Infiltration (Katieran Prime Series Book 11) (5 page)

Chapter 8

Melody watched as the man named StrykER left. He was dangerous but at the same time, she found him sexy. There was something about him that made her feel like he wouldn’t hurt her. Was it just Stockholm syndrome that made her empathize with her captor? Maybe.

A few minutes later the same young warrior, TaymAR, came in with a glass of water. At least StrykER kept his word.

“Thank you, TaymAR.”

He blushed. “No problem.”

“Do you have training or something to do?”

He shook his head. “StrykER requested that I be the one to guard you.”

“That’s good.” She wasn’t sure what StrykER was up to. Was he trying to get her to let her guard down around TaymAR? Or maybe he wanted to use TaymAR to get her to cooperate. She sighed, knowing if he threatened the young warrior, she would cave.

“Would you sing another song?” TaymAR asked shyly.

“Sure.” What else did she have to do but sing songs to her captors?

He jumped up in excitement. “Would you mind if I recorded you? My friends didn’t believe me when I told them how you sing like a goddess.”

“I must look like a mess.” She took her hair tie out and fluffed out her hair. It fell down her back in waves of brown and gold.

“You’re the most beautiful female I have ever seen,” he said in awe, staring at her long hair.

She smiled at him. He may have a little crush on her. “Thank you, Tay. May I call you Tay?”

He puffed out his chest like she had just given him the biggest compliment. “I would be honored if you call me Tay.” He pulled out his digital tablet from a pack on his back.

She wished she had an instrument with her. What would she sing? Then it came to her. This was the only opportunity she had to show the haters, the Purists, that humans were no threat to them and that they had more in common with each other. It may not be the way she would have wanted to reach out to these people, but she would take what she could get.

She waited for him to get his digital tablet set up. Then she began singing. She sang a few of her old songs, but then she began singing the one she had just written about the Katieran people and their struggles. It wasn’t perfect and she was still working on the ending but she wanted to see how it went over.

Our people were proud and strong;

Blessed by our Goddess.

Nothing could go wrong;

But it did. It did.

They came in like a storm;

Destroyed, left a mess.

Everything touched was harmed;

All they did. They did.

Quick to come, quick to leave;

Our people torn apart.

We struggled to survive;

But we did. We did.

It talked about the Morins and the destruction that they left but also how they struggled to survive. Now as she sung, she realized there was more to the story that needed to be told.

This is our time to start;

For our young now grow.

But still we battle our own hearts;

To the end. The end.

“That was—” TaymAR had to clear his throat because he was filled with emotions.

“I haven’t fine-tuned it, and it will sound better when I can add a melody.”

“Don’t change it. It’s beautiful. Is that how you see my people? We are battling our hearts?”

She bit her lip. She wasn’t sure how to answer without offending him. “It’s a song. You can interpret it however you want.”

“What we are doing, the Purist movement, is vital to cleanse our nation. You should change the song to sing about that.”

“No.”

He turned the tablet off and stuffed it back in his backpack. He angrily stormed to the door and shut the lights out.

If he thought throwing a tantrum would change her opinion, tough shit! She was being held hostage and had been humiliated. Suddenly, she didn’t care about changing people’s opinions and attitudes; she just wanted to be left alone. She curled up on the hard metal table and let the pent-up emotions come out. She cried until she fell asleep.

*****

StrykER watched the female with OrIN and MarIK from the monitor. She was amazing and to see her being stripped down to raw emotions did something to him. He looked at the other two males. OrIN looked disgusted but MarIK—he looked to be fighting an internal battle of wills. Finally, MarIK covered his emotions as neutral.

“Do you think she has more information? She seems useless to me. We should let her go,” MarIK offered.

OrIN glared at him. “You want to just release her to go free? What about setting an example of her?”

MarIK, realizing his mistake, tried to backtrack. “I’m just saying, we set her on some distant moon. If she survives, she survives. She doesn’t have anything we could use to our advantage.”

“We don’t know that yet. I’m still interrogating her.” StrykER was keeping a straight face with no emotions.

“You need to ask her about the Earth females who are breeding. I want to know who they are. I also want any information she has on Prima AriELa.”

Kitana!
The male really was interested in the Prima. StrykER was starting to get the impression that the male was obsessed with her.

“I will do my best to get that information from her.” He looked over at MarIK and got images of the young warrior’s tablet. He took this to mean he wanted that tablet. He also got the time again 03:00. He nodded his understanding.

He headed to the medic room where Melody was being kept. The young warrior was standing outside of the room guarding the door. He had the digital tablet in his hands and was replaying Melody’s singing. As soon as he caught sight of StrykER he moved the tablet, holding it behind his back.

“Has it been quiet?” StrykER asked

“Yes, sir.”

“How long have you been living here?” StrykER glanced at the female briefly.

“I’ve lived here my whole life.” The young warrior told him hoping to impress him.

“Are your parents still living?”

“My parents died and I had to live with my uncle and cousins.” There was a catch to the young male’s voice.

“Sorry to hear about your parents.”

“When did you join the Purists?”

Images filled the young male’s mind of his uncle demanding that he join with his cousins. It wasn’t a voluntary thing. “A year ago.”

“I have to say, this is one of the better mining communities I’ve been on. It has more exits than I expected.”

A brief flare of images moving through the underground tunnels to the top ran through his mind, but then the warrior started to get suspicious of his questions and wondered if he should be answering them or not. He wondered if he should report this to his superior.

“You’re doing a fine job.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“I have to ask for your digital tablet.”

“What?”

“The digital tablet with the recording of the female. I was asked to temporarily borrow it from you. When I and Leader OrIN are done viewing it, it will be returned to you.”

He could tell the young male wasn’t happy about it, but he handed over the digital tablet. “I need you to stand guard until I come back later to relieve you. It may be late. I don’t want anyone, even the medics, to visit her without my permission. Do you think you can manage that?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I have every confidence in your ability.”

The male puffed out his chest. “No one will enter the room.”

StrykER nodded and left. He wanted to go check on the female again but knew that Leader OrIN was watching her.

He walked Commander MarIK but they didn’t say anything; he just passed MarIK the tablet and kept going. He knew there was a supply closet close by. He found it and waited to make sure no one saw him. He slid the door open and entered. He found the standard warrior uniforms and hats. He also grabbed small-sized boots. His arms were full, but he couldn’t walk around with clothes. It would be too conspicuous.

He spotted a backpack that many of the warriors used. He grabbed two of those. He put one inside the other, along with the clothes. Then he looked for energy packs that the warriors used out in the field. He stuffed some of those in the backpack along with some bottled water. He put the backpack on and opened the door. He walked out casually, grateful to the Goddess that no one was looking his way. He took the backpack back to his quarters. He didn’t take it off until he got to the bathing room.

Everything was in place; he just had to wait for the right time to do this. He lay down on his small bed and closed his eyes. He knew he wouldn’t be able to fully sleep. Melody’s soft voice played through his head. He knew there were those on the colony who had the ability to sway people with just the sound of their voice to do what they wanted. That’s not what Melody did. She seemed to open up his very soul and force him to look inside. Most would think his soul was barren, but Melody found a kernel of light there and her voice coaxed it to burn brighter.

MarIK was wrong when he said that Melody had no value. In StrykER’s mind, she was more dangerous than any enemy he faced. Melody had the power to change a person’s heart and soul. She made people look inside themselves and find something worth fighting for.
She
was worth the fight.

Chapter 9

“Go away.” Melody tried to shove at the hand on her shoulder shaking her from her dreams. She didn’t want to wake up, reality was too harsh and ugly. She wanted to dream, lose herself in her fantasy world. Unfortunately, her captors were not cooperating.

“What?” She jerked her arm that was tied to the table and found that it had been loosened. Someone had come in and tied her again while she was sleeping. She rubbed it, feeling pins and needles as her wrist and hand began to come awake. She looked up to see who came to torment her and frowned at seeing nothing but darkness.

“Someone turn on the lights.”

“Shhh…you must remain quiet and come with me.” A male voice whispered close to her.

She knew that voice. It was StrykER. “What do you want?”

He surprised her by coming closer and undoing the binding holding her arm.

“I'm trying to rescue you. Are you going to get up off the table or do you want to remain here?”

She didn’t know if she should trust him, but if there was a slight chance he really was there to help her escape, she had to take that chance. She sat up and jumped to her feet a little too fast and swayed. His strong muscular arms wrapped around her waist, holding her against his firm chest.

“Easy.”

She shivered from the feel of his body heat. She hadn’t realized how cool the room was. “I’m okay.”

He released her and threw something in her hands. She looked down and was glad that her eyes had adjusted to the darkness. “What’s this?”

“Warrior clothes. Put them on.”

She looked to the door. “Are you going to leave while I put them on?”

“You’re wasting time.”

“Fine.” It was dark enough so he wouldn’t see much and she planned to keep her underwear and bra on since his people didn’t believe in wearing those. She turned her back on him and pulled her shirt on. She bent over to step a leg into the pants and heard him growl behind her.

She turned to look at him and he turned his back on her. She quickly finished pulling the pants up. When she turned to face him he handed her a pair of boots.

“They were the smallest size I could find.”

“Thanks.” She kicked off her beat up tennis shoes and slid into the boots. They were just a little big but should be fine to protect her feet. “Now what?”

“Put this on.” He handed her a backpack. She didn’t ask any more questions. He looked even more intense than usual. He checked the door then motioned for her to come closer.

“We’re going to be moving quickly. Put your hair up in that hat and keep your head down. The cameras are going down throughout the whole system. I don’t know exactly when or how long they will be down so we need to be ready to move quickly and as far as we can.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“It’s my orders to bring you back safely. That’s all you need to know.”

She didn’t like being kept in the dark. There was definitely more going on, but he was being secretive. Melody didn’t really care, as long as he got her out of there. She pulled her hair up in the tie, making a knot, then shoved the hat on her head.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

He looked at a digital tablet left on the counter for the time. He nodded at her and opened the door. She followed him out, keeping her head down. It was hard to know where she was going when she couldn't see where she was going. She followed his boots.

*****

He waited until he caught sight of StrykER leaving the medic room. MarIK turned the digital camera system off. Also, he slowly dimmed the lights in the corridors. That should give StrykER time to get away. He couldn’t turn off all power, because it would shut down the carts in the tunnels leading to the exits.

He took the young warrior’s digital tablet that StrykER had given him. He uploaded the video of her singing and set a program that would go off at the right time. He left the control room and went down to the meal room. He was supposed to share an early meal with OrIN to go over their plans for exploiting the Earth female.

He saw OrIN sitting in the center of the room and grabbed his plate of food and went to sit down across from OrIN.

“What’s happening with the Earth female?”

“Nothing right now. StrykER said he was letting her get some sleep before he starts in on her again.”

“Why? We should be starving her and keeping her awake until she cooperates.”

“I don’t have experience in these things so I didn't’ question him too much.”

“What do you think of StrykER?”

MarIK had to be careful about what he said. “I’m having a hard time trusting him.”

OrIN nodded his head. “I am as well. He’s one of the mutated. They cannot be completely trusted.”

“Should I pull him from the interrogations?”

“No, we’ll use him and let him get information from the female. Then we’ll make an example out of both of them.”

MarIK raised his fork of food to his mouth and acted surprised when the alert flashes went off.

“What in Kitana is going on?” OrIN demanded.

Both their comm links went off. They answered simultaneously. “Report!”

“Sir, the female is missing.”

“Where is StrykER?”

“No one has seen him.”

“Send everyone after them!” OrIN stood up and pounded his fist against the table.

MarIK didn’t stand up. He reached under the table and pressed the device in his hand, which automatically turned off all the lights except the viewing screen.

On the viewing screens, the recording of the female singing began to play. People stopped eating and moving and were transfixed as they watched the screen.

“Turn that off!” OrIN shouted. He pulled out his phaser and shot one of the viewing screens.

That was MarIK’s signal. He stood up and began giving out orders. “Secure the entrances and exits, no carts are to move until further notice. I want to know where that feed is coming from!” He looked at OrIN who waved him to go on.

*****

StrykER felt the weight of the world on his shoulders, or just the life of one small female. If he failed to get her out of there safely, he had no doubt OrIN would kill her.

As they quickly made their way down the tunnel, he noticed two males entering a secure room. They were carrying boxes he knew contained weapons from the stockpile he sent them to. He motioned for her to stop. He pulled her to the side in the shadows.

“What are we doing?” she whispered.

He turned, facing her. She was so close he could pick up her scent. So good.

“I need to check something out before we leave.”

He heard the males come back out and waited for them to move out of sight. He headed to the door. It was locked, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him.

He had found an access card slid under his door earlier that evening and suspected MarIK had given that to him. He used it now, sliding it along the lock swipe. The door opened and then he entered.

“Oh my God,” Melody said out loud.

He shook his head in disbelief. A large hanger at least three levels high was lined with shelves loaded with weapons and supplies. However, what had him feeling an intense fear was at the bottom of the hanger.

“Goddess. How did they get their hands on warships?”

“This is the closest I’ve come to them. They look similar to our fighter jets on Earth.”

“They’re not supposed to have warships. Where did they get them from?”

“Does this mean that they have transport ships too?”

He ran a hand through his blond hair. “I pray to the Goddess that they don’t. Warships are used for short range battle, but a transport is equipped to attack larger targets.”

“Larger targets—like a planet?”

“Yes.”

“What do we do?”

“We have to find a way out of here and warn Kiljor and Katiera and the Colony. There’s no telling whom they’ll target first.” He pulled her with him back to the door. He opened the door and peered out before having her follow him out.

“We’re underground somewhere. What is this place?”

“It’s one of the mining communities.”

“You don’t know which one?” she asked in surprise.

“I’m not from here.”

“Where are you from?”

“Kiljor.” He turned to look at her. “I know you have a lot of questions, questions I can’t answer right now. Let’s get to the surface, find a shuttle, and get off this planet. Then I will tell you everything you want to know.”

They continued down the hallway then came up on one of the small floating transport carts. “Get in.”

“Do you know where this thing will go?”

“These are programmed to go to the next exit.” He pushed the start button, and off they went.

*****

Melody glanced sideways at the man next to her. He focused on his task and wasn’t going to let anyone or anything distract him. He kept them going at a steady pace. She was curious to open the backpack to see what all he put in there. She bet he planned for just about every contingency. That was the complete opposite of her.

She was a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type of person. She got up when she felt like it and often ate breakfast for lunch, and then she stayed up late practicing and writing.

The only time she would stay completely focused was when she was writing her songs. She had been known to lock herself in her room for days writing.

“I think we’re coming up to an exit.”

She looked up and noticed two warriors standing guard at stairs she assumed led to the surface of the planet.

“What do we do about those two?”

“Stay in the cart. No matter what. If I don’t come back to get you, press this silver button and it will take you to the next exit. You get to the surface and in a shuttle. Lock the doors and use the red and white numeric keypad. Type 447750Y. It’s an auto return to Kiljor destination. Repeat it.”

Well that sounds damn ominous. He was talking like he wasn’t going to come back.

“Repeat it, Melody!”

“447750Y.”

“Stay here.”

She watched him get out of the cart and head toward the two males. How could he possibly take on two of them all by himself?

She looked in the cart for some kind of weapon. She had no intention to leave him.

He approached the two men who turned to him and questioned what he was doing there. He pulled out a digital tablet from his backpack and showed it to one of the men. The other men kept glancing her way.

She felt sweat running down her forehead. She resisted the urge to wipe it off. She didn’t want to make any sudden moves that might look suspicious. What was he showing them?

While one of the men was distracted, StrykER suddenly used some kind of weapon and stunned the other man, making him fall to the ground. He didn’t hesitate to punch the other man and soon he was on the ground too. She had never seen anyone move that fast or with that level of precision.

He motioned for her to come so she got out of the cart and ran over to him. She stepped over the men on the ground. “Are they dead?”

“No, just knocked out. Once they wake, all Kitana will break lose because then they will know that we’re missing.”

They moved up the stairs and slowed only when they reached the top. Thankfully, no one was at the exit when they reached the top.

“Do you know where we are?”

“One of the lunas on the other side of Kiljor.”

“So we’re close to Kiljor?”

“Maybe six or eight hours. Closer to a Kiljorn transport that should be monitoring this area.”

“If they’re monitoring, why didn’t they discover all the warships and weapons?”

“Everything is underground, plus the luna is a natural satellite and can cause static interference with readings. We found that out with the last interaction with the Morins.”

“What do we do now?”

“I believe the shuttles are located in that direction.” He moved that way so she followed him.

She felt relief when she spotted two shuttles. Halfway to the shuttles the alarms went off and people suddenly came out of structures they were in. Their time was up. She looked at StrykER.

“Run!”

He didn’t have to tell her twice. She ran at full speed, huffing and puffing. She was so out of shape. Please God, get me to that shuttle and I promise I will go on an exercise routine as soon as I get back to Katiera.

They made it to the shuttle and jumped in. StrykER closed the door behind her and hit the lock. Then he went to the pilot’s seat. She came to seat next to him in the co-pilot’s seat. The shuttle shook and she reached for the panel to hold herself in her seat.

“They’re firing on us. Get your security belt tightened!”

She buckled up and watched as StrykER raised the shuttle off the ground. The shuttle sustained another hit but StrykER moved them forward. The ship kept shaking.