“Slow down, brother,” Doom said, his hand on my shoulder holding me back.
I brushed it off and jumped to my feet. A small wave of dizziness indeed forced me to slow down. “I need to get back down immediately,” I said in a frantic voice.
“You just got killed down there,” Doom argued. “We need to reason with—”
“I need to rescue my mate before she dies,” I snapped, interrupting him.
Doom slightly recoiled, his eyes widening in shock before his jaw dropped in understanding. His eyes flicked my throat, which naturally wasn't swollen on this new body.
“They awakened?” he whispered.
“Yes. But she is dying. They are starving down there,” I said while quickly putting on the clothes my Soulcatcher Martha had prepared for me. “Her lips were terribly parched, so she’s likely also severely dehydrated.”
“I will prepare some oral rehydration therapy for her,” Jessica said, moving towards the counters of the Infirmary.
Doom nodded gratefully at his Soulcatcher before turning back to me. “I rejoice for you finding your mate, my brother, but she’s terrified. We need to calm her first before you can help her.”
My brain heard and understood the logic of his words, but my every instinct yelled for me to rush back to her, caution be damned.
“I have touched her mind,” Reklig said in a soft voice. My head jerked towards the Scelk, eager to hear what his mind-reading ability had allowed him to gather from my female. “Doom is right. She is indeed terrified. However, she did not want your death. Her companions thought you were a Kryptid and reacted violently to protect her. She thinks we want to harm them to avenge your death.”
“We don't!” I stupidly exclaimed, as if he was the one that needed convincing.
“But she doesn't know that,” Doom countered in a gentle but firm tone. “That is why we need to reassure her first while we prepare a care package for them.”
“We can send her a holographic message,” Madeline suggested. “We can stick a holocard on one of the probes and ask her to consent for us to come down there.”
“That’s a great idea,” I replied, feeling restless. “Let’s do it quickly.”
I tried to mentally reach out to my woman, needing to know she was fine. But I met a murky wall of confusion. I couldn’t tell if psychic disruptors were making it difficult, or if my female either didn’t possess psychic abilities, or if hers were too weak to establish contact from such a relatively short distance.
Madeline made a beeline for the drawer near the cooling unit that contained the blank holocards. Despite being of a good size, the medical bay looked almost cramped with the entire crew present to check in on me. The two large rebirth tables next to the examination one ate up a good part of the space as well. But it was Stran, standing next to my rebirth table and staring at me with needy eyes that finally snapped me out of my semi state of panic.
I crouched before the Creckel, my hands framing his dragon face. “There were a lot of your people down there, my friend,” I said in a soft voice. “They were modified, but they were not mindless. They protected my female. We’re going to get them, too, alive and well.”
Stran once more emitted that heartbreaking keening sound, but this time with gratitude. He bumped his snout against my shoulder before carefully rubbing his scaly cheek against mine. I wrapped an arm around his thick, muscular neck and gave him an affectionate hug. I had never seen the formidable war machine so emotional and vulnerable in the three years I had known him. Savage and bloodthirsty on the battlefield but mischievous with our unit, Stran was otherwise mostly introverted and introspective.
When I released him, he gave me another friendly bump. As I rose to my feet, I was startled to see Madeline raise the camera of the holocard in front of Doom. I opened my mouth to argue, but Reklig placing a hand on my shoulder silenced me.
“She saw you die,” Reklig said. “Dragons will look like Kryptids to them,” he added in an apologetic tone. “It might be best that a Xian Warrior addresses her. Humans were already very well aware of them being allies before her abduction.”
“She’s not one of the original scientists,” I countered, drawing surprised looks from my companions. “She’s much too young.”
“She would be their child then,” Doom speculated.
I nodded. “I believe so.”
“Good to know,” Doom said before turning back to the camera. With a gesture from his head, he indicated for Madeline—Reklig’s mate—to start recording.
“Greetings. My name is Doom, and I am one of the leaders of the Vanguard. As you may be aware, we are the Peacekeepers of the Galactic Coalition. We are here on a rescue mission. The war with the Kryptid is over. We have won. We are now seeking to free all of General Khutu’s prisoners and experiment victims. Recently, we found out Creckels had been held in this location. We came here to rescue them, along with any other captives, and to bring you all home.”
Doom gestured towards Stran, who slowly approached. Madeline shifted the camera to face him, and the Creckel began modulating a series of almost howling sounds. He moved his legs and head in a strange pattern, then shifted upwards the scales covering his body, as if he was readying to fire the bladed-darts that protruded beneath them whenever he entered into combat mode. But this time, that gesture was devoid of any threat. He made another keening sound before looking at Doom.
I had no idea what the heck Stran had just said to the other Creckels, but it could only appease them further to see one of their own.
“We understand how afraid you must be right now,” Doom said, taking over the message again. “You have been trapped down there for a long time. It was normal for your companions to protect you against an intruder. We are not angry. All is well. We should have announced ourselves better before coming down, but we thought there were no survivors. This time, we request your permission to come back into your base and to bring you the basic necessities, including fresh water and food. There is still too much debris blocking the way, so only one of our companions with the ability to fly can come assess your situation, while the rest of us continue to open the way. If you consent, you can either say ‘yes’ to this device or press on the blinking button. We look forward to meeting all of you.”
Madeline ended the recording and replayed it for us. A 3D hologram of Doom appeared, conveying his message. While pleased with it, I was getting beyond restless. My poor woman was probably freaking out right now, imagining with each passing second that we were busy mounting a retaliatory attack.
Reklig, whom I had not noticed stepping out of the Infirmary, returned with a probe already equipped with the adjustment clip to hold the holocard. As our tech expert, Madeline made quick work of configuring it so we could remotely activate it once it had reached them.
“Here,” Jessica said, shoving a field bag at me.
I slung it around my neck then carefully listened to her instructions as she showed me two large bottles of water.
“This is water with a bit of salt and glucose,” Jessica explained. “It will help rehydrate her and get a bit of sugar going in her blood. Depending on how advanced her states of starvation and dehydration are, she may not be able to even stomach that. She will probably want to gulp it down, so make sure to slow her down, or she’ll be sick. This is the fastest way to get her up to a healthier state,” she added while placing the bottles in the pouch. “But if she vomits, give her one of those tablets instead. She must suck on it.” Jessica waved the small box containing the tablet in front of me before adding it to the bag, and then showed me a hypospray. “In either case, you will inject her with this. It contains some proteins to help jumpstart her system.”