Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Melly’s knees were going to give out underneath her and a wave of grief and terror swept over her as Jeff’s last com ended.
She stared at the sky as if she’d be able to see the flyer leaving and had to bite her lip till she drew blood not to break down and beg him to land right now and take her—and the others—away.
She knew he couldn’t do that with a reasonable chance of success and making a recue attempt right now would put the Khagrish on the alert for future attacks.
They might even call in reinforcements from offworld.
She knew all the facts in the part of her mind that remained cool and analytical.
Ninety percent of her consciousness wasn’t ashamed of being terrified and willing to do anything to escape.
Maybe she was immune to the virus, as Dr. Ybidliuz had said, but even so she could be hurt, tortured, given another even more horrific virus…
the frightening possibilities were endless and her mind skipped through the list.
Closing her eyes, she swayed a bit and wrapped her arms around herself tight, trying to self comfort.
There was a gentle touch on her arm. “Hey, are you all right?” Sandy had come across the field to where Melly was standing, frozen in her fear.
She knew she had to stop this anxiety attack right now before the aliens noticed anything wrong and grew curious.
There were guards patrolling on a rooftop walkway, periodically checking on the activities in the field.
She was Ybidliuz’s prize specimen right now and he’d surely be notified of anything unusual in her behavior.
She took a deep breath and then another, feeling her dizziness recede and her heart rate slow.
“I think the slop the guards gave us for breakfast didn’t agree with me,” she said, seizing the first reasonable excuse crossing her mind. “I tried not to eat the moldy bits of the fruit but I might have missed a spot.”
“Drink a glass of water,” Sandy suggested, putting her arm around Melly’s shoulders. “Come sit in the shade for a bit. We can call Dr. Mercattor if you get worse.”
“I’m not letting that woman touch me,” Melly said and the tiny spurt of anger pushed her anxiety even further away.
“I’m sure I’ll be fine soon but those are excellent suggestions.
Thanks.” She allowed Sandy to shepherd her to the meager amount of shade they had and sipped water from a bottle the other woman had brought outside.
“I didn’t even get the ball I went inside for,” Melly said apologetically.
“The nausea came over me and my only thought was to rush outside into the fresh air. It always smells of disinfectant in there.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll go get the ball in a minute, once I’m sure you’re okay. I was sure you were going to faint.”
“So did I.” Melly made herself chuckle. She felt all kinds of guilty for not sharing the news with Sandy that a rescue might be coming in a day or two.
She had no qualms about Sandy’s resistance to the aliens holding them prisoner but Jeff was right—she couldn’t risk revealing anything.
Leaning against the tree trunk as Sandy left her to retrieve the aforementioned ball, Melly wiped away a tear.
Enough of that. I have to play my part for a few days and then Jeff and the guys will get me out of here.
One of the toddlers in the group leaned on her leg, snuggling close. “Tell me a story about unicorns and princesses.”
“All right, I know a good one I used to love when I was your age.” Melly visualized the book her mother had read to her so many times and began, “Once upon a time…”
The flight home was silent for the most part.
Cody and Ryan respected his mood. As the flyer drew close to the ranch, Jeff squared his shoulders and turned to Cody with a question.
“When we were in New Damarkal, you did surveillance over the airfield, correct? Even though it wasn’t the mission objective that day? ”
“I did,” he confirmed. “Give me a sec here and I’ll pull it up.”
Holos flickered on the deck and then the view steadied on the base’s abandoned airfield.
Jeff studied the scene as the drone footage played.
There was one wrecked flyer, crashed and burned.
Another stood with the ramp open and bodies strewn beside it.
He counted three more parked neatly in configuration, apparently sealed and ready.
“That, gentlemen, is our next objective. We’re going to collect the rest of the team, fly there and salvage a couple of flyers if we can, load them all up with as much ordnance as we can cram onto them and then we’ll be returning to the alien lab and eradicating it from the planet. ”
Cody cleared his throat. “In case you need a reminder, boss, New Damarkal is literally swarming with infected? As soon as we fly over and land the sound will draw them to us.”
“We’ll create a distraction first to draw them away from the base and then we’ll use antigrav packs to descend silently from the flyer to the airfield.
Get a team aboard each of these flyers parked here and take off before the infected can regroup and reach us.
” Jeff looked at him and then at Ryan. “Risky but so is everything in this world. There isn’t time to drive the APC’s there, nor is there time to get them to the alien lab.
Melly only has a couple of days before they intend to experiment on her—you heard what she said. “
“I’m on board with whatever you want us to do,” Cody replied.
“I think we’re at the point in this mission where taking risks is the only play left to us.
I’m not going to suggest sitting at the ranch and playing at farming while the doc becomes a lab rat and the scientists cook up new and more deadly viruses. ”
“I suggest a night descent, sir,” Ryan said. “We know the infected are sluggish at night and also the flames of whatever distraction we create will seem even more attractive to them.”
“Good idea.” Jeff was happy to have their support and input.
The operation was going to be tricky but he was confident his team could bring it off.
Ideally the APC’s would play a vital role in any assault on either the airfield or the alien complex but the timing of it all, with Melly’s life at stake, ruled them out.
He’d leave them at the ranch as an extra layer of protection for the people left there.
When they reached the ranch he buzzed the house once and then landed as their comrades came running outside. “We found Melly,” he announced as he descended the ramp toward the small group. “And your friend Sandy,” he told Devora.
“Is she—are they okay?” Devora asked hesitantly.
“So far,” Jeff confirmed. “But time is running short. I’m going to hold a mission briefing in the team room in half an hour, attendance mandatory.
Some of us will be leaving shortly thereafter.
For now we’ll let Cody’s drones be our security perimeter so I expect full attendance at the meeting.
” He strode past them and into the house, grabbing a cup of synthcaff in the kitchen from the pot Tamsyn kept constantly available and then made his way upstairs to his room.
Closing the door, he sank onto the bed and sipped the hot beverage and tried to get himself under tight control.
Finding Melly and then having to leave her in the hands of the enemy was gut wrenching.
He had to focus on the mission now, specifically on the acquisition of the flyers, one step at a time.
He had to be frosty. His men were an efficient unit and he had no doubts they could bring off the operation smoothly, barring any unforeseen circumstances, but it was his job as the leader to be fully engaged.
Not to be distracted by worry over what was happening to the woman he loved.
The only way to save her was to compartmentalize and do what he did best…
When he got to the briefing room, his team and the civilians were there as ordered.
Cody gave him a thumbs up, which he knew meant the cyborg was monitoring the drone perimeter and if any threat materialized, he’d sound the alarm.
All the adults were armed, which he’d insisted on when they arrived at the farm. Constant vigilance.
Buddy lay under Mike’s chair and Jenny sat on the floor behind Les and Devora, playing with a game with a handful of her action figures.
Jeff made a mental note to watch his language.
He wanted both of her parents in attendance, however, so unusual as it was, the toddler was about to sit in on a Special Forces operations briefing.
He walked to the front of the room. “As you probably know we did locate Melly at the alien facility and I was able to talk to her on the subaural com. She’s fine so far but there’s a deadline for when the guy in charge said she’d be drawn into the experiments.
” He switched his gaze to Les and Devora.
“Your friend Sandy is there as well, taking care of about thirty kids.”
There was a low buzz in the room as he mentioned the presence of the children.
Nodding, Jeff said, “Their presence complicates the takedown. We have to do our best to safeguard them in the middle of a combat situation.”
“What’s the plan, sir?” Trent asked.
“Go in with an air assault, use the element of surprise, take out their flyer while it’s on the ground. Eliminate the enemy, grab whatever data Cody can scrape, take Melly and the other hostages and bug out. Questions?”
There was silence.
Jeff chuckled. “Yeah, if only it could be that easy, right? The first part of my plan involves a trip to New Damarkal.”
His audience was attentive as he outlined his goal of acquiring several more military flyers and using them in the attack on the alien lab.
His men asked tight, focused questions about the details of getting in and out of the abandoned military air base successfully and they game planned a number of contingencies.