Kneus: A Terraneu Novel (Book Four) (12 page)

Gwen could only sit hopelessly and watch as Kniam
and Kneus fought. It was obvious that Kneus would win. Not because he was a
better fighter, which was entirely possible, but because Kniam was fighting to
subdue and avoid doing damage. Kneus on the other hand was fighting to do as
much damage as he could. Poor Kniam’s face was a battered mess, and she knew he
had broken bones in his ribs, leg and hands. Tears were streaming down her face
at the pain Kniam must be feeling. It was just a miracle that Amber wasn’t here
to see this. It was bad enough that she had to.

“You are such a disappointment brother.” Kneus mocked laughingly as he
danced out of the way of Kniam’s fist. Suddenly he stopped laughing and grabbed
his head, “I swear if you don’t stay out of this I will start killing people,
instead of just playing.”

Kniam had taken the opening and grabbed Kneus in a bear hug. “Enough
Kneus. Stop this madness.”

“Madness.” Kneus snarled and fought to free himself from his brother’s
arms. “I warned you never to use that term with me again.” Gwen shrank in
terror at the murderous look in Kneus’ face. If Kniam let go he would breathe
his last breath she was sure of it.

Suddenly there was a ‘rippling’ in the air behind Kneus. Gwen wanted to
scream but she couldn’t seem to fill her lungs. All that came out was a soft
strangled sound. The rippling effect continued until a massive, armored figure
stood there. He had a weapon pointed at the back of Kneus, and without hesitation
fired. Kneus’ eyes widened in shock for one second, then he slumped in Kniam’s
arms. Since he hadn’t been expecting his brother to go slack, Kniam wasn’t
prepared to support his brother’s weight. They both ended up toppling over onto
the ground unconscious. Knaleg and Knollig were finally free from the mind lock
that had them frozen to their spots. Both stood there uncertainly looking from
the brothers on the ground to the stranger with the weapon.

“Hello again.” The stranger spoke with a whiskey-smoked accent. “Are you
just going to let your brother’s lay there on the ground?” He put his weapon
into some type of holster and looked around at his stunned audience. “I promise
not to shoot anyone else...unless I have to that is.”

Knaleg and Knollig moved cautiously to help get Kneus off of Kniam. Gwen,
keeping a weary eye on the stranger moved closer also. Doing a quick assessment
of Kniam she told the brothers, “He needs to be put into the medical unit right
away. He has too many broken bones to count. His ribs are what worry me most.
They could collapse a lung, so move him carefully. Thank god the medical unit
is so close.” Done with Kniams exam, she moved to Kneus. Gently moving the hair
off his face, she hurried to examine him for injuries. It was as she had
thought. Kniam had been fighting to block Kneus’ blows, not do any damage. All
he had were minor wounds to his hands and some bruising to his kidneys and
ribs. Looking up at the departing forms of Knollig and Knaleg she called out,
“When you get done with Kniam we need to get Kneus into a medical unit, and
then sedated.”

“That won’t be enough to save him you know.” The stranger whispered.
Pushing a button on his armor his faceplate retracted revealing a sickly, gaunt
face.

“What do you mean?” Gwen moved protectively over Kneus. “You stay away
from him.”

“It is what has already been set in motion.” The male said sadly, “Not
something I plan to do.” His cobalt blue eyes were intense in his pale face.
“There may be a way, but we will have to act fast.”

As if on cue Kneus started writhing on the ground. His back arching off
the floor, and then slapping back down. His arms were flailing madly and she
had to hurry out of the way. Gwen cried out for the brothers. “Knaleg,
Knollig...Help. Something is wrong with Kneus!”

The brothers came running back into the technology dome. Knollig rushed
to his brother on the ground, Knaleg turned to the stranger. “What have you
done?” he roared.

The stranger just put his hands up, “I have done nothing. There may be a
way to stop this if you let me help you.”

Knollig was having difficulty holding Kneus down. “Help Knaleg. We need
to get him sedated.” The brothers grabbed Kneus and hurried to half drag, half
carry the thrashing form to the medical bay. The pale stranger followed them,
his dark blue eyes filled with concern.

“Sedate him if you must. Then you need to hurry.” He coughed and Gwen was
shocked when blood oozed from his mouth. He quickly wiped it away, looking at
her he smiled crookedly, “We are almost out of time.”

Gwen hurried with the others into the medical dome. Once Kneus was locked
into his bed and sedated the brothers turned on the stranger once again. She
remained standing next to his bed.

“We need some answers to what is going on here.” Knollig snapped. “Who are
you and what is happening to Kneus?”

Knaleg moved to stand with Knollig, waiting impatiently for the stranger
to answer. He looked like he was about to explode at any second.

“Gods you two never change!” The stranger started laughing. When Knaleg
went to move forward he held up his hands, “Don’t bite my head off! I will tell
you what I can.” He coughed again, blood pooling on his lips. “As I already
told the doctor here, we are running out of time.”

“So give us the condensed version.” Knollig snapped.

Sighing the stranger said, “My name is Baylech. I came through your port
pad the day of the attack on Antilles. Before you and your mate Cat and the
others came back. We were already here. Cloaked.”

“You just said we...” Gwen noticed that Knaleg’s face turned a deeper
shade of red and she worried he might have a stroke! He took a deep breath then
ground out, “There are others?”

“One other. We will get to that part. Do not interrupt me again or would
you like for Kneus to die?”

Knaleg just pursed his lips together and glared at Baylech, “Go on.”

“When we scout a planet like Antilles we are tasked with following any
Terra made signals and using any port pads we find. My partner and I found the
one to this planet. Terraneu.” He laughed again, “Really, very original...New
Earth. Very nice name for your new home.” He started to pace. “So. Once we find
a port pad and use it, we then find out what that planet holds. In this case we
found you. Normally we would have used the port pad to return to our scouting
parties, but you closed the port pad before we could return. We were stuck
here, but there is protocol for that as well.” He stopped and asked, “Is it
possible for me to have some water?”

Gwen hurried to get him a glass and handed it over as quickly as
possible.

“Thank you.” Baylech bowed low to her then continued, “The protocol for
being on a strange planet with humanoids...well let me just be frank, not just
humanoids...but
you
, well the
path to take is clear. We set up the ANT, or Amplified Neural Transmitter—”

“For what purpose is this ANT?” Kniam had come out
of his medical unit with a vengeance. “Knollig, Knaleg what is going on?” he
demanded as he strode over to stand with his brothers. Gwen was surprised when
Baylech slapped his fist against his chest and bowed.

“Kniam. I wondered how long it would take the medical unit to fix you.
Sorry I couldn’t have stopped the fight sooner, once you had in that hold I
knew it was my chance to stun him.” He returned to pacing. “I will let the
brothers tell you what I have said so far.” He went back to drinking his water.
Gwen noticed that Knaleg and Knollig had clearly decided to ‘talk’ in mind. She
knew she was correct when Kniam snapped.

“So you have a transmitter out there somewhere. I ask again, for what
purpose?”

 
The stranger coughed and again he
frothed blood at the mouth. “I don’t have much time. I can’t tell you
everything but I can tell you how to find the ANT. We had a...shall we say a ‘
technical
issue’
and had to move it. That took us a few weeks to find the perfect
spot. We just got it set back up and running.”

The way Baylech had said ‘technical issue’ made her wonder how long he
had been sabotaging the transmitter. Then it dawned on her, “That is why Kneus
hasn’t had nightmares for weeks. You were moving this ANT thing around?” Gwen
was beginning to understand but needed to let Baylech finish his explanation.

Baylech looked at her questioningly then decided to answer, “Yes. There
would have been a lack of connection when we moved the equipment. It is safe to
knock out the ANT now because they have to know it would be found. After the
sleep study you did, you are a smart woman and would find the additional
frequency we used on your scan of Kneus’ brain.” Baylech was hit with a bout of
coughing and bent in half holding his middle he gasped, “I must tell you
this...the other with me is guarding the transmitter, but he is as bad off as I
am.” He tried to lift his head and Gwen saw his eyes were oozing blood now too.
“We cannot live off the ship for any duration. It modifies space radiation that
recharges our cells. Your suns...as nice as they are, don’t work for me. My
cells are de-generating at an accelerated rate.”

He gasped in pain again and went to his knees on the ground, “This
instrument will take you to the transmitter. You must destroy it or he will be
able use all connections to shatter Kneus’ mind.” He reached for something on
his belt, and held it out. Kniam strode forward to take it. “You have until the
sedation on Kneus loses effectiveness. I am guessing less than an hour. I
wish...I had time...to tell you everything...” With one final gasp Baylech
collapsed on the ground.

“Gwen see what you can do for Baylech.” Kniam charged toward the doors to
the dome. “Knaleg, Knollig you two are with me. We are going on a hunt.”

“How do you know you can trust what he is saying?” Knaleg held his ground
where he stood. “It could be a trap.”

“He could have done far more damage being cloaked.” Knollig argued, “When
Kniam and Kneus were fighting he only used his weapon to stun, and everything
he has told us makes sense.”

“We don’t have time to stand around debating.” Kniam snapped, “Kneus only
has until the sedation wears off, then this ANT thing will take over his mind
again. We have to find their camp and kill the other man if we have to, destroy
this ANT, and free Kneus. I don’t care if I have to fight a hundred men to
reach that thing.” Kniam was already out the door when Knaleg and Knollig
hurried to catch up.

Gwen ran to the door to yell, “Make sure to release the system lockdown!”
She had just turned back around when she yelled again, “Oh, and someone send
for the female council! We are meeting here in the Square...Now!” She would
have tried the computer, but she knew it would take the council a few minutes
to get that system unlocked. The male telepathy network of Terraneu could have
Amber, Jen, Mairi and Cat here long before that.

Turning back to the man on the ground she hurried to examine him. What
she found was not encouraging. He was in a very bad way and fading fast.

“Kneus can you hear me?” Gwen’s soft breath tickled his ear. “Wake up,
please wake up.” He felt her lips against his then she moved away. A few
moments later a soft whispering reached his ears. Not that he minded but why
was Gwen kissing him?

“He might not recover Gwen. You need to prepare yourself for the worst.”
That was Kniam’s voice.

“She has faith that he will make it. Let her have hope Kniam.” Kneus
wanted to laugh, Amber...effervescent, unsinkable Amber. “I would do the same for
you, as would Cat and Jen for their mates.”

His still sluggish brain grasped the fact that they had put Gwen in the
same list of ‘mates’, which had him reeling. He heard a round of murmured
agreement. Both councils were here then? He tried to remember what had happened
but his head hurt too much to focus. His brow furrowed in thought as he tried
to recall his last memory. The last thing he could pick out of the jumble in
his brain was the attack on Antilles. They had de-activated the port pad and he
was working on finding shielding, weapons and reasons for the male blackouts.
He had been working with Gwen...he found her attractive but...his brain
screamed in agony when he pushed for more memories so with a groan he gave up
trying to recall anything.

“I think Kneus just moved.” He heard Thian state.

“Kneus?” He felt soft fingers entwined with his and knew somehow that
Gwen had grabbed his hand, “Can you open your eyes. I have it dimmed so the
light shouldn’t hurt. Please try to open your eyes.” She sounded desperate, and
some part of him wanted to comfort her. So with a determined grimace he slowly
opened his eyes. It was a blurry mass of colors and shapes, but eventually he
was able to focus.

“Gwen.” His voice came out raspy and dry. “Water—” before he could
continue Gwen threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly.

“Oh Kneus...” she was kissing all over his face and Kneus knew something
was terribly wrong. Though not unpleasant he wasn’t quite sure this was normal
doctor/friend/colleague/patient protocol.

“Uh...Gwen.” He tried to talk but his throat was just too parched. He put
his hands on her shoulder and gently pushed her up. He didn’t want to hurt her,
but he needed to find out what was going on. He moved his eyes from her
confused face around the room to land on Kniam.

“Can you please tell me what has happened?” Each word was a knife to his
throat to speak, but he had to know. “Why am I in the medical dome? The last
thing I remember was our council meeting after the attack on Antilles.” He
wasn’t sure why, but his words caused chaos. He caught the words “doesn’t
remember?” and “amnesia” before Kniam called for quiet. It got silent and Gwen
handed him some water. He drank it down before she could stop him, then she
refilled it and handed it back to him again.

“Please drink more, but slowly this time.” She advised him, “We need to
get as much water into your system as possible, only gradually not all at
once.”

“I think it best if we give Kneus some space.” Kniam turned to the group
around him.

“I am staying.” Knaleg insisted stubbornly.

“I am staying also.” Knollig stated.

“I am going to check on the triplets.” Amber came over and gave Kneus a
hug and a wet kiss on the cheek. “We were all worried for you...I am so happy
that you are awake.”

“I will go with Amber.” Catherine hurried over and game him a hug. “You
gave us quite the scare...” after kissing his cheek she moved off toward the
door.

“We will come too. I need to check on the twins and all this excitement
can’t be good for Jen.” Both Mairi and Jen moved to his side and hugged him.

Kneus had been so stunned with Gwen kissing him, that he hadn’t even
noticed Mairi
was
no
longer
pregnant! His head started to pound again as he tried to gain the
memory of the twins being born. He wouldn’t forget something like that, he
swore to himself to be there for his brother and his mate.

“The twins...” he ground out desperately, “They have been born? They are
healthy?” His eyes started to water from the pain but he needed to know. How
had he missed the birth of his nieces?!

Knollig moved to his side, “The girls are healthy and thriving. We named
them Chloe and Celeste. Do you remember anything about that day?”

As much as Kneus wanted to say ‘Yes’ he couldn’t. He felt as if an axe
was splitting his head in two. “No.” He gasped out against the pain, “No, I
don’t remember anything except researching with Gwen.”

Gwen rushed over and looked into his eyes. “No more questions for right
now.” She hurried to press a button on his medical unit, and Kneus knew it was
a sedative she had requested. His whole body felt languid and fuzzy. Before he
lost consciousness he looked around frantically, “What is going on?” His voice
was slurring. “Wh-a-t...i-s-h...wr-on-g...” he couldn’t finish, he lost his
ability to speak. Just before he passed out he heard Gwen.

“It is going to be okay Kneus. You are going to get better I swear it, we
are in this together.” He felt her breath against his ear, “I will never give
up on you.” Then he lost consciousness again.