Page 35 of Argurma Warrior (The Argurma Chronicles #1)

D octor Ryder was infuriating. Kaylar had often heard females spoken of in such terms but had never given it much credence, considering it merely the impatience of his brethren when dealing with them, but Doctor Ryder gave him a newfound appreciation for what they experience but without any of the fondness or familiarity that those males had possessed for the females in question. He would have happily murdered the human on the spot if it had yielded a quicker result than her evasive answers and stubborn silence.

“I keep telling you that I can’t give you the information you want,” she retorted after what was the fifth round of questioning. “Telling you doesn’t benefit me in any way, not to mention that I was entrusted not to give to anyone unauthorized to have it. Besides,” she grumbled, “it won’t do anything to help us.”

Meg frowned and leaned in closer. Unlike Kaylar, who preferred to stand, his female sat on a plush seat across from the scientist, placing her disconcertingly within reach of the other female. Not that he truly had anything to worry about. Meg was picking up her training well and he was confident that she would be capable of overpowering Doctor Ryder should she do something unwise.

“What do you mean?” Meg asked. “You speak as if there’s something alive in here with us that has the ability to make that decision.”

Kaylar folded his arms, crossing them over his chest as he glowered down at the other female. He had also processed her words to possess that meaning, confirming the suspicions that had begun to rise in his mind over the last several zecs. His eyes narrowed speculatively. There was also her reaction that he was now included in his calculations. Like Meg, Doctor Ryder had possessed a familiarity with his form. Though her reaction had been more fearful than Meg’s, she had calmed with an unexpected speed that he dismissed as perhaps a human tendency to latch onto a form of security like so many vulnerable beings. With the current facts in place, the likelihood of it being a coincidence, however, was decreased exponentially.

And unlike their initial encounter, he was at the end of his limited patience. That he had lasted as long as he had was credited solely to the calming influence of his female. It was not a quality for which he was known in his clan.

Perhaps it was time to remind this human what she was dealing with and prove his suspicions once and for all. An Argurma could be deceptively calm in appearance if one did not know to be aware of the position of one’s mandibles and vibrissae. As an elite warrior he possessed more control than most and therefore seldom demonstrated the full extent of his anger, but if she was familiar with the signals there would be little likelihood that, as a highly expressive human, she would be able to conceal it from him.

He did not make any sound of aggression. Kaylar merely took one single step forward to gain the female’s attention as he allowed his vibrissae to rise and whip around him. Towering over the human, his mandibles widened in the most subtle of his kind’s threats.

It had the predicted effect.

Upon glancing up at his approach, Doctor Ryder’s eyes widened alarm, her entire body stiffening as she shot to her feet, upsetting the table between her and Meg so that it slammed forward into his female’s legs. Meg let out a surprised hiss of pain which increased Kaylar’s annoyance, but this time in equal measure with himself since he had not calculated his female becoming damaged by this.

He glanced over at Meg in concern, but she waved him off, her own eyes trained suspiciously on Doctor Ryder. With a grunt of acknowledgement, he too turned his attention fully to the scientist who was now pressed against the wall, her eyes locked on him as the pungent scent of fear flooded his scent receptors and her heart rate accelerated. Her gaze snapped briefly to his left in a hunted look, a frightened creature looking for any means of escape, before returning to him just as quickly.

“S…stay back!” she shouted, prompting Meg to also stand.

His female’s eyes flicked to him, surprise, followed by comprehension, flitting across her face before settling into hard, angry lines as she stepped toward Doctor Ryder. The scientist glanced over at her and shrank away with a beseeching look.

“You, too! Don’t come near me,” Doctor Ryder demanded, her arm snapping up in front of her defensively as if to ward his female back.

“Don’t you think you are overacting just a little?” Meg inquired coolly.

The other female sneered. “I am not an idiot. I don’t know what this is, but I was told that he wouldn’t hurt me. Apparently, he has no issue with attacking me if I don’t give him whatever he demands!”

Meg made a show of glancing at him before looking back to Doctor Ryder with her eyebrows raised. “I didn’t see him doing anything aggressive. He moved a single step toward you, and you freaked out. Unless you’ve come to know something about his species in such a short time that I don’t.”

Doctor Ryder’s mouth snapped shut and she swallowed visibly, her face paling with comprehension of her error.

“You would not possess such knowledge,” Kaylar affirmed, his vibrissae settling once more to writhe in annoyance around his shoulders as he just barely retained control over his anger. “You recognize my species. You have tech that could be outdated Argurma technology. I am not familiar with outdated models of stasis units, but this is a reasonable suspicion. As is the presence of unstable AI tech that is more advanced than anything else within this facility.”

He considered for a moment, his vibrissae whipping. Now he knew what it was about the security systems that had seemed so familiar and had lingered in his mind even after he returned to the laboratory. “And your security system,” he added as he began to slowly advance on her. “It has elements familiar from the outdated xerex’it1220 model holding cells until they were outlawed by the intergalactic council. They were considered… cruel and inefficient. They would have been in use even fifty solars previously. I calculate that an Argurma exploratory vessel discovered this world but that its occupant suffered damage before they could report the location of this world. You know of my kind—because you had an Argurma captive in your possession,” he snarled vehemently.

As he spoke, Doctor Ryder’s complexion took on a peculiar tinge as if she were perhaps ill and even though she now shook her head in denial, he processed that they were now at the conclusion of her lies as a look of defeat filled her eyes.

“Okay. Okay,” she croaked. “Yes, an alien vessel did crash on this island. I was not involved with the initial studies, however, as it happened five years before I was assigned here. I didn’t even have an opportunity to study the files until I was en route. I can only tell what I recall from the files. According to the transcripts, the alien life form was sealed in the stasis unit—the twin of the one that I moved into my lab, repaired, and later used. Those in charge at that time revived him and kept him in a secure room based off some of the tech that they were able to decipher from his ship.”

She shrugged helplessly. “This entire facility was built on the crash site with the intent of studying the technology and the alien lifeform. But aside from the holding cell, AI drive, and stasis units that we were able to remove and study, the ship itself has been entirely inaccessible to us. But the alien—” she whispered, “they were fascinated with him and wanted to learn how to replicate the biocompatible technology. And that he was able to take grafts of new technology onto his alien tech, was a marvel. There was such an opportunity to learn from him, and initially had shown a willingness to attempt communication, but by the time I was assigned here he was demonstratively hostile with anyone who approached his cell.”

Kaylar closed his eyes, shutting her out as he struggled with his rage. One of his brethren had been locked down here and studied. It was a cruel irony considering that his species had done such for generations, learning how to advance their own species from studying others. It was their sole motivation to pursue their interest in humans. As he got to know and admire Meg, he had wished to spare her from that fate but had given no thought to others of her race or any other who attracted the attention of the council and its scientists. Species that had disappeared within the labs, never to be seen again.

But not an Argurma. His lips thinned. No Argurma would tolerate captivity for long. The male had sentenced himself to death by doing the one thing he had been able to do—escape long enough to kill his captors even if it meant death.

“I process that the male escaped and killed your people.”

Meg drew in a sharp breath, surprised by his statement, but Doctor Ryder’s lips twisted bitterly in response. Despite her fear, she briefly drew up courage around her to give him a sharp look. “It was because of a stupid mistake. A moment of pity turned into a slaughter.”

“One you survived,” he reminded her.

Though he kept his tone flat and took care to not emote, it angered him that the male had suffered experiments by the clumsy, primitive species that inhabited this planet and had been abandoned to suffer and die alone while she—who was responsible in part for his suffering—lived on.

A humorless laugh escaped her, and she gave her surroundings another calculated look. ““Do not worry, that monster survived as well,” she muttered. “It cost the lives of two scientists to lure him into the lab where we were studying the primary stasis unit that he was discovered in. My assistant barely managed to seal him into it and put him back into stasis.” Her gaze returned to him, a look of regret stealing across her face. “My assistant died from his injuries that same night.”

Something within Kaylar eased with the knowledge that there was a probability of the explorer’s survival. “I wish to see the male.”

She shivered miserably. “Of course, you do. Well, come on. Let’s get this over with,” she grumbled as she slipped nervously by him and headed to the elevation unit.

Grabbing his female’s hand in his—some wary, desperate part of him unable to bear the thought of being parted from her at the moment—he followed after the scientist. Her shoulders hunched with the awareness of his presence behind her, but Doctor Ryder did not falter on her course.

“How will we access the male’s cell?” Kaylar asked and he promptly squelched the faint amusement that rose within him as she shuddered at the sound of his voice.

Although she had managed to regain some control after he intentionally triggered her fear, she still was very much afraid of him. And that provided him with an undeniable amount of satisfaction while conversely making him annoyed with himself. She said, herself, that she was a late arrival to the lab and so the experiments on the male would have been ongoing for many solars before she took control of the facility. The damage had been done by that point. Not even an Argurma warrior could stand up to solars of torture before losing themselves in madness.

He processed that his female possessed similar thoughts when a calculated look crossed her face as she slipped into the elevation unit behind him. Entirely distrustful now of Doctor Ryder, Kaylar positioned his large body to block the scientist’s access to Meg. With an uncompromising glare at the other female, he puffed out his vibrissae and raised the ends defensively. The probability of Doctor Ryder being capable of reaching Meg and attempting to use her against him was minimalized but not entirely effective since Meg chose that moment to press against his arm in order to peer around him as the elevation unit began its decent.

He growled, the sound tapering off in a huff when she pointedly ignored him. She did not make it easy to efficiently protect her when she was determined to disregard his efforts completely as suited her. Instead of retreating at his warning, she pressed forward even closer.

“How long were you stationed here before he escaped?” she asked.

He gave her a quizzical look. What did that matter?

“I don’t see how that matters,” Doctor Ryder replied, echoing his thoughts.

Meg peered shrewdly at the other human. “How long?”

The scientist shrugged. “Two months, though I had spent much of that time becoming familiarized with the laboratory, my personal lab and the equipment.” She swallowed. “I met the alien a week before his escape.”

He stilled. Of course. His eyes narrowed speculatively on Doctor Ryder. “You released him.”

Her eyes dropped. “As I said, it was a mistake. When I saw him—well, you will see what I mean—I was horrified. I had read the files, of course, but it had not prepared me for the reality of seeing what they had done to him. I had hoped showing him mercy and attempting to establish friendship with him would restore attempts at communication and I could make a case to cease the experiments.” She angled her head to peer up at him. “I thought it was working. He calmed when I came into the room and, after working with him for a while and seeing to it that he had freedom to move and sufficient food provided for him, he seemed to be trying to communicate with me.”

“What happened?” Meg whispered.

She lifted her hands in a demonstrative gesture of presenting herself unarmed—a human gesture of helplessness perhaps. “I have no idea. I woke in the middle of the night to the security alarms going off and the screams of my colleagues and the workers assigned here. There shouldn’t have been any way for him to get out of the secured lab unless—” her eyes widened and she drew her bottom lip into her mouth and clamped down on it.

A quiver of renewed anger flooded Kaylar’s systems.

“Unless someone had accessed the lab and was in there with him,” he finished as the elevator came to a stop. “One of your colleagues desired access to him with you unaware. Possibly to continue whatever damage they had been inflicting upon him.”

Doctor Ryder sighed. “That’s quite possible. Everything happened so fast and then I sealed myself in the stasis unit to await help, all the while blaming myself. It hadn’t occurred to me that anyone would do such a thing without orders, especially when I was clear about how I wished to proceed. I was stationed here as the head scientist, no one was supposed to have access without my say-so or carry out any unauthorized activity, but some of the scientists who had worked previous rotations on the island expressed considerable frustration—even hatred, I think—for him. You will see why—you will see what they turned him into. This way,” she directed as she quickly stepped out from the elevation unit.

Kaylar and Meg followed after her and his head cocked curiously as he peered around. Lower level three was no more impressive than the two that proceeded above it. He had briefly been down there before but had not noted anything particularly remarkable about the corridor. Certainly not the presence of a lost Argurma explorer.

“I presume that one of the blank areas within the schematics is where the male is hidden. I had processed that it might have been back up power generators but my calculations have proven wrong frequently since arriving,” he rumbled thoughtfully.

Doctor Ryder glanced back at him in surprise but reluctantly nodded. “Like I said, this place was built around the crash, including his containment lab. Because it requires high security clearance to access, which was given to very few select scientists on the team, we don’t use the regular elevator. There is another, right over here.”

Coming to a stop in front of the door at the end of the hall, she did not make any effort to access the room but instead lifted a metal badge which she ran over the wall to the door’s right. The wall parted, revealing the interior of a secondary elevation unit, and she stepped inside. Turning, she grimaced and waved them forward.

“This would be it.”

Kaylar was uneasy about accompanying the human into the lower levels of the laboratory where his brethren had been recaptured and detained. Despite his insistence on seeing the male, the shadows boiled within his systems, shrieking fatalistically of danger lurking unseen. That he would become the next experiment in the other male’s place, or Kaylar would take his place beside the explorer. He clicked his mandibles defiantly, the sound temporarily scattering the shadows as it reorientated him to the present and he forced himself to step inside the smaller elevation unit with his female. He was tempted to leave her behind for her own safety, and yet he clung to her as much as she held onto him, his vibrissae sliding against her head and jaw, reassuring him.

He did not know what he expected, but when they stepped out from the elevator into an expansive room, the shadows within his systems rose up with a howl at the sight of the stasis unit standing on end and the defilement of the Argurma slumber within. A dozens of voices tore at his mind, screaming through him, each of them suffering as he imagined that the male had suffered. His vibrissae whipping wildly, he surged forward without thought toward the unit. Desperate to do something—anything—to correct this wrong. To obliterate anything and everything that would attempt to bring this fate upon him as well. A female’s cry was the only sound within that space that he could even hear through the fury of his shadows, and it was all that saved him from the brink of insanity as he just barely brought himself to a full stop in front of the unit seconds before he was able to plow his reinforced claws into it.

He blinked, his rational mind returning and stepped back with a pained sound. He could not release the male. Not if what the scientist said was true. With further violent disorientation from a long period in stasis, the male would be a danger to Meg. With an angry growl, he dropped back, snagging his female in his arms as he stormed from the room.