Bei rolled back, held her at arm’s length. “I need medical supplies.”
Scooting closer, she stroked his cheek. “I’m fine. Not even a twinge of pain, thanks to you.”
“The analgesic I gave you will wear off soon. Your injuries need to be tended immediately.” He swallowed hard then glanced at Rome.
Rome’s pale eyebrows rose. Sticking his hands into his pocket, the security chief waded deeper into the room. “So you found allies too? Or should I pull this guy’s limbs off?”
Pet crammed his hands into his mouth. Snot bubbles formed around his nostrils.
Geez, the guy was a scaredy cat.
“He’s an ally.” Nell twisted to track Rome’s progress.
Bei caught her chin and turned her to face him. “Try to remain still. I don’t wish you to damage yourself further.”
She blew the hair out of her eyes. “It can’t be that bad. I can—”
Rome hissed. “Good God!”
She tried to turn, to see what had scared him.
Bei clamped down on her shoulders, kept her straight. “Do not turn.”
“How the hell is she still alive?”
Fear trailed ice down her insides. She held onto Bei’s forearms. Her fingernails bent against his hardened skin. Licking her dry lips, she forced the words past her lips. “How bad is it?”
“We can fix you.” Bei locked his gaze with hers. Doubt darkened his eyes before clearing.
“You. Up.” Rome pointed to Pet. “And don’t scream again, or you’ll be passing your teeth for the next month.”
Pet leapt to his feet and scurried out the door.
The Security Chief followed. “I’ll see what medical supplies Keyes has.”
“Ask her for the location of the nearest infirmary.” Bei eased his grip.
Nell waited until they were alone. “Am I going to die?”
“No.” His fingers dug into her shoulders. “I won’t allow it.”
Like he could prevent it. Her vision swam and tears pricked her nose. It wasn’t fair. She’d just found him. She wanted to lean against him, absorb his strength. “How bad is it?”
“Bad.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. Why couldn’t he have sugar-coated it? Because he was her husband and a Syn-En. “Thanks for telling me.”
“Keyes will find an infirmary. I’ll get you help. You will not die.”
Oh, God. He was trying to convince her.
Light footsteps tapped against the marble floors. Keyes was coming. “There’s an infirmary, twelve clicks across the surface and another one twelve kilometers through the tunnels. Is she fit for travel?”
“No, we will have to bring the items back.”
Nell opened her eyes, watched as the woman circled around her back.
Keyes sucked in a deep breath. “How is this even possible?”
“Mom said the changes the Skaperians made to my egg basket also affected my DNA. I have some regenerative properties.” Like a lizard. Good Lord, what if she started growing feathers? What was she thinking? She’d morph into freaking Big Bird if she could still live.
“Admiral, I don’t think any of the infirmaries on Erwar can handle this.”
Bei’s lip firmed. “They will have to.”
Nell slid her hands over his corded arm muscles. A flutter rippled through her stomach. If anyone could save her, he could. Her husband would cram a square peg into a round hole for her. “What about the sick bay on the Icarus?”
“How far away is the shuttle?”
“Mom is moving it closer.” Mom, where is the ship?
Just outside, dear, but there is a slight problem.
“The ship is just outside.” Nell tamped down her suspicions. If she really was hurt as badly as Bei indicated, she might not have made it on her own.
Bei’s eyebrows drew together. His attention bounced off her to land on Keyes. “I’m not picking up a signal.”
“Me either.”
Great, now she wasn’t only dying but crazy. Nell sighed. “The ship’s here. Mom is actively slithering around in my head. She doesn’t do that unless there’s a computer about, and this one just feels like ours.”
Keyes paused in the door. “I know the layout of the laboratory. I should be able to ping the Icarus from the elevator shaft.”
“Give me a medical inventory while you’re at it.” Bei smoothed Nell’s hair off her face.
Keyes opened her mouth then shut it. “Yes, Sir.”
Nell listened to her footsteps recede. Awkward and his twin, Really Awkward, coalesced in the space between them. Come on, Nell. Think of something. Don’t make your last moments together weird. “So… what have you been up to?”
Doh! That was just horrible. The words should have been meaningful, brilliant. Not the opening shot in a blind date.
Bei smiled and shook his head. “Got kidnapped by some bug-ugly aliens, reprogrammed, mined some ore, went to the pleasure rooms, staged a coup and arrived here in time to be rescued by my beautiful wife.”
She replayed the Cliff Notes in her head, then rewound them. Her pulse spiked on two words. “Pleasure rooms had better not mean what I think it does.”
“Do you think it means lots of food, hot showers and breeders?”
Unbelievable. She’d been swallowed by sand, stung by mopheads, nearly chop-sueyed by eight-foot tall mantises and shot by Scorpio and he… And he… She punched his shoulder. Her knuckles popped. “How could you have had a hot shower without me?”
He cupped her cheek. “I wish I hadn’t. I wish…”
“Hey, if you think you’re getting out of scrubbing my back, think again.”
“Never crossed my mind.” His voice broke over the last word.
Maybe she shouldn’t have mentioned her back. “I’ll be fine. Once we get aboard, you’ll patch me up, good as new.”
“I swear it.” He cocked his head. “Keyes is returning.”
His communication’s officer slammed to a stop against the door jamb. “The Icarus is outside and so are two ET ships. Admiral, we’ve got incoming.”
Chapter 29
Bei swore under his breath. He had a dozen exhausted children, two pregnant women, one hysterical man, and a severely injured wife to defend against incoming enemy soldiers.
They couldn’t return to the mines.
They must go forward.
Nell needed medical help. Desperately. The shuttle was her only hope.
“Prepare to move out.”
Keyes arched an eyebrow. “Where are we heading?”
He smiled. His communications officer wasn’t the only one with a map of the laboratory complex. Rising, he pointed to the map on the door. Dotted lines marked the evacuation routes, but the utility room near the elevator held his interest. “We should be able to hide everyone here.”
She nodded and plucked at her tunic. “I can stand watch. Give the all clear.”
“The hell you will.” Rome appeared behind his wife. “These kids start to cry when I look at them. And that guy, Pet, he just bawls like a lost calf. I’ll keep watch; you muzzle the civilians.”
Keyes jammed her fists on her hips.
Bei rubbed his temple. This wasn’t a democracy, it was a chain of command. “Get the civilians ready. Now.”
The two disappeared into the hall. A moment later, fabric rustled and feet shuffled.
Nell cleared her throat. “If you help me up, I might be able to walk to the elevator. I don’t think it is too far from here.”
“Stay put.” No way would she walk. Hell, he didn’t even know if she could. The flesh had burned away from her back, exposing her spine and ribs. He could see her heart beating in her pericardial sac and the cross sections of her lungs and kidneys. God only knew what other damage she’d suffered. He didn’t know how everything stayed in place, only that he was thankful it did. “I’ll carry you.”
Her eyes darkened for a moment. “Mom says you should carry me piggyback.”
Dropping
to the floor, he backed toward her. “Open your legs.”
“I love it when you talk dirty.” Her face scrunched up as she used her hands to separate her legs.
“You’re never going to let me forget I took a hot shower, are you?” Wetness dampened the seat of his trousers. Nell’s blood. He was tempted to suck it up, clean the fluid and put it back. She might need it later.
“Not until you make it up to me.” Wrapping her arms around his torso, she snuggled up to his back.
He adjusted her legs around his waist, crossed them at the ankles. Sensors relayed her low body temperature and thready pulse. His wife was hanging in there. Barely. She had to make it. She had to. He wrapped his hands around her thighs. “Ready?”
“Just a minute.” Her warm breath puffed passed his ears. “Mom is blathering on about electrical impulses and locking everything in place.”
Ahh. Mom had used Nell’s own chemical energy to create a miniature shield. He hoped the cerebral interface could maintain it for the trip to the shuttle. Her electrolyte balance was at dangerously low levels.
Nell rested her chin on his shoulder. “Done.”
Holding tight, he rolled his legs under his body then rose. His wife’s body remained wrapped around him. “You still with me?”
“Hmmm. Tired.”
He strode to the door. The words urging her to rest spring-boarded on his tongue. But what if she never awoke? Yet, sleeping would give Mom more energy to work with. “I love you, Nell Stafford.”
She mumbled and a soft snore washed down his bare chest.
He could have sworn she said vampire, but that made no sense.
Balancing one boy on his shoulder, Rome carried two toddlers under his arms. He made an odd sound as he staggered from one side of the corridor to the other. “Pull up. Pull up. We’re going to crash.”
Each one giggled, squirmed, and kicked. The boy on his shoulder steered by turning Rome’s head.
The five and six-year olds bounced around him wanting their turn.
“Nell taught him airplane.” Waiting outside the door, Keyes balanced a toddler on each hip.
The man called Pet carried a sleeping girl in his arms. Ruth urged the stragglers to walk faster.
Bei moved into step behind the little girl. He’d keep his promises to Job. No one would be left behind. And after he registered, he’d return for the rest of the Deutche clan.
A tremor traveled through the floor. A moment later an aftertaste of nitrate hit the back of his throat. Someone had used Rome’s explosives.
The security officer glanced over his shoulder and frowned.
The fight had turned. Which way, Bei couldn’t tell.
Sucking on her bottom lip, Ruth turned to look over her shoulder.
Keyes slowed. “Should we…”
Bei shook his head. First the registration, then the rescue. No more delays. “I’ve seen video clips of airplanes. They do not make that sound unless they are going to crash.”
“I think that is part of the fun.”
Twenty meters ahead, Rome turned down a corridor.
The civilian cortege slogged behind him.
Keyes eyed him over the head of one dozing toddler. “Bei, we don’t have the medical supplies on board the Icarus to fix Nell Stafford. I don’t know if anyone can fix her.”
“I’ll fix her.” The hair on his skin stood up. Sensors registered a slow power draw on his systems. Nell. She was using his energy reservoirs to keep herself intact. Alive.
“NDA.” Nell muttered.
Keyes adjusted her hold on one sleeping child. “Did she just say NDA?”
“She’s sleeping.” Why would his wife be talking about their skin, their neodynamic armor? He turned the corner.
Rome and the others stood by the elevator in the middle of the passageway. He handed off the toddlers to the women before lifting the boy from his shoulders. “You stay here. When the coast is clear, I’ll send the lift down.”
The skin over Bei’s cerebral interface tightened.
Acquiring network signal. Signal acquired. Welcome back, Admiral.
Hail, Icarus. What’s the status of ET?
The elevator doors rumbled open. Rome reached for the drawstrings holding up his pants.
Keyes’s voice popped into Bei’s head. Hey, there are young ones present.
Right, don’t want to scare anyone. Pivoting, Rome dropped his trousers, presenting everyone with his bare backside. He quickly disappeared as his skin switched into camouflage mode. Better?
ET’s ships are estimated to touchdown in sixty-two seconds.
How long until the elevator reaches the top? Bei held up his hand before Rome touched the control panel.
Thirty-four seconds at maximum capacity.
Plenty of time, and only one chance. “Everyone inside.”
Everyone raced for the elevator. The two women arranged the children, packing them in tightly.
Holding his trousers over his invisible privates, Rome yelped. “Watch the toes.”
Six seconds later, Bei entered, keeping Nell’s back out of sight. Overriding the elevator’s programming, he forced the doors closed and the lift creaked upward.
Can’t this thing go any faster? Rome shimmered into view. I could have climbed and been there already.
And speaking of arriving… Bei caught the eye of each adult civilian. “Once we arrive, we’ll need to hide in a utility closet.”
The women blinked.
Which word wasn’t used anymore? Bei scrapped them all. “Exit the elevator, turn right and enter the first door. We need to be quick and quiet.”
Ruth tugged on his trouser leg. “Scraptors?”
The children shifted closer, held each other’s hands.
He could lie, spare them the truth. But he needed their silence, and they had a right to know. “Yes.”
Pet wiped his snotty nose on the back of his hand. “I can fight.”
The women nodded. “So can we. No more Deutche children in the mines.”
Admiral, I count seventy-two Scraptors and four Municians between the two vessels.
Keyes shrugged. With those numbers, it’s close to a fair fight.
“No. Thank you.” The elevator slowed. “We hide in the closet and don’t draw their attention.” Nell can’t afford the delay.
Understood. Keyes shifted her attention to Nell. How is she?
She’ll make it. The elevator doors opened and he backed out.
ET will touchdown in twenty….nineteen…
I’m on it. “Hold these for me.” The security officer handed off his trousers to the boy he carried, then shimmered out of sight.
The boy hugged them tight. “I want to do that when I get older.”
Orderly, yet rushing, the civilians hustled outside, turned right.
Fifteen…
Pet reached the door first. He yanked on the knob. “It’s locked.”
“I’ll get it.” The crowd parted before Keyes. She twisted.
The tumblers sheered in half and the door opened with a creak.
Pet rushed inside.
Ten.
Bei, ET is rolling out the welcome ramp.
They’re almost inside. Bei crowded the civilians toward the room.
“Can you hold this for me, Ruth?” When the little girl nodded, Keyes camouflaged herself and undressed. She draped her tunic over Ruth’s head.
The little girl pulled it off and slid inside the closet.
Bei stepped inside and pulled the door closed behind him.
Touchdown, Admiral.
The door popped open.
I got it, Admiral. Keyes eased the door closed.
Bei felt her presence on the other side. Breathing swirled in the cramped space. Small hands pressed against his legs. Bei transferred part of his consciousness into the Wireless Array. A digitalized version of his bridge appeared then rippled away.
I apologize, Admiral, but fuel reserves are critical. I cannot maintain visual. Aud
io only.
He could work with audio. How far can you travel?
With current life support levels, I can travel seven hundred kilometers.
Only one answer mattered. Enough to reach the Erwar Consortium?
Yes, Sir.
Good. Set course and prepare to punch it upon my command. Bei’s sensors flared red. Nell’s heart rate plummeted. Report, Rome.
Twelve bug-uglies and two stink-bugs are just standing on the ramp.
We need to get on the Icarus. Bei stiffened. Nell’s blood pressure dropped to forty over ten. She’s beginning to crash.
Fuck, Bei. I could get their attention and you could make a run for it. Rome’s irritation flooded the WA.
Negative. Her life signs are holding. Low, but holding. For how long, he didn’t know. Didn’t intend to find out.
Bei, the idiots are returning to their ship. Engines are powering up and kicking dust. I suggest we make a run for it, while their visuals are obscured or the assholes change their mind.
Agreed. Bei signaled the Icarus to lower her ramp. “When I open the door I want everyone to run as fast as you can after the naked people.”
Rome snorted. Naked people? I’m a Syn-En soldier, not a naked people.
Just haul ass, sweet cheeks. Opening the door, Keyes winked at Bei.
Ruth handed her the tunic. “Do we follow you?”
“My husband, sweetie.” Taking it, Keyes slipped the shirt over her head.
Partially obscured by the dust, Rome cupped his hands over his mouth. “Everyone hold hands with the person in front and behind you. Move fast and keep your mouth and eyes closed.”
“The youngest. They won’t be able to keep up.” Pet took the anchor position but didn’t set down his child.
“We have them.” Keyes loaded up with three toddlers and headed out.
The last toddler raised his arms to Bei and opened and closed his fingers.
Holding Nell’s ankles in one hand, he picked the boy up by his waistband.
Spittle flew as the boy made crashing airplane noises.
Hand to wrist, the adults and children created a human chain. Ruth reached the Chief first then the two disappeared into the orange haze.
In the middle of the line, Keyes walked beside the youngest.
Bei covered their six. Closing his eyes, he brought on his infrared sensors. The two ships hovered a hundred meters overhead. The Icarus used her turbines to keep the screen up. Why wasn’t ET moving away?
Syn-En: Registration Page 20
