Hybrid Saga 01 - Hybrid (19 page)

Kern’s wide eyes came up to meet with Sierra’s as he spoke. “Proximity alarm. Someone’s boarded our ship.”

A new, much louder alarm began to sound out, making everyone in the room jump, this one from the hotel itself. The comm system built into the apartment module, as well as those out in the corridor, sang out repeatedly for a few moments before an authoritative voice recording cut in.

“
Attention, residents of living quadrant 121-Alpha. A police patrol is in progress. Please, remain in your living assignments and await further instructions. Thank you for your cooperation
.”

“This isn’t good,” Kern announced, as he and Sierra both stood up simultaneously, removing their sidearms.

“What isn’t good?” Elora demanded, taking hold of Ethan’s arm as she herself stood up. “What’s going on?”

Jarred slowly got up out of his seat, the automated security system continuing to repeat its message over the comm. “I think our friend, the High Commander has arrived.”

“That’s impossible,” Sierra countered, shooting him a look. “How could they know . . .” Her words trailed off as her expression became accusing, and Jarred didn’t have to be a mind reader to know what she was thinking.

“Don’t look at me,” he responded to the unasked question. “If they’d been following us, which they weren’t, they would have had plenty of opportunities to ambush us before now.”

“Unless you were leading them to us,” she implied, her hand drifting back down towards her sidearm.

“If they’d captured Orna in the first place, they could have done that on their own. They wouldn’t need me to do it.” Jarred was sure to remain still and kept his voice calm and unthreatening as he defended himself. “Think about it. They could have just as easily been the ones waiting for you in here. And how could I have led them to your ship?”

Sierra seemed to think about this and Jarred could see her eventually come to the same conclusion, though her mood didn’t improve much as a result. “Either way, they still had to have tracked you here. How else could they have found us?”

Jarred had to admit that she did have a point, but how could he have been followed? He would have noticed if they had been being tracked. That was his business. Plus, the Sect weren’t exactly known for running discreet operations. No, there had to be another explanation.

“There’s no way I was tracked,” he concluded. “Durak isn’t that subtle. I would have seen them coming from a light year away.”

“Well, they’re here, aren’t they?” she retorted.

“Maybe it
is
just a routine patrol,” Kern suggested.

Jarred and Sierra both turned to look at Kern, incredulously.

“It’s possible,” he defended himself.

“And I guess the ship alarm is just a coincidence?” Sierra asked, as she moved towards the door with her disruptor raised, reaching out for the control pad. “We’ve got to get Orna out of here.” She punched the control pad and the door slid open to reveal a number of large Gnolith soldiers with plasma rifles at the ready, snarling back at her. Troops were moving back and forth behind them, securing the halls and other living modules.

Jarred’s growing anger and frustration with the situation had him more than ready to draw arms and unleash fury bolts of super charged energy at the familiar faces through the door, but that wouldn’t get him or anyone else out of here alive. It would probably be best to ride this one out and see where things went. If they were here for Orna, then they might just simply take her and that would be the end of it. Though he didn’t wish the strange being any ill will, he had no intention of sticking his neck out for her . . . again.

There was, of course, the possibility that they could decide to just arbitrarily exterminate everyone in the room and possibly the entire residence, eliminating all witnesses to the account. He had seen it done before, but his instincts still told him to wait.

Besides, if things went the bad way, he could always go back to his first option of burning some holes through a few of these troops before meeting his fate.

*     *     *

Durak was by far, the largest Gnolith Elora had ever seen, a fact that was greatly accentuated as he stood over Orna, glaring down at the much smaller being with a look that she couldn’t quite place, but seemed somewhere between curiosity and disgust. He seemed genuinely intrigued by Orna and yet his distaste for her was obvious, for whatever reason, Elora did not know.

All of the residence’s occupants, impoverished refugees from what she could tell, had been gathered into a large lobby area where they were ident scanned, and now sat huddled in crowded groups, being closely watched by their Sect guards. Once Orna had been identified, it had only taken a few minutes for the High Commander to arrive in person.

Elora noticed another small being, his noseless face, full dark lips and pointed ears identifying him as a Trill, lurking just behind Durak. He was eying the room’s occupants with a look of anticipation that caused a shiver to run up her spine. Her mind flashed back to an image of the bulk freighter that had been at the wasteland outpost, and she suddenly had the uncanny feeling that it and this Trill were somehow connected. What she could be certain of was the fact that he was not part of the military. It was no secret that Trills were, by nature, a greedy, credit oriented race that would sell their own kin if it meant making a profit. The fact that he was here now, in this room packed full of faceless refugees, who no one would miss if they simply disappeared, left a bad taste in her mouth.

Slavery was supposed to be outlawed, but every refugee knew that any law would be overlooked if the price was right, and since no one would miss them, refugees were an obvious target.

The thought of being sold into slavery didn’t sit very well with Elora and her mind began to race with possible ways of Ethan and herself escaping the fate, with their freedom and lives intact. She knew of course that Jarred, the man standing next to her, was their only real hope of making it out with either, but right now he seemed far less occupied with escaping than with observing the interaction between Orna and the High Commander. She turned back to them as well at hearing Durak’s low, rumbling voice as he finally began to speak.

“So,
this
is the elusive
heretic
,” began the High Commander. “I have been looking forward to meeting the infidel who has caused the Gods so much discomfort.” He eyed Orna for a moment, almost skeptically. “Having finally met you, I am curious as to how one so frail could constitute such a threat.” He leaned in to stare at her, menacingly. “You have lead me on quite a chase. I must admit to you that I am most tempted to crush your thin neck now where you stand, but it would seem the Gods have Their own plans for you. You will return to Gaia, where you will bare witness to the coming Awakening, and I shall be present when you are sacrificed in honor of the Gods’ return.”

Durak’s gaze remained on Orna for a long moment before he finally turned to look in Elora’s direction, focusing in on Sierra and Kern who were standing close by. “These are the conspirators?” he asked of an officer standing close by.

“Yes, High Commander,” the officer answered, stepping forward. “They were positively linked to the target vessel given to us by your . . . informant. The officer spared a glance towards the Trill who was still standing behind Durak.

The High Commander glared at Sierra and Kern. “Our interrogators are anxious to meet you. They have many questions about your . . . organization. Questions they will enjoy extracting from you.”

Elora grimaced at what that might imply, but was amazed by Sierra’s look of defiance. If it weren’t for the scores of troops that were spread over the room, she guessed the dangerous looking woman would be trying to claw the Gnolith’s eyes out.

“What of the rest?” Durak asked, his gaze falling on Elora, where Jarred and Ethan also stood.

“The female and child are tagged refugees, like the others here,” the officer answered.

“And this one?” the High Commander prodded, his harsh eyes falling on Jarred.

“His scan identified him as a bounty hunter.”

Elora felt like a small child as Durak took a step in her direction to stand in front of Jarred, and she pulled Ethan in close to her. Somehow, the massive Gnolith seemed to grow even larger. She couldn’t imagine how Jarred felt as the High Commander glared down at him, dwarfed like everyone else in the room. Suddenly the possibility of escape, even
with
Jarred’s help, seemed to evaporate before her.

“A bounty hunter?” Durak echoed, eyeing Jarred curiously.

“His hunting permit is legitimate, sir,” the officer replied, responding to Durak’s unasked question.

Durak kept his eyes locked on Jarred. “The Hunters’ Guild’s services have been greatly beneficial to us in the past. We could have used them here.” Durak leaned in closer to Jarred and his voice became a rumbling growl. “You are the one who evaded us on the Soltan moon . . . aided the heretic in her escape . . . killed my soldiers and destroyed my ships? You have caused me a great deal of aggravation, bounty hunter.”

For a long moment, it looked as if Durak would kill Jarred with his own hands, when another of his officers approached and saluted, waiting to be acknowledged.

Durak’s gaze stayed on Jarred. “What is it, lieutenant?”

“Sir,” the lieutenant began. “Communique from the command station. Your
guests
have arrived and . . .
request
your immediate presence.”

Durak’s expression darkened as he seemed to gaze off, straight through Jarred at nothing in particular, and Elora noticed only the faintest of facial twitches as his lip curled up into a snarl. Finally, he spun around and marched back towards his officers and the Trill, barking orders as he went.

“Take the heretic and conspirators to my command ship,” he demanded. “And prepare my shuttle. I will go to meet with our
guests
. I won’t have them claiming responsibility for this capture.” He stared down at the Trill.

“You will accompany me.” It didn’t seem to be a request.

“What of the others, sir?” the officer from earlier asked.

“Traug can take them,” Durak began, glancing briefly at his officer before returning his gaze to the Trill. “Along with the rest. To compensate in full for his services.”

Elora suddenly went cold at the statement and she realized that her suspicions about the nature of the mysterious Trill, Traug the High Commander had called him, were correct. She immediately turned to Jarred for some sign of reassurance that he had a way out of this. He had to have a plan of some sort. He
had
to. Jarred looked back at her, but she received none of the reassurance she sought.

“And the bounty hunter?” the officer inquired of the High Commander.

Durak glanced over his shoulder at Jarred. “Kill him,” he ordered dismissively, turning to leave the room.

Elora looked up at Durak, her eyes widening at the order, and watched in horror as the officer took a step forward, drew his sidearm and fired. She turned in time to see Jarred fall backwards from the blast and crumble to the ground beside her, motionless, steam rising from the black scorch mark on his chest, accompanied by the nauseating smell of burned flesh.

Everything seemed to slow down as Durak and his officers marched from the room, soldiers stepping forward to round up the terrified refugees that filled the lobby, their cries of despair a distant echo in her ears. She stared down in disbelief at the man who had been her rescuer and was suddenly overtaken by despair.

Jarred was gone, and with him, any hope she had of survival.

Chapter 11

Sierra’s blood was boiling.

How could the Sect have uncovered their mission? They had planned every detail of the operation meticulously for months after being contacted by Orna. It was coordinated in total secrecy, only the highest levels of their intelligence faction being involved. Kam and Meera, two of their best operatives, had been chosen to bring Orna out from deep within the Sect infrastructure, traveling discreetly as refugees. They would change refugee freighters at numerous ports, all prearranged, to finally rendezvous with Kern and herself here, where they would complete the extraction.

She and Kern had been tracking Kam and Meera’s movements since having first set out, confirming each freighter’s departure and arrival as scheduled. Everything seemed to be going as planned and yet somehow they had been ambushed. At first, she had thought Jarred may have been involved, leading the Sect here and using Orna to draw Kern and herself out, but now he was dead, which suggested his story was true.

According to his account, the freighter Kam and Meera were supposed to arrive on had apparently broken down and landed short of Solta, on Isyss. Obviously, the Sect had orchestrated the early landing, since that was where they had attempted their first capture of Orna, which meant they hadn’t discovered the plot until then, otherwise they would have sprung their trap sooner.