Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 130081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
“We’ll do our very best,” Davrik told her. “The sooner we leave, the sooner we can return.” He cleared his throat. “Please look after Sonya, Commander Sylvania. I know she doesn’t want anything to do with me but she seems to trust you.”
A look of compassion crossed the Kindred Commander’s face.
“I’m sure that in time she’ll be willing to listen to you, Davrik. But in the meantime, I’ll keep an eye on her. She’s still resting quietly in the Med Center as well. The anesthesia from her surgery should wear off soon and I’ll be at her side when it does.”
“Thank you.” He nodded, a look of gratitude on his strong features. Then he shifted his gaze to Lan’ara. “Let’s go.”
“I’m right behind you,” she told him. “Let’s go save Nate’s little sister.”
They went.
FIFTY-EIGHT
DAVRIK
Davrik had never been more glad of the disguise tech-mods he’d made to his shuttle than he was during their round-about flight to the Father Ship. The mods enabled him to mask the true appearance of his shiny silver long-range shuttle and make it appear to be a dead black Scourge scouting ship instead.
He took a circuitous route that sent them past the small red planet the humans called “Mars,” named after an ancient god of war, which allowed it to appear that he was coming back from a distant mission. When the com-link crackled to life as they approached the ominous black bulk of the Father Ship, he felt his gut clench.
“Scout ship, state your mission,” a flat, emotionless voice said.
Sending a silent prayer to the Goddess, Davrik answered in the same, toneless voice.
“Returning from long range reconnaissance and transporting a prisoner for the AllFather’s approval.”
There was a pause in which Davrik was so tense he could count his own heartbeats. Beside him, he saw Lan’ara sitting bolt upright with her small fists clenched in her lap. If the operator in the Father Ship saw through their ruse, they could still get away at this point. But then they would have failed their mission to rescue Nate’s little sister.
However, his tension turned out to be unwarranted because a moment later the flat, dull voice said,
“Access granted. You have clearance to dock immediately.”
“Acknowledged,” Davrik returned calmly. He swung the ship around and lowered it gracefully into the Father Ship’s Docking Bay.
As the ship settled on the metal floor of the vast, dark ship, he turned to Lan’ara.
“Are you ready?”
She took a deep breath and he could tell how nervous she was. But she nodded her head with determination.
“Let’s go.”
Davrik nodded back and opened the hatch of the ship.
“All right, you go first and I’ll be right behind you with my blaster drawn.”
She nodded and preceded him out of the shuttle.
As Davrik stepped down into the Father Ship for the first time, he looked around himself in awe. He had come to the Kindred Mother Ship of his own universe long after the Scourge were effectively eradicated and he had never visited the hulking vessel they had left behind, though he had heard tales of it.
Inside it seemed like the exact opposite of the Mother Ship. Instead of being bright and clean, everything was dim and grimy. There was black grease in the corners and stains on the metal floor. His boots echoed dully as they walked down the long row of ships which looked almost exactly like his own disguised craft.
No one had come to greet them, so they were basically on their own. Davrik knew their best chance for success lay in getting in, grabbing Madison, and getting out again as soon as possible but the Father Ship was huge and he had no idea where the human prisoners the AllFather fed from were being held.
At least they knew what Madison looked like, he thought. He had a holo image of her that Commander Sylvania had taken via remote drone. It was slightly blurry but it showed a human female about Lan’ara’s size with long brownish-blonde hair and blue eyes, like her brother Nate’s. She had an unhappy look on her face—unsurprising since the picture had been taken just after she was captured by the Scourge and she was being herded into one of their shuttles for transport to the Father Ship.
So Davrik knew who he was looking for—he just didn’t know where he might find her in the huge, dark vessel. Of course, that was where having Lan’ara as his “prisoner” came in handy—he hoped to find a Scourge warrior he could ask along the way, using her as the reason he needed to get to the holding cells.
But for a long time, they met no one. Lan’ara kept her head down, her hands manacled behind her back, looking for all the world like a dejected prisoner too demoralized to try and fight but her act was for nothing—unless they were being watched, which was certainly possible. For now, however, it seemed as though the ship was almost empty.