CHAPTER 16

Lon

Kris and I became a couple of sneaks, putting a hasty plan into action.

When more wounded with multiple injuries were brought into the surgical area of the infirmary, we made our move.There was a table in the recovery area where Nick and others were; it had some sedative wands on it, being charged.When the announcement of the incoming wounded had all the medtechs scrambling, Kris and I were asked to leave.On our way out, I lifted one of those wands when no one was looking.I used the wand to knock out the last medic left to watch the recovery area while she was checking charts on the computer.We took her access strip, a little carbon-silicon wafer containing a passcode, and used it to get into the storage room where the infirmary was keeping people's uniforms.We found and grabbed Nick's uniform, then went and helped Nick out of bed and got ourselves out of there.All the activity with the wounded would keep the medtechs busy and cover our quick exit.

Our next stop was the underground tunnels to Canis Guard supply rooms, garages, and hangars, which we were trained to know.They were empty because all available personnel were deployed on the surface or guarding other areas, including the access portal to these tunnels where we already were.We ducked into a supply room, where Nick got back into uniform and Kris and I took some critical equipment.

We got what we needed, then I noticed that Nick was holding a hand to his head and leaning against a wall of shelves with his eyes closed."Nick," I called, with a feeling like a squirming puppy inside, "are you okay?"If we'd snuck him out of bed too soon, this plan of ours was about to be like a log over a waterfall, plunging to a crash.

Nick didn't open his eyes.He said, "I will be in a minute.I have to be.These anti-traumatics they gave me, they make you want to stay still even when you have to move.I just need a minute to get my mind and body back into sync.I've got this damn dizzy spell."

"Look," I said, "Kris and I can finish what we started.You don't have to go; we know what we have to do.You can get back to the infirmary; tell ‘em you made a stupid mistake, and…"

Now he snapped his eyes open and gave me a feral, angry look, as if he'd go to wolf form and go right for my throat."Hell no!Who the hell is the commanding officer here?We're doing this.I'm doing this!Tara was taken on my watch.It's my duty.She's my duty.We're going ahead and I'm leading this mission; end of discussion."He straightened up, shook his head, and changed before our eyes back into our leader—confident, sure, and determined.Something about the idea of not going, of not following through with the plan, had whipped him back into shape."Now," he said, "let's get moving."

Without any further discussion, we charged out of there and headed back for that corridor where we had almost gotten Tara to the Regency bunker.

The supplies we took from that room were a light drone and some gripping gauntlets with artificial carbon-alloy claws.The gauntlets were designed for climbing up and down walls; the claws could make gripping holds in stone and in metals and compounds less durable than a spaceship's hull.There were other special materials in their palms and fingers that could enable a climber to cling to a surface and go up and down walls like an insect.But we weren't insects; we were wolves, and we were on the move.

We came to the jagged edge of that hole in the floor where we lost Tara.We took our torch disks and fixed them to the tops of our uniforms, then activated the light drone, set it to descend slowly, and sent it over the hole.Casting a glow around its edges and from its underside, it dropped into the blackness of that vicious opening.With the drone and our torch disks lighting our way, the three of us went to the rough edges of the hole and, using our gauntlets, started to climb down the inner surface, gouging into it with the artificial claws, gripping and clinging to it as we went.

Moving down that rough pit wall, I tried to guess what kind of power the Soorns had used to make this hole.The energy output of whatever they used must have been monstrous.Perhaps it was some kind of sonic weapon that could dissolve solid matter.That would account for the shaking of the tunnel structure before the hole was blasted out.That was how I kept myself from seeing Tara's face:her bright eyes looking at me, showing her intelligence, her warmth, her humor—and her desire.And her golden hair, flowing over her shoulders, fluttering in the breeze as she rode her melobeast.And so many other things about her, in other places, in other situations:in the shower that day, in that loft, in her room…Keep your mind on what you're doing! I snapped at myself.This might seem like a solid pit wall, and it might be so—but hit one weak spot, one spot where the rock crumbles.That's all it'll take for you to be in trouble as bad as Tara might be.

Focusing my mind was how I distracted myself from worrying about her, about what the Soorns might be doing to her.The idea of them hurting Tara, or torturing her, instead of just using her as leverage against us, was worse than any danger we might be up against.Nothing should ever be done to Tara—except holding her, kissing her, doing the kinds of things we did…Again, my mind was straying where it shouldn't go right now.Focus!FOCUS!Don't think about how important Tara is, not just as a Princess, not just as the person our duty says we have to protect.Don't think about the importance of Tara herself, how essential she's become in so short a time.It was only a few days we'd known her, but in that space of days, she had become the thing that mattered more than anything else.The only way to deal with our fears about her was to concentrate on whatever we had to do to get to her.

The drone, which descended into the hole at the same rate as we climbed down along the wall of the pit, showed that right below us was a stony surface, somewhat uneven but level enough to stand on.That meant we'd soon reach the place where this pit opened out into a cavern.Nick called, "Go to wolf shape now!"Immediately, we all morphed.In our other bodies, we'd need our heightened senses and increased strength and reflexes to handle whatever might be waiting for us down there, whether it was the tentacle droid we'd faced before, or something else, including the Soorns themselves.

Sure enough, we soon found ourselves hanging by our artificial claws down into a vast cavern where rocks and boulders were strewn about and there were stony pillars formed by stalactites and stalagmites that had grown together.The thought of Tara being dragged down here gave me a sick, shuddery feeling.This was too cruel and coldlooking a place for her.It was fit for the Soorns, but not for the Princess.

We all assessed the distance between where we were hanging and the cavern floor.It looked like a dangerous drop for a human, but luckily we had swapped out our human shapes.Nick called, "Count of three, disengage claws!One…two…three!"

At Nick's call, we all released our grip on the stone surface where we were hanging and dropped down from there to the stony place beneath us.More like panthers than wolves, we hit the cavern floor feet first and fell into crouching positions, then rolled until we came to a stop, each of us just a few feet from the others.We stayed still for a moment.The space was lit by the drone, which had settled onto a slightly inclined surface of rock nearby.Disregarding how eerie everything was, I looked over to check how Nick was doing.

Our leader was on his knees, bent over, fists clenched, eyes closed, taking deep breaths.Kris was crouched on one side of him; I was on the other.Instinctively, I kept myself bent low as I moved over to him, while Kris, keeping an eye on us, took his torch disk and started shining it in different directions, learning the layout of this space where we were.His light hit tunnels and branches going off into darker places in different directions.Any of them could be where Tara was taken.We would have to try to pick up her scent—or any scent that might lead us to her.

I got to Nick and put a hand on his shoulder."You all right?"I was having a bad feeling about springing him from the infirmary before we were sure the meds they gave him had fully done their job.

Nick opened his eyes and took a last deep breath of air."I'm fine.Good, good, I'm fine.Let's get on with this."He hauled himself up on his feet; I stood with him, taking him at his word about how he was feeling.But I had it in mind to watch him carefully just the same.

Then Kris's voice rang out in the cavern, "There!"

We looked first at Kris, then at where his light was shining as he drew his two-gun.Seeing what he saw, Nick and I both drew ours as well.

Coming in from one of the larger branching tunnels were four floating, bowl-shaped mechanical objects, moving towards us.Each of the objects had four sockets on the bottom of it, and from these sockets waved huge, dark, supple-looking tentacles tipped with blue lights, just as we'd seen before.The outer, upper edges of the bowl shapes were ringed with blue lights that cast their glow into the cavern.We all raised our weapons, preparing to do battle with them—and with those who sat in the hollows of the bowl shapes.

At first glance, I could only think, and I could only guess that Nick and Kris were thinking the same, Who the hell are THEY?!

Whoever they were, they had blue skin, horizontal slits for eyes, and what looked like handfuls of tentacles for fingers.My next thought was, Where the hell did they come from and what are they doing here?

Then, the lighted tips of the tentacles on the bowl-shaped floaters aimed themselves at us and opened fire.

Only our lycanthrope reflexes saved the three of us from being hit on this first attack.Energy beams stabbed out, and we leapt and ducked, growling, as the bolts hit the places on the rough cavern floor where we'd been standing.They made harsh popping noises where they struck, and the flying splinters of stone told us we did not want to be where those bolts connected.

We scattered, as not to give our foes a single target.Nick dove behind the biggest boulder near him; Kris found cover behind the base of a twisted stone outcropping; I found one of the stalagmite growths about as wide as a tree trunk and ran behind it.That gave each of us some cover to work with, but the aliens, whoever they were, had the advantage and maneuverability of being airborne.Kris and I both watched Nick and followed his lead.From behind his boulder, Nick raised his two-gun and aimed not at one of the tentacled hoverers, but at its rider.That was the strategy, then:concentrate on the aliens themselves, not the vehicles.The beam from Nick's two-gun seared through the air over one alien's shoulder and hit the stone wall just beyond him, screaming against the rock and sending pieces flying.That alien pivoted his vehicle around in the direction of Nick's attack, and the tentacles of his craft rained energy bolts onto the boulder protecting him.Kris and I went right on the attack.

I took aim at the blue-skinned rider nearest me and fired off two shots.One blazed in front of him; the other caught him on the shoulder.The shrieking sound was something I'd never heard before.He fell forward against what I took to be the controls of his vehicle; and it lurched forward and down, hitting the cavern floor with an unholy crash and sliding down an incline to stop hard, crunching, against a far wall.Its tentacles flailed randomly, lighted tips flashing.The alien riding it did not reappear.I took only an instant's satisfaction at this little victory, because an instant later, another enemy craft was swerving in my direction, firing with all four arms.

Clenching my fangs, I stood still but with my weapon ready behind the trunk-like stone column that was my only protection.I heard the terrible crash and clatter of the alien's attacks striking it and saw flashes around me.The next thing I heard was a vicious cracking sound.I looked up towards the cavern ceiling and saw the top of my column starting to crumble.Pieces of rock fell onto my head.Then I saw from the corner of my eye the shape of the craft that had blasted the pillar, coming around one side.I moved, lunging away from the crumbling stone formation, at the same time shooting at the alien in the floating device.My beams missed him, and he fired again.His blasts once again hit the column, this time breaking it in two places.Big, jagged pieces of it rained down onto the cavern floor.If I'd been still standing there, they would have hit me, but now I was backed up against one cavern wall and releasing a barrage of energy beams against the craft and the alien.The four arms of the hovering craft raised and took aim at me.For a split-second I stared into its blue lights.Then I dove to the floor and rolled under the thing.Lying beneath the center of the bowl shape, with its four arms spread out from there above me, I fired up right at that center spot.My beam punctured the underbelly of the device; and I quickly rolled away, just in time to stop the thing from falling right on top of me.

Across the cavern, Kris drew the fire of Nick's attacker and had both that one and another one after him.The rock formation that was his cover was now in the crossfire of two of them.He stayed put and sent out a shot when he could, trying to hit one of the other of those riders.But with their attention on Kris, Nick leapt out from behind the boulder with the energy sword of his two-gun turned on and raised high.His blade sliced neatly through and severed the tendrils of one enemy craft.That one veered off, the front halves of the sliced arms falling to the floor and twitching like spastic snakes.Nick joined Kris behind his rock formation while the one with its tentacles intact swiveled in the air to maneuver itself to aim at both of them.From my place on the stone floor, I saw the one whose arms Nick had cut off swerving around the other side of the rock formation to box our leader and Kris in with no escape.Growling, I switched my own two-gun to blade function, launched myself forward, leapt into the air, swung my blade, and sliced off the two remaining arms of that device.

The alien riding that craft shouted something I didn't understand, that sounded angry.Tough balls, I thought, serves you right.He pulled away while the one going for Kris and Nick got itself into place.What followed was dazzling.The alien aboard that craft opened fire, but Kris and our leader met and deflected his every bolt with spins and swirls of their weapons.Their duel sent sparks flying everywhere.Suddenly the alien changed his tactics and hit at, not the spinning energy blades of my partners, but at the rock formation between his craft and them.With a bludgeoning attack, he pulverized the twisted outcropping of rock, making them leap to safety in showers of fragments.Before they could recover their balance and strike again, now they were out in the open, the alien took aim at them.In a brutal hail of energy beams, my two comrades dropped to the floor of the cavern.

In a howling voice of sudden terror, I cried, "NICK!KRIS!"The tide of the battle had suddenly and cruelly turned.I broke into a run to their side, but from behind me there was a shocking noise, and my body convulsed in a flash of light that felt like a blow from an electric fist.I flew forward and down, spinning painfully onto the rough stone floor and lying there, puffing, dizzy, feeling the strength leave my body.Looking groggily back where I'd come from, I saw the alien craft that I'd shot down from underneath it, lying where I'd left it.The four arms were raised and two were emitting a pulsating glow.In one moment of shock, I had thought only of my comrades, and not of the device that I'd shot down but not disabled, which had hit me from behind.I was paying for that now with darkness quickly dropping down on my thoughts, taking me to oblivion.

As that dark curtain fell over my mind, I heard what my last coherent thought took to be a translated alien voice."We have subdued three of the alien metamorphs.We will now bring them to where the alien female is being kept."

Three of those words I took into total blackness:The alien female.

The alien female…