Free Trader Box Set - Books 4-6: Battle for the Amazon, Free the North!, Free Trader on the High Seas

by Craig Martelle

  When Bounder entered the laboratory, he saw the Hawkoid working with Micah. She was starting to come to. Her head lolled on her neck as she tried to regain control of her senses. Her arms flopped uselessly at her sides. Bounder was unable to use his thought voice in the laboratory. He was sure that there was a piece of Old Tech that needed to be turned off, but he had no idea what to look for. The easy answer was to leave the room.

  Pik Ha’ar, using his trident to keep himself upright, staggered into the laboratory. He looked around until he saw the Tortoid. Pik stumbled past Micah, Bounder, and Skirill to get to Aadi. Pik checked his shell, then his body. There was a faint smell of something burnt, but beyond that, Aadi seemed unharmed. Still, he was on the floor, his head and legs limp.

  Bounder went to the table where Fea lay, partially shaved and injured. He returned to Micah and removed a small amount of numbweed from her pouch. He returned to the ‘cat and applied it, letting it settle, stopping the bleeding and taking away the pain from the small wound in the middle of her shaved stomach.

  She jerked once, twice, and then lifted her head. She blinked at Bounder, who stroked her head gently.

  ‘What happened?’ she asked, much to Bounder’s surprise. He stopped petting her and tried to respond, but the mindlink was gone. She looked at his half-hand/half-paw and nodded. He started petting her again.

  ‘What happened?’ she asked again, stronger this time.

  ‘I don’t know. The Professor had you, but he was stopped. It looks like Aadi finished him.’ The ‘cat shakily lifted her head, trying to see around her. The Professor was in the middle of the lab, unmoving. It finally dawned on Bounder to check him.

  The Professor was dead.

  Fea was trying to roll over so she could stand up. As soon as Bounder put his hands on her, she asked him the hard question. ‘Ax?’

  ‘We haven’t found them yet. Micah is just coming to. Pik is hurt, Strider is down, the Rabbits are down, Aadi is out cold. He hurt us, Fea, but we’ll keep looking until we’ve searched this whole place.’

  Two shaky Rabbits stumbled through the door and looked at Bounder, their noses were twitching and their normally upright ears had flopped down the sides of their faces. They carried the young, orange ‘cat. Bounder went to them, hugging both of the Rabbits and nuzzling their soft white necks.

  Treetis was still out from the Security Bot’s weapon, but he was alive. The Rabbits put him on the floor next to Aadi.

  While Bounder touched the Rabbits, he talked. ‘I thought you were dead,’ he said in surprise. ‘I’m so happy that you are alive!’ He hugged them one last time and went back into the corridor.

  Strider was still on her stomach, laying on the cool floor. Her eyes looked clear, but her ears suggested she was in pain. He nuzzled her again and looked for another flask of water. Not finding one, he went into the laboratory and asked Pik for his. He readily gave it to the Wolfoid. Bounder’s appreciation was beyond words.

  With the second flask, she started to feel strong enough to stand. Once upright, Bounder looked her over thoroughly. Since she was already flat against the wall, that probably saved her from real injury. He expected she’d have a bruise that covered her whole body. She walked, stiffly, then went to all fours where she seemed to be more comfortable. Bounder carried her lightning spear as well as his own.

  They entered the laboratory, where Micah was standing, Fea was standing, albeit shaky and weak. Aadi was finally lifting his head. Micah tried to walk and nearly fell, then she kneeled next to Aadi and cradled his head in her hands.

  “Aadi, my friend, how are you?” she asked gently.

  ‘I’ve never felt anything like that before,’ he said roughly, his thought voice fuzzy.

  “I have to ask, how are your eggs, Master Aadi?”

  ‘I am afraid, Master Micah, for my children. I don’t have my senses back, yet, but soon, I hope, and then we’ll know.’

  Pik lifted Fea off the counter and put her on the floor. She staggered a few steps before gaining more control over her muscles. She made it to the corridor before she stopped and leaned against the door.

  ‘Are you coming?’ she asked Bounder once clear of the field that prevented them from using the mindlink when they weren’t in physical contact.

  ‘Where?’ Bounder asked.

  ‘To find our mates, that’s where,’ Fea replied. She took a deep breath and staggered down the corridor, past the exploded Development Unit and toward a different part of the underground complex.

  The Old Professor

  Micah stumbled into the corridor, with Pik close behind carrying Skirill in his arms. Ferrer stayed with Aadi while Brigitte joined Strider, just sitting with her, keeping her company.

  Bounder took the lead as he was the only one even remotely healthy. The others shuffled and stumbled behind him. He put his nose to the ground and sniffed his way ahead. There were a number of strange smells, but in the background he found what he was looking for: Braden. He followed the scent, feeling odd as he’d never trailed the human before.

  But it confirmed that Braden had been in the laboratory. He couldn’t smell G-War, but that could have been because someone carried the ‘cat through the corridor. First Braden, then they’d continue searching until they found the ‘cat.

  The underground complex was huge. There was even a small factory with Maintenance and Server Bots producing mysterious parts and pieces. They found another huge laboratory with large clear tanks filled with fluids of some sort. Half-grown creatures were in most of them. Micah was repulsed by the sight and wanted to shoot the tanks with her blasters, but she didn’t want to get splashed with any of it. Without the Professor, she hoped that the creatures would never see the light of day.

  She closed the door as they left the large lab, a look of disgust on her face. Bounder made a final turn into a corridor similar to the first one they used where half the lights were off. Maybe that was a conservation measure and not a reflection of poor maintenance.

  Micah had kept her blaster ready throughout the entire excursion through the complex and she was wearing down. Whatever beam the Security Bot had used on her had sucked the life out of her. She felt exhausted, enough so that even the smooth stone floor looked like a welcoming bed.

  Bounder stopped at one door and nodded. Braden’s fresh scent wafted under the door, along with G-War’s ‘cat smell. Fea yowled as she could smell her mate.

  G-War’s long cry came from the other side of the door.

  “No!” Braden shouted as Bounder opened the door and Micah looked inside. She ran straight to him and reached through the bars, but he only hung his head.

  “What’s wrong?” Micah asked, looking confused.

  “There’s nothing wrong,” a voice said from the corner. The old Professor stepped out and leveled a strange looking weapon at them.

  Micah’s blood surged, her head throbbed, and she fell to her knees, spent. She couldn’t even lift her arm to fire one blaster shot. It was nothing the Professor did, but the complete failure that she felt. Bounder leapt toward the Professor but was caught by a crackling charge from the Professor’s weapon. The old man grunted as the Wolfoid’s heavy body slammed into him.

  Pik dropped the Hawkoid and rushed into the room.

  The Professor had turned, just enough to avoid the Wolfoid’s full impact, but he was thrown into the wall. Without waiting, he fired at the Lizard Man, who sparked magnificently. The water in his skin suit magnified the light show from the weapon’s discharge. Skirill remained in the corridor, out of sight. Fea stood next to her human, then sat, exhausted from the events of the day.

  They found that the mindlink was dampened in the cell area, too. But Braden and Micah were holding hands.

  ‘Good to see you, lover,’ Micah said without taking her eyes from the old Professor. ‘It looks like there were two of them, a mistake that seems to have cost us.’

  ‘Don’t count us out, yet. Where’s the other one?’ Braden replied.

&
nbsp; ‘He and the Security Bot are both dead, thanks to Aadi and Bounder. They hurt us, but nothing that time won’t heal,’ Micah said, looking at her partner through sad eyes. Braden nodded. Fea rubbed against the bars. Braden scratched behind her ears.

  ‘Tell my mate that I will kill the foul creature, as soon as I have enough energy. Find out where Caleb is, so we can finish this,’ Fea told Braden. He looked into her eyes and nodded almost imperceptibly.

  “Don’t you look all straggly, just like G-War,” Braden said casually. “So, Professor. You never answered my question. Where are the people from White Beach?”

  “Why, they’re in Atlantis, a quaint name we gave the undersea laboratory that has become an undersea city! It really is quite magnificent down there.”

  “Will we get a chance to see it, see for ourselves how magnificent it is?” Braden prodded.

  “Maybe.” The Professor committed to nothing.

  “How can you get there? We didn’t see any kind of ship or place to dock a mini-sub. Do you have the mini-submarines from the Warden? Can you talk with the vehicles from down there, summon them?”

  “Oh my!” the Professor exclaimed. “Do you really think you can escape? I’m afraid that your time is up. Let me crush your final hopes. I am going to take your DNA, rip it from you and all your mutant friends, and then I’m going to build a new civilization, new creatures that will respond to my commands and my commands only. The human livestock in New Sanctuary is the base material and with your new genes, they will become invincible. We will return to the continent and rebuild Sanctuary as I see fit. I have Security Bots, I have Gloria. And you? You have no chance at all.”

  Braden hung his head, nodding solemnly. He looked up. Fea’s eyes showed anger, her ears flat against her head as she worked her way between Micah and Braden. Micah and Fea were talking, but Braden couldn’t hear. The Professor had moved closer to deliver his diatribe. An angry sneer split his face, his eyes maniacal as he shook his weapon at them.

  “Good-bye now,” he said in a low and dangerous voice. A commotion from the corridor made him turn. Skirill beat his wings against the doorway as he powered through, flying toward the Professor’s face, talons first. The old man couldn’t raise his weapon in time, but he turned slightly. Skirill crashed against his shoulder as Micah twisted, throwing the ‘cat upward in one smooth motion.

  The Professor pulled the trigger on his weapon, sending a stream of electricity into Micah, the metal bars, and Braden. They both jerked convulsively, but they didn’t pass out. The power was spread too thinly between the two humans and the cage.

  Fea landed on the man’s arm and using her claws prodigiously, she climbed toward his face. Skirill continued to beat his wings, to maintain his purchase on the man’s other arm. The Professor screamed as the two companions continued their relentless attacks. The Professor stumbled in his futile attempts to fight off his attackers. Both Pik and Bounder were on the floor, close to his feet. The man had no room to maneuver, no place to run.

  Braden and Micah collapsed, but they weren’t out of it. Braden yelled as he tried to pull himself upright. All he could think about was getting a handful of the Professor and smashing the man’s smug face against the bars.

  Fea managed to get a claw into the old man’s neck, and with an acrobatic spin, twisted her body around his head, tearing deeply into the Professor’s throat as she flew to the floor. The old man fell to his knees. Skirill was thrown to the side as the man went down. Fea jumped onto his back, reaching around his neck as blood spurted from the already open artery. But she was angry and raked her way almost completely through his neck.

  Micah fought against the effects of the Old Tech weapon, but she was spent, the second time her body was assaulted by the energy weapons that day. She had nothing left to fight with, and now, she was covered in the Professor’s blood, too.

  The old man dropped the rest of the way, dead before he hit the floor. Fea rode him down, standing on his back as he splattered his face on the hard stone. Skirill picked at a couple feathers that had been dislodged during his struggle. He looked at the corpse for a heartbeat or two, then hopped over the bodies strewn across the floor to rub his head on Micah’s hand. He didn’t even say anything. All he wanted was for her to be okay.

  Fea sat and held her bloody paws in front of her, disgusted by the thought of licking the Professor’s blood. She tried wiping her paws on the clothes of the old man, but that didn’t work very well. The quandary continued as she sat on his corpse, thinking what to do, while she waited for someone to free her mate.

  Braden stood at the bars. During his time alone in the cell, he figured out that the gate was controlled by an Old Tech panel next to the door. Someone needed to prop the old man up and put his hand on the pad. G-War’s cage was locked with a physical device, requiring a key that Braden assumed was somewhere on the old man. Whatever prevented them from using the mindlink in the cell was still active, so G-War couldn’t talk with his mate.

  Braden sat down next to the cage and put his fingers between the bars. G-War laid against Braden’s fingers.

  ‘Now we wait, but things are looking better than they were before.’ G-War sounded hopeful.

  “Now we wait. I have no idea how long they’ll be out and there’s nothing we can do until they wake up on their own. Skirill! You and Fea saved us all,” Braden said in a tired voice, before closing his eyes and giving in to sleep.

  Recovering

  Pik was the first to stir. He twitched and his eyes popped open, but he didn’t move. He stayed that way for a long time. Micah was out, having succumbed to the exhaustion from her efforts and being on the wrong end of Old Tech. She was emotionally and physically drained. Skirill had waited, but finally hopped into the corridor and took wing. They expected he was going to find the others, let them know that they found Braden and G-War, but he returned after only a few heartbeats. The door to the cell area was closed and he couldn’t open it.

  So they continued to wait. Braden slept, awkwardly, but with G-War as a comforting presence in his mind. Fea curled up next to Micah, both of them covered in the Professor’s blood, but that didn’t matter. Bounder’s tongue hung from his mouth as he remained unconscious from receiving the full measure of the Professor’s weapon. Skirill stood in the doorway and watched over his friends., unable to do more.

  When the door at the end of the corridor opened, Skirill let out a screech sufficient to wake the dead. Braden jumped, as did G-War, but the ‘cat only bounced off the top of the cage. Fea was up, hackles raised and back arched. Micah stirred. Pik sat up and looked around as if seeing the room for the first time.

  Skirill hopped into the corridor and disappeared. When he returned, Treetis was with him, who bolted into the room as soon as he saw the carnage. He ran to Fea’s side, joining her with hackles raised and ready to fight.

  “Would you get off me?” Micah mumbled. Fea reached out a paw and with a movement faster than the eye could follow, she slapped Treetis across the head. He jumped to the floor, then danced around to get out of the sticky, half-dried blood.

  Strider slowly entered the room, every step deliberate as she pulled Aadi behind her. The Rabbits were last, their laser pistols held loosely in their hands. Their noses twitched and their ears perked upright, until they saw the mess inside. Strider nuzzled her mate, and he finally lifted his head, smacking his Wolfoid lips as he tried to moisten his dry tongue.

  Micah pulled herself upward until she was standing. “What next?” she asked.

  “Put the Professor’s hand on that panel,” Braden pointed. What she should have been able to easily do by herself now required help. Micah enlisted Pik and Strider’s aid to muscle the man upward and slap his hand against the panel. Green and red buttons flashed. She pushed the green one. After a heartbeat, the lock disengaged and the gate to Braden’s cell opened.

  Braden rushed out, helping the others to put the old Professor down so he could search the man for a key, which turned out
to be in his pants pocket. Once G-War was free and the extensive nuzzling between he and Fea was done, they gathered the bunch for their trip out of the underground complex. Braden asked Micah to remove the bandage over his eye.

  He expected to see her wince and gasp. His eye blinked of its own accord, then started watering. She looked carefully, then shrugged.

  “I don’t see anything,” she said. Braden sighed in relief.

  “I want my blasters back,” Braden told Micah as they walked, arm in arm, not as lovers, but as two wounded warriors carrying each other from the field of battle.

  “The Security Bot protected his lab, so I expect they’ll be there and that just so happens to be on our way.” She brightened, although her words were still slurred, just enough so Braden knew that she was exhausted.

  The others shuffled and staggered behind the two humans. Fea and G-War walked in front of them all. G-War was the only one fully recovered and as such, felt responsible to protect the rest. Treetis said that he was ready to fight, but Fea was still angry with him, so he brought up the rear.

  Pik shuffled along, carrying Skirill and pulling Aadi behind him. Aadi looked all of his two hundred cycles. His head drooped and his legs hung limply, but at least he was floating again.

  The Rabbits kept their laser pistols out and ready. The others had been surprised by the second Professor, and they didn’t want to let that happen again. The Wolfoids walked with their spears, but were using them as walking sticks. Bounder continued to improve with each step, but Strider needed to rest and she faded the farther they walked. He wished he could carry her, but Wolfoids weren’t built that way. No one else had enough strength to carry her either. He whimpered like a puppy, unable to contain his angst for his mate’s pain.

  Micah didn’t have the energy to show Braden the other parts of the underground complex. She only wanted to leave.

  So they made a beeline for the Professor’s lab. Micah tried to access her neural implant, but there was no connection. She could pull it up to look at other data she’d stored, like maps of the areas they’d traveled. Her implant was intact, at least, just not connected. The Professor had not gotten to it before he was removed from existence by an angry Tortoid. Micah looked back at Aadi floating behind Pik and nodded to him, unsure if he saw or not.