Finding Lara (Distant Worlds Book 3) (12 page)

She felt a whisper of
them still in her head and stood up, teetering dizzily for a moment before she
found her equilibrium.  Then she carefully moved, slowly and quietly
approaching their cage, her eyes going frequently to the broad white back of
the doctor in the next room.  She reached them and looked over the comp with
big eyes.  She really wished at that point that she could trade her language
skills for the mechanic Jax’s way with technology, because she had no clue how
to break code.  She huffed out a breath in annoyance.  So much for her great
rescue attempt.  She eyed the doctor again and then the laser scalpel that
rested on a cart close to his door.  If she could force him to open the cage
maybe they could find Barnos and the rest of the children and get out.  Lara
knew as plans went it was flawed, but it was either that or lay here and wait
for rescue.  At least it was a plan.

She went for the laser
scalpel.

***

“You want to explain how
we made it all the way to med bay without running into a single guard?”  Barnos
asked blandly.

“I am the captain. I gave
them duties.”

“And the cameras?”

“Looping.”

Well, if Lara was going
to have a barbarian conquest, the captain of the guard was a good choice
,
Barnos thought with irony, before facing the doors of med bay with his blaster
in his hand.  The two of them were now dressed nearly identically in form-fitting
nanite and long boots.  Though Barnos was not exactly surprised when he got a
sword and one blaster, as opposed to the arsenal the captain was wearing.  But
then the bastard was planning on killing him as soon as he had Lara free of the
place, so arming him too much would just be silly.  Because of his advanced
weaponry and because he did not want him at his back, he let the barbarian go
first through the med bay doors.  The man stopped just inside the doors,
however, blocking Barnos’ view until he stepped around the frozen man, and went
completely still himself.  Faced as they were by two awake and unchained
Baralians standing around Lara, who was armed only with some pathetic med
instrument, there was really nothing else he could do.  It took a moment to see
the man in the white coat struggling ineffectually under the paw of one of the
massive beasts.  Lara was so busy berating the doctor that she missed their
entrance.  The Baralians did not.  Barnos felt those eyes lock onto him and did
not dare move.  He could take one of them with the blaster, but Lara could be
harmed in the process.

“I told you if you tried
anything you would regret it, didn’t I?” she chided the bleeding man at their
feet.  Then she went still and looked up, right into Barnos’ eyes, and smiled
at him, as if they were meeting in a park and she was just so happy to see
him.  Not like she was surrounded by death on four legs.

“Barnos,” she went from
happy to relieved.  “Thank goodness.  I had no idea how I was going to find
you.”  Then she seemed to notice Forge, and lost her smile looking between them
armed and armored.  “What did I miss?”

Barnos laughed, he couldn’t
help it, and felt more than saw Forge tense further beside him.  “I could ask
the same, sassy.  Did you make some new friends?”

She tilted her head and
looked from him to Forge uneasily.  “I did.  You?”

“Nope, this one’s yours,
too.”  He shrugged his big shoulders and looked her over.  “You up for this?”

Lara met his smile with
one of her own.  “Very much.  Let’s get the children and be done with this.”

Barnos blinked at her
words and fought off a derisive snort.  No way would they make it out of there
alive if they went anywhere but directly to the space dock, but looking into
those clear bright eyes, he knew she would never agree to leave without them. 
On the other hand . . .

“Way ahead of you.”  When
he saw the blue barbarian was about to say something, he spoke up fast.  “Knew
you wouldn’t leave behind the bloodthirsty young.”  His voice was a good-natured
irony that stopped whatever the other man was going to say.  He thumbed the air
between him and Forge.  “Captain of the guard here is going to lead the way.”

Forge blinked at him
without expression, but then with a tightening of his lips, he turned back to
Lara.  “I will see you to safety.”

Barnos held out a hand
and waited.  He could feel Forge glaring at his extended hand, but he didn’t
actually care about him.  What he did care about was getting Lara off this
station before Warrung arrived.  If he had to wrestle her to the ship, he would
have to kill the big beasts at her side first.  The chances of them having that
kind of firefight and not drawing attention were slim to none.

She looked from one man
to the other, her eyes studying Forge’s weapons and then his single blaster and
sword.  She pursed her lips and patted the head of the nearest Baralian, which
incidentally had crushed the good doctor either to death, or at least
unconscious and broken.  She looked like she was going to argue, but then she
just nodded with reserve in her big trusting brown eyes and came to take his
extended hand.

Thank Fuck. 
Barnos
blew out the breath he was holding and clasped her cool little hand tighter in
his.  They might actually get out of this alive.

Lara followed Forge with
her hand held tightly in Barnos’. It had been unexpected that Forge would be helping
them.  If it did not turn out to be some kind of elaborate trap, she was going
to owe him an apology.  As it was, she would not have gone with him if he had
not shown up with Barnos as well.  But with her own pirate beside her, she felt
at least a little reassured.  She had seen him fight after all.  A scoundrel he
might be, but she was safe with him.  Her virtue not so much, but she had no
doubts about her safety.  Even now, Barnos made it a point to shelter her with
his body whenever they came around a corner, holding her at his back until he
was sure of the all clear.  Between him and the Baralians walking beside the
two of them, sniffing all around in search of a trap, she felt sure they could
handle Forge.  If need be.  She looked again at the young Baralians that walked
on four legs and still managed to come nearly to her chest.

“What are your names?” she
asked in what she hoped was passable Baralian, embarrassed that she had not
asked sooner.

Both beasts turned and
regarded her stoically.  She could feel their surprise along the mental
channels they had reopened.  They both barked out an answer and she felt their
gratitude that she had asked.  Apparently, no one else had since they were
taken from their world.  Their names, roughly translated, were Rala and Baen.

Forge hissed at her from
just ahead.  Baen, the male, gave him baleful eyes; he had not forgotten who
had shot both him and his mate in the sands earlier, even if they had been able
to heal quickly.

Barnos’ voice was the
quietest she had ever heard him speak, though the ire in his eyes was coated
with his usual irreverent humor.  “Perhaps a little more silence while we are
escaping this maximum security prison, sassy.  You can get to know each other
if we survive.”

Lara felt her cheeks heat
and did her best from then on not to speak.  She sent Barnos apologetic eyes
and ran her teeth nervously over her bottom lip whenever she was tempted to
speak through the nerves.  Every time he caught her doing it, he looked like he
wanted to laugh.  Lara got the feeling he knew exactly how much it was killing
her to be silent.  She gave him a narrow-eyed glare and tried to drop his
hand.  He just held her hand tighter and pulled her along with him.  He kept
the blaster naked in his other hand.  In truth, she was relieved.  She knew he
was silently teasing her but she felt safer with her hand in his.

Barnos was expecting
trouble around every corner, but unbelievably, it was not until they reached space
dock that they ran into it.  The Baralians saved their life, or more to the
point, Lara with her gift for languages and making friends in strange places
saved them.  The beasts smelled the trouble and wedged themselves in front of
Lara and Barnos, pushing them back before they could take the next turn. 
Barnos might not have heeded the warning if Lara had not been so silently
adamant that they follow the Baralians lead.  Because of that, it was only
Forge, walking well ahead of them, who walked into a contingent of Cor Warrung
elite cyborg guards and the evil mother fucking bastard himself.

Hearing the unsheathing
of weapons around the corner, Barnos pulled Lara back even further from the turn,
looking around for any other portal they could use that might not get them
tortured and killed.

“Well, well, Forge, isn’t
it?”  The voice was a smooth deep tone that lacked emotion.

“Lord Warrung,” They
could all hear the deference and fear in the barbarian’s voice, and the
implacable cold he faced.

“I am heartened to see
someone going about their duties.  The space dock was appallingly empty of
guard.”

“We knew you were coming
soon.  The men are preparing for your arrival.  I came to check the dock myself
for issues.”

There was a long
silence.  Barnos was still backing silently toward the nearest door to get out
of the main hall.  If he was the one Forge was answering to, he would have
known it for the steaming pile of shite it was.  And Warrung was no fool.  A
power hungry megalomaniac who got off on causing pain and suffering, but not a
fool.  They made it to the door, one of his arms around Lara while she dragged
the two huge beasts back with her by the scruff of their furry necks.  He had
to turn his back on the hall to see the controls for the door.  He just hoped
that one, nobody could hear his bloody tinkering to get the door opened without
an access code, and two, the pack of them stayed on their side of the wall
until they were out of sight.  Luckily, the Baralians seemed to be quiet
hunters.

He started tinkering as
quietly as he could; he could hear the conversation going to shite around the
corner.

After the third time
Forge started talking about the security forces and their rounds, Warrung spoke
up.  His voice frosty.  “I do not believe I have ever heard you speak so much
before.  It is as annoying as it is questionable.  If I did not know better, I
would say you were stalling, Forge.  But why would you forfeit your life
knowingly by playing games with me?”

Barnos felt Lara shiver
and press her back closer to his from her look-out position behind him.  He
could not really blame her.  If there was one thing Warrung did well, it was
shrink a man’s balls with a few words and that bloody cold tone.

With a final try, the
doors swished open.  He turned to bundle Lara into his arms and through the
portal before the sound finished registering.  The Baralians followed like the
tame beasts they weren’t and Barnos closed the door leaving them in a dark
storage room because he didn’t dare take the time to turn on the lights.  Lara
was wrapped in his arms, her back to his front, his arm still around her
waist.  He moved her around gradually until she rested protected at his back
instead, and he stood with his only blaster pointed at the door and waiting for
discovery.  When the damn beasts moved up against either side of him, he nearly
jumped out of his skin like a scared cadet.  He could see enough with his
cybernetic eye to know they were standing at attention, eyes fixed like his on
the door.  Lara wrapped both arms around his waist and pressed her body all
along his length, resting her cheek against his back.  If they were not
surrounded by wild beasties, with trained cyborg killers and his arch nemesis
between them and freedom from torture and certain death, it would have
possibilities.

Lara rested her length
against the heat and power of Barnos’ back.  The nanite armor protected against
everything from laser blasts to knife wounds, but it was a surprisingly supple
fabric.  She could feel every hard contour of his back through the thin armor
and her wispy draped dress did nothing to buffer the heat and power his body
seemed to permeate.  She pressed herself against all that raw power because he
made her feel safe while they waited to be discovered and probably killed.

It took some time for
them to realize they were not going to be discovered and dragged out to a fate
worse than death.  It was not until the Baralians gave her the all clear that
she relaxed her grip on Barnos and took a deep breath.

“They are gone,” she
relayed the message, and felt some of the tension leave that big body.

“Well, thank fuck for
that,” he muttered, still low.  He squeezed the arms Lara had wrapped around
his waist.  His tone turned teasing.  “You’ll have to save that for later, sassy. 
We still need to get a ship out of here before they realize we are gone and
come looking.”

Lara sputtered at his
arrogant assumption, pulling her hands back even while she couldn’t help but
laugh.  “You really are the worst scoundrel.”

“I am, I really am,” he
replied jovially, without turning around, his hands already on the control
box.  “But that’s why you like me.”

She gasped through
another laugh.  “It is not!”  Then she blew out a loud breath and backpedaled. 
“I do not!”

He stopped what he was
doing and turned, took a step back to her and with a big burly arm around her waist;
he hauled her up his body for a devastatingly thorough kiss.  Even in these circumstances,
he wasn’t quick about it, but took his time using his tongue and lips to stake
his claim, until she had no choice but to groan into that hot mouth and kiss
him back.  By the time he dropped her back on her feet between the two watching
Baralians, Lara was weak kneed and tingling tight in
all
her girly
places.

He opened the door and
grabbed her hand, yanking her along behind him while she was still high on that
kiss.  She came crashing back to earth a moment later when Barnos cursed and
pushed her bodily into the wall.  “Stay here, sassy, I’ll be right back.”

“What?  Wait!”  She went
to follow him but the female Rala used her full body to nudge Lara back to the
wall while Baen followed Barnos.  “Rala, what?”

She felt Rala enter her
mind and caution her to silence.  She went quiet listening for what the others
might have heard, but it was several moments before she caught the distant
blasting and the roar of an angry Baralian on the hunt.  She tried to move
forward again not really thinking about anything except Barnos in trouble, but
Rala nudged her firmly back and basically sat on her until with some relief she
saw first Baen and then Barnos come back around the corner at a fast clip.  His
left arm was bleeding.  Baen had blood on his snout but that wild part of him
projected cold satisfaction.

“What happened?”

“No time for talk, sassy,
move that fine arse.”  He grabbed her hand and yanked her with him back the way
he had just come.  When they hit the broad doors of the space dock, Barnos
grabbed her waist with two hands and lifted her over several bodies without
slowing down.  She saw four; none of them looked like standard death game personnel. 
Bigger, and unlike a few of the guards and Barnos himself, these were so
augmented they were practically machines. 
Cyborgs
, she thought with an
audible gasp.  And that was all she had time for before Barnos was hauling her
up the plank of a shiny spacecraft.  It was small and gleaming.  Even at a glance,
she could see the quality and the array of weapons were first class.  As soon
as he had her shoved in the door, Barnos dropped her, making a mad dash for the
bridge.  “Close her up!”

Lara located the controls
and closed the doors.  She ran for the bridge.  “What about the others?” she
called crashing sideways into a bulkhead when the ship shuddered to full power
around her.  She slipped on the short ladder to the command deck, but managed
the climb to find Barnos with his cybernetic arm tech plugged into the command
port.  “What are you doing?”

“Breaking the passcode,”
he growled absently as he concentrated on something she could not see.

She blinked at him
dumbly.  “You can do that?”  Then she shook off her surprise.  “We have to get
Thaos and the other children, and Forge, he was helping us.  We can’t just
leave him!”

“We try to save anyone
else we die!” he gritted back starkly, then with a flash of sparks along his
cybernetic arm that had him cursing, he fell back into the pilot chair and
prepped for take-off.

Lara was left blinking
stupidly again.  “You broke the code?”

Barnos threw her a wicked
smile, his eyes bright with adrenaline, and if she was not mistaken, enjoyment,
“I’m a pirate, darlin’.  It’s what I do.”  Then they were moving.

“What about the shield? Won’t
they stop us?” she asked, watching the screen view as they headed for the
deceptively open space beyond the clear shields.

“This is Warrung’s ship. 
I’m betting it’s keyed into the shields and has a cloak.  He likes to get in
and out without detection.  They won’t even see us.”

She looked from the
view-screen to him.  “Then how does he keep others from stealing his ships? 
Surely he has a failsafe beside the passcode.”

“Probably rigged to blow,”
Barnos muttered with a dismissing shrug.

“Well,” she gave him big
eyes, feeling her heart beating out of her chest as they came to the shield.  “That
would be bad, right?”

“One problem at a time; won’t
be an issue until Warrung figures out the ship was taken,” Barnos said mildly
and pushed the controls down.  As the ship whooshed out through the shield and
into open space, Lara was flung back in her seat with the force of it.

They were clear and in
open space a moment later.  “That was too fucking easy,” Barnos muttered and
started going through the computer systems, manically searching for what Lara
assumed was the failsafe program.  Lara watched him, feeling helpless.  She was
good with languages and had a great memory.  She could even pilot a ship if
necessary, but she had no ability with tech, or comps.

A minute later, the first
blast hit the shields aft.  Barnos stopped his search, yelling at her, “Lock
yourself down!”

She sat in the first
available jump seat and buckled her restraints, giving a worried thought to the
Baralians she had left in the bay and hoped they wedged themselves in
somewhere, because there was nothing she could do for them now.  Then Barnos
had the small craft flipping and whirling while he fired off volley after
volley, dodging the four fleet ships that pursued them.