“We may well discover it for ourselves if this thing takes as long to analyze as it did to give us the other information.”
A sour smile twisted Hauk’s features. “You have no patience. Your brain cannot work as swiftly.”
Irritation flickered in Kadin’s eyes, but he held his tongue, moving instead to the control console to activate the ship’s cloaking for stealth mode.
“You should throw up all of the shielding,” Hauk murmured. “This debris isn’t guided. We’ll have to dodge it.”
“Looks like a trash heap,” Gaelan observed.
“Good guess,” Hauk responded after a moment. “It appears to be remnants of various crafts they put into orbit for some purpose. Or, I suppose, more accurately, many purposes over the years.” He turned to face Kadin and Gaelan. “The pod may have been damaged by some of the debris, but it wouldn’t have been targeted—not by any of this. Clearly they have some fairly advanced technology, however—which means sophisticated weapons—and it’s possible the pod was targeted when it came within range of their weapons.”
They decelerated as they drew nearer the planet, detecting a veritable web of artificial satellites orbiting at various heights and trajectories.
Avoiding everything was going to be a challenge, Kadin thought grimly.
They didn’t manage it. Although nothing sufficient to damage their craft struck their shields, they repelled some debris into other courses that they knew were liable to cross paths with something else.
It couldn’t be helped.
They just hoped they could remain undetected, complete their mission, and be on their way.
Unfortunately, they discovered the life pod was not at the location indicated by the computer that had calculated its trajectory and pinpointed the landing spot.
Not only was it not at the location, they couldn’t find so much as a speck of debris to indicate where it might have crashed.
There was, however, some damage to the plant life and since it was just where the computer had told them they would find the pod they concluded it had been taken.
Their mission might have ended in that moment of realization that they had no clues to go forward except that when they returned to the ship they discovered the tracking beacon had mysteriously begun to ping again.
“It is a trap,” Hauk said grimly.
Kadin and Galen both nodded agreement.
“One we must spring since they have something we want,” Kadin responded.
“They may live to regret the invitation,” Gaelen growled.
Kadin shrugged. “And they may not live long enough to do so.”
* * * *
Hauk managed to refrain from puking until they had evaded the soldiers that had set up a trap for them. They had very nearly managed to slip into the base, gather the information they wanted, and leave without detection.
But then again, they had not expected it would simply be a fact finding expedition. They had thought they were on a rescue mission.
“You are a seasoned warrior,” Kadin growled, clearly irritated. “I would not have taken you for someone with a weak stomach.”
Hauk glared at him and spat. “I am not accustomed to seeing anyone blow their liquefied brains out of their nose,” he snarled.
Gaelen held up a hand in a motion to stop. “Please! I am queasy myself.”
Hauk whipped a look of surprise at him. “You did it.”
“Do not remind me! I have never seen the like of it. Who knew their brains were that sensitive to a little pressure?Icertainly did not!”
Kadin looked thoughtful. “I had thought these beings must be my mother’s people, but that does not seem likely. She does not like having her mind probed, mind you, but I have never seen her have any ill effects. Mayhap it was the heat? I have to say the … uh … materials looked a little … singed.”
Gaelen puked.
Kadin looked surprise and then irritated. “Gods! We do not have time for this. If you are certain you had the truth from that man then our trail is cold already for it has been many weeks on this world since they found the pod. If we have any chance at all of extracting the child we must get to it.”
Hauk and Gaelen exchanged a speaking look.
“And what do you suggest since we got nothing useful here from those we questioned?”
Kadin shrugged. “Their military did not capture him. He was not in the wreckage when they arrived and we know he was not able to escape on his own.”
“Unless he was thrown from the ship when it crashed,” Hauk said pointedly.
Galen shook his head. “I am certain I detected him and he was alive.”
“Then we return to the crash site and search until we find whoever it was that took him,” Kadin said grimly. “And then we will deal with them.”
* * * *
It just wasn’t in human nature to maintain a high level of survival readiness without fairly constant stimulus and Emma was no different. She was so uneasy, at first, that she was completely unaware of the baby’s efforts in enthralling her or she would’ve tried harder, out of a healthy sense of self preservation, to protect herself from getting so attached to an infant that didn’t really belong to her. But the truth was that by the time she’d come down from high alert she was pretty far gone already and by the time she’d begun trying to teach him to call her mama she was done for.
For days she’d expected a pounding knock on the door that heralded the arrival of the military to wrest the child from her or the people he actually belonged to but that hadn’t happened. No one, in point of fact, had come anywhere near her and she’d been able to devote herself completely to falling under his spell.
He smiled back at her when she smiled at him lovingly.
He touched her face with his little hand when she stroked his soft cheek.
And when she said ‘come to mama’ he lifted his arms to her.
Who could resist that?
Well, she supposed his appearance would be a turn off to most humans, but she discovered after little
