Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

All too soon Brent was shaking her shoulder. Raeblin sat up, blinking at the early morning sunlight penetrating the thick canopy of leaves overhead. Immediately she tensed, hearing the sound of the Khagrish flyer in the distance. Sitting up and clutching her pulse rifle, she said, "Damn, they started early today, didn't they?"

"They must know one of us is a Badari," Brent said, taking the blanket and folding it efficiently. "No way the Khagrish would make this much effort for a pair of humans." He grinned with little humor. "We're lab rats to them, no value. A Badari on the other hand…" Allowing his voice to trail off, he policed their campsite while Raeblin gathered her medkit. "We'll have to eat on the run today." She took the survival ration he handed her, surprised they had any left. "Did you eat?"

"Yeah," he said.

Being a Badari and able to scent lies, she debated arguing with him but what good would it do? She compromised by breaking the bar in half and handing him the bigger piece.

There was a glint of humor in his eyes as he stared at her and then accepted the offering. "Damn, forgot you can smell lies."

"It was gallant," she said, "And I'm truly appreciative but I'm not eating by myself, soldier."

Brent knocked her to the ground and covered her as the enemy flyer buzzed by. "Too close for comfort," he said as he helped her up. "You okay? I didn't hurt you?"

"I'm fine." She brushed leaves and dirt off her front. "We'd better go."

"Follow me," he said and took off through the forest in the general direction they'd been traveling. Soon enough Brent doubled back and then took them on another tangent to the southeast. For a while she thought his maneuvers had enabled them to elude the flyer but then it came descending from the clouds like a large bird of prey.

With a curse, Brent redirected her and they sprinted west. "The bastards know we're here all right," he said, glancing up. "I think we're in for it today."

"Can we shoot them out of the sky?" she asked, holding her pulse rifle tight. She knew the answer but this feeling of being prey and being hunted made her stressed and angry and her inner predator was on a rampage.

"I wish we had the weapons for it," he agreed as they crouched beside a tumble of big boulders, hiding in the brush while the flyer made a search grid in the sky overhead. "Be satisfying." He squeezed her upper arm. "When he's at his farthest point in the pattern he's established, we'll make a break for it, try to make the river. Might be able to hide under the banks or find a cave."

Swallowing hard, Raeblin gave him a nod. The situation was getting pretty serious. This was the closest their pursuers had come in the three days since the attack at the destroyed lab and she wondered how she and Brent could escape.

"They land to take us, we shoot to kill," Brent said, answering her unspoken question. "You can't be captured."

You're important too, she thought with irritation but kept the sentiment to herself. He was right—these Khagrish didn't even know her kind existed and her fate if they managed to take her prisoner would be grim indeed. Or the enemy would try to use her as bait or leverage. Raeblin couldn't imagine how Aydarr would react to a Badari Daughter being in the hands of the Khagrish. "I shouldn't have insisted on coming on this damn mission," she said. "I didn't think it all through."

Surprisingly Brent was immediately supportive. "No, don't beat yourself up. You've done a great job, sweetheart. And no one expected the situation to get so fucked, even if Gabe did send me along to be your bodyguard. You were surrounded by Badari."

As she made a run for their next temporary hiding place, she mulled over what he'd said. She hadn't realized Brent was specifically assigned to protect her—she'd thought he was simply another soldier on the overall mission. She probably ought to be annoyed with Gabe, treating her like someone special instead of just another soldier, but on the other hand, here she was on the run and at risk of being captured. So maybe her pack's enforcer had been right. Despite what Brent had said, she was wrong to have pushed so hard to be allowed on a combat mission and put others at risk by her mere presence. She played a meaningful role in the valley at the hospital and if she ever got safely back there, she'd be content doing her job there, helping the human doctors and the Badari healers.

Those in the flyer appeared to have a good fix on them and no matter what Brent and Raeblin tried in the way of evasion, the Khagrish came closer and closer. Brent was good but the enemy's scanners were inexorable.

Raeblin was running through the brush hot on Brent's heels when the flyer swooped out of the sun, flew right over them and fired a stunner blast. She was instantly paralyzed, unable to do anything to protect herself as she went head over heels on the ground, skidding to a halt with all kinds of minor abrasions. Unable to even turn her head, she heard Brent fall as well and then his breathing somewhere close at hand. She could tell from the sounds the flyer was landing and then harsh Khagrish voices sounded as the occupants filed out to examine their captives.

"A woman," said one guard in mild disgust as he stood over her, flipping her over with the toe of his boot.

If she'd had any control at all over her body, she would have torn hum limb from limb and thoroughly enjoyed the violence.

The Khagrishi walked away to rejoin his comrades, who Raeblin gathered were clustered beside Brent.

"Your scanners must be miscalibrated," one man said with a snap of command in his voice. "This man is human. We've been chasing a pair of worthless humans all this time."

"The scanner is correct," another Khagrishi argued as if offended by the remark about the scanning tech.

"There have only been two targets in range since they fled the lab complex under fire," the first voice said with disgust. "No Badari here."

As the men argued, Raeblin's nervous system sparked and tingled as her body recovered from the stun ray. She was able to quirk her fingers ever so slightly and extend her talons. What would the enemy decide to do with them if they were so worthless? A lead weight settled in her gut as the tone of the discussion changed.

"Well if he isn't a Badari," said the leader slowly, as if a stunning realization was taking root in his head, "Then she must be."

"There aren't any Badari females," a third voice protested. "Never have been. The scanner is off, end of story. Wouldn't be the first piece of equipment to be suboptimal on this planet."

She heard footsteps approaching her and braced herself. All three Khagrish loomed over her and she glared at them with defiance, keeping her fangs and talons retracted. No need to confirm their guesses.

One squatted beside her, turning her face this way and that with a strong grip. "There was a rumor, dating to a time before any of us, that creating females was possible." He forced her jaw open as she fumed and struggled internally, unable to move much more than fingers and toes. Touching the tip of her fangs with his gloved hand, he laughed out loud. "I don't know where she came from or how she was created but we've got ourselves a rare prize today." He rose, dusting his hands off while Raeblin gagged and fought angry tears. "Scan her for DNA identification."

One of the other soldiers ran a device over her body, intent on the readout he was getting. "Badari all right. Pure stock, no codes, no designation."

"A fucking miracle then," the leader said with raised eyebrows. "And all ours. Worth going off the grid to hunt this one down for sure."

"I think we should examine the goods more closely," the third man said, leering and appraising Raeblin in a way that made her hackles rise and her inner predator snarl. "Can't tell much with a combat uniform on her. I think we should do a closer examination, don't you?" His expression was a leer which made her blood run cold.

No this couldn't be happening…

After the initial hit from the stunner, Brett crumpled to the ground as helpless as any human would be. His mind was a whirlwind of anger at being caught and fear for Raeblin but he locked the emotion down immediately and switched to executing a mental protocol he'd been given when he was a test subject in a top secret government experiment. Oh yeah, these Khagrish bastards were going to be sorry they'd ever come to Ushandirr. Just give him a chance and pray no one put force cuffs on him before he got the damn implant to work.

His pulse rifle had remained relatively close to his body when he fell thanks to his iron clad discipline and the Khagrish hadn't bothered to remove it when they gathered around him to debate the veracity of their scanners. When three of them clustered next to Raeblin, the fourth man lingered as if to guard Brent but he was distracted by what the others were doing.

A wave of cold fire burned through Brent's body as the implant finally activated, throwing off the effects of the stunner from his nervous system in a three second burst of energy nearly as painful as being shot with a blaster would have been but then he was free to move. Taking in a deep breath, Brent rolled over, grabbed his last resort weapon from his boot and drilled the inattentive guard. Moving faster than most humans could manage, he twisted his upper torso and shot the three Khagrish standing over Raeblin. Two died instantly, falling on top of her helpless body but the third was only winged and shot back.

Scorching pain scored his side but Brent was already returning fire and the third soldier screamed and fell. With an enormous effort, he got to his feet and staggered to Raeblin, dragging the two corpses off her as fast as he could and then pulling her upright. "Are you hurt?"

She stared at him, eyes wide and golden and tried to form words. Brent hugged her close, having done a rapid visual scan and not seen any obvious injuries. Tears leaked from her eyes and she was trembling. "I know," he said in a soothing voice. "It's okay, you're going to be ok. Can you move at all?"

Her nod was tremulous and slight but he was encouraged. "I'm going to carry you to a relatively safe spot close by. As soon as you can move, if I'm not back, I want you to promise me you'll run. I'll catch up if I can but you have got to be well away from here."

Brent read disagreement in her eyes and as he picked her up, he said, "I need your word as a Badari. This is too important to argue with me. You saw where those bastards went mentally as soon as they realized what they had—it'll be a thousand times worse if the scientists ever get you in a lab."

Raeblin closed her eyes and a tear leaked out. He tightened his arms around her. "Fuck, I'm going to give the damn Alphas a piece of my mind when we get to the valley. You never should have been risked out here away from the valley. I know you wanted to serve, sweetheart, and you're a good soldier—a terrific medic—but the dangers are simply too real."

Raeblin weighed more than a human woman but Brent had trained to carry full grown Special Forces soldiers if necessary and he had no trouble with the task. He was jacked on adrenaline from killing the Khagrish, which also helped. Placing her carefully on the dirt next to a tumble of boulders, he assessed her with a quick glance and couldn't refrain from kissing her on the forehead. "I'm going to get your medkit and rifle, so you have them. Sit tight and don't worry, okay?"

This time her nod was more crisp and he was relieved strength was flowing through her. The stun blast was clearly wearing off. Moving fast, he did as he'd promised and brought her the items, propping the rifle on the rock within her reach. He squatted next to her, one hand on her arm. "I'm going to do a recon of the flyer, see if there's anyone left there. We might have a ride home, which would be fantastic, right?"

"Yes," she managed to enunciate. "Be careful."

"Always," he said, amused. Patting her shoulder, he rose and moved away through the forest. Brent hated to leave her there alone and defenseless but the clock was ticking in his head. Sooner or later the Khagrish would send out another patrol to check on the fate of this one and he and Raeblin had to be long gone, one way or the other.

Raeblin waited, periodically testing her reflexes and ability to move. She was pleased with her steady recovery from the stun blast and her inner predator was ecstatic. Badari couldn't handle being immobilized for long. She deliberately kept her thoughts away from what might have happened with the Khagrish soldiers. Brent had saved her, only the Great Mother knew how, and she was grateful. Time enough to have a traumatic breakdown after she was safely away from this spot. Brent could probably handle her emotional lapse too if necessary.

She smiled, remembering the gentle kiss he'd given her, even if it was only on the forehead and meant for reassurance. Paralyzed or not, she'd felt the impact of his lips on her skin deep inside her core and she resolved to do something about this physical, aching need she had for him once she got back to the valley. Brent was Gabe's friend and Gabe was her own Alpha's mate. Surely she could get Gabe to help her spend time with his friend and explore whatever was going on where Brent and her were concerned. Did he feel anything for her, she wondered. Certainly he'd been kind and solicitous and saved her from the Khagrish when she was helpless but did it go any deeper for him?

Frustration at not knowing how to read a human male, or a Badari for that matter, when it came to matters of attraction, Raeblin straightened her spine and reached for the pulse rifle with less effort than movement had cost her only a few minutes ago. Take off and run away? Raeblin scoffed. Not a chance. She was his teammate, his backup, and she wasn't going to abandon him, no matter what orders he spewed. She tested her control over her legs and shakily got to her feet. Not ready to charge into battle yet but soon.

While she waited Raeblin reviewed her options for finding her way to the flyer and what she'd do when she got there. She wished she'd had more combat training or experience but there was nothing to be done about it. Instinct would have to guide her.

There was a rustling in the brush and she aimed her weapon toward the sound. She scented Brent and relaxed but kept her weapon at the ready.

He stepped into the small clearing and clearly approved of her readiness to do battle, giving her a thumbs up. "The flyer is ours," he said. "One guy, not much of a challenge. Ready for a flight?"

Focusing in on his side, Raeblin frowned and moved closer on shaky legs. "You're bleeding."

Brent gave the spot a cursory once over. "Yeah, he didn't like the idea of us hijacking his flyer. Managed to get in a couple of hits. I'll be fine."

"Let me take a look." She turned to the medkit. "Take off your shirt and sit down."

Brent put his hand on her arm. "I'll be fine," he said. "We don't have time right now either. I'll let you examine the wound later, once we're safe, okay? For now I could use that shot of adrenaphix if you're willing to part with it yet."

Hesitating, she opened the medkit. Giving a patient a stim before assessing and dealing with the injuries was against her training but Brent knew himself and if he said he was good to go, then he was. She'd observed his self-knowledge the last time he sustained a minor wound at the lab. "You could have taken an inject for yourself—why didn't you?"

"Hey, you're the medic and it's your kit. I'd only touch your supplies as a last resort, if you weren't here. But you are here, so let's make progress, okay?"

His respect for her warmed her heart and she made quick work of preparing the shot and giving him the inject in the upper arm. Flexing his muscles and rotating the arm a bit, he grinned. "All right, it'll be a walk in the park now. Ready to go?"

She closed the kit with a snap of the latch and picked up her rifle again. "Lead on." As she went, Raeblin looked over her shoulder in the direction of the spot where they'd been captured. "What are we going to do with the bodies? Are we leaving them out in the open?"

"I'm figuring we'll take off, hit the site with blaster fire and head west. The beams will touch off a forest fire, covering up our presence efficiently."

Raeblin considered the idea as she walked. On the one hand she hated the idea of igniting a massive blaze which would endanger all the normal residents of the woodland but on the other, they did need to hide the evidence of their capture and escape as long as possible.

As if he could read her mind, Brent said, "Of course we could drag the bodies over to the vermore pit we saw a mile to the east and dump them in there but that would take a lot of time and energy we don't have right now."

And be really unpleasant to do, Raeblin thought with a shudder. "Your plan sounds fine to me."

"Holding up all right?" he asked, pausing now for a moment and assessing her with narrowed eyes.

"Fine," she said with as much force as she could inject into one word.

The skin around his eyes crinkled with humor and he smiled. "Right, fine."

Maybe she'd overdone the emphasis on her assertion.

Brent started walking again. "It's all going to hit you at some point and when it does, I'm here. Or maybe we'll be in the valley by then and your girls will have you. You're doing a good job, soldier."

Warmed by his praise, she followed him to the flyer, which the Khagrish had landed in a clearing a few hundred yards away. Brent hesitated ever so slightly before he ascended the open ramp and Raeblin was struck by something off about his movement. She made a resolve to check his wound more closely as soon as she got wherever they were going. Despite the way he was talking about it being nothing, she had her doubts.

"Luckily I was trained by your Badari cousins to fly these things," Brent said, standing beside the ramp controls until she was safely inside. "Beats walking."

As the stern of the flyer closed up, Brent was already heading for the cockpit so Raeblin set her medkit in an empty seat and followed him. He slid into the pilot's seat and worked the controls as she joined him, taking the other chair. The engines spun up with a roar and the flyer lifted into the air with a jerk.

"I don't suppose you've had flying lessons?" he asked casually as he steered the flyer in a wide turn. Leaning forward he hit the targeting interface and the flyer shuddered as blaster beams raked the forest below in a long burst.

"Too busy with basic training and working at the hospital," she said. "This is only my third flight in my entire life. Once when Gabe rescued us from the lab where we were created, the flight three days ago deploying on the mission and now this. I love it up here, though, free as a bird."

Laughing, he flipped the weapons tab and the blasters cut out. On the rear vids she watched the forest burning and a wave of sadness came over her. "Don't worry," he said, "The foliage was all pretty moist, high humidity, nothing will burn too long. Not fire season yet."

"You've flown a lot?" she asked as they soared through the sky toward the setting sun.

His face was blank as he gave her a self-deprecating answer. "Gabe is the hotshot pilot, not me. Sure, I've done my share of flying here and there, planetary and interplanetary, but my specialties are ground-based. I like to have my boots planted in the dirt, going after the bad guys personally."

"You're good at it," she said, paying tribute to his undeniable skills. "You took out those four Khagrishi so fast my head was spinning. How did you recover from the stunblast so fast? I'm Badari and even I didn't bounce back as rapidly."

"Long story, sweetheart. Basically Special Forces guys get a lot of strange experimental equipment, implants and modifications during their time of service. Not allowed to talk about any of it, not even to you." He gave her a wink. "Let's say maybe I volunteered for one program aimed at minimizing the amount of downtime a soldier experiences after getting stunned and hey, surprise surprise, the damn thing worked. A lot of the time the shit doesn't work or not as advertised but every now and then the scientists hit one."

"What's our plan?" she asked, studying him closely. Was he more pale under the tan now? Misgivings stirred in her gut.

"We can't fly straight to the valley, don't want to give the enemy any intel we don't have to. I'm going in the general direction and we get close enough you can contact them telepathically. We'll agree on a rendezvous point, land and wait to be picked up. Easy."

Raeblin pointed at the control panel. "Can't we use the com? Call for extraction?"

"Not a good idea. We have no idea who might be listening in if we use a Khagrish comlink." He turned to give her his full attention. "I want to get us home but at the same time we have to maintain OPSEC for the valley."

She knew the acronym meant operational security and she couldn't argue with him. If the enemy ever discovered Sanctuary Valley it would be a disaster. Raeblin settled in her seat and watched the forest rushing by under the flyer. At a minimum Brent was saving them days of walking and possible recapture. "Sounds good to me." A flicker of red light on the control panel caught her eye and she pointed at the blinking indicator. "What's that mean?"

Brent barely glanced at it. "Means the Khagrish do crappy maintenance and the engine has a problem. They've probably been ignoring this check engine light for months. Idiots never should have been flying this crate but they're notorious for slipshod mechanics. I'm hoping she'll get us where we're going before the damn levels go critical."

No sooner had he spoken than an alarm blared and a robo voice exclaimed in Khagrish.

Brent fought the controls and the flyer began to yaw and pitch in the air. "Strap in. I'm going to set her down in the first clearing I find."

He sounded as calm as always and Raeblin obeyed the order, although her heart was pounding. She heard the rhythm of the engine falter and resume and stop again, leaving the whistling of the air against the fuselage as the only sound.

"Damn flyer makes a lousy glider," Brent said. "Brace yourself."

She tried to relax against the belt holding her in place, not too worried, being Badari and a fast healer. Her concern was all for Brent, who was human and clearly already injured in his fight with the Khagrish pilot when he took over the flyer.

The craft nosedived and things became confused for Raeblin, with her vision cutting in and out as the flyer rolled several times and time seemed to slow. The trees rushed at her in the vids until she could see the individual branches and then there was a scraping sound, followed by a horrific rending of metal and a crash. Her body strained against the safety webbing, which had deployed at the first impact with the trees and her mind went blank as all forward motion abruptly stopped in a bright flare of white.

She didn't know how long she was unconscious, maybe only seconds, but as awareness came back slowly Raeblin realized she was hanging upside down in the straps, she was bleeding from a cut on the head and the cockpit was filling with smoke. "Brent?"

No answer. She craned her head to see him, ignoring the pain the movement brought, and found him hanging in his straps, unconscious. With difficulty she extended her talons and tore through the webbing holding her. She fell to the deck, which had been the ceiling and the breath was knocked out of her for an instant. Coughing, she moved to Brent, trying first to wake him but then slicing through his safety belt and catching him to break his fall. Lying on the deck with Brent on top of her, she heard the crackle of flames and knew they had limited time to save themselves. Exerting her Badari strength, she managed to wriggle out from under Brent despite the close confines of the crumpled cockpit and then hefted him up and onto her shoulder.

As best she could she got them out of the cockpit into the cabin, maneuvering her way through the twisted hull. Fire was eating away at the port side of the cabin and the air was barely breathable here. The heat was intense. Raeblin headed toward the stern and the exit ramp, which she could see through the smoke had been ripped away. As she struggled down the aisle, climbing over seats thrown into the path and hauling the unconscious Brent over the obstacles, she banged her knee on the medkit and grabbed it. Getting herself, Brent and the medkit out of the rapidly deteriorating situation was a nightmare she wasn't able to explain to herself afterwards but somehow she did it, determined they weren't going to die here.

Raeblin fell onto the soft forest ground outside the flyer, Brent landing on top of her, and took in deep breaths of the fresh air. There was undoubtedly scant time before the flyer would explode, so she forced herself to her feet, got Brent over her shoulder again, grabbed the medkit and made a shambling run through the surrounding trees. She had no idea how far away they had to get to be safe so she did the best she could but her strength was waning.

Calling upon the goddess to help her, she got a renewed grip on Brent and tried to go faster.

Instinct or perhaps a peripheral sound her inner predator heard caused her to drop, covering Brent's body as best she could and trying to flatten them both into the loamy soil. A huge blast deafened her and the next moments were insane, with broken pieces of metal and hunks of wood flying everywhere. A few glancing pains as fragments of shrapnel hit her were a distraction but when the noise and the barrage stopped, she rolled off Brent and sat up despite the vertigo which assailed her. Although her hearing was impaired, her eyes were working fine and she took in the crater where the flyer had been, ringed by broken, burning trees.

"We cut it close," she whispered.

Brent was unmoving and with a bit of panic she checked the pulse point in his neck and was reassured to find it steady but weak. Ordinarily she could have heard his heart beating but the blast had left her partially deaf. Holding her hysteria tightly under control she checked him over and found several gashes from shrapnel, nothing too bad, but when she lifted his tee shirt to check his side she swore. He'd obviously put a crude pressure bandage on it himself, which was blood soaked. Touching the dressing with trembling fingers, she thought she was going to cry and again forced herself to focus. She was a medic, damn it. Savagely opening the medkit she grabbed her diagnosing device and ran it over him, her heart breaking with each new reading. He had massive internal bleeding.

Shoulders slumping, Raeblin sat on her heels, head down, fighting off panic.

Brent opened his eyes. "Hey, sweetheart." His voice was weak and she had to bend close to hear him. "Sorry about the bumpy landing." With a grimace he closed his eyes and then reopened them to stare at her as if she was the most important thing in the world to him. He moved his hand and she grasped it in her own.

"Why didn't you tell me the truth?" she whispered.

"Damn Khagrish had a force knife, got in a lucky blow before I killed him." Brent licked his lips. "Knew it was bad. Priority was to get you to safety so I gambled we could make it to the valley or to a safe extraction point and then maybe Doc Garrison could fix me up in her fancy hospital. I know you haven't got anything in your kit for the kind of wound I've got. Sucked it up, did the job." He gazed at the trees above them. "Only luck ran out and I fucked it up. You gotta run now, head west, keep trying the telepathic link. Khagrish will come check on this site sooner or later."

"I'm not leaving you," she said, angry he would even suggest such a thing. "And we're going to have words later about you hiding the seriousness of your wound."

"We don't have a later," Brent said. "Kinda wish we did—you're a special lady. We made it safe to the valley I might have told you?—"

"Told me what?" Raeblin was desperate for his next words but Brent closed his eyes again. She smoothed his hair off his face and tried to think what to do because she was not abandoning him.

"Find yourself the right guy," Brent said in a whisper. "You deserve one of those righteous Badari badasses, you hear me? They'd be lucky to have you. Kinda wish it could have been me."

"I think I already found the right guy," she said, placing her free hand on his cheek.

His hand slipped from hers and she let out a primal scream. There was a pulse when she checked again but much weaker and Brent didn't reawaken.