“He worked in medical with Doctor Surnen. I can vouch for the doc. He’s arrogant, but he’s no traitor. He nearly worked himself to death trying to figure out what was going on with Maxim. At first he was a misogynistic jerk, but he’s grown on me and I think I may have changed his perspective on some things. As for the rest of your questions, I don’t know, but we can find out.”
“Yes, we can.” Our gazes locked and I knew she was all-in. “But first I need armor, and a gun.”
Rachel told me to strip and led me to the S-Gen pad where she ordered armor and then helped me get into it. I looked good, and the armor was surprisingly lightweight and flexible. Formfitting and maneuverable. Rachel gave me a critical once-over and nodded. “Good. The armor will deflect basic ion blasts, but that’s all I know about it.”
I pulled the small, silver ion blaster from its holster on my thigh and felt my face practically crack in half, my smile was so big. It felt good to hold a weapon again, to know it was to help track down a bad guy and end him. “Do you know how to fire this thing?”
She shook her head. “I’m a lab nerd. Sorry.”
With a shrug, I turned, pointed at the reading chair and fired. An explosion of sound accompanied the chair bursting into flames, the fluffy guts that I’d once sat upon floating through the air like glowing cinders from a wood fire riding a breeze.
“Excellent.”
Chapter Twelve
Kristin
It was even better than my Glock 23. Lighter, a smoother trigger, less kick. Way more powerful. I could get used to having it.
“Woman, you are bat-shit crazy.” Rachel chuckled as the door slid open and all six guards rushed into the room with their own weapons drawn and aimed at the now smoking chair.
I ignored them, looking up into her laughing eyes. “Does that mean we can’t be besties?”
“Hell no. I like you even better now that you shot the shit out of your chair.”
I laughed, completely happy for the first time in days. Freedom sang through my veins like the sweetest poison. I knew I was going to have to face down my mates over this, but I was tired of sitting around like a bump on a log. I’d talked and talked about it, but while they heard me, they hadn’t listened. If I was going to make a go of our match, then I had to be myself. If I allowed them to keep me locked up and safe, then I’d be spending the rest of my life in this damn room. And if Tyran wanted to spank me later…well, it would be worth it. And, I wasn’t completely opposed to that since I liked it every time he’d done it so far. “Good. Let’s go.”
We headed for the door but Captain Marz stepped in front of me. I knew he was new to the Colony from what my mates had told me. Him and the dark eyed Everian Hunter next to him. They were shoulder to shoulder, their features nothing alike—Marz was Prillon and the other looked like a human, just bigger…a lot bigger. Both of them frowned at me, but it was the Captain who spoke. “What do you believe you are doing, Lady Zakar?”
I lifted a brow. “I’m going to go shake down a few people, find out what’s going on around here. Find our missing warriors.” I made a show of putting the blaster back in its holster on my thigh before lifting my head to look up at them both again. Way up. The Hunter, Kiel was his name, was trying to hide a grin, and failing. The Captain, however, was far from amused. I didn’t look behind them at the other men. Hell, I couldn’t see around them, they were too dang big. The Atlan in the back was beyond huge, but I knew Marz was in charge by the way the others let him do all the talking. He was the one I needed to convince, so I looked at him.
“I don’t think your mates would approve,” he said.
“I don’t need their permission.” I crossed my arms as Rachel came to stand behind me. “I do need your help.” That was the truth. I needed all the manpower I could get and I assumed alien power would be even better. “You can either stay here, bored out of your minds watching my door, or you can come along, protect me and Lady Rone, and maybe do a little hunting of your own. One of your men is missing, too. Captain Perro?”
I had him. I knew it when his eyes narrowed and he took a deep, deep breath, the kind you take when you’re about to say something you know you shouldn’t. “Lead the way.”
Rachel looked at me. “Where do you want to start?”
“Krael’s personal quarters.”
She nodded. “I know where he was staying.”
Rachel nodded to Captain Marz as she passed and the other warriors fell into step behind her. The three who weren’t part of Marz’s group looked like they were about to argue, but Warlord Rezzer crossed his arms and said one word.
“Move.”
The unknown Prillon closest to the Atlan opened his mouth, closed it, looked at Captain Marz, who was already waving them away.
“Two of you stay here and make sure no one gets into Lady Zakar’s rooms. You,” he pointed to the third, “Go back to command and tell the governor where we’re headed.”
“Yes, sir.”
After that, everyone fell into line and I followed Rachel through about a quarter mile of corridors and covered walkways. The entire base was enclosed due to severe lightning storms that struck, sometimes with little to no warning. I hadn’t seen much yet, except the inside of my room, and I was eager to explore.
Beyond the corridors, outside the Base, I saw endless rocky landscapes and ravines dotted by buildings in a circular grid. I knew from my reading that there were vertical housing units, training facilities, but mostly mining. There was an element on this planet I’d never heard of. Apparently, it was rare, so unstable they couldn’t use their S-Gen technology to create it, and absolutely necessary for the operation of their transport stations.
Which made me angry. They’d taken their wounded veterans, those who carried Hive technology, the survivors, and sent them to this Colony planet to be miners?
Really? That was the best they could come up with? Hunt explained to me that there were seven bases on the planet, and three of them were completely underground.
Like any bride from Earth was going to want wind up there. Not that I spoke the thought aloud. I didn’t need to. My mates had felt my dislike for that idea through the collars. Then again, maybe it was just me. There could be a spelunker from back home who wouldn’t mind living like a bat in a cave. But that she was not me.
Rachel knew her way around and we were before a closed door just a few minutes later. Krael’s quarters. The Hunter, Kiel, moved to the front and stood before it. He took several deep breaths, moving his head around the edges and the control panel as if he was some kind of bloodhound.
The process was both fascinating and weird and drove home the fact that I wasn’t on Earth anymore, that these guys were all aliens.
“Your mates have been here,” Kiel opened his eyes and stared down at me like I’d have some kind of explanation.
I shrugged. “That’s not surprising, considering they’ve been looking for the missing men.”
Kiel shook his head and looked over my shoulder, sharing a look with Captain Marz, who stood behind me like a towering oak. “What is it?” Marz asked.
“They were not alone.”
Cold jelly fingers wrapped around my heart from the inside and I fought to remain still. “Tell me. I can see it in your eyes that something’s wrong.” I glared at the Hunter, daring him to lie. “Tell me.”
Kiel didn’t look at Marz again, which won him brownie points with me just as Warlord Rezzer growled and took a step closer to Rachel. Distracted, I turned to look at the Atlan and saw the bones in his face appear to shift under his skin. His shoulders bulked up, but just when I thought I was going to get to see my first Atlan beast, he stopped changing, stuck in some kind of half-way in between. The one word he spoke, however, killed every ounce of curiosity I had.
“Hive.”
Kiel nodded when I turned back to him.
“Hive? Here?”
The half-beast growled again, the sound almost loud enough to drown out the poundin
g of my pulse inside my ears.
Kiel leaned into the door and took another slow, measured breath. “Yes. True Hive. An Integration Unit and at least two Soldiers.” His eyes darkened, looking resigned. “And Perro. He was with them, too.”
I had absolutely no idea how he knew this by just starting at a door and the entry control panel, but I was impressed. Not happy about his findings, but definitely impressed.
“By the gods.” Marz pulled his gun free and I followed suit, my adrenaline pumping. This hunt was on full-throttle now. “Were they with Hunt and Tyran?”
With a nod, Kiel activated his comm device and spoke to someone in Base 3 command. “What is the current location of Captains Treval and Zakar?”
There was a long pause on the other end, but eventually the Prillon warrior that Marz had sent back to base answered. I had a thing for voices, and I recognized his. “They are several hours overdue. There are two search teams out looking for them now.”
What?
A scream built in my throat, but I didn’t let it out. I didn’t want to scare these big, bad aliens with a screech that would surely make their ears bleed. “My mates are missing, and no one bothered to tell me?”
Rachel stepped up next to me and put her hand on my arm. I didn’t want to be touched, but I held still, forced myself to behave. “We’ll find them.”
Kiel thanked the officer and turned away from the door, walking off in a direction that looked like it went…well, absolutely nowhere.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“Your mates were taken this way. Do you want to go with me now, or stay here and wait to summon assistance?”
Forget waiting. My mates were missing and Kiel knew which way they went? Yeah, no decision making needed. “Let’s go.” I hurried to catch up, Warlord Rezzer and Captain Marz falling in step behind me. Rachel, however, hung back. I glanced over my shoulder. “What’s up?”
She tilted her head and put her hands on her hips. “I’m going to go back and get some help. We’ll be right behind you.”
I nodded and looked down as I took my first steps off the manufactured walkways of the Base and onto hard red rock. A few random shrubs struggled to survive in the rocky terrain and suddenly I didn’t feel like I was home at all. I felt like I was on Mars, and the two most important people on the planet were out there lost in the maze of rock and caves. No, not lost. Taken. They needed me.
I’d only been loved, really loved, by my mates for a few days but that was long enough for me to know I wasn’t willing to give that up. I was addicted, and I was going to get them back.
* * *
Tyran, Hive Containment Cell, The Colony
I woke to the sound of boots approaching, the sound traveling through the stone beneath me to rumble up into my ears. Whoever was coming was big, heavy, and an enemy. Next to me on the cold stone floor of our cell, Hunt blinked slowly, the reality of our situation jolting him awake.
We heard shouts, a fight, feet sliding over the hard floor. An ion blast. They were taking whoever was in the cell next to ours. They were going to torture him, integrate him. Make him fully Hive.
Anger roiled through me, but I had no outlet. We couldn’t save whoever it was. There was nothing we could do but hope they destroyed him quickly.
“They’ll be coming for us. Not right now, but soon.”
Yes, they would be busy for a little while.
“Fuck,” I breathed. “I know.” I twisted my fingers, popping the broken bones back into proper alignment so I could use them again. Pain wouldn’t stop me. No doubt Doctor Surnen would give me a hard time about it, but if we made it out of here alive, I was more than willing to take that verbal attack.
“We have to get out of here before any more get dragged away. Warn the others.” Hunt rolled his head around on his neck, stretching, waking up, getting ready to fight. “At least one of us,” he said, his words uttered through a clenched jaw.
I knew that, too. The warriors sent to the Colony had been made a promise, a promise that they would never again have to fear Hive Integration. That for them, the war was over. That they were safe.
Which was a lie. The Hive Soldiers who ambushed us had been on Base 3, walking the perimeter of Section 9 like they belonged there. No alarms went off, no guards yelled a warning. We’d even approached them with a casualness of new acquaintances, as fellow members of the community, not as the enemy. They circled and we’d been unprepared, weapons still in their holsters. Ambushed. Taken.
No wonder so many men were missing. There had been no warning. No gun fight. No battle. Nothing but surprise. And we’d fallen for it, too.
Fuck. The Hive shouldn’t be able to destroy us. We’d thought ourselves beyond all that. The Colony was a far-flung planet with very little to offer a conquering horde. We had no need to lock doors or fear attack. We were deep in Coalition space. We should have been safe.
We weren’t.
Down here in this pseudo prison, we’d discovered the truth about our missing warriors. They were gone, either dead or fully integrated into the Hive’s control system. Even now, Captain Perro paced in front of our prison cell, no expression in his eyes. The man he used to be was gone. Depending on how one wanted to look at it, the others, the dead men lining the halls, got off easier. At least they were free. Their suffering was over. They hadn’t been turned into the enemy, into everything we’d fought against.
We were honorable and being turned into the Hive was the cruelest of fates. Death was better.
We hadn’t been integrated yet as the other missing men had, but our time would come. The cut on Hunt’s head oozed and he wobbled a bit as he tried to sit up. No doubt he had a concussion. The way he was moving his arm, rotating it around, testing it, I figured he probably dislocated the joint. He’d done it once before, in a battle in Sector 17. They’d put him in the regeneration pod after for it to heal, but he still rubbed it once in a while, as if chasing a phantom ache.
I’d fared better today. I only had three broken fingers and a few broken ribs. I’d had worse. Much worse. I could still fight. Soon, that would be the only thing that mattered.
Our wounds were all easily healed by a ReGen wand, which we didn’t have.
They’d stripped us of everything. Ion pistols, comm units, healers. We still wore our armor, but otherwise we’d be naked. I wasn’t modest. I didn’t give a shit if the Hive and the traitors saw my naked ass. But I was grateful we still had our armor. From past experience I knew that once the armor was removed, the real pain began.
“This is wrong.” Hunt leaned his back against the wall with a sigh, and using the cold stone to steady him, he closed his eyes. “I refuse to believe fate would be so cruel.”
I knew, without asking I knew he was talking about out mate. We’d just found her, tasted her, made her ours. We’d just begun to heal and become whole again.
I sighed and leaned back next to him, shoulder to shoulder as we’d faced everything the last few years. “Maybe she was a final gift.” I’d been thinking about our mate, beyond grateful that she’d been mine, even if it was only for a short time. I didn’t care about anything but Kristin’s safety, her care. If we died, another would care for her. She was beautiful and perfect, impossible not to love. And thank fuck, she wasn’t here.
She was safe at Base 3 with the governor, his slew of guards, with the others.
The truth would come out eventually. I had confidence in our fellow warriors. They would discover this place and destroy it, although I wasn’t sure if it would happen before or after they tried to integrate us into the Hive.
Back and forth I watched our lone guard pace. Captain Perro had been completely turned into a Hive Soldier. While he looked somewhat like himself—physique, hair color, appearance, that was it. He was a machine, a warrior, but with full Hive frequencies rattling around in his head until there was nothing else left. His brain was gone. He was no longer Perro.
He’d survived the ruthless torture of
the Hive once, but to have suffered through it again knowing he wouldn’t escape? That wasn’t just torture, it was madness. “I won’t let them remake me into the enemy. They’ll have to kill me.”
Chapter Thirteen
Tyran
Hunt snarled at my words. “Shut up. We’re going to be smart about this. They don’t know how strong you are, what was done to you. We’ll get out of here, and then we’ll kill the traitor.”
“How could we not know about Krael, about his treachery?” That’s what I wanted to know. He’d lived among us, worked among us. He had friends. Why had he turned? And turned he had indeed. He was acting of his own free will, not controlled internally and automatically by the Hive menace. I’d seen the bastard walking around, giving orders.
I wanted to kill him. But first, we had to get out of this cell. And to do that, we had to either figure out how to walk through solid rock, or discover a way to get around the force field trapping us here. I’d stopped trying to find ways past the shimmering energy field blocking the front of our rock cell, that energy the sole barrier keeping us imprisoned for the past few hours. Had it been hours? Days? How long had we slept?
Deep in the cave, there was no sense of time. Nothing for us to gauge how long we’d been held, how long until they would come for us. How long it would be until our transformations were complete. They’d started on us once before, but we’d escaped. Soon they’d finish us.
I’d tried to get out. Yeah, there was no fucking way to escape. Thick rock on three sides with the fourth deceivingly open. It was like the Atlan cells, with an impenetrable field of energy even an Atlan beast couldn’t break through. It wasn’t about strength, but science. I knew what happened when touching it; I was lucky only my fingers were broken. I could have lost a hand if I’d pressed against the invisible field too hard.
“It was our jobs to know,” Hunt replied.
I turned my head, looked at my friend, my fellow warrior, my fellow mate. “There was no way we could have known. We trusted one another too much. Without Lady Rone, we might never have discovered the deception. Maxim didn’t know. He’s the governor and still had no idea. Unless you are implying he was in on it?”
Mated To The Cyborgs (Interstellar Brides: The Colony Book 2) Page 11
