“I know, your eminence,” Bronsyn replied on a heartfelt sigh. “Due to what we’ve both seen and heard though, we believe this alternate plan has been in place all along.”
“Your mate is being held prisoner on a Galaxian vessel?” The president’s question came through sounding both tired and old, a sharp contrast to the joviality of his initial greeting.
“Yes, President Allwyne. She is. And I have been ordered to stay on Earth, my TIPS privileges to return to the Searcher revoked until she agrees to allow Dr. Jyrl to do a harvest.” Rykhan sent up a heartfelt plea to his maker that the Galaxian leader could supersede Stege’s orders.
“I will call an emergency meeting of my council and get back to you both,” Allwyne stated but his words took away the last measure of Rykhan’s hope. He had wanted an immediate, decisive decision but he should have known better. No politician ever engendered a quick judgment. “Until then, go with Tsiran and be at peace in his will.”
Rykhan was up and out of his seat before the final flourishes of their sign-off were complete.
He needed immediate help in getting his Leah out and away from Stege’s clutches.
Not more political maneuvering that only delayed a successful outcome.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Pam and Leah held hands as they stood before the door. “What did that mean when Wyst said to use girl-power?”
The smile appearing on Pam’s lips only wobbled slightly as she replied, “to kick alien ass with serious intent and take names later. I once had to caution him from pissing me off. Told him he didn’t want me to turn on my ‘girl-power’. You ready?”
“Not really but I don’t think we have any other choice, do you?
Shaking her head, Pam directed her eyes to the keypad that Leah took as the signal to open the door. Why was her hand shaking so hard? Maybe it was because she didn’t know what measures the Picari had to prevent her and her friend from getting off the Searcher. But that lack of knowledge should’ve been comforting, not almost-peeing-your-pants scary.
When they were only four steps out into the empty hallway, a claxon began to sound and the hallway lights went into strobe-mode.
Pam obviously thought that was their cue to run and soon she was leading her much larger friend down the long walkway, their uncovered feet only making dull thuds against the metallic floors. “Hurry, Ley!”
Leah moved as fast as she could in the dizziness the flashing created. Strobes had always affected her that way. No matter what club, as soon as whoever in charge of lighting flipped the switch, she got a case of vertigo which always hit her hard. In that instance though, the flashes seemed to interrupt her feet’s cadence and she found herself stumbling more than normal.
“Shh,” Pam’s voice was hard to hear over the loud, sharp bleeps of the claxon but she turned so Leah could see her holding a finger to her lips. Although her movement looked like a series of still photos as the lights continued to cut in and out. “I think I hear something.”
Turning the only corner, the two women continued to move as quickly as Leah was able. She knew she squeezed Pam’s hand too hard, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. There was no way in hell she was going to lose her grip.
Coming to a recessed doorway, Pam shoved her into a corner. “You gotta hide, Ley. I’m just going to the next one and do the same.”
Leah whimpered and pressed her fingers to her mouth, ashamed at how her fear showed. “Don’t leave me.”
“I gotta, girlie. Otherwise our operation ‘Outta Here’ ain’t gonna succeed.” With a quick smile and a wink of assurance, Leah’s friend disappeared from view.
She pressed as tightly into the corner of the door and the wall as she could, then closed her eyes which helped to combat the dizziness. With her eyes closed, she could finally tune everything out until she also heard the sound Pam had pointed out. Leah tried to connect the noise to something identifiable and her mind formed a picture of boots. Heavy boots, moving quickly over metal floors.
Oh god! They were coming!
The Picari were coming!
*.*.*.*.*
Rykhan slumped in his chair, a posture that reflected his thoughts. Laxon’s contact had responded much the same as Allwyne and promised just about as little. The male asked for time to meet with his council and perhaps confer with the Galaxian president but they would get back to him.
What was the word Leah liked to use when she did not believe someone’s speech?
Bullshit?
In Rykhan’s view, it was as good a word as any. Especially since at least in Phoenix, any kind of reference to excrement conveyed amazement, stated a negative opinion, or called another person out when you believed they were lying.
To say he was frustrated did not even begin to describe the churning inside him, although he was trying to keep his emotions to himself. He did not want Leah to sense his distress especially since he could feel her own nervousness along their connection.
From what he saw on the other warrior’s faces, he knew everyone’s emotions were high. After the group was updated on the contacts made, citing the fact there would be no immediate response; silence reigned while the men worked on their next course of action.
He shifted in his chair and Arbrynt turned to look at him. “Would you like to send another message to your mate?”
Wyst glanced up before turning back to his communication device. “They’re probably too busy to answer even if they thought to take their tresls with them.”
Rykhan shot straight up. “You think our females are trying to escape even as we speak?”
“I don’t have a female,” Wyst corrected, crossing his ankles on a large planter. “But I figure that little pixie wouldn’t have wanted to wait around after we told them to escape. She’s not a patient female.”
The group had decided to allow the females to try to escape on their own although both Gyard and Arbrynt were more than willing to go to the Searcher and bring the women back. Bronsyn had advised against it. If the females were successful then Stege could not blame any of the Picari warriors in getting the humans off the Searcher.
Although Rykhan wasn’t convinced it was the best course of action.
He did not care if he would be court-martialed or that aiding his mate in fleeing from Stege’s plans would have him labeled a traitor. The safety of his Leah and their unborn youngling were all that mattered.
Rykhan tapped into the connection he shared with his mate. He had expected to again sense Leah’s nervousness, but what he discerned now was fear. He would have given anything, everything he had to be with her at that moment.
With a start, Rykhan realized at some point he had gone rogue, as some would have named it. His loyalties had changed. His mate and their youngling were his sole focus instead of his duty and allegiance to the Protectorate. Rykhan did not know when the shift happened but he could not deny that his center of attention had changed. The loyal Protector of his planets, dedicated to maintaining Picari peace had been replaced by a male whose cause was now to his mate and his female youngling, vowing to keep them healthy, happy and safe.
They had become his only reason for existing.
“Who else on the Searcher is in league with Stege and the Committee?” Tyshar finally asked in the tense quiet. “I mean besides Dr. Jyrl?”
“I would think the other medical technicians would have to be aware of the plans, don’t you?” Wyst looked around at the other males. “They’d have to know if they were going to help with the procedures.”
Bronsyn finally forced out his question. “How many are there under Dr. Jyrl’s command?”
Laxon shifted in his seat. “I saw at least nine others.”
“Frack!” Gyard exploded. “That’s more than the Searcher’s full crew!”
Tyshar looked to his commander. “Do you think Captain Pryntal is a part of it?”
“Not if he had to work with Dr. Jyrl,” Bronsyn replied with a twist to his smile. “Pryntal hates the m
ale and avoids all contact with him if he can.”
Something about those words niggled in the back of Rykhan’s mind. He remembered how often he had seen Bronsyn and the Searcher’s captain talking together on the voyage to Earth. Finally, the idea clicked and he tapped his fingers on the tabletop. “Do you think the captain would help in getting Leah and Pam off the starship?”
Bronsyn’s eyebrows arched sharply upward. “I don’t know but I can ask.” He pulled out his tresl and pushed a couple buttons.
Rykhan sat back and shared a tight grin with Wyst. Tyshar slapped Rykhan on the back as if in congratulations for figuring out who else could help them. The other warriors were sharing smiles and fist bumps although Rykhan thought it was still too early to celebrate.
“Wait! I can’t hear you,” Bronsyn yelled into his communication device. “What’s all that noise?” Swiping his fingers over the small screen, Bronsyn activated the speaker so all could hear what was happening.
“Someone or something activated the emergency alarm system on deck five,” Captain Pryntal yelled. “Although our sensors aren’t finding any evidence of the cause. There is no fire, hull breach, or problems with the life support systems on that floor. Hold on!”
Rykhan looked at Bronsyn. “That’s the deck where Leah and I were staying.”
“The sensors just reported multiple high-arcing tresls were activated in the corridor outside the observation suite!”
Bronsyn growled. “Can you get the ID on who they are?”
Captain Pryntal was quiet for a moment before he mumbled, “That can’t be right.”
“What is it?”
“Why would four members of the medical staff be on that deck and have their tresls set to kill?”
Rykhan and Wyst shot to their feet in unison.
Both their faces bore identical expressions of horror.
*.*.*.*.*
Leah couldn’t believe that in the space of a heartbeat all her fear left her as she cowered into the corner of the doorway. Sure, the claxon was still bleating, the lights were still strobing and the dull thuds of booted feet were still coming her way.
Nevertheless, she was inexplicitly calm.
It was almost as if Rykhan had reached out and touched her somehow.
Just as the bodies of four men passed by her, she heard Pam’s, “psst! Apps.”
Leah leaned in order to watch the group as they navigated the corner. It was weird how they all remained in step even while performing a turn. Not to mention how they hadn’t spied her in her hidey-hole against the doorway.
“Leah! Turn on your apps!” was Pam’s the next hiss. Even though Leah twisted behind her, squinting to try to spy her light-haired friend, she couldn’t see anything but the recesses of doorways.
Shrugging, Leah dug deep into her bra and pulled out her phone. Wiping the sweat off it, she pushed a couple of buttons to access the different applications Arbrynt had uploaded.
“It’s the inverted vee with all the dots,” Pam whispered next and Leah found herself frowning as she quickly swiped through the various screens.
“What does it do?” she whispered back over her shoulder without taking her eyes away from her cellphone.
“It’s a stun gun.”
“What? What? What?” Leah could hear the Picari making their way back towards her position. One that had her quickly shifting to the other side as she clicked off her phone and went into statue mode.
The sound of grunts and a couple of throat clearings met her ears. The Picaris searching for her and her friend were talking among themselves. She only hoped that their language conveyed frustration and disappointment in not locating the two women.
At the sound of running feet coming from the opposite direction of the searching aliens, Leah again moved to the opposite corner only to find herself face-to-face with her friend. “Whew, that was a close one,” her friend gasped before she leaned out into the hall for a quick peek.
“Okay, here’s the dealio.” Pam moved until both the women’s fronts were touching, each of their hands holding their lighted cell phones. “Arbrynt put one of their stunners on our phones. The symbol is the vee and the dots, got it? And you can change the amount of charge by pushing your volume buttons.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Leah voice was a quiet mumble as she used her thumb to bring the app up. “He didn’t say anything to me about it.”
In the reflected glow of the lights from their phone’s screens, Pam’s eye roll couldn’t be missed. “So? He still put a weapon in each of our hands. And from what those other dudes were carrying, I’d say that was a good thing.”
Pam leaned out again before pulling her head back into the recess. “We have four more corners before we even get near the elevator that will take us down to the TIPS room. You gotta be on your game, Leah. Absolutely one-hundred-percent committed to our goal of getting off this damn ship. Are you with me?”
Leah nodded and received a frown in return.
“Are you with me?”
“Sure, I am,” Leah answered while performing her previous nod. She didn’t know what Pam expected but the repeated question was starting to piss her right the hell off.
Pam pressed in tightly, her chest firmly against Leah’s ribcage and raised both her chin and her cell so that the light of its screen poured over each of them. “Are. You. With. Me?”
“Get me off this fucking tin can with thrusters.” Leah hissed hotly through clenched teeth. “I have a hot alien to get to and a baby to save.”
Pam’s eyes crinkled and her teeth gleamed with her wide smile. “Damn straight. So let’s go evade some aliens, yeah? And if we can’t, we zap their tight Picari asses!”
*.*.*.*.*
“She’s telling me there are a group of Picari who are waiting for them around the next corner,” Wyst mumbled and Rykhan automatically reached to touch the shoulder of his brother-in-arms. Despite the other male’s protests, every warrior was very aware that Wyst and Pam had somehow and in some way joined. Wyst’s ability to hear her thoughts only proved it to be true.
Rykhan allowed his eyes to close so he could better follow Leah’s emotions, wishing he had the ability to read her thoughts as well. She seemed inexplicitly calm and he could feel her determination.
“You!” Wyst shouted as he twisted to glare at Arbrynt. “You did something to their devices, did you not? Tell me you did not arm them!”
Rykhan again felt himself tense as he realized what Wyst meant. Had his brother-warrior provided the females access to Picari weaponry?
Holding both palms both up and outward, Arbrynt made a calming motion. “I only gave them the ability to use their phones as one of Earth’s tasers. That is all. And I only explained it to your mate, Wyst.”
“She is not my fracking mate,” came the heated reply but to Rykhan’s ear, Wyst’s disavowal sounded hollow.
To circumvent any argument, Rykhan jumped between the two men. “So Leah cannot actually kill anyone?” If she killed any of the Picari crewmembers, death would be her sentence as well, at least according to the laws of the Galaxian government. Since she was currently, as Stege had so succinctly phrased it, onboard a Galaxi star-cruiser, his Leah had to obey all Picari laws, rulings, and edicts.
Whether she was aware of them or not.
Ignorance was never a valid defense in any Picari court of law.
“No.” Arbrynt’s gaze was clear and his voice firm, and spoke of the man’s honesty and sincerity. “Their units will only stun and can only do so from a distance of ten of Earth’s measurement of ‘feet’ away.”
“Oh Gyed,” Wyst moaned and Rykhan found himself offering his own silent prayer to Tsiran as well.
Rykhan sought out Bronsyn’s eyes in the crowd of warriors standing as if they could not remain seated with all that was happening so far away. “At least they have something to protect themselves with.”
As assurances went, Rykhan thought it was weak.
Nevertheless, it would ha
ve to do because it was the only thing providing any measure of hope.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Leah stared at the black marks marring the pristine walls of the Searcher’s hallways, blinking at the heat she could still feel emanating from them. For the moment, she and Pam were safe, tucked in and behind a barrier that bisected the hall from its corner.
She didn’t like the scorch marks.
Not at all.
Because if any one of those blasts had hit her skin, she was sure she would’ve been toast.
And that realization had sent her into the dark area of abject terror, causing an numbing of both her mind and body.
“Are you gonna freaking stand there with your tongue in your mouth or are you gonna help me here?” Pam’s strident demand brought Leah back to awareness and forced her to turn to the men Pam was facing.
She couldn’t freeze up and allow her bone-deep fear to incapacitate her. Nor could she allow Pam to battle the Picaris all by herself. Get with the program, Leah, she chided herself. If you want to stay alive and get back to Rykhan, you had better get with it.
“Drop down into a crouch,” Leah advised, straddling her friend’s much smaller form. “I’ll hit high and you hit low.”
“Got it!” Pam confirmed and Leah saw another beam of light take down the first of the Picari shooting at them.
Aiming her own cellphone at the tallest male facing her, Leah hit the lighted circle like she was simple taking a picture. However, the shot hit three feet in front of her friend, sparking off the metal on the floor. “Goddamn, Ley! Point the lens at the freaking target and shoot them, not me, all right?”
Leah adjusted her grasp and a thrill went through her when the male she’d aimed for fell down. “I did it!”
“Yeah, two down and only two to go,” Pam drawled over the sound of their opponent’s charges ricocheting off the walls. “But I don’t think their guns are the stun kind.”
Rykhan (Book 1 of Mate Search Series) Page 27
