Jape grinned and put his palm to his chest. “From my spirit to yours, Kren. We’ve been ordered to assist you in rescuing our newly discovered sisters and brothers of the Spirit. Earthlings, I hear they’re called? Though in all honesty, I wouldn’t mind bagging a queen Monsudan while I’m at it.”
“You’re in the right place, then.” Kren clapped him on the shoulder. As far as he was concerned, Jape and the men of Cas were welcome to the queen. Kren only cared to find Jeannie. “Follow me and take whatever enemy trophies delight you. I am more interested in finding the victims.”
Especially one golden-haired Earthling.
With Jape at his side, Kren ran down the corridor. As he went, he breathed a whispered thanks to the All-Spirit, who had granted him the kindness of rescue.
“There is a particular Earthling I am looking for,” he told Jape. “She is the reason Hahz came in force.”
“I have heard. She made quite the impression on the Assembly from what I was told. She must be an amazing creature.”
“None more so.” Kren raised his voice. “Jeannie! Jeannie, can you hear me?”
* * *
Half a dozen people were immobilized in the labs. Jeannie and Anneliese freed them in short order, though the failing capture fields would have let them loose within minutes. In fact, the last man they found flailed himself free of his stretcher’s weakening hold as they walked in his chamber.
The sounds of fighting were closer than ever, including sounds like cannons going off. The Earthlings instinctively ducked as they ran down the corridor to the portal chamber.
Once there, they stood uncertainly before the panel that held the controls. The cyphers were beyond them, telling them nothing about the buttons on the surface. For lack of a better scientific method, they started pushing buttons at random.
One man said, “A drone has always been here when I came through, but I never saw it punch up anything. It just stood here as I was floated past.”
Everyone agreed. None of the buttons had an effect on the portal, though the saucer’s hatch opened after Anneliese triggered a green one. They were at a loss.
The sounds of pitched fighting came closer, sounding beyond the open door. Everyone kept casting worried glances over their shoulders. It seemed that the fighters would come into view at any moment.
At last Anneliese yelled, “We should hide! They must be right on top of us!”
Another woman began pounding buttons again frantically. “No! We can’t be this close only to give up. Somebody do something!”
As if in answer to her desperate cry, the sounds of fighting ceased. The Earthlings froze and stared at each other with wide eyes.
Then a voice called out from beyond the chamber’s door, one Jeannie had been almost certain she’d never hear again. “Jeannie?”
“Kren! Kren, I’m here!”
Like a shot she was off and running, bolting toward the door. Before she got there, Kren appeared, racing at full speed. They met halfway across the floor. Jeannie launched herself at him, her arms flinging about his neck, her hands tangling in his mane.
She covered his striped face in kisses, unable to hold back now that she was with him again. He’d come for her. He’d not abandoned her. He was here, with her, making bizarre laugh-sobbing sounds as he kissed her, over and over.
His strangled words emerged from the translator still on Jeannie’s belt. “I’m so sorry I let them take you. I swore I wouldn’t, but I did. Forgive me, Jeannie. I was afraid I’d lose you.”
“You’ll never lose me.” She meant it with all her heart.
She was aware of other Risnarish men filling the room, some she’d never seen before. One gold-and-white-striped man stared at her and Kren with an incredulous look on his face. Jeannie didn’t care about these strangers. She didn’t care about her fellow Earthlings and what they might think of her fiercely embracing an alien. All that mattered was Kren.
Arga brought them both to reality as he moved close to get their attention. “Jeannie? Who are these...people?”
Jeannie remembered there was an attempted escape in progress. Instead of answering Arga, she asked Kren, “Are we safe?”
Kren shook his head. “Not quite. The Monsuda went down another corridor. I was about to follow them when you answered my call. Once we found you, the main team was going after the hive’s queen.”
“Speaking of which,” Gold-and-White Man said, “We’ll go on with the fighting. Send the Earthlings to their planet, if you can. I’ll leave a few of my men here so they can defend you if the bugs double back.”
With that, he and most of the strangers left. “Cas Village sent them,” Kren told Jeannie. “With their help, I think this hive will be wiped out.”
“Good.” Jeannie looked at Kren, noting blood easing sluggishly from small, shallow holes in his chest and stomach. Arga and many of the other men had similar injuries. “Are you okay?”
Kren thumped his fist against the rock-hard flesh of his chest. “We’ll heal. For now, we have more work to do.”
Emotion choked her to see what Kren and others had done for her. They’d courted death. They’d bled.
Someone behind her cleared their throat. Jeannie rubbed her stinging eyes and reminded herself a lot remained to be done. She could indulge in overwhelming emotion later.
She motioned to the control podium. “Can you guys read the instructions on this thing? We need to get them home, plus a bunch more.”
“More Earthlings?” Nex, as battered as the other men, stepped forward. His gaze was on the portal.
“Lots. They’re frozen in some kind of suspended animation, both Earthling and Risnarish.”
She barely noted that Arga froze stock-still at her words. Her eyes were all for Kren as he looked over the frightened humans clustered around the control panel.
Kren stared at the portal ring. “Is that it? Is that how they brought you here?”
“That’s the portal. The ship thing there—we go inside and then I guess it goes through that metal collar thing.”
It was science-loving Nex who hurried over to the control podium. The Earthlings cringed away from the alien, except for Anneliese. She alone held her ground, staring up at Nex in fascination as he joined her next to the panel.
“We can’t figure out how to work it,” she said to him. “Can you read it?”
Jeannie used her portable translator to relate the question. Nex grinned at the black-haired beauty, his eyes lighting up as he responded and Jeannie’s translator told Anneliese what he said. “These are simple commands, all for the transportation pod. Sterilize. Load. Calibrate. Communicate. Send. Retrieve. The ‘send’ panel has a notation that no one is on board. I guess it won’t move unless it has a passenger.”
Kren frowned. “No addresses? Just send? How do you tell it where to take people?”
Jeannie had a flash of realization. “The tracking implants. I bet those have something to do with it.”
She and Kren exchanged looks. She no longer had hers. If she was right, it would not be such an easy matter to send her to Earth...not that she’d had any intention of going.
Nex took a CPP from his belt and attached it to the podium. He spoke a few commands, got a response, and nodded. “You’re right. The implants aren’t just transmitters letting the Monsuda track people down, but homing beacons as well. All you Earthlings have to do is board the travel pod. The sensors inside will read the signal your implants put out and take you to a preprogrammed site. It can also be operated manually, with the location entered in by voice or key commands.”
The watchful Earthlings took a step away as a group, their fearful gazes moving between the saucer and Nex. One woman asked, “What if it doesn’t work without the drones operating it? I’m not getting on that thing and letting you send me God knows where.”
Anneliese alone di
dn’t shrink. She still stared up at Nex with searching dark-chocolate-brown eyes. “I’ll go,” she offered in a wavering voice.
Nex gazed at her, his expression avid. He held his hand out to her. “I’ll go with you.”
Anneliese stared at the hand, which was sporting only three fingers. Her eyes grew wide, but when she looked up at his face, she smiled and took his hand. “Thank you. I’d appreciate it.”
Jeannie wondered how much of Nex’s eagerness to board the pod was his scientific curiosity and how much was his obvious fascination for Anneliese. Probably fifty-fifty.
Nex showed Kren the buttons he thought should be pushed. Then he and Anneliese boarded the saucer, their hands still linked. As soon as Nex gave the go-ahead, Kren closed the saucer’s hatch. He pressed send.
The portal turned red-tinged golden fire, a mouth to hell. There was a sound so much like the roar of a gale that Jeannie couldn’t believe her hair wasn’t whipping around. Yet only the Risnarish cried out in frightened surprise. The Earthlings had seen it before, and they remembered.
The saucer lifted from the ground and hovered in midair for a moment, then it shot into the portal, disappearing with a crack of thunder.
For several minutes, they waited to see if the experiment succeeded or failed. Jeannie and Kren huddled close together, worrying for Nex and Anneliese until the Risnarish officer’s somewhat breathless voice came out of the control panel.
“Kren, can you hear me?”
A relieved grin passed among the Risnarish. Kren thumbed a purple button. “I got you, Nex. Are you all right?”
“I’m terrific. Never better.”
He went quiet again, and Kren spoke worriedly. “Nex? Are you still there?”
“Sorry! I was—I got distracted. I think we got through to Earth. We’re flying over an alien landscape. I’ve never seen anything like this! But it’s similar to Risnar too, at least what I can observe. It must be night.”
Anneliese’s voice came through. “That’s my house! The ship took us straight here. Can any of you hear me?”
The other Earthlings, their faces lighting with hope, gathered closer as Jeannie confirmed. “We hear you loud and clear on this end, Anneliese.”
“What do you need me to do, Nex?” Kren asked.
“I think I can handle it from my end. There are buttons labeled ‘Release’ and ‘Retrieve’ on the control panel in this thing. I’m going to assume Release will let her out, but we’re hovering several feet in the air. I’m not sure how to land this thing.”
Jeannie spoke up. “We always floated through the air up into and out of the saucer. We were in the middle of the saucer, and that part of the floor was like a platform that did the work.”
Nex didn’t have a translator on his end, so Kren passed along the information.
Nex said, “All right, hold on...right, I’m doing a test run with the platform. You’re correct. That circular section floats down to the ground nice and slow. I’ll press the Retrieve button, then Anneliese can board the platform and go home.”
A few moments later, Anneliese’s voice came through. She was quiet, and Jeannie could barely make out the words. “I know you can’t understand me, but thank you. Thank you so much. Maybe you can come to the rescue again the next time they come for me. Or just drop by and say hello.”
Not a chance, Jeannie thought. She’d come to a decision.
No more abductions from this hive. No more fear. No more questioning what should happen next. As far as Jeannie was concerned, all that was done.
She looked at the rest of those in the chamber with her. Kren concentrated on the control panel. Everyone else fixated on him or the portal, waiting to see what came next.
Nex’s next report came in. He sounded more winded than before, as if he was heaving for breath. “She’s on the ground and waving. I guess that means she’s okay. I’m pushing the Retrieve button to get the platform back.” After a pause, he continued. “Okay, I think this is locked up tight again. I don’t want to experiment too much until I have a chance to explore this thing a little more. I’ll let you bring me home, Kren.”
“Done.” Kren pressed a button. Less than three minutes later, the ship emerged from the golden fire of the portal and settled on the ground. The hatch opened, and Nex stepped out, his face alight with the biggest smile Jeannie had ever seen on anyone.
“That was amazing. Okay, who’s next?”
This time, there was no lack of volunteers. All of Jeannie’s fellow humans called out, their faces joyful at the prospect of getting home, perhaps this time for good.
* * *
Except for Jeannie, the Earthlings were returned to their planet...indeed, right to their doorsteps in each case. Kren was glad Jeannie was in no hurry to leave him. She’d insisted on being present when they attempted to free those caught in suspended animation.
His temporary pleasure in having her safe and at his side for even a few minutes more soured when he entered the room full of suspension pods. His hearts stuttered to see not only his own kind but also people like Jeannie stored away, waiting their turns to be used in unthinkable tests and experiments. When he thought of how close Jeannie had come to joining them, he felt ill. The other Risnarish faces were horrified too. This was so much worse than what they’d imagined the Monsuda to be capable of.
Arga’s cry rang out moments after he raced through the rows, checking the faces displayed in the bubble tops of the pods. Kren could hardly believe Retav, Arga’s long-lost guardian, was there after two years. Nex confirmed the elder was still alive. At the harsh cries of his partner, who clung to the pod with a desperate embrace, Jeannie clutched Kren’s hand. Tears slid down her cheeks at the prelude to their reunion, waiting on Retav to be revived.
More cries of recognition rang out as four other Risnarish of Hahz were discovered among the frozen. Three additional Risnarish were tentatively identified by the warriors from Cas who Jape had assigned to guard Kren’s people.
The largest number of victims by far were the Earthlings. Kren’s grip on Jeannie’s trembling hand tightened. He told her, “If we’d known, I’m sure the Assembly would have done something about this before now. This is against everything that Spirit stands for.”
“It’s awful. Who knows how many people have been kept and died here? Their families and friends never knowing what happened to them? At least these can go home now.”
They were interrupted by the shocking arrival of the Assembly and Hahz’s Elders Council. Elder Notlin led the group in. She gaped in blatant astonishment, as did the rest. Even Yees had a look of naked horror on her face that Kren did not think he’d forget for as long as he lived.
Kren signaled to the men from Cas to close protective ranks around the elders. Thudding his palm against his chest, he cried out, “Elders! We have not yet cleared the hive or captured the queen. You should not be in here. It is too dangerous!”
Notlin spoke to him, though her wide silver eyes never left the abomination of the room. “We needed to examine this for ourselves. We needed to see the labs. This—this—”
She stopped talking and gestured at the pods, at their senseless occupants. Tears streaked down many of the elders’ faces, male and female alike. For a few moments there was only the sound of weeping.
At last Notlin drew herself up. She tore her gaze from the pods to look at the aware Earthling among them. “Jeannie Gardner, what can I say to you? I am sorry. With all of my being, I am sorry and we will see to it that this stops. We will deal with the Monsuda and keep them from the people of Earth. We will find a way.”
Jeannie’s eyes swam with tears too. “I believe you. Please know I don’t think that you are to blame.”
Yees sniffled. “Elder Notlin, these people must be recovered and sent home at once. I will call for our scientists to take care of the matter.”
Nex joined the
m. He’d gone to yet another computer podium in the far corner of the room, the one member of the team who hadn’t let sentiment rob him of his need to do something rather than grieve. “I don’t think a full complement of scientists will be required. From what I can tell, we need only remove the victims from the pods and they will be all right. However, it will take hours before they return to consciousness.”
Mekay spoke up. “They don’t have hours. Other villages report that the hives near them have gone active. Thousands of drones are on the march, heading in this direction. They are using short-distance portals to move quickly. The first wave will be here within the hour.”
Kren’s stomachs twisted. “Then this is a united effort by the Monsuda to secure Earthlings for their experiments. And for colonization. They’ve been in communication all along.”
Yees’s expression was grim. “So it would seem.”
“We can remove these people from the pods and send them home before they regain consciousness,” Nex suggested. “They won’t have any idea of our involvement or how they got home though.”
“That may be for the best, especially if they don’t remember what happened to them here. Few on Earth will believe them anyway,” Jeannie said.
Kren asked, “How many are there?”
Nex calculated. “Forty-three Earthlings. The rest are animals or our people.”
Notlin looked to Kren. “It’s all we can do at this point. The other villages are sending their warriors after the coming drones to delay, but not engage. We will fight the Monsuda soon, but we need more time to prepare.”
There was little time to waste. “Men, let’s start taking the Earthlings out and getting them to the portal. After that, we’ll evacuate our own to Hahz’s temple.” He had a sudden inspiration. “Bort, you and Chal see if we can’t erect a barrier around the hive to keep the coming drones out. If we secure this place, the scientists can evaluate everything.”
Notlin nodded approvingly, as did the rest of the elders. “Excellent idea, Kren.”
“We don’t have much time, so let’s hurry.”
Not of This World Page 26
