Tracking Trisha (8 page)

“SHIT!” Kelan yelped as the twin bands shocked him before they turned into little dragon’s and headed for his mother symbiosis.

“Damn, that hurt!” Kelan complained as he bent over picking up the tool pouch he dropped when the shock hit him. “It’s not like I really meant it.” He muttered under his breath.

Kelan popped open the panel to the door and quickly by-passed the electrical panel so he could manually open the door. Dropping the tool pouch on the floor by the door, he splayed his palms against the door and pushed. With a yell of triumph, he stepped into the cleansing unit and found it –empty. Kelan’s loud roar could be heard throughout the level.

Trisha squeezed through the narrow opening to the room next door and used the shelving to climb down. She carefully opened the door to the storage unit and peeked outside.
Perfect!
She thought. The door was around the corner from the man’s cabin so the guards who were stationed in front of the doors couldn’t see her. She opened the door further and found herself face to face with the grinning golden puppy dog.

Trisha laughed softly at the expectant look on its face. “You cheater! You took the easy way, didn’t you?” Trisha whispered affectionately.

The huge gold body shook as its large tail moved back and forth. A moment later, two tiny dragons appeared fluttering over to land on her shoulders. Trisha looked at first one dragon then the other in surprise. She couldn’t resist giving them a kiss when they snuggled up against her cheek.

“You are incorrigible, you know that don’t you? Let’s go find my friends.” Trisha whispered.

Trisha was about half way down the corridor when she heard a loud snarl and what sounded like a loud curse. Trisha knew the sound must have come from the tall man she had left back in the room where she was staying. With a gasp, she took off running. Trisha hurried down a long corridor and took two additional corners before she saw the three guards standing outside of Carmen and Ariel’s cabin.

Breathless, she said urgently, “I need to see my friends. Now!” Trisha kept looking over her shoulder. She had the awful feeling the man was going to come after her.

The guards looked at Trisha cautiously but moved aside to let her pass. Trisha gave them a breathless ‘Thank you’ and hurried through the doorway, her golden friend and the two little dragons following close behind her.

Ariel jumped up when she saw Trisha. “Thank God! I tried to get past the guards this morning to go find you but they wouldn’t let me leave.”

Carmen was lounging against the wall near the doorway tossing a cup up and down in the air. “I don’t know about you two but I am ready to blow this joint. I have business in San Diego that can’t wait.” Carmen moved away from the wall silently, the cup now fisted in her palm.

Trisha nodded. “I just had a run in with one of the males on board. I don’t think he is too happy with me right now.”

Ariel grinned as she picked up a piece of the chair she dismantled. She tapped the leg of the chair against her palm. “Want me to have a talk with him? I’m sure we can help remodel another section of the ship if you want.”

Trisha laughed. “No, I just want to get home. Daddy is probably tearing apart Shelby, California right about now.” She sobered as she continued. “I don’t want him to worry any more than he already has. It liked to have killed him when I had my accident. I can’t imagine what this must be doing to him.”

Carmen walked up to Trisha and put her arm around her in a brief, supportive hug. “I love your dad, too. We’ll get back to him.” Carmen pulled away and stood back a step. Her expression turned dark as she stared at Trisha and Ariel. “Let’s go find that transporter room you told me about, Ariel, and get back home.”

“Okay.” Ariel said before she turned to Trisha. “We’ll need you to distract our guards. They haven’t let us out of here at all.”

Trisha nodded. “Okay. There are three of them. Carmen, leave one for us, okay?”

Carmen shook her head in resignation. “You always did like to hog in on my fun.”

Trisha chuckled as she went to take a step towards the door. Before she could get to it, the golden symbiosis she had nicknamed Bio stepped in front of her blocking her from going any further. Every time Trisha would try to take a step around it, it would push her backwards, away from the door. Trisha tried several times before she threw her hands up in the air in aggravation.

“Come on, Bio. I need to get out of here.” Trisha said impatiently.

“Maybe you should go to the bathroom before we go.” Ariel said with an exaggerated wink. “You know how weak you are sometimes. I would hate for you to fall down and hurt yourself.”

Trisha looked at Ariel puzzled for a moment before the light bulb in her brain came on. “Oh, you’re right. I would hate to get hurt again.” Trisha responded with a wink.

Carmen just rolled her eyes as she shifted from one foot to the other. “Well, you better hurry or we are never going to get out of here.” She muttered under her breath.

Trisha hurried into the bathroom glancing over her shoulder as she went. Kelan’s symbiosis sat by the door blocking the exit to the corridor. The big golden head turned back and forth, looking first at Ariel and Carmen and then at the doorway where Trisha had gone. A moment later, Trisha cried out. Kelan’s symbiosis was up and through the doorway to the bathroom in a flash. As soon as it cleared the door, Trisha jumped down off the counter with a grunt and palmed the door close. Carmen came up behind her and drove the other chair leg into the control panel.

“That should hold it for a little while.” Carmen said. Behind her, the symbiosis was snarling and clawing at the door.

“Let’s move! I don’t think that door will hold it for long.” Trisha said urgently as she rushed past Ariel who was standing by the door to the corridor.

As soon as the door opened, Trisha struck out a stunning blow to the guard closest to her, striking him in the throat while kicking out her leg at one of the other guards. She gritted her teeth at the impact as pain radiated up through her. Ariel and Carmen were right behind her. Ariel knocked the guard Trisha kicked out with one swing of the chair leg while Carmen kicked the third guard in the groin before taking him down in a sleeper hold. Trisha finished off the guard she had chopped in the throat the same way by pulling around him and taking him into the wrestling move her dad taught her. As soon as the three guards were incapacitated, the girls dragged them into the room where a very pissed off symbiosis was denting the door. Trisha shook her head as images began appearing of the tall man needing her, wanting her. Trisha pushed the images away, frightened by the intense need. As the women exited the room again, a loud roar, unlike anything they had ever heard before, filled the corridor.

“Let’s go.” Trisha said hoarsely. “He’s going to come for me.”

Ariel grew pale as she saw terror flicker through Trisha’s eyes for a moment. “Come on.”

All three women took off down the corridor at a run following Trisha. They knew if anyone could find their way back to the transporter room, it would be Trisha. Trisha mentally retrieved the map she had drawn in her head from the time of their arrival until they were escorted to their cabins: first the transporter room to medical then from medical down to their rooms. She quickly reversed the path. They met a few men in the corridors but none seemed willing to stop them. It could have either been the frantic pace they were keeping or the threatening glare Carmen was sending them, either way Trisha was thankful. She was trying hard not to show how much pain she was in. Before long, Trisha skidded to a stop outside a set of doors.

“This is it.” Trisha gasped. She started to move forward but Carmen put her hand out.

“Let me go first. I know you can handle it but I saw how much it hurt you when you kicked that guard.” Carmen said softly.

Trisha started to protest but stopped and nodded. Carmen was right. She was paying for that kick. Her entire leg was throbbing and it felt like she was being seared with hot pins up and down it. Trisha took a step back and motioned for Carmen to go ahead of her. Ariel took up the rear.

“Thank you.” Trisha said softly. “Let’s do this. I want to go home.”

Carmen squared her shoulders and rolled her head side to side before she moved towards the door. As it slid open, Trisha quickly scanned the room noting where every man stood. She gripped the larger knife in her hand but kept the smaller one tucked safely in the borrowed pants she was wearing. Several of the men glanced up with the door opened, popping to attention when they saw the three women silhouetted in the doorway. One of the men started forward. As soon as he was close, Carmen struck out, grabbing his arm, pulling him forward off balance, and twisting at the same time until she had his arm pinned behind him and a knife held to his throat. When he started to struggle Ariel stepped forward and held the dismantled chair leg up under his chin, forcing him to raise it to an uncomfortable level.

Trisha held the larger knife out in front of her keeping the other men who started forward to stand back.

“Just stay where you are.” Trisha said quietly. She glanced at the man standing in front of the console to the transporter. “I want you to beam us back down to our planet. Do you understand? I’m not asking, I’m telling you.”

Trisha counted five men in the transporter room. One by the console, two over by a panel near the platform, the one they held, and one on the far side of the room. She motioned for the two men near the platform to move back.

“Go to the back with the other man.” Trisha said harshly. She needed to remain focused. She was a soldier now. She breathed in and out through her nose pushing away the pain, the fear until she found the calm center within the storm. “Ariel, make sure no one can get into the room.”

Ariel gave a warning glance to the man she was holding the chair leg to and took a small step away from him. She never turned her back but moved in slow, cautious steps backwards. Glancing behind her briefly, she gripped the chair leg tightly and swung with all her might, driving it into the panel. Sparks flew as the damaged panel hissed.

“Done.” Ariel said with a grin.

Carmen looked like she almost had a smile on her face. It was the closest to one Trisha remembered seeing in the past three years. “You know, I haven’t had this much fun in years. We should get together more often. I know this great little bar down in Mexico…” Carmen was saying before a loud thump sounded on the outer door to the transporter room. “Uh-oh, I think we have company.”

Kelan was beyond furious. His warship had never taken as much damage as it had in the last three days since they brought the females on board. After he finally got into his cleansing room and found it empty, he discovered that Trisha had destroyed the inside control panel. He didn’t know how she was able to get out of his living quarters but he was going to find out and prevent it from happening again. He then tracked her to the other females living quarters only to discover his men just regaining consciousness. They did not have their symbiosis with them at the time thinking it wouldn’t be necessary. His symbiosis, in the meantime, was just finishing reshaping after it had flowed through the hole it created in the cleansing room door.

“Where is she?” Kelan growled out to his symbiosis. It shook itself from the tip of its snout to the tip of its spiked tail. It was back into the shape of a Werecat. Kelan stood aside as it moved swiftly towards the door.

Kelan glanced once at the three men who were just beginning to sit up and sighed. He barked out a command for medical assistance for them and for their symbiosis to be called to the females’ living quarters. He stormed out of the cabin yelling for several of the warriors who were gathered outside the room to follow him. His fury became red hot as soon as he realized where the females were heading. He was almost to the transporter room when the alarms began sounding.

“What is it now?” Kelan bit out in response to the call from his chief of security.

“Trelon’s mate has started a flood in docking bay 4.” Jarak said in a weary voice.

“A WHAT?” Kelan asked startled.