Prime Selection (27 page)

“Then why hasn’t one of the creatures eaten through this one?” Nadia asked.

“Maybe they didn’t need to.” Bre looked around. “If their major diet is mineral-based, they have a whole planet to eat.”

“Too true.” Nadia with Bre by her side retraced her steps. A grinding noise above them had them looking at one another and then up. Cracks appeared in the rock ceiling and widened at a rapid pace, sending a shower of dust and rocks on them. A hot smell of acid eating at rock permeated the air.

Holy hell!
Nadia froze for a split second, but it seemed like an eternity. Her primitive brain forced her to move. She shoved Bre in the opposite direction and followed him. She yelled between labored breaths into her com unit. “Get everyone … out of the tunnels …

and caves … now! There are still live creatures down here.” They raced through the main tunnel and headed for the exit to the surface.

“Nadia! You’re in danger?”

Nadia had sensed Huw’s mental touch riding on the surface of the walls she’d constructed to keep him out. The shock of the creature eating through the tunnel ceiling, and her resulting gut-wrenching fear, had demolished her iron control. Her shields were down and Huw was inside instantly.
“Can’t deal with you now, Huw.”

Huw remained silent inside her head, but his male energy rushed to supplement her own cortisol and adrenaline cocktail.

Behind her and Bre, more rocks fell as the jagged opening in the ceiling widened.

Bre hung back, his weapon at ready, covering her ass.

Still running, Nadia looked over her shoulder. “Stop being a macho Prime. Get a move on! That’s an order, mister!” She had her laser pistol in hand with the power set as high as it would go. “We leave together or not at all. If it comes after us, aim for the head.”

“Yes, sir.” Bre sprinted to close the distance between them.

Both of them looked over their shoulders frequently. It was hard to see if anything pursued them due to the cloud of dust emanating from the hole in the tunnel ceiling.

“Not too far to the entrance cave now, I see light.” Nadia took a precious moment to pull her facemask down. The surface couldn’t sustain oxygen-breathers for long. Bre did the same. When they hit the surface, they’d have to hoof it until they reached their team.

Safety in numbers and higher firepower.

“Aeron!” she yelled into her com unit.

“Yes, Nadia.” Aeron’s voice was calm, but she heard the tension underlying it. “How can we help? Z’es and his teams are ready to enter and…”

“No! Keep everyone out. Take a head count. I don’t want anyone underground. Be ready with the chemical grenades. I want to fire this thing up if he follows us out.”

The chemical grenades would react with the acid in the worm and burst into flames; at this point, she wasn’t a scientist interested in examining a potential new species. She was a very scared human not wanting to take a chance at the creature snacking on her teams.

“Commander, it’s following us. I see flashes of glowing skin among the detritus.”

Bre’s words were breathy from exertion, but his aura was calm. Her geological engineer was one cool customer. “It seems to be smaller than the dried hulks we found.”

“I don’t care.” Nadia huffed as she climbed the last few steps to get out of the tunnel and into the large entry cavern to the complex. “It’s a dead baby. I hate snaky, wormy creatures. And it’s not safe to keep one alive.”

“Agreed, Commander.” Bre picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. “I can run faster and the baby is slithering along too rapidly.”

“God!” Nadia’s breath came out in gasps as she bumped up and down on Bre’s shoulder.

“Nadia. Bre is touching you. Why?”

“Not now, Huw!”
What a time for Huw to pick to be jealous. As if he had any right to be after the way he’d treated her.

Fear froze her next breath as she spied the creature chasing them and closing the distance. Man, that worm was fast. Huw’s mental energy forced her to breathe since she seemed to have forgotten how.

Even if the pseudo-worm was a young one, the creature was still huge—and it was intelligent. She sensed its emotions. It read as hungry. Its mouth gaped and its body glowed a black green under the artificial lighting of the cavern. The worm left a trail of slime, which vaporized the rock floor. Its teeth dripped the same goo.

Ooh, ick!
A phantom hand stroked her hair, imparting comfort as Huw’s male energy calmed her stomach.

Placing her free hand on Bre’s ass, she braced herself and raised her laser weapon.

She placed three strong blasts into the spot between the worm’s nasal slits. Most living creature’s brains were centrally located in the heads. Most head shots usually did the job.

But not this time.

“Shit! It’s still coming.” Nadia yelled as they broke onto the surface.

Z’es’s security teams were there to meet them. They let loose with their laser rifles.

“Aim for head,” she shouted. “Get some men to the side and attempt to sever the head from the body. We’re too close to use the grenades.” And the creature moved too fast to put enough space between them and it.

Ten men and women shot at the worm, but it still slithered its way across the surface, literally eating up the ground as it came.

Bre reached their ground transports and tossed Nadia into the driver’s side. She scooched across the seat and he hopped in behind her. Breathing heavily, they watched as the security team blasted the creature’s head from its body. The body sans head continued to move forward. The head wiggled and squirmed where it had fallen.

“Shit!” Nadia knew such things happened, but she had never seen it before. “Z’es!

Be careful. The creature is dangerous as long as its main nerve stem is synapsing. Do not touch it or its slime trail. The acid is strong enough to dissolve granite on touch.”

“Yes, Commander Nadia.” Z’es walked toward the head, but stopped at a respectful two meters away. “The head seems to track me. It’s using its sense of smell to track us.

What should we do? Can it regenerate its body?”

Aeron had come to stand by the vehicle in which she and Bre sat and replied in Nadia’s stead. “I would say yes. We have sea worms on Cejuru Prime that can regenerate their bodies as long as their head is alive and their main neural system is mostly intact.”

Nadia nodded. “Do we have pictures, Aeron?”

Aeron stifled a chuckle. “My astrozoologist recorded the mad dash you and Bre made. She was so excited, we have not only images, but also video.”

“Good. Z’es … get everyone back and blow the head with the chemical grenades. I want the head vaporized. We’ll vaporize the body once we get skin and tissue samples.

We need to analyze the acid—if we can find a container to store it.” She wouldn’t allow anything on the ships that might endanger the crews.

“Gladly, Commander.” Z’es gave the order and his team retreated.

The creature’s head swiveled on the ground. It had already begun growing a new body. For a split second she could read its thoughts, its intent. It wanted to eat the tasty bipeds; it and its brethren had eaten the others—the Lost Ones—in the past.

Nadia shook off the empathic connection. “God, Z’es. Kill the damn thing. It’s going to make an attempt to go for one of you.”

Z’es took the chemical grenade launcher and aimed. The creature raised its head and acid dripped from its teeth, sending caustic gasses rising from the ground.

The shot was a direct hit to the head. The grenade exploded. A localized chemical reaction emitted flashes of bright green and white light and an almost instant incineration.

Once the smoke cleared, all that was left of the creature’s head was a dark greenish-black dust, which began to eat a crater in the granite ground.

“
Ansu bhau
!” Aeron turned a shocked look at Nadia and then back to the rapidly growing crater. “That is some strong acid. The grenade should’ve burned it up. The fact we have ash is amazing.” The chemi-grenades usually left residue so minute it became dust motes floating in the atmosphere. “Maybe we should take a reading and not try to carry any of it to the ships. I would be afraid of the acid making holes in the ship’s hull.”

“We’re on the same page, Aeron. Do it.” Nadia swallowed hard. God, that creature had been one of her worst nightmares. Aftermath hit and she trembled, a full-body set of shakes that if she’d been standing would’ve taken her to the ground. Nausea threatened to overwhelm her.

A cool wind swept through her mind and calmed her.
“Nadia! Are you okay?
Lubha
,
answer me! … answer me. Let me know you’re all right.”

Huw’s mental shouting was fear-filled and most shocking … caring. Loving.

He’d called her
lubha
?
Now he gets it?

Well … he would have to wait for her response. She was busy and still needed to deal with her emotions from encountering the worm creature … ugh! Plus, she was mad at Huw. She couldn’t believe the arrogant asshole. She’d endured weeks of his muleheadedness and to be honest, she didn’t trust Huw’s sudden about-face and wasn’t quite sure how to respond. She needed time to think. What she did and said to Huw next would set the tone for the future of their relationship … because his mental touch today had proven beyond a shadow of a doubt there was a bonding.

Nadia slapped her shields back up and used her com unit to contact the
Galanti
.

Huw would hear her and know she was all right. She didn’t want him to worry whether she was okay or not—but until she decided how to handle him, she wouldn’t use the more intimate means of mind-talk.

“Wulf. Mel. Away teams are fine and all accounted for. Creature is dead. It has been preliminarily determined this planet is still inhabited by some of these creatures and is unsafe for habitation or use by the Alliance. The creatures are intelligent, deadly, and they have a taste for carbon life-forms now. I recommend this planet be placed on the Alliance fly-by list.”

“Captain Wulf. This is Lt. Commander Z’es.” The
Galanti
’s head of security stood over the dead creature, far closer than Nadia would’ve done. “I concur with Commander Nadia’s assessment. This planet is a security risk.”

That was for damn sure. Nadia couldn’t stop another full-body shudder. If Bre hadn’t picked her up and carried her out, she wouldn’t have been able to slow the creature down with blasts from her laser pistol and they both would’ve been worm food. The creature had been that fast.

As it was, they’d barely made it to Z’es and his security teams. She and Bre could’ve lost their lives because of her initial moments of paralytic fear.

“Commander Ard also concurs, Captain Wulf.” Aeron must’ve sensed her disquiet, because he came closer as if to take her into his arms. The heat of his body warmed her even through the layers of the survival suit.

Huw’s antipathy to Aeron’s closeness made itself known by his banging on her mental shields, giving her a headache. The fact he could sense what was going on, even with her shields reinforced, shocked her. She inched away from Aeron—and Huw’s psychic temper tantrum ceased.

“Glad everyone is okay.” Wulf’s low, rumbling voice responded, pulling her back to the present situation. “Iolyn has already sent the fly-by order to Alliance and Prime Military Commands. Come home. Wulf out.”

Huw tore off his headset, thrust the data pad out of the way, and then stood up. “I’m going down there.” He glared at his brothers. “Nadia is terrified out of her mind. She was almost eaten once by a pseudo-worm.”
And Ard is making moves on my woman.

He stalked toward the lift and was brought up short by a hand on his arm. “You aren’t leaving this ship, brother.” Wulf’s tone wasn’t that of a brother, but of the captain of the ship.

“I’m going.” Huw shrugged Wulf’s hand off and slapped a hand on the call pad for the lift.

When the doors opened, he entered and his brothers followed him on. “Shuttle bay,”

Huw ordered.

“Captain Wulf override. Fitness deck.” Wulf glared at him. “Iolyn and I think you need an attitude adjustment and we’re very happy to give you one.”

“
Ansu bhau
, Wulf! Not two standard hours ago, you told me to court Nadia, to make her mine. Well, I am following your suggestions … Nadia is mine. She’s scared, and she needs me to be there to care for and protect her.”

“Protect her from whom?” Iolyn asked. “The danger from the worm creature is over.

They’re loading up and coming back to the ship. Where’s the danger to Nadia coming from?”

Huw slammed his hand against the lift wall. The pain made the emotions simmering just underneath his skin come to a boil. “Bre had his hands all over her. Ard had his hands all over her. They caused her pain. I felt her pain. Even though she’s blocking our mind-talking, I can still feel her emotions.” He fisted his hands so tightly his nails gouged his palms. “Her fear, her pain, hurts my heart … she … she … won’t … let me into her mind to help her.”

Huw walked around the lift like a caged animal and ran agitated fingers through his hair. His emotions threatened to overwhelm him. If he didn’t get away from his brothers, he might attack them. He needed to see, touch, smell Nadia. He needed to make sure she was well and whole. He needed … he needed.

“Calm yourself.” Wulf halted Huw’s pacing by gripping his brother’s shoulder and squeezing. “I know exactly what you’re going through. When Melina ran from me and I went after her, I sensed her emotions and her body’s pain and weakness.” Wulf paused and frowned. “Once you have wooed Nadia and regained her trust, she will find it harder to hide her thoughts from you … although I suspect as Melina does, Nadia will still try.