Page 4 of Badari Medic

“I tried, after we were in the forest.” She blushed and was glad he didn’t have her night sight ability. “I know I should have tried sooner but I was distracted?—”

“Hey, no, don’t give yourself a hard time. Our first priority was to escape, which we did.”

His words were nice but Raeblin was well aware she’d screwed up. “A more experienced soldier would have contacted Camron or one of the otherswhileescaping.” As long as she was confessing, she figured she might as well get it all out there. “I don’t have the range the Generation 8’s do, you know. I can’t reach very far, certainly not to the valley.”

“Hell even Aydarr himself can’t telepath across the damn planet and he’s the Supreme Alpha.” Brent nudged her with his shoulder. “They’ll know we’re out here through the pack bond and come extract us as soon as the coast is clear.”

“We—we don’t have a pack bond like the men do,” she said, hating to disappoint him. “We have a certain amount of linkage but nothing like the Warriors.” The Daughters had had such a different experience over their history, locked in theisolated mountain lab. They hadn’t endured the tortures and experimentation the men had suffered but they’d had their own horror. In an ironic twist of fate, however, the Daughters were all created from first generation DNA with relatively few tweaks and lacked some of the power and attributes the Warriors took for granted. She was in permanent awe of all of them.

“Aydarr’ll find us.” Brent’s tone was final. “Our job is to head for home and avoid getting captured on the way.”

“All the way to Sanctuary Valley?” Her voice squeaked at the thought of hiking the hundreds of miles between this forest and the packs’ current home. “It’ll take us weeks.”

“Got a better idea?”

Fortunately the storm intensified, with thunder crashing right above their heads, or so it seemed and the rain became a solid curtain striking the ground, and further conversation became impossible. Brent had constructed a good shelter for them and Raeblin didn’t get wet but it was cold and miserable. She thought she wouldn’t be able to sleep but found herself drifting off, worn out by the events and emotions of the day.

Brent knew when she awoke,startled to find herself nestled close to him, head on his shoulder. He immediately moved, gently shifting her aside before stretching. “You had bad dreams,” he said when she raised her eyes to stare at him. “I couldn’t get you to wake up but you settled when I put my arm around you.”

“I often have nightmares about the science annex at the lab where we grew up and what was done there to Daughters, like Jezari.” Her voice was low and she fiddled with the clasp of her medkit. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” He’d liked having her pressed close to him and her Badari body heat was welcome too. They ran muchhotter than humans and the night had gotten pretty cold. Truth be told, he and Raeblin should have left their shelter and been on the move an hour ago but he’d been strangely loathe to disturb her, once she’d been sleeping peacefully.I must be getting soft in my old age.“We need to hit the trail—I’ve heard a Khagrish flyer go over twice so they’re obviously looking for us.”

Hand to her mouth, she let out a gasp. “How do they even know we’re out here?”

“Whoever was shooting at us when we ran knows they didn’t hit us.” He shrugged. “We’ll stay deep in the forest and in the proximity of the rock formations as much as we can. The mineral veins mess with their scanners but we do need to head out. Breakfast will have to be on the run.”

Five minutes later they were making good time through the forest, heading generally west, although Brent led her on a few tangents, trying to throw the Khagrish off their track. “The good thing,” he said when he called for a pause for a quick break at a small stream, “Is the bad guys will be communicating with their superiors about the hunt for us and MARL will pick up the traffic, which will let our guys know for sure we’re here and give a rough location. We just have to stay out of the jaws of any enemy traps for a few days.”

MARL was an ancient alien Artificial Intelligence who’d been found in Sanctuary Valley by Jill Garrison when she escaped from the Khagrish. The AI had been her ally and thus an ally to the Badari through the entire conflict to date. He also provided power and protection to the valley. Raeblin was fascinated by him every time she saw him floating next to Jill but she’d heard some of the Badari thought there was too much reliance on the AI’s capabilities and loyalty. She had no opinion on the matter but if he could help get Brent and herself out of the mess they were in, she’d be eternally grateful.

The day passed in a blur of hiking, with short breaks periodically and moments of intense fear when the Khagrish flyer appeared in the sky. After the third such incident, Brent cursed and said, “Their search pattern is getting closer to us each time. I’m a little surprised the hunters haven’t called in reinforcements but this crew probably wants to hog the glory for capturing us.”

“What can we do?” Raeblin asked, hoping he had a technique or a strategy she wasn’t aware of to evade their pursuers.

Instead he clapped her on the shoulder in a gesture of soldierly comraderie. “No easy solution. Keep moving till dark, like we have been. The Khagrish close down at night, for cultural reasons I guess. Never heard any other explanation. Not too smart on their part but the Khagrish have weak spots, lucky for us. If you’re up to it we’ll keep moving after dark for a few hours and try to get out of their search zone. Throw them off tomorrow.”

“Sounds good.”

He knewshe was tired but he appreciated her matter of fact acceptance of the situation. He was happy when he could finally call a halt. The campsite was a bit better than the previous night, located in a grove of trees. Briefly he considered a fire, even though Raeblin had said she didn’t need one but ruled it out. This would be the one time the damn Khagrish did keep searching after dark.

“I wish we could have hunted or fished today,” she said as he shared out the remaining survival rations. She regarded her dinner with distaste. “These things taste like cardboard and remind me too much of the lab where I grew up. We had a garden and occasionally we were allowed to leave the facility to hunt or fish but not often. We ate better there most of the timebut the director would punish us sometimes by putting us on rations.”

“Once the pursuit is called off we can take a chance on hunting and fishing,” he assured her. “We won’t make it to Sanctuary Valley unless we do. Neither of us packed more than the required minimum of survival bars and it’s a long trek. At least we had berries along the way today.”

Raeblin smiled but her next question was a serious one. “Are we going to keep watch tonight? I know no one was out in the storm last night so we could skip it but?—”

“I wasn’t deep asleep,” he said, a bit insulted. “Soldier sleep, wake up at the slightest hint of a situation.”

“Ah, I see. Well, I’ll split the night with you. Want me to take first watch?”

“I can handle it,” he said.

Eyes glowing, she rested her fisted hands on her hips and glared at him. “We’re a team here and I’m not about to let you shoulder the whole burden. There’s no reason I can’t stand watch.” She rested her hand on her pulse rifle, close by, next to the medkit. “I can shoot, you know.”

“I know—you saved my bacon yesterday with your covering fire. All right, point made. You can take the first watch. I guess I’ll turn in now then.”

Without another wordhe lay down and wrapped up in his lightweight but effective, silvery blanket, for all intents and purposes asleep immediately.

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