18. Chapter 18
There had only been a few times in his life when Cooper had regretted his ability to do things like regrow parts of his limbs. Not all of them, or the whole thing, there was a limit to the trauma his body could recover from. Losing a finger or a foot in a training accident wasn”t the end of a career, however, and with the right assistance down time could be kept to hours instead of days or weeks.
Without assistance, though, and lacking certain medical attention, the process was long and painful. If the injury was bad enough, the pain could drive him to wish he hadn”t survived whatever had happened. The only thing that kept him from wishing for that now was the knowledge that his death would likely cause Marissa”s, too.
Cooper had helped Marissa into sleep when it had become apparent what direction the questions were going to take and just what they were willing to do to get answers out of him. They might have been amateurs but they”d found someone willing to take him apart.
The few times he”d thought about it in the past, Cooper had wondered when his people had developed the ability to heal physical trauma the way they were. He”d always assumed it was something the Dragor had introduced but the comments made during his interrogation seemed to indicate otherwise.
His decision to shield Marissa was confirmed when they mentioned they”d never had a human survive this long. He didn”t think they”d kidnapped humans to torture but he also hadn”t thought they”d try it on him.
When the explosions had started, most of the hooded guards had rushed out to respond. One or two of the ones who had shown their faces, asked him questions, and refused to get their hands dirty had started demanding answers. Answers they hadn”t liked when they”d run off in the opposite direction.
The one doing the bloody work had turned to him with a grin and a look that told Cooper exactly why he”d volunteered for the unpleasant task. He might not have been a professional but he”d been looking for an excuse to indulge in his favorite hobby.
”Just you and me now,” he said.
Cooper pulled at the bonds on his wrists and shook his head. ”You”re going to want to leave,” he said. ”I don”t think the people coming through the wall are exactly friendly.”
”Nah,” he said. ”I”ve got time to finish before anybody gets here. It”s going to take a bit for them to get what they want.”
”And how do you know what they want?”
He giggled. It would have been a disturbing sound coming from a human throat but the sound he made was terrifying.
”We”ve worked with her people before,” he said. ”They don”t like it when one of their soldiers goes missing on a mission. I”ve seen what they do when they help us on raids. Quick, efficient, no time for fun and nothing left worth playing with. It”s much better when we raid the caves near us instead. The women are quieter and the men scream more.”
Cooper swallowed the bile that was threatening to make an appearance at the visuals his torturer was projecting. For the first time, he was glad Marissa had dealt with Ae-cha if this was the alternative.
Another explosion was followed by the sound of gunfire and Cooper twisted his wrists against the arm of the chair he”d been secured in to force his bonds apart. It didn”t work but the arms on the chair came loose just enough to let him force them again.
When his captor turned back the gleam in his eye had turned manic. ”Oh, good, I like it when they fight.”
He”d opened two more cuts across Cooper”s face before the arm of the chair came free. Once it did, Cooper smashed it across his face, doing damage that his attacker didn”t seem to feel as he came back in for another hit.
Cooper kept hitting him, turning the chair arms into improvised weapons and blocking whatever he could. He found himself missing his tail when his torturer smashed his into the chair, knocking him over and his head against the floor.
Marissa”s instructions to look human came through the haze of the head injury and he considered briefly the chance that he might lose her just as they got free. He raised his arms over his head as his tormentor brought his tail down onto them then he was interrupted by two bursts of two shots.
Two marines who looked vaguely familiar cleared the cell and one of them pulled his chair upright.
”What”s your name?” he asked, while he checked his eyes and took a quick mental inventory of his injuries.
”Humans call me Cooper,” he said.
”What was the name of the marine you came here with.”
”Major Marissa Ozark,” he answered. The ease with which he was able to slip into the human”s mind interested him in the vague part of his brain that wasn”t focused on the pain and getting out of the cell.
”How many toes are you supposed to have?”
He snorted a laugh. ”Eight, I watched them take three. Pretty sure I felt them take more than that.”
”I”m guessing you can”t walk.”
”Not like this,” Cooper admitted. ”You should be able to use a knife on the straps. Worst case you can cut my feet off at my ankles and I”ll recover but I”d rather not lose that much blood.”
The marine standing guard swallowed hard and shook his head.
”Marissa would shoot me,” the marine working on his ankle restraints said. ”She”s not going to be happy about what I have to do to transport you, anyway.”
Cooper shook his head. ”Unless you”re going outside of procedure, she”ll understand. We talked about it.”
The marine pulled the chair restraints off of him and put the restraints they used on before trying to lift him over their shoulders. Cooper could tell it was a struggle but he didn”t have the energy to offer to walk.
”You”re going to want to pay the insurance on that one,” he said, as they exited the cell. ”You didn”t hit the brain.”
After a brief hesitation, they sent another bullet into the body to make sure it didn”t get up and the pressure at the edge of his consciousness of another mind faded away.
The rush through the cave city was longer than he”d hoped and uncomfortable. Not just because he was being carried in a way that was meant more for speed than comfort, though that didn”t help. When they left the city through the holes that had been blown in the walls rather than any of the tunnels he knew existed, he knew they had to have help planning this rescue.
The tunnels went from dimly lit, mostly by the bouncing lights they were carrying, to pitch black and Cooper could smell the change in the air from the space ship. It didn”t match anything he”d encountered before and the sudden flash of light knocked his senses out before he could get a good look at the outside.
”Is that the guy?” someone asked as they got to the top of the ramp.
”Yes, sir,” the marine carrying him said. ”They weren”t exactly treating him like a guest.”
”Does he need the Doc?”
”I can survive until we get to the base,” Cooper said. ”Not much you can do for me that can”t wait until then.”
”Can you walk?” The officer stepped into his line of sight and bent down to look him in the face. Cooper nodded.
”I can shuffle,” he said. ”I just couldn”t run and you needed to be out of there in a hurry.”
”Alright,” the officer said, straightening. ”Take him to the hold. Doc, get the blood cleaned off him, at least.”
Cooper winced as they put him on his feet. The marine who had been carrying him held his arm until he”d gotten his balance enough to move.
”Make sure Marissa”s okay before you deal with me,” he said. ”I”m a bit sturdier than you humans.”
”She got here first,” Doc said. ”I”ve already got her squared away so let”s get you where we can keep you from dripping on the floor.”
”You sure you want to?” Cooper asked as they started down the corridor to wherever the hold was. ”I”ll be easier to find if I can leave a trail behind me.”
”Bio-hazard,” Doc said. ”Can”t leave something like that for the driver to clean up. He might not give us another ride.”
Focused on putting one foot in front of the other, Cooper could feel Marissa trying to reach him but he couldn”t respond until they got him to where they were going to hold him.
He was a prisoner, technically, but the cell was much more pleasant than the one in the cave and the marines dealing with him seemed inclined to be friendly. They offered him a bed when the chair proved too much for him but he asked to stay on the floor where he could lay against the cool metal instead. When they were gone and the only person left was the guard on his door, he relaxed into the connection with his mate.
I”m aboard. I”m safe. I don”t think they”re likely to execute me in the next day or two, he told her.
What happened to you?She asked. When I fell asleep, it sounded like they weren”t going to torture you.
Monsters seem to be universal, he said, hoping the vague answer would keep her from pressing. He didn”t have the strength to keep her out if she felt like looking through his most recent thoughts. Thankfully, she didn”t seem to realize that or she decided to leave him some privacy.
Do you know who they were?
I have some ideas,he said. And if I were on my home planet, I”d think they were impossible.
Impossible good or impossible bad?
Depends on who you ask. And which side you”re on. And what happened to the rest of them.
How long have they been there?
No idea. I don”t think they”ve lived in that cave system very long but I do think it used to be inhabited. Maybe by their ancestors, maybe by someone else entirely.
So, we”ve had lizard people living in caves under the surface of the Earth for a while, then?
Marissa sounded amused and Cooper didn”t know why. More things to ask her about later. The vibrations in the floor of the ship that indicated a change in the engine cut their conversation short as the space ship moved.
Only the change in the sound warned him about what happened next but it was enough to make him sick. The marine guarding his door looked in at him and talked into a radio on his shoulder.
Cooper struggled into a sitting position with his back against the wall and his head on his knees to breathe through the nausea. Doc stepped into his cell with two more guards with him and Cooper snorted.
”Are you ill?” he asked. ”Injured somewhere I didn”t know about?”
”Space sick,” Cooper said with a laugh. ”Kinda like sea sick but from flying.”
”I thought you got here in a space ship? Did you have something to help with that?”
”It”s not the flying,” Cooper told him. ”It”s the engines. Can you hear them?”
When all the marines shook their head, Cooper sighed. ”Whatever they”re doing, they hum as just the right frequency to make me want to hurl. I”ll be fine once we”ve landed and I”m off the ship.”
”Can I get you anything to help? A peppermint or something?”
Cooper made a face at the thought of the hard candy. ”Thanks but no. I”m just glad I didn”t have anything on my stomach to lose but bile. You might want to check on Marissa, though.”