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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J Ray Lamb

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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Julie Lynn Hayes

Wednesday Briefs: Ancalagon Ch. 105

 

Ases wrinkled up his nose before he even drank the tuber milk, but I kicked him under the table. I’d warned him in the transport what he had to do, and I knew he could drink this and lie about it. I’d once seen him swill an entire bottle of bar mixings on a dare.

He’d vomited profusely within minutes, but that was alcohol and sugar. This was just fermented tuber milk. Totally fine. He was a shifter; he should like milk.

I upended my cup, suppressing my shudder at the gloopy nature of the thickened milk and the bitter tang that clung to the roof of my mouth and every single tastebud on my tongue. “Just as exquisite a flavor as I remember from the first time I tried it.” My eyes watered, and I swallowed the saliva that wouldn’t stop flowing as my body kept trying to get rid of the nasty flavor that was so noxious I swear it was burning the hairs out of my nose.

Surprisingly, Timok actually looked like he did enjoy the tuber milk as much as he said he did. I narrowed my eyes at him. Was he that accomplished a liar?

Should we trust him?

He winked at me when our host smiled. “I can take you to Chaintrik,” the male said. “Follow me.”

I scooped up the bag of nuts Timok purchased, and we were quickly down in the tunnels. Our guide had a light, but it barely showed the path in front and kept our group out of the darkness. I was not a fan of being underground, and I kept my head on the swivel.

“What are you looking for?” Ases whispered. “And why did you bring those nuts? Do we actually need them?”

“Giant bugs.”

“What?” He flicked his claws out in the dim light and started looking all around. “How giant?”

“How do you think they made these tunnels?”

Ases looked horrified.

“They’re definitely big enough that you and Bouncer would have a challenge fighting back if one attacked from our back or sides in this limited space. Though he’d like to eat an althea, I’m sure. I had to hold him back last time we saw one. I think all he thought was dinner.” I was keeping Bouncer close to me just in case.

Now Ases looked disgusted. “Bugs?”

I shrugged. “It’s what I fed him the first time we met. Grubs, out of these really hard trees that he couldn’t get to himself since his claws weren’t sharp enough to dig into the wood and he’d been kicked out by his mother.” I patted his back. “At least, I assumed that’s what happened. He was hungry, and I didn’t want to get eaten, so bugs were better.”

The distraction was good enough that I barely noticed when we hit a central point where the tunnels met and the rebels had a meeting room set up. I passed off the nuts to our guide, glad Chaintrik didn’t have one of his bugs with him.

He sat at a console, studying several screens while all four hands were flying over the controls, but he stood and turned when we entered. A tech took his place.

“Essell, it is good to see you again, but I am sorry that it is happening because Garjah was taken.”

“You know what happened?”

“We do.” He waved a hand toward the screens. “We monitor nearly everything, and he contacted us after the attack at the welcome dinner. He was concerned that someone was feeding him false information, but he couldn’t be sure who.”

“He trusted that it wasn’t you?” Timok asked. He crossed his arms over his chest.

“Yes.” Chaintrik didn’t justify his answer and turned back to me, ignoring Timok. Despite my fear for Garjah and my desperation to save him, amusement tugged at me, and I had to suppress a smile.

“I need to find him, and we need help to save him. Then we’re going to take out everyone who had a hand in trying to hurt us, starting with whoever took Garjah and ending with the Kardoval. I’m going to take every single scrap of power away from them because that will hurt them the most.”

“You’re sure that’s what they wanted to do?” Chaintrik asked.

“Ases, show him.” I wasn’t going to justify my actions every step of the way, and we had more than enough evidence to damn those four who thought they were able to get away with kidnapping and murder. That would teach them to hire idiots. Ases’ mech had recorded very interesting conversations.

“They don’t say it was the Kardoval who sent them.”

“Garjah will be with them.”

Chaintrik goggled at me, his thin nostrils flaring. “How do you know that? We just found him.”

My heart sped up, and I stepped in close to him, breathing faster. “You know where he is, and we’re still standing here talking? Where is he? Take me to him!” I clenched all my hands into fists.

“It’s not that simple. He is deep within the security headquarters; we aren’t actually sure he isn’t there voluntarily—”

“He’s not,” Timok said. “I was with him when they captured him. Trust me when I say, he did not go of his own free will.”

“We cannot get directly under the building he is in because we have not tunneled that far, but we can get close. However, we cannot rush into this. There’s a risk of revealing our secret if we aren’t careful, and too many people depend on the safety of these caverns to allow the Kardoval to find them.”

Chaintrik was right, but it was killing me. Tears burned in my eyes, and my throat ached, but I nodded. “How soon?”

“We’re looking for the closest exit, but we must wait for dark.”

“A whole day?” I said in dismay. 

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Julie Lynn Hayes

Wednesday Briefs: Ancalagon Ch. 104

 

“No one else has the resources they have or stand to lose what the Kardoval do. So, yes, he does need help. He’s been betrayed, attacked, and someone has to be holding him or he’d have tracked us down instead of you. Now let’s go. We have plans to make.”

Timok looked about as put out as he ever had, and I took a small amount of pleasure in that. But now that I was going to let him help us, he needed to get to it. Ases snorted. “Meet Mr. Bossy.”

“Now is not the time for jokes.”

“I’m not joking,” he retorted. He looked at Timok. “I don’t know you, really, but he becomes a terror when he’s on a mission. And I know that face. I don’t know what Garjah told you to do, but Essell will do whatever it takes to go save him if that’s what he decided has to happen. Look how he ended up here with four arms and mated to an alien, after creating first contact and helping negotiate an alliance with extremely favorable terms for your people.”

Timok folded his thin lips together, then inclined his head. “You do make a point. Not every idiot can crash a ship on a planet already being claimed by another species.”

“Hey! You guys stayed hidden on purpose. How was I supposed to know?” I would have continued to get angry, but Timok turned around and started walking away. “Where are you going?”

“To save Garjah. Isn’t that what you told me we had to do?”

I deflated. “Oh. Yeah.” I hustled after him, Bouncer keeping right beside me this time instead of ranging around in the trees. “Do you have a transport close by?”

Timok nodded. “A small one. We should be able to fit, but it’ll be tight.”

 

He was right. The transport was a tiny two-seater, so it was a good thing that Ases and I weren’t as big as they were. We both fit, barely, on the back seat but there was no room to secure any webbing around us in case of a crash. We’d just have to hope being wedged in would keep us in place.

Besides, Bouncer was literally draped across Ases and my laps. It was a good thing neither one of us were afraid of him. Timok said he wasn’t, but the way Bouncer flicked his ears and kept inching his muzzle closer to him and then away when Timok’s shoulders hunched made me think he was doing it on purpose to make the doctor flinch. That made the tiny transport dip, which made my stomach dip, so I flicked one of his ears. “Stop it.”

Bouncer rumbled, his chest vibrating against my legs.

“Intolerable beast.”

At that Bouncer went so far as to open his mouth and huff warm air right on the back of Timok’s neck. “Argh.” Timok made a sound deep in his throat and leaned forward. “Would you make him stop that?”

“Don’t say things that make him upset.” I managed to free one arm from where it was trapped against the wall of the transport and rubbed Bouncer’s head. “He’s sensitive.”

“Sensitive,” Timok muttered. He said a few other things, but they were under his breath, and I couldn’t make out what he was saying even as close as we were.

“Where are you taking us?” Ases had been quiet up till now, and I knew that meant he’d actually been thinking.

“If Essell is right about the Kardoval being behind the attack, then the only people who can help you are the rebels. The thing is, Garjah is also the one who knows how to contact them. I was thinking we should try to find Seedrah to see if he ever told him—”

“I know!” I said in a rush. “I know how to contact them.”

Timok craned his head around. “How?”

“We have to go the Dytokshun market, and there’s a signal. A phrase you have to say while you buy acoji nuts and a skin of tuber milk.”

“Well, I hope you’re comfortable. That’s going to take a while.” Timok poured on the speed, and I closed my eyes, my hand still resting on Bouncer. I tried not to think about what could be happening to Garjah right then, but I was scared for him. He needed my help, and I would stop at nothing to save him.

Even drink that nasty tuber milk again.

 

“We’re here.”

I’d fallen asleep. Exhaustion had made that inevitable, despite how uncomfortable it was in the tiny transport. My legs were dead asleep, and I could barely hobble out of the transport even leaning on Bouncer. “How are you not a cripple?” I asked Ases. He was moving fine.

Ases shrugged. “More flexible joints?”

Timok tapped a button on his comm and the transport beeped. “We should move away from this, just in case it’s been tagged. I don’t think I’ve been tracked, but we need to keep moving.”

Right. “Okay, so we need to find a nut-seller.”

Thank goodness Timok was with us because not only did I not have a cred-stick on me, I had no idea what the different signs meant. He was able to lead us to one, the same one I’d been in before. The name on the sign said Cheisumn, and she smiled. “Oh, if it isn’t the foreigner and his beastie, and bringing another new friend from off world as well. What can I do for you?”

“We’d like some nuts and milk, please.”

Her eyebrows rose, and she glanced at Timok but then nodded. “Come with me.” This time her shop was empty, but she still asked us to take a seat. Instead of a skin, she passed out cups then disappeared into the back. A man appeared in the doorway she’d gone into.

Time to drink and lie, then make the rebels help me. They had to, or their cause would die too. 

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Julie Lynn Hayes