The Aledan Series Book Five First Draft Exerpt - Lara

Lara opened her eyes and frowned.  It was all wrong---the gray metal ceiling, the bunk.  She was not in her dorm room on Velran where she went to sleep the previous night.  She sat up slowly, her head feeling unusually groggy. She blinked and willed her brain fog to clear and looked around the room. Nothing looked familiar, except that it reminded her of the Sential Trader, the star freighter that had brought her family to and from Velran when she was a child.

Then she saw him.  She blinked a few times to be sure he was real.  A young, dark haired man sat on a chair in the corner of the room, watching her intently.  His arms were crossed over his chest and his long, muscular legs stretched out in front of him crossed at the ankles.  He had longish dark, almost black hair and piercing green eyes like her own. He was handsome, almost beautiful, tall, with perfectly defined musculature.  Maybe too perfect.

How could he even be real?  She couldn’t feel him.  His mind was total closed to her, a high level telepathic psion.  But he was real.  He gave her a half smile as their eyes met and it was clear he found her attractive in her brief tank top and shorts nightwear.

Lara glared back at him.  He must be a Tregan she realized.  They were the only humans a telepath like herself couldn’t read. That meant she was in a bad place and this gorgeous hunk of a man could not be trusted.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that.  I’m locked in here same as you.”

“Why?  Who are you?” she demanded.

“The name is Xaver.  I’m a Federation Agent.”

“Liar! You’re a Tregan!”

“Well, yeah.  Second generation, born on Lux Fe.”

“A rape child?”

“Not my fault. Somehow, they missed my sperm donor when they were passing out contraceptive implants.  He was killed when the Federation took back Lux Fe…probably deserved it too.”  Xaver admitted.

“I’m surprised she didn’t abort you,” Lara snapped.

“Yeah, me too---when I found out. She probably would have had she known,” Xaver sighed.  “She thought I was her dead lover’s child. When she did find out, she already loved me as her son. By then my sperm donor was probably dead or off to Penta Prison world.”

“If you’re a Federation agent, why am I here---and where is here?”

“We are guests on a Tregan held freighter bound for Earth.  I was undercover and they found out I’m a double agent.  We’re in the brig.”

Lara shuddered.  “Oh, Goddess! Oh, Goddess! Why?”

“They want you for psi factor,” he said. 

“But, I don’t have psi factor, and I don’t know what it is.”

“You are psi factor---at least they think you are because your parents are psi-mates.”

“Well, it won’t do them any good.  It’s a genetically recessive trait.”

“They are going to use you to find out. Me, they will probably execute---after a few days of torture to see if they can find out what I know.” The last was uttered with a flippant bravado.

“Oh, no!” Lara was still unsure whether he was telling the truth, had no way of knowing except the expression on his face and in his eyes. The thought of this beautiful male, whatever his origin being tortured disturbed her.

That he was a Federation agent could be true.  Her father’s friend Delmran, chief of covert operations on Oltarin, told them they had second generation Tregan engineered agents. The odds that he was just a Tregan agent posing as a Fed were just as great. If what he said was true, he might possibly be her only friend here.  If not, it probably wouldn’t make any difference to her.

“How long have I been here?” she asked.

“Two days.  They kept you drugged until we got off Velran. We’re about two months from Earth.”

“I can’t go to Earth! Mom says that place is a hell hole.  I’m supposed to be in classes.  There must be a way out.”

“There’s a crew of fifty on this ship and even if we could get to the shuttle bay, we are almost out of range to reach any planet.” He explained. “We could die in space before anyone could rescue us, or the Tregans could catch us before we could be rescued.  That wouldn’t go well for either of us.”

“Zugham!” Lara swore.

“Sorry.  Our best bet is to sit tight until we’re groundside on Earth. Then maybe we could get away and contact the Feds from the Starport.”

“But that’s two months!  Two months and I will have to start the program all over again!” Lara’s voice rose with each word.  “Why the hell didn’t you stop them from taking me, Federation agent.”

“I couldn’t blow my cover.  I’m only one man against fifty.  I’m sorry, Lara.  As it was, my cover was blown anyway.”

Momentarily, the door slid open and four large men stepped inside.  One was carrying a tray of food that he set on a fold out table by Lara’s bunk.  The other three surrounded Xaver.

“On your feet traitor. Mendla has some questions for you and you better have the right answers.”

Xaver didn’t say anything and Lara couldn’t see his expression through the wall of Tregan flesh that stood between them. She saw his feet move as he apparently stood.  One Tregan led the way and the other two flanked Xaver as the door slid opened. It closed as soon as they exited. 

Staring at the closed door, Lara shuddered, wondering if she would be next. Now that Xaver was no longer a distraction, she looked around the room.  It was a Spartan freighter cabin with one large bunk, a bathroom, and a small entertainment console. She got up and crossed the room to check the storage cabinets.  Empty. At least they could have brought some of her clothes when they kidnapped her.  How inconsiderate!   All she had was what she was wearing. Two thin pieces of fabric between her and nudity.

She felt a draft as the air exchangers cycled, and the smell of food wafted to her nostrils.  It smelled palatable, making her realize that she was hungry.  With nothing else to do, she went back to her bunk and sat down on the edge to eat.  There were warm protein bars and some kind of thick, green vegetable soup.  She ate the protein bars with her fingers and drank the soup from the plastic bowl.  No eating utensils were provided. They were probably afraid she would try to use them as weapons.

She almost laughed.  A knife, fork, spoon against even one of those hulking Tregans. They were twice her bulk.  Even her expertise in chackrin wouldn’t be much good against them.  Even a swift kick in the genitals wouldn’t subdue them for long. She would need a real weapon to do any permanent damage.  Unless they landed somewhere, she had nowhere to go even if she could escape the makeshift brig.

After she finished the meager rations, she sat down in front of the entertainment console.  Before she turned it on, she closed her eyes and opened her mind to see if she could sense any normals or psions. Nothing on or off the ship as far as she could sense.  They were already too far from Velran for her to reach anyone except a psi mate there with her mind. 

But she had no psi mate and probably never would.  The odds were against it.  She didn’t care anyway.  There was a boy, now a young man, back on Oltarin her first love. If they still felt the same way when she returned to Oltarin in five years, he would be her mate---if she ever returned.  Her eyes filled with tears, as she realized she might never see her family again.  But she refused to cry and blinked them back. As long as she could stay alive, she had a chance. 

With nothing else to do, she turned on a holodrama, and half watched as her mind raced.  About two hours later, two Tregans dragged Xaver into the room and dropped him on the floor.  He grunted as he hit the floor but didn’t move until they were gone. He turned on his side and moaned.  Lara gasped as she saw his face and his bare torso.  His face was beaten and bruised with a cut over his eye and his nose apparently broken. There were bruises over his ribs as well as burn marks from electroshock sticks.  Xaver started to get up but collapsed to the floor.

“Goddess, Xaver!”  She hurried to him and squatted down beside him. “Let me help you.”  She reached under his arm and gripped his hand with her other one to help lever him up as she pushed up with her legs.  He was every bit as heavy as she expected.  Though not as bulky as the full blooded Tregans, he was big and solid, head to shoulders taller than Lara; and Lara was a tall woman.  It took most of her strength to get him into the bunk, even with his help. Even then he fell heavily on to the semi-soft mattress with a painful groan.

She hurried into the bathroom, hoping for some first aid supplies or pain meds.  All she found in the storage cabinet were a few course towels.  She took out a small one and wet it in the sink. She hoped it would be soothing.  After what they had done to him, she seriously doubted he was one of them. They didn’t just rough him up to make it look good.  They had really hurt him.  Lara was pretty sure he had some broken or cracked ribs as well as his nose.

If he weren’t half Tregan with a full mind shield, she could heal him.  So she did the only thing she could and sponged his cuts and bruises with a cool, moist towel. 

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