Alien General's Baby (Brion Brides 7)(60)

The insides of the ship were macabre. As he ran deeper into the darkness, Braen noticed signs of the Fearless' path of death everywhere. He frowned, imagining what happened to the people on the ship, though he never stopped moving forward.

There were sounds of fighting inside the ship as well and occasionally it rocked a little when it was hit by a larger piece of debris falling from orbit. Braen ignored all of it, gritting his teeth in fury as he searched the ship for the Fearless, but again the way seemed to have been cleared for him.

Where are you, my heart?

He found what he was looking for in the deepest part of the ship. Right in front of the door, a body lay. At first glance, Braen took it for another corpse, but this one wasn't dead. And it was no ordinary clerk.

Despite the rush, the general stopped, knowing a message when he saw one. He grouched down next to Sinetha, turning the cyborg woman over.

After long years of war, the sight made him bare his teeth in a vicious snarl. Sinetha had been used for food, clearly, but only enough to make sure she still lived. There were parts of her missing, with deep teeth marks around them.

"It's in there," the woman whispered, her voice distorted and weak. "It waits for you, General. Kill it. Kill it for all of us."

Braen said nothing, but he gave the dying woman a small nod. It was ironic that at the eleventh hour, after the entire galaxy, and with Naima first on it, he had to add Sinetha to the list of people he was avenging.

With the spear at the ready, the lifestone emanating a slight glow that hadn't shown on the bright ice fields, Braen entered a large hall fitted for controlling the androids.

The Fearless was right in front of him, grinning from head to toe. In a moment shorter than a heartbeat, Braen registered everything, all the facts he'd known already. The huge, towering warrior with four hands and metallic skin was only the second thing he noticed, however.

The first was Naima, lying on the ground before the platform the Fearless was standing upon.

The Fearless was tangled in a sophisticated harness that connected to him all over. He made a slight motion of three fingers that brought the connections to release themselves from its body immediately. Releasing itself from the harness at last, the army's job done, the monster grinned with teeth filed sharp, cutting its lips bloody in the course.

"We meet again, General," it growled, the deep voice echoing in the empty hall. "I have been waiting for you. How do you like my gift?

“I thought you would like to see her one last time, but I fear I might have broken her on the way here."#p#分页标题#e#

Braen barely heard. All the words floated in his mind, having lost their meaning and impact. The only thing he knew in the world at that moment was that he couldn't hear Naima breathe.





36





Braen





His life stopped.

The general's heart kept beating, because it was an organ and didn't shut down out of grief, but the world around him ceased turning. In his mind, his heart could only stop beating if hers did, and of that he could not yet be certain.

But there was nothing. No oxygen in the air, no color or smell, no nothing but a torturous wait.

Whenever generals met or warriors gathered, they exchanged stories about what new insanities the Galactic union   had invented about them. Most were hearsay, told out of fear, but many had some truth to them, albeit being exaggerated.

And a few were actual truths that even the Brions themselves hadn't known or weren't sure about.

Back in his youth, Braen and his friends had enjoyed trying out the "hearing a feather drop" trick. They'd locked themselves into a simulation first, with all other sound canceled out. Many of them couldn't do it, but the general and some of his more talented companions had heard it. The sound that a feather made when it hit the ground.

They tried to improve the technique over years, but the trick was that you first had to know there was something so miniscule to listen to.

He was in the room with the most proficient and ruthless killer in history, but Braen didn't take his eyes off Naima's unmoving body. Every inch of him was directed to her, willing her to give him even the smallest sign of life. Anything, to mend the world that was coming apart at seams around him.

The Fearless laughed, clearly enjoying his pain. Braen wasn't about to give up on his gesha. He kept telling himself that the monster needed her to guide it to the lifestone reservoirs once it had killed him.

It was a poor comfort. The enemy didn't make rational decisions and mercy was a word it didn't understand.

It had signed its death warrant a long time ago. Now, the manner of its demise was up to Braen. If it had killed Naima, he'd revert back to the original plan of capturing the enemy instead of slaying it. To lose his gesha was irreversible, but making sure the Fearless suffered for it an eternity would be a bittersweet relief.

My heart…

The four-armed monster stepped towards him. In ways, the enemy reminded Braen of Alona a little. Just like the android, the Fearless looked artificial. The smooth, dark silver skin had to be as strong as it looked or there would have been no use for it.

The beast never chose a form that didn't directly fit its purposes. The four long arms each held a sword, each one different and all of them bloodied.

Braen didn't see Kerven anywhere. Some of the blood might have been his.

He didn't see Alona either.

The red gaze of the Fearless held his, unflinching and unblinking. The enemy wore no armor, clearly it didn't need any. Its tongue slipped out to lick its lips, torn bloody by the fangs.

It was going for a ghastly demeanor. Brions cared nothing for that. They were the ones who scared anyone foolish enough to oppose them into fleeing from the battle field, not the other way around.

"How does that feel, General?" the Fearless asked, approaching with slow, measured paces.

Afraid, said Braen's analytical mind, observing the Fearless. Careful. Playing it safe. It's not sure.

"To see your beloved one like that," the enemy went on. "This is your fault. You brought a little Terran to my world. What did you expect? That one guard and an android would be able to face ME!?"

The last word was roared to him, delivered by a throat that shouldn't have been able to produce sounds like that. The room shook, creaking. Even the floor beneath Braen’s feet moved.

He'd wounded the enemy's pride, it seemed. Braen bared his teeth in a snarl. His valor squares showed nothing, because he felt nothing.

"I know what you plan!" the Fearless roared to him. "I know what your spear carries! That will not work, boy! You will die here, in this miserable, worthless hall of a junk ship and I will watch you die with glee. Be assured your last sight will be of me gnawing on the flesh of your whore!"

Braen still didn't answer. In battle, a true warrior didn't waste his breath on words when everything should have been clear by actions.

He hadn't raised the weapon on guard yet. As long as the slightest possibility remained that Naima was alive, he needed to draw the Fearless away from her and on it came, right at him. The temptation to simply pierce Braen’s armor with the four swords it wielded was too great, as it always was.#p#分页标题#e#

Staring death in the eye was the Brion way. The way of the Fearless was to give in to its addiction without a second thought. Ultimately, its biggest enemy was its endless hunger.

It was almost close enough to land a blow with the longest sword. Braen was willing to catch the blade with his teeth if need be. He needed to be sure that the Fearless didn't reach Naima before him.

He refused to accept she was gone. After everything he'd experienced, all they'd been through, the general truly believed that if his gesha was dead, his heart would have stopped in his chest.

The Fearless saw it too. The legendary beast roared with fury.

"You idiot! You're willing to die like that for a female? So be it! Face your end!"

Two things happened at once. The Fearless jumped at him, all the swords aiming for his heart.

And at the very same moment, Braen heard a whimper, nothing more than a small intake of breath from someone who was hurting.

The enemy didn't have time to turn before Braen came to life. The room was buried into darkness now, the long shadows created by Braen’s valor squares reaching Naima like a blanket and covering her from the monster. With a deafening roar, Braen moved so fast it took less than a heartbeat to put himself between his gesha and the enemy.

His heart hadn't beaten a second time before the swords and the spear clashed together in a rain of sparks. Braen could see the glowing red eyes in the blackness before him. There was nothing else.

"Save her!" he bellowed a command, to anyone who would hear.

It was all he could do for her. The most dangerous creature in the galaxy charged at him and in the darkness, they fought.





37





Naima





Naima woke up with a nuclear headache. It was the least of her problems.

She was in complete darkness, surrounded by something that smelled like death, and dragged along on the floor. It was safe to say her situation wasn't ideal.

That was the thing with dreams. They didn't ask for propriety of whether or not they coincided with the reality. Naima remembered fields of green and sunlight in the dream she had been so rudely been awoken from, the complete opposite of what was going on with her now.

She opened her mouth to protest, to scream for help, but someone slapped their hand over her face roughly and they both went completely still.