Alien General's Beloved: SciFi Alien Romance (Brion Brides) (37 page)

True enough, neither of her guards had done more than attempt to bar her way. But they had severely underestimated Lana's will to stay in the fight. The Brion spear had cut right through her jacket and into her stomach. She hoped that the angle she'd chosen had been the right one, avoiding all major organs.

Lana sat on the ground, gasping for air, blood on her hands. One quick look at her guards told her that her gamble had paid off. Both warriors were pale, almost trembling. Having seen how Worgen treated his men, especially the clones, Lana wasn't surprised.

She had to sell her plan now.

"Take me to your healer or whoever you have for that," she said, groaning in pain. "Have them fix me. Your general doesn't need to know. Hurry, it
hurts
."

And again, playing the scared little Terran girl helped. Hearing her words, hope suddenly flared to life on the guards' faces.

Maybe it would be fine. Maybe Worgen wouldn't find out.

Lana had no doubt that he would, but it had been her only way of avoiding getting locked up. As the guards slowly lifted her up—apparently the "no touching" rule didn't apply when she was bleeding—Lana felt absurdly victorious. She knew the Brion healers were amazing, able to fix wounds that would have taken months to heal on Terra in a few minutes.

They stumbled through the dark corridors, feeling the ship work furiously as it fired at the
Claw
. The pain in Lana's stomach was getting worse now that she was moving, but she bit her tongue and tried to suffer through it. The going was slow because of her and all along they heard the alarms blare without pause, signaling that the
Abysmal
was at war.

Reality started to slip away from Lana as her body grew weaker from the wound, but she kept her goal in sights. Escape, help Corden. Save the fleet. Yes, that was it.

Everything was going to be all right.

Lana believed that even when the raw, heavy reek of blood reached her. The guards helping her walk were not so optimistic, it seemed. One of them slowly approached the med bay in front of them, the spear on guard. The other waited a bit farther back with Lana, whose drowsy mind was starting to comprehend that something was wrong.

The fact that the med bay doors were ripped off their hinges should have been a dead giveaway. The guard peeked in and disappeared out of her sight for a long moment before returning, his eyes hateful and concerned at the same time.

"They're all dead," he said, both to Lana and the other clone. "There is nothing left of the bay. Judging by the bodies or what's left of them, I'd say it was the Torons. How did they get on board?!"

"She's dying," the other said as Lana started to drift away. "We have to get her to a healer."

Corden
, Lana thought.
Corden brought the Torons. He's here and I'm dying.

Her plan had backfired miraculously, but Lana no longer had the strength to even be upset. She heard footsteps from afar and so did her guards. They nearly dropped her when the steps sped up into a full-on charge. Lana slid down the wall, watching with heavy lids as her clone guards died at the hands of three attackers.

It took her a while to make out their faces, but she finally recognized them. Corden's new warriors. Lana couldn't remember their names, could barely remember her own. Only Corden's name was true and clear in her mind.

The three approached her carefully, looks of honest despair on their faces.

"Corden..." Lana whispered.

"He's here," one of the three said in a hurry. "So is Worgen. They're both looking for you and the Torons are on the loose. This place is in chaos."

Turning to the others, he added: "We have to get her out of here. She needs help, and fast."

"Down," said one of the others. "There is no other way."

Lana was no longer following the conversation. In her mind's eye, she saw only her
gerion
, on his way to rescue her.

The last thing she felt was one of the warriors picking her up. Lana's head rested on his shoulder as he carried her and the others followed, staying watchful. She tried to stay awake, fearing that if she passed out, there might not be any waking up.

Her strength ran out just as the warriors took a turn and descended down into impenetrable darkness.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Lana

Seconds passed, or maybe an eternity.

Lana woke with a cry and then she kept screaming when a hand closed over her mouth to silence her. After blinking her eyes a couple of times, the darkness began to wash away, revealing a face that she knew.

"Tuven," she breathed. "What happened?
Where am I
?"

A thousand ideas raced through Lana's mind. Everything was a mess and she didn't feel like she could trust her own memory, because all it seemed to give her was nonsense. Did she really willingly run into a Brion spear? Corden had warned her that they were the most powerful weapons in the galaxy, but apparently she didn't listen.

More questions followed. About Corden, about the lack of pain in her stomach. About the darkness around her and the warriors by her side.

Tuven was trying to explain.

"Captain Cormac," he said and Lana heard the raspiness in his voice. "You have to stay calm."

There was something oddly comforting about it, reminding her of the general, although the memory itself wasn't a pleasant one. They'd nearly killed themselves at his command and now Lana was at their mercy. She didn't feel like she was in danger, so Corden must have been right about them.

"Lana," she breathed. "My name is Lana."

The warrior seemed to hesitate, like calling her that was too impolite, but she didn't care. It would speed things up and frankly, she didn't even know if she had a ship anymore. With the
Abysmal
still in battle, what were the chances that the
Flora
was still in one piece?

"I..." she tried. "Tell me."

She didn't have the strength to list everything that she wanted to know, but luckily the warrior understood.

"You are aboard the
Abysmal
, safe and hidden for now," Tuven said. "You were hurt. Do you remember that?"

"Yes," Lana said. "I don't feel anything now."

That was true. She was lying on some sort of a table, everything around her just shapes and shadows in different shades of black. But the pain was definitely gone.

"Did they hurt you?" Tuven asked, an edge of anger in his voice. "The guards you were with."

"No," Lana shook her head, a bit dizzy. "I did that. I wanted an—"

She had to stop because even speaking seemed to be a task for her.

"I wanted an easy injury," she finished. "I wanted to get to the med bay."

Tuven nodded beside her. He was the only figure Lana could properly make out. Other people moved around them, quiet and unseen. Judging by the way their footsteps echoed, they were in a huge room of some kind.

"And when you got there, the bay had been destroyed by the Torons," Tuven concluded. "That was bad luck, but we were able to get you here and your wound has been taken care of."

"Where is
here
?" Lana asked. "I see these shapes, but I can't make anything out."

"Yes," Tuven agreed. "We are deep in the ship where it's dark like this. There is nothing to be done about that. I assure you, you are safe. For now."

"You keep saying that. What is going on?"

"We are not sure ourselves," Tuven shrugged. "All we know is that General Worgen returned."

His voice took on a weird tone when he spoke of his former commander. Lana had never heard anyone speak a name with that much distaste. Her Brionese wasn't the best, but the captain thought the name sounded like
betrayer,
or maybe
deceiver
. Both possibilities seemed fitting. Even she didn't hate the dark general that much, but it made sense. Worgen had made no one suffer like his own men, forever removed from their home and their honor.

"Right after he came back, the
Claw
arrived," Tuven went on. "And then General Corden and the Torons boarded. After General Worgen realized that, he closed the
Abysmal
off. All the landing bays are shut down. Nothing gets in or out. We are all trapped inside."

"I was right," Lana whispered. "He brought the Torons."

"He did," Tuven said. "Now they are fighting all over the ship. We don't know where the generals are, but I'm sure both are looking for you."

"What about the
Flora
?" Lana asked. "And the fleet?"

"We only hear what the intercomm says. There have been no news of any ships being destroyed. So far the
Abysmal
targets only the other flagship."

Okay
, Lana thought, trying to rise up.
So everything isn't lost yet. Just very fucked up.

Sitting up wasn't as easy as she'd thought it would be. Tuven lent her a hand, helping her, but despite going slow, Lana still felt nauseous. It was like every piece of her had been thoroughly shaken apart and then put back together.

"Why am I feeling like this?" she asked, trying to not throw up.

"It's the treatment we gave you," Tuven said. "It will pass. Normally you wouldn't feel a thing, but we had to hurry. The Torons could find this place or General Worgen might send units to look for us here. And those who helped you aren't really healers."

Lana glared.

That is almost like the Terran joke. What's the one thing you don't want to hear after waking up from a surgery? "How are you feeling? Good, that's good. You see, I'm not, technically speaking, a "doctor."

"Explain," she demanded.

"I will give you a bit of light," Tuven said, "you'll see."

Lana watched as the valor squares on the warrior's neck started to glow quietly. She could see Ilen and another warrior standing behind him, their own crystals lighting up too. It took a while for Lana's eyes to get used to the light, but eventually the picture began to clear.

Her mouth dropped open. Before, she had thought the room she was in was huge, but that was not appropriate. It looked like a hollowed-out mountain more than a room. In the dim light, she couldn't even see the edges of the place. Her insides turned. It felt like floating in a dark space with no actual dimensions, no end or a way out.

But it wasn't empty. Rows upon rows of huge tubes filled the dark laboratory as far as the eye could see.

They had brought her to Worgen's clone plantation.

***

Lana stumbled through the lab, feeling the effects of the healing give out slowly. She still felt dizzy and uncoordinated, but like Tuven had said, it was getting better. Soon, she hoped, she'd be back to her normal self. At least her mind was fine and as sharp as always.

The three warriors followed her at a respectful distance. The one she hadn't met before introduced himself as Arben. Lana could see a similar cut on his neck, frowning when she imagined the harsh test that had to be the cause of it.

She couldn't see much, but the valor squares were providing enough light so she didn't run into things at least.

The initial shock had subsided and Lana was already working on a new plan. The wound in her stomach was gone, like it had never been there at all, not even a scar left behind. After hearing it had been the Brion scientists that had healed her, Lana really didn't want to ask if it was normal or they used some of the Palian teachings on her. Since they normally handled the clones, it wasn't out of the question, but she doubted the warriors would have allowed her to be genetically altered.

Considering the alternative had been bleeding to death, Lana took that little gift without question.

"We should get back up there," she said, referring to the active parts of the ship. "You have to help Corden."

The warriors exchanged looks again. Lana felt like she was a puzzle to them, that her ideas didn't make sense to the Brions.

"We would help the general," Ilen said, "but we are sure he would like us to protect you. It is not like he needs protection himself."

"No," Lana agreed with a smile she couldn't fight down. "But I want to know what's going on. And there must be something else you can do."

"The control room is lost," Arben told her. "That was the general's command to us and we did our duty. Only now General Worgen knows and has doubled the guards around it."

Lana heard the same bottomless hate toward the mad general. She listened and thought that although Corden was an infinitely better commander, the three had simply switched one master for another. Like dogs, they trusted Corden to lead them by a leash and were unwilling to do anything without him.

Since he wasn't there, Lana decided that she could make use of them.

"We are going back," she said.

"The general would—"

"The
general
wants to win this and to kill Worgen. We must help. He can't conquer the whole ship alone, can he?"

The looks on the warriors' faces told her they wouldn't have bet against Corden.

Again, Lana felt ridiculous pride, as if it was her that was being praised. With every second, she was becoming more and more like a true
gesha
, who was one with her other half. Perhaps that was the reason she so badly wanted to do something instead of sitting and waiting.

In the meantime, the warriors seemed to have come to a conclusion.

"What do you want us to do?" they asked.

Lana thought. Being a Brion commander didn't come naturally to her, but years of being a captain had taught her to think like a leader at least.

"The
Claw
is out there," she said, the plan coming together in her head. "But it can't fight back because the fleet is in the way. I think we can help."

"How?" Arben asked.

"By opening the landing bays again. At least one of them. That would allow the
Claw
to send help."

"It would also let the Brion units dispatched to the fleet back in."