Darik Generic, page 16
Despite the pain and convulsions wracking his body, Darik lashed out with both hands as he fell to his knees and impaled the alien on his talons. Raising the struggling creature from the deck to study it while the neoChimmer whipped its tentacles in the air impotently, he ripped his hands apart and literally tore the neoChimmer in half. The two pieces of the corpse lay twitching on the deck while Darik leaned against the bulkhead, breathing hard. Raising his booted foot, he stomped the halves into mush, just to be sure.
Whispering a prayer to the Great Mother, he ran the rest of the way to the sick bay, desperate to check on Nicolle but he judged Msvxx was the greater priority. If the alien wasn’t dead yet and managed to escape, he and Nicolle would be in a desperate situation again. To his relief, the turtle-shaped being lay immobile in the bed of gelatinous material, completely yellow, with the edges of his shell turning up like a dead, curling leaf. Taking no chances, Darik again deployed his immense talons and ripped the creature to shreds, which was easier to do than it had been with his own rider. He surmised Msvxx was already dead, but with an alien entity like this, who could be sure?
He rushed to Nicolle, placing her on her side and checking her pulse, which was weak but steady. Darik surveyed the Chimmer medical devices. He had no idea what any of them did, and he wasn’t sure he’d trust his mate to them even if he did know what to do. The spots on her back where the alien had been attached were open wounds, bleeding sluggishly. His own body ached, but he could sense his Badari metabolism hard at work, healing him. He had a lingering headache, but he ignored it.
He fought panic over Nicolle’s condition. She’d been free of the neoChimmer control for a while now and her separation from her parasite had been less wrenching than his. Her breathing sounded better and her cheeks held a pale wash of pink, both of which he found reassuring.
Ripping off his torn shirt, he finished the task of tearing the fabric into strips and bound up the wounds as best he could. There was nothing here to clean her skin with, much less to try disinfecting the punctures.
Making a decision, he carried Nicolle to the control chamber and set her gently in a chair off to the side, in front of a bank of monitors. Her eyes fluttered open, and she blinked as she tried to focus on his face.
“Don’t exert yourself,” he said, frightened she’d make her wounds bleed more. “There’s no immediate danger now.”
“We’re free?” she asked putting a hand to the back of her neck but not quite touching the skin.
“Yes, the neoChimmer are dead. How do you feel?” He waited for her answer with bated breath.
“My head aches, my back aches, I’m thirsty, kind of feverish…but I’m happy to see you.” She twined her arms around his neck, and he leaned in for a kiss.
“I’m so sorry,” he said. “I’ll never forgive myself for leaving you alone.”
“Water under the bridge.” She shook her head slightly before clearly thinking better of the gesture. “If either of us had had any idea the damn aliens were still alive you wouldn’t have left me.”
“Always you forgive me.” His heart felt too big for his chest, bursting with emotions, but guilt was entwined with the gratitude. “I don’t deserve you.”
She framed his face with her hands and drew him close. Kissing him softly on the lips, she said, “We’re on a journey here, together. There’ll be good and bad, and there may be times I’ll fail you in some way—yes, I probably will because I’m only human.” She reacted to his instinctive attempt to deny she could ever fail him. “You have to accept my imperfections if you love me.”
“You know I do.” He had a hollow spot at his core that could only be filled by having her in his arms but knowledge of her physical condition made him hesitate.
“The two times you couldn’t rescue me immediately were beyond your control,” she said, easing his aching heart with her blunt reminder of the facts “And you didn’t give up until we were both safe. Us, you and me, that’s what matters.” She put her lips next to his ear and whispered. “I love you.”
Now he did hug her, being extremely careful not to touch the spots where the alien had used its probes.
When he pulled away Nicolle smiled and the effort it took made his heart ache. “How did you get us free of the neoChimmer?”
Darik was eager to relay her role in the escape. “Actually, I think you may have killed the one riding on you. It looked and acted pretty sick for a few hours before finally dying.”
“More of the virus magic?” She frowned. “But why would it affect only one? They both touched me, although only one actually took me over.”
“If Brclxx was infected, riding me probably cured it. Badari blood, remember?” He took a deep breath and grinned. “My alpha managed to contact me as the extraction team approached the mountains where we were camped, and he sent me a burst of extra power. I hoarded the gift until the right opportunity then I managed to take Brclxx by surprise and kill it.” His claws slid into view at the memory of his victory. “Ripped it to shreds actually.”
Nicolle touched the tip of one black talon. Her smile was truly predator-worthy. “Sounds supremely satisfying. I wish I’d seen you in action.” She leaned back gingerly. “Where are we? Some kind of ship?”
Retracting his natural weaponry, he confirmed her assumption. “The Chimmer ship itself. We’re in a parking orbit above the planet.” Excitement rising in him accompanied by a burst of adrenaline as he thought through the ramifications of what he’d said, Darik swiveled to study their surroundings. “By the Great Mother, we’re in a spaceship. We have a working spaceship.”
Head lolling on the padded surface of the chair, Nicolle blinked. “Can you fly it?”
He shook his head, remembering the complicated steps Brclxx had executed using his clumsy hands. “I can handle atmospheric craft, like flyers and shuttles.”
“What are we going to do then?” She closed her eyes and he was alarmed anew to see she’d grown more pale. Her hands on the arm rests were trembling ever so slightly.
Muscles tightening, he rose to his full height. There was no way he was failing Nicolle. “Give me a minute to see if I can contact my alpha telepathically. We have several spaceship pilots among the humans in the valley.”
Clearly trying to get comfortable in the chair and failing, Nicolle said. “If you find any water to drink on this damn ship, let me know. My lips are chapped and my throat hurts. I think I’m dehydrated.”
He squeezed her hand. “Finding fluids is next on my list, I promise.”
She closed her eyes. “Getting us home, or to your valley at least, would be awesome.”
“I’ll do my best. If you need me, I’ll be right over here, in the pilot’s chair.”
“Don’t forget, I might be contagious to humans.” She opened her eyes to stare at him, her concern for her fellow beings showing in her furrowed brow and lined face. “We’ve got to figure out my status before anyone is exposed to me.”
“I’m sure you’re fine—”
“Yeah, the neoChimmer made that cheery assumption and look what happened to them.” Her sarcastic tone was cutting.
Unable to argue the point but refusing to support her pessimism by agreeing, he crossed to the other chair and sank down in front of the controls. He hesitated to call the alpha, beset by worry. How far away from the other Badari were they? What if he couldn’t connect? The Badari telepathic range wasn’t infinite. “Then it may be a short trip. Self-taught spaceship piloting isn’t my strongest skill set.” Closing his eyes to block out the distraction of the Chimmer readouts, he rubbed his forehead to soothe the ache. Aydarr?
Where are you? The Alpha’s response was immediate and strong, underscored with impatience. What’s the situation?
Darik wished he could see the alpha’s reaction to what he was going to say. He took a deep breath. I, uh, I seem to have commandeered a working spaceship.
It took a lot to faze Aydarr, but Darik’s announcement produced a long moment of silence along the pack bond. Darik couldn’t suppress his grin.
Aydarr’s mental voice vibrated with elation when he finally responded. Take it slowly and give me a sitrep.
Briefly, Darik summarized for the alpha all that had happened with the neoChimmer, including their deaths at his hands. Aydarr listened patiently and asked only a few questions. After his brief report, Darik concluded, And now we’re in low orbit above the planet. I can’t fly this thing. Can Gabe or Walt talk me through it?
I’ll find out. In the meantime, don’t touch anything. Are you and the woman okay?”
Sneaking a glance at Nicolle, his worries compounded at the sight of her frail body curled up in the big Chimmer chair. She’s not doing too well. We’re going to need special arrangements to handle her. The Khagrish gave her a deadly virus, but it mutated in her body. Long story, but we can’t bring her into the valley until we’re sure she’s cured. No contact with humans for now.
All right. I’ll have Mateer give his mate a heads up so the doctor can plan how to handle the medical contingency. Gabe’s here now. He says he had Special Ship Capture training in the Special Forces so he can fly a Chimmer vessel. He’s going to tell me what steps you need to execute to bring us the ship, and I’ll relay them to you.
Darik heard the barely suppressed excitement in Aydarr’s tones, the words coming at him rapidly. The one thing his pack and their allies had been desperate for was a ship, so a delegation could be sent to the Sectors to plead for help. Of course, first they had to figure out where the Sectors’ interstellar borders were in relation to this planet, but a recent attempt by several humans with special implants to contact Sectors authorities, with help from MARL Primary, had yielded valuable astronavigation data as an unintentional side benefit. Or so MARL said anyway.
While he waited for the alpha to begin relaying the detailed instructions from Gabe, Darik rose and checked on Nicolle, breathing in her scent, taking her pulse and exchanging a few quiet words with her. Aydarr’s return to the mental channel was his cue to sit in the pilot’s chair and get ready for action. The alpha passed along the first instructions from Gabe, along with a number of questions designed to pinpoint what type of ship Darik had captured.
Although Gabe says the navigation and propulsion systems are the same in all Chimmer ships, scaled up or down to fit, the alpha added. And, fortunately, many of the functions are automated, just as they’d be on a human vessel.
Can he tell me a better way to communicate with him? Using the ship’s coms maybe? Darik was hoping for a real-time connection straight to the human pilot. There was a slight delay inherent in relaying questions and instructions via the alpha and disaster could happen in the blink of an eye.
Gabe says too risky, either the Khagrish ground stations might pick up the chatter or you might trigger coms to the Chimmer command.
Good thinking. All right, what does he want to know first? And can he tell me how to space the corpses of the two aliens? Darik squared his shoulders, made another quick check of Nicolle’s condition, and settled in to pilot his unexpected prize home to his people.
Nicolle opened her eyes on a bright sunny morning. The bed underneath her was soft, the blankets gentle to her skin. A vase of sweet smelling blue-and-yellow speckled flowers sat on the table beside her and, as she fought a bout of vertigo while attempting to sit, she was thoroughly confused. What the seven hells? She was apparently in a large, military grade hospital tent and as she gazed out the nearby window, a lush green forest lay spread out with sunlight dappling the leaves. Birds sang.
The whole scene was so totally unlike anything she’d experienced on this planet since being kidnapped, she was afraid she was dreaming.
Medical equipment stood close at hand, but she wasn’t hooked up to anything, not even monitors. Sitting up brought pain along her spine and at the base of her head, and as she scooted away from the firm pillows behind her, she remembered flashes of having been literally taken over by a neoChimmer.
The tent was empty except for her. She raised her voice to call out, “Darik?”
“Oh good, you’re awake.” Wearing clean, crisp camouflage utilities, he entered from the far end of the tent, a tray of covered dishes in his hands. Giving her a smile that lit his eyes with the golden glow, he hurried toward her bed, effortlessly balancing the tray. “Sorry I wasn’t here. I intended to be but the kitchen just delivered your breakfast.”
He deposited the food on the table, moving the vase of flowers slightly to make room, and stood watching her, hands on his hips. Voice cheerful, he asked. “Are you up to eating? Dr. Garrison said today was the day to try switching you off all the nutrient feeds. She predicted you’d be awake. I guess the doc knows her stuff, huh? She trained in some swanky Inner Sectors hospital or so I’ve been told, so you’ve got the best physician in the solar system. Because we know the Khagrish doctors are lousy—”
He was talking too much, too fast. “Shut up and kiss me.” She grabbed him by the shirt and hauled him closer, planting a kiss on his lips she made very involved, her tongue nudging insistently for entry into his mouth. After a startled second, he parted his lips and put his arms around her as if he’d never let go.
Nicolle made sure the caress lasted as long as she wanted it to then released him. “Why are you babbling? What are you nervous about?” She looked at the window again. “We are in your sanctuary valley, yes?”
He framed her face with his big hands and kissed her forehead. “Yes. I just—I—how much do you remember about the neoChimmer?”
Maybe it was just as well to have this conversation within the first few minutes of her being awake. Darik wasn’t acting like himself, not the calm, collected soldier she’d grown used to depending on. Something was clearly bothering him and despite the flutters in her gut, she was determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. Nicolle could think of too many possibilities and her unease ratcheted up as a few of the worst crossed her mind. She patted the bed. “Sit. Please.”
His immense frame made the bed squeak a bit as he settled onto the foot of the mattress.
Nicolle picked at her blanket and avoided meeting his eyes. “I remember most of it. I was taking a nap in the tent and I woke up into a nightmare, one alien holding me prisoner with its tentacles and probes wrapped around my arms and legs, while the other was on my back.” She stopped, squeezing her eyes shut, and swallowed hard. “There was incredible pain and I blacked out.” Tears came to her eyes and she sniffed in a futile attempt to stave off the breakdown.
Darik opened his arms to her and she snuggled against his chest. He stroked her hair, being careful not to touch her neck, and murmured reassuring things while she cried. “You’re safe now—the Chimmer will never get close to you again. I give you my word.”
Eventually she’d wept as much as she could, blew her nose on a handy medical wipe and accepted a glass of water from him. A few sips of the cool liquid and she gave him the glass. “I’m okay now. Not saying I might not have nightmares from time to time in the future though.” She managed a somewhat watery smile.
His answering grin was warm. “I consider myself warned.”
“I don’t have clear memories of the actual time when we were with the neoChimmer. Some disjointed impressions. We ended up on a ship, right?” To distract herself, she started uncovering the dishes, to discover a tempting array of foods, some recognizable and others not. Unexpectedly her stomach gurgled and Nicolle realized she was hungry. She sampled a bite of the freshly baked rolls and sighed in pleasure. Someone here really knows how to cook. An insulated carafe stood next to the bowl of sliced fruit. “Oh, is there hot tea like the kind you made me?”
“Yes, we Badari drink a lot of it. Although you humans are fond of complaining about the lack of something called coffee.” Darik still seemed uncomfortable, even as he poured her a cup of the fragrant, spicy tea.
Waiting until he’d set the carafe on the table, she grabbed his hands and forced him to look her in the eyes. “What? I answered your question, now you need to answer mine. Don’t leave me sitting here worrying.”
Darik took a deep breath, entwined his fingers with hers and hung on as if for dear life. “I don’t know if you remember how the neoChimmer captured us, but it was my fault. I left you alone so I could have one more self-indulgent afternoon of hunting in the wild.” He swallowed hard. “You nearly died, Nicolle. By the time I managed to land the ship with Gabe’s instructions, you were in a coma. Apparently, the burden of being a host for that fucking abomination just about destroyed your body. It’s been a scary close thing this past week, keeping you alive, nursing you back to health. You’re going to have permanent scars and possibly nerve damage from where the alien attached itself.” His eyes were glowing amber, and his face was set in lines of anguish. “All my fault, every bit of it. I failed in my duty to protect you, to keep you safe. I don’t deserve to be your mate and, if you want me to leave now, I will.”
He’d obviously been beating himself up over all of it while she was unconscious. Nicolle took a deep breath to sort through what he’d said. The news of scars and possible nerve damage was unpleasant but she could cope. More important was to clear the air with Darik and help him out from under the crushing guilt for things that weren’t his fault. “Neither of us had any idea the neoChimmer had survived. I vaguely remember telling you this once before. Of course you wouldn’t have left me alone if we’d known, and you did leave me the pulse rifle.” She shook her head. “I’m grateful to be alive. I’m grateful to you for saving my life, and I plan to spend the rest of it with you, so no more talk of leaving me.” To punctuate her point, she poked him in the chest with her finger. Struck by a sudden doubt, she added, “Unless…unless you don’t want to be here?”
Mouth falling open, eyes wide, he straightened his spine and said, “I could never walk away from you of my own volition. You’re my mate until I die.” His voice rang with conviction. “I love you.”
