CHAPTER 14

Nick

I had one damn howler of a headache.

When I woke up and tried to move, a feeling exploded in my head as if I'd grabbed a handful of live power cables.My skull was filled with a crackling, radiating pain.I winced and groaned loudly—and then my foggy vision started to clear, and I started to be aware of other sensations.There was a softness under my back, where the last thing I remembered was hitting something hard.There was a softness covering me from the chest down.I was lying propped up at an angle.I wasn't wearing anything but a pair of regulation short-shorts.The space around me was brightly lit, where the last thing I remembered was a dim space.And there were figures moving around and voices going back and forth.

As I dragged my consciousness back together, I recognized where I was.This was an infirmary.The people moving around were wearing white and grey—medtechs.This was probably an infirmary, and from my last memories it was probably underground in the Regency bunker section.A short-haired female loomed into my view with a reassuring look.

"It's all right, Commander Travis," she said."You're in a Canis Guard infirmary."That confirmed my guess."You've sustained a concussion, but you're otherwise in good shape.We've administered anti-traumatics and you're going to need a few hours of rest."

That made me wince as badly as the pain when my memories fully started to kick in.The corridor to the Regency bunker…the hole punched through the floor…those tentacle things…and Tara screaming!

I tossed my head and tried to get up.I called her name, about as scared as it was possible for me to get."Tara…The Princess…Something's happened to her.Where are my men?We've got to…"I raised up on my shoulders and tried to prop myself up on the palms of my hands, and the instant I managed it, my head protested.Now I had a white sheet of throbbing pain blocking my vision, and a feeling as if I were spinning in a whirlpool down into an abyss.I sank back against the pillow, and as my vision started to clear, a couple of other figures appeared just beyond the medtech woman.These two, I recognized.

Gulping, trying to steady myself against the whirlpool feeling that spun from my head to my limbs, I said, "Lieutenant Black, Sub-Lieutenant Tynan.Report!"My authority as team leader was the only thing about myself that felt steady just now, and I grabbed onto it.

Lon and Kris came closer, the medtech stepping aside for them.I didn't like the grim looks they wore."Nick," said Lon, "we were ambushed, apparently by some alien tech coming up from the caverns.Something we took to be android or biosynthetic arms equipped with sensors attacked us—and took the Princess.We don't know her whereabouts."He paused, frowned, and gulped the way I did a second ago."Tara's gone."He paused again and took a step to one side, and gestured across the space we were in."And Leto is under siege."

On a wall beyond beds with other fallen Guards and other medtechs tending to them was a collection of monitors showing feeds from cameras and satellites.On the monitors were multiple views from rooftop levels of buildings and orbital magnifications.My stomach knotted at what I was seeing.Soorn ships were swooping over the Capital of Lycia, firing at buildings, firing at streets.The streets were thankfully clear of people except for human troops and Canis Guard members in wolf forms; the civilians had to have been quickly evacuated.There were armed speeder craft skimming along through the air, blasting back at the Soorn ships—and at the creatures that the troops were engaging in the streets.The Soorn mutators were at it again.

Stomping on the ground were dinosaur-like creatures that I guessed had to have been mutated from reptiles native to Lycia.They were hulking things with reinforced, armor-plated skin; they could take fire from our people's energy weapons and keep going and doing more damage, smashing away at buildings and vehicles and troops before they were finally brought crashing down.For every one of them that fell, more took their place.Our guys out there were taking a ferocious beating on the ground and in the air, but they were holding the line.How long they could do it was anyone's guess.

And yet, what most made my stomach sink with that awful whirlpool feeling inside me was what Lon had said when he started his report.Tara's gone.Those damning words echoed in my head.Tara's gone.

I shut my eyes for a second, as if to attempt the impossible task of chasing away the sight of what was on the monitors and the fear of what could have happened to Tara.But another voice entering nearby made me look.

"Sub-Commander Travis…how are you doing?"

It was the Prime Regent.He was here, escorted by two Guards, neither of whom was the Prime Commander; I guessed that Commander Brunson must have his hands full elsewhere.The Prime Regent was stepping over to my bedside, with Kris, Lon, and my attending medtech making way for him.Reflexively, I tried sitting up straighter.A pain in my skull protested.

"Mr. Prime Regent, Sir," I began."We engaged some kind of enemy tech in the corridor to the…"

He held up a hand to stop me."I know about that, son," he said.Different feelings were at war on his face.I could see concern for me, but greater concern, a father's concern, for Tara; and a leader's concern over what was going on above and outside us.Of everyone in this infirmary right now, Mr. Landon had the most to deal with.

I said, "Mr. Prime Regent, I swear to you, the second I'm out of this bed, my men and I will be out of here and looking for the Princess.We will find her, Mr. Prime Regent, I promise, Sir."

"At ease, Sub-Commander," said Mr. Landon."I know you and Black and Tynan did everything you could to protect Tara.I don't hold any of you responsible for things that you weren't prepared for."

Feeling tied up in knots inside, clenching my fists, I said, "It's our job to be prepared, Sir.Tara—the Princess was counting on us.You were counting on us.It was up to us to…"

He cut me off."It was up to you to keep yourselves safe to protect her.The attack was on all of you, not just my daughter.I know the three of you did your jobs to your best ability.You couldn't have known the enemy had a way of penetrating what was supposed to be the most secure area of the Regency."

"Sir," I said, "they may just be holding her captive.They may have terms for releasing her."

"Yes, they may," said the Prime Regent."But there have been no actual communications with the Soorns—yet.Not with all the fighting going on out there.Alpha Commander Brunson suspects that at some point there may be some break in the combat and the Soorns may announce their terms for their attempt to occupy the planet.We may hear something about Tara then.In the meantime, all we can do is keep holding the line."

Holding the line.He echoed my own thoughts from a minute ago.

"Mr. Prime Regent," I said solemnly, "I'd like to issue my formal apology to you as our Commander in Chief for our failure to carry out our mission.I take full responsibility for our failure."And having to say the word failure out loud made me hurt like a wolf with his foot caught in the teeth of a metal trap on Earth hundreds of years ago.

"It wasn't your failure, son," Mr. Landon said."It was the subterfuge of the enemy who have obviously been planning this for a long time.We'll not only hold the line but beat them back—somehow.The Canis Guard helped us with this before.It'll happen again."

Nowhere in Mr. Landon's words was any hope for his daughter.I suspected I wasn't the only one feeling caught.

"Yes, Sir," was all I could say.

The Prime Regent said, "We need all of our forces, human and wolf, in their best possible fighting form for whatever is ahead.You're to obey medical orders and be ready for action as soon as you're cleared."

Numbly, I repeated, "Yes, Sir."

To Lon and Nick, Mr. Landon said, "Stand by your leader.Be ready for new orders when the time comes."

Kris and Lon acknowledged with nods and bows of their heads.

"I have to go now," said Mr. Landon."I'm expecting a report from the Alpha Commander.I just wanted to look in on the three of you.I expect Brunson will be in touch.Until then," he addressed me, "just rest."And to Kris and Lon he said, "You just stand by.That'll be all for now."

The Prime Regent's guards led him out of the infirmary, probably back to his protective office.I just lay there, watching him go, noting a slight stoop in his shoulders that had to be from not knowing where Tara was or what had happened to her.Damn, I cursed in my head.Damn, damn, damn…

As soon as Mr. Landon was gone, my medtech said to me, "You heard the Prime Regent's orders and I'm repeating them.Rest until further notice.Let those anti-traumatics do their job, then you can do yours."

She stepped away to somewhere else in the infirmary, leaving Kris, Lon, and me alone.As soon as she was gone, I motioned for Kris and Lon to step closer to me.They leaned over slightly to hear me.

In a lowered voice, I ordered them, "Find my uniform."

Knowingly, Lon said, "Orders be damned, right?"

"We're going to get me out of here somehow," I said softly."Then we're getting back on the duty that was assigned to us.Finding Tara comes first."And to Lon, I echoed his words."Orders be damned."

Lon and Kris straightened up, trading a look that made me see wheels turning in their heads.They were on board with their new orders from me.

What we had to hope now was that once we were out of here, we'd be going out on a search and rescue—not a search and recovery.