Colonial Commander (10 page)

Chapter 17

TylOR was leaning over a screen that showed the topography of the planet. The land ranged from hilly, to swampy, to desert. The Morins could be anywhere. He felt a tug at his pants leg and frowned. Looking down, he saw a dark-haired little boy.

“Yes?” Who was this boy and where were his parents?

“She told me to find you and tell you.” The boy was breathing hard and could hardly talk. His eyes were full of fear.

“Who told you to find me? Tell me what?”

“The white-haired female with the strange blue eyes. They caught her.”

A woman from outside the command tent screamed out. “Sevoy!” She shoved the warriors in the tent out of her way and threw her arms around the little boy, picking him up and holding him. “I was so worried about you.”

“Sorry, Mother.”

“Who found you?”

“The nice lady with the white hair.”

“Ava? Did Ava find you?”

“That’s her name. She came into the woods to look for me. I was hiding in a tree. I didn’t want the ugly ones to see me.”

TylOR squatted down so he was closer to the young’s height. “Where is Ava?”

The boy had tears streaming down his face. His mother tried to move away from TylOR, but he held up his hand to her. “This is important.”

“The ugly ones that smell bad took her. She told me to run and come straight to the tallest, biggest, baldest warrior. That’s you.”

“Yes, that’s me.” TylOR stood up and looked at his males. “We have a situation. Get me Commander AshOR now!”

*****

“Do we have a heat signature?” AshOR asked his lieutenants as they each circled an area looking for signs of the Morin shuttle.

“No, sir. All we are finding are residual heat trails. They may have powered down their shuttle and camouflaged themselves within the jungle to keep themselves from being detected.”

“We’ll check the next segment and then we’ll head closer to the city.” His comm link went off. “Commander AshOR here.”

“Commander, what’s your location?” TylOR asked.

“We’re a few miles south of the main city, making our way north. Why, is something wrong?” He felt like something bad had happened.

“Ava’s been taken by the Morins.”

“What? How?” He felt a like someone had stabbed him in his heart. No, they couldn’t have his mate.

“A young was missing and she helped search for him. She went into the woods alone and found him. She told the young to run for help and the boy says he heard her scream.”

“Why was she alone?!”

“She had a guard assigned to her, but we found his body lying a few feet away from the entrance of the forest. The boy thinks he can show us where they are, but his mother won’t let him go because she is worried about his safety. We have him looking at visuals we have received from warships flying over the forest area.”

“We’re on our way back. Give me directions as soon as you can.” AshOR felt like his whole world was caving in on him. He didn’t know what he would do if he lost Ava now. She was his true bond mate, his everything. How would he recover from that loss?

He hadn’t had a chance to tell her his feelings.
Goddess.
He touched a hand to his heart. He loved her. More than anything in this world, he loved Ava. He felt foolish for fighting his feelings for so long. He could have been with her, maybe even have convinced her to remain on the transport, if she had known how much she meant to him. Her being taken was partially his fault.

He looked down at his console and saw coordinates coming in from his brother. He accepted the destination and pushed his warship to fly as fast as possible. He would get her back and kill anything that got in his way.

“Sir, we won’t be able to land any closer to the coordinates. I found a clear spot we can put all four warships down, but we’ll have to go the rest of the way by foot.”

“I’ll follow you down.” AshOR checked his radar and saw a blip—one strong heat signature was found, but there were two inconsistent signatures as well, that faded in and out. Then in a blink they were all gone. He had to let his men know. “I detected at least three heat signatures briefly. One has to be Ava’s because it is so strong, but all three faded quickly.”

“There could be more than that if they are able to hide their signatures. How are they doing that?”

AshOR thought about what the Morin had confessed before he died. If the Morins could hide their huge transport, they might be able to send out signals to hide their warships and shuttles as well to keep them from being found.

He hit his comm link. “Commander TylOR, the Morins have satellites on the corners of their transports that uses a moon’s electrical pull to cause waves that they have found to blend with their own signatures.”

“How do you know this?” TylOR asked.

“I was able to question one of the Morins whose warship crashed. He was in a confessing mood.”

TylOR snorted. “So we should look close to the moon for the transport, then send out warships to destroy the satellites on the ends. I’ll let the second commanders know that. Do you think that’s why we could not pick up heat signatures from the warships and shuttle that went down?”

“I do. If the shuttle is still being disguised, then that means that—”

“The Morin transport is still close by and in range,” TylOR finished for him.

“Keep everyone on high alert. We’ve found a place to land our warships, but we will have to go the rest of the way by foot.”

“Be careful and bring my new sister home safe.”

AshOR ended communications and landed his ship. He got out and walked over to where his warriors were waiting. “We have a shuttle that is being shielded from detection by moon waves bounced off of and distorted by Morin satellites. They must have a way to camouflage the warriors on board as well.”

“Is this a kill-on-sight situation, or should we save one for questioning for later?”

AshOR shook his head. “These are not high-ranking warriors, so they aren’t going to know much. Kill on sight. Just wait for my command. They have my mate as hostage.” Both males paled at that.

“How long have they had her?”

“An hour or less. I’m worried that if she fights them they will kill her outright. She’s kind of strong-headed.”

“I thought all Earth females were like that,” one tried to joke but AshOR wasn’t in the mood.

“Just remember they have her, so you can’t open fire on them until I have her clear and safe.”

“Yes, sir.”

AshOR wished there was something that he could do to knock out the satellites. He felt helpless, and he hated that feeling. He had to get Ava back so that he could tell her how much he loved her.

*****

“I don’t need your help. Go back to the building and help with the medics,” a male voice yelled out.

“You’re a freaking asshole! I’m trying to tell you, I picked up signals with my radio.”

“What’s going on?” Commander TylOR heard the yelling coming from outside the command tent. He went outside to find Katieran Commander LemAN arguing with a small female from Earth.

She turned her back on LemAN and faced TylOR instead. “Good, I’ve got the man in charge.”

“I’m in charge of you,” LemAN growled from behind her. She stuck her middle finger up at him. He clearly didn’t know that was an Earth insult, and TylOR was not about to inform him. He didn’t have time to deal with squabbles.

“What is this about?”

“I was trying to explain to Commander Bossy here that I was able to pick up an odd frequency from my handheld radio. I think it's the Mors people.”

LemAN rolled his eyes. “Morins, they’re called Morins.”

“Whatever. Anyway, I brought my radio down to see if I could pick up any tunes that might have made its way to this solar system. Sound travels, so it stands to reason that the frequency—”

“Move on, speed this up,” TylOR growled out, not completely following the female.

“I found a frequency on my radio that was odd. There wasn’t any music or talking, but a constant stream of beeping sounds. I think it’s coming from an orbiting satellite.”

TylOR’s eyebrows rose as he looked up at LemAN. “The Morin satellites. Are you sure about it? Could you pinpoint the location of the satellite?”

She nodded her head. “I’m a specialist in satellites back home. I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to building homemade communications…”

“Can you track it down?” TylOR interrupted again before she went off on another tangent.

“Yes. I just need a computer and my own portable satellite dish that I can basically point up to the sky and move around.”

Leader Toro moved forward. “I believe our tower may have what you need.”

She glanced over and gave him a wide smile. “You have a tower? Are you a prince or something?”

Toro smiled back. “Leader Toro.”

“I’m Teagan. Show me to your tower, blue man.” She followed Toro out of the tent.

TylOR pointed to Leman. “Go with her. As soon as she has tracked down those satellites, have all our transports move closer and fire on them.” He hated that his mate would be put in danger, but the three transports should be able to protect one another.

LemAN nodded and followed after the female, who still had not stopped talking. TylOR hit his comm link. “AshOR, hold your position. We may be able to take out those satellites which will then expose the location of the Morin shuttle.”

“Hurry, I don’t know what they have or have not done to my mate.” AshOR sounded stressed.

“Hang in there, brother, we’ll get her back.”
Goddess help us all
.

Chapter 18

Ava’s head hurt so much that she wasn’t sure she could stand up if she needed to. So instead she lay still on the cold hard ground and kept her eyes closed. She could hear the two Morins moving around. She peeked one eye open just a little. They were working on repairing their shuttle. It had been damaged, so that’s why they were still on the planet. She quickly shut her eyes when one of them looked her way, and kept listening to their conversation.

“Do you think Leader Krosis will share her?” Morin Number One asked.

“Probably not. With the loss of the other females, he’ll want to use this one for himself,” Morin Number Two answered.

Ava shivered. She knew what they meant by
use
her. The thought of one of those ugly grey things touching her made her sick to her stomach. The little boy was right too, they smelled so bad she had to fight not to throw up and give herself away.

She probably would have gotten away if it had just been one Morin, but they’d managed to bring her down by double-teaming her. They had her hands tied behind her back with some kind of rope that was chafing her wrists. They’d left her feet untied; she guessed that they’d run out of rope. If she had to, she could kick at them and make a run for it. She just had to find a way to get her hands free.

They went inside the shuttle, which gave her the perfect opportunity to look around. She was lying near a big boulder, which was surrounded by tiny rocks. She scooted backwards, careful not to leave drag marks on the ground. That was really hard to do; she used her feet to try to wipe the drag marks clear. She reached for the little rocks, feeling their edges.

She had to pretend to still be passed out so that they would leave her alone. One of them suspected she wasn’t still out and came over to kick her in the stomach. She moved and groaned but didn’t open her eyes. The other Morin yelled to not damage her too much before they were able to leave the planet.

They were loud about what they planned to do to her. Bile rose up in her throat and she had to swallow it down. She didn’t think she would still be living once they got her to the Morin transport. She would rather die than go through any of that. No one should suffer so horribly.

Keep focused, Ava. You can do this. Just keep looking for something sharp enough. Free yourself and run. Survive for AshOR.

She gasped a little when her finger was pricked by something sharp. It was a little bit out of her way, so she scooted over closer and closer until she finally had the rock in her hands. She used one hand and began to cut against the rope. The way they tied her, she would have to cut the rope on each wrist so that it would loosen enough for her to get out of.

Sweat beaded up on her forehead. She brought her knee up and tried to wipe the sweat off with it. She heard boots coming her way and moved her foot back. The Morin came up and knelt down next to her. She heard him set something down next to her. He sniffed at her, and she tried not to breathe at all. She felt the buttons on her top being undone and a hand reached inside to squeeze her breast brutally.

“You’re kind of small compared to some of your kind that we have seen. You can open your eyes now, I know you’re not still out.” When she refused to respond, he used his sharp nail and cut her nipple right through the bra she had on.

She opened her eyes and glared at him. She couldn’t help it. “You’ve made a big mistake. My mate will come for me and there won’t be anything left of you when he’s done.”

The Morin growled and slapped her face hard.

“Stop playing with her, we are almost ready to take off,” the other Morin called out.

The Morin spit on her as he stood up and walked back over to the shuttle. She rubbed her face in the dirt to get the yellow slime off of her. She had to get away. If they got her in that shuttle, she would soon be dead or would want to be. Ava noticed that the Morin had left the part of the shuttle they were working on next to her. She scooted closer to it, taking it in her hand. Whatever it was, she didn’t want them to have it. She concentrated harder on cutting the rope. One side finally gave, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Now she had to do the other side. Thoughts of AshOR kept her focused and helped her ignore the pain she felt. She would do anything to see him one more time.
I love you, AshOR.

*****

Teagan was on the floor trying to connect the wires for her homemade radio to the computer console in Balar’s tower. It was pretty impressive what they had set up, a real nice security and monitoring system. It would have caught just about anyone that approached their planet, but the Morins had a kind of satellite cloaking system going on, and there was no defense against something like that. Not unless they could take it out, which was why she was on the floor.

Everything was so different than what she was used to on Earth. She had a huge aptitude for mechanics and engineering, but because she came from a very poor family, she’d never gotten the official schooling that would have helped train and cultivate her intelligence.

When she became legally able to live on her own, she had no education to get anything more than manual labor jobs. She hated waiting tables and constantly having to fight off unwanted male attention. Then one day she watched as a cable guy drove by. Knowing that she probably knew more about satellites than that guy did, she filled out an application and was surprised that she actually got hired. It was fine for a while and paid better than waitressing.

Then the aliens came to Earth. She was living a boring life, and the chance to travel somewhere new for free was just too good to pass up. It wasn’t until she showed up for the interview the Katierans were conducting for applicants who wanted to relocate, that she realized that these aliens were looking for women. She could have backed out, but she didn’t. She wanted to learn about their advanced technology. Now she was on a new planet meeting more aliens. Her life was so much more exciting.

“Got it.” She started to slide out from under the console and found two hands on either side of her waiting to help her up. Sighing, she took both hands and let the men pull her up. This was getting ridiculous. Toro and LemAN had not left her side the entire time. Toro was overly friendly and flirting constantly. LemAN was just bad-tempered and growled non-stop.

“So, you have not mated yet?” Toro asked for like the tenth time.

“No.” Teagan typed on the computer, entering the security code that Toro had given her. She was in, and oh wow, these guys were very well endowed with their technology. It was fascinating, and she wished she had time to sit down and explore everything, but she didn’t.

“I have no mate either.”

LemAN snorted. “You told her that three times already.”

Toro ignored him and kept talking to her, leaning down in her space. “You traveled here with the Katierans?”

“Yes.” She frowned at the screen, not really paying attention to him.

“They are fools if none of them have not mated you by now. You need a real male. I’m looking for a mate, and I would gladly take you as mine. You would be taken care of and lack for nothing.”

“Stop flirting with the female,” LemAN snarled shoving Toro back.

“How dare you touch me, Katieran!”

She’d had enough of this male macho shit. She shoved both of them away.
What the hell!
That hurt her hands. What were they made out of, steel?

“Back off. I almost got this.” She typed new coordinates, then moved the small satellite she had placed on the top of the console. “Damn it, it doesn’t have a clear view. Hey, Commander Bozo!” She turned toward LemAN.

“My name is Commander LemAN.”

“Whatever. Take this and go to the top of the tower outside. I need an unobstructed view of the sky.”

He grudgingly took the satellite, glaring at Toro on his way out. “He really doesn’t like you,” she commented.

Toro snorted. “The feeling is mutual.”

“Look, ease up on him and stop with all the flirting. You’re not really interested in me.”

He smiled at her and cupped her cheek. “You're quite intelligent, little one, but you are wrong if you think I don’t want you.”

“Then let me say it like this, I’m not interested in mating anyone right now.” She moved past him and over to the console. She typed in a special tracking code and smiled. “Bingo. Got you, motherfuckers.” She used the comm link that Commander TylOR had given her earlier.

“Commander, I found the transport.”

“Give me the coordinates.”