Harry's Sacrifice (2 page)

“Sir?” Fergal 51 seemed only mildly intrigued. Few modern Alvians could work up any sort of real emotion. Fergal 51 was an obedient soldier and a more than able climber, but he lacked the scientific skills and inquisitive mind that was central to Cormac 7’s personality.

“This smaller text reads:
Only Hara’s heir may unlock the secrets contained within. Bring him forth and have him prove his heritage. All the knowledge of the old world waits within.
”

“That is certainly a prize worth pursuing, but Hara’s line died out with him, didn’t it?”

“On Alvia Prime, yes. On this planet? I think not.” Cormac 7 turned to Fergal 51 and began to make decisions in rapid-fire succession. “Have your men clear the area so we can have easy access to this portal. Remove what snow and ice you can while assuring the safety and solidity of the resting place of the pod. Do not cause it to shift farther under any circumstances. It is precious.” He began to walk out of the passage toward the ice face he’d climbed down to get here. There was much work to be done.

He ascended rapidly, pleased to find Liam 24 awaiting his orders at the top of the crevasse. Cormac 7 began speaking even before he cleared the rim and men began to move on his command.

“Set up a base camp here and protect this fissure. I must report back, and in order to do so I must get clear of the interference field. Do not attempt to access what lies below until I return. This is a matter that must be brought before the Council. Disobedience could be considered treason. Impress that upon the men, Liam 24. Understood?” Cormac 7 was already hiking toward where they’d had to leave the skimmers.

He’d have to take one a few leagues away in order to be able to broadcast a clear signal. It would take hours to get there and back again, which gave the men ample time to set up shelter and begin the work of digging out the pod.

“Yes, sir,” Liam 24 answered as he jogged alongside. “We will proceed on your current orders and await further instruction upon your return.”

“Very well,” Cormac 7 said formally. “Go about your duties.”

With that, Cormac 7 was free to break into a run, leaving his subordinate far behind. This discovery warranted all his strength and ability to get the message out that remnants of their long lost ancestors had finally been found. It was an important discovery. Perhaps the most important yet made on this new planet they were attempting to make into a permanent home.

“Grady Prime is late reporting.” The old man called Mara Prime spoke to the High Council over a secure crystal from the top secret
Zxerah
base.

The
Zxerah
were a secret sect of Alvians. They lived the warrior way. They had the highest level of hand-to-hand combat training of any Alvian soldier, and yet they had other members of their group who were not really warriors at all.

They had begun taking in humans, much to Mara Prime’s disgust. Though
disgust
would be taking it too far. Mara Prime felt intellectual curiosity about the humans. He understood the desire to study them, but the
Zxerah
took things too far, in Mara Prime’s opinion. The
Zxerah
treated the humans more as pets, letting them run tame around their secret enclave. They even let the humans train alongside the other warriors, and that was something Mara Prime objected to as strongly as his lack of emotion would allow.

The winged warriors of the ghost squad—genetic experiments all—were Mara Prime’s primary responsibility. The project to combine a long-lost alien DNA from a winged race called the Avarel with Alvian DNA was his baby. It was why he was allowed such free access to the secret
Zxerah
compound. Few outside the High Council knew of their existence. They were the stuff of legends.

Because he was already in place in the enclave, Mara Prime had also been asked to receive reports from Grady Prime—one of his subordinate’s experimental subjects deployed nearby on a mission for the High Council. He didn’t like it. He was, after all, Prime—the top of his genetic line—and beneath such lowly tasks, but he understood the sense of the order and complied. It was his nature to comply. Although he felt mildly irritated about it, he also understood expediency.

From what Mara Prime had been told, Grady Prime was tracking a fugitive. While he showed no signs of instability after taking the gene-altering treatment to restore emotion administered by Mara 12’s team, Mara Prime was slightly concerned by the lateness of his report. From all accounts, Grady Prime had always been very punctual in the past.

“He is not that late,” Councilor Beyan said with indifference.

Councilor Orin, the current head of the Council agreed. “Anything could have happened to delay his ability to report. I suggest giving him another few hours. If he has not reported in by then, you may ask the ghost squadron leader to take action.”

“As you wish.” Mara Prime was not pleased by the Council’s attitude, but it was not his place to argue. He bowed to their wisdom.

Several hours later, Mara Prime did his best to triangulate Grady Prime’s position as they spoke, to no avail. He didn’t like not knowing exactly where the test subject was located but he had to tread lightly. His role was as medical observer. Even a Prime could be reprimanded if he was seen to be interfering with an ongoing military operation, much less a top-secret mission authorized by the High Council itself. Mara Prime had to be cautious.

“Any headaches, nausea or other signs of illness to report?” Mara Prime worked through the checklist his subordinate had supplied. It was her study, after all. He was only collecting the data because of the test subject’s current location and the need for secrecy about his mission. Otherwise, Mara Prime would not dirty his hands with such a menial task.

“Nothing to report.” Grady Prime’s voice came over the crystal. He answered the questions but did not elaborate. Mara Prime wasn’t entirely certain it was just his soldier’s reticence at work. He had a feeling this test subject was trying to hide something.

“I would like you to come back to base for a full examination.” Mara Prime wanted this test subject under closer observation, but his hands were tied since Grady Prime’s current military mission came first.

“I regret that is not possible at this time.”

“When will you be able to comply with my request?”

“I am uncertain as to the exact date.”

“How close are you? Surely you can take a few hours to come in for a checkup?”

“I am not authorized to disclose my location to you. Furthermore, I am under orders from the Council to complete my mission as soon as possible. Going back to base at this time would interfere with those orders. Regretfully, I cannot comply with your request.”

Everything the soldier Prime had to say was correct, but Mara Prime was still suspicious. He did not like the need for his scientific experiments to be postponed or interfered with by military necessity. They were only warriors, after all. Inferior genetic stock. As far as Mara Prime was concerned, his wishes should come first. Not that of some soldier.

“I see.” Mara Prime did not like this one bit but was powerless at the moment. “I will lodge a formal request with the High Council to allow for field examination of the test subject. Good day.”

“Did that little twerp just hang up on you?” Jim’s amused voice came to Grady from the doorway. He’d sought privacy to make his scheduled report after deciding to keep up with the check-ins he’d been ordered to give.

“That
little twerp
is the most highly ranked geneticist on this planet.” Grady sighed as he sat back and switched off the communications console through which he’d given his report. Using the console in conjunction with the
Zxerah
’s untraceable crystal had hopefully confounded any technology Mara Prime might have tried to use to locate his position. “And yes, he cut the connection. To him I’m merely a
test subject
. A soldier, at that. Not worthy of courtesy, even if I am his equal in rank.”

“The little shit,” Jim muttered in anger as he walked in and took the chair next to Grady. “He’s not your equal, buddy. You’ve got it all over that asshole from what I just heard.”

“Thanks, Jim.”

Grady looked over at the man fate had forced him to share a mate with. He looked so typically human—which was to say, a mix of colors, angles and curves not commonly found among the more homogenous Alvian population. Grady’s people were all tall, blonde, blue eyed and pale skinned. There was some natural variation. Some had darker hair and different shades of blue, grey or green in their irises, but they all had pointed ears and tall frames. And each genetic line shared very similar features and builds. One Grady looked much like another, and they were mostly all called to serve in warrior posts.

These humans though. They came in all shapes and sizes, with marvelous variations in their coloring. Their temperaments were vastly different as well. Each chose what they wanted to do with their lives rather than be guided into a particular role based on their genetic heritage. It was very strange to Grady, who’d been raised in the Alvian collective. It had been difficult at first to understand his new surroundings and the people—the humans—he now called friends. It had been especially hard to understand Jim, the man with whom Grady now shared his mate.

All in all though, the arrangement wasn’t working out too badly. Jim and Gina were teaching him more about his new emotions with each passing day, and he loved Gina with all of his newly discovered heart. Jim was becoming a good friend as well, though Grady would not have expected it just a few short weeks ago. They’d had a rough start on this road to resonance mating with Gina, but things were beginning to work out.

They’d been in Colorado for over a week now, exploring Jim’s facility—a place that had been known as Cheyenne Mountain back before the crystal seeding of the Earth. The humans called the seeding the
cataclysm
because of what the crystal bombardment from orbit had done to their planet. Coastlines all over the world had been hit by giant tsunamis, and earthquakes had ravaged most fault lines. People and animals had died by the billions.

All so the Alvian race could retune the crystal deposits in the Earth’s crust to resonate at a higher frequency. A frequency at which Alvians could live comfortably. All their technology and even their biological systems functioned at a higher frequency than humans. While they could have lived on Earth the way it had been, it would have been uncomfortable and most of their technology would have required major retuning. By bombarding the planet from orbit, they had made the planet’s resonance comfortable for their race and technology within a matter of months.

“So are you good for another week?” Jim’s question brought Grady back to the matter at hand.

“At least. Mara Prime will no doubt lodge a formal complaint, but I believe the Council is more interested in letting me track down their lost winged assassin than in my participation in the Maras’ little experiment. They talked about adding another soldier to the experiment if I couldn’t finish the task quickly. More than likely, that is what they will do.”

“When do you have to report in next?”

“Ten days. I told the Council I had to track down a lead on the other side of the globe. They seemed content with my progress. They would not expect the man I am after to have left an easy trail. If they thought it would be easy, they would have sent someone else. They only use me for the most difficult cases.”

Grady and Jim both knew the man he’d been sent to locate—and kill—was currently somewhere in the facility with them, making friends and living at ease. The former Sinclair Prime, top assassin for the Council, was now a fugitive. He called himself Bill Sinclair and lived among humans. Grady knew and approved. He and Bill had had a long talk about how gaining emotion had changed them both for all time.

“How long do you think you can play this game with the Council?” Jim’s expression turned serious. “Gina got clearance from her Patriarch to stay here indefinitely, and I need to stay because of my people. You’re the one we’re both concerned about now. I never thought I’d say that, but there it is. Gina would miss you if you had to leave, and dammit, I would too.”

Grady felt a lightness enter his chest that burst forth in laughter. It felt good, this joy that filled him when he realized he had truly formed a family with Gina and this unlikely third. Jim hadn’t been welcoming at first, but both men had quickly realized neither of them wanted to live without Gina. She was the glue that kept their strange little family together, and Grady thanked heaven every day for her and the life he might be able to have with her…and Jim.

It was more complicated than he’d expected, but worth every difficulty. Gina was a member of the secretive
Zxerah
clan and she had duties to them. Jim led the humans who had sought shelter within this vast underground facility and needed to be here. Grady had obligations in Alvian society. He was a Prime—the head of his genetic line. He wouldn’t be allowed to simply disappear. Plus, he might still be able to use his influence as a leader of his people to do some good for all beings—human and Alvian.

“I believe I can stretch the search out for several more weeks.”

“All right.” Jim slapped his thighs before standing up decisively. “Then we’ll make sure you keep up your reporting on the regular schedule and learn what we can from your communications. In the meantime, we’ll formulate plans for a couple of different contingencies. Chances are one of the seers might give us a clue about how all this will play out. We’ll hope for the best.”

Grady liked the sound of that. Hope. It was something he’d never experienced before taking the experimental treatment that gave him the ability to feel. Of all the emotions he’d learned since then, hope was one of the most beautiful. It was right up there next to love. As far as he was concerned, love was the best feeling of all, but hope came in a close second.