Chandra stared at her in openmouthed amazement, then she asked, “Who are you?”
“I’m Lana Hartman.”
“You’re one of the original eight!”
“I may never live that down, but, yes, and I’m also a geologist.”
“That explains it. Thanks for your help, Lana Hartman.”
“Thanks for not getting upset about my little lie, Medic Chandra. If we’re finished here, I’d like to poke around and see if I can identify more clues to help determine what’s going on.”
“Sure, but stick to this side of the perimeter, and listen for a good-to-go signal. Once we’re packed up, we’ll be shipping out. I heard one of the warriors say the whole area is unstable.”
“After that explosion, I’m not surprised, but I’ll stay close and listen up.”
But Lana proceeded to do what she agreed not to and walked beyond the marked boundary of their triage area, in the direction of the mine. It was the only way to find out for sure what had occurred. She encountered more of the same—green dust, jagged rocks, and not surprisingly more green dust. Something odd about a copse of trees nearby had her wandering that way.
“You there!”
Looking over her shoulder at the dusty, dirt-smudged warrior standing behind her. His hands were fisted on his hips and his scowl, though green like everything else, fiercely forbidding.
Yikes! They must practice it in warrior’s basic training.
“You’re not one of the human’s assigned to the medical team; I know them all by name. Who are you and what are you doing out here?”
Her heart stopped. It was Tarus. She recognized his voice, if not him, covered as he was in filth. But she must look as bad as he did, for he didn’t seem to recall meeting her earlier. She’d tied up her long hair to keep it out of the way, maybe that was partially the reason. She lowered her voice hoping it wouldn’t trigger his memory.
“Uh, yes, well, this was my first assignment.”
Scowling unhappily, he moved closer. “No one mentioned anything about new personnel.”
“It was sudden. I was assigned to another task but offered to step in when one of the other, um, technicians wasn’t able to make it.”
He eyed her skeptically. “Let me see your credentials.”
“My uh....”
“Yes,” he replied, an edge of impatience in his tone. “You wouldn’t be allowed onto a shuttle without security credentials.” He held out his hand.
She stared back at him but was unable to hold his gaze, not with the intensity of his golden eyes searing into her. She shifted, glancing over his shoulder while scrambling to come up with another plausible answer.
“Humans.” He smirked, sounding mildly disgusted. “Why you attempt to lie makes no sense. Most of you can’t do it for shit. You all have a tell.” When she gaped at him in surprise, he added, “It’s in the eyes.” He approached and took her by the arm, firmly, so she knew she didn’t have a snowballs chance in you-know-where of getting free, though not painfully. “Come with me. You can tell your lies to the general.”
“Surely that isn’t necessary. Ask Chandra, the medic; I’m with her.”
He cast her a suspicious sideways glance. “Sounds to me you don’t want to meet General Trask. Why is that?”
“I’m sure with all that’s going on he is very busy.” She spied Chandra’s green-dusted head and gestured. “There she is. Over by the shuttle. They’re loading up for takeoff; I really should help.”
He stopped, staring down at her. He was tall, a few inches shy of Trask’s seven-feet four inches, but still towered well above her. “What were you doing away from the site? We had it cordoned off for a reason.”
“Merely gathering my wits. It was a hectic few hours with the constant flow of victims.”
His narrowed golden gaze considered her for a moment then released her. “All right. Get back to the team, but don’t wander off again. The entire area is unstable.”
The words had barely passed from his lips when a tremor shook the ground. Lana staggered, though the sturdier warrior did not. He grabbed hold of her again, keeping her from hitting the dirt, butt first. A rumbling noise followed, and another tremor then the soil beneath their feet began to shift.
“We need to go, now,” the warrior barked, his hands tightening around both her arms as though prepared to pick her up and carry her. But it was too late, the ground began to give way, and they started to sink as if standing in quicksand. Heavier by at least one hundred fifty pounds, the warrior was up to his hips in seconds.
“Don’t struggle, it will make it worse,” she warned him as she scrabbled with both hands at the surrounding dirt for a handhold—a tree root, a vine, something.
“Save yourself if you’re able, female,” he shouted, to be heard over more rumbling and loud hissing noise emanating from somewhere nearby.
Lana had heard it before but from a distance. If they didn’t get out now, they were toast.
Shouts from nearby told them the others had noticed what was happening. But Lana was afraid it was too late because she was covered to her thighs, Tarus, now buried in shifting dirt to his chest was about to be sucked under. The rushing, swirling earth around her legs had started pulling her down when a rope dropped from above and smacked her in the chest. Lana grabbed hold, running it through both hands until she found the end. She made a loop, knotted it like a lasso, and tossed it to the warrior. Always good with horseshoes as a kid, her aim was still true, and on her first try—thank heaven—the circle fell over his head.
“Put your arm through and hold on,” she yelled over another loud rumble.
“No,” he roared. “Save yourself first, woman. The others can worry about me.”
“Sorry, Tarus. Today is your day to follow a woman’s orders for a change. Tighten the loop and hang on.” As she said this, she coiled some slack around her forearm several times to decrease the tension. Next, she gripped the loose rope above with the other, tugged as a go signal, adding with a shout, “We’re good. Haul us up, now.”
The rope tightened and jerked, putting pressure on her arm. She gritted her teeth, rope burn, and a few bruises were nothing compared to suffocating in a pit of quicksand. As soon as her legs were free, she wrapped them around the tow rope and clung to it like the lifeline it was. Abruptly, her upward progress stopped. Lana glanced up frantically.
“No, no, no,” she cried urgently, “keep going!”
Frozen there, suspended in what to her seemed like an avalanche, Lana looked down, checking on the warrior. All she could see of him was from the chin up. The continuous flow of soil and rocks would soon cover his face, getting in his mouth and nose. He’d suffocate, and the pressure of the ground filling in around him would crush him, while he was buried alive.
“We’re out of time!” she screamed frantically, as a large section of ground to her left gave way. She felt a blast of heat and steam rising from the ever-widening crater. “Pull us up, now, dammit—”
Her desperate shout was cut off sharply when she began moving again with a violent jerk. Stabbing pain in her forearm told her at least one of the bones had snapped, but she couldn’t do anything about it while being dragged upward. Her exposed skin scraped against sharp rocks in the loose dirt and gnarled roots; both scratched deep enough to sting and draw blood. But these were minor injuries compared to a fracture, and worse—an awful, painful death.
Soon Lana’s head cleared the rim of the hole, and the ground beneath her body became solid. Her eyes watered, burning from the dirt and dust particles. She had it in her ears and up her nose, and with it filling her mouth it choked her. But was out of breath and dragged in a gulp of air anyway, coughing and gasping, her lungs on fire.
Strong hands moving over her uncoiled the rope, hooked under her armpits, and pulled her clear. Other men continued to work, grunting as they strained to haul Tarus out of the hole to safety.
She twisted in the arms that held her, trying to get a glimps
e of him. “Is he okay?” she cried. “Please, tell me it wasn’t too late.”
Hard fingers dug into her shoulders holding her in place. “Don’t move, lest you get sucked under again.”
To clear the dirt from her eyes, she blinked rapidly, her gaze darting from the grime-covered coughing warrior emerging from the hole behind her to the place where they had stood only minutes before. Everything was gone, trees, brush, rocks. In its place was a large, still-widening crater of tumbling, swirling, yawning earth.
“Dear God!”
“Whether your God or my Maker or one in the same, surely He watched over you and Tarus this day.”
She turned her head and looked up at the tall warrior behind her. His gaze was fixed straight ahead, taking in the devastation before them.
“Thank you for saving us, Trask,” she murmured, her words tremulous as the shock of her narrow escape began to register.
His chin tilted downward, his eyes darkly turbulent. “This is why I ordered you to stay behind,” he stated in a voice edged with anger.
Of all the warriors who had responded to the emergency, of course, it would be Trask to find her, rescue her, and take her to task for defying him in the first place. She didn’t answer, she couldn’t, not with her heart thumping hard in her chest, and her knees as shaky as Jell-O. They wouldn’t hold her much longer. As proof, she swayed beneath his hands.
“Faex,” he grumbled. The next instant, she was enveloped in his arms. The pressure applied to her injury made her cry out in pain. “What is it? Where are you hurt?”
“My arm. The rope snapped it.”
“Which one?” he demanded.
“My right.”
He shifted her and relieved the pressure.
Another loud rumble shook them where they stood, and a broad ribbon of steam rose in the air from the center of the hole. Lana stared at it, both mystified and horror-struck.
“We need to get to safety lest we all get sucked into the sinkhole.”
Trask took the words out of her mouth, almost. “It’s not a sinkhole, Trask,” she whispered, “but a phreatic crater. The blast has destabilized the entire area and must have opened a feeder from the nearby lake to an underground magma pool. It’s heating, releasing through a vent as steam and when the pressure builds enough...”
“Boom,” he murmured.
“Hiss, boom, bang,” she corrected. “Steam, rocks, scalding water, ash, and worst-case scenario, lava.”
“Bring Tarus, quickly,” he ordered in a thunderous roar. “We need to get out of here, now!”
He led the way back to the clearing, his long strides covering the distance swiftly. The movement jostled her arm painfully, and she couldn’t hold back a groan.
“Cradle it across your body,” he directed without slowing, He didn’t pause to look back, having every expectation his men would follow his orders. Lana closed her eyes; she was one of the few who seemed to have trouble doing so.
“Medic!” he shouted as he took her directly to one of the shuttles and strapped her into a seat near the front. Then, he stood, arms crossed, staring down at her silently, as the others boarded. He seemed not to notice, and from the stern, decidedly scary expression on his face, she expected the chewing out to begin immediately, regardless of their audience.
Instead, his eyes moved from her face, down her body, lingering on her arm. She followed his gaze and saw it was sharply out of alignment and swelling quickly.
“Are you injured anywhere else, other than cuts and bruises?”
“No, just my arm.” It was bleeding, and now that the excitement had passed, the sight of her own blood made her sick. “I think I’m going to throw up.”
“Breathe slow and easy, little one.” Then he twisted and shouted out the door. “Medic. Here. Now!”
“I’m here,” Chandra called as she climbed in. Then she jerked to a sudden halt upon seeing Lana was her next patient. “I told you not to wander off.”
“Scold her later. But you’ll have to get in line behind me,” Trask growled. To Chandra, he stated, “You’ll have to treat her while we’re in the air. We can’t risk staying here longer.”
She nodded as she dropped to her knees on the floor by her feet.
“Get a bag,” he advised. “She’s squeamish about blood.”
Chandra passed her a barf bag and then examined her arm. “It’s broken in two places, rookie. I’ll splint it until we get to the clinic. Do you need something for pain?”
“No, I’m good.”
“Give it to her,” Trask demanded in a frightening growl.
Both women looked up at him in surprise.
“By the Maker, Lana. It’s bent at a fucking forty-five-degree angle. It hurts me simply by looking at it.” His eyes blazed down at Chandra. “I’m not lifting off until you give her a dose of fucking pain medication.”
The medic looked back at Lana, eyes full of both fear and uncertainty. It was likely she didn’t know the f-word wasn’t part of the general’s standard vocabulary. If so, she would have already given her the medication.
Lana was stunned, and since he was undoubtedly on the brink of snapping, she agreed. “Do it.”
Chandra breathed out a heavy sigh and quickly got the shot ready. Lana noticed they had acquired the Primarian technology as she held the silver osmotic infuser to her arm. A hint of warmth on her skin was the only indication the medication went in.
“It will take effect in a few minutes,” she explained.
“I’ll be okay, Trask.
“We’ll let the physic determine that when he sees you.” This was an order not to argue if she’d ever heard one, and with her military background, she’d heard plenty. Suddenly, he bent over her, his hands gripping the armrests as he got in her face, so close, their noses almost touched.
“You scared twenty years off my life, woman. I don’t know whether to kiss you, breathless from relief you’re alive, or turn you over my knee and smack your butt until you can’t sit for a week for defying my orders.”
“But, Trask—”
“You have until the physic affirms you are fit for me to decide. If you’re smart, you’ll sit here without saying a word, and try to act like you’ve learned a lesson, perhaps that will appease me.”
She swallowed, hard, and nodded.
“Don’t count on it,” he drawled in a menacing tone. Then he straightened but didn’t move away, staring down at her with his jaw clenched.
“Trask—”
“Without a word,” he barked, his eyes snapping with dark blue-green fire. “Once we’re out of here and back on stable ground, I’ll deal with you.”
Because she didn’t dare test his already-towering fury, and because she was already getting curious stares and knowing looks from the others on board, Lana kept her mouth shut.
“Smart girl,” he uttered softly, before moving away to find his seat for liftoff.
Lana had the overwhelming urge to stick her tongue out at him, but she refrained. She was embarrassed enough thinking the others may have heard his threat to spank her. They’d been the topic of gossip for months, here on Terra Nova, as well as Primaria, and she didn’t need to fuel the rumor mill and add to the speculation. Most were Primarian and wouldn’t think anything of a warrior disciplining his woman. Except for Chandra, who, as close as she was, had heard for sure.
“I didn’t think you were mates anymore,” the medic whispered.
“We’re not.”
“Um, did someone tell him that?”
She glared daggers at her former mate, managing to quell the impulse to tell him off; since she wasn’t stupid, but mostly because her embarrassed anger went away, replaced by concern when she saw him strapping into the pilot’s chair. Maybe, with the urgency to leave, he was doing the preflight check while they waited for the pilot to arrive. She glanced around for another warrior, or green-shirted Primarian to enter and take the helm, but the last one on board secured the doors and called up front. “Good to
go, General.”
Lana sat up straighter, her eyes sweeping the standing-room-only shuttle filled with dirty, disheveled warriors, EMS staff, and a few miners with noncritical injuries. Why was no one else alarmed the general was taking command of the craft?
“Where is Jack?” she asked loudly, of no one in particular.
“Injured,” someone called out from the back. “He left on an earlier shuttle.”
“Um, Trask?”
“You are supposed to be quiet, Lana, thinking about healing and not pissing me off.”
She frowned. So much for getting sympathy for being injured.
“But Trask...”
“What is it?”
“Uh, do you know what you’re doing?”
Someone bit off a laugh.
“I mean you never said before you could pilot one of these things.”
“I could pilot the Odyssey to Earth and back; does that answer your question?”
“Oh, well, then...I guess it does.”
More snickers echoed behind her.
“Is this question-and-answer session over, paulova? I’m rather busy trying to keep us from getting sucked into a steam-spewing hole in the ground on the verge of erupting.”
“Oh, yes, please, do that.”
For some reason, those in back found this hilarious, despite their dire situation. She cast a frown at them over her shoulder, but the sudden movement made the misaligned bones in her forearm throb. Facing front again, she kept quiet, and when she did, an eerie hush settled over the passengers. After the past few harrowing hours, they were undoubtedly in various stages of mental shock and physical exhaustion. If they were like Lana, their minds were awhirl at the cause of the mine explosion and the near catastrophic aftermath. She had a few ideas, sabotage coming to mind first, which meant they had an enemy in their midst. Second, it had been a natural occurrence possibly an earthquake. And third, the most worrisome cause of all, that Terra Nova, their new home and beacon of hope, might not be as stable as it had been purported to be.
When the craft lifted off without a hitch and didn’t in seconds go crashing back to the ground, she blew out a relieved breath. It was short-lived because a thunderous boom rattled and shook their small craft. As one, they stared out the window at the ash cloud billowing into the air.
Defying the General Page 27
