Star Catcher

by Kimber Vale

  Noth stooped over a cart and rechecked the needle-free syringes prepared with Tristayl. They were lined up and loaded with premeasured doses. The substance was used to blot out recent memory. The larger the amount used, the further back the erasure.

  “We will perform the bloodless, rapid system screen as soon as they enter, Uryu. Any females deemed unsuitable for surrogacy will have the abduction memory eradicated and will be returned to their home planet, as per protocol.”

  “Yes, Doctor Zobor.”

  Noth was certain Krael understood this as well. Her team had received training and subsequently signed off on the plan. To release rejected surrogates without Tristayl administration could be fatal to the operation. Noth saw no evidence that the humans were capable of extragalactic travel or warfare, but all precautions must be enforced. The Embassy was adamant there be no future alien attacks on Artanos as a result of this project.

  He stared into the blue mist of the strontium beam, willing Krael to appear with her unharmed captives. Soon. Now! As each second ticked by on his watch, Noth became increasingly convinced that something unplanned had occurred.

  His only shred of relief rested with the knowledge that Stella waited safely, although angrily, at the restaurant. Thank Scrion she is far from this place.

  “They are taking longer than expected. Perhaps something has gone wrong.” Uryu stood with thick arms crossed over his chest, and his implanted eyebrows pinched with unease. The other Artanian’s misgivings only fueled Noth’s.

  Blast Krael to Procyon! What is happening?

  Noth made up his mind and walked into the teleportation beam.

  In a heartbeat, he materialized amid a clump of trees on the border of the field. The bonfire cast its eerie light above the corn, and he made his way toward the wavering orange glow. Maybe the women arrived later than expected? Krael might be waiting for greater numbers to enter before closing down the charged plasma field and teleporting the females.

  The music stopped and the flames disappeared. The rushing sound indicated the electrostatic wall had sealed to encompass the entire site. Krael was delayed, but why? Noth stopped, vacillating between moving closer to watch the scene unfold and returning to the platform to avoid Krael’s inevitable anger at his interference.

  A terrified scream ripped through the night, like that of an animal fatally wounded. The sound forced his decision. Noth took off at a sprint toward the mouth of the maze and the human who was undeniably injured. He was a healer first, and every instinct in his body propelled him toward the sound of distress.

  Krael was behind this. He knew with absolute certainty.

  At the maze opening, Krael’s post was empty. Her hairpiece was sprawled across the ground in a tangled heap. It was the only sign of her, but Noth recognized the wig from the docking port before Commander Krael and her crew had departed. The soldiers had all been wearing false hair as Krael preferred females for her military staff.

  In truth, the fake hair was more believable on the females. The males at the pre-mission test site looked exceedingly odd, both without eyelashes and with false ones, and Noth had recommended a female team for the collection. Not only did they look more like humans, but he thought they would have more compassion for the abducted women.

  Now he had his doubts. The soldiers were trained to obey Krael’s every order, but unfortunately Krael did not seem to possess the capacity for sympathy, at least not for species she considered beneath her own.

  Noth spun in a circle, indecision clouding his brain. And suddenly a flash of silver caught his eye. A shape sprang from the grass that marked the far corner of the containment field. A long, flowing mane streamed behind like a molten mercury flag as the girl ran. She was magnificent, graceful, and bounding like an apparition, a figment of his starved imagination.

  His heart stopped its frantic beat. The crushing sensation in his chest nearly dropped him to the ground.

  Stella.

  It could not be! He had made sure she would be far from this place tonight. And yet, that silvery-white hair was distinctive. Noth had been unable to keep from comparing every other female he encountered to that one, his female. Somehow, Stella had found her way to the collection site, and she was now locked in Krael’s prison.

  Burn out the stars!

  Noth pushed his screaming muscles harder to intercept her. He aimed straight for the phantom girl who had appeared in the moonlight. He had to get to her before Krael did. He would find a way to get her out of the collection field, no matter the cost.

  And then the unthinkable happened.

  A creature, enormous and blacker than the night sky, hurtled through the air to knock Stella to the ground. It came unexpectedly, launching its attack from the cover of the corn rows.

  A wrov! The commander had beamed wrovs to the site? Never did she mention such a plan. Her brain function must be unbalanced! The wrovs could sense disease and weakness. Krael must be using the animals to divide the women into groups of potential surrogates, and those not healthy enough to be utilized. But wild wrovs often struck out violently at physical abnormalities. Any of the humans within the energy shield with active illness, or even controlled disease processes, were in grave danger.

  Those not well enough to serve as surrogates were to have the incident medically erased, not become erased!

  He skidded to a halt before the ghastly scene.

  Stella was beneath a massive wrov. It scoured her with its acutely perceptive nose while Noth was helpless to reach her. To break the field could allow the wrov to escape. The Earthlings would then possess hard scientific data that pointed to Artanian life forms. Unrestrained wrovs on Earth would completely violate the Embassy’s policy, and Noth would certainly be held accountable for the breach. Far more terrible, though, the mindless beasts could potentially destroy untold numbers of humans before they could be controlled. He had no way of knowing how many Krael had inside or how ferocious these particular animals were.

  He possessed the mind-speak ability with lesser life forms, but the charge of the plasma field hindered his commands to the animal. It deflected more than simple matter. He commanded the wrov to cease its attack. The animal merely glanced up at him for a nano, and then resumed its sniffing as if Noth’s order was no more than an incoherent whisper.

  “Krael!” Noth screamed at the top of his lungs, banging futile fists against the wall of energy. The blows caused a rippling effect to cascade along the entire surface, but were otherwise ineffectual. The wrov had a particular interest in the small of Stella’s back. It nudged her over to get at her from the front. Noth gave a savage howl, as rage and frustration tore from his throat. Fear nearly suffocated him. He could lose his job, his own life even. However, this human he could not stand to relinquish. He flipped his watch open and placed a finger on his teleportation screen as he concentrated hard on the location before him.

  The field came down around him, and in a shimmer of electrical impulses he broke through. The wrov turned its gigantic head in his direction before it went back to sniffing Stella’s abdomen. Noth grabbed the beast’s skull in both hands. Three startled, yellow eyes rolled up at him. He heard the panic in the beast’s mind before he twisted viciously and the neck bones snapped with a loud pop. The body nearly matched him in weight, but Noth lifted it to his chest and heaved the wrov into the corn with muscles awakened by terror.

  Stella was unconscious, but unharmed. He cradled her head in his hands, smoothing her tangled hair back from her pale face.

  “This is blatant noncompliance with my orders, Doctor.”

  Krael emerged before him, hands on her hips. She had removed her costume but for the false eyelashes. They looked garish on her, feminine where there was an utter lack of femininity. At least, it seemed so to Noth now that he compared the females of his planet to Stella.

  Noth lowered Stella’s head gently to the ground. He shielded her body with his as he stood. If there were more wrovs, he would not allow them near her. Kra
el had replaced the charged plasma barrier, and the field now emitted a nearly imperceptible hum.

  “You did not follow our agreement, Krael.” His voice was low, with the fury roiling under the surface of his words evident.

  Krael’s eyes widened in surprise. Her drawn-on eyebrows rose comically on her forehead.

  “I am in command, Doctor Zobor. You head the medical team and nothing more. Thinking you worthy of inclusion in my plans was an error of judgment.” Her dark eyes pinned him. “My goal is to revive our population and to save our planet at all costs. I was falsely under the impression you shared my passion in this.”

  “Wrovs are deadly! They are savage, unpredictable animals! I have quarantines set up on the satellite so no illness will contaminate Artanos. You are putting human lives at risk unnecessarily, Syrwv.” His voice trembled with barely pent outrage.

  “You will address me by my title.” Her voice spit venom. “These animals were hand-trained by me. They may be unthinking beasts, but they obey orders better than you do, Doctor.”

  “You have no way of ensuring they are under control. They are instinctually sensitive to weakness and disease. It is not a trait you can breed or beat out of them.”

  “I have planned this for too long to allow questionable safety practices. It is bad enough you mingled with their filthy race. I refuse to risk myself or my team by exposing us to incurable human pathogens.” She stepped close enough to stroke a taloned finger down his clenched jaw.

  “Together we could have formed an unstoppable alliance, Noth. Success in this operation will elevate my status beyond all others. The Embassy will bow to the savior of our species. To me. And then you will wish you had not opposed me.”

  Krael smiled wickedly with the last words.

  “The Embassy will hear of this, Krael. You will not maintain command of this operation once they know you jeopardized the proceedings by using wrovs. Your talk of controlling the ruling body of Artanos is treasonous.”

  “Prompt decisions must sometimes be made given new information. Differing circumstances. The ability to adapt is what makes me an invaluable leader. A survivor.”

  As she spoke, Krael yanked off one fake eyelash. Her lid stretched out grotesquely as the glue pulled free. The commander didn’t wince, and her voice didn’t waver as she continued.

  “I can support my actions if the need arises. I am not the one who opened the field and risked the escape of Artanian life onto this planet. Is your goal to save a few members of a sub-Artanian species, or your own kind?” She flicked the fake hairs in his direction with a sneer of distain. “The wrovs were completely contained until you broke protocol.”

  A penetrating glare burned into him. He returned the look, feeling an unfamiliar hatred seething below his calm exterior.

  “I wonder if you have a reason for your actions, Noth, one the Embassy would deem valid and in support of our cause.” Her voice was tinged with artificial sweetness, and Noth had the urge to throw the same question back at her. “I suggest you consider your answer before you make any rash decisions,” Krael added.

  “Noth?” Stella’s voice came from below, and he looked down into her confused and hurt expression.

  Krael’s cold laughter rang out. Noth turned back just in time to see the electron bolt discharger in the commander’s hand burst to life. And then all went black.

  Chapter 11

  Space station orbiting 30 miles above Artanos

  The room spun around him. Noth closed his eyes to steady his aching head. He fingered a spot above his right eye where a tender lump had grown during his sleep. He remembered Krael zapping him with the muscle stunner, but whether he smacked his head when he fell or she kicked him with those nasty boots of hers was a mystery. Sort of. He had his suspicions.

  He remembered Stella’s searching, accusing gaze when she awoke and saw him. How had this gotten so far out of control and how was he going to fix it now? The mental picture of her hurt expression had him raising himself up on his elbows, cringing through the pain and nausea. He probably had a concussion, as the humans called it.

  He pulled his large frame up from the long bench. He was in his office. At least Krael hadn’t turned him in. It would seem they had reached an uneasy balance of power. Each had broken rules and was willing to keep quiet for their own sakes. He would for now, anyway. He would play the role Krael expected as it served his purposes. Once Stella was safe and far away from him and his kind, he would seek his vengeance on Krael.

  The military commander had destroyed the spark of pure happiness he had stumbled upon with Stella, and that fact would make him unforgiving and relentless.

  His office door opened. Had the commander installed unseen cameras to monitor his progress? It would not surprise him.

  “Commander Krael requests your presence in her office, Doctor Zobor.”

  He stood, careful to walk steadily toward the junior officer. The tall woman was muscle-bound and held an electron laser projector in her hands. It was a deadly weapon. The intense current could fry a body’s internal organs within seconds. Krael had not armed her troops with more than muscle paralyzers prior to the abductions, but she did so now. Every guard stationed throughout the ward had similar guns he noticed as they walked the halls. A brute force overthrow of the commander would not be a healthy move on his part.

  “Leave us and close the portal!” Krael’s voice rang with authority as they entered her private quarters. The officer snapped her boot heels together and complied immediately. The room was silent as Krael looked Noth over, her eyes wandering up to the bruise on his head. He kept an impassive look on his face. Emotions would not serve him here. Krael fed off such weakness, turning it against her enemies. Against Stella. She could not know what they had together.

  “By now you must realize I am not to be disobeyed by you or anyone else. I have supplied the women, all good specimens, and now you will perform your duty.”

  “Of course.” He spoke the words as if she had said something stupid, obvious.

  Krael’s black eyes formed slits, apparently weighing his reaction against the one she expected.

  “I worked for years to be here, Krael. I intend to do my job to the best of my ability for the good of our kind. I do not work on this project for my own benefit, and certainly not to improve your station in life.”

  She glared at him, placing a hand on her weapon in an attempt to intimidate.

  “Do not disobey me again, Noth.”

  “I do not agree with your tactics. That is apparent. Do you expect a healer to be a proponent of unnecessary cruelty, Krael? I will perform my duty, and I expect you to stay out of my lab so I can do the work the Embassy expects of me.”

  “You have proven yourself unreliable already. My troops will be present to keep a close eye on you,” she said, her tone dismissive.

  Noth slammed both palms on top of her desk, his movement faster than her reflexes. Krael’s hand remained motionless on her blaster, and she stared at him in shock. Was that fear in her eyes? Yes. He believed so.

  That was more like it.

  “I would not expect you to know anything about breeding, human or otherwise.” It was an intentional dig, and her eyes narrowed as he spoke. “There are hormones released by the human brain during times of stress—corticotropin-releasing hormone, to be exact. This CRH, in high amounts, has been linked to miscarriages.” He paused to let his words penetrate.

  “I have already petitioned the Embassy and stated my case for as low stress an environment as possible during the entire process. They agree with me. And it sounds to me—” He leaned closer to her face as he spoke slowly. “—as if you are going to be terribly disappointed if the procedures do not work. The Embassy will find it hard to overlook military interference if it ends up causing the implantations to fail.”

  Her already pale skin blanched further, and raw hatred burned in her eyes. If he did not have an enemy before, he certainly did now.

  “I will keep
my troops out of the human sleeping quarters, but I will be watching you, Noth.” She considered something for a moment before adding more. “If you happen to have an unfortunate accident, there are plenty more who will line up to take your place.” She pushed a button on her desk, and the metal door slid open, marking the end of their conversation. The same officer stood sentry outside.

  Noth tilted his head toward the soldier standing at attention while he smiled coldly at Krael. “I believe the same could be said of your position.” He walked out without waiting for her dismissal.

  Noth moved through the expansive ship, his head held high, his step determined. The first thing he needed to do was locate Stella. He would act as if he were cataloging all of the women. Baseline blood work for the surrogates would give him enough time to formulate a plan to free her. To free all of them.

  “Uryu.” He spoke into his watch-communicator to contact his assistant.

  “Yes, Doctor Zobor?”

  “Please tell me you dosed the medically unfit women with Tristayl before we left Earth.”

  “Yes, Doctor. Commander Krael summoned me to the collection site. The humans flagged by her wrovs each had the incident scrubbed before our craft departed.”

  “Thank Scrion.” Noth sighed loudly. At least his conduct could not be called into question, and the released women would not remember their horrible night. His staff had kept to the protocol in his absence. “Start an electronic chart for each patient. I will be along shortly to draw blood.” He was about to disconnect when another thought occurred to him.

  “Oh, and, Uryu, be as gentle as possible in your contacts with the humans. They have been through a great deal of upheaval.”

  “Yes, Doctor. I was informed you were … indisposed. I hope it was nothing too severe. Commander Krael was rather … rough … with the captives. They were not awake or not terribly alert, so I believe they will not remember, but one female, a dark-skinned one, awoke as I was strapping her in. She seemed terrified. I have reason to believe she assumed I was human.”