Experiment (Hybrid Book 2) (25 page)

Despite his bravado with males of a similar age, Darin knew he was distinctly unprepared, physically, mentally and emotionally to join a mating group.

If these particular circumstances hadn’t occurred, it would have been unlikely that he’d join a mating group for several decades, if he ever did. At his current age of thirty-five, he was barely considered adult, let alone being mature enough to breed. Most males had to fight and compete well into their seventies before they were even considered by a female. But at least his family connections might give him an advantage in that regards, that is, if the D’Ahanal clan had maintained their influence, or their lives.

Through sheer strength of will, he managed to pull his mind away from the effects of the stasis drugs and finally the face of a child, a distinctly alien child coalesced a few inched from his face. He blinked, but the image remained, as did the scent of fresh blood, the enticing scent of female pheromones and another stink that made his stomach roll.

“Please wake up. The lizards came and everyone’s either dead or gone. They are alarms going all over the place, and the ship’s shaking. Please wake up Mister, please.”

Darin had made a study of aliens, a pointless exercise as far as his family was concerned, but he recognised the coarse hair and the odd round pupils of this one as human, a very young human judging from its height. The sex-obsessed species, was all he could drag out of his still foggy mind as the child continued to pull at him and jabber in its own language.

Whatever the problem was, it was clearly terrifying the human child who certainly should not have been on a Dakaran vessel which had been in deep space and keeping a low profile, the last time Darin had been conscious.

Heaving himself out of the snug pod, the child immediately grasped his hand and pulled him towards the main living area of the ship.

The body of Medlir D’Halliron lay in the main room alongside that of a reptilian alien that could only be a Garian. It was the source of the foul stench that made Darin retch and cover his nose with the hand not being held by the child.

The bodies of the cheerful, cheeky brothers, Isaer and Diegan D’Keldmar lay together in the doorway. Isaer had clearly been trying to protect his badly injured sibling when he had been gunned down, as he lay across his brother’s body. All three had died violently protecting the ship, Panaya and himself from the invader.

The absence of Panaya and the Prime of the mating group, his distant kinsman Niun D’Ahanal, both alarmed and reassured him. There was a chance Niun had taken Panaya to safety while the rest sought to delay the invader and protect Panaya’s sleeping ward.

Darin choked back a sob as the child continued to pull on his hand and jabber at him. As they came up to the docking hatch, the reason for the child’s presence, and the garian’s became clear. They were attached to another vessel.

The child kept shouting, “Daddy, you’ve got to help my daddy,” as he dragged at his hand.

The Garians were notorious slavers, and Darin wasn’t surprised his shipmates had fought to the death. He had very little hope that whomever the child was talking about would still be free, even if they were still alive aboard the other vessel.

Garians were known to stage raids on unsuspecting travellers, and several Dakaran vessels had been taken over the last hundred years. On only one occasion had the slavers been stopped before they’d made off with their prize. Just about everything they knew about the reptilian race had been gained from the one surviving garian from that raid.

The fate of anyone caught by the reptiles was almost beyond imagining. The garians literally liked their food alive and kicking, and it would have been an immediate instinct for his shipmates to go to the aide of another vessel under attack. Humans were odd, but they were sentient beings that didn’t deserve to be enslaved or eaten alive.

It looked as if his travelling companions had paid for their compassion with their lives. He and the boy were still in grave danger if the garians were still around, but Darin could not leave if there was a chance that either Niun and Panaya were still alive.

Wracking his brain for the correct words, he eventually resorted to pointing back towards the garian’s body and said, “Gone?”

The boy nodded and started pulling on his arm again as he prattled on frantically. Darin didn’t understand a word.

“They took my brother Hal, he’s eighteen. Daddy tried to stop them, but he’s hurt. I’m glad I found you, everyone else is dead, or gone.”

As Darin stepped across to the human ship, he realised that this was a far larger craft than his own, and judging by the interior, it was not a military vessel. It looked like a luxury passenger transport, maybe even a pleasure craft. An ideal target for the garians, but humans were known to be able to defend themselves. Why had this vessel been left vulnerable to attack? The garians did not tend to take risks, they only prayed on the weak and vulnerable.

The child dragged him down several corridors while Darin’s anxiety grew as the scent of death assaulted his senses almost as much as the human vessel’s clanging alarm system which was giving him a headache. They soon came across evidence of the battle against the invaders, with several dead humans surrounding a single garian corpse.

Judging from the lack of similarity in the clothing of the humans, he had been correct, this was not a military vessel, and many of the dead were armed with broken chair legs rather than more deadly weapons. The bravery of these mostly unarmed people going up against the claws and fangs of this eight foot high monster tugged at his heart. Whatever else they were, these humans were courageous when defending their own.

Darin startled in fear as the reptilian corpse moved slightly. Pushing the child behind him, he grabbed one of the discarded metal chair legs from the hand of a human whose chest had been caved in. The slight moan that again from under the body was certainly not reptilian in nature. Darin dropped his very inadequate weapon and hauled the carcass aside.

The bloody and broken body of his kinsman Niun D’Ahanal, was revealed. Immediately he could see Niun was in a bad way. Maybe if a female healer had been available she could have done something, but Darin felt his heart drop at the sight of the hole in Nuin’s side.

He knelt by the Prime of Panaya’s mate group and put his head near the man’s mouth as the other Dakaran tried to talk.

“Look after Panaya and her young, promise me you’ll find them, protect them.”

“You will do it yourself, Niun, do not not concern yourself.”

A slight smile curved the man’s lips, then he coughed, his face twisted in pain. When he stopped, blood dripped from the corner of his mouth.

“For once in your life, just do as you are told Darin. Find Panaya and her children if you can, but most of all, stay free. Dakara needs you.”

Darin tensed again as Niun coughed once more, but this time when he relaxed, his whole body went slack as his spirit left him.

“I promise Niun, I promise,” Darin sobbed over the body until the insistent tugging on his arm brought his attention back to the small human.

“He’s gone. Can we go to my Dad now?”

Darin pulled himself together, and followed the child to a nearby cabin, where an older human male lay dead on the floor.

The child went to his knees beside the body, shaking the lax shoulder, first hopefully and then with increasing desperation.

Darin stepped forward and squeezed his shoulder.

“Gone,” he said gently, but he knew they needed to determine whether they had the luxury of mourning right now. The alarm system was now repeating what sounded like numbers, and Darin was starting to get a very bad feeling.

He mimed putting his hands over his ears and then shrugged.

After frowning for a second, the child joined his hands together then broke them apart, making an explosion noise.

Whatever the numbers indicated, it certainly was not good news. Whether the ship was about to explode via an autodestruct, or was simply going to blow up because of the damage, did not really matter. It certainly explained why the garians had not claimed the dead. Apparently, they even considered their own kind fair game.

If he could separate the two ships, they would at least have a chance. Scooping up the boy, he ran back to Niun’s body. He knew it was a risk to bring it with them, but if Niun didn’t return to the earth, his spirit would never join his ancestors.

Putting the child down, Darin tried to lift the body, but failed. The fully mature Dakaran male was nearly double Darin’s weight, so he grasped him by the back of the collar and dragged him as he apologised to the man’s spirit. The clanging alarms led strength and speed to his limbs as the child trotted alongside him.

Once back on his own ship, Darin dropped the body and sealed the hatch before running to the bridge to check the state of his own vessel. Medlir had made it his personal mission to teach Darin how to work the ship’s systems, although Niun had scoffed at the idea.

“The boy’s going to be a diplomat Medlir, if he survives to adulthood. He’ll probably end up being the Prime of some princess’s mating group, with nothing to do but pander to her. If you want to teach him something useful, teach him to dance.”

Panaya slapped at her Prime’s arm. “Don’t listen to him Darin. Believe me, any female with half a brain will be far more attracted to a male who has multiple talents, and dancing well is certainly attractive. Besides, you have two left feet Niun, and it didn’t stop me picking you.”

The group had laughed and Darin’s education on flight procedures had continued.

Just like the human vessel, his had taken several hits from the now departed garians. Without the navigation systems, interstellar engines, weapons, not to mention fully functioning life support, the chances of Darin continuing the journey to wherever Panaya and her mates had been going, returning to Dakara or chasing the garian vessel were non-existent. Plus, the alarms on the human ship were indicating that its structural integrity was about to fail.

The planet he could see below them seemed to be his only option, at least there were areas of green amongst the expanse of blue below him as darkness crept over the largely water covered world. As his skills were untried, he determined that heading for the largest island he could see would be his best bet for survival. Landing in water would be just as fatal as staying up here. The ship would sink rapidly and a watery grave would ensure that neither he nor his shipmates would reach the afterlife, or be granted another turn on the wheel of life.

He picked the child up and did his best to strap him into the navigation console seat, where Panaya had usually sat. That safety harness was the smallest available. It still swamped him, but it was the best Darin could do under the circumstances.

Remembering that he was a proud member of the Ahanal clan, he smiled confidently and started his first solo descent. If they were both going to die, hopefully he could reduce the fear the boy would experience in his last few moments.

W
hen the scream of tortured metal ceased and the ship finally stopped bucking underneath him, Darin concluded that his landing could have been significantly worse, but it could also have been a lot smoother. ‘Controlled crash’ was probably the kindest description he could make.

The boy had escaped with a few bruises and a cut forehead. Darin was unhurt as he had braced at the right time. The boy had babbled almost continually while Darin took care of the bodies of his ship mates. The thought of leaving them to rot above ground on this humid alien planet for more than a moment longer than necessary made him feel sick.

The orange-scaled garian he just dragged into the trees and left. Hopefully, its flesh would feed some of the denizens of this world.

Once the living earth enclosed the bodies of the four brave men, their spirits would be free to join their ancestors and perhaps one or more of them would take another turn on the wheel of life. Until that occurred, their spirits would still be linked to their lives. The pain their spirits would be experiencing for not being able to protect their mate and offspring would be devastating.

Digging the trench wide enough to take the four adult males, side by side, was exhausting, but eventually he laid the four bodies in the ground, with the brothers next to each other and Niun nearest the rising sun. As Prime, he would need to face the light of the new world first, so he could guide the spirits of the rest of his mate group.

Shame filled him when he realised that he could not recall the full rites as he had failed to pay enough attention in those lessons. Death was not a subject that interested the irreverent youngster he had been.

As with landing the ship, Darin did the best he could, and he knew that he had spoken at least some of the correct words to send them on their way to the next life. He hoped they would forgive him more than he was able to forgive himself. How he would manage to fulfil his promise to Niun to safeguard Panaya and her offspring he had no idea.

Once earth had been returned to the grave and the words said, he sank down to the alien ground, totally numb.

Minutes or hours might have passed before the warmth of the sun on his face and the tugging on his arm roused him.

“Please Mister Cat Man, can we go home now? I want my mother, she must be worried about me and Dad and Hal.”

Darin looked into the animated face of the human boy, and knew that his task was not yet finished. The boy had enabled him to lay his friends to rest, as well as saving his life. He owed him.

He patted the boy on the shoulder and got up. The boy repeated what sounded like a question and

The boy patted himself on the chest and announced, ‘”Rustek” before pointing to Darin and raising his eyebrows.

“My name is Darin D’Ahanal, little human, and I will care for you until we can find your people,” he replied in Dakaran with a slight smile.

The child looked confused, so Darin tried again pointing first to the child, he said “Rustek” and then to himself and said, “Darin.”