Chapter Eighteen
“Step back, General. Let me work.”
“Why isn’t she waking?”
“She was overcome by the smoke. Give the oxygen and medication time.”
With a burning tightness in her chest that was nearly unbearable, Lana coughed violently, struggling to draw in air. Her hands rose to her face, clawing at the thing over her nose and mouth keeping her from breathing.
“There now, leave that be,” a calm, insistent voice told her as hands grabbed hers and pulled them away. “It is helping you breathe.”
Lana shook her head, coughing harshly. “It’s smothering me!”
“Can’t you take it away now? It is upsetting her more than helping, surely.”
Her eyes flew to Trask, meeting his worried gaze. “I thought you left?” Her question came out as a raspy croak between fits of coughing.
“Don’t try to speak,” the unfamiliar voice ordered as he placed something blowing cool air across her upper lip. “Leave this in place and breathe through your nose. We can forego the mask, but the oxygen tube stays.”
Her focus shifted between the two men hovering over her. One was older, wearing the familiar black-and-white tunic of a medic, the other was busy fiddling with a strange machine at her side. As Trask looked on, she noticed his face, while ravaged with worry was also covered in soot.
“The house,” she exclaimed which only started her coughing again. “It was on fire. I awoke from a nap to smoke.”
“Talk later, Lana,” he said firmly, offsetting the stern command by tenderly stroking his hand over her hair. “Do as they say for now.”
She couldn’t obey with so many questions running through her head. “But you left for Terra Nova. How are you here?”
“We were leaving space dock when I was alerted my residence was on fire. I teleported down. The critical response team arrived at the same time I did.”
“And they couldn’t keep the fool from charging into an inferno,” a new voice scolded from the foot of her bed. She glanced there to find Max Kerr scowling at her mate. When his gaze came back to her, his features softened. “We are grateful he got to you in time, however, Lana.”
“Her lungs, Ellar,” Eva asked from her mate’s side, “will there be any lasting damage?”
“No, Prima. Preliminary scans show irritation and swelling but no burns or scarring. She suffered mostly smoke inhalation, but I’ll need to run more tests.” The physic peeked at her around Trask’s shoulder then shot him an impatient glare. “Max Kerr, if you could do something with your general. He is in my way.”
“Step back and let the man work, Trask.”
An arm she hadn’t noticed slid out from beneath her shoulders. “I’ll move, but I'm not leaving until I'm assured she is going to be all right.”
“New mates are difficult,” the aggravated physic muttered, “but these expectant fathers are nearly impossible to deal with.”
Lana looked back at the man in confusion, while beside her Trask went rigid. Surely, Ellar had misspoken.
“What did you say?” Trask demanded.
Visibly concerned he had caused offense, the physic quickly apologized. “General Trask, truly, I meant no insult.”
“Don’t apologize!” Trask barked. “Explain yourself.”
“The expectant father comment, Ellar,” Kerr insisted more reasonably. “What did you mean?”
“She is breeding, so naturally I assumed...” His eyes flared in horror as they shot to first Trask then Lana. “If I have overstepped in my assumption—”
“A child?” Lana wheezed. “It isn’t impossible.”
“It’s early, but the scans confirmed it.”
“You’re mistaken. Recheck them.”
“I assure you I can read a scan correctly, young woman,” the physic replied testily.
“No, I… I didn’t think… It can’t be…”
“With our activity of late, you had to anticipate it was a possibility. Unlikely, as I’ve told you, doesn’t mean impossible.”
“In my case it does.” The tears in her eyes weren’t only from smoke anymore. “There’s been a mistake.”
“I don’t make mistakes,” Ellar grated out, getting irritated. “The blood sample indicated elevated hormone levels. The scan confirmed the pregnancy. If you’ve had no symptoms, it’s because it is still very early in your term.”
“But how can this be?” Her eyes swept over those surrounding her. “I read my file. The accident I was in as a child left me scarred, inside and out. It said I’m too damaged to conceive, that I am infertile.”
“No. I don’t think that is correct. One moment.” When Ellar stepped away, Trask moved in close again.
“Lana,” he asked in a quiet voice. “When did you see your file?”
Coughing weakly, she shook her head, too stunned to think.
“Was it that day at the clinic? Adria said you disappeared abruptly. And Maggie told me you weren’t acting like yourself. Is this why you left me?” A myriad of emotions glimmered in his eyes. “Did you think I wouldn’t want you, paulova? That I’d toss you aside if I knew? Even after I told you repeatedly, for us, mates are forever?”
Her throat raw from more than the smoke, she sounded raspy when she admitted, “No. I left because I knew you’d do the exact opposite. Broken as I was, you would have stuck by me. I couldn’t let you, Trask.”
“Lana…”
“As I suspected,” Ellar suddenly announced as he wandered back in with his tablet, oblivious to the new drama playing out in the room and the long-awaited revelations he interrupted. “There is nothing here about infertility. As for a prior injury which may have prevented conception, I find no records of it, either.”
“But she had scars on her belly,” Trask told him. “I saw them myself.”
“That’s because I deleted it all,” Lana admitted. She could feel the others’ stares, whether out of sympathy, confusion, or condemnation, she didn’t bother to look to find out, only one opinion counted. She had to try to make him see why she’d done what she’d done. “I was so sick, and you, Jarlan, all the physics, including Adria were all searching for an explanation. Someone would have eventually come across the files and told you. But even with me driving down our chances of having a child from unlikely to no chance in hell, it wouldn’t have made a difference to you.” She gazed up at him, but his image appeared distorted through her tears. “I had to make you let me go, and the treaty and the Odyssey leaving gave me the out, even if you grew to hate me for taking it. I loved you too much not to, don’t you see? I couldn’t be the one standing between you and your most fervent wish coming true.”
Her voice cracked throughout her confession, but she still managed to force it out. When she fell silent, he didn’t reply, and she couldn’t tell from his expression what he was thinking. Their audience of friends who apparently had no intention of giving them privacy, waited along with her for him to react. But as the seconds ticked by, and a sense of dread filled her, the only sound Lana heard was the loud thudding of her heart.
In the stillness permeating the room, finally, one of the women sniffled, likely Eva, which seemed to break the spell.
“Reversing infertility isn’t possible, is it, Ellar?” Eryn asked quietly. “Or you would have healed your females by now.”
“Understanding the nuances of reproduction is challenging, as is proved by our lack of success in finding a cure these past twenty years.” The physic studied her for a moment, and asked, “You said there was scarring?”
She dragged her gaze from Trask’s. “One of the reports I deleted was a surgical summary. When I was five, they removed an ovary, my spleen, and there were other internal injuries which caused severe scarring of the remaining ovary’s fallopian tube.”
“Yes, I see,” Ellar murmured as he went back to studying his tablet. “It says here you were treated for fractures recently and had contusions and lacerations to the body. The time you spent in the Optimed would have eliminated any external scars, and it’s possible, with the new cell regeneration upgrade which has been effective on old injuries as well as new, it removed the obstruction and allowed an egg to pass.” His gaze swept over her hot cheeks and then moved to Trask who stood noticeably silent. “If I thought you weren’t away, I wouldn’t have blurted it out, but it appears congratulations are in order.”
It had been two weeks to the day since her hearing, which was the same day he’d taken her up to the ship and they’d practically attacked each other in his stateroom.
Trask broke his stunned silence by insisting, “But she hasn’t transformed this time.”
Eva had an answer for that. “Since when has that been necessary between human and Primarian mates?”
“She’s right,” Kerr agreed, smiling down at his mate. “We can throw out the rule book when it comes to human mates. Before Eryn showed the first outward sign, she gave Ram his daughter, and in turn, our Master Warrior took on his mate’s red hair in part, something unheard of for a Primarian male. Maggie and Roth bonded in an uncommon way which astounded us all. And with Eva, it took recognizing me as her mate in mind and spirit before her body finally accepted the bond. While I—who, with unwavering faith, knew she was my fated mate the moment I saw her—lay close to death, brought low within hours of our separation.”
“I’m never going to live that down,” his Prima muttered. “I didn’t shoot myself, haul my unconscious body onto an outbound ship, and leave you on purpose, you know.”
His gaze was filled with love as he slid the edge of his thumb along her jaw to her pouting lips. “I tease, sprite, but shall strive not to do so again since it bothers you so.” When he looked up his gaze locked on his general’s. “My point is, nothing about our interspecies mating is conventional or expected.”
“It sure keeps those of us in the healing profession on our toes.” The understated comment from the Ellar was met with chuckles because it kept the physics more than on their toes, they were constantly reeling, scratching their heads, and most often running simply to keep up.
“Is there a chance this new machine might heal the Primarian women of their infertility?” Eryn brought up a good point, and they all looked to Ellar for an answer.
“I’m afraid the issue there is much more complicated than scarring, but it is something to explore. I cannot wait to inform Jarlan. In fact, since Lana’s breathing has improved, I am going to do so now.”
“It would be a miracle,” Eva murmured.
“Indeed,” Kerr agreed.
“You haven’t said hardly anything, Trask,” Lana whispered. “Aren’t you happy about the news?” As if it was a preplanned signal, the others moved away.
“I am trying to absorb what has happened. First, this answers many questions that have plagued me for so long. Primarily, why a mate who professed her love would suddenly change her mind and race across galaxies to escape me.”
“You spoke of children often,” she replied, tentatively. “It was the sole reason you captured us, to mate and breed with us.” As she laid out the facts, they made sense, why didn’t he see it? “And when eight wasn’t enough, you went back nearly three hundred more. Then you entered into a treaty with my people with a single purpose in mind.” Her volume increased as her agitation at his coolness grew. “You gave us a freakin’ planet so you could procreate. Don’t you see? I couldn’t stay and deprive you of what you could get from a pool of thousands.”
“I longed for you, Lana. Night and day, I suffered the loss of my mate. There could have been a million other matches, but I wouldn’t have wanted any of them because none of them would have been you.”
“Trask…” Her voice broke as the guilt over the pain she’d caused him became palpable. “Does this mean you can’t forgive me?”
“I already have, paulova.”
“Then what is this silent guilt trip about?”
“As you recently told me, this has come at me fast, so cut me some slack.”
She choked, half laughing half coughing as he bent to her, caught her up in his arms and with his face in her hair, murmured, “I’m grateful you and our little one are all right, but Lana…” he pulled back, a grimace on his handsome face, “by the Maker, baby, you stink of smoke.”
This time a giddy laugh broke free of her chest. “I’m breeding, Trask,” she whispered in awe while twining her arms around his neck. “I didn’t think ever having a baby was possible.”
His arms tightened, and despite his claim of her stinking, planted his face right back into the tousled hair at the side of her neck.
A few moments passed before the clearing of a throat made them end their embrace and twist toward the others still in the room. In her happiness over the news, and relief that she’d have Trask’s forgiveness, she’d forgotten they had an audience.
“Excuse us interrupting your private moment,” Eva said softly, “but this doesn’t explain why Lana thought she was unable to give you a child. You said you read it in your files?”
“Yes, when I went to the clinic to see Jarlan, a volunteer accidentally left the tablet unlocked.”
“So, you snooped,” Trask concluded.
She wrinkled her nose at him. “It’s not snooping when it’s my record!”
Eva cut in to explain. “Where we come from, we have full disclosure, General. Reading our medical reports is a common practice.”
“Be that as it may, I’d like to know about this volunteer,” Kerr said. He signaled to the technician who was in the room, quietly monitoring and keeping a check on Lana. “You are…”
“Maylak, Princep.”
“Answer a question for me, please.”
“If I am able, Max Kerr.”
He nodded. “It is my understanding the medical files lock as soon as the physic walks away from the remote device.”
“This is true. Excuse me for listening, but I was standing right here. For Lana to have found one open after the operator left the room, an override would have been required to keep it that way. This is allowable during certain situations, presentations to a group of consulting physics for example, but it is never permissible to enter an override then leave the device in an exam room unattended. Who was this volunteer? He will need to be brought in for retraining immediately.”
“I don’t know him, other than he was an elder there to upload my health records from the Odyssey.”
Silence greeted Lana’s response.
“An elder?” Kerr repeated, his gaze lifting to meet Trask’s across her bed. “Did he give you a name?”
“No, it was quite busy and he was in a rush.”
“And you’re sure he was an elder, paulova?”
“Older, with a white beard, wearing a long robe, he sure looked like one. I thought it unusual to find him coming out of my exam room, so I asked. He said he had an interest in what he called the healing arts and often volunteered. Is something wrong?”
“Maylak?” Kerr asked the technician.
“We have no elders volunteering, Princep.”
“Why would he lie?”
Trask grasped her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “He deliberately left the device unlocked because he wanted you to see the reports.”
“The two from the time of my accident were flagged with yellow triangles. They were the only ones out of hundreds of pages, which I see is odd now, but, at the time, I thought it indicated new uploads, which is why he was there.”
“That’s another thing,” Maylak explained. “We didn’t upload the Odyssey’s medical records. There was a problem with the interface.”
“He mentioned that and showed me a data stick he used to load it manually.”
“That is the only way a record could be in one of our files. The human females’ files are kept separately on a different program because they kept causing our systems to freeze.”
“Why would someone do this?” But as she looked at Eva and Eryn, and knowing their troubles, the answer was clear.
Eva gave voice to her thoughts before she could. “This elder was trying to drive you apart, the same as happened to me, Eryn, and Maggie,” she stated furiously.
“And this isn’t the first time they’ve tampered with medical files. My compatibility test results were falsified. Ram and I are fated and didn’t know.” The Master Warrior’s arm slid around her shoulders, pulling her close. Eryn’s situation was another puzzle. When she left for Earth, and Ram stayed behind, the distance could very well have killed them both. Either she didn’t get sick because of a delayed transformation or the child she carried had somehow protected her. The physics were still scratching their heads over that one, but the fact remained the result could have been deadly.
“But how could he have known how I would react?”
“Perhaps he didn’t,” Eva answered with a shrug. “Maybe he wanted to drive a wedge between you. It seems this villain, whoever he is, gets off on mayhem and making our lives a living hell whenever he can.”
“Sprite, your language,” her mate scolded gently.
“But this is getting old, Kerr.”
“I agree,” Eryn put in. “I was targeted repeatedly, and I’d rather not have it happen again. What he did to Lana and Trask was a gamble that paid off big-time for him. He probably got his jollies from seeing Trask live in misery without his mate for as long as he did.”
“Easy, Purrada,” Ram growled.
“But it’s true,” she told him as her gaze landed on Trask. “The proof of his anguish lies in more than one punched-in wall.”
Lana let out a shuddering breath, and the cause wasn’t smoke inhalation. Trask’s hand sought hers and gripped it.
“I’d like to know why she was sick,” he told everyone gathered. “Whenever she was around me, she became physically ill. Thankfully, it has not affected her this time, but what if it returns? It was painful to watch and be able to do nothing, and neither Jarlan nor the other physics could find the cause.”
“Perhaps,” Ker suggested, “Like with Eva, she hadn’t fully accepted you as her mate.”
“I don’t understand,” Lana said, first looking at Eva then to Eryn and then through the males in the room. “How could the lack of acceptance make me ill?”
“I can attest to symptoms from fighting the attraction,” Eva explained while leaning into her mate. “I suffered headaches.”
“And you know how sick I was,” Eryn reminded her. “Like the worst flu imaginable. No one has ever really explained why. Whether separation or resistance or the pregnancy I denied or a combination of them all. I only know they went away once I accepted Ram as my fate—”
“And her mate,” the big warrior added. Her friend who had been so staunchly against being mated to him less than a year ago, looked up at him sweetly, love in her eyes. And now, Lana had a chance at the same happiness.
“There might be something behind this acceptance theory. My illness began with a terrible migraine,” Lana recalled. “After I found out how opposed Trask’s family was to him taking me for his mate, I started doubting everything.”
“Did someone actually say this to you?” Ram asked in surprise. His eyes went to Trask’s. “Who dared interfere between you and your mate? Further, is he still breathing, and if so, why?”
“Because he was like a father to me, cousin. To all of us. And I couldn’t bring myself to kill the man who raised me.”
“Aylan said this?” Kerr exclaimed. “I can’t believe it of him.”
“With Mordrun’s instigation, no doubt,” Eva suggested, her tone edged with anger.
“Yes,” Trask acknowledged. “How did you know?”
“Aylan wouldn’t come up with such an idea on his own, but his brother would, and he’d sow the seeds of doubt. Call it women’s intuition, but I’ve always suspected Mordrun had an aversion to us humans, me in particular.”
“I’ve felt the same way,” Eryn said in a hard voice. “Ever since the beginning, when he thought it was a good idea to cage us like animals.”
“And neither of you thought to mention this before now?”
She glanced at Trask who posed this question. “It was a feeling I had. He never said or did anything to me directly. But, General, wasn’t he the first to accuse Maggie of poisoning the warriors on the Odyssey?”
“Yes, and he was adamantly opposed to the capture from the beginning. Only after the tests turned out promising did he become a supporter, though grudgingly.”
“He strongly advocated for my dissolution from Eryn,” Ram added.
“It seems we have a sinister pattern with Uncle Mordrun at the heart of it.”
“Let’s not overreact without basis,” Kerr urged. “Right now, we have an unidentified elder, twelve of which fit Lana’s description. Or it could have been someone posing as one. We can’t accuse an elder of masterminding these plots without evidence.”
Eva grasped her mate’s arm as she suggested, “Can we put the elders in a lineup and have Lana pick out her volunteer from the clinic that day? My money says it was Mordrun.”
“No one is going to bet against you there,” Eryn muttered.
“I’m not sure about this lineup you’re referring to,” Kerr replied, with a shake of his head. “We don’t want to tip his hand, whether it be Mordrun or one of the others until we know for certain. We could have another dinner; the elders would attend, and—”
“No!” Lana and Eryn cried emphatically.
When he looked surprised by their reactions, Eva told him gently, “I hate to have to tell you this, honey, but us girls are not big fans of your formal dinners. Something always happens, and it's never good.”
“Agreed.” This time Ram and Trask spoke at once.
“If I may interrupt. I have a much easier solution to this mystery.” This came from Ellar who had slipped in unnoticed and stood in the background listening. “Whoever accessed our system that day, it would have been tracked. All entries are date and time stamped by the computer and the user notated. We do so if an error is made so we can retrain the technician or physic at fault, so it doesn’t happen again.”
“We’ve had no real leads to the mastermind behind all of this.” Trask’s gaze shifted between his warrior and his leader. “This could be the missing piece to this whole unsolved puzzle.”
“Thank God, because, as I mentioned, this shit is really getting old,” Eva muttered.
“Language, mate…”
She looked up at him with a little grin. “Sorry.”
The Princep didn’t get to acknowledge her response because the usually reserved Ellar suddenly became very vocal. “Due respect, Princep, but your Prima is correct. Except for one small correction. This shit isn’t getting old; it's well past it. I have been too close to too many of these malicious acts, and I’m not anxious to endure another. This evil must be stopped. I’ll advise Jarlan, and we’ll get an analyst assigned to determine who accessed both databases, right away.” With his piece said, he stalked out.
Like statues, they all stared after him—stunned. For Lana, it wasn’t so much from shock over Ellar’s vehement reaction, but by the revelations of the last several minutes.
“Whoever is behind this wanted me gone,” Lana whispered as everything sank in. “He won when I left you, at least for a while. I came back which must have ticked him off, but by then thousands of mate bonds had happened, children were being born. I can understand sabotaging the mine and setting back the new colony, but why target only me?”
“You can identify him,” Eryn stated. “If he’s the mastermind as we suspect, you can bring his whole evil world tumbling down.”
She nodded. “So, he set me up on Terra Nova, expecting I’d be exiled back to Earth.” She looked up at Trask. “But you stepped in and saved me. Worse, you brought me here.”
“Where it's only a matter of time before you’d pass him on the street and put two and two together,” Eva breathed. “Like we are now.”
“I’m scared, Trask. Sending me away wasn’t working; he had to find a more permanent solution.” Her hands slid over her stomach and the new life growing there. “The fire would have done that. We’d both be dead now if you hadn’t come when you did.”
“I won’t let anything happen to you.” His big hand covered hers. “I’m doubling your guard.”
“What if that isn’t enough?”
He told his Princep. “Tarus and Remus can go to the colony in my stead. I’m not leaving Lana until this is done.”
“Agreed,” Kerr replied without hesitation.
“We’re going to find him, Lana.” His fingers brushed her cheek lightly, a familiar caress she was growing to love. “Until then, I’ll protect the both of you with my life.”
“As will I,” Ram vowed.
“The same goes for me, as it does for all of our warriors,” Kerr declared.
Trask’s gaze swept through the others. “The news that Lana is breeding stays among us. I don’t want to incite him more.”
A murmur of agreement was his answer. Then he leaned over and pressed his lips to her forehead, whispering for her ears only, “After waiting an eternity to get you back, I’d die before letting something happen to you, mate.”