Finding Jess (First Wave) Read online

  “When she knows they are farther away from her; she actually voices whatever she is trying to tell us. If we got a little closer, we may be able to hear her.” Amun suggested hoping that Niklosi would agree. He needed to hear the sound of her voice. He knew that what she was saying must be important, or she wouldn’t be taking the risk of getting caught. However, that didn’t matter to him nearly as much as just hearing the sound of her voice.

  Niklosi scanned the tree line between where they were and where he figured the best place was to possibly hear what she was saying without alerting the Relians to their presence.

  “Listen to me carefully Amun. We’re going to move along the tree line and see if we can get close enough to hear what she is saying. You stay the hell with me. I mean it. If you make even the smallest of mistakes, you can get all of us, and her killed. I need to know you’ll listen to me and do what I say before we do this.” Niklosi turned Amun around to face him. He searched his face to try to see if he was even listening to him.

  “I do understand Niklosi. I’ll do what you need me to do in order to save her.” Amun was serious, there was nothing he wanted more in any universe than to have her with him and safe. To help her heal, body and soul from whatever horrors she’d been through in her young life.

  Niklosi looked into his eyes for a few more seconds before sighing and bending down so that he could look at Gibly. Around twice the size of an Earth pet cat, Gibly had a thick, soft coat of jet black fur and black eyes that almost looked too large for his face.

  “Gibly, I need you to be as quiet as possible and for you to stay as close to us as you can. Do you understand?” He felt like a complete idiot squatting down and talking to a cat, but he really didn’t have a choice. He just hoped Gibly understood.

  Gibly stood up and put his front paws on one of Niklosi’s bended knees and bowed his head to him. Taking this as a sign that the animal understood, he continued as he stood up.

  “Follow closely, and no matter what happens do what I say.”

  He walked quietly along the tree and shrubbery line with cautious steps, avoiding any obstructions that may give them away and was relieved to see Amun and Gibly doing so as well.

  *****

  “Anything from Balduen yet?” Ivint asked again.

  “No, sir. I think we need to consider sending in a team for him.” Reven suggested, more worried about Balduen the longer they went without hearing from him.

  “What the hell is going on?” Ivint huffed in frustration, running his fingers through his hair.

  “Scaden, assemble a team. Randor, you’re the most familiar with the area…”

  “I’ll get ready now, sir.” Randor said standing up.

  “Father! Get them out! It’s a trap! She’s trying to warn us that it’s a trap!” Cari yelled standing so quickly her chair tipped over behind her.

  “Amalaya, are you sure?” Scaden asked putting his arms around her to calm her.

  “I’m positive! I don’t know anything more than that… I’m sorry. We have to get them out of there, pull them back or something and try a different way to get her.” Cari said emphatically.

  Scaden looked at his father and saw the frustration etched in the wrinkles in his forehead and was grateful that this decision wasn’t his to make. He watched as his father went to open the comm to Niklosi’s team.

  “Sir! We’re being hailed!” A bridge officer shouted through the ship’s comm to the conference room.

  “By who?” Ivint asked startled. Who the hell is in this quadrant?

  “Sir, it’s a Relian battle cruiser!” Was the last thing anyone expected to hear.

  “Get Niklosi out of there NOW!!!" Ivint yelled to Scaden as, he, and Reven ran from the room to the bridge of the ship shouting orders as he went.

  “Initiate Battle Station Protocol NOW! Ready all Tact Teams! Contact our men on planet and put them all on high alert!”

  *****

  Amun could have sworn that it had taken hours to get close enough to hear her, but he knew, in reality; it only took minutes. Her beautiful, almost musical voice was at odds with the seriousness of her words.

  “It’s a trap! They know you’re here. They know you’ve been following them. There are three of them trying to surround your men, you must go!” She repeated the same thing over and over again.

  Amun couldn’t believe how incredible she was. Her full lips were dried and cracked from lack of hydration; it had to be painful to continue trying to speak. Even so, there she was risking her own life to try to warn them. He couldn’t let her continue to put herself through that.

  He started to speak to her when Niklosi slapped a hand over his mouth and glared at him, when Scaden’s voice came over the comm.

  “Get out of there! It’s a trap! Fall back to a safe location and be ready to port if necessary!”

  Unable to speak so he wouldn’t give them away, Niklosi tapped the appropriate response into the comm and pulled his hand-off Amun’s mouth.

  Using hand signals he told Amun that they would stay by Jess and port out if necessary, but he was sending the team away. At Amun’s nod, Niklosi tapped the instructions to his team into the comm and waited for the reply.

  When he knew the team was heading to an alternate location, he turned his attention back to the camp and Jess. She was continuing to repeat her warning, obviously still unaware that they were so close.

  They watched quietly as the largest Relian that had tied Jess to the post moved towards her. Amun tensed as the human looking creature drew closer to her, and Niklosi squeezed his shoulder in a silent warning not to do anything to give away their position.

  Niklosi saw the other two Relians take up defensive positions, their weapons drawn and knew something was about to happen. He slowly drew Amun down to the ground to lie on their bellies in the underbrush, and leaned part of his body on Amun’s. He was relieved when he saw that Gibly had not only lain down with them, he laid on the other side of Amun; on his shoulder.

  He and Gibly ignored Amun’s glares and turned their attention back to the camp and watched the Relian untie Jess and stand her in front of him. Grabbing her roughly by the hair, he pulled her head back and placed a long, sharp blade at her neck.

  Niklosi held tightly to Amun, throwing a leg over him as well in order to keep him from running out there to Jess. After a few minutes when nothing happened, and he made no move to harm her, Amun relaxed a little. He looked up at Niklosi with a confused look on his face, not sure why he was standing there with her like that. He wasn’t calling out to them or harming her with the blade; he was just standing there.

  Niklosi lightly shrugged his shoulders letting Amun know that he didn’t know what was going on either, but was just as curious. He knew this was a setup, which had been very clear with where they had originally put Jess. Jess herself had confirmed that it was a trap. However, he couldn’t figure out what exactly they were doing. It was almost like they were acting out a play; none of it was adding up or making any sense.

  Amun tensed slightly when the Relian bent down and kissed her temple gently and whispered something in her ear. He straightened back up, and faster than they could comprehend, he cut her throat and dropped her to the ground. Walking slowly back towards his other companions they ported out one by one.

  Niklosi jumped up and without thought to where the other three Relians might be, ran to where Jess lay crumpled on the ground. Gibly beat him and Amun to her side by seconds.

  “Where’s your personal med kit?” Amun asked Niklosi as his knees hit the ground by Jess’s head. He already had his kit open and was grabbing a mediband before Niklosi reached his side.

  Niklosi reached into one of his uniform pants pockets and pulled out the kit as he looked down and saw the blood pouring from the wound in her neck. Gibly lay next to her hand on the other side of her, her hand reaching to pet his head a little.

  Niklosi could see her face become paler, her dry lips cracking and bleeding as she tried to s
mile at Amun, who was desperately holding a mediband to her throat in vain. The wound was obviously too great for the Nano technology to repair before she bled to death. With the full med kit with the rest of the team, the bands were all they had, and it wasn’t going to be enough.

  Neither man noticed the small spark of light from her hand.

  Chapter Two

  Everyone in the conference room had followed Ivint onto the bridge and waited while Ivint and Reven had a private conversation. Nodding their heads, they separated and Ivint straightened his shoulders and stood to his full six feet, eleven-inch height, his blue eyes flashing in anger.

  “Open the comm.” He ordered gruffly.

  They watched the image appear on the video screen. Although unable to determine the creature’s height, it was obvious that it was large. It almost looked like one of them with its shoulder length black hair, dark-brown eyes and chiseled features. However, no one was fooled by the normal look of the creature.

  “Ah, High Councilor Torenson I was so hoping that I would be able to speak with you. It makes it much easier to get things done when you can cut out all of the underlings in the middle isn’t it?” The smirk curving his wide mouth made Ivint want to hit him.

  “I don’t have time for your games Kalai T’Alq, what do you want?” Ivint responded, ensuring that his irritation was reflected in the tone of his voice.

  “Well, for one I’d like for you to get your ships out of my galaxy after you get your teams off of my planet and return my property.” Kalai said with another smug smirk.

  “What are you talking about Kalai? Can you try to pull off a semblance of intelligence long enough to make some sense?” Ivint knew that instigating him was not a good idea right now, but he needed as much information as he could get as quickly as possible. Kalai was incredibly vain, and the dig would wound his pride enough to make him say more than he should, giving Ivint an advantage. He hoped.

  “You insolent fool! I will enjoy seeing your arrogance stripped of you!” Kalai’s face flamed red with anger, his face contorted slightly as he lost control of his shifting ability. He visibly struggled for control before finally regaining his sneer.

  “As we both know you are aware, we claimed this planet a long time ago and have retained control. You have placed people on our planet without our permission and killed some of our men. And you have kidnapped one of our slaves. We want our slave back and any bastard she may have born since her captivity with you. Your people are to get off of our planet, and you are to leave this galaxy and not return.”

  “If you do not comply, then we will be forced to consider this a formal declaration of open war. Considering that you have broken even your own laws in doing this, how many of your allies will stay your allies when they know what you have done here?” The gleam in Kalai’s eyes was starting to get to Ivint, and he clenched his fists in an effort to calm his anger.

  “You do not have any formal claim on this planet or their sentient people. Therefore, you have no claim on any person on that planet. Since the inhabitants have formal governments in place you cannot impose your will upon them nor seize control. If you did have control, you would have already opened fire on this ship. Granted, you may have people in place all over the planet, but you control nothing.”

  “Again, I asked you to speak intelligently to me Kalai, not weave childish fantasy stories for me. If this is all you’ve got, then I’m going to have to go, I have adult things to do.” Ivint feigned a nonchalance he didn’t feel.

  “We may not have total control of the planet yet, but we will! And we have enough control right now and enough of the women you need to kill them all if we want to! I’ll give you twenty-four hours to leave the planet and the galaxy or this is what is going to happen to every one of your people on the planet, s with your women and children. Her death is on you.” Kalai fairly screamed the last before the transmission turned to a video of Jess being held by the hair with a knife to her neck.

  Everyone watched in horror as the knife was drawn across her throat, and she was thrown to the ground before the transmission was completely cut.

  “Get me the video from the comm Niklosi placed NOW!!!” Ivint ordered.

  The screen lit up to show Niklosi and Amun bent over Jess’s prone body in the field. Scaden held Cari as she began to sob. Ivint bowed his head with sadness as he listened to Niklosi tell Amun he thought she was gone.

  “Ready the MedLab.” Ivint ordered after hearing Amun say he was going to take her to Adaria, knowing it was useless after seeing the poor girl’s throat cut. He knew Amun would try anyway.

  “Scaden, Randor, Gracus and Reven; I want you all in the conference room.” He didn’t even wait for them to acknowledge his order before storming out of the bridge.

  Scaden handed his sobbing mate over to her great mother before following his father off the bridge to the conference room next door. His father had his back to him as he stared at the image on the video screen of Niklosi and Gibly kneeling over the puddle of Jess’s blood on the ground. What he saw startled him.

  “Yes, sir.” Niklosi replied to the High Councilor’s order.

  Ivint turned to Randor, Scaden and Reven and sat at the table, waiting for everyone else to follow his lead. Once they were seated, he began.

  “This is a tragic day, and we will mourn the loss of our own after she is properly prepared for burial. Right now, we need to concentrate on what we’ve learned and plan our next course of action.”

  “We learned a lot from that idiot Kalai, but not enough. And we need to find Balduen; I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we lost communication with him right before all this happened.”

  “The most important thing we’ve learned is that we do have more women and children on the planet. We didn’t lose them all, thank the Father.” Randor added.

  “Yes, that is wonderful news. Now we need to find them, and we’re going to have a problem with the Relians in doing it. He made it clear that they don’t have total control, and we know that from Randor. If they really were confident of their position with their allies on the planet, they would openly fire on us now. So for some reason they know that it isn’t in their best interest to come out blatantly to the people of the planet. Which works in our favor.” Ivint replied.

  “We will continue trying to contact our lost people on the planet and try to find these women and children. We’ll remain as covert as we were before, but this time we know there is a larger presence on the planet than we thought, and they have allies.” Reven added.

  “Kalai was right about one thing; I need to contact the rest of the council and the alliance.” Ivint said.

  “Why? We’re not violating anything and his claims of ownership on the planet and its people are bogus, and we know it.” Scaden asked.

  “None of them would recognize the Relian claim on any planet, but they need to be made aware of why we will not leave this planet to them even if it means a declaration of open war. We have no idea what impact this might have on their people, and they have to be warned.” Ivint said as Niklosi and Gibly walked into the room.

  “Niklosi, I trust your team is well and back at the original base?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Gibly, it’s nice to see you again. Would you like to tell us all when you began to speak?” Ivint leaned down to ask the small creature as he picked him up and placed him in the center of the conference room table. Ivint ignored everyone’s strange looks at him while Niklosi just smiled.

  “When brave girl made me the pretty.” Gibly said clearly, moving his neck from side to side to show a beautiful collar of green and white gemstones and a gleaming white metal.

  Scaden, Randor and Gracus all stood up in shock and came to look at the collar on the animal.

  “How is that possible?” Gracus asked in awe.

  “I’ve never seen a gift this developed without a mate. I have no idea how powerful she must have been to craft something like this.” Randor said just as s
hocked.

  “Her loss will be felt heavily on us all.” Ivint added sadly.

  “She with Amun.” Gibly said.

  Everyone shook their head sadly as Reven spoke. “She’s gone, my friend. She didn’t survive the wound.”

  “She alive with Amun. She strong and brave girl.” Gibly said confidently.

  Ivint gave him a long look before asking into the comm, “MedLab give me a report of the female’s condition.”

  “Sir, all we know right now is that she’s still alive. We don’t know how, but she’s hanging in there. Amun is still working on her.” A MedLab tech reported.

  “By the One! How is that possible? We all watched him cut her throat open.” Reven asked in surprise. He’d never seen anyone survive such a wound.

  “We’re going to find out. Niklosi, you did a wonderful job. There was nothing you could have done, and you were there faster to her than I could have imagined. We’ll discuss later why you were so close to the female and not your team.” Ivint said with a smile, which let Niklosi know he wasn’t going to get into trouble for not being with his team.

  “Go to MedLab and get me reports on the female’s condition as it changes. Check with the team sent after Balduen as well. I need to speak with Reven and the Council and will join you later.” Ivint said dismissively.

  *****

  Jess couldn’t believe that they had actually followed her. She hadn’t believed Cari when she said that she would come back for her, she’d heard it before from others, and they had always moved before she could be rescued. That’s if anyone had really ever tried. She liked to think that they had.

  She couldn’t see them at all, but she knew they were there. She could feel them. Actually, she could only feel one of them; she just assumed he wasn’t alone. She’d been able to feel him since the day Cari was rescued.

  She couldn’t explain it, but since that day, she’d felt like there was a rescuer of Cari’s that she had somehow bonded with her even though she had never seen any of them. She could swear there were times when it felt like someone was caressing her and sending warm thoughts and feelings towards her.