Page 21 of Badari Medic

CHAPTER EIGHT

Brent didn’t sleep well, plagued by nightmares in which he was too slow to reach Raeblin with bombs exploding and blaster fire going off way too close to her. He woke with an ache in his chest and an uneasy feeling, which two cups of real Terran coffee from his private stash didn’t help alleviate. As a last resort he took a headclear inject and reported for the day’s duty, where he was again assigned to a training rotation, walking new human recruits through simulated combat. He made a private decision to talk to Mateer about his next combat assignment. Doing nothing but training was making him want to climb the walls. Sure recruits needed a certain amount of input from a seasoned veteran like him, but on the other hand, he needed to keep his skills sharp.

All morning he was restless and had trouble focusing and Raeblin occupied his mind far too much, He didn’t like the way last night had gone and blamed himself. If his only reservation about becoming a claimed mate was the failed example of his parents’ marriage, then wasn’t he allowing them to ruin his adulthood too? He didn’t want to give those two losers who’d abused him and his siblings, any power over him andhis decisions now. Or the ability to hurt a good woman, which Raeblin undoubtedly was.

Thoroughly annoyed with himself, he took off as soon as the lunch break came, telling his fellow instructors he might be gone a while. The only place he could think of to find Raeblin was the hospital, since she was back to working regular shifts there but when he prowled the halls, he saw no sign of her. Worried now, he sought out Dr. Megan Garrison.

“I’m looking for Raeblin,” he said, despite the fact Megan was with three other people and deep in conversation. “Have you seen her?”

Surprised, the doctor said, “She went out on a combat mission this morning. Against my advice, might I add, but the human medic scheduled to go broke his leg last night playing in the ball game at the party and the commander needed someone to fill in. It’s mostly a South Seas team out there today and Raeblin knows them all pretty well.”

Brent felt as if a lightning bolt had struck him. Pain and a white flare traveled through his entire body and he heard himself thanking Megan, turning and walking out of the hospital as fast as he could go. When he hit the outdoors, he broke into a run, heading for the admin building. By the time he arrived, he’d forced himself to appear outwardly calm although inside he was seething. He had the necessary clearance to enter the operations room, which he did with a muttered excuse and from there it was easy for him to scope out where Raeblin had been sent.

“Op going okay?” he asked the Badari monitoring the coms, keeping his voice casual.

“So far, so good. A small lab, no special experiments, nothing too heavy,” the soldier replied. “Hey, congratulations on joining the pack.”

Brent acknowledged the remark with a nod and left. He got out of the building without anyone challenging him and headed for the airfield doubletime, stopping at the armory to gear up. He always carried his basic weapons but for a combat mission he needed his pulse rifle and a few force grenades. Acting as if he had a perfect right to be there, he headed straight to a small flyer parked off to the side and opened the ramp.

“Where are you going?” Mateer stood behind him, head tilted.

“To take care of my mate,” Brent said, losing his temper. “I don’t know who in the seven hells thought it was a good idea to sendmy mateinto combat again and without me there to watch her six but I’m going to rectify the oversight.”

The huge enforcer eyed him in silence for an uncomfortable length of time. “Got a mate mark none of us can see? Last I heard—what I scent today—is you and Raeblin haven’t claimed each other.”

“We will,” Brent said, knowing it was the truth. “We’ve been taking our time. But she shouldn’t be out there at all, not with the flashbacks she’s having, and not without me.” He rubbed his chest and saw Mateer watching the gesture with narrowed eyes. “I have a bad feeling about this and I’m going, one way or another.” Defiance wasn’t a good tactic where Mateer was concerned but the worry over Raeblin made him reckless.

“I didn’t think it was a great idea for her to go,” Mateer admitted, “But I heard about it too late to stop her.”

“Please, brother,” Brent said. “If it was your mate, you’d be there.”

“All right, you’re authorized. But if you interfere in any way with the mission objectives?—”

“You know me better—I’m not a screwup. I can keep my head straight but I need to protect her.”

Mateer waved one hand. “Go then and may the goddess be with you both.”

Brent scrambled up the ramp, closing it the instant he was inside and running for the cockpit. He was in the air in seconds, talking to the valley flight control for clearance but not waiting for them to give him a vector, which earned him a scolding he ignored. The sense of urgency was growing and he knew she was in trouble. He forced himself to take the bare minimum of evasive directionality, which pilots did to prevent the Khagrish from discovering the valley’s location and then he was redlining the engines to reach the designated target lab. He monitored communications as he flew until he heard the one he’d been dreading.

“Taking fire, pinned by Khagrish flyers, we’re going to need help getting out of here in one piece.”

He hit the coms, “I’m coming, brother, with the valley forces right behind.” Aydarr would mobilize a rescue immediately but for now he was it, the cavalry.

When Brent reached the lab, he observed one of the Badari flyers engaged in a vicious, classic dogfight with two Khagrish flyers. Even as he arrived, the Badari craft sent one of its pursuers crashing to the trees below, made a tight turn and spiraled up into the sun. “Must be Gabe,” he muttered. His friend could fly like a demon. Circling the lab complex, he found another Badari flyer crashed and burning, the snarling feline predator logo blackening in the flames and he prayed Raeblin hadn’t been aboard. He couldn’t help Gabe with the dogfight because his armament was too light and his craft had little to no shielding. Butting in now would only mess Gabe up. Taking one more pass over the buildings below, he identified a squad of Khagrish firing at a group of Badari, pinning them down in a bad location. There were bodies strewn on the ground and Brent had to lock down his emotions. The only way he could helpRaeblin now was to give her his best and Brent at his best was an ice cold Tier One operator.

Banking and diving in a manner the Khagrish flyer probably wasn’t designed for, Brent made a strafing run over the field of combat, mowing down the enemy mercilessly as he flew. There was another, similar pocket of intense firefight going on but the combatants were too close for him to take a chance on hitting any Badari or humans, so he laid blaster fire in a line right behind the Khagrish, hoping they’d panic and scatter and possibly be taken out by the shrapnel.

“Time for boots on the ground,” he muttered. Picking out a landing spot on the far side of the compound, he grabbed his weapon and the grenades and was out the door and down the ramp in a burst of motion. He’d picked a good spot and there were no enemy soldiers in the vicinity. Using all available cover Brent advanced into the complex, taking down several enemy soldiers along the way who didn’t see him coming. Reaching the main building, where the actual labs and the cell blocks were, he found a group of Badari defending the entrance, with quite a large force of Khagrish gathered to oppose them.

HeknewRaeblin was in that building. She would have been with the human prisoners, checking them over before they started the journey to the valley, just as she’d been doing on their mission. Tossing his grenades one after the other, he decimated the enemy, who were bunched far too closely together, and shot the few who survived and returned fire.

There was silence.

“Friendly coming in!” he yelled at the building.

“Acknowledged,” came a shout from the interior so he left his firing position and advanced cautiously toward the doors, weapon at the ready just in case.

Wyat, a South Seas senior soldier, advanced to meet him and they clasped arms as warriors do. “You’re a one man army, brother,” Wyat said. “Thanks for the help.”

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