Wednesday Briefs: Ancalagon Ch. 109

Loktah dragged of the officers over to the door panel and opened it with their palm. I rushed into the room. “Garjah!”

He rolled on the bed, and I gasped. There wasn’t a mark on him that wasn’t natural, but he looked horrible. I could identify the signs of shock. His skin was pale, his markings standing out in sharp relief. His eyes were dull, and his mouth was parted as he breathed in a short, harsh breaths.

“What did they do to you?” I hesitated to touch him, crouching in front of the metal slab they’d given him to lay on without any cushion and shivered in the freezing cold air. He blinked and focused on my face.

“Essell?” He took in the first deep breath I saw him take, his chest shuddering. “Did they really capture you? I thought… they lied.” He clamped his lips together and reached out with all four arms, his hands shaking. “I am sorry. I thought I could keep you safe from them.”

I grabbed him, pulling him close to me, gasping in shock at the icy chill of his skin. At that same moment, something inside me that had been broken mended. I’d felt alone, but with this need to find Garjah driving me because I knew he was in danger, that he needed me. “You did. You did keep me safe. And now I’m here to make sure you’re safe too. We have to go.” I couldn’t ignore Loktah’s hisses. “I need help. I don’t know if he can stand or walk, and he’s too heavy for me to lift on my own.”

Garjah stiffened and was shoving me behind him as soon as Loktah entered the cell. Turned out I was wrong about him standing or walking. He was shaking, though, even as he tried to hide it with locked knees as he kept me behind him. I stroked his back, his muscles rigid despite the fine tremors rocking through him. “Garjah, Loktah came with me. He’s an officer who is helping rescue you. We have other people helping us, like Timok and Ases, waiting outside your cell. Please let him help me.”

For a long moment, I thought whatever they’d done to Garjah had damaged his ability to think or understand what I was saying. Then he started to slump. Loktah jumped forward and caught him with a grunt. I hurried to get under the other side of him, pulling his upper arm around my shoulder. Garjah curled his arm around my waist.

“We have to go,” Loktah said.

“Okay. Can you walk?” I asked Garjah.

“I will.”

He didn’t walk very well, but he stumbled the best he could between us. The second we hit the corridor, my heart rate ramped up again, not that it had slowed much. There were too many ways for someone to spot us. Garjah’s weight dragged on me, and I couldn’t move any faster.

Timok was in action as soon as he saw us. I had no idea where he had the spray hidden, but it was in his hand and Garjah was bolting upright the next moment. He blinked several times, but he never let go of me.

“Better?” Timok asked.

“Yes.” Garjah took a deep breath and then another one. He looked down at Bouncer who, in a move completely unlike him, had sat at his feet and leaned gently against us both. Garjah rested one of his lower hands on his head. Bouncer’s ears perked up, and he turned his head. “We need to go. They should be coming soon.”

Chaintrik’s eyes widened. “They?”

“The Kardoval.”

“They’ve been coming themselves?” Chaintrik turned. “We can get back out the same way we came in.”

Loktah tried to grab Garjah again, but he shook his head. “I’m fine.” Loktah looked at me.

“He’s not leaning on me.” He just wasn’t letting me go, either.

“I gave him the antidote to the serum they were using to keep him weak. He’ll be fine.” Timok certainly wasn’t waiting. “I don’t want to get stuck in one of these rooms. Let’s go.”

Every second of our escape I worried that the next one would be the one that led to our capture, and I almost couldn’t believe it was true when we escaped the building and made it underground.

We made it past the sentries and back into the little rooms where we’d waited, where I’d nearly gone crazy waiting, but now I had Garjah with me. He must have been here before because he didn’t ask any questions until we got there, knowing he had to be quiet.

“How many?”

“What?” I asked.

“How many did we just expose to get me out?” Garjah asked. He had his gaze focused on Chaintrik.

“Just me,” Loktah said. “But I was already under suspicion anyway. It wouldn’t have been much longer before I was in an interrogation room beside yours.”

“We had two on teams that we neutralized on our way in so their identities wouldn’t be exposed. Don’t worry, even if this rescue was planned quickly, we didn’t do it without weighing the risks. You’re too important to let them interrogate and subvert. Your bonded would not have tolerated it, for one.” Chaintrik stared at me. “He is very fierce, for a human.”

“Know a lot of humans, do you?” I snapped.

He raised one brow. “Exactly what I mean.” He waved a hand in my direction. “He has been very adamant in rescuing you.”

Garjah squeezed my hand. “You should have stayed safe,” he said to me. “If they had both of us, they have all they need to destroy the treaty. Even now we’re cut off from most of your allies.”

“Technically not,” said Ases. “Besides, we could always just broadcast what my mech recorded and bring the Galactic here to investigate them.”

“We disabled that feature,” Garjah reminded him.

“Did you?” Ases released a feral grin. “Are you sure about that?” 

Wednesday Briefs: Ancalagon Ch. 108

 

Bouncer pounced with his claws extended, and for the first time I saw why everyone was so afraid of cerops. It wasn’t just the wide wounds his claws slashed across the officer’s throat, it was the poison that bubbled from the wounds and the froth that immediately bubbled from the male’s mouth. He died instantly. “Bouncer, no—” was all I got out before he was already stalking back to my side.

Ases squeezed my shoulder. “That guy was on the vid feed.”

“What?” I couldn’t look away from the bloody pawprints coming straight from the body to us, but I couldn’t move past the body either. I had to, but how could I? Bouncer had just murdered someone. He could have been an innocent officer just doing his job, not knowing any better.

“I know you’re freaking out, but I recognize him. He was on the feed from my mech. He was at Garjah’s house.”

“He was?” I blinked several times, finally looking away from the blood to look at Ases. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. Bouncer was too.”

How could he have known? I stared down at Bouncer who was sitting next to me and licking his paw. He glanced up at me, his head tilted, and then slowly put his paw back down on the floor. He didn’t look any different from any other time before when he’d pounced in play. No blood lust or desire to attack anyone else.

Bouncer was smart. He’d saved us. “Okay.” I took a breath. “Let’s go.”

The rest of the officers we’d come across had been subdued by the rebels and gagged. For people who weren’t supposed to be able to do more than one job because of their lack of memories, they were remarkably adaptable. I had to wonder how much of their biology was really racially coded memories and how much was culturally embedded practices?

I shook off the introspection. The plan required that I move forward with the team to the member of the security forces that Garjah had trusted to work with the rebels. He was going to walk me into the secure area that we believed they were holding Garjah in, like he’d captured me and was bringing me in for either secure holding or whatever else they were doing to him there.

It really worried me that they hadn’t told me that part. That he might be hurt.

We caught up to Chaintrik and Loktah. Loktah held a weapon loosely at his side. “Okay, I’m taking you in, and remember I’ll need to loosely secure you. You’ll be able to thumb the release on these here.” Loktah indicated a depression on one edge of a pair of white cuffs that were linked together that would hold all four of my arms between me.

“The rest of us will be here, in this blind spot we located.” The area was where the two hallways converged. Chaintrik indicated his comm and said, “But we’ll be listening if you need us.”

“I understand.” I had to play my part. We were trying for stealth. All out assault was the last thing we wanted. It was bad enough the other officers had already seen us, and that Bouncer had killed one of them.

I drew in a deep breath and let it out. “I’m ready.” Putting my arms behind me, Loktah tried to cuff me. Bouncer growled, and Loktah jumped back, swearing.

“Calm down, he won’t hurt you.” I knelt. “Bouncer, calm down. He isn’t hurting me.” I held out my hand. “Give me the cuffs.” Once I had them, I held them out to Bouncer. “See, these are so I can get close to Garjah. I’m going with the officer so I can get close and we can get him out. You need to stay here with Ases, and then you will protect our back so we can get him out. Okay?” I rubbed his head. “I’ll be fine, but if I’m not, I’ll call for you.”

We had to hope he’d stay calm because we were running out of time. I stood and nodded, handing Loktah the cuffs. “Let’s go.” He put them on me, and this time Bouncer stayed calm. We started walking, and I did my best to pretend I was scared and shocked at where I was.

Stars, who was pretending?

Loktah was a great actor, and he jerked me around when we reached the door, showing my face to the screen so they’d open it. I gasped and cringed back.

The door opened. “What are you doing here?”

“We captured the human. I was told to bring him here.”

“Who told you that?”

“The orders were digital. I don’t get paid to ask questions like that.” Loktah jerked on my arm again, and I winced. He didn’t know my bones and muscles weren’t quite as dense as theirs. Whatever. Realism. If it aided in the officer’s belief so they’d let us in, I’d put up with a few bruises. I waited, my head bowed, barely daring to breathe.

The guard stepped back. “Bring him in.”

We entered the room, and it was an oval space with four rooms coming off it. There was one other officer sitting in a chair. The worst part of all was seeing Garjah in one of the rooms through a clear doorway. His face looked unharmed, but his eyes were closed, and he wasn’t moving.

“We’ll process him, so you can go.”

Was he asleep? Unconscious? Drugged? Stars, if he was drugged, that was a problem I hadn’t thought about. Now how did we—

“Sure. You just have to acknowledge on my comm that I delivered.” Loktah drew a weapon from inside his pocket and fired at both officers before they could even register what he’d done. I gasped. “Relax,” he said. “They’re just out for a while, not dead.”

“Get these off me, and open that door.” I had to get to Garjah. 

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Julie Lynn Hayes

Wednesday Briefs: Ancalagon Chapter 107

 

“Stop it. If he was going to turn me in, he would have done it already.” I put a hand on Ases’ shoulder. “You need to calm down or Bouncer is going to lose it too. These guys are our allies. We need to hear them out.”

“Well look at you using your logic and brain,” snarked Timok. He cocked his head. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“You’re not helping either,” I said shortly. “Seal your lips and listen to the plan unless you have something better to offer.” I crossed a pair of my arms and glared at Timok and then looked at Ases. “Well? We aren’t talking about turning in either of you. We’re talking about turning me in. I’m willing to risk it if there’s a good way to get Garjah out. But we won’t know if there is unless you two cooperate.”

Ases had already sheathed his claws and stood upright. Timok was slower to follow. I stroked Bouncer’s head, calming his steady rumbling growl. “You’re fine. I’m fine. It’ll be okay, you’ll see. We’re going to get him back.” The smooth scales and ridges were hard against my fingers, but he arched his neck into my fingers as I scritched behind his ear. He finally grew quiet. “There you go.”

Looking at Chaintrik, I nodded once. “Sorry. We’re ready to listen now.”

“It’s not that complicated.”

“Simple plans work best,” Timok agreed.

Chaintrik glanced at him and nodded once. “We’re going to surface down the street from the Kadoval’s secure compound. Garjah told me that he gave one person access outside of security.” He trained his gaze on me. “And he didn’t tell anyone that he did it.”

“So that’s why you didn’t argue about me coming.” Of course they’d need someone to help them get inside. And since they were only doing it because I’d insisted, they needed me to get them in.

“It was a failsafe, in case something happened.”

“Then what? I don’t want to hurt someone if we don’t have to.” How could we know who was actively part of the Kardoval’s plan? If they were just following orders, did they know any different? Could they? The whole memory thing brought up questions I didn’t know how to answer. But surely it didn’t change their ability to know right from wrong.

Secretly kidnapping someone and ransacking their home was wrong. However the Kardoval felt about younger allies and revealing their location and species to the Galactic, they were not going to be able to hide from discovery anymore.

It my idle moments, I had to wonder how many other advanced races were hiding in the outer reaches of space, maybe watching to see how we interacted before they made contact.

Contact. Stars, Chaintrik was talking. I had to pay attention, even if I felt like I was going to come out of my skin with worry. “We are not as hidebound as the Kardoval think, and more of us have made it offworld to trade and send back technology.”

“Like the Zusqner engine,” Ases said.

“Yes. We have also acquired these.” Chaintrik held up a strap with two flat circles on either side. He slipped it over his hand so one rested on the palm and the other on the back of his hand. “If I place a free hand over the top circle here and point it toward a person, it will emit a beam of energy powered by the electricity within my body. With precise effort, it can cause an injury, unconsciousness, or death.”

“No death,” I said. “Not if we can avoid it.” So if those took precision, they were out for us. I didn’t really want to carry a projectile weapon anyway. “Do you have batons? Like long, thin sticks?”

Chaintrik consulted with one of his males, and he left. “He will get you something that should work.”

“Okay, we have weapons.” Ases and Bouncer were their own weapons, and Timok could figure it out for himself. “We’re going to come out down the street, then I’ll code everyone into the building. Where do they have Garjah?”

“We don’t know for sure, but we believe it is here.” Chaintrik pulled up a map of the building, pointing out a room on the inside and down three levels. “We may have to go through several layers of security to get there.”

“But you’re hoping not at night.”

“They would draw suspicion themselves if they had extra security there.”

“True.” Timok nodded.

Anxious to go, I was happy to see the male coming with a long, thin metal rod. It was thinner than I liked, but knowing their metal was stronger than anything I’d ever seen, it was probably better than other rods I’d used before. I stepped back from Bouncer and gave it a practice slice and then downward slash, checking the balance. It was good.

“Go quiet, get in, get him out, get back,” I said. “And don’t get the entrance to the tunnels discovered because they hide your people.” I wanted to make sure Chaintrik knew we didn’t forget that. “If we’re pursued, we don’t come back here.”

“No. Head south,” Chaintrik said, tracing a route on a schematic of the city he pulled up. “Look for the acoji nuts.”

 

Every sound made my shoulders tense, and I stood as a tense statue waiting for the last male to clear the tunnels. Then Chaintrik led us on toward the Kardoval’s secure building. They had comm feed, but that’d been diverted. We raced through the darkness and to a side entrance.

Government buildings had to have deliveries too. We split into two teams.

Our luck ran out on the second floor. We hit a pocket of security, a team probably heading off shift because they weren’t nearly as neat as they should be according to Garjah.

“Stop! What are you doing—”

“Shut them up before the whole place hears him,” someone hissed. 

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J Ray Lamb

Julie Lynn Hayes

Wednesday Briefs: Ancalagon Ch. 106

 

When I wasn’t asleep, I drove everyone else nuts. First it was because of all my questions, then it was because I couldn’t stay still. I wanted to move, to go. I needed to do something, anything, to help Garjah. When I was sitting and doing nothing, all I saw in my head was horrible images of what could be happening to him.

We hadn’t talked about what happened when Garjah was forced to detain or punish someone; the worst I’d seen him do on the ship was assign shifts that were considered the night crew or duties that were tedious because they were done manually instead of with technology.

But I had a feeling the Kardoval would have other things in mind for someone they considered a rebel. Especially when that someone was as prominent as their head of planetary security. And as strong-willed as Garjah was.

Physically, all beings had their limits before they would break, but would they go there? I didn’t know if that was part of their culture or not. It shamed me that I was too afraid to ask, but I really wasn’t sure if I wanted to hear the answer to that question; I wasn’t sure if I could handle the answer to that question. Psychological torture was always an alternative, and I already knew they were good at manipulation. Look at what Mereval had done to me; twisting her words, making me doubt what I knew and thought.

By the time Chaintrik said we should leave, he was probably about ready to feed me to his precious althea, except I might poison them. I hoped so, because I was still nervous about traveling in dark tunnels they created.

“How long will it take us to get there walking?” It would a lot longer to travel in the tunnels by foot than it took to go by transport.

“Oh, we’re not walking.” Chaintrik led us down a tunnel that went away from the central hub.

“What? How is that possible in the dark?” I looked over my shoulder at Timok. “Don’t all your transport run on solar?”

“Maybe they charge the transports and bring them down.” Timok rolled his eyes. “Did you think of that?”

“Oh.” It was a simple answer. “Of course they don’t have to be in the sun every second to run.” The concept of a battery was so old it was ancient technology.

“We probably could do that, but it’d be risky,” Chaintrik agreed. “Remember, we’re rebels. We do rebellious things, like trade with aliens for tech that isn’t approved by our omniscient leaders.”

“Really?” Timok perked up at that. He was positively intrigued by anything new. Except Ases. It was weird the way he practically ignored him. “What is it?”

“Oh no,” Ases groaned. We stopped in front of what resembled a boat, for lack of a better word. It had a rounded front that came to a point and the back was squared off. The sides were slightly curved and from edge to edge were benches. Did we face forwards or back?

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“That’s Zusqner technology. Don’t think I don’t recognize the engine type.” Ases grimaced.

“So?” I climbed in through the door Chaintrik had opened and stepped over the first bench to a seat toward the front.

“You know they use static electricity propulsion for most of their ground transportation, right?”

Oh. Chaintrik and Timok wouldn’t be bothered by something like that, and neither would Bouncer, considering they were more skin and, not scale, but something hard. Me? It would irritate me somewhat, but Ases? It was going to drive him nuts as every hair on his body stood up.

“We don’t have a choice. This is the way we have to travel,” I said. “I’m sorry.” I really was, but I also wasn’t letting anything like a little discomfort get in my way.

Ases sank down with a resigned sigh. “It’ll be fine. Hopefully this goes fast.”

Chaintrik shut the door and then took a seat in the back. “It does. You’ll want to hold on to your seat.”

I barely had a chance to grab Bouncer with my lower arms and my seat with my upper before he was shoved against my legs. I leaned into the air pushing back on my face, my eyes stinging and tearing up despite the steady temperatures. Maybe I shouldn’t have taken the front. Bouncer curled up at my feet, which was easier since he stayed below the edges of the sides. I used one hand to shield my face. How could Chaintrik see?

Now that my hand blocked some of the wind, I was able to blink away the tears blurring my vision. A light flashed in front of us and then disappeared. Then another. And another. Maybe he wasn’t steering, maybe this thing was on a track. I had to hope nothing else was on it. I started counting the lights. We didn’t slow until I got to two thousand six hundred forty-one and when I started to ask a question, Chaintrik hissed, “Quiet.”

A male came out of the gloom just as we idled to a stop. He flashed a hand signal to Chaintrik who responded, nodding. I was dying to know what was happening, but I stayed quiet like he demanded. Bouncer followed me, staying right by my side. All around us people were bustling around doing something.

We came to another wide open hub, and there Chaintrik’s shoulders relaxed. “Sorry, but that’s really close to the exit to the city. We don’t speak out there, ever.”

“Okay, sorry. Are we close to Garjah, then? Can we go rescue him?”

“We have a plan, but you won’t like it,” Chaintrik said.

“If it gets Garjah free, I don’t care. Tell me what we have to do.”

“Turn you into the Kardoval.”

Ases growled, and he flicked out dark claws. “Now who’s the traitor?”

Bouncer crouched beside me, body tensed to strike. 

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