Page 73 of Taken to Voraxia
“Find Rhorkanterannu. Determine how quickly we can disembark and return to the ship. We need to return to Kor before they begin pursuit.”
“They won’t have found us already. We’re on the outer edge of the Quadrant. Undetectable by long range sensors. That’s why we chose this decrepit ship, remember? No alpha frequencies coming in or out. We are pure hardware. Ancient gear. And we disrupted their docks besides. They can’t get to us.”
The Niahhorru on the floor beside Svera speaks at the same time that he gently lifts her legs and places them on a blackened metal block.
She blinks rapidly, and ofcourse, Svera would be the one to whisper, “Thank you. That’s very kind.” The Niahhorru nods, and then freezes when Svera says, “But you’re wrong. They could have found you.” She lifts her arm and slides her opposite palm across it. Flickering green flutters for a moment before fading.
“You got your life drive?” I say, curious as to why that would matter. Life drives don’t contain trackers. I should know, I helped Lemoria tinker with the technology that would allow life drives to adapt to human and hybrid anatomies. I didn’t know they were ready yet. Theyaren’tready yet.Why would Svera have one?
Svera nods. Another rumble throttles the space and the doors through which the Niahhorru just disappeared closes. “I did. And it has coordinates to my location,” she says, totally contradicting everything I thought. I might have even been concerned if it wasn’t the thing that might save our necks.
She coughs, “You had better all go, because it will take all of you to defend this place, if that is your intention. And I hope it isn’t. You seem like a…noble people. Desperation has driven you to this, but don’t let it own you.”
“You knownothingof our desperation!” Nondah shouts from the floor. Black blood pours from the open wound in his back and makes me wince. It looks painful.
He rises, but the Niahhorru who defended me before shoves him back. He issues another order. “The human females were not supposed to be marked. This one clearly is of some importance. We can perform shekurr with neither. We must either take the Rakukanna now as leverage, or leave them both and abandon ship.”
“We cannot leave them!”
“Do you challenge me?” The Niahhorru male flexes his four arms.
Nondah lowers into a vicious crouch. “Ontte, I do.”
The attack happens all at once and is blistering in its speed and its violence. Across the room, I hear Svera scream, echoing the sound that ripples through my whole body. I cower back, away from the fight and drop to the ground despite the fire that chews through my ankle and halfway up my leg. Standing on one leg, I keep the metal plank between me and the fighters.
I glance at the door, noting the unusually large Niahhorru-sized shape of the handle. I could get to it but how long would it take me to pull it down? And even if I could get out while the others are distracted, what would that do? Where would I go? How would I get Svera out with me? And suddenly I’m out of time for questions. The fight is coming to an end.
Nondah’s loss is imminent. He’s already taken too many hits to the face and stomach. The Niahhorru seem to favor their sides and the bigger one cuts for Nondah’s every opportunity he gets. He levels another strike — this one a kick — at Nondah’s thigh and Nondah bends at the knee. He falls. His opponent advances and just as he reaches out with two of his great big hands to Nondah’s face, looking like he’s hell bent on tearing the skin right off his skull, the ship lurches beneath my feet.
I gasp as my stomach sails up into my throat. Svera gasps. The Niahhorru near her wraps his arms around her middle and punches his hands into the floor, latching onto it with his claws. I only understand what he’s doing too late. Because a moment later, the ship tilts off its axis and everyone standing goes airborne.
I fly, time slows, and when I blink see the Niahhorru who’d just been about to kill Nondah tilt too far back. His arms flail, exposing his chest and Nondah doesn’t hesitate. Midair, he strikes.
His fist plunges into the male’s chest, his hard claws burrowing beneath plates and ripping them free. I scream as he impales the Niahhorru warrior but even that sound is drowned out by a deep, dark rattling and metal tearing metal and bone crunching against the grated floor.
I want to call to Svera, but my lungs are in my throat and my stomach is tearing in the opposite direction.My stomach, oh comets, my stomach…
I bowl over, forming a tight ball, body closing in around the baby. My baby. Xoran’s baby. My arms come to cover my head. Time punches forward and I hit something a second later. My head cracks against it. The world fades to the smell of smoke and Svera screaming my name.
20
Xoran
The docks were left in ruin.Rhorkanterannu. The name hits me like a dagger to the belly each time I look at the mess he’s made.And to what end? Something is wrong. Why tamper with the docks?
“He has ruined his only chance for escape.” Xa’Raku growls the thought that crosses my mind. She kicks aside a fallen piece of werro. The tree had lasted for a thousand years but now pieces of it lay scattered over the forest floor.
Rhorkanterannu’s pirates set the tree alight and when Ixria attempted to stop them, they fired on her and her xub’Ixria. Lemoria has her suspended in a tank of merillian, Ku’Rohru fast at her side. He watches with baited breath, a mirror to the Va’Raku who watches his Va’Rakukanna still.
They are also Xiveri mated and one cannot live without the other and if one does, one will not want to. The Xanaxana demands a union and today, Xana guides Ixria and Ku’Rohru. But I know that Ixria’s Xaneru is strong. She will live.
For what he has done on this solar, Rhorkanterannu will not.
Xa’Raku turns to me and her eyes shift right, towards the troop of three xcleranx that approaches. Leading them is Tur’Roth. He inclines his head. “Our search uncovered a disturbance in the flatlands just south of Illyria. We think that Rhorkanterannu and his Niahhorru might have fled in this direction.”
“Lead us,” I say and air fires into my lungs that smells sweet and spicy. The werro bark giving up its last breaths. The tree will not recover and at first light, once Rhorkanterannu is apprehended, we will need to move all of the transporters lodged within it. We will then honor it and the gift that it has provided generations of Voraxians before we spread its ashes and its seeds so that new werro trees make be borne of its sacrifice.
My xub’Raku fold in around me while the xcleranx fold in around them. We form a diamond as we tear through the city like a knife.
