Nylek pulled his hood back up over his head.
“Where is the quarry?” he asked.
“It is more than two hours’ walk away,” Rain said.
“Where is the quarry?” Nylek repeated.
Rain explained how to get the quarry and without another word, Nylek stepped back through the door. Ivy watched him walk out into the desert and again saw the shifting silhouettes of figures in the distance, only the faint shimmer of handheld lights identifying their position. She wanted to call out to Nylek to warn him, but she didn’t want to announce his presence. Hoping that he would be safe on his journey alone, Ivy closed the door and let Elise step up to secure it.
Rain suddenly let out an exasperated sound.
“I just feel so stuck here,” she said and walked over to the window to stare out into the darkness beyond for a few seconds. She then turned and settled into one of the chairs that faced into the center of the room. “You know, the first time that I was on this planet, I thought that I knew everything. I thought that we had done all of our research and we were going to be able to just come here, storm the compound, command the Validicians to let the prisoners go, and then take them into custody to turn over to the galactic authorities. Then we got here and so quickly we realized that we knew nothing. We weren’t prepared at all. But we did absolutely everything in our power to help the prisoners and to survive before we were forced to leave. Now I’m back here and I feel like there’s even less that I can do. Members of our team are in danger and I’m sitting around in this shuttle just letting whatever is going to happen to them happen.”
“Then let’s do something,” Ivy said.
Rain looked at her with a startled expression in her eyes.
“What?”
Ivy looked at the other three women.
“You said that when you came here the first time you didn’t know anything, but that you tried anyway. That’s not the way it is now.”
“I know. I’m here rather than out there trying to help.”
“No,” Ivy said, shaking her head. “It’s different this time because you do know something. When you first came here, you had one mission in mind and you thought that you knew exactly how it was going to work out. Now you know that that is not the way it will work, that it won’t be easy and that you don’t know what we may be facing.”
“Exactly,” Rain said, sounding even more defeated.
“But you came anyway,” Ivy said directedly. “You knew that whatever is out here is something that you have no real way of understanding or preparing for, but you came anyway.” She looked at Lila. “We all did. This isn’t our job or something that we’re obligated to do. We came here because we chose to. We made the decision that we weren’t going to be left behind.”
“We didn’t choose to come here,” Rain argued. “We were going to Earth to rescue the others. We ended up here because Ryan and the Valdicians under his control redirected us here.”
“Just like they did before,” Ivy said. “You never intended to go to Uoria. You intended to go from here back to Earth, but the Valdicians and the Covra redirected you to Uoria. You might not have thought about it, but in the back of your mind you knew that it was always a possibility that what we had planned wouldn’t be what happened. Yet you decided to come anyway. So are we just going to sit here and wait for them to come back? Are we going to let them threaten our lives, our men, our families, our future?”
“What can we do?” Lila asked.
Her voice was so soft and tender that Ivy nearly didn’t hear her, but when she looked at her, she could see the determination staring back at her.
“We do as Maxim said. We eat, we refresh ourselves, and we get food ready for the rest of the team when they get back to the shuttle and the morning. Then we gather supplies and we go after them. We’re strong. If we encounter the Valdicians or even any of the hybrids, we can fight. Our mates have taught us to be brave and given us the weapons that we need to protect ourselves…and them.”
The other women exchanged glances and nodded.
“Good. Elise, make sure the entire ship is secured. Rain, come with me and we’ll find something to eat. Lila, keep watch through the window. If you see anyone coming closer to the shuttle, tell Elise so that she can close down the shields.”
Ivy started out of the common room toward the galley, Rain close behind her. They opened the massive cooling chest along one wall and took out several trays of food prepared and frozen by the crew before leaving Earth. Ivy had just placed them in the oven to heat when she heard the whispering sound of a door opening behind her. She turned sharply, a knife gripped in her hand, and saw a panel of the wall sliding out of place. Three nervous-looking men stood in the gap, staring out at her.
“Who are you?” she demanded.
Just then Elise strode into the room.
“The rest of the shuttle is secure,” she said. “I activated the hidden emergency panels so that we can sweep the panic rooms.”
Ivy gestured toward the open panel and Elise looked at it, her eyes widening as she saw the people inside.
“Avery?” she said. “Elon? Michael? What are you doing?”
“Who are these people?” Ivy asked, still holding the knife out toward them.
“They are the captain and crew of this shuttle,” Elise explained. I thought the Valdicians killed them before we landed.”
“When we realized that we were being redirected, we went into the panic room,” one of the men said.
“You hid?” Elise asked. “You left me behind and hid rather than waiting to find out what was happening?”
“It’s protocol, Elise,” another of the men said. “This isn’t the first time that a ship has been hijacked. You know that the first time a ship was redirected it was lost and everyone on it died. Protocol states that if there is a potential hijacking situation, the crew is to immediately go into the panic rooms and try to make contact with the Earth authorities.”
“Nyx23?” Rain asked.
The man looked at her quizzically.
“Excuse me?” he said.
“You mentioned the ship that was redirected. You said that everyone on it died. Were you talking about Nyx23?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Yes. They never returned. Since then the government and travel companies have been working to minimize the risk of more lives lost.”
He sounded defiant, almost angry, but Ivy could see that whatever emotion was in his voice was nothing compare to that in Rain’s eyes.
“They never returned,” she said. “But they didn’t die.”
“How could you possibly know that?” he asked.
“Because I was on that ship.”
“That’s impossible,” the man stammered. “That was a hundred years ago.”
“More than 115,” Rain said, “and I have been alive every one of them. Even when I couldn’t move, even when I didn’t know what was happening around me, I was alive. Those creatures that hijacked the shuttle…those were the same kind that held the prisoners on this planet and that redirected us to Uoria all those years ago. I never hid.”
“We were trained to follow protocol,” he said, almost as they were the only words that he could say, that he was simply regurgitating something that he had heard so many times before it was the only thing that he was able to think of in the situation.
“Don’t talk to me about protocol,” Ivy said, suddenly infuriated at the men who had been hiding in the panic room since they recognized that the ship had been redirected. “You have no idea what’s happening. This planet is swarming with hybrid creatures bred by a man who wants to take over the universe, and if we don’t stop him, he will. There are six species trying to come together to defeat him and protect Earth, Uoria, and every other planet in this galaxy and beyond. Not a single one of us has been hiding and we aren’t going to start now. Now you have a choice. You can either go back into that panic room and be afraid, or you
can come out, show some courage, and fight.”
Chapter Eight
Emerie gasped at the light that suddenly swept through the cavern. It was so white it had a blue cast, but it offered no warmth. Kyven remained in place on her for a moment, and then shifted off, allowing her to scramble across the ground and to her feet. She turned, squinting through the light to try to find Kyven. A massive black-furred animal disappeared from the cavern into a tunnel that led deeper underground. Her eyes tore away from the animal and to Kyven, who still knelt on the ground. One hand was pressed to his stomach and when she looked down she could see his blood streaked across her clothes.
“Kyven!” she screamed.
He looked up at her and offered a weak smile.
“I’m alright,” he said. “They aren’t deep.”
Emerie reached her hand to him and he took it, allowing her to help him to his feet. He turned toward the other side of the cavern and she followed his eyes to where a tall man stood watching them. The man held what looked like a ball of light in his palm.
“Did it hurt you?” he asked in a gravelly voice that sounded like he rarely used it.
“I think it clawed me,” Kyven said.
Emerie looked at his stomach and then his back, shuddering at the long, jagged gashed that had cut through his clothing and into his skin.
“And you?” the man asked, looking to Emerie.
She shook her head.
“No,” she said. “I stayed out of the way most of the time. Kyven protected me.”
The man stepped up closer to Kyven and Emerie was able to look into his face. His eyes were the color of steel deeply set in smooth, golden skin. Most of his hair was black and closely cropped to his head, but a shock of white hung down along one cheek. He crouched down and looked at the wound on Kyven’s stomach, then walked around to look at his back.
“You’re lucky,” he said. “The scratch of the Meldor can cut a man in half.”
“Thank you for helping us,” Kyven said. “How did you get here?”
“I was walking through the quarry and I could hear the Meldor. I jumped down.”
“You jumped?” Emerie asked.
The man didn’t answer her, but settled the ball of light onto the ground at Kyven’s feet.
“It won’t return as long as you have this light.”
He started back across the cavern and Emerie rushed a few steps after him.
“Wait,” she said. “Why did you help us?”
The man turned back around and faced her.
“No one deserves to die in the darkness, sacrificed to something that they can’t see and cannot defend themselves against.”
Emerie’s lips parted and she took another step toward him as he turned away again.
“Who are you?” she asked.
The man stopped. He straightened his back and squared his shoulders, pausing as if contemplating whether he should face her again or continue on.
“My name is Mhavrych,” he said.
Without another word or waiting for Emerie to say anything else, he ran toward the wall in front of him and leapt up. He planted his foot in the rock and used the leverage to force himself up toward the gap in the ceiling. Emerie was astonished by the sheer power that it took for the man to push himself up the smooth, nearly vertical wall with only those two movements.
She turned back to Kyven. Her eyes were becoming accustomed to the brightness of the light and she was able to see him more clearly. He was staring up toward the hole where Mhavrych had disappeared out into the darkness of the night above them. There was a hint of a smile on his lips and it grew the longer he looked.
“What?” Emerie asked, walking toward him. “What is it?”
Kyven looked at her, his smile wide now and a shimmer of tears in his eyes.
“His name,” he said. “It’s ancient Mikana.”
“So?” Emerie asked.
She had already guessed that the mysterious man was a hybrid, and it wouldn’t surprise her to know that he had some Mikana blood in his heritage. Kyven stepped up to her and took her hands in his.
“It means ‘miracle.’”
“What was that?” Maxim asked, stopping at the edge of the quarry.
“What?” Athan asked.
“I saw something,” Maxim said. “A figure. It was running across the rocks over there.”
“Do you see that light?” Lynx asked, gesturing ahead of them and to one side with the torch that he carried.
Maxim followed the direction of the flames and saw a beam of bright white light coming up out of the quarry toward the inkiness of the sky.
“That’s where Kyven and Emerie fell through,” Lynx said.
“Are you sure?” Maxim asked.
He was desperate to find his brother, but the beam of light seemed too perfect. It could be the hybrids trying to lure them in so that they could attack.
“Yes,” Athan said. “Lynx is right. That’s where we were standing when we fought the Valdician and where the rocks collapsed. That’s where they are.”
Maxim nodded. It could be the hybrid army, but in that moment he no longer cared. Finding Kyven and Emerie was worth the risk that they could be facing. He hiked the bag of supplies higher on his shoulder and they started across the rocks, each of them vigilant of their surroundings. If the hybrids were there, this would be the time for them to swarm, and the three of them had to be ready. They would have only moments to protect themselves, and if they didn’t, all hope for the rest of the team would fade away. Ryan would have exactly what he wanted.
As they drew closer to the beam of light Maxim noticed a dark mass lying on the ground.
“It’s the Valdician,” Athan said. “They never came back for it.”
“Hello?” a voice called as if from within the beam of light. “Is someone up there?”
Maxim dropped to his knees on the rock beside the hole where the light was streaming up and stared down into it.
“Kyven?” he shouted down.
“Maxim? Is that you?” Kyven yelled back.
“Yes!” Maxim shouted. “Yes, it’s us! Are you alright? Are both of you alright?”
“He’s hurt,” Emerie called up.
The words sent a chill through Maxim.
“How are we going to get them up?” Athan asked.
Maxim dropped his bag to the rock beside him and started pulling supplies out of it.
“Take this,” he said, handing Athan the end of a rope attached to a heavy metal claw. “Attach it to a rock and secure it in place with the heaviest rock you can move. Lynx, can you go down there?”
Lynx nodded.
“Absolutely,” he said.
Athan carried the rope across the rocks and secured it tightly to one of the largest boulders, then forced another rock into place to reinforce it. Maxim pushed two other rocks together like a vice on either side of the rope to ensure that even if the claw came loose from the other rock that it would catch on these rocks. When they finished, Lynx took hold of the end of the rope and eased himself over the side.
“Lynx is on his way down,” Maxim shouted down to Kyven. “Wrap the rope around your waist and we will pull you up.”
“I’m sending Emerie up first,” Kyven yelled up.
Maxim could hear Emerie protesting, but he knew that there was nothing that she could say that would convince Kyven to allow her to stay underground without him. No matter what type of injuries that he was suffering, he would ensure that the woman he loved was safe first, and then he would take care of himself.
Kyven’s heart was buoyed with hope as he watched Lynx lower himself down to the ground. The warrior landed and released the rope that he had wrapped around his arm and leg. He immediately strode toward them.
“Kyven,” he said. “What happened? Are you alright?”
“There’s some sort of animal down here,” Kyven explained. “It won’t get near the light. My light
stick failed and it attacked.”
Kyven watched as Lynx dug through his bag and pulled out a small package of the healing ointments that Ciyrs had created when they were still on Uoria. The warrior jogged back to the hanging rope and looked up at the hole above them.
“I need bandages,” he called up. “There’s no way that Kyven will be able to wrap this rope around himself with the injuries that he has if they aren’t protected.”
“What happened to him?” Kyven heard Maxim yell.
The fury in his brother’s voice was obvious and Kyven felt the compulsion to comfort him even though he was the one who was hurt.
“He’ll be fine, Maxim,” Lynx said. “I have healing ointments. He needs food and rest, and he’ll be as good as new tomorrow. I just have to have bandages for him.”
A few moments later a black bundle dropped to the ground. Lynx grabbed it and carried it back to Kyven.
“Take off your shirt,” he ordered.
Kyven complied, shivering as the cold air from the cavern touched his skin. Lynx opened the box of healing ointments and dipped his fingers into it. He smeared the cool, thick paste along Kyven’s chest and then his back before opening the bundle. The warrior drew out long strips of black fabric and Kyven immediately knew what they were. As they coiled around his body to cover the ointment, Kyven felt like bearing the tattered Valdician robes was like a badge of honor.
When his wounds were dressed, Kyven led Emerie over to the rope and wrapped it tightly around her waist. He guided her hand up and instructed her to wrap her arm around the rope above her and grip it tightly. He coiled the rope around her leg and then touched a kiss to her forehead.
“Emerie is ready,” he called up to Maxim.
The rope moved quickly as Athan and Maxim both pulled. In an instant, Emerie was out of sight and Kyven felt some of the pressure on his chest lift. He knew that she was safe.
“You next,” he said to Lynx.
The warrior shook his head.
“No, Kyven,” Lynx said. “I came down here to make sure that you got out safely. Besides, I’m going to need all the help I can get getting out of this place.”
Another Uoria Holiday: A Sci-Fi Alien Warrior Holiday Romance Page 6
