Hearts of Ishira (Hearts of Ishira Saga) (23 page)

“Perhaps,” Hunter said thoughtfully. He opened the bag he’d found, and looked at the items within. “There is a similar one in here, I think, along with what appears to be one of their books, and maybe some personal items?”

“We should collect it all and take it back,” Trey said, looking at the tiny box in his palm. “I am sure that the women would like to have their things back… if these indeed belong to our women.”

“I do not think that the slavers were the types to particularly enjoy these shades of pink,” Hunter said sardonically. He wondered if Trey had noticed his absent use of the possessive when he spoke of ‘their’ women. “When we return to the compound, get Bev involved with archiving all their data and start translating theirs to ours, ours to theirs, so that all have access.”

“Aye, sir,” Trey said.

Jogging back to the last set of guards, Hunter quickly ordered a systematic search of the forest surrounding the crash zone, then headed toward the ship itself, hoping to find something more useful. Trey fell in behind him automatically, as did Trey’s team, to offer protection for their leader. Hunter waited a moment, as the team entered the ship and determined that it was safe for his entry.

He and Trey made their way first to the command center of the ship, but if there had been any power to the vessel, it had long since shut down. There was a tremendous amount of damage and there were the partial remains of two dead alien bodies crumpled against the bulkheads. Still, Hunter thought as he looked around, there were many elements that might be useful to his computer experts.

“Can we use any of this?” he asked.

Trey looked around thoughtfully, then nodded.

“I will need to bring several of my teams and a few of the engineers from working on our ship to help dismantle the components safely, but we should be able to integrate these systems into our own.” He nodded toward a plaque bolted to the wall. Hunter followed the nod, his eyes widening, along with his grin.

“It is written in Universal.”

“Yes,” Trey agreed, excited. “If the plaques and signs are any indication, there is a good chance that the computers also have a Universal translator. If so, we should be able to salvage much information from these data banks, as long as the storage systems are intact. And if that is so, the slavers might also already have adapted their systems to the girls’ devices. We might be able to translate their data much more quickly than we could, otherwise.””

Hunter nodded. “You start looking through this area. Use as many men as you need to dismantle and transport,” he told Trey. “I will see what else I can find.”

Exiting the bridge, Hunter sent one of Trey’s warriors waiting there, Erik, to help Trey, then had Rom follow him to the next area of the ship. He heard Trey give the orders to remove the dead bodies for Jace’s examination, and moved on, content that the younger man had things under control.

The crew quarters held nothing of interest, but there were several cargo holds with various fabrics, shelf-stable standard long-range travel food, and other trade goods that would definitely be useful. He thought of the women back at the compound and their borrowed tunics or medical gowns, and decided that the bolts and packets of material would be his first priority. He had to get the girls covered before his warriors became too distracted to properly see to the colony and its safety.

Trusting Rom to arrange the immediate transport of the cloth and for later transport of the rest of it, Hunter moved further into the damaged fuselage of the ship. When he moved through a broken airlock and into a tiny room, his Reader senses came alive with the residual terror and trauma of the area. He stopped and stared around the room, opening himself to the energy left from kidnapped beings that had been held here. He shuddered at the influx of horror and despair and quickly shut himself off from the energy, throwing up the mental shields he had learned to build at a very young age. Forcing himself to the task at hand, he walked slowly through the chamber.

Here there were many of the tubes like the broken ones that had littered the crash site. They were all empty now, but the glass shielding them was remarkably undamaged in this section of the ship. It took only minutes to organize a salvage operation for the glass and anything else useful, though Hunter realized that this was going to be a much larger job than he’d originally anticipated. Good. It would give the men something to do besides stand around and watch the women. He would have to send for more of his men, as well as additional wagons and mounts, to bring back so much salvaged material. He would also have Ri ask that any of her women who wished to help come along on the salvage operation. She had mentioned that most of them were in ‘college’, and from the meaning he’d gleaned from her mind, that meant that they were at least of above-average intelligence. Perhaps there were a few that would find such a job to their tastes. And it would provide another way for the girls to interact with the men. Nothing integrated groups of people faster than having a common goal to work toward.

On the other hand, he was personally frustrated that he would have to wait for even a day longer to spend more time with Arianna. If he came back here to supervise the salvage, he could be out here for several days. Growling at the necessity for that, Hunter left the ship to give new orders to the men.

In only a few hours, they managed to find quite a bit of debris that appeared to belong to the girls, rather than the slavers. At least, he thought so. The energy coming from each item led him to think it belonged to the humans, and even gave him an idea of which of the girls some of the things belonged to.

“Commander,” one of Trey’s men, Erik, jogged up, handing his leader a large bag that was quite different from the others that had been found. Most of the other bags had uniformity to them, almost as though the girls had meant to have matching totes. Frowning, Hunter took the bag and turned it around. A pocket on the front of the bag held small, slick cards, one of which had a picture of Arianna on it. He couldn’t understand the writing on it, of course, but this must be her pack. He quickly looked through it, finding more electronic devices, plugs, and cables, as well as other items whose purpose baffled him. He’d have to ask her.

Hunter smiled to himself as he and the men headed back to the compound. He had another good reason to spend more time with his little warrior.

Arianna woke to a weight on her chest. She could barely breathe. It felt like something was holding her down. Her eyes popped open in surprise and a wee bit of panic, but having learned her lesson in the forest several days ago, she lay perfectly still until she could figure out what was happening.

She felt
things
breathing all around her, pressing close to her body. Very slowly, without moving, she rolled her eyes toward her chest. She squeaked at the sight of the big fluff-ball sitting there, wiggling its nose at her. She sensed no danger from the creature, just curiosity and a demand for attention. She moved her hand, which was covered by another of the creatures. Soft! Oh, so very soft! Their fur was fluffy and softer than angora or alpaca from back home. The thing on her hand chattered, then settled into a rhythmic thrumming not unlike that of a cat, though the thing on her chest looked more like a rabbit to her. Kind of a rabbit crossed with a squirrel, crossed with a chinchilla.

“Well, hi!” she breathed at the thing on her chest, relaxing and smiling at it. It stepped closer to her face, wiggling its nose as it sniffed at her mouth, her chin, her nose. She opened herself to it, allowing it to sense that she was no threat. Its many whiskers tickled. Giggling, she unearthed her right hand and tentatively stroked the thing. Her fingers sank through the fur, finding that its body was actually fairly small. But the fur was long and thick and fluffy. Very carefully, she moved to sit up, but the creatures surrounding her body chittered at her, sending out vibes of sleepy annoyance at being moved.

“I need to sit up,” she told them, sending out images of her in a sitting position, but still with the critters around her. Reassured that they weren’t being ousted from her bed, the things moved a bit. Arianna couldn’t prop herself up. Softly, not wanting to scare the little fluff-balls, she called out for one of the warrior-medics standing guard at the door. The one that turned at her call was Jace, who grinned when he saw her dilemma.

“I see the kimis have found you,” he said. Offering him a smile, she nodded.

“They must know a push-over when they sense one, I guess,” she said ruefully. He nodded.

“You need assistance?”

“I just want to sit up a bit, so I can lavish some attention on these fur-balls. You call them kee-mees?”

“Aye,” Jace said, quickly and efficiently helping her to sit up and propping her against the pillows. “The
kimi
was a treasured house pet back on our home world, valued for its soft fur and sweet disposition. These animals are even softer and have a touch of empathic abilities, which makes them wonderful pets, especially for the convalescing.”

“They’re so precious!” Arianna exclaimed softly, gently picking up the one that had been on her chest and hugging it to her. It chirred softly and thrummed beneath her stroking hands, happy.

“They also shed like mad,” Jace grinned as she looked at her hand in surprise. There was a nice little handful of the long fluff in her palm and stuck to her fingers. “It’s why we allow them the run of the place. They tend to lose little puffs of fiber as they go about their business. We pick them up, save them, and use them for various things. If these have adopted you for now, I’ll get you a small basket to collect the fur. We’ll need it, come winter.”

Arianna wished she had her hand spindle. She’d sit and spin the fluff from these little guys all day. Ah well. Perhaps when she was allowed to get up and move around more, she could make one for herself.

“Thanks,” she told Jace as he reached into his pocket for something.

“It is no trouble,” he assured her, smiling softly. “
You
are delightful to help. Not at all like your companions over there.”

His lip curled at the other girls who’d been stuck in the dorm with her. Amy and Alicia were, indeed, difficult patients, demanding this and that, instead of simply asking. They were the types that would have been popular back on an Earth college campus, and they knew it. While Amy was constantly throwing snide remarks Ri’s way, at least she hadn’t tried anything else since they’d been in the bunkhouse.

“I am doing my best to get them well enough to not have to deal with them any longer,” he growled, low enough for only Arianna to hear. She chuckled. He pressed a syringe to her arm, making her yelp softly and glare up at him. He winked at her. “Another booster of the nanos and some pain-killer.”

“At this rate, I’m going to sleep for a week!” she complained.

“That is the idea,” Jace told her cheerfully. “The more you rest, the more quickly you’ll heal, and then you can get out and see our world.”

She grumbled at him. He simply grinned at her and winked. She sighed. He was so cute when he was in this mood. It positively melted her heart.

He tested her leg. It was still very sore and she instantly decided that she had no immediate plans to use it for anything. Fortunately, the pain-killer was quick to minimize the twinges from his poking and prodding. He then wrapped his big hands around her ribs, very lightly manipulating his fingers to see how she was healing. Leaning back, he shook his head. “The nanos have much to repair in you. I wish that the rest of the translators would come online so we could get you back to the infirmary. I’d really like to have you closer to hand, so that I can keep track of how you are healing.” He winked again, his gaze going wicked. “Or my quarters. I could take very good care of you in my quarters.”

She laughed. “I’m sure you could!”

Ri Looked up at his face and realized that his eyes were still on her chest. Looking down, she saw that the neck of her gown had slipped, revealing the shadowy valley between her breasts. She blinked. What was wrong? He was staring at her in a decidedly unprofessional way again. When her eyes cut back up to his face, he had the decency to blush. He gave her a sheepish grin.

“Has anyone mentioned how long it has been since any of us have seen women?” he asked softly. She felt her face go up in flames and tugged the blanket up to her armpits.

“Maybe I should have some real clothes?” she asked pointedly. He chuckled. Then she blushed even harder. “And… a bathroom?”

“Ah, nature calls,” he said, rising to his feet. With a little chitter of his own, Jace seemed to tell the kimis to move, then picked Arianna up in his arms when they obeyed him. She blinked, startled that they were so smart, but even more surprised at his use of mental energy to make it happen. Hunter had said he was the only one with Reader abilities among the men. Did he not sense his own second-in-command? She would have to remember to ask him about that, when she saw him again.

Jace carried her over to the bathroom, setting her right on the toilet. Since she hadn’t been given any sort of underpants, that just expedited the process. She couldn’t meet his eyes as he left the little room, closing the door behind him. She did her business as quickly as she could, then called out softly that she was done. When he opened the door, she was standing, no longer on the toilet. A girl had her dignity, after all. He arched a brow at her, but picked up on her embarrassment and chuckled. Then he wordlessly held out a piece of material. She took it. It was a fresh medical gown, but longer than the one she was wearing now. More of a loose, open tunic, really. Short, it came to just the middle of her thighs. And of course, it closed in back, like all hospital gowns seemed to.