Page 2 of Argurma Warrior (The Argurma Chronicles #1)

K aylar’monushava’dresh narrowed his eyes as he watched his cousin’s ship draw further away through the viewing screen. His orders from Argurumal were still waiting for acknowledgement. He would not be able to put them off much longer. When Veral’s malfunction made itself known with his mate-bonding to a human female, the council had acted swiftly and decisively. First by sending a nearby retrieval unit to his coordinates, and when that failed and the location of the planet scrubbed from the retrieval teams’ systems, the elite teams had been notified, Kaylar among them. He had intentionally gone in dark, searching for his cousin before any of the others from the unit homed in on his coordinates. Although he had not planned on capturing Veral or his human mate, he had played his hand well and not only assisted the mated pair in their escape but acquired knowledge to redirect the interest of the council.

Earth. It was a strange name for a planet. Perhaps humans had an obsession with soil. It would not be the first time that a species had a strange fixation with a feature of their habitat. Whatever the case, it was not pertinent to his mission and he dismissed the line of thought without hesitation. The subjects he acquired would not be returning to it. And if the council was satisfied with the results of their inquiry, hopefully neither would he or any other Argurma.

He settled back in his chair, his gaze falling on the planet below. His orbit above it was due to his current position attached to the side of the Blaithari pirate ship to which he had returned the pirate who had been in his cousin’s company. With Veral long gone, and his breeding mate safely hidden away in his ship, there was little else that demanded his immediate attention. He was free for departure. One command to Degarath and he would disengage from the pirate ship and continue on to the coordinates his cousin’s mate Terri provided for him, straight on to Earth.

So why was he hesitating? There was no logical reasoning for it. He had his orders. The council had too many questions about this bonding that required answers especially when their own species were experiencing a society-wide collapse in their ability to pair bond, something which their ability to reproduce depended upon. If it had not, he processed that there was a strong probability that the council would even sanction such private loyalties and would have mandated genetic donations and government run breeding facilities to populate their numbers.

The council was clear regarding how much Argurumal needed the human specimens and that failure to acquire them was not an option. Just as ignoring the council’s orders was not an option. If he let it wait too much longer, he risked investigation.

He huffed, his vibrissae that extended from the crown of his head in long, thick coils lifted in an impatient snap. He seldom lost control of them, keeping them flat against his head like any other elite Argurma warrior. That one thing in particular had always been Veral’s obvious tell for how close his emotions rode to the surface. It was his personal marker for a malfunction that ran throughout the Monushava line. That Kaylar possessed discipline that so many lacked was a matter of training and his own iron will. His vibrissae only acted with how he wished to express himself at any given time… moderate and in control.

So long as he remained in control and carried out his orders, it placed a safeguard for his family and the council turned a blind eye toward more minor malfunctions expressed within his clan rather than terminating them.

There was no logical reason for a single human to disrupt what he knew to the depths of his coding was necessary. Yet, he could not ignore that he was possibly delaying his mission because she struck some soft chord within him better left buried and severed? He had felt something come alive within his systems at seeing Veral with his human mate that lingered on in the memory of his databases though he had quashed the feeling brutally before his handler could get even a glimpse of it.

With an impatient growl he disengaged the locking mechanism to the hatch of the pirate ship and set the coordinates for Earth as he terminated his line of thought and the weakness it harbored. Punishment was severe for those who failed to carry out their orders. He did not have the luxury that Veral enjoyed that allowed him to sail through the outer star systems with a forbidden mate. Becoming a warrior had been his only escape from the control of mother, Featha, and her endless scheming. Or at least it had seemed as such when Veral left, and people started whispering about his abandonment of his duty. Although all of the mother-line knew why he had, the disgraceful whispering outside their compound had been intolerable to him when he was a young male. He had sought to escape with his honor still intact, but over the solars he had long wondered at what cost he had sacrificed to keep it.

No more disruptions. Too much weighed upon him carrying out his duties.

The bright planet drifted past his viewing screen, drawing his restless gaze back to it. His eyes narrowed, assessing.

Still—perhaps it would be wise to anticipate the worst. It was logical to have something as collateral to satisfy the council enough to keep his line in good standing should he fail to locate a human subject. Something small. He had seen for himself the sort of monsters that inhabited the planet and had in fact killed one. Going after one of them would be suicide. But he calculated that a hatchling could be reasonable.

Kaylar swiped a hand over his mouth, his mandibles twitching. He hated the damned, cursed planet, and that was only after only spending just a few zecs on its surface. He certainly had no interest in setting foot on it again, but the question was could he afford not to? He growled softly to himself as the planet began to shrink, his vibrissae puffing out very slightly in irritation. A subtle itch went up his spine—a warning, but of what he wasn’t sure. His hand shifted on the controls, slowing the turn of the ship as he stared at the glowing green and blue planet so full of water, life… a death with its monstrosities. The sort of biomechanical creature that the council would be very interested in studying.

With an oath, he bit out a command to the AI to bring the ship around and begin descent procedures to the exact location he had departed. He was certain he saw a nest just outside the ruins of the crashed ship as he entered in search of his cousin. A nest with heavy trails of tracks leading to and from it around the ship. Tracks that he was ninety-three percent positive belonged to the six-legged biotech experimental monstrosity he had killed. If he was correct, there was a high probability that there would be hatchlings still lingering about. He could snatch one up and leave before he ever encountered another adult. The risk would be low.

A small one then.

Just in case.

With the course set, Kaylar stormed from the deck, heading for the armory. Although there was only a small margin for an incident involving an adult, he was not about to be caught unprepared. He hastily strapped on a plasma cannon, the very thing he used to kill the last adult he encountered, and followed with several blasters and blades in case the cannon, for whatever reason, failed to do the job. All the while, he listened to the AI mark their approach to the planet as he prepared. He shifted his weight, adjusting his balance with decades of ingrained practice as the ship settled on the soft, loamy ground. It unsettled his stomach to think of all that water below him that could potentially drag him down to his death if he should misstep on an unstable spot of land.

The cargo hold opened, and he glared out at the marshy landscape, his vibrissae puffed out, the delicate surface of them absorbing information in the air as he raised them and stirred them with small, controlled movements. His steps were heavy as he descended the ramp, his eyes tracking along the ground. Alert to every change of temperature and shift in air around him, he strode forward, a plasma rifle in his hands, to the coordinates where he had felled the adult creature.

Not for the first time, he wished that he had been permitted to have a dorshanal during his conscription. The beast would have been good to have at his side right about now. Wishing for it did little good, however, considering that his particular unit were not permitted them. They were allowed no attachments in either training or in service, not even the companion creature common to their race. He had nothing but what little that the council gave him, his loyalty to them ensured.

Sounds from the wildlife dropped until all was quiet except for the crunch of broken brush beneath his feet as he made his way toward the ship. The scent of rot came from within, no doubt due the environment quickening the decaying process of the creature he killed inside. Even the relative protection of the ship’s hull couldn’t protect it from the high humidity and heat eating away at the remains. His vibrissae flicked with disgust and his gaze dropped down, following along the tracks left in the soft ground. Cautiously, he followed the path that the creature had taken.

Sure enough, there hidden among a tangle of vine and branches against the side of the ship wall, he could see the faint outline of a crude nest. He had not been mistaken. Lifting his rifle a little higher just in case the thing had a mate, he stalked unhurried over to the nest and peered over its edge, his eyes scanning the depths. There, dozens of long bodies curled around each other and thrashed, their long legs curled up against their bellies.

He exhaled triumphantly. Hatchlings indeed. They appeared to be only days old. Drawing his gaze along the sides of the nest he noted no fresh prints of an adult. Satisfied that another was not about to come upon him, Kaylar lowered himself into a crouch and glanced down at his prey. They were inky black with vivid yellow and green markings on them, the body possessing a metallic sheen. One wiggled nearest to him, two tiny pairs of ears of flicking as the glow of three sets of eyes that were more like pin pricks through their slitted protective folds peered up at him.

They hardly seemed like superior predators when they were so small and helpless.

Plucking up the squirming, hissing creature, Kaylar rose and traipsed back to his ship, pausing only for a moment beside a large clawed print carved into the dirt. His systems promptly cataloged it. It bore morphology and structure like those he had followed except much larger. There was a strong probability that the engineers had used a similar structure in creating some of their biotech monsters, but its size was exceptional enough to give him pause.

Turning in a slow circle, his vibrissae flared out wider, sampling the air. Nothing. He shook his head slowly, his vibrissae puffing out and flattening with a snap of disquiet. Better to take no further chances. With a growl, he hastily returned along his path to his ship and jogged up its ramp. Satisfied when it closed behind him, he made his way to the furthest end of the cargo hold where numerous containment units were bolted to the wall. He glanced down at the wiggling creature in his hand. It was very small in comparison to the units, but it could not be helped. Hopefully it would fair well enough. Setting it inside, he sealed the unit and quickly returned to the flight deck.

Earth awaited him.