Nova (36 page)

Considering the day’s events and still buzzing slightly from
the Synergy induced healing, K’llan found sleep a harder partner to court.
Worries and questions circled each other in her mind, everything from the
status of those left behind to face the dangers of Black Space and Karukai
destination–point, to the ongoing, mysterious and laden reality of the bond that
even now, K’llan could feel thrumming with low insistence between herself and
Avara. Most pressing, however, were the very real concerns regarding the
journey that lay ahead of the two, and especially the troubling need for
sustenance.

Finally, K’llan let the assurance she’d felt silently stream
from Avara at the initiation of their journey, wash over her along with the
soft sounds of her companion’s breathing. Despite her nagging concerns, she
felt the gentle lethargy of sleep caress and finally claim her.  

 * * * * *

The next four days went much like the first except that
having taken the time and made the effort to recuperate, their pace, which they
kept at a sustaining low–jog for much of the day, was decidedly quickened. The
monotony of their travels was broken up by a steady stream of conversation, creating
a new suite of insights into the Human Captain’s character and experiences just
as, K’llan knew, was true in reverse. When not speaking, the silence that
stretched between them was companionable rather than disquieting or a sign of
disinterest. The comfort K’llan felt in Avara’s presence made the pressing
journey bearable.

The geographic features remained much the same during their
trek, though at the midpoint of the third day, they came across a low–trilling
stream crisscrossing and then joining with the series of game trails they had
been following. It was a reality that aided their navigation efforts.  Furthermore,
the water made for welcome respite in the form of providing a means for the two
to clean both themselves and their equipment. However, it also meant an
increase in the number of animals they came across. Not surprising, since the waterway
provided a significant supply of vital sustenance not only in the form of water
but also as a source of prey stopping at the drink.

The point became manifest when, by the end of the fifth day,
the two began to hear persistent
yipping
noises punctuated by high–pitched
howls. It was not long before K’llan and Avara caught sight of movement
rippling through the tall grass, like sharks knifing through the spray before
striking.

“What do you think?” K’llan asked when the two came to an
alert induced halt at the right bank of the stream.

Eyes and ears straining and her head moving slowly back and
forth as she scanned the sea of surrounding grassland, Serros answered “I think
we may be in trouble.”

“Not entirely helpful, Avara.” K’llan responded drily.

Whatever the Shield’s answer was about to be was lost as
K’llan caught sight of a blurring missile of wheat–yellow and ash flying out of
a clump of grassy verge to dart straight at the Human’s unprotected back.

“Avara!” Z’arr found that she was screaming warning and
drawing her pistol before she was even aware that thought had fired to body.

The Human woman had also caught the danger and in response, crouched
low to the ground and executed a swift roll right before eight appendages armed
with rending ivory claws, ripped at her backside and a fang–filled, gaping
elongated jaw snapped at where the base of her neck had been poised a breath
before.

Rising gracefully to her feet and with a response time so
quick as to be automatic in nature, Avara racked off two shots directly into
the furred, sloping forehead of the canine predator just as it sprang through
the window of space between them. Z’arr fancied she could actually feel the
quaking
thud
as the easily two–hundred or more pound animal dropped to
the ground. The dripping cerise of blood was a slashing contrast to its ash–hued
fur.

Relief short–lived, Captain Serros shifted her pose and
unerringly shot off another round, this time into a second like–formed beast at
her two o’ clock, and then a third at Z’arr’s five, behind and to the side of
the Vosaia.

It was a favor that K’llan returned a heart–stopping second
later, as yet another of the four–footed creatures sprang at Avara. Regrettably,
their good fortune was not to last as yet again slavering jaws made for both people
and each was occupied with their own primal struggle for life in the face of
death.

K’llan’s pistol–fire ripped into the falling light of day as
three shots
snicked
into another beast’s flank. Yet even as the beast
tumbled to the ground in a futile battle to continue its own existence, one of
the massive canine’s two upper–lateral appendages, reminiscent of underdeveloped
and stubby, paw–tipped arms, lashed out and raked her left thigh. Immediately,
burning pain evocative of chemical fire shot through her thigh to calf to hip.

Clenching her teeth with all but shattering force to keep
the searing pain at bay, K’llan frantically cast her gaze. She caught view of
Avara just as she rammed the activated blade of her long–knife up through jaw
and jugular of a final attacker, half–falling to the turf to avoid the animal’s
dying weight pinning her to the ground.

With a final heave, the Human freed both self and blade,
picked up her fallen pistol, and then after ascertaining a lack of imminent
threat, moved towards K’llan.

For just a moment, Z’arr thought the resemblance between
Avara and their now still mammalian hunters was remarkable. Capturing the
murderous glint in the woman’s fire–flash eyes as she stalked through grass and
mud towards K’llan, blood weeping from wounds at her upper shoulder and across
her left collarbone, Avara Serros looked no less the predator than the slain
beasts at her booted feet.

Killer and savior, warrior and poet, she is my life and
death both
.

The line from the old Vosaia Third Period poem raced and
chased through K’llan’s mind as she tracked Serros’s approach, the verse strikingly
appropriate.

 Stopping before K’llan, Serros grasped Z’arr’s arm in a
quiet symbol of support. “The claws are poisoned; I’d wager some type of natural
numbing toxin to make the capture of prey easier.” Avara’s melodic voice was
tight as she quickly reviewed K’llan’s dripping thigh wound.

“Yes.” K’llan confirmed, and she could hear the edge in her
own voice as Serros quickly sprayed Salu–Salve on the wound, the liquid both a
disinfectant and pain numbing agent. Without discussion, Z’arr kept her gaze
locked for an attack.

It took only seconds for the sweet relief of the medicine to
wipe away the persistent pain of the injury. “Not you?” K’llan queried as
Serros quickly returned the spray to its place in the first aid kit, storing
the whole in K’llan’s pack.

Shaking her head, cowlick brushing across her forehead,
Serros answered “No, I’m fine. My PV already has it under control. Plus we may
need the kit later. And,” she began, head cocked and catching sound of movement
in the grassland beyond, “We need to leave…
now
.”

“Right.” Z’arr answered, her own determination matching her
companion’s.

With what was proven to be well–founded caution, the two had
made it a habit to wait until just before day’s end to Arca enhance their speed
to a mile–eating rapidity. It was a practice that served them well now.

At a nod indicating she should go first, Z’arr consciously
called upon her DSA and launched forward along the game trail twining the
stream like a starfighter pilot yanking her throttle backward to climb into the
stars.

Grass, soil, and low–sky all blurred together as K’llan ran
at full speed, arms and legs pumping in perfect balance. Sight and sound
married in a soul–freeing union that she could only imagine was reminiscent of
a bird in flight. All the while, with awareness born of the low murmur of the link
she shared with the Human woman, K’llan felt Avara sprint at like velocity just
behind her. Soon the two had left the threat of the canine pack of hunters
behind.

After just under an hour had passed, Serros pulled ahead of
Z’arr and signaled that they should stop. Practically skidding in the water–drunk
soil at her abrupt halt, K’llan sucked in deep swallows of the now chill night
air, regaining her equilibrium after their flight. Finally, she asked “Why are
we stopping so soon? I can still run for a good fifteen minutes or so.”

Laughing slightly as she breathed in the night air herself,
Avara replied, “No doubt, but I think we should hold some in reserve just in
case our neighbors decide to stop by again.”

“Mm, yes. Probably wise, given that I am pretty sure they
are nocturnal.”

“Yeah, that was my thought too.” Serros affirmed. “Did you
catch sight of the rocky hillside in the distance?”

“Yes.”

“Might make a good goal–point for tomorrow.” Avara
commented, and at K’llan’s agreement, the two went about making their camp.

Conversing while they worked, K’llan disliked the weariness
she noted in Avara’s voice and posture, so unlike her usual, almost constant
sense of energy that she typically exuded. For that matter, she did not like
her own exhaustion that she felt creeping into bone and soul, all heightened by
a sense of ever–growing hunger.

Camp laid out and sitting down to consume the very last of
their carefully parceled out rations, K’llan was not at all surprised when
Avara demonstrated that she shared the Vosaia’s hushed fears. “We need to talk about
what we’re going to do for sustenance, and especially what we are going to do
in regards to your need to Feed.”

Knowing that the discussion was coming, but still unable to craft
a solution that she was comfortable with, K’llan quietly supplied “I can last
another two days or so until it becomes a real concern.”

Mouth pressed into a slash, Serros remarked, “You mean only
another two days or so until you’re comatose with deprivation?” Faint yet
controlled frustration quivered in the Shield’s tone.

When K’llan could offer only pregnant silence in return to
the Human’s comment, Avara asserted, “K’llan, you’re
starving
. I can
feel it.” Her voice held absolute certainty, and more. K’llan could hear the shiver
of real worry, even alarm in her tone, could feel it like the struck chord of a
harp held between them. “You need to Feed and I am the only option.”

“No! You don’t understand, Avara.” K’llan finally responded,
uncommonly slipping into the use of contractions in her frustration and fear. Locking
her gaze with that of the Human woman’s who sat before her on the other side of
the low–humming, miniature generator, K’llan worked to explain. “It is
dangerous Avara, for you and I; perhaps especially for you and I.”

“What? Why especially for you and me?”

Feeling the Captain’s confusion swirling around her and
captured by the sweetly earnest expression in her eyes, despite how much she
wished she could answer Avara’s question, K’llan found that she simply could
not utter the words that were so carefully locked away.

Especially given the recent change that had taken place
between Avara and one of those closest to her aboard
Excalibur
.

“K’llan, you’ve said before that some Vosaia pay to
consensually Feed on another, that it is legally permissible, which means it must
be safe enough to do so. I don’t understand. We’re friends and I’m offering;
what are you so afraid of?”

Answering with what was both truth and at the same time, not
the entire truth, K’llan proclaimed “It is dangerous. I
am
hungry,
Avara, and I am inexperienced. I do not trust my control given the
circumstances.”

After a moment’s silent contemplation, the Shield Operative leaned
forward. “I don’t see that we have a choice, K’llan; I will not take the risk. I
have faith in you.”

Repressing a betraying shudder of want that flooded through
her despite her best efforts, K’llan stood quickly to her feet and, taking a long
step back, shook her head in negation. “The issue is immaterial anyway,
Captain. You also are starving. I truly believe there is a significant chance that
your body could not withstand the strain given your own current state of
extended depravation, Physical Potency and Vitality Arca or no.”

Seeing the familiar look of stubborn resolve on Avara’s
face, K’llan cut her off, mouth half–open, before the Human could even begin.
“I mean it, Avara. I will not foolishly risk you, either.”

 “Very well, Lieutenant Z’arr. Tomorrow we hunt for me, but
once I am sated, you
will
Feed.”

Looking across the span of distance between them, feeling
her eyes captured by the Captain’s own, K’llan reluctantly nodded. Internally,
she was filled with no more assurance regarding the proposed course of action
than before. Knowing that once Avara was physically capable and no matter the
risk to herself, Captain Serros would refuse to take no for an answer. Not when
she believed, accurately as it happened, that K’llan’s life was held in
balance.

As the two quietly cleaned up, finished their evening tasks
and then retired, K’llan found that sleep would not take her for the entire
eve’s duration. A contributing factor was worry of another attack from the
canine predators, the jakhri, if the two Nova Squad members were correct in their
species identification. Yet the possibility of physical threat was a mere blip
on the sensor grid in comparison to her real fears.

And the desire to Feed that she felt thrumming through her body.

CHAPTER 19

The next morning came without interruption, the two
apparently having given their canine pursuers the slip. Shortly after they
began their trek towards the rock–strewn hillside they had spotted in the far distance
yesterday, there was a shift in the rote modality of the environment and
routine they had grown accustomed to over the past five days.