Page 1 of Guardians

CHAPTER 1

Earth Controlled Space, Sector 39

Rydaria

2149

A frigid gust of wind tore through Lexie Tolliver, easily penetrating her sweater, coat, and the blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She scooted closer to the fire, but whatever warmth it generated was lost in the blustery night. She shivered violently, her bones aching. It had been three days since she’d eaten anything but protein bars. She hadn’t slept well in weeks, and it would likely get worse before it got better.

“It’s not even winter yet,” Tara said from the other side of the fire. “How the hell are we going to survive?”

“Get up and move around. Motion is all that’s needed to keep you warm,” Eugene Babcock commented impatiently. He stood in the shadows beyond the fire’s light. His advice would have meant more if he hadn’t been wearing a down parka and mittens that cocooned half his body in warmth. “Sittingthere complaining about how cold it is will not change the temperature or the wind.”

“Mind your own fucking business,” Tara snapped, gray eyes flashing in the moonlight. “I wasn’t talking to you.”

“And now you’re acting like a child.” Babcock crossed his arms over his narrow chest and glared back at her.

“This is thechildren’sfire. The adult fires are down there.” She motioned to the other end of the double row of tents, one of many in the encampment.

The flimsy shelters shuddered and swayed as the wind howled through the surrounding trees. Lexie would be shocked if the tents were still standing come morning. The temporary structures weren’t designed for this sort of weather.

Babcock pivoted on the ball of his foot and stomped off in the direction Tara had indicated.

“I can’t stand that bastard,” Tara muttered, huddling deeper into her blanket. “My paychecks motivated me to put up with his condescending bullshit back on Earth. I’m not going to pretend to like him now.”

Tara’s hostility was understandable. Doctor Eugene Babcock and his colleagues were largely responsible for the current misery of Lexie and her friends. If it wasn’t for Babcock’s ruthless ambition and greed, this pathetic encampment wouldn’t exist, and Lexie and her friends would be on Earth, warm, safe, and well fed. Lexie sighed and stared into the flickering flames. The assessment wasn’t fair or accurate. Everyone in this encampment had been exiled because of their own actions.

Lexie, along with four hundred and sixty-seven other scientists, arrived on Rydaria three months ago. They’d been dumped here like garbage with provisions meant to last six months. That should have given them enough time to build cabins and figure out how to supply their basic needs. But two weeks into their exile the camp had been raided by a group of hybrids. The ruthless hybrids took their weapons, most of their food, and all their medical supplies. They also grabbed two cases filled with compact scanners, microscopes, and analyzers necessary to formulate organic compounds like nutritional supplements and medications. In other words, the scientists were royally screwed.

Retaliation wasn’t really an option. The hybrids outnumbered them nearly five to one, and because the hybrids had been here for three and a half years, they knew the planet much better than the new arrivals.

The first few weeks after the raid hadn’t been bad. The weather was warm and fish in the nearby stream had been plentiful. Hoping to prevent another attack, the camp inhabitants decided to build a perimeter fence rather than individual shelters. Lexie had been one of the few dissenting votes. She didn’t think the fence was necessary. The camp had nothing left worth stealing and she was desperate for privacy. Sharing a tent with five frustrated women wasn’t helping Lexie remain positive.

As Lexie feared, the fence took months rather than weeks, so the weather had turned cold by the time the barrier was completed. It rained incessantly now, and the fish must have moved out into deeper waters because she couldn’t remember the last time anyone caught one. Lexie lay in her sleeping bag each night cold and hungry, longing for Earth and the uncomplicated life she’d left behind.

“I know where they keep the tools,” Tara muttered as she stood up and skirted the fire. She sat down on a log closer to Lexie as she continued her rant. “I say we take an ax, a saw, and maybe one of the machetes.” Clearly, her thoughts were similar to Lexie’s. If they’d been allowed to build a cabin, this situation wouldn’t be so dire. “This ‘community’ is supposed to offer us protection and comradery. Instead, the leaders are hoarding supplies and dictating to the rest of us.”

As appealing as the idea was, Lexie shook her head. “They’d accuse us of stealing and chop off a hand or some barbaric shit.”

“Not if we give everything back as soon as our cabin is finished,” Tara argued.

Lexie shook her head again. “It wouldn’t matter. Babcock and his friends are on a power trip. I agree that we have to do something. But whatever we decide cannot involve those bastards.” A particularly bitter gust of wind cut right through Lexie’s clothing. She shivered violently as a miserable groan tore from her throat. God in heaven, what she’d give for the warmth of Africa right now.

Lexie was a conservation biologist who specialized in big cats. She’d just completed a five-year study of a lion pride in Tanzania and the book she’d written about the experience hit theNew York TimesBestseller list. Hoping to capitalize on the notoriety, she applied for several prestigious positions. The one that most intrigued her was feline consultant for Nuevo Biotech. The innovative research and development lab was massive and extremely well-funded. The company had projects ranging from the study of single-celled organisms to human genetics. Their work with disease prevention in big cats was what caught Lexie’s attention. Better still, she would be working remotelyso she wouldn’t need to move to their sprawling off-world headquarters.

She’d been offered the position a few weeks later and began submitting reports and attending videoconferences with various administrators and scientists from Nuevo. One of them had been Eugene Babcock. He was director of the super secretive Griffin Project. Most of the other scientists requested basic information, but Babcock always engaged her in in-depth discussions of feline biology and evolution. When his questions became more specific to genetic anomalies and adaptive mutations, Lexie could only think of one purpose for his interest. The Griffin Project was resequencing DNA, maybe even creating animal/human hybrids.

Strict laws regarding genetic manipulation had been passed by the World Medical Commission ninety years ago after an unethical lab created a group of grotesque mutants that broke free and went on a murderous rampage. Thousands were slaughtered in a matter of days as the mutants eluded the authorities. Lexie had seen images of the destruction, and it was truly horrific. The resulting ban was absolute, the penalties swift and severe.

Lexie hadn’t learned anything definitive about her employers in the weeks that followed, but she still questioned her involvement with Nuevo Biotech. If Babcock and his colleagues were breaking the law, she needed to run for the hills. That wasn’t what she’d done. She’d chosen prestige and financial security over integrity. She’d been determined to make a name for herself by the time she turned thirty. Well, she was only twenty-eight and it looked like she would spend the rest of her life on Rydaria.

A congested cough drew Lexie out of her retrospect. Bianca sat beside her, shivering even more violently than Lexie. Bianca wasone of the geneticists that Lexie had corresponded with on a regular basis. Bianca had been part of the medical research team at Nuevo. The two women had liked each other immediately, but hadn’t met in person until the trial.

The trial, or the long series of trials, had lasted nearly two years. Everyone with even the most abstract association with the Griffin Project had been arrested and held without bail. Thanks to a group of whistleblowers, the people of Earth soon learned that Nuevo Biotech hadn’t just created hybrids, they’d also created savage shapeshifters.

The thought combined with the cold and Lexie shivered. What the Griffin Project had done was inexcusable and the scientists were treated accordingly. The jury found everyone guilty, and the judge sentenced the entire team to the same punishment as their victims—life on Rydaria. Many presumed that the hybrids would immediately kill their captors. Lexie was surprised that they hadn’t.

“Her cough is getting worse.” Tara sounded as worried as Lexie. Sharing a tent for the past three months had created a bond between the three women that felt almost familial. Lexie had always longed for a sister or sisters. Her one and only sibling was a brother who was six years older. They had never been close.

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