Page 2 of Hainn (Sectors New Allies #19)

CHAPTER TWO

Current time…

J ezari flitted through the woods of Sanctuary Valley, evading the security patrols with ease. The men wouldn’t stop her—she was Badari and had as much right to be here as they did—but it was a game to her to break rules and thwart those in charge. She was also extremely tired of every Badari Warrior being in her business and concerned about her welfare.

Sure she’d nearly died at the hands of the Director of the Khagrish facility where she was created and okay it had taken her a year of constant nursing and care by the pack healers and her sisters to regain her physical conditioning but that was all in the past. Why couldn’t people let it go? Did they think she appreciated the constant reminders of how fragile and close to the afterlife she’d been? A person could only be so grateful for so long and Jezari had reached her limit a long time ago.

Pausing at the edge of the great lake which was the centerpiece of the valley, she considered her attitude. It was as if what she’d gone through had left her a different person than the Jezari who was locked into a life draining pod by the enemy. Like a butterfly emerging from the chrysalis. The lofty idea made her giggle. Too grandiose by half. But she was different now. The old Jezari had been diligent, head down, happy to complete whatever tasks she’d been assigned and then ask for more. Nowadays she had only a hazily defined assignment as an assistant to her Alpha, Keshara and most of the time she shirked even that. Not that her sister asked her to do much. She carried messages, she observed meetings and wrote notes…her Alpha was involved in running the human side of the valley, for which she noticed the male Alphas had little patience. The humans had no idea Keshara wasn’t alpha born like the others with the title and no one was going to tell them so her authority was unquestioned by those the Badari protected and worked with.

If I had a real job, one that mattered…if they’d only allow me to fight the Khagrish …but that was a lost cause. Aydarr himself had decreed she was exempt from any combat related assignment. Jezari was sure her problem with her ‘job’ was the lack of depth and meaning. She couldn’t take it too seriously.

And Keshara never found fault with her. Jezari was good at last minute pushes to catch up on deliverables and appear to have been working the entire time.

“But it isn’t me ,” she declared to the entire forest, spreading her arms wide. She didn’t much like the current version of herself but fitting into the valley was hard. Her sisters had had a year of finding their way among the other Badari and the humans while she’d been stuck in the hospital bed, recovering. Even Raeblinn, who’d been her assigned nursemaid for the year, had managed to become part of the community when not on duty. “Face it, you’re a square peg and here there are only round holes,” she muttered as she kicked off her shoes and hid them under a low hanging bush.

Jezari took a running start and dove into the cool waters of the lake. This had become her favorite thing to do. Once in the water she had the total solitude she craved and swimming was like flying to her. Badari could stay submerged for incredible lengths of time and she reveled in the ability. She’d been gradually exploring the lake further and further out from shore, taking note of the best fishing grounds and where the various freshwater dwellers had their nests and nurseries. The South Seas pack had claimed large swathes of the lake as their own and did the majority of the fishing and aqua harvesting for the commissary. Once a week or so Jezari would spend her time fishing as well, often bringing a huge catch to the kitchen due to her knowledge of the lakebed. The South Seas men seemed to regard the lake as more of a recreational area than an ecology to be studied, which suited her fine. She had no desire to share what was becoming her specialty.

Besides, she’d often heard them speak disparagingly about her beloved lake, comparing it to their beautiful ocean and finding it lacking, which to her was nonsense. She’d bitten her tongue more than once in the commissary or at the various social events Aydarr insisted on having.

Today she was planning to delve into the mystery at the heart of the lake—the vast depths where no one else ventured. So far she’d only investigated the edge of the area because she’d been working on increasing her endurance. The lake bottom was incredibly far below the surface and she was a little scared to dive it, but the tiny edge of fear only drove her adrenaline. Badari didn’t suffer the bends from doing deep dives and surfacing the way humans did either. Nor did the increasing pressure of the water affect them. Reaching the edge of the abyss where the bottom began its gradual sloping into the abyss, Jezari surfaced, took in three deep breaths and dove. The water grew darker and colder as she descended but something drew her on.

The lure was a siren’s call in her mind, as if a revelation was waiting for her in the depths and if she could reach just a tiny bit farther, she’d grasp the treasure.

Her inner predator, which had been quite subdued and silent since the time in the Khagrish pod, suddenly awoke with a snarl and shoved the body they shared toward the surface. Now the need to break into the open air was the driving force and Jezari struggled to control her panic. She’d gotten so intent on whatever she was going to find in the depths she’d overstayed her lungs’ capacity to hold air. Fortunately her Badari strength drove her upward and she flung herself above the water’s surface in an explosion of spray. Flopping onto her back, she floated, breathing hard.

Maybe even a Badari couldn’t reach the bottom in this spot without help.

As she made her way lazily to shore she pondered the issue. If there was anything to be found at the bottom of the abyss other than rocks, she was going to need the lung capacity to dive, explore and resurface. A dim memory of her early days in the hospital came to her. She’d needed help breathing then and Dr. Garrison had provided the healers with a device which augmented the body’s intake of air. Jezari had no idea about the science behind the small machine but while making her way to shore she remembered how much the booster had helped. When she left the hospital after a year, all of her things had been packed in a container and sent with her to the cave where the Badari sisters lived. She hoped the breather had been included, Dr. Garrison had said once it was adapted to one person’s use it couldn’t be given to another and Jezari couldn’t imagine Raeblinn throwing it out. Her sister was too practical for that.

Eagerly she headed for the residential area of the valley, impatient to open the container and see if what she sought was there. If not she’d go steal one from the hospital. The compulsion to explore the center of the lake was so strong Jezari didn’t think twice about committing minor thievery to accomplish her goal.

Luckily she hadn’t had to commence a life of petty crime because she found the tiny booster at the bottom of the container from her time in the hospital, along with a number of other things which would have been equally useless in her current life. When she went to dinner with her sisters that evening she was unusually happy and gave Raeblinn a big hug, which surprised everyone, Jezari having been distant from all of them since she was released. Dinner morphed into a party even though the only one aware of the reason for her good mood was Jezari. She was pleased to have given her sisters an excuse to be happy and silly for an evening and while she was laughing and dancing with them the thought of managing to go deeper into the lake was never far from her mind.

Next day she was up early and gone from the residence cave before anyone else was awake. The mist drifted on the surface of the lake when she arrived at her favorite spot on the shore and when she dove in the shock of the cold water made her inner beast growl. Swimming to the drop off point, Jezari considered the issue of the predator entwined in her DNA. She was confident she could have stayed submerged for quite a bit longer yesterday but the beast had panicked. Jezari’s alien predator DNA was a great cat, she knew, and not all that fond of water.

Reaching the place where she’d begin her dive for the second time, Jezari took a few minutes to float on her back, first offering a prayer to the Great Mother and then directing her thoughts to the beast. Offering reassurance about their ability to remain at great depths for a long time, Jezari reviewed the procedure for using the breath booster, which she had affixed to her chest under her bathing suit. I’ll watch the time as well, she promised the cat. I visited Stores and requisitioned a special chrono that can take the pressure at the depth we’re going to. Kelly in Stores had led her to an entire bin full of chronos, which the Badari had taken from the Khagrish and which the alien scientists had stolen from their prisoners and been given by the pirates as loot. She’d found several that would do but the one she eventually selected was durable enough to withstand anything she could do to it. Jezari tapped the face of the item now strapped to her wrist. We can’t panic like yesterday. I don’t want to drown, you don’t want to drown and there’s no danger of it happening with the breather as long as I’m cognizant of the time and start our ascent with a margin for error.

There was no answer from the alien predator, which rarely communicated in words. Jezari took the lack of response as a positive in this case. She set the timer on the watch, took three deep breaths and slipped below the surface. As she descended in a controlled dive, she worked hard to maintain her even heart rate and to stay calm. She reached the point where yesterday’s dive had abruptly ended and kept going, relieved not to feel so much as a tremor from her beast. The breather was making a noticeable difference as it manufactured air and circulated it inside her body to augment the air she’d stored in her lungs. Bubbles drifted lazily away from her body as the device vented carbon dioxide.

The further down she went, the stronger the pull to explore became, as if there was a beacon far below tuned to a frequency only she could hear. When she finally reached the bottom and hovered a foot or two above the lakebed, not trusting it to be solid, Jezari was disappointed. Aside from a scattering of rocks and a few extremely odd looking plants there was nothing there. Certainly nothing to lure her to the spot. Focusing inward for a moment, she concentrated on the subliminal pull which had influenced her to make this trip and swam to the west in response. Fortunately Badari eyes were one of the features where the Khagrish scientists had made a lot of effort with their DNA designs and she could see perfectly well, although colors were washed out at this depth. A few yards from her arrival point, she caught a glimpse of an object partially buried in the muck and swam to it. The surface extending above the soil was smooth, inviting her to touch the graceful curve of the metal, but ended in a jagged tear where it had been severed from whatever it was originally a part of. The piece was the size of a large boulder and didn’t move at all when she pushed.

Speculating what this could be, she raised her eyes and had to stifle a gasp. The lakebed was strewn with fragments and pieces of debris, some larger than the one she’d found first, but others much smaller. Jezari allowed herself to drift over the field of wreckage and found a piece the size of a flyer and then another even larger. Hurrying onward, she came to a huge piece of debris, which appeared to be the main body of whatever had crashed here. It towered above her and she had no idea how much of it was buried below the waterline but the craft had been gigantic. Excited, she swam all around it and identified several ways inside the hulk.

Temptation pricked at her but Jezari was tired and had to make her ascent besides. Today wasn’t the day to risk exploring the wreck. Next dive she could venture inside. Forcing herself to swim away from the bulk of the crashed ship, she took note of more objects scattered along the lakebed, creating a map in her head of the entire area. As soon as she got to her residence cave she planned to draw it out for future reference.

She dipped close to the lakebed to pick up a small object and examined it. There was no other conclusion to make but that it was a broken cup or a vessel. There was a pretty design running along the rim, hard to make out in the gloom at this depth even with Badari eyesight, but it was enough to reach a decision to take this shard to the surface with her. Tucking it carefully into the small bag at her belt, Jezari explored for a few more minutes and then decided she’d better be done for the day.

Beginning the long ascent and reminding her inner beast there was no need for panic or rushing —the breather had supplemented her natural ability to remain submerged nicely. Jezari was certain she could stay even longer next time. As she rose through the cold water, she pondered what she’d found.

It had to be the alien spacecraft on which MARL the artificial intelligence who protected the valley and provided their power, had arrived. She recalled scraps of conversation about MARL and the way he’d awakened after 10,000 years when Jill, Aydarr’s mate, entered the cave where his previous owner had died and become entombed in the stone. MARL had accepted Jill as his new ‘authority’ and by all accounts was a tremendous help to the Badari. As the light began to penetrate the depths where she was moving, she remembered quite a few of the Badari were skeptical and wary of MARL, accepting his help but reserving their full trust. The people he’d served were unknown and the Badari had a profound distrust of aliens after 800 years of slavery under the Khagrish.

MARL had told Jill his owner’s spaceship crashed in the deepest part of the lake, although the pilot and he had ejected safely.

I guess that’s what I found down there, she thought excitedly. But on the heels of her triumph, Jezari decided she wasn’t going to share the news of her discovery with anyone else yet. She wanted to keep the find to herself for a while, do more exploring, and see what was there. This was a thing that was hers alone and no one would be harmed if she kept her secret. MARL had said more than once there was no way to reach the ship and no point in searching out the wreckage. Jezari had proven him wrong on the first point and she was determined to gather useful information to refute the second as well.

She noticed she was drifting toward the end of the lake where the water plummeted thousands of feet to a riverbed far below and tried to course correct. The tug on her limbs was insistent, hard to resist, as tired as she was and she fought harder, finally calling upon her inner predator to help her fight the current. Her lack of attention could prove disastrous if she came too close to the falls. Reaching the surface finally, she had only an instant to feel relief and grab fresh air before she was swept into the giant whirlpool that dominated this part of the lake approaching the falls.

With a scream of rage and fear, she battled the swirling, powerful current seeking to toss and turn her and eventually drown her. She vaguely remembered Aydarr had forbidden anyone to swim to the whirlpool after the South Seas men had made a game of challenging it and then Badari cubs had planned to imitate the grownups. There was no one to hear her distress and come to help.