“We’re a high-maintenance species.” Velia snorted. “Another obstacle down. Too many to count to go.”
The most dangerous was yet to come. Again, Jape considered giving up the portal access, so he could hope to keep Velia safe.
Do you believe this Earthling warrior will quit now?
Not in a million years.
Velia led him out of the small area before the elivayter. They emerged in an empty corridor that stretched far to the left, and to a T-junction only yards in the opposite direction. Jape recognized the area—he’d been led through it after his detention in the portal chamber.
Steps away. With all the warriors and their weapons, it could have been miles. Yet obstacles or not, danger or not, pain or not, the mission had to be completed. He didn’t hesitate when Velia led him toward the hall’s end.
She paused before a closed door. When she used the flat rectangular card that gave her access to locked places, they winced and readied for warriors to run around the corners to confront them. The buzz and click of the mechanism seemed loud in the quiet of the section.
No one challenged them. Velia eased the door open and they slipped into the dark environs.
“Storage closets and offices galore.” Velia chuckled. “I never noticed the amount of space we seem to need until you mentioned it. At least they make good hiding places. Here, take the passkey.” She handed Jape the red rectangle.
“Have I told you how wonderful you are?” He’d been such a fool to think her helpless before. He’d never stop kicking himself for not seeing the real Velia Farrah.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because it’s true. I’m glad we’re on the same side, Velia. I’m glad I figured things out.”
She stood on tiptoe to kiss him, and he gratefully accepted, holding her tight and trying not to think it might be for the last time.
She molded to his body. “I’m glad we figured things out too, Jape.”
“Stay safe so I can pay the debt I owe you.”
“A reward? In that case, you’d better live through this too.” She winked and kissed him again, warming him from mane to foot.
I may be in love with this Earthling. I have gone insane—and, All-Spirit, I’m happy about it.
He grinned despite his hearts drumming faster, knowing what they’d have to win to be together. How could he not laugh at himself, even now, to discover he could change not just his mind, but his hearts as well?
A lot had to happen before he could show Velia how he felt. The moment of joy faded, replaced by determination to accomplish the mission. “Be careful, Velia.” He cupped her face in his palm, desperate to feel her once more.
She leaned into the contact for an instant. “You too, Jape. I—” Her voice caught, as if she’d stopped herself from saying something. “I want us to have that chance we talked about.”
Before he could respond, she slipped out of the room, pulling the door closed until only a sliver of the corridor’s light seeped in. Enough for Jape to watch her walk to the T-junction, heading for the warriors guarding the underground access to the hayn-grr on the left, and the portal chamber on the other.
Jape readied capture field and shooter, in case she got into trouble. He watched her reach the other hall, square her shoulders, and step forward so she could be seen.
“Hi, guys! Miss me?”
“It’s Farrah! Halt! Hands up!”
Velia turned and ran. She raced past. Barely a second later, six warriors tore after her, their booted feet pounding down the hall after her. Sirens split the air.
All-Spirit, keep her safe. After allowing a few seconds for the warriors to put some distance from him, Jape stepped out of the office.
He didn’t give himself the chance to overthink. Instead, he hurried to the corridor’s branch-off, hugging the wall until the first guard next to the entrance to the hayn-grr came in sight. The man had enough time to twitch, but that was all, before Jape hit him with the capture field. The other guard went with even less notice of trouble, though he appeared alert and ready in the wake of Velia’s sudden appearance.
Jape grimaced. Would General Thomas still believe the Monsuda to be benefactors if he realized such a tool had been withheld? It had left the whole installation vulnerable to two people, one who had not trained to be a soldier. Thomas would be a fool if he thought the Monsuda were his allies after tonight.
As he mused on the willful blindness of others that exceeded his own, Jape silently crossed to the other side of the hall. The guards standing at the entrance to the portal chamber hadn’t yet noted their compatriots weren’t moving, not blinking.
It was the man named Hudson who almost got a shot off. The instant Jape appeared, the Earthling dropped to the ground, his weapon coming up as he yelled. Jape managed to freeze him in mid-crouch and froze the female warrior Conner as well. She’d been in the act of crouching and aiming too.
“I am glad I didn’t have to kill any of you,” he said. They couldn’t understand him, because his CPP had been confiscated. He made do with an apologetic smile as he floated the four warriors into the room that smelled of old food. He sat them around the table in the middle of the space.
He left the capture field transmitter on the table. He didn’t want them running out and being killed. With Velia’s passkey, he locked them in, leaving them frozen in their seats.
Jape moved fast then, fearing someone would check on the warriors as the alarms continued to wail. He accessed the portal chamber with the passkey and raced straight for the portal ring’s controls.
Until a few weeks prior, Risnarish scientists had believed the portal could not activate unless a pod was in place, loaded with passengers, and ready to go. However, Salno and other engineers had discovered a program used in case a collection pod had to be recalled remotely.
Salno had given Velia the complex sequence of buttons to push, along with instructions of where on the buttons to apply pressure. A complicated series, no doubt meant to ensure the portal was not activated by accident.
Hoping he remembered the exact pattern Velia’d given him, Jape tapped the multicolored buttons. He hit the last, staring at the space where the portal should flare to life.
The seconds slowed, turning into forever between the instant he depressed the edge of the button and when golden fire burst from the middle of the portal ring and flashed out wide. Jape gasped and staggered from the podium. A part of him had been sure it wouldn’t work, that he and Velia had risked everything for nothing.
He didn’t have time to marvel at the accomplishment. On the other side of the portal, the Cas pod would be moving into the channel, readying for a journey to Earth. A journey it would reverse when its diagnostics detected its destination was no longer available. The pod had a failsafe that kept it from remaining in the vortex.
Jape powered the charging dock Salno had sent with Velia. Backing toward the exit, he aimed and threw it at the seething gold flames.
Still moving, he watched the charger fly, a small object disappearing into the brilliant maw of the passage.
A horrific screech, like metal scraping metal, ripped through the air. Jape cried out, his ears shutting tight to block the deafening shriek. It still drilled into his skull, the outraged cry of a monster.
He turned tail and shot to the door. A huge metal panel covered in Monsudan writing was moving in from the surrounding walls, closing to block off the sole exit from the chamber, to keep the coming blast from destroying the rest of the facility.
For a couple of mane-stiffening moments, Jape fought to turn the knob. When he finally succeeded in doing so, the door swung open two feet, and then started to close again, forced to do so by the closing metal panels.
With a shout that was silent in the din of the coming explosion, Jape wrenched the door, breaking the hollow-core barrier from top to bottom against the inexorably closing pan
el. He shot through, the thick metal pinching the tip of his toeless foot before he snatched himself free.
Jape ran, not caring he might meet up with a squadron of armed Earthlings. The metal reinforcement would be enough to protect the corridor once it closed, but he wasn’t waiting to test that certainty.
A thunderous blast sounded behind him as he sped as fast as he could go, the ground bucking under his flying feet. He didn’t check if the protective panels held. If they hadn’t, he’d know soon enough. And then he wouldn’t.
* * *
Velia crouched inside the motor pool’s garage, peering out the open door. In the distance, sirens blared. Men shouted. Boots occasionally thundered outside the shelter.
I shouldn’t have left Jape. I should have met up with him at the shack instead of telling him to come here.
The blast announcing the portal entrance’s destruction had been fifteen endless minutes prior. It had been plenty to divert the Marines hunting for her toward the secure area.
She’d eluded them, drawing them out of the red section and reversing course to confuse them. Velia’s endless rambles around the base before building her sandrail had given her an edge, revealing perfect places to hide. The soldiers had passed only feet away no less than a dozen times, never spying her.
But Jape doesn’t know Noname’s nooks and crannies. Maybe my directions weren’t clear enough. Maybe he was caught. With soldiers everywhere, it was a valid concern.
She hung her hopes on the absence of gunfire. She wouldn’t think about how she wouldn’t have heard any if Jape was discovered underground. Most especially, she would not allow herself to consider that he hadn’t escaped the portal chamber before it exploded.
Fifteen minutes. That’s not so long for him to still be out there. It just feels like forever.
It’s long enough for General Thomas and the other commanding officers to settle the chaos down. Order will be restored at any moment, and they’ll systematically search the grounds. They might have already begun.
Where are you, Jape?
No sooner had she thought it, she spied a large, dark figure moving in her direction, skulking in the shadows of the building nearest to the garage. It rushed through a patch of lighting, and Velia recognized the pointed ears swiveling like satellite dishes scanning for a signal, the head-to-toe stripes. He’d ditched his food-worker whites.
“Jape!” It took all her control to whisper instead of screaming his name.
She moved to the edge of the garage’s shadow so he could see her waiting for him. He raced across the last no-man’s land of lighting. She flung herself at him. In an instant, she was in his arms, clutching his mane, kissing his face, and crying over him.
“Thank God. Thank God,” she breathed over and over.
“Velia. I feared I’d get here and you wouldn’t be waiting. That they would have caught you, and I’d never find you.” He held her close so that she could hear the pounding of his two hearts.
She could have stood there forever, delighting in his presence, in his having escaped the portal’s destruction, but shouts in the distance reminded her they were far from out of trouble. She reluctantly pushed him.
“We need to go before it’s too late. A lot of people know the sandrail is in here.”
He released her but hovered as if he’d snatch her to him again. Needing contact as much as he did, Velia grabbed his hand and led him into the garage. They hurried through the rows of parked vehicles.
She noted how he winced as he climbed into the sandrail. It was on the tip of Velia’s tongue to ask Jape how bad his injury really was, but there was no help for any health concerns at the moment. She had to get him out of Camp Noname.
She fired up the vehicle, expecting General Thomas and the Marines to thunder in as the engine roared. Jape’s ears shut, but he made no complaint. Instead, he grabbed the padded rail in front of his seat.
“Good idea,” Velia said. “Hang on.”
She tore out of the garage, giving up secrecy for speed. Velia ignored the road to the gate, where no doubt armed soldiers would have been told to shoot first and ask no questions ever. Instead, she headed for a section of fence where patrols passed by every fifteen minutes or so.
It came into view, with no guards in the immediate vicinity to challenge them. Velia didn’t bother checking either side or behind for pursuit. It would come, and all the checking in the world wouldn’t stop it. They were fugitives on the run, and running was all she could concentrate on at the moment.
“Your shooter. Can you use it to take the fence out?” She was coming up on the razor wire-topped chain-link fast, squinting at the silvery mesh beneath security lights.
Jape stayed silent. Grim-faced he fiddled with the device. Unsure if he’d be ready before the sandrail collided with the barrier, Velia floored it and hunched low.
Of course this was the one time I forgot to put my helmet on. I hope the belt guards against blunt-force trauma.
Jape leaned out the side of the buggy, pointing his weapon at the fence, now only feet away. He opened fire. White spray flung wide before the vehicle, splattering against the metal and setting it glowing with white-hot flares. Flames licked along a swath of the metal seconds before Velia hit it.
Metal-on-metal screeching filled her ears, joining in with the roar of the engine as the fence gave before the sandrail’s bumper. For an instant, the vehicle slowed, catching on the steel. Then it bludgeoned through, and they were out of the inner perimeter, flying over hard pack sand.
Jape unleashed a triumphant howl as they left behind the flood of lights, racing off into the darkness beyond. Velia wanted to join him. They’d gotten this far against the odds, and that was worth cheering about. However, the drones and fighter jets would be scrambled soon, outfitted with heat-seeking sensors that would pinpoint them even in the void of black that the desert was at the deepest of night.
She slapped on the wonderful night goggles gifted by the Monsuda, collected from the labs in the red section as she’d dodged the Marines. They rendered the desert day-dazzling before her, with all its landmarks she knew so well.
“Hang on tight,” she told Jape. “We’re taking the bumpy route.”
She floored it, racing to make their escape stick, sending the buggy in the air as much as on the patches of soft desert sand.
* * *
“We’re here.”
Jape couldn’t summon any joy over Velia’s announcement. After an hour of enduring the jolts of her vehicle’s bouncing, the pain in his back had tripled. All he felt was relief that they had stopped. He peered at his surroundings, though there was little to see with only stars to light their surroundings.
Velia patted his arm. “Stay put. I’ll come around and lead you.”
Shuffling, creaking noises from where she’d sat. Dry swishes circled the front of the vehicle Jape had decided he hated more than anything in the universe. Even more than the Monsuda.
Her breath, warm against his cheek. “Remember to duck your head so you don’t give yourself a concussion.”
Jape moved gingerly, somehow finding the ability to appreciate her hand on the top of his head, guiding him so that he didn’t add to his woes. A moan escaped from between his clenched teeth as he planted his feet on the shifting ground beneath him and straightened.
“What is it?” Velia’s worried voice carried in the breeze moving about them.
So close to their objective, he was ready to admit it. “I downplayed my injuries at the base.”
“Crap, Jape. How bad? Can you hold on until we reach the cave?”
“Yeah, I can make it.”
“Okay. Let’s do this.”
More fumbling. A hissing sound. A sudden glow that emitted from a rectangle of silver lying on the sandy ground. The light grew, becoming a gold-tinged oval stretching vertical, reaching as tall as
Jape.
He was more interested in who the light showed. Velia was at his side, staring up at him anxiously with her goggled eyes. Her concern for him was as beautiful as the smile he cherished.
“No problem. I can step through a short-hop portal without any trouble,” he assured her. Holding her hand, he did that, pulling her along with him.
They emerged in a low-ceilinged cave that allowed a bare inch between its rough surface and the top of Jape’s head. Velia had told him it was ninety miles from where she’d left the ground-bound buggy device. Hopefully, the military wouldn’t be able to find them.
She bent to switch off the short-distance portal mechanism, sending him into darkness. “Hopefully, the sand will cover the other, so no one finds it. Not that they’re likely to figure out how it works, but I hate trusting to luck.”
“We used our fair share of that tonight,” Jape agreed. He laughed despite the anguish of his injury.
“What’s so funny?” Velia, with her night vision goggles, was moving about the space.
“I was thinking how wonderful it is that we’re making use of Monsudan technology. That makes me no better than General Thomas.”
“You didn’t sell out your civilization for a few fancy gizmos. You’ve got it all over him as far as ethics are concerned.” She clicked something, and a beam of light shot from what Jape initially took to be a miniaturized shooter. He bit off a yell as he realized it was only a kind of torch.
“Home sweet home, until we can get out of here,” Velia said. “Sit down. Let me check your wound.”
Jape settled on the ground with a hiss. “Your doctors warned me to not mess with the dressing, that the salve needed to do its work. There’s nothing for you to look at.”
“What did they do for you?”
“They removed a bullet, which was sticking halfway out. Thanks to my armor, it didn’t penetrate anything important. They sewed the injury, as if I was a piece of drapery with a hole to be mended. Put ointments on it. Gave me something for the pain, which has worn off.”
Velia went to a shelf carved out of the rock, on which sat many items Jape couldn’t identify. She brought down a white box with a red cross on its surface. “I have aspirin. I doubt it will do much for this type of injury, but it might take the edge off. Don’t chew these. The taste is bitter.”
Worlds Collide Page 27
