“Actually you were right. Stimulants can offset Pericdin dust for the short term. If they don’t send you into cardiac arrest when they first hit that is. We’ll still need to flush your body of them, but you should be okay for a least a short time.”
“How can you call this okay? I’ve never been in this much pain in my life.” Vas forced her eyes open to glare at Terel. “My hair hurts!”
The doctor reached down a gloved hand to help her up. “You’re well enough to complain, aren’t you? We’ve got Mac and the others in the shuttle. Jakiin is still on the run; Gon’s tracking him with the shuttle scanner. Deven’s far enough behind to keep him from affecting Jakiin much, but we need to get them out of there. The lander did have buddies; Walvento thinks we have about a half hour before they get here.”
Vas turned away and threw up. “Side effect of the stims, I presume?” She reached into Terel’s med kit for a bandage to wipe her mouth. “What about those two ships that were being chased?”
Terel took her arm and led her toward the shuttle. Vas was in too much pain to argue or fight back. “Bathshea says the cruiser pulled back when she got closer. Our ship seriously outguns it, but the cruiser hasn’t left the system completely. She says it seems to be waiting.”
“Probably for its friends down here.” Vas shook her head, a near fatal mistake. She grabbed the side of the shuttle and waited for the world to stop moving. “Okay, tell Gon to lift off. Let’s get Jakiin and Deven first, and then deal with what’s going on in space.” She forced herself to look around for something to put Deven in, but there wasn’t anything. “Will knocking him out stop his broadcasting?”
At Terel’s terse nod, Vas slid into her seat and managed to buckle herself in. But not before she grabbed another hypospray.
“You can’t be serious.” Terel tried to grab it, but Vas had recovered enough to keep it from her.
“How else are we going to get him up here? Or Jakiin for that matter.” She held out her other hand. “I’ll need another one.”
The shuttle began to lift off, when a thought struck her. “Wait, what’s the safest way to destroy that crap?” She pointed out the window toward the crates in the meadow.
Terel sighed and put a second hypospray in Vas’s hand. Then tapped the comm to the pilots.
“Drop fire suppressant foam on the crates. Then fire a low-yield torpedo once we’re a hundred meters up.”
Vas smiled and patted her friend’s hand. “See how much nicer it is when you’re reasonable?”
She watched through a window as bright green foam shot out from the bottom of the shuttle, engulfing the entire meadow. It quickly hardened and pulled all of the molecules of the drugs, crates, grass, and dirt into one neutralized lump. Gon raised the shuttle higher and Walvento fired off a single shot. The tableau before them went up in a fireball.
As the shuttle rose, Vas saw two more armored landers closing in on the meadow.
She doubled over in pain as a slight movement shattered every neuron in her body. “Can’t you do something? We don’t have to worry about it wearing off in a few hours, because I’ll be dead long before then.”
Terel’s look wasn’t as kind as Vas thought it should be. “That, my dear captain, is why stims are not the detox of choice. And no, you can’t have anything for the pain. The stims are masking the Pericdin but it’s still in your bloodstream. You won’t die from it, but you’ll want to. I could knock you out?”
“And miss nailing Deven with a hypospray? No way.” Vas let her breath out and wrapped her arms around her torso; not moving helped.
Terel frowned as Vas checked the charge on her snub blaster. “You don’t have a stunner or a tranq gun. Are you going to shoot him?”
“If I have to. I may not have a choice, and I’ll try not to hit anything vital. I am fond of him, you know. But we have to get him to the ship, and he has to be unconscious when we do it.” She gave a lopsided grin. “I’ll aim for a leg.”
“I’m sure he’ll be grateful,” Terel said with a shake of her head.
“Captain, Terel.” Walvento addressed both. “I’m closing in on Jakiin and Deven. Looks like they’re running out of energy.”
Vas loosened the strap on her seat and made sure the hyposprays were secure in her waistband. “That’ll make my job easier. Walvento, lower us down in front of them as tight as you can safely get. Divee, get out a long-range blaster rifle. When I open the hatch, I need you to try and keep our boys from running to the sides. Don’t hit them.” She raised a hand of caution to the slim man. “Only I get to do that.”
He didn’t say anything but calmly readied the weapon and took up his position. The shuttle hovered and began to descend. The engine was amazingly quiet for this size of machine and as they dropped, Vas swore she could hear yelling outside.
She turned to Terel right before she opened the door. “How long before his telepathic issues hit me?”
“Immediately. In fact, I’m ordering Walvento to raise the shuttle until he’s knocked out.”
“Good idea.” With a wince, Vas slammed open the hatch and dropped the five feet to the ground. She fought throwing up again as the world jumped up to meet her.
“Shit!” She bounced to her feet as quickly as possible, not taking the chance that Deven or Jakiin were close and homicidal. Or worse.
The dusty ground was covered in scuff marks. The guys had been here but taken off. A few well-aimed rifle blasts from the shuttle above pointed her toward the left.
Keeping her snub blaster in her right hand, she gingerly jogged that direction. She better find them and get them taken out fast; she didn’t know how much more of this pain she could handle. That is if she still hoped to have her brain intact afterwards.
She hadn’t gone far when she noticed Jakiin hiding behind a tree. The land was sparsely covered, but clearly he had run into the small clump of trees ahead. And since his back was toward her, she had to think Deven was in there now. Turning to wave at Divee to make sure he saw her going in, she pulled one of the hyposprays free and readied it.
She felt silly holding a hypospray in one hand and a gun in the other, but she couldn’t chance Deven overpowering her. She hadn’t been kidding about shooting him. He hadn’t admitted he was immortal, or anything like it. However, he was well over two hundred, and she knew of very few races that lived that long naturally. Besides, she meant it about aiming for a leg.
Jakiin wasn’t paying attention to her at all, engrossed in something in the trees beyond him. Vas was almost to him when he finally turned around. Even racked in pain, she was still faster than him and used the butt of her blaster to knock him on the back of his head. Confusion filled his face, then his eyes rolled back in his head, and he tumbled to the ground.
Vas shot him with the hypo just to be sure he stayed unconscious, then dragged him into the open area so the shuttle could come down and get him. Squaring her shoulders she marched toward the trees.
And was completely unprepared for the sight in front of her.
Deven was very actively engaged with four large, elephantine, women. In ways she didn’t even think possible. Even though the sight was in no way arousing, Vas felt her loins tighten; Deven’s gift was hitting her. Fighting to keep from ripping her clothes off and working her way to her second-in-command, Vas gritted her teeth and pushed the first two women aside. They were Ellines, a race normally not sexually compatible with humanoids. The thought of that was enough to hold off the urge to sexually attack Deven long enough to get the hypospray in his neck. He glanced up with the saddest expression she’d ever seen, and then folded over one of the large, gray women. The women all looked surprised, then tumbled to the ground unconscious as Deven’s influence over them cut off.
Vas pulled him free of the Ellines, but couldn’t get him very far. Gosta was right; Deven was heavier than he appeared. He shouldn’t be projecting. Terel said he wouldn’t project if knocked out. But looking down at him all she wanted to do was wake him up and have
sex until one or both of them died.
Dropping to her knees, she fumbled for her comm. “Terel. Didn’t work.” Neither did her voice, so raspy and dry it sounded like someone else. “Knocked Deven out, still projecting.”
She let the comm slide shut as she gently pushed his dark hair from his face. He really was beautiful. A loud noise forced her attention away from the lovely man.
The Ellines were rising and fixing their uniforms. They looked bewildered, but clearly no longer affected by Deven’s projections. They didn’t even look like they really saw her or Deven. Which was much safer all around. Vas didn’t doubt who would win in hand-to-hand combat between her and four Elline guardswomen. Considering the insignias on their uniforms, they had been on patrol when Deven found them. They silently left the clearing to return to whatever their previous task had been.
“Oh crap.” Vas slid down next to Deven.
A horrible whine exploded next to her head.
Her comm lay on the ground, hopping a bit as the buzzing made it jump.
Tracing the outline of his mouth with her finger, she grabbed the offending item to fling it away, but something stopped her and made her open it.
“Vas, you have to get clear of him. I can come down, hit him with another hypo, but you have to get clear.” Terel’s voice was tinny and vague, but Vas caught one point.
“No, not going to leave him.”
She thought she heard swearing, but she didn’t care. A down thrust of air caused her to look up. The shuttle was now hovering over her. A pair of small projectiles came down. She threw herself over Deven to protect him, but they were just hyposprays.
“You have to hit him again.” Terel’s voice sounded so far away she could pretend she didn’t hear her.
Vas ran her hands up and down the amazing body before her. She didn’t want him to sleep; she wanted him to wake up. She wanted him to do to her what he had been doing to the Ellines.
“No, want wake up.”
More swearing followed, and finally a man’s voice was on the comm. “Captain, if you use the spray he’ll wake up.”
“Divee? Is that you? Why don’t you come down here too? More fun.”
“I, uh, can’t right now, Captain. But if you give him those sprays he’ll wake up for you.”
Vas pouted. She wanted someone to touch her. Now. Grabbing both sprays, she shoved them into Deven’s neck.
Suddenly the world slammed back into focus and she rocked back on her heels.
She adjusted her clothes. She hadn’t gotten them off but she had been getting there. “Thanks, Divee. That worked. Terel, we need to get Deven to the ship without him exposing others. He was having sex with Ellines.” Not only were they physically very different, Ellines weren’t the most gregarious of species. As a whole they worked as bodyguards for the lesser species. Of course in their eyes everyone was a lesser species. That Deven had been able to manipulate them into an orgy was one for the record books. And a scary testament to his abilities.
“That’s not good. Nor possible, I would have said.” Terel’s voice was distant as she rustled around the shuttle. “I think we can put him in the decon chamber. It’ll have enough air inside it to get him to the ship without exposing the rest of us.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Vas rubbed her arm as Terel’s assistant, Pela, removed the cuff and the plexi-cast. It had taken longer than she’d hoped, but shorter than she feared. An hour after getting the shuttle back on board, her system was free of the Pericdin dust. The stims were still in effect however, although they were dying down to a dull buzz. Pela assured her the effects would be gone in a few hours.
The rest of her ground crew was still unconscious. But at least they’d gotten everyone on board safely. Deven required two more hypo sprays to keep him down, and Terel finally resorted to a low-level anesthetic drip when she found him and an assistant about to rip off each other’s clothes. The fact that he was doing everything by touch and still had his eyes closed was possibly more disturbing than he and the Ellines.
“Can I go now? Bathie’s been calling down here every five minutes. There’s something going on with those generation ships.” Vas said.
Pela glanced over to Terel, who frowned from where she checked on Jakiin. Finally she reluctantly nodded.
Vas hopped off the medical cot and crumpled to the ground. She quickly pulled herself up and waved off the medical staff. “Damn it. It’s those stupid stims. My joints still aren’t working right.” She walked to the rest of her ground crew just to make sure they were resting peacefully. If she glowered at Mac and Jakiin as they slept, it was perfectly justified.
“Call me if you need me. Oh and I’m sending Hrrru down here. He’s neutered and won’t be affected in case sleeping beauty breaks his bonds.”
“Deven’s under enough sedation to knock out an army.” Terel said.
Vas shook her head. The doctor hadn’t felt how strong he was. If she had her way, no one would be in here with him. Her reaction was clear enough for Terel to get the point.
“Send him down. He’s telepathically numb, so in case Deven wakes and is still sending; Hrrru can run for help before we kill each other.”
“Hrrru’s numb?” Vas frowned. She prided herself on knowing things about her crew, so how could she have not known that? A numb soldier could be invaluable during certain missions. They couldn’t be swayed by any telepathic attack. She could easily find ways to increase their asking price in future fights with someone like him in her company.
“Yes, and he doesn’t want anyone to know. Actually a growing percentage of the Welisch are numb. Each generation there are more. Unfortunately, their priests see it as a curse and refuse to let outside medical professionals examine them. We’ve kept his secret.”
Terel’s pointed look said it all. Vas sighed at the lost imaginary money. She couldn’t use him. Like having a great throwing knife but being told it had to stay in a case. “Understood. I won’t say anything.”
Shaking her head at a planet half-filled with fighters who couldn’t be affected by telepaths and yet being unable to touch them, Vas made her way slowly to the bridge. The fire in her body from the stims was dying down, or she was just becoming more used to it.
Bathie and Xsit were in a low conversation with Divee when she got there.
“You sure Terel cleared you?” Vas asked Divee as she approached. Although he seemed to have managed to stay clear of the dust, she wanted to make certain anyone who left that sick bay was completely free of it.
Divee paled a bit, and then nodded. “I’m able to return to work, Captain.”
“Oh for the love of…Divee, I don’t want you.” Vas noticed that he’d been staying as far from her as possible on the flight up, but hadn’t made the connection. “Trust me. Deven could make an Ilerian mate with a Wavian. Not pretty and they’d both probably die during it. But he could have made it happen.”
He nodded but he still watched her warily.
“For crying out loud, just go down below and oversee the cleaning of the storage area. Make sure they didn’t miss anything.” She turned from him and pretended to examine the records on the screen by her command chair. She turned around after a few minutes.
“He’d better get his head together soon. I have a far greater reason to be freaked out than he does.” She laughed as she caught Bathie’s expression. “You know what I mean. Now what’s this about the generation ships? Didn’t that thing stalking them leave hours ago?”
The smile left Bathie’s face. “Aye, Captain, it did. And it’s cleared the system. However, the generational ships’ guards all left before they got to this system. They don’t have any protection and they are unarmed.”
Xsit lifted one feathered eyebrow in mimicry of Deven. “They have asked for protection from you.”
Vas almost missed the chair she was sliding into. “What? I’m a merc. You told them that, yes?” She scowled at the shrugs from both of her officers. “They’re generation
ships, not refugees. Tell them to go to one of the inner worlds and hire more guards.”
She pulled up the record of the ship that had chased them in. The firing had all been to herd the ships it was chasing toward the planet below; not to destroy the ships. At least they’d stopped whatever plan they had the moment they registered the Warrior Wench in orbit. Most likely pirates.
“They are refugees. They bought those ships when their world was destroyed.” Bathie was serious now. “They were from Lantaria.”
Vas closed her eyes and thudded her head against the headrest of her command chair.
Bad idea. Even heavily padded it still pounded the back of her skull into her eye sockets.
“Crap.”
“Exactly.”
Vas turned toward the new voice. Flarik had come on deck. As a rule the Wavian didn’t spend much time on the command deck. But not only was she here, she was wearing a flight suit like the rest of the crew. Very disturbing.
“We can’t abandon them.” Xsit’s voice was passionate. She’d had a few hours to get into the idea.
“There is this as well.” Flarik came to the side of her chair. “I understand this image is tied in to many of our problems.” She held up a panel with the elongated Rillianian logo on it.
“This was on the ship chasing the refugees.” Flarik expanded the image of the aggressive ship until Vas could see it on the bow.
“When did my life become so screwed up?” Vas ran her knuckles over her eyes. Yup, that hurt like hell too. Maybe she should give up this life, take up farming.
“I give up.” She turned back to the communications station. “Xsit, notify whoever is leading those two ships and ask them where they are trying to go. We’ll protect them as much as we can.”
Xsit bobbed. “That is one of the problems. They do not have a place they can go.”
Vas appealed to Flarik, but the Wavian just stared stoically. Bathie refused to meet her eyes.
“Fine. We can take them to Home. They can have that tiny continent in the far south. We can erect barriers around it to keep them away from our people. However, I need all of them checked out. Just what we need is a terrorist to cap off a perfectly nasty couple of weeks.”
Asarlai Wars 1: Warrior Wench Page 21
