39. Chapter 39

Chapter thirty-nine

-Bryce-

T he first thing I registered was a blistering headache and the taste of acidic bile in my mouth. It felt like I’d been trampled by a herd of elephants, who’d then come back to take a collective shit on me. I groaned. Unconsciousness was definitely the better option. Maybe if I held still and didn’t move or speak, I could convince my body to go back to sleep again.

My body wasn’t falling for it though. Something was throbbing in my chest, like a deep ache. I shifted, and my limbs, which had been numb up until then, radiated pain.

I accepted my fate and cracked one eye open. It was dark. Where was I, again? My mind was fuzzy. The caves? It had been dark in the caves. And Kitari had been there. But this didn’t feel the same. It wasn’t cold.

My chest panged again. I felt…worried. Palm sweat-inducing, heart-rate-through-the-roof, stomach-churning worry. Why? I blinked the other eye open. Something about the feeling was off. Somehow it didn’t feel like it was mine. I could feel it, but it wasn’t entirely…within my body.

“Gunner!”

The shout made me wince, which ignited the flame that was smoldering in my side.

I turned my head and something slipped from my eyes. I blinked at the light.

“O’Neill?” I croaked, my voice hoarse.

He was perched on a chair next to me, relief brightening his face. “Hey, buddy, how are you feeling?”

Like someone had drained my body and filled it back up with rocks. My head felt like it was filled with sludge. I tried to blink it away. Why was O’Neill here? And where was Kitari? The last thing I remembered was him crouched over me, feeling—oh, that’s where the gut-clenching worry was coming from, it was Kitari’s. Slowly, relief mingled with it.

My heart kicked up a gear. Where was he? Something had happened, hadn’t it? Something…not good.

And I was—my eyes wheeled in my head, and I took in the smooth, green surface above me, the metallic frame of the hard cot underneath me, the sound of human voices in the near distance—

I was back at base camp.

My thoughts started to gain speed. I had been attacked by that creature, got poisoned. I’d been dying . And now I was at base camp and Kitari was nowhere to be seen, radiating anxiety like a nuclear reactor.

“Where is he?” I said, trying to sit up. The fire flared again, and I gasped and hunched over.

“Whoa, whoa, take it easy. You nearly died.” O’Neill grabbed my shoulders and pushed me back down again.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know, but it looked like you got attacked by one of the aliens. I was talking to you, and then there was all this shouting and growling and…I thought you’d been killed for real this time. Luckily, we had a drone up already and were patrolling in the area, so we managed to home in on you in time. The alien, I don’t know, you got poisoned by something and it was going feral, but we got you away from it.” His eyes ran over me. “What did it do to you?”

“What? Do to me? Nothing, he didn’t do anything. Where is he?”

“We’ve got him locked up.”

O’Neill must have misunderstood the look on my face, because he went on quickly, “Don’t worry, it can’t get out, and Clyde’s keeping a close eye on it.”

Shit. How had this all gone so wrong? I had to get to Kitari, but what could I do?

If I told O’Neill about the bond and everything that had happened between me and Kitari, he’d think I’d been brainwashed too. It was a catch-22 situation; if I tried to tell the team the Aldar weren’t bad, they’d think I’d been messed with, which would be proof that they were.

“What’s going to happen to him?” I asked carefully.

“Chief is thinking of using him as a bargaining chip, swap him for Clay.”

I let out a breath. That was good; if they wanted to swap him at least they wouldn’t kill him, or seriously hurt him. It meant he was safe, for now.

But Chief’s plan wouldn’t work. Arcay would never allow it; he’d fought over me just talking to Clay, there was no way he’d let us take him away without a fight. But Jursin wouldn’t leave his son in the hands of the enemy either. Kitari’s relationship with him might be strained, but Jursin was still his father. Either way, this would end in fighting. And all for nothing—a misunderstanding.

The Aldar had not been far behind us when we escaped, and I had no doubt they would find their way here before long. And if what they found when they got here was the son of their leader held prisoner, I had a feeling they wouldn’t like that very much.

I swallowed. There was no way out of this other than the truth. They needed to let Kitari go. Even if they thought I was crazy, I had to make them understand.

“O’Neill, what I was telling you on the comm…” I paused, licked my lips. “It’s the truth. We’ve got it all wrong. Clay doesn’t want to leave, he likes it here, and if we take him back, we’ll be the ones abducting him.”

He shifted in his seat, uncomfortable. Like he was hoping that had all been a delusional rant that I wasn’t going to bring up again.

I plunged on anyway. “The Aldar aren’t the aggressors here, they’re only defending themselves because they think we’re dangerous. We invaded their home. And Kitari didn’t attack me.”

“Kitari?”

“He’s the alien who was with me. He helped me. He saved me. And he’s my…friend. He’s not dangerous.”

I could tell O’Neill wasn’t convinced, he looked concerned. “Ok.”

“No, it’s true.”

A deep crease formed between his eyebrows as he chewed on his lip. “Gunner, you’ve been through a lot. We don’t know what the Aldar can do, but Chief is sure they can mess with your mind. Maybe that one did something to you…”

“Kitari hasn’t done anything to my head.” I tried to stop my voice from getting too heated. Had Clay tried to explain and been treated like a lunatic? I considered trying to explain the soul bond that connected me and Kitari, but I didn’t think there was a way to do it that wouldn’t make it sound like I was brainwashed. I mean, a psychic link that connected our souls together? What else would he think?

I pushed myself up, swallowing a groan at the pain in my side. My arms shook under my weight. “Where is he? I want to see him.”

O’Neill stood and hovered over me, looking torn. “Chief’s got him locked up in one of the tanks, but I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I don’t care.”

He hesitated, then left. I managed to get to my feet and stood, wobbling precariously while I waited for my balance to settle. At least my prosthetic leg was sturdy, which was more than I could say for my flesh and bone one.

“Gunner.” Chief strode in, throwing the door to the pod wide open, with O’Neill on his heels. “Glad to see you up, Son.”

If he was pissed about being ignored and disobeyed on the comm, he didn’t show it. Instead, he was the picture of a relieved father, welcoming his favorite son home. He opened his arms and slapped me on the back, nearly knocking me off my feet.

Finally, I could get this whole mess sorted out. He could be a hard man, but Chief would listen to reason. I cut directly to the chase, ignoring his pleasantries. “Sir, this mission has been a misunderstanding. There’s no reason for us to be here. You need to let Kitari go, and evacuate.”

His face stayed blandly pleasant, and he rested his solid hand on my shoulder. “You’ve been through a lot, son, I understand. Maybe allowing you on this mission wasn’t a good idea after all. That’s on me, I should have known you weren’t up to the task. So why don’t you park yourself down again and get some rest.”

“Sir, he’s the son of their leader. If they find out he’s being held here, they’ll attack.”

He straightened and was quiet for a beat. Finally, I seemed to have reached him, maybe now he would actually listen to me. But instead, he reacted in a way I hadn’t expected. His eyes widened, his brow rose. He should have been worried or alarmed at this news, but instead, he seemed…pleasantly surprised. It was the reaction of a man whose plans had just serendipitously improved. And it was all wrong.

A chill spread through me. “Sir—”

“You get some rest, son, that’s the most important thing. Don’t worry about anything else, we can handle it.” He smiled sharply. “That’s an order.”

He slapped his hand down on my other shoulder and pushed me back to the cot. The frame caught the back of my legs and I collapsed onto it.

“O’Neill, keep an eye on him,” he said as he left. “Make sure he rests up.”

O’Neill saluted.

I lay on the cot, my mind racing while O’Neill sat next to me fiddling with the strap of his blaster. That look on Chief’s face had raised alarm bells. What was going on? Nobody was going to listen to me, that much was clear, and people were going to get hurt because of it. I had to do something, not just for my and Kitari’s sakes, but for my teams too. None of this was their fault, they were just following orders. And if our places were reversed, I couldn’t say that I wouldn’t have done the same thing.

No, no one was going to listen to me. I needed to get Kitari out myself, before something bad happened.

I cleared my throat, drawing it out painfully. “Hey, O’Neill,” I said, making my voice as hoarse as possible, which wasn’t hard.

“Yeah, buddy?” he said softly.

I reached out a shaky hand and rested it on his hip for a second like I wasn’t sure where he was, and cleared my throat again, really laying it on thick. “Could you get me a drink?”

“Yeah, sure.” He jumped up, eager to be useful, grabbed a tin cup, and started to pour water from the canteen on his hip.

“Sorry, but could you go get it from the chilled tank? It’s like a swamp in here, and my throat is killing me.”

He hesitated.

“I’d really appreciate it.” I cleared my throat one more time for good measure, putting some grit into it.

“Yeah, sure,” he said, swinging his blaster around onto his back. “Don’t move, though.”

I tried for a meek laugh. “I’m not going anywhere, believe me.”

He smiled again and left, closing the door of the pod gently behind him, as if a sharp breeze might kill me.

Of course he believed me; he trusted me. I was like his big brother.

I pushed the sick feeling of guilt down as I staggered to my feet, gripping the keys I’d lifted from O’Neill’s belt in my hand.

This was for his own good. I didn’t want to see him stuck through with a spear when the Aldar came for Kitari.

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