Alien Mercenary’s Destiny by Mina Carter
12
“I can’t believe we have to wear these fucking things,” Red subvocalized as she and Zad held position behind the princess while she gave her talk. The sound was outside the range most humanoids could hear, but she easily picked it up. It was a new revelation, one that pleased her. At least she and Red could communicate without anyone else realizing.
“Not the worst thing I’ve had to wear.”
She caught Red’s eye and gave a small shrug. She wasn’t lying. They were at least wearing skinsuits beneath the skimpy ceremonial armor, and she’d heard Merry arguing bitterly that her bodyguards should be wearing tactical gear like all the others rather than some male nerd’s wet dream fantasy. Kaler hadn’t budged an inch, insisting it was protocol and he could reassign a couple of his own people to the role instead. It was enough to make Merry back down, even if she had mumbled something about shit changing when she became queen. The determination and venom behind the words were enough to make Zad bite back a smile even though she didn’t want to like the princess at all. Not when she was so tiny, pretty and above all… a scientist.
During the talk there had been no trace of the bouncy, starstruck fangirl at all. The diminutive princess-cum-scientist had been all business, and she obviously knew her stuff. The other scientists and professors in the room nodded with interest at several points.
The kind of female Eric would probably prefer, she thought bitterly. One who didn’t hiss. One who wasn’t an animal.
Shoving those thoughts away, she swept her gaze over the other summit members. They were all prominent scientists or galactic leaders, each with their own bodyguard pairs like her and Red. Even though there had been credible threats against the princess speaking here, it was hard to see how they were going to carry such threats out. Security was higher than a damn Pelv with a hoard of script. Or a hive queen with her only daughter… her own mother excepted of course. She and Red were here in the chamber with Merry and the other Warborne stationed just outside. They even had the Sprite on backup, cloaked and concealed beneath Merry’s flagship.
“Gods, if I’d known it would be this boring,” Red grumbled. “I would have stuffed one of the guys in a dress and sent him in here.”
“Yeah?” Zad snorted in amusement. “I don’t think any of them would take kindly to that.”
Red sniggered. “Nope, but it would be fun. Wouldn’t it? Sparky would look awesome in a dress.”
Zad tilted her head, considering the idea. The lean human had less muscle mass than the rest of the Warborne, but humans seemed to have some very specific ideas about gender expression. “I’m not sure… he doesn’t seem the type.”
Amusement lit Red’s eyes as she looked around the room, still vigilant despite their conversation. “Yeah… he totally is. Just wait until you get to know him a little better.”
“Is that wise?”
“Probably not. No. Or there’s Fin. I can get him to do whatever I want.”
Zad slid a look sideways at the other female. The slightest of edges had crept into her voice, but her expression was calm and level. She might have been new on the crew, but even she’d picked up on the tension between the two. She left it a few seconds and then changed the subject.
“How long have you been on the Warborne crew?”
“Since I was big enough to hold a wrench. T’Raal had me on the engineering crew. Then when he was confident I could hold my own in battle, I became a full member of the team.”
“He’s… you guys aren’t an item. Are you?” Zad blurted out the question and then winced. “Sorry, that was rude. You don’t need to answer that.”
Red rattled in amusement, the first time Zad had heard her make a Krynassis-type sound. “Fuck no, we’re not. T’Raal practically brought me up. He was my mom’s friend. Or rather, his mom was my mom’s friend. When my mom was attacked, she went to them for help.”
Zad nodded. She didn’t need help reading between the lines. Red was half Krynassis, which meant that no Latharian clan would accept her. They would have cast both mother and baby out.
“Your mom was very brave,” she admitted. “No offense but not many females would have kept a half-breed baby.” The galactic orphanages were full of them, usually males and always angry.
“My mom was amazing.” Red smiled and Zad breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn’t taken offense. She’d never met another female of her own race, apart from her mom, and that relationship wasn’t anything to boast about.
She settled back on her heels, hands in the small of her back. At least they could talk to each other in here. It would make the time pass more quickly, and besides, it would help to get to know her teammate better. She’d need to get other friends now whatever it was she’d had with Eric was over.
Pain sliced through the center of her chest. She winced and ignored it. There wasn’t anything she could do about it anyway. He’d gotten his kicks with her but now she knew how he felt, that wasn’t happening again. No way. No how. She would rub along as well she could on missions, but yeah… that was as far as it went.
“Don’t let it get to you,” Red said softly.
Zad glanced her way. “What?”
“What Eric said. About hissing. Humans are fucking weird.”
Zad grunted. “You’d better not be about to tell me I should let him off because humans aren’t used to being civilized and dealing with other cultures?”
“Fuck no!” Red’s voice was warm with amusement. “Make him fucking grovel and apologize. Just… don’t let it get to you. Okay? If he has a problem, it’s a him thing, not a you thing.”
She didn’t want to talk about it, so she didn’t. Red kept watching her for a moment and then shrugged and returned her attention to the summit room.
“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your attention,” Merry concluded her presentation with a wide smile, bringing both Red and Zad back to attention. They both straightened up, flanking the princess as she made her farewells and walked from the room.
“I think that went well. Don’t you?” Merry turned a wide smile on them both the moment the door to the chamber closed behind them and they stepped out into the public lobby.
It was the worst thing she could have done. The half-second’s distraction as the little princess bounced in front of them was enough to take Zad and Red’s attention off their surroundings. An electric charge in the air warned them a half-second before they were attacked. Zad grabbed the princess, turning her back as the air around them filled with energy bolts. Her armor flared into life, two shots rebounding off the diamond-like scales.
“Contact!” Red roared over the team’s comms as the two of them hauled ass, Merry tucked under Zad’s arm like a living, breathing warball. They raced toward a group of tables into cover, Red firing at the bolts holding one of them to the floor so she could kick it over.
Zad’s heart pounded as they all slid behind it. Instantly she was up on one knee, firing back, as was Red, the princess safely between them. She squeaked and curled into a small ball with her hands over her ears. Zad grunted in approval. Someone, somewhere, had taught the princess what to do in the event of an attack. Namely whatever the vaark she was told by her bodyguards.
Zad risked a peek over the top of the table, immediately ducking down again when the air where her head had been filled with bullets and energy bolts. Fuck, they were using combination weaponry. It didn’t matter. One look had been enough.
“Exfil is blocked,” she told Red as she checked the power level on her pistols. “Two groups, one at ten o’clock and another at one. I think they’ve got a sniper on the higher level as well.”
Red nodded, her finger against the skin under her ear as she keyed into their team’s comms. “Ladies, some help here would be appreciated. If it doesn’t cut into your schedules, of course.”
“Where are they?” Zad hissed, leaning out of cover and rattling off several rounds to keep their enemies from moving closer.
“Not a clue.” Red’s expression was tight as she copied Zad’s actions on the other side of the table. Between them they could keep their attackers from advancing, but they were pinned down and couldn’t move. “They should have been right out here.”
“Any reply?” she asked as a heavy volley of rounds slammed into the other side of the table, sparking off the top edge just above them.
Red shook her head. “Comms are jammed. I can’t get through to them.”
“Crap… suggestions?”
All their options rolled through Zad’s mind. It was a distressingly short list with very shitty options. They could stay where they were and die. She and Red were armed, but there were more of them. At some point the two of them were going to run out of ammunition and then their opponents would be able to move in.
The other option was to make a move now. But with two of them and a noncombatant VIP, that was a risky proposition.
Red frowned, tension rolling across her broad shoulders. “We’re going to make a move for the north door.”
Zad blinked. It was the nearest to them and the only clear route without a vaark-load of furniture bolted to the floor in the way, but they had a lot of ground to cover to get to it, across the main hall.
“There’s no cover,” she argued. “We’re not going to make it in one run, and my armor won’t hold long enough to protect the princess.”
Red grinned widely, showing the tiny fangs at the corners. “We’re going to make our own.”
Aiming her pistol at one of the trestle legs on the table, she blew it clean off and then turned to grab the other one, the hard muscles in her arms and shoulders bulging.
“I carry, you keep those assholes off us,” she ordered. “Princess, you wanna stay alive, then keep the fuck up. Understand?”
Merry nodded, her eyes wide in her face. “Got it. Absolutely.”
“Got it,” Zad murmured, checking her power packs and nodding she was ready.
Red grunted and lifted the table, Merry and Zad scooting around so they were behind her. Red and green laser fire lit up the air, slamming into the door and walls behind them. Alarms shrieked and Zad suddenly realized they’d been going off all along.
She moved with Red, impressed by the woman’s lifting capacity. That table had to weigh half a ton, but Red hefted it like she hauled krantor heifers around all day every day. Zad scooched down under the edge, keeping up a steady stream of return fire as they made their way toward the north door.
Before they were even halfway across the distance, though, it opened and another group piled through it. For a moment Zad thought that was it, that the rest of the Warborne had finally realized something was off and come to find out what was going on. That hope was dashed as the newcomers turned their fire on them instead.
“Fucking hell!” Red dropped the table to slam into the marble floor in front of them and snatched her pistols out of their holsters to fire back furiously.
Zad dropped into cover, clicking the release on her power pack and loading another. Merry sheltered next to her, the smaller female shaking like a leaf.
“Who are these assholes? And where the fuck are the rest of the guyssss?” the half-Krynassis mercenary hissed in annoyance. “Even with the comms down, they should have figured out something was wrong by now. Especially with the comms down.”
Zad shook her head. “No idea.”
She was too new on the team to have had her comms implant fitted yet and the unit behind her ear was way too old to… Her eyes widened. “Do you know much about the TX-1700 comms units?”
Red arched an eyebrow, aiming and dropping the assholes firing at them methodically. Even Zad was impressed. “Older unit. Stable but obsolete, not used anymore. Pity, because it has a wider range of frequencies than the newer models.”
Zad’s mood picked up. “You mean like frequencies this lot won’t be blocking?”
“Potentially, yeah. Why?” Red asked, distracted by searching out the sniper on the upper level. A light went off in her eyes, and she jumped up out of cover and fired in one smooth movement. She heard a scream and a second later a body fell from the upper level. Zad tried hard not to relish the sickening thud as he hit the floor. He’d been trying to kill them. She didn’t have any sympathy for a being like that.
“Will your… our team be monitoring those frequencies?” Zad answered a question with a question and tried not to hold her breath in hope.
“Zero will. If it’s digital, electronic or if any type of sensor anywhere can pick it up, he’ll notice it. Why?” she asked, looking over her shoulder. “You got a plan?”
Zad nodded. “Maybe.”
