Page 53 of Hope Forged
It squealed, its grooves gritty.
Brac muttered a curse and charged in, firing seven times before Illan had breached the room.
The common was massive with several doors leading off it. A center table had six males slumped over their bowls and drawn blasters, their yellow tentacles no longer swaying. Another was sprawled on the floor, his pale-yellow face contorted in surprise, his weapon lying in his limp hand. They were all dead.
Faerar huddled in a corner, tied to a hook in the wall. Illan’s steps faltered when she met his gaze, her eyes so like Ziamee’s. Joy brightened her face.
“A Durn,” she rasped, her voice hoarse.
“Do not be alarmed. Are there more Maloidians?” he asked.
“Not sure.” She shook her head, bouncing her short-cropped hair. “Mm, never thought to meet another species on Vora.”
“Amet sent us to find you.” He gestured to Brac, who was checking each body for signs of life.
“An Etterian,” she said. “I’m so grateful to you both. I expected to endure an impossible hell.”
“What is this place?” Illan asked, holstering his blaster to untie her.
She staggered to her feet, shrugging off his offer to help her stand. Her stubbornness was so like her daughter’s.
“I’ve never seen this place. Oz didn’t even know Maloidians were onworld.” She rubbed her bruised wrists. “A habitable world left uninhabited?”
Illan took out his med-gun and ran it over the minor scratches across her arms and hands. “Brac says he thinks they have been here a long time.”
“I can’t confirm,” she said. “They’re speaking a language I don’t know.”
“Maloidians have an extensive lifespan, like Durns,” Brac said as he fiddled with a console set to the side of the common. He hummed. “This is most intriguing. Leave me. Return to Amet. I wish to discover the purpose of this place.” He leaned in, typed a few buttons, then said, “That should lower the shield. Ulta, do you read me?”
An image of the pilot appeared on the many display vids. “I do.”
“We are inside the facility.” Brac ran his gaze over the common, then faced the male. “I am sending you its schematics. Analyze those while I sift through their logs.”
Illan pocketed the med-gun and smiled at Faerar. “Come. I shall summon the kuta when we reach the surface.”
“Amet saw the kidnapping?” she asked as they climbed.
“Yes, and requested we head to your location immediately.”
She scowled. “I do appreciate the rescue, but I have no intention of returning to theHaile. My home is the cave. Alone.”
Illan frowned, not liking their lack of concern for their daughter. He’d hoped her mother was more…maternal. “At least spend some time with Ziamee. She was devastated to learn you have been alive and well all these years.”
“Elorach’s ear!” Faerar punched a fist into a palm. “Thatmale didn’t tell her the truth? I should’ve predicted this.” She faced Illan, peering at him from the higher step. “My sweet daughter believed I’d died?”
“Yes.”
Anger flushed her features. “Do you have a weapon?”
Giving her his dagger or blaster was out of the question. Besides, how could she ask him that when he stood before her with his weapons obvious? “No.”
“You lie,” she snapped, waving her hand at his blaster.
“I protect Ziamee. She does not need either of you wounded.”
Faerar stilled, her eyes widening then softening. “You love her.”
He cared. Knowing that and not digging deeper was good enough for now. “I cannot say.”
