Hunting Cari (First Wave)

by Mikayla Lane

  As the area lit up, he could see the body of a large man in the middle of the floor. Amun immediately ran to the prone figure on the floor and began checking his body’s vital signs for life. The room itself looked like a battle had been waged in it. What appeared to have been furniture was broken throughout the room.

  “Commander, there is no one else here. All other rooms have been cleared. It looks like someone tore the place apart, not long before we got here. I found the beacon sir. It was in what must be a bedroom, hidden in a small wooden box.” Niklosi reported, handing the ancient looking beacon to Scaden.

  What was going on? Scaden wondered taking in the scene of the wrecked building and the beacon Niklosi handed him. The beacon was crudely made from pieces of metal and materials that Scaden was not familiar with. How could someone have randomly made this and ended up sending an ancient signal? And what was that smell in here? It was unlike anything he’d ever scented before. It was beautiful… and seductive. His cock began to twitch as he took another breath to inhale the aroma more deeply into his lungs. What is that? His thoughts were interrupted by Amun.

  “Scaden, he’s barely alive. We have to get him to the transport immediately, or he may not make it. The cell scan shows him to be Randor Macner, son and sole heir of Council member Duncar Macner and last reported presumed dead on the outpost.” Amun said with awe evident in his voice.

  Scaden looked just as shocked as the rest of his team. They had survivors. The implications of this were astounding. How many more of their people were lost on this world, just waiting to be found and rescued? He needed answers. “Port him to the transport now. Do everything you can to bring him around. We need answers Amun. If he survived, there could be a lot of others that survived as well.” He ordered, watching as Amun used the tiny red stone on his med belt to port himself and his patient to the transport ship.

  “Sir, we scouted the perimeter of the building. It looks like a wheeled vehicle of some sort, stopped down the road a good distance from here, and approximately twelve people traveled through the vegetation and surrounded this place in much the same way that we did. From the looks of the back of the building, they set off some form of explosive device and entered. From what we can tell, they took something heavy out of here and put it in the vehicle when they left. And the cell scans indicate they were Relian, by the residue they left behind.” Balduen stated with a snarl.

  “That goes with what we’ve found as well Sir. There are two sleeping chambers in this building. One was obviously used by Randor Macner, since clothes in his size are in there and the cell scans indicate his scent and cell signature all over the room. The other was being used by a female. But this is confusing; the cell scans indicate she is also Valendran. But there were no females on the Outpost Sir. And there are no cell signature matches for her in our scanners. Who can she be? How did she get here? And how did she find Randor?” Niklosi asked to anyone in general, knowing they didn’t have the answers either.

  Scaden ran his hand through his hair; while he walked around what he realized was obviously a housing unit. Niklosi had posed valid questions, one's he needed answers for… and soon. The only person who may have those answers was being treated at the transport craft. He followed the tantalizing scent, to what appeared to be a sleeping chamber.

  He looked at what was obviously a bed and saw something light and delicate laying on it. Picking it up, he realized the smell was so much stronger on the silky fabric and in this room in general. It must be the female that he smells. “Sir, this is the female’s sleeping chamber.” Balduen stated looking at Scaden quizzically.

  Scaden realized that he was holding the light fabric up to his nose and smelling it deeply. Damn what was wrong with him? Why the hell was the smell of this female driving him crazy?

  “I want Niklosi and his team to stay here and monitor the area in case the female ran off during the attack and returns when she feels it is safe. The rest of the team is to port back to the transport craft. Get me trajectory scans of the vehicle that brought the Relians to this place, so we can follow the trail if we need to. I want to be able to hunt them down and find out if they are holding any other survivor's captive, when we have more information. Especially if what they carried out of here was the female.” Scaden waited until they acknowledged his orders and left the room before slipping the fabric into the pocket of his Tact Team pants. He then used his port stone to get back to the transport.

  He walked quickly into the small MedLab unit on the transport, questioning Amun the moment he entered. “What is the extent of his injuries, Amun?” He asked looking over the naked man lying bloody and prone on the bed. Covered in small holes and bruises, it was obvious the man had been badly injured. From the looks of him and the room in the housing unit, he also put up quite a fight.

  “He’s in bad shape Commander. If we hadn’t found him when we did, he would have died. The injuries are extensive, but I can get them healed pretty quickly. The most severe will take a little longer, but he should be back to his previous health levels within five of this planet’s moon cycles.” Amun replied, while continuing the work to repair the worst of the patient’s injuries.

  “We don’t have five moon cycles for answers Amun. The cell signatures in the housing unit show that a female Valendran was living with him. She wasn’t there. We need to know who she is, where she came from, and we need to find her and secure her safety. We also need to know if there are other survivors from the outpost hiding on this world. We cannot stay here that long, while we wait for him to be able to talk to us. We need answers now. Can you wake him up long enough to ask him a few questions?” Scaden asked impatiently, touching the silky fabric that belonged to the female, in his pocket.

  “I can try to wake him up in a few hours. Anything sooner will disrupt the healing process. But when he wakes up, I have some questions for him as well. The medifile on him indicates that he was never mated. But yet he carries the Ator-Ma., and I can’t explain how he got it without a mate.” Amun stated and pointed to the intricate tattoo-like design covering Randor's left arm and shoulder.

  Scaden was shocked yet again. This whole situation was becoming almost unreal. The Ator-Ma is only manifested when a couple forms a true 'soul bond'. Once the couple mates for the first time, the Ator-Ma manifests itself onto the left arm and shoulder of the man and the woman in a tattoo-like design that can never be removed. It is unique to each bonded and mated couple and cannot be faked or duplicated. And only soul bonded couples could produce children. Was the female in the housing unit his mate? He realized the thought made him unreasonably angry and caused him to clench his fists at his sides. And where did he find a Valendran female to mate with? None of this was making any sense.

  “I need answers Amun and soon. We have a female who may be in danger out there, and whoever she is, she means something to him. And there may be others. Contact me as soon as it’s safe to wake him, I need to report to Gracus.” He ordered striding out of MedLab.

  His head was starting to hurt from all the questions running through it and the information they’d gathered so far. The thought of the female belonging to someone bothered him a lot more than he was willing to admit to anyone, even himself right now. The entire situation was nothing that he had imagined when they came to the planet to find the origin of the distress beacon. He walked quickly to his small sleeping unit on the transport, not wanting an audience for his communications with Gracus.

  The door opened without a sound after scanning his cell signature, and he entered the small unit. He walked past the bed and towards the desk with his video comm. He entered in his personal code, sent the private comm request to Gracus and waited for him to respond. As he expected, he didn’t have to wait long.

  “Scaden, I received the comm reports throughout the mission. Is it really Randor Macner?” Gracus asked immediately, his face on the video comm showing his amazement.

  “Amun verified his cell signature in MedLab. It really is him
.” Scaden replied shaking his head.

  “And there was a female? Are you sure it was a Valendran female?” Gracus asked.

  “Yes, the scans indicated a Valendran female was living with him in the housing unit. We do not have her and have no idea where she is. The housing unit had been attacked by Relians not long before we showed up. At this point, the only thing we know is that the female is missing and that the Relians took something heavy out of the unit with them into a waiting vehicle. We have no idea if it was her, or if she hid when they attacked.”

  “I have Niklosi’s team at the housing unit, in case she ran away and is waiting to return when she feels it is safe to do so. We have no idea where she came from though. There were no females on the Outpost. I need you to run a search of our records. Look for any attacks carried out by the Relians where any females went missing.”

  “We need to know where she came from and if there may be others that somehow found their way to this planet. And we need to keep this to ourselves right now Gracus. I know you don’t agree with that, and I know you think we should contact the Council and at least inform Councilor Macner that his son is alive. But until we know what we’re dealing with here and now, we need to wait. Amun says we can wake him in a few hours and get some answers. We need to wait until then before we contact the council.” Scaden stated firmly enough to make sure Gracus knew he wasn’t going to change his mind on this.

  “I don’t agree with this Scaden. This is going too far. The Council should be notified immediately that at least one survivor has been found and more could be out there! Councilor Macner has a right to know his son is alive!” Gracus retorted with anger lacing his words at Scaden’s stubbornness on this.

  “And if we wait a few hours, we’ll be able to tell them definitively if there are other survivors! Because the only person that knows will be able to tell us! I’m not arguing about this; I've made my decision. The order to block all communications to Valendra stays in place until I have more information!” Scaden yelled back at his friend.

  Realizing he was allowing his frustration to overcome him, Scaden tried to calm himself. “Gracus, I just want a few answers from him before we contact the Council. We need to at least arm them with enough information to help them make a decision, about whether or not we should be looking for other survivors. And we need to find this female and where she came from. Right now finding a defenseless female who may be in the hands of the Relians is my priority. I won’t waste time talking to the Council. Once she’s safe and secure with us, and we have more answers, I will contact them.” He stated more calmly than he felt.

  Knowing it was another argument he would lose Gracus gave up. “All right, let’s see what we can do to figure out who she is and where she came from. I’ve got the computer scanning for missing females now, and I’ll let you know as soon as I know anything. Keep me updated on what is going on down there. With a Relian presence on the planet, it’s even more important for you and your team to be careful. We can’t get back one we thought was lost to us and end up losing a dozen more through acting rashly.” Gracus warned pointedly, hoping Scaden would get the message he was conveying.

  “I understand my friend. I have no intention of giving them any other victims. I’ll leave the comm open on the private channel so you can monitor things as they progress. Scaden out.” He contacted Niklosi next to see if there were any new developments at the housing unit they found Randor in, and was informed that nothing had changed and there was still no sign of the female.

  With nothing else to do but wait, he began pacing the unit. The most perplexing of his thoughts was where the female came from. Females and any mated male weren’t allowed on outposts. And there was never a time when he could remember any females going missing. There were so few females compared to the males that they were always left on Valendra to be guarded and protected by the male members of their Clan and their mate. It had been that way since before his existence.

  Their history showed that one of their diplomatic missions to another sentient world to discuss trade had exposed the entire diplomatic party to a virus that was carried back to Valendra and infected them all. It caused more than half of their females to become barren and the majority of the children born since had been male. A female child had not been born to his world in over 300 years. Centuries of work from scientists on both planets, still could not seem to find a way to reverse the damage caused by the virus. So how did this female and a mated male get to the outpost? How did they survive the massacre there?

  Did the Relians bring survivor’s from the outpost here as slaves? It wouldn’t be unusual for them to do that, it was actually normal for them to do so. They moved from planet to planet, enslaving the people and forcing them to strip their own planet of all its resources, until life was no longer sustainable. Then they’d move on to the next planet, sometimes keeping the hardest working slaves from each planet to move with them, and leaving the rest to die on their now barren planet.

  They were a parasitic species that was loathed throughout the galaxies and one of the only species where “kill on confirmation” was allowed. Their genocide and massacres on other worlds were the stuff nightmares were made from.

  So if the Relians had control over this planet, why were their resources still here? Why hadn’t this planet been stripped before now? It would not have taken them this long to consume everything they wanted from the planet. And from what they’d learned prior to bringing the transport to the surface, the planet wasn’t ruled by the Relians. It was obvious that their influence was on every continent on this planet, in one way or another, but they did not control it.

  Granted it was also obvious some of the more violent governments and religious organizations on the planet were infested with Relians among their ranks, but they weren’t in a position of total power. Or they would have wrecked much more havoc and destruction on the planet than they already had.

  His head was beginning to hurt from all the questions running through it, the lack of answers and the lack of sleep. He couldn’t even recall the last time he’d actually slept since they encountered the distress beacon. Knowing a defenseless female was wandering alone or potentially a captive was messing with his sanity, and he knew he’d get no sleep until he found her and either brought her back to her people or learned her fate.

  He headed out of his sleeping unit and back to the MedLab. He’d get Amun to get rid of his headache, and he’d wait next to Randor Macner until he awakened so he could get his answers.

  Chapter Four

  Pain. That was the first thing that registered in Cari’s mind when she began to awaken. She hurt everywhere. She tried to move her arms slightly to ease the pain in them and realized they were bound above her head. Her mind tried desperately to break through the foggy layers to remember what happened. It all came back with sickening clarity. The explosion, the bright light and the face of Vince Baker before darkness overcame her.

  Uncle Randor must be dead. There was no other reason why she’d be tied up like this. He would have given his life to protect her. Biting back the sobs that threatened to consume her, she fought to pull herself together and figure out a way out of this situation.

  Very slowly she opened her eyes in small slits, so she could see where she was. It looked like an old barn. Weathered wooden slats made up the walls and ceiling; remnants of hay scattered around the area, but not much else. No weapons immediately near her. Not that she could grab any right now anyway. There looked to be at least two stalls in the far-right corner, but there didn’t seem to be anything in them. The double entry doors were closed and to her left. And the space directly in front of her was empty, probably where hay and maybe feed was stored at some point in the past. It didn’t look like this place had been used in a long time.

  Not seeing anyone in the room with her, she slowly opened her eyes fully and looked up at her tied hands. They were tied at the wrists and hung over what looked like a rafter in the ceiling above her.
Her feet dangled just over the floor, allowing her to stand on her toes and relieve some of the pressure in her hands and shoulders.

  She pulled on the ropes, testing the strength of the rafter it was attached to, hoping for some give in the wood. She sighed as it didn’t even sway an inch. She tried moving the ropes from side to side, hoping maybe the rope would begin to fray where it was scraping against the corners of the rafter and might break.

  Now that held out some hope she thought, seeing small fibers of the rope come floating down upon her head. Although looking closely at the thick rope, she realized this particular effort might take some time.

  With that as her only plan to escape at the moment, Cari began swinging her wrists from side to side to scrape the rope along the rafter. She stopped periodically to rest her arms and blow the rope fibers from her face and shake them from her hair, in case someone came in and caught her, she hoped they wouldn’t realize what she was doing before she could escape.

  As the minutes ticked on, her mind began to think about when she got out of here. The first thing she was going to do was kill Vince Baker as slowly and painfully as she could. Then she’d go give Uncle Randor a decent burial. And figure out how she was going to make it on her own without him. Burying the sorrow as deeply as she could, she tried to concentrate on her anger. And on how she was going to make him pay for killing her uncle. Rage began to consume her.

  “Don’t do that! They’ll kill you if you keep doing that! Stop!” Cari’s head jerked up sharply at the loudly whispered words. She watched warily as a girl around her age came from behind one of the stalls to the right and began to hobble her way to where Cari was hanging.

  As the girl came closer into the light, she could see the girl's badly malformed and twisted legs. Cari guessed her to be around 24 or 25 years old, and if it wasn’t for her legs, she looked like she was a runway model. She had long blonde hair that cascaded down her back in heavy waves, a small pixie like face, with large blue eyes, and a thin frame. She guessed the girl to be at least five feet, six inches tall, maybe taller if her legs weren’t so misshapen. The dress she wore was covered in dirt and looked to be several sizes too small for the girl.