“That might be putting it strongly,” Jarek said, “but thanks. It’s good to see you guys again.”
Rachel took a few tentative steps toward Haldin’s and Elise’s cots, assessing Franco’s demeanor.
“Holy crap,” Jarek murmured behind her, no doubt as he took in the two’s changed appearances.
She expected the decidedly indelicate reaction might darken Franco’s mood, but he just looked subdued, exhausted.
“I wanted to try to talk with them,” Rachel said, directing the words at Franco.
He nodded, his dark olive eyes worried. “I expected you would. Al’Drogan came earlier, but he said they were too far gone at the time.”
Rachel nodded her understanding, and Franco stood to offer his chair.
“You don’t have to—” she started, but he cut her off with a raised hand.
“Quiet would help, yes?”
“Yeah, but you don’t have to go.”
“I think our legs could all use stretching,” Franco said with a meaningful look around the room.
“Yep,” Johnny agreed, hopping to his feet. “Rigid as duracrete, here.”
“That’s not something we tend to brag about in public around here, alien boy,” Jarek said. “Just for the record.”
Johnny snapped his fingers and pointed at Jarek as if he’d just offered genuinely helpful advice.
Everyone else picked themselves up—Lea with a, “Good luck,” Phineas with a stoic grunt—and headed out of the barracks.
“Unless I can help here?” Jarek asked, lingering on the threshold when everyone but Franco and the raknoth had gone.
“Not this time.” Rachel cocked her head. “Unless you happen to have some LSD on your person.”
“No”—Jarek shot a thoughtful look toward the hallway crowd and back—“but I wouldn’t be remotely surprised if Pryce knew how to cook some up.”
Rachel couldn’t help but smile at that. Namely because it was probably true.
Jarek took one long last look at the comatose Enochians and stepped reluctantly out of the room.
Rachel was about to turn and see what Franco was up to when the Enochian surprised her with a firm squeeze on the shoulder.
“I know she hears me sometimes,” he said quietly, staring down at Elise. “Tell her I love her anyway? If you can.”
Rachel looked up to meet his eyes. “Of course.”
Franco nodded to himself and gave her shoulder another squeeze.
Then he was gone, and it was just Rachel, her hybrid friends, and a few of Krogoth’s raknoth. She thought about asking if they wouldn’t mind stepping out too, but they saw what was happening, and they knew how to be quiet.
Plus, if it ended up being anything like her past experience reaching out to the Enochian-raknoth dream team, she didn’t hate the idea of having someone paying attention while she sunk into la-la-land.
So she plopped Franco’s chair down between the two cots, took each of the Enochians by a hand, and closed her eyes, settling deep into her extended senses.
It was a curious feeling, brushing against such powerful beings in her senses only to find no one consciously behind the wheel, so to speak. She’d never felt anything like it, and she still hadn’t gotten used to it.
She started with Haldin and Alton, both of whom were largely unresponsive to her queries. It was like tickling a hibernating bear with a feather.
At first, Elise and Lietha were no different. But then there was a stirring. A tendril of thought, tentative and curious at first.
“Did I not hear Al’Drogan’s call?” came Lietha’s thought, murky and somewhat disoriented, as if she’d just woken from a deep sleep—which, as far as Rachel had previously understood, wasn’t really something raknoth normally did. Clearly, the finer points of this transition process escaped her.
“He did,” Rachel sent back, “but that was at least an hour ago, I think.”
“I see.” Lietha’s thoughts were as guarded as usual, but Rachel thought she detected just a hint of disappointment in the Shieth’s mental tone. “Is there news, then?”
“There is. The worst news there could be, really.”
Lietha let her weary consternation brush at Rachel’s mind like a soft sigh.
“Very well. Then perhaps we should attempt to commune with the others below. Will you come with me?”
It was more than a little weird, hearing the alien inside Elise’s abdomen ask Rachel to come to some meeting place “below,” but it wasn’t like that was going to stop her.
“Lead the way,” Rachel sent, doing her abstract best to assume a mental state akin to reaching out a hand for guidance.
Lietha’s presence formed more fully around her, gently tugging her along in … not a direction, exactly. It was more like being pulled toward a specific thought, or a state of mind, even. A head space.
“Relax your mind, Rachel Cross,” Lietha sent. “You are far too aroused to hope to meld with our internal environment.
Rachel bit back a retort and instead let out a few deep breaths, shifted to get comfortable in her chair, and then sank down into her senses once more, trying to forget the ultimate goal for a minute and instead simply clear her mind.
Deeper, deeper she sank, guided along by Lietha’s light—if not exactly gentle—mental pressure. She sank until she floated in the wispy, delirious darkness between sleeping and waking. Until she barely knew whether she was still conscious or not.
How long passed in that place, she couldn’t have said. All she knew was that, when she rightly became aware of her surroundings again, she was standing in a different room.
A room she didn’t recognize.
Had she fallen asleep?
The place she found herself in looked like some kind of war room. Only …
Rachel looked at her surroundings again and decided her initial impression had been accurate. Wherever she was, she was pretty sure it wasn’t of Earth, at least not of Earth in this century.
“We thought you’d come eventually.”
Rachel spun at the sound of Haldin’s voice and found the Enochian frowning at Alton and Lietha, both in the scaly raknoth battle forms of their old bodies. Though maybe that was just how Rachel’s tranced mind was choosing to see them.
Elise was there too, the four of them gathered around a flat command table whose surface was alight with various lists and projected holograms of what appeared to be a few of the rakul.
“How long has it been, by the way?” Haldin asked the raknoth.
When they appeared less than certain themselves, he turned the question to Rachel.
“Since we reached this mountain fortress, I mean.”
“Not much more than a day,” Rachel said, approaching the command table.
The Enochians and the raknoth shared a look that told her the answer was surprising to them. And not in a good way.
“Drogan and I left to look for Jarek and the others earlier this morning,” she added, “but we found them a hell of a lot faster than we’d hoped to. We just got back a few hours ago.”
“Suppose that’s good news,” Haldin mumbled, his grim expression not wavering.
“But what’s the bad?” Alton said, his words flowing smoothly after Haldin’s, more like he was finishing the Enochian’s sentence than speaking his own individual thought.
“How long will this Complex hold before we must fight?” Lietha added, flat, to-the-point, and decidedly not of the same thought stream as Haldin and Alton.
Elise frowned from Lietha to the men, and finally to Rachel. “You see what I’m stuck with in here? Buncha gloomy pessi—Wait …” Elise looked at Lietha. “What do you mean, how long will this Complex hold? Does that mean …?”
By way of reply, Lietha only jutted her mint-green chin toward Rachel.
“They’ve found us,” Alton said, more statement than question.
Rachel tilted her head in acknowledgment. “We didn’t make it back to The Complex alone. The ones they call Ogrin and Harga are pr
obably still out there somewhere, and Vermaga and Gada couldn’t have been far behind.”
“Gada,” Lietha hissed through clenched teeth.
Elise laid a hand on Lietha’s shoulder. “We will have justice for Zar’Kole,” she said softly. “Don’t let rage and vengeance blind our path.”
Rachel tensed, ready for Lietha to shove off Elise’s touch and tell her to keep her pathetic human hands and thoughts to herself, but the raknoth only took a long breath and nodded.
Maybe it was more than just the Enochians’ bodies that were changing through all of this.
“Is this …?” Rachel started, looking around the room again.
“Enochia,” Haldin confirmed. “Or one of our memories of a place there, at least.”
“Right, then.” Rachel said.
She shouldn’t have been surprised. It wasn’t even the first alien planet she’d seen. Not after the secondhand memory Haldin had shown her of The World Ender, Kul’Naga, decimating a tribe of what could only rightly be called frost giants.
But that didn’t really make any of this less mind-boggling.
“What plans exist for repelling the rakul from this facility?” Alton asked, his stern tone centering her firmly back in the root of their problem.
“At the moment,” Rachel said, “that’s a damn good question. We brought back allies. Krogoth, Brandt, and I think ten other raknoth, plus Alaric and Daniels and about a hundred more human fighters. And we have Jarek back. Other than that”—she shook her head—“The Complex has some defenses in place, and one resident raknoth—long story—but I don’t think these walls will hold long if we don’t do something.”
“So … no plan, then,” Haldin said, looking more glum than actively accusatory.
“I won’t lie,” Rachel said, “I was kinda hoping you four might have a bright spot of sunshine to offer.”
Haldin met Elise’s eyes, something of meaning passing between them, and suddenly they were no longer in the Enochian command room but on a gentle hill crest in the middle of a wide, sweeping plain of lush grass.
Ahead, a crystal-clear lake stretched its shimmering way to the base of an enormous mountain that stretched impossibly high into the crisp blue sky. Above, a bright sun shone down on all of it.
“Sunshine, yes,” Elise said.
“Hope, though …” Haldin added.
“Hope …” Alton said, looking to the sky, which began to darken as if in response to his crimson gaze. “Hope is more tenuous than a fickle dream, considering what we face.”
“I see what you’re saying about the pessimism,” Rachel said to Elise. Then, to all of them, “How soon could you realistically be ready to fight?”
Haldin met Alton’s eyes while Elise did the same with Lietha. For a long moment, the two pairs seemed to be not so much looking at one another as peering deeper into some intangible whole between them. Finally, the spell broke, and Alton and Lietha engaged in their own silent exchange.
“We must begin our final preparations immediately, it seems,” Lietha said when they’d finished.
“But even then,” Alton added, “it is somewhat uncertain how soon we can be ready. Perhaps within a few days.”
Shit.
Days?
Rachel wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but somehow the thought of hunkering down for several days with multiple rakul circling outside didn’t exactly fill her with confidence.
“And that’s assuming,” Haldin said, “that we’re even able to function with our new, uh …” He waved a hand at Rachel. “Well you’ve seen what we’re dealing with out there, body-wise. It’s not like we’re just waking up from a nap. This is gonna take serious calibrating.”
“How bad is it, by the way?” Elise asked, her hand tracking absentmindedly to one elegant cheekbone.
Rachel started to open her mouth, searching for something positive to say about the Enochians’ significant makeovers.
“Never mind.” Elise shook her head as if chiding herself. “It’s not important.”
“It really isn’t,” Haldin said.
Alone, the words might’ve seemed callous. But there was nothing callous about the way he cupped Elise’s face and gently stroked her cheeks with his thumbs before planting a warm kiss on her forehead.
She smiled up at him—a tired smile. The look that passed between them was that of a pair of kindred old souls. Somehow, it only reminded Rachel that much more of just how young the two still were, and how much they’d already sacrificed.
“We’ll do everything we can out there,” Rachel said.
“And we’ll do what we can in here,” Alton said.
Haldin looked like he was about to say something, but the scene around them grew fuzzy for a few moments.
“We will likely be hard to reach again for the next few days,” Alton added, as if in explanation for the interruption. “But we’d best return to the work now, seeing as time is of the essence.”
“Right. I’ll just see myself out then,” Rachel said, though she wasn’t entirely sure how it was she was supposed to go about doing that.
She started to think about withdrawing her extended senses, sinking back to her physical body, but something nagged at her. A doubt. Or maybe just guilt.
She looked around at the four of them, Earth’s hopeful saviors.
It felt like it wasn’t enough. Like she was failing them somehow. But what else was there to do?
“We’ll hold them off,” she said quietly. “Until you’re ready. I promise.”
“And if we’re not ready?” Elise asked.
Rachel shrugged, and she realized she was now clutching the staff she could’ve sworn she hadn’t had only moments ago. “Then we’ll fight anyway. Maybe even leave a few scraps behind for you.”
Alton, Haldin, and Elise gave her grim nods of acknowledgment. And for the first time in the entire conversation, Lietha smiled.
27
Tempted as he’d been to wait and see how Rachel fared trying to pull news from their sleeping beauties—or to use that excuse to avoid talking to Alaric, at least—Jarek hadn’t been able to convince his damned conscience that doing either was acceptable. Just like he couldn’t run off now to go see Pryce’s and James’ new toy, much as Pryce wanted him to.
“You’re sure you don’t want to see?” Pryce asked, clearly deflated at Jarek’s lack of wall-bouncing giddiness. “It’s right up your alley.”
“It’s got nothing to do with want, old man, I just need to …”
Pryce’s expectant expression softened to one of understanding as he realized what this must be about—or probably guessed close enough to the truth, at least.
Normally, Jarek would’ve expected James’ excited energy to rival Pryce’s, but the Enochian was grim, subdued. From what Rachel had told him, the mood had apparently settled over all of the Enochians to some extent since Haldin and Elise had gone under their change.
“You guys can show me your BFG later,” Jarek finished.
“BFG?” James asked, perking up just a little.
Pryce’s worried expression broke into a smile. “I’ll explain later.”
Jarek was about to bid them farewell and happy tinkering when a thought occurred to him. “Why was the thing even here in the first place? I thought rail guns were more of a navy thing.”
“They were,” Pryce said, “but I’m guessing someone was looking to outfit this facility to take out unfriendly warheads.” His expression soured. “You know …”
“Before all those other unfriendly warheads made it a moot point?” Jarek asked.
“Precisely.”
James shook his head. “I still can’t believe things fell apart so quickly here once, well …” He gestured toward the barracks where they’d left Rachel and Krogoth’s raknoth.
“To tell the truth,” Pryce said, “I think we were already headed that way anyway. You know, even before the raknoth and the arcane blood curse and all that.”
“Guess tha
t’s why we outlawed nuclear weapons on Enochia.” James tilted his head. “Though I guess that kind of thing’s probably a bit easier to pull off when your whole planet is pretty much united under one deity and his divine authority.”
“Easier, I’m sure,” Pryce said slowly. “Better, though …”
He trailed off, drifting to that distant thoughtful place of his until Jarek decided he’d best be on his way.
“You fellas have fun philosophizing,” he said, backing away with a wave.
Pryce snapped back to them with a little jerk. “Right.” He turned a bemused grin on James. “Well, if we’re going to discuss the merits and downfalls of religion and global disarmament, we might as well do it over that enormous gun of ours.”
The two of them headed off in the opposite direction as Jarek turned for the tunnels that were now serving as the barracks and commons for their combined forces.
It was time to find Alaric.
He couldn’t avoid it any longer. Not when they might be counting on fingers and toes the hours he had left to set things right with the surly old commander.
Jarek wasn’t even sure setting things right was the right way to feel about it, but it seemed to be what the heaviness in his gut had decided for him. At the very least, he needed to tell Alaric what Mosen—shit, what Seth—had wanted his father to hear.
Not that Jarek really knew what that was, exactly.
Sure, he’d gleaned enough insight into Seth’s mind to strike a few deep nerves during their fight, but that didn’t mean he knew everything that’d been going through the man’s head when he’d said those final words, Just tell him …
Jarek would just have to do his best.
First, though, he needed to get Alaric alone—a task that seemed as if it should be easy enough once Jarek spotted him over in what was rapidly shifting into a shabby armory.
Alaric barely seemed to be hearing what the two soldiers in front of him were saying. His inattention wasn’t going without notice, either. The two men were glancing uncertainly at one another, clearly wondering if they should continue droning at their absentee commander.
Jarek started forward to save all three of them the trouble.
Before he’d made it three steps, though, Drogan stepped in front of him and shoved an old green Gatorade squeeze bottle against his chest.
Retribution: Book Four of the Harvesters Series Page 24
