To Clan and Conquer (Clan Beginnings)

by Tracy St. John

  “Acknowledged. On our way.”

  Tranis drew a breath. “If there is energy, there’s hope.”

  Degorsk muttered, “I’ll take it.” Louder, he told his following staff, “Medics, stick close. We’re going in.”

  Lidon could see the dark maw of the hole in the landscape where a couple of Nobeks waited to escort them into the shaft. He said, “Watch your step, everyone. These are active mines and footing will probably be dangerous.”

  Tranis started walking a little faster, moving ahead of Lidon. The weapons commander put his hand on his shoulder, tugging him back. Tranis jerked his head around to stare.

  Lidon offered him a tight smile. “Commander, if I may?”

  Tranis blinked and slowed, letting Lidon take the lead with obvious reluctance. “Of course. My apologies, Weapons Commander.”

  “Not necessary.” Lidon led the first officer and the rest of the group, as was demanded for security reasons.

  He had no doubt Tranis was able to take care of himself, even defend himself against any possible hazards around them. However, Lidon was in charge of security for this mission, so he was required to place himself in danger ahead of his commanding officer. It was a matter of protocol and pride.

  And if Tranis didn’t like it? Well, he’d just have to get over hanging behind a slower, lame Nobek.

  They headed into the pitch-black mine shaft, their handlights only thin beams in the oppressive darkness. Sounding put out, Degorsk asked, “If there’s still power, why aren’t the lights working?”

  Lidon had never heard the Imdiko sound so peevish. Something was really bothering him. Knowing the doctor’s background from having researched him, Lidon had a good idea what that something might be. It must have been terrible to watch would-be clanmates killed right in front of him amid the carnage of a major battle.

  Keeping his tone mild, Lidon said, “The power readings are coming from further ahead.”

  A few moments later, a wall of stones leapt into view. Several members of the recon team clustered at the foot of the cave-in. Two more, including Arin, had climbed up the sloping debris, looking into a small hole up high. Dim illumination spilled from the opening.

  Arin called down to them. “We’ve got survivors behind this, Commander. Forty-six people managed to get far enough inside to escape being killed, but many of them are injured badly.”

  Lidon ignored the sick feeling in his gut. He told Tranis and Degorsk, “There were over five hundred miners here.”

  Degorsk’s lips curled. “Fuck. Can we get through?” he yelled to Arin.

  The Nobek scrambled down to the shaft floor with an ease that disgusted Lidon. “We can just squirm in, I think. We’ll need something to blast this mess loose to get the casualties out though.”

  Lidon looked at the loose footholds of the cave-in. No way his braced leg could handle the climb. He inwardly cursed his crippledness while coolly issuing orders. “I’ll work on getting some explosives to knock this down. Meanwhile, I suggest the commander takes his team in to treat the injured.”

  Tranis nodded. “Agreed.” He huddled with Degorsk to discuss how the medical team would continue on. Without Lidon.

  The weapons commander firmly set aside his anger that he couldn’t do his job. He told Arin, “You’re in charge of security on the other side of this.”

  “Yes, Commander.” The young lieutenant looked pleased. He’d been putting in for harder work and more responsibility. Lidon liked him much more than his immediate second.

  Still, the kid needed to know how much responsibility he was shouldering. Lidon leaned close so only Arin could hear him, letting his fangs descend in clear warning. “Let nothing happen to the first officer or the medical team. Not one scratch, Lieutenant.”

  The near smile disappeared from Arin’s face. His back stiffened and his shoulders went back. He jerked a firm nod, all business. “Yes, Weapons Commander.”

  Lidon stepped back, and Arin took point, ascending the blockage once more and shoving his body through the hole at the top. Tranis followed, climbing the wall with agility. Another couple of Nobeks went up, then a very pale but stoic Degorsk.

  The Imdiko paused to crack a weak joke at Lidon. “You could always ride up on my back.”

  If the statement suggesting Lidon’s weakness had come from anyone else, the Nobek would have beaten the man senseless. But it came from Degorsk, and there was definite panic in the doctor’s eyes.

  Lidon gave him an evil grin. “I’ll ride your back, all right.”

  “Tease,” the Imdiko shot back.

  He looked up at the hole overhead, swallowed, and started his climb. Lidon reached up and tweaked his backside. His grin got larger at Degorsk’s gasp and the startled look he shot Lidon. At least it got some of that fear out of his expression.

  Lidon quoted, “‘The journey to a warm hearth is worth the all-night ride though it last until daybreak.’”

  Degorsk scowled. “That passage has nothing to do with … that.”

  Lidon lifted a brow. “Of course when your mount carries the warm hearth with him—”

  A couple of the medics waiting to climb snickered. Degorsk shot them a vicious look that shut down the merriment instantly. Lidon was impressed.

  Degorsk got up to the hole and glared at Lidon. “I suggest you study the Book of Life a little more closely so you don’t take its wisdom out of context.”

  Lidon only continued to smile. With a huff, Degorsk wriggled through the opening, his ass presenting a very nice show until it disappeared. The conversation was over.

  For now. Lidon had every intention of re-opening the subject of riding Degorsk’s back at his earliest convenience. Damned if he’d let Tranis have all the fun.

  * * * *

  Degorsk carefully climbed down the cave-in. Tranis stood nearby, looking ready to leap and catch him if he fell. Degorsk scowled. He was perfectly able to take care of himself. After Lidon’s humiliating grab and teasing, he wasn’t about to fall and let Tranis add to his embarrassment.

  Still, it made something inside warm to think about the Nobek’s obvious flirtation. And it helped distract him from what lay ahead.

  I can do this. It’s not hundreds of injured, dying men. It’s just a few dozen, and I can save them.

  The groans in the distance and the sight of bloodied miners waiting for his team still brought back the memories, though. The bodies of those who hadn’t made it were stacked against one wall. Maybe a hundred, he thought. The rest must have been vaporized outside. The sounds of agony seemed to double, and he had a vision of the stony, damp ground covered with body parts. The dripping of moisture from the cavern’s ceiling made him think of splashes of blood splattered on the walls, slowly plopping rain on those below.

  Degorsk pulled his shoulders back and made himself stop seeing the past. He stepped up to the miners standing there, waiting for rescue. “I’m the chief medic.”

  A thick-bodied man in the middle of a group of about half a dozen nodded towards a ledge further back in the shaft. The dim emergency lights showed prone bodies lying there.

  Bloody, writhing bodies … layers of men and body parts…

  “The worst of the injured are on that raised area, Doctor,” the miner said, drawing him back to the here and now. “We got them off of the wet floor as best we could.”

  Degorsk turned to look over his staff. They’d all arrived and waited for his instructions. “We’re going straight to the men he’s pointed out.” He pointed at two of his men. “You two do a survey of all the injured, figure out who needs the most immediate care and assign accordingly.”

  “Yes, Dr. Degorsk.” They rushed off.

  He looked to Tranis next. “The moment that wall comes down, get my stretchers in here. We need immediate evac of the injured.”

  The Dramok nodded. “It will be done.”

  Degorsk joined his team, now swarming over the thick ledge. Perhaps two dozen of the surviving miners lay here, caught and ba
ttered by the cave-in. Bones were crushed. Blood was everywhere. There was an instant of slipstream, where Degorsk saw many more men, some with familiar faces that had branded themselves into his nightmares. It was as if the past and present had come together to exist in this dark, echoing space.

  Damn it, I’m a doctor. I’ve got a job to do, so do it!

  He narrowed his focus to the first body in front of him. From there, he knew nothing beyond his duty. He comforted the conscious, executed emergency efforts to stem bleeding and immobilize broken bodies, performed an emergency tracheotomy when one man experienced an allergic reaction to medication, and answered his team’s questions.

  He was dimly aware of time passing. Bits and pieces of conversation drifted to him, words to be filed away and thought about later.

  “…some kind of battle drone, a configuration we’ve never seen before … hit us during the night when we were topside and asleep … only a few of us got down here … cave-in from the hits … people still running in when it collapsed … a lot died in the first few hours … mine shaft was played out … had just removed the earth moving machines … couldn’t remove the cave-in to get out…”

  The work he did was mostly lit by the strong but thin streams of the handlights and weak emergency illumination. Degorsk felt he’d been in the dim confines forever when a hand closed on his shoulder. He looked up from the unconscious man he’d just placed in a temporary stasis field to see Tranis leaning over him.

  The Dramok said, “The blockage has been cleared. Your stretchers are coming in. Are you okay?”

  The concern with which Tranis looked at him brought Degorsk’s surroundings flooding back. Hover stretchers were indeed floating in, and his team was loading them up with the injured at a frenzied pace.

  “I’m fine. Is there a problem, Commander?”

  Tranis gave him a strange look.

  Degorsk climbed to his feet. “With my performance, I mean.”

  “Not at all. You’ve worked like a demon, Imdiko. I have every intention of suggesting Captain Piras give you a commendation.” Tranis still looked worried, but there was also admiration in his tone.

  Degorsk swallowed. A commendation? He thought at least two men had died since they’d arrived. He still had so much to do, but for some of the men it was damned little. Whether they survived or not would be up to their own strength more than any paltry skills he offered.

  He managed some gratitude for Tranis’ approval. “Thank you, Commander.”

  On the heels of that, he noticed a man who had only suffered a broken leg being stretchered ahead of some of the more badly hurt. Including the critical case he’d just placed in stasis. Anger heated his mood.

  “Standard loading procedure for the stretchers, damn it! You know the routine. And make sure the worst injured are placed in the shuttle last so we can take them off first. I want those who need to be in surgery in the operating rooms immediately when we reach the ship. Any delay is not acceptable! Prep as much as you can en route, and no fucking up.”

  Degorsk was running all over the place now, putting things in order, berating poor practice where he saw it. Lives were at stake. He had no patience for sloppiness, and he harangued his staff without mercy.

  As he jogged along with the worst cases now finally leaving the mine, he found Lidon inside the cleared cave-in. The Nobek watched closely as everyone crossed the rubble-strewn minefield of tumbled rock.

  “Careful, medics. You’re walking on a lot of loose debris.” He eyed Degorsk sharply as the Imdiko approached. “Are you all right, Dr. Degorsk?”

  Degorsk’s temper was foul. He felt like he was in charge of first-year medical students instead of certified doctors. Now Lidon was questioning him on top of everything else. “Why the hell does everyone keep asking me that?” he stormed as he drew abreast of the Nobek.

  Lidon raised an eyebrow. “Though your work here has been exemplary, I’ve noted you curse a lot when you’re stressed. You have quite a vocabulary when it comes to profanity.”

  Degorsk’s lip curled in a snarl. “I’m fine.”

  Lidon gave him a slight nod, but that piercing stare never wavered. “Good.” He said nothing else.

  Degorsk kept moving, glad to get away from the oppressive mine and its horrors, imagined and real. He continued to mutter foul words under his breath, mostly to do with a certain nosey Nobek.

  * * * *

  It was hours later when Degorsk was finally able to go to his quarters and shower. Afterward, he sat on the edge of his sleeping mat wearing only a tan bathwrap fastened about his hips. The soft, absorbent cloth ended at mid-thigh.

  He stared at his hands, lying palms up on his lap. They were slightly reddened from being scrubbed clean and dipped in antiseptic multiple times throughout the long hours of patching together the injured. They hadn’t let him down today, at least not once the injured had been brought on board the destroyer. All those still breathing when they’d reached his department remained among the living. He thought they might all pull through. It had been a good day.

  Yet on the fringes of his consciousness were the long dead. Men, vital and powerful one moment, dead or dying the next. Degorsk knew if he dimmed the lights and got beneath the sheets of his bed, the deceased would come from the edges and stand before him in his nightmares.

  Not in accusation. They would come simply to remind Degorsk of his helplessness in the face of destruction. He’d done his best by them, of that the Imdiko knew too well. The trouble was, his best was never going to be good enough. No matter how great his skills, men would always die. And he would be forced to watch their eyes glaze over, to hear their final breaths rattle from their lungs.

  He was so tired. But he feared sleep.

  The visitor announce at his door buzzed. It startled Degorsk so much that he shot to his feet. For a moment he thought the dead had come for a visit, too impatient to wait for him to fall asleep. He barked weary laughter. By the ancestors, he was a wreck.

  He couldn’t imagine who wanted to see him. He certainly didn’t want to see anyone. “I’m getting ready for sleep. Go away,” he told whoever was on the other side of his door.

  There was no spoken answer. Good. Everyone could leave him the hell alone.

  His lock release beeped, and the door slid open. Degorsk stared in utter shock as Lidon walked in and the door shut behind him.

  The son of a bitch had used his security pass to force the lock.

  Lidon took a long look at him, his eyes darkening at Degorsk’s near nudity. His tone, in contrast, was polite. “Good evening, Doctor.”

  “Please, come in. After all, ‘go away’ is Nobek for ‘welcome’, right?” Degorsk’s voice dripped angry sarcasm, but his stomach curled in sudden fright. Lidon had tried every civilized trick in the book to get him alone over the three years Degorsk had been on board the destroyer, methods the Imdiko had managed to circumvent in a myriad of ways. He wouldn’t have minded a one-night stand with the admittedly sexy Nobek, but Lidon had made it clear he wasn’t looking to scratch a temporary itch.

  Lidon had apparently decided to play dirty tonight. Looking at the muscled, determined man only inches away from him, Degorsk’s head swam with a confusing mixture of want and terror. This was bad.

  Lidon smiled, the warmth of the expression in no way canceling the predatory glint in his eyes. “Are you feeling better now that everyone is patched up?”

  Degorsk had two ways of dealing with fear: joking and anger. He had no sense of humor right now. He snarled, “Everyone was not patched up, damn it. Four are still critical. And who the fuck knows what we’ll find at the other colonies and defense stations?”

  “That’s not under your control. You did well today. You’ll do well with whatever we find.” Lidon’s voice was quiet, almost soothing.

  Degorsk snorted. “Will I?”

  “You will do your best. As you did in the Battle of Delfy.”

  Damn Lidon and all his ancestors. Of course the resourcef
ul Nobek would know about that.

  Degorsk didn’t bother to mask the pain in his voice. “If you’re aware I was in that slice of hell, then you know I lost my intended Dramok and Nobek there.”

  Lidon nodded slowly. Fortunately, his features remained still, not moving into pity. “You watched them die when the Tragooms ambushed your battalion. And yet you singlehandedly managed to save twelve other men’s lives. You were decorated for that.”

  Degorsk’s lips twisted into a nasty smile. “You know what I did with that meritorious bar, Lidon? After the award ceremony, I tore it off my uniform. Then I burned my uniform. I melted the bar down and sold the metal for scrap. The vid plaque that came with it? I deleted it and then I smashed the piece of shit. It meant nothing when I couldn’t save the two men I was supposed to clan with. When hundreds more dropped before my eyes. Twelve men saved? A mere dozen? What kind of heroism is that?”

  Lidon didn’t react to his rant. Instead he said, “Today brought that back. I saw it in your eyes. Have you vented any of that pain yet?”

  Degorsk folded his arms over his chest and scowled. “Does it matter?”

  “It does for an Imdiko. Your breed feels too much to keep it bottled in.”

  Degorsk watched him carefully. What the hell was Lidon thinking? Something was up, but the Imdiko couldn’t figure out what.

  To hide his discomfort, he commented drily, “Thanks. I’ll bring it up with my shrink. Or a big bottle of kloq. They’re one and the same.”

  “No need.”

  Lidon grabbed him. Degorsk was in the air before he could gasp, and then crashing down on the mat. The Nobek was straddling him an instant later, sitting on his abdomen as he grabbed first one of Degorsk’s wrists, then the other.

  Degorsk was too startled to move. “Hey! What the hell are you doing?”

  Lidon spun around, his bad leg apparently no barrier to doing so. He grabbed each of Degorsk’s ankles in turn. “I’m cuffing you.”

  He got off Degorsk to stand next to the sleeping mat. Degorsk slowly raised his arms and stared at his wrists. Thick hovercuffs circled them. He sat up and saw his ankles were also bound. He looked up at Lidon, speechless.