Experiment (Hybrid Book 2) (7 page)

“Go on,” he replied with his own sickly sweet smile. Tamas’ face fell somewhat.

“The alien received a crossbow bolt to the shoulder last night, but she still managed to elude myself and two guards. She’s a fast little thing isn’t she? However, I still have two teams out looking for her. Now since I’ve fulfilled my part of our ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ please pass me my medication.”

Connor grunted, his mind whirling as he matched what Tamas had told him to the information from their shared implant. Her current vital signs hadn’t changed greatly in the five hours since he’d woken up. Blood loss was definitely a factor, but it didn’t explain the strange brain activity readings.

Concluding that Tamas probably was telling the truth, he pulled the thin brown paper packet out of Tamas’ jacket pocket.

“How much, and when will it start to work?”

“It’s quite effective I assure you. Although in order to remove suspicion from yourself so you can effectively carry out my wishes, I suggest no more than half the packet. The ‘effect’ will occur within about half an hour.”

Glancing over at the rest of the group, he saw they’d sat the rest of the prisoners down, and were resting. Nobody was paying him and Tamas any particular attention.

“Right here’s how we’re going to do this, kneel down and I’ll act as if I’m trying to choke you, but I’ll slip the powder into your mouth, ok?”

“My one regret is that I won’t be able to reminisce about actually having you, during my last few minutes. I suppose I’ll have to settle with reliving the fun I had with my dear nephew; he was such a pretty boy.”

Connor was happy to place the hand nearest the others around Tamas throat, whilst the other poured most of the packet into Tamas mouth. He dropped the packet and placed the other hand about his throat as well, shouting ‘you bastard’ as he did so. It required very little acting skill. The look of panic in Tamas’ eyes was rewarding enough.

Main and another soldier were prying his hands off Tamas' throat in a matter of seconds. He was restrained while Tamas was led back to the other prisoners.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Snarled Main.

Connor just shook his head, mumbling ‘bastard’ under his breath.

Main motioned for the march back to the mansion base to continue he still held Connor’s arm tightly.

“What did he say? Did you get anything useful out of him? Talk or so help me you’ll be in restraints too.”

“It seems Chesara has a crossbow bolt in her shoulder, as well as the broken ribs Tamas gave her after she prevented him raping me. She is wandering around somewhere out here alone, without water, and is being hunted like an animal by his men. The man who helped us, this bastard’s nephew, lost at least an eye in his torture chamber, his own flesh and blood. He got away, but I’m fairly sure it was him who got the warning message to the Apollo.”

“We’ll find her, I promise we’ll find her,” Main told him, but neither of them had a great deal of confidence in his words.

It was mid-afternoon by the time Connor and Main handed their prisoners over, although Tamas’ guards had carried his body for the last two hours after he’d suffered a massive heart attack on the trail.

Connor had watched expressionless as the man had clutched his chest, gasping in extreme pain before falling to the ground. He’d tried to get Connor to hear his last words, gasping and motioning for him to come over as he lay in the dirt. As the soldiers fussed around Kalzirian, Tamas kept his eyed fixed on Connor. The relief on Tamas’ face, that he was going to be able to cause a little more pain before he dies, turned to horror as after glancing briefly down, Connor turned and carried on walking up the trail.

He never saw Tamas’ mouth moving frantically, or his reaching hand as it turn into a claw, before it relaxed and dropped to the dust.

A
fter meeting the squad sent out to take the prisoners, Connor and Main set back out to continue the search. Main and his soldiers brought their weapons to bear as a green uniformed figure walked towards them carrying an alarmingly familiar figure.

Connor started towards them at a run as Melton stopped and carefully laid Chesara down on the ground, raising his arms in the air.

“She’s alive, and she was like this when I found her,” Melton called as soon as they were in range of his voice. He was eyeing Connor with distinct trepidation, but Connor didn’t care about his former jailer’s concerns as he slid to the ground beside her.

Moving the blanket she was wrapped in, he saw she was still wearing oversized guard’s pants, although she was naked from the waist up apart from the clean bandages around her ribs. He tried to ignore the bruising on her breasts, telling himself that Tenset could have caused them during their enthusiastic ‘goodbye’. It didn’t explain the finger marks on her throat.

“What’s wrong with her, what happened?” Connor heard the strain in his own voice as he checked her over. The physical wounds didn’t explain her condition, or at least they wouldn’t explain the condition of a human with similar injuries.

“She’s got an infected crossbow wound in her right shoulder. I cauterized it, but I’m still not happy, and I think she has some broken ribs too.”

Melton raised his hands a little higher as he spoke quickly. “I didn’t do either, the ribs were bound up when we found her, and the shoulder happened a couple of days ago. It still took me a while to catch up with her. She’s damn fast, even wounded.”

“I never should have left her, but I couldn’t get back. Two of your lot caught up with me.” Connor told Melton as he knelt beside her. Melton still stood with his hands above his head, covered by two federation soldiers.

“D’you know a guard named Baxter? He’s dead, and his partner’s tied up somewhere out there.”

Main was already reporting in, his finger against the implant behind his ear as he requested a medivac for Chesara and a search team to find the guard.

Connor looked up at Melton as he stood a few feet away, with his hand clasped at the back of his head.

“Why’s she like this? Is she drugged?” he asked.

Melton looked as him as if he was assessing how he would take some significantly unpleasant news. “Can I speak to you privately? I promise I won’t try anything, my family’s here.”

Connor stood up. Melton had always been straight with him, even when he didn’t have to be. Main, on the other hand, wasn’t taking any chances and he had one of his soldiers pat Melton down for weapons before Connor moved him several paces away from the soldiers.

“Connor? If this one has a heart attack too, I’ll not cover for you again,” he warned.

Connor gave him a curt nod before turning to Melton.

“I haven't got time to muck about," said Connor in a cold flat tone.

“I’ll tell you everything I know if you make sure my family is protected.”

“No deals. Spill it, and I’ll think about it.”

“Fair enough. Firstly, I’m quite glad you killed Baxter, he’s the bastard that shot her, and it was him who performed that ‘experiment’ on her for Lord Tamas.”

“Tamas is dead too. I watched him have a heart attack a few hours ago.”

Melton nodded slightly. “Can’t say I’m sorry. Most of the aristocracy treat the rest of us as scum, but he was in a class of his own. Tenset was probably one of the most decent I’ve met, if you weren’t female.”

“Was?” Connor said sharply. Tamas had said Tenset was still alive.

Melton shrugged again, which ratcheted up Connor’s anger again.

“I’ve got to look after my own Federation. Tenset managed to walk out of the mansion under his own steam after I forgot to lock his cell door when I went to get more medical supplies. I hope he’s ok, but I’ve got to think about who’s going to be in charge of the estate next. With Tamas dead, and Tenset either on the run from your lot, or dead...”

“I’m not interested. Tell me about Chesara.”

Melton’s expression told him that he hadn’t expected Connor to actually care, after all, he probably considered him to be just like all the other aristocrats.

“Tamas split our main search party up after we caught up with her the first time. I found trail the next morning, well it was me and a snot nosed kid called Thompson. We caught up with her last night and we took her back to our temporary camp.” He smiled slightly. “She didn’t much appreciate it when I doctored her wounds.”

Connor couldn’t help returning Melton’s slight smile, but the man’s amusement dropped from his face as if it had never been, and Connor’s anxiety level went up. This was not going to be good.

“After I’d fixed her up and fed her, I went on patrol, knowing that you lot were creeping about. I chained her ankle cuff to a tree to stop her getting away. Thompson wasn’t the brightest spark, and I didn’t want to have to chase her down again.” Connor’s eyebrow lifted at the past tense reference to the other guard.

Melton coughed uncomfortably and looked away before continuing.

“While we were looking for her, Thompson hadn’t stopped going on about what Baxter said or the security film we saw of her and Lord Tenset. I told him to leave her alone when I left to patrol...” He swallowed nervously before continuing in a rush.

“To cut it short, I found both of the naked, him on top of her, stone dead and her in the state she is now.”

“Any marks on him? She’s got finger marks on her throat.”

Connor found his own voice surprising controlled.

“Not a thing, but the only time I’ve ever seen a dead man’s face like that, was when the old cook had a heart attack” he held up his hands. “I’m not saying she did do anything to him, but he was a fit nineteen year old.”

Connor stood in thought for a few moments. “So you think he tried to strangle her, maybe during a rape, and she gave him a heart attack to save herself? So what’s with this coma thing?”

“Hey, I’m just telling what I saw. I don’t know anything about her ability or what goes on in that alien head of hers. I’m just a dumb kalzirian guard.” Melton maintained the hands raised, ‘don’t shoot me’ posture.

Connor saw his alarm, and tried to dial down his emotions, Melton was right; he couldn’t be expected to make a diagnosis.

He looked over again at Chesara. Pale and boneless, she lay on the dirt as if she was unwanted luggage. It didn’t seem possible that on a beautiful day like this, warm and sunny with the sounds of birds and insects around them, that Chesara was like this. She should be laughing and flirting with both him and Tenset, as she teased them to catch her.

Melton coughed, bringing Connor back to harsh reality.

“I’ve told you what I know; now it’s your turn. I don’t care about me, but are my wife and children ok? They have nothing to do with any of this.”

Connor nodded absently, he hadn’t heard anything so assumed they were fine. Federation protocol meant ground teams would have been fully briefed on the full situation.

“What happened at the mansion, we had a message that Federation shuttles were landing.” Melton prompted.

“The Apollo got a message from the planet. They sent a team down, secured the mansion and started a search. They found me soon afterwards, and we’ve been hunting for Chesara ever since.”

“If you keep quiet about what went on between Tenset, myself and Chesara, and I’ll give you a favourable report.”

“Melton looked at him sadly. “Son, what happened down in those rooms, has always stayed there. Tamas made sure his ‘guests’ wouldn’t or couldn’t talk about it, and neither will I, for their sake and that of their families, not his. If I’m allowed to return, I’ll see to it that those rooms are never used again. I believed him when he said what he was doing was justified, to protect the Kalzirian people. I was wrong.”

He placed a large hand on the young Federation Officer’s shoulder, before walking back towards the other soldiers.

Connor ignored the offer from one of the other soldiers to carry her and he gathered Chesara up in his arms. He spent the walk back to the shuttle near the mansion gazing down into her face, willing her to wake up, talking softly to her. He desperately wanted to kiss her, but with the soldiers around he dare not give away their relationship, he’d be reassigned if it came out.

Once she’d had one of her prolonged sleeps, she’d wake up, smile and everything would go back to the way it had been before. In his heart, he didn’t believe a word of it. Chesara knew too much to be content in her gilded cage any more, and so did he.

––––––––

C
hesara lay unresponsive in the medical bay, being fed by IV and wearing an adult diaper. Connor had visited her for several hours every day for the past week. He’d talked to her about anything that came into his head, except the important things, such as how much he loved her.

Reading aloud, anything from medical texts to fiction helped to relieve the sound of the machines beeping and whirling. The sight of her in the bed, pale and unresponsive against the crisp white sheets, was slowly killing him, inch by inch. Tamas’ pins had been less painful.

Even the lighting, harsh and artificial made him sad. He knew would it bug the hell out of her if she’d been awake, but she just lay there under its continuous glare.

The bossy nurse, who had introduced herself as Clara Walker, insisted on sending him out for food and sleep at regular interval. He seldom indulged in either. He updated his superior on a regular basis via his implants, but the reports had no variation.

“Mr Temple. Its time you rested. You’ve been in here for hours and I’ve still to see you eat. If this carries on, you’ll be in the next bed. She’ll need you to be strong when she wakes up.”

The lecture was a familiar one, so he didn’t bother replying.

His view of Chesara was obscured as she stepped in front of him, and took his hand. “Connor, please, if you don’t start looking after yourself, I’ll have to inform the Chief Medical Officer, and he might stop you being here.”

He looked up at her, anger starting to bubble.

“He could try.”

Clara sat down on the bed. “And he’d bloody well succeed. You’ll be sedated and shipped back to Terra Prime faster than you can turn around. If you want to stay with her, stop acting as if you’re having a breakdown. Now go eat, sleep and workout, whatever you’d normally be doing. I promise I’ll let you know if she as much as twitches a toe.”