unable to gauge his fellow soldier’s condition, Kierce asked, You okay?
Do we have any weapons? The other Badari’s voice in his head was matter of fact.
I can’t carry anything when I transform. A weakness he’d have to ponder later, after the action. The soldiers left the pulse rifle on the ground when I killed the last guy.
I’m going to get it then I’ll catch up to you at the flyer. Camron staggered in the direction they’d come from.
Kierce shook his head, admiring Camron’s determination and devotion to duty, then he himself hastened in the wake of the Khagrish.
Elianna was in pain from being slapped several times, thrown to the ground and kicked when the Khagrish captured her, and having fallen at least once in the headlong flight the enemy was now making to escape Kierce. She believed she had at least one cracked rib, going by the pain in her side when she tried to draw a deep breath.
Once she knew Kierce was on their trail as the tiger, the sheer terror receded, and she was able to think more clearly. Her biggest fear at the beginning of the ordeal was that he’d been captured or killed. If Kierce avoided either dire fate, she’d been worried the Khagrish would succeed in getting them all off the island before he found out she and her co-workers were in trouble.
The only thing giving her any confidence when the ordeal first began was the mate bond, which felt like a warm glow in her heart. Maybe she couldn’t communicate with Kierce outright, but he was alive and he’d never abandon her.
He was magnificent as the tiger. She prayed to the Lords of Space the Khagrish wouldn’t get a clear shot at him because, although he was undoubtedly a killing machine, he was mortal. The Badari physiology could only heal so much.
She coughed, lungs congested from the smoke of the burning huts. Camron had come running to fetch the three of them as they left the Chimmer ship for the day and hustled them toward the forest as the Khagrish yelled for them to halt and fired warning shots. They’d been brought down by long range stunners before any of them made it to the dubious safety of the trees.
The officer holding her arm swore at her and jerked her along, making her run faster. “Once we get to the flyer, these bastards will pay.” He cast a fearful glance over his shoulder at the path behind them and dragged her onward.
Elianna tried to keep her head clear, so she’d be ready to seize any opening to escape or to react to another attack by Kierce.
She emerged from the edge of the forest into a large meadow and the Khagrish flyer lay ahead. Her heart sank because if the enemy could indeed get on board their ship, the odds would change dramatically.
No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than the man running to the left side of them screamed, threw his arms up and fell, shot through the head. Next to go was the Khagrish on the other side. Obviously, there was a Badari sniper at work—Brant maybe.
Her captor yanked on her arm, and she realized the sniper probably couldn’t get a clear shot because the Khagrish was holding her.
Let’s fix the problem then. She took one more step then collapsed, dragging the Khagrish with her.
Kierce roared from behind them. Driven by desperation and terror, the Khagrishi struggled to his feet, holding her in his arms and staggered onward. Elianna struggled, twisting in his grasp, attempting to break free but her captor was stronger and the lingering effects of being stunned and beaten made it hard for her to be effective. The alien’s pulse rifle lay behind on the grass, abandoned.
She and the Khagrishi made it to the ramp and the officer entered his code, then pounded on the portal, screaming. He maintained his grip on Elianna, who was doing her best to kick him. “Demons take you, Miggrixx, open the damn door!” he yelled.
“I don’t think there’s anyone home,” she said, unable to stifle her hysterical laughter. She was trembling and terrified of what might happen next, but confidence in Kierce put cold steel in her spine.
The Khagrish cursed again, wheeled and wrapped one arm around her neck in a chokehold, drawing his sidearm and holding the barrel to her head. Elianna stilled, trying to breathe.
Kierce stood about twenty feet away, watching them with an intense glow in his amber eyes. He growled deep in his throat. The last of the Khagrishi squad lay dead a few feet behind him.
“You—you’re one of them,” the Khagrish officer said, his voice quavering. “You must be, with tho
“You’ll have no leverage then,” said Camron, stepping out of the tree line, aiming his rifle at the officer.
Kierce never took his eyes off Elianna.
Lightheaded, she could have fallen into the golden fire of his gaze. What does he want me to do? She let her knees buckle, which wasn’t hard, considering how little air was getting through her windpipe due to the stranglehold her captor had on her.
A terrible roar sounded and Kierce came to them, despite the distance, and he was on his hind legs, fangs buried in the Khagrishi’s throat. A shot went off, and Elianna curled herself into the tiniest ball she could manage, the tiger’s huge legs on either side of her. She closed her eyes and prayed. She was buffeted as the tiger and his prey toppled over onto the grass beside the flyer.
Strong hands yanked her to her feet and lifted her away from the scene. She opened her eyes to see Camron carrying her. “Kierce?”
“He’s fine, just a flesh wound. He’s changing right now.” Camron set her next to Lorrali and Sam. Brant undid the tight restraints on her wrists.
The moment her hands were free, she shot to her feet, holding onto the soldier for balance as she turned to the flyer.
Naked and bloody, Kierce strode in her direction. She ran to him and they embraced as if they’d never let each other go again.
“Are you all right?” Kierce asked, pulling back slightly.
She nodded, unable to speak past the lump in her throat. “How are you?” She touched his upper arm with one hand, horrified to see the blood dripping from a long slash.
“I’m healing already. Bastard got in a lucky shot.” Kierce shrugged.
A noise overhead startled her, and the sight of another flyer buzzing the open space set her heart pounding. “We’ve got to run!”
“It’s Gabe and Walt,” Kierce said in reassurance.
“We should get under cover until we’re positive.” After the events of the day she wasn’t taking anything for granted.
Camron moved to stand next to them, tossing Kierce his own torn shirt. “Better put something on, buddy. Relax, Elianna, it’s a friendly.” He tapped his ear, where she knew he had a MARL-created long distance comm. “The pilots were coming today for a looksee, remember? MARL17 stayed hidden in the Chimmer ship as per the emergency plan and sent out a comms burst when the Khagrish attacked us, but even those two daredevils can only squeeze so much speed from a flyer.”
She had the incongruous insight that she could probably amp up the engines and made a vow to do so as soon as she was in the sanctuary valley.
Kierce let her go long enough to drape the T shirt around himself like an abbreviated kilt. “Clothes don’t go with me when I change forms,” he said with a wry smile.
“I’m not complaining. I was so happy to see the tiger today—” She surveyed him, noting his wound was indeed closed and no longer bleeding. “How was it to be in that form?”
“Amazing. We Badari are strong on our own, but the tiger form has its own gifts and abilities. I’m getting better at making the change too.” He hugged her, and they turned to greet the two human soldiers, who’d landed and were striding toward them, weapons drawn.
“Sitrep?” Walt said, eyeing them all.
“Looks like you fought a war here,” Gabe added, checking out the Khagrish bodies scattered here and there.
“We got them all, thanks to Kierce,” Camron said. “His tiger form is an unbeatable killing machine. Minor injuries only on our side.”
“The huts are burned,” Elianna said, remembering the earlier terror of the day. “There’s no food and no shelter.”
“We’ll see what might be left at the huts,” Camron said. “But first we need to clean this up, hide the evidence a long way away from here.”
“First we’d better try to move the Chimmer ship,” Walt said. “Before any more Khagrish arrive.”
“Their commander didn’t report it,” Kierce said. “Typical of them, the captain was out on another mission, saw this island and decided to keep the whole thing quiet until he could take all the glory.”
“The Khagrish must have found the island while the MARL units were inoperative. We wondered if the camouflage had stayed in place when the AI’s had their outage. I guess we have the answer now. But the captain was also afraid the Chimmer might be working with us,” Elianna said. “He asked us a bunch of questions about how we got the ship. Which of course none of us answered.”
“Lords of Space what a tangle.” Walt shook his head. “And the MARLs shorting out even for a brief time is a scary new wrinkle. Gabe will take the humans to the worksite in our flyer, while we clear away the evidence.” He gestured at the dead bodies. “Gabe can extract us when he’s done.”
“Brant, go with the humans and stand guard,” Camron said.
“How will you clean this up?” Elianna asked, although she wasn’t sure she really wanted to know. Her head ached and her ribs hurt and all she wanted right now was a painkiller and a place to lie down. Checking on Sam and Lorrali she observed neither one seemed in any better condition than she was. “I don’t think we can be too much help, frankly. The Khagrish wanted answers and their interrogation methods were none too gentle.”
“We’ll cope with it – you civilians have done enough for today. Good work, all of you.” Gabe’s praise was low key but Elianna appreciated by his estimation of how they’d managed during the attack. The pilot said, “We’ll load all the Khagrish bodies onto their flyer, set the auto pilot to take them a long, long way away from here, on a vector that crashes them into the ocean. No evidence of where they’ve been or what happened to them, problem solved.”
“Aydarr’s going to want a full debrief on this incident. I’ll send him another comms burst, see if he wants us to move the ship or sit tight or what. Let’s get moving people, before night falls.” Plainly, Walt was done talking.
Elianna found it interesting the way he unhesitatingly took command, even over the Badari, but she was too worn out to care. Staggering onto the Badari’s stolen flyer, she fell into the nearest seat and closed her eyes. Kierce, who’d followed her on board to make sure she was all right, handed her a nutrient bottle.
“I have to stay here to show them where all the bodies are and undo the sabotage I did on the enemy flyer. Will you be okay?” he asked.
Hearing reluctance in his voice, she took his hand and squeezed hard. “I’ll manage. Don’t take too long. I don’t think I can sleep tonight unless I’m with you. The nightmares are going to be spectacular.”
“I don’t intend us to be parted for a second longer than necessary.” He leaned closer. “I need the reassurance of holding you in my arms, to know you’re all right.”
She retained her hold on his hand as he attempted to step away. “I felt the mate bond, you know. I had no doubt you’d save me.”
He kissed her gently. “The goddess gave me a rare blessing when the Khagrish brought you into my cage.”
“Our first meeting seems so long ago, and it really wasn’t, was it?” Memories of their imprisonment surfaced and Elianna swallowed hard to banish the lump in her throat. She focused on the man in front of her. “Find clothes if you can. I love the view, but I don’t need to share it with anyone else.”
He laughed. “I’ll be reverting to the tiger form shortly.” With a wave, he exited the flyer right before Gabe bounded on board and took them aloft for the trip to the work site.
Elianna rested her head against the soft seat and closed her eyes, trying to sink into a mindless state for right now, versus processing the terror of the day’s events. One good thing out of all this—Kierce accepted the tiger. And showed himself and his packmates what a weapon he can be.
A few days later…back in the valley…
For such a serious people, the Badari knew how to party. The lack of feelgoods was something of a downer, but Elianna could understand why Aydarr had no desire to introduce them into the valley. There was a small store of intoxicants under Nicolle’s tight control in the Stores, recovered along with other loot from the Khagrish labs the pack overpowered and destroyed, but for the big bashes like this one, it was nutrient drinks, tea and the like only.
Everyone was having a good time celebrating Kierce’s induction into the pack and their mate bonding. The existence of the captured Chimmer ship was a closely held secret but, the few people in the know about it, like her, were also celebrating their victory over the Khagrish patrol.
Elianna’s knees were a bit wobbly after the mistreatment she’d had at the hands of the Khagrish so she begged off the dancing, which seemed to be a relief for Kierce. She had to laugh as he looked askance at the vigorous line dance going on now as the human band played valiantly on their homemade instruments.
“Happy?” He nudged her with his hip as they sat pressed together on a crude log bench beside one of the bonfires.
“We fell into the best possible situation, didn’t we?” She gestured at the gaily lit meadow and the happy crowd. “From the awful lab to this place is quite a journey.”
He nodded. “I’ll be glad to get back to the island tomorrow, though.”
“Me too. I like to finish what I started. Then I have a ton of projects to tackle here at the valley. This place is in crying need of a good tech to tune up the systems. I like to be needed.”
“I need you.” He nuzzled her neck, giving her goosebumps, but she arched into his touch, inviting him to do more.
Gabe and his mate Keshara left the dance and came to sit next to them. “I think we’re about to make a discreet exit,” the pilot said. “Gotta fly in the morning, can’t stay up all night.”
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