The slappee would pay for that remark, Mel vowed.
“Stupid fool.” A pause. “Get up. I didn’t hurt you. Don’t come into this room again.
The leader will be by later to determine what to do with the women.” Another slap and then a thud. A whisp of air told her that the slappee had fallen to the ground near her. What an idiot. If these were the type of fanatics they were up against, it shouldn’t take too long to root them all out of their hiding places and squash them like the low-intelligence-invertebrates they resembled.
She kept her breathing slow and even. Had the slappee hurt Nadia badly? She couldn’t chance looking until both idiots were out of the room.
A scuffling noise as the one who’d been knocked to the ground got to his feet. His harsh breathing indicated the slapper had hurt him. Good.
“I thought we were going to ransom them,” the slappee said between gasping breaths. Definitely a beta-slug playing at being alpha.
“You aren’t paid to think,” sneered the slapper, the alpha-slug in this twosome.
“Now leave. We have things to do.”
Two sets of feet thudded on the ground. The slight whoosh of a door opening then closing, sounded loudly in the otherwise quiet room. A set of tones indicated some sort of electronic lock had been engaged.
Peering between her lashes, without moving her head, Mel checked out the immediate vicinity. She saw no one. Opening up her psi senses, she sensed the two men walking away. No one was in the room other than herself—and Nadia. The sound of the other woman’s low moan had Mel struggling to her feet. A wave of dizziness assaulted her, a side effect of whatever they had gassed them with. Taking several deep breaths and closing her eyes, she reoriented herself. She was no use to Nadia—or herself—if she succumbed to the effects of the drug.
Shivering, she opened her eyes and realized she was so cold because she was naked.
“Just peachy,” she muttered.
Mel glanced around and found Nadia on the floor near a stone bench of some sort.
She was also naked.
Her friend’s eyes were open, but her gaze was vague. She was also in pain, probably from the large gash on her forehead. She was still bleeding. Nadia’s body was covered with as many bruises and abrasions as her own.
Yep, the slugs would pay.
“Nadia,” she moved to the other woman and knelt by her side, “how severe are your injuries?”
“Dermo. Shit. My pride hurts more than anything,” she hissed as she struggled to sit up.
Mel grabbed an elbow and helped her friend to sitting position, leaning her against the stone bench. There was bedding of some sort on the bench, but it was so filthy Mel didn’t want to chance Nadia getting a nasty infection from it. Her friend was better sitting on the dusty, stone floor.
Looking around, she noted that the room reminded her of a lot of the Prime fortifications she had seen visiting her parents’ digs—and more recently on Obam IV.
This could be a good thing for the good guys.
“So, you bit the beta-slug?” Mel asked as she gently probed around Nadia’s head wound.
“Beta-slug.” Nadia snorted. “A slimy little worm. Works for me.” She moaned when Mel found the knot on the back of her head. “The creep was poking at your mark-thing, hitting it with a metal baton of some sort. So, I lunged at him and bit his arm. He hit me on the forehead with the baton, knocking me down. I must’ve hit the back of my head on the stone bench as I fell. I was conscious enough to know that the piece of slimy shit tried to rape me—that’s when the other slug came in and started spouting Prime at him.”
“Yeah, old beta-slug is in deep shit for sure. We’re not to be touched until after the head honcho gets here,” Mel said as she checked Nadia’s limbs for breaks. “I heard that he kicked you?”
“Maybe I was out of it by then,” Nadia replied as she moved limbs and stretched her torso. She winced several times. “Nothing broken, but I bet I’ll have some dandy bruises.
Sort of like yours.” Nadia captured Mel’s gaze. “Wulf will kill them—won’t he?” A glimmer of laughter poked through the haze of pain that had turned Nadia’s eyes a dark, dusty blue. Her friend was fine, hurt , but ready to fight when needed.
Mel chuckled. “Two or three times if that were possible. And Huw might have something to say about your treatment also.”
“Why?” Nadia waved her hand as if to erase the question. “Never mind. We have more important things to do.”
“Yeah, like get out of here before the big leader comes.” Mel stood up and stretched out her back and moved all her limbs. “Looks good to go. Although my gemate marking is throbbing and not in a good way, if you catch my drift.” She smoothed tentative fingers over the symbol which throbbed, the colors glowing a sickly peach, green and yellow. “I sure hope Wulf isn’t feeling this or he’ll single-handedly try to storm this place to get to me.”
Nadia got up. Her face filled with disgust. “Dermo. Shit. Do you ever think they clean this place?” She used the tip of one finger to check out the bedding on the stone bench. “Are these ancient Prime artifacts, do you suppose?” Mel laughed. “Probably has been here since the last Prime used this place,” she looked around, “during, um … the Berean Wars.”
“You know where we are?” Nadia asked, looking around the room to see what clued Mel into their location.
“Some prisoner scrawled on the wall. His name, rank and the date.” Mel walked to the doorway and pressed on a design in the wall. A small touch pad appeared. “Just as I thought, this is a Prime underground military facility. A lot like the ones I helped excavate as a child and on my vacations from the military.”
“Like the ones discovered in Siberia on Earth?” Nadia looked around with far more interest than she’d previously displayed. Her gaze was sharper now, more that of the keen-eyed starship science officer she was than the bruised and confused woman of before.
“Yes. This is an ancient site. Let’s hope that they didn’t change the Prime universal access codes during the Berean Wars.” Mel leaned her head against the door. “I don’t hear the slug-boys—or anyone else for that matter. Find something to use as a weapon.
We’re breaking out of this place.”
Nadia examined the edges of their prison as Mel tried the access codes most commonly used by the ancient Prime. A trilling beep-beep-beep indicated the lock was disengaged.
Mel grinned. “Gotcha!”
“Here.” Nadia thrust a heavy metal rod at her. “I found these under a pile of rocks.
I’d take the rocks, but they are really heavy and awkwardly shaped.” Mel laughed softly. “Double-gotcha. These are machete-like weapons used by the ancients. The Prime called them battle-blades and they are very similar to what the Alliance adapted from the Volusian military. Great for skewering Antareans and Erians.”
“A weapon designed for pseudo-reptiles? Should work on slimy slugs.” Mel grinned and nodded.
Nadia looked at the black metal in her hands. “How does it work? I don’t see any switches.”
“Stand back.” Mel held the rod in front of her. Using her thumb she manipulated a portion of the base. A sharp, serrated two-edge blade shot from the rod.
“Whoa!” Nadia held hers out and fumbled around the base. After a few seconds, she smiled. “Aha.” An identical blade shot out. “How do you lock them in place?”
“They’re locked automatically. We won’t worry about sheathing them,” Mel said. “I expect we’ll be putting them to good use.” She switched her blade to her non-dominant hand, and then pressed the opening mechanism on the door. It slid open with a barely perceptible whoosh.
“So,” Nadia said after she followed Mel out into the dimly lit underground corridor.
“Which way?”
Mel looked in the direction the slugs had gone. “We go that way—the opposite way of where our captors went—” she peered at the wall in front of her and smiled, “—and then up. We’ll follow the upper path out of the facility.” She moved to the handholds carved into the corridor’s stone walls and began to climb, the serrated battle-blade clutched in her left hand as she used her right to pull herself up. “If I’m correct, we’ll be able to exit through a back way and out onto the mountainside.”
“What about Wulf and our men?” Nadia asked as she followed her up the wall.
“Won’t they be at the front, trying to figure a way in?”
“I’ll let Wulf know we are getting out of the way so they can hit the facility in a full-out assault.”
Mel slipped over the cleverly hidden curtain wall and sat down. Nadia followed and sat beside her. Her friend was paler than normal. “How’s your head?”
“Aches. A little dizzy at times.” Nadia turned glittering blue eyes on her. “I’ve had and survived worse. I’m good to go.”
Mel nodded. “Good. ‘Cause we’ll be holding the rear guard until backup arrives. We really need some kind of powered weapon. But if we have to, we’ll stab any slugs trying to slither out the back way.”