Precious Cargo (7 page)

Chapter Sixteen

Kal was furious when that horrid woman insulted their Alison right in front of everyone. He’d been shocked that Shara was there at all, as she’d never shown much interest in greeting them in the past when they’d returned home. It would have been career suicide to reprimand her for it, since her father was their commanding officer, and technically their bond group was officially courting her as far as their society was concerned.

This was also why Conn had to remind him not to show affection or touch Alison unnecessarily while they were being monitored in the shuttle. It would have been seen as the highest act of disrespect to make any kind of advances towards an unattached female while you were in bond contract negotiations with another. Shara would have been shamed, and her reputation tarnished, although that was hardly less than Kal thought she deserved after how she’d treated Alison just now. He needed to be forthright in his opinion of Shara to his bond mates immediately. There was no way in hell that he would attach himself to her in any way.

“I can’t believe you didn’t say anything to that harka beast when she insulted our Ali.” Kal turned and snarled at Conn as soon as their debriefing was over, and the Commander had left them to their privacy.

“What would you have me do, Kal?” Conn yelled back. “The Commander has no more patience for her games than we do, but even
he
would have had to discipline us if we’d publicly shamed his only daughter!”

“Did you not see Ali’s face?” Tannen asked, sitting to cover his face with his hands. “She was heartbroken, and we let it happen—and did you see that Doctor Gend was waiting to escort her to medical? Conn, you know he has a reputation for supporting alien segregation. I don’t trust him to have Ali’s best interests in mind over his scientific academia.”

“The Trade Corps would never allow us to contract with Alison with any kind of reprimand on our permanent record.” Conn paced the room. “This way they have no leverage to deny us once we formally break ties with Shara.”

Kal was shocked into silence as Conn voiced the very thing he was hoping for. Kal knew that Conn had known Shara since childhood, and he’d always seemed to act as though he’d cared for her. That was why Kal and Tannen had let it go on for as long as it had, but it was a relief to know that his feelings for Alison were mirrored in his other bond mates.

“You wish to break negotiations with Shara?” he asked carefully, almost as if he’d jinx it by saying it out loud.

“Of course!” Conn growled at him as though he was insulted. “Do you think that I would have treated Ali like that if I did not have honorable intentions towards her?”

“Both of you calm down,” Tannen interjected. “Clearly all three of us have feelings for Ali and want to be rid of Shara for good, do we not?”

“Gods, yes,” Kal growled as Conn simply nodded in agreement.

“Good. It’s been hours since Alison went with the med crew. She should need us soon.” Tannen moved towards the doors. “Let us go find our girl then.”

****

The doctors had been poking and prodding her for hours now, and Alison was exhausted. On top of that, she’d begun to start having the hot and cold flashes that signified the virus was rearing its ugly head.

“Umm, excuse me?” she said to the man who was taking yet another blood sample. “I think my symptoms are coming back. Will Conn and the others be coming to see me soon?”

“Why would Clan Drogan need to see you, Alison?” The man looked puzzled at her question.

“Tannen was treating me for contact sickness because of the virus. He said that he sent all the results to you ahead of time. Didn’t you get them?”

“Oh yes, we received Doctor Drogan’s preliminary exam reports on your condition, but we are quite confident that we can treat your symptoms fully with medication here.”

Alison was momentarily distracted by how adorable it was that the other clan members had taken Conn’s last name, right before she remembered how many medications Tannen told her he'd tried to alleviate her pain.

“But he tried a bunch of medications. It never stopped the pain.” She began to worry when another cold sweat broke out all over her skin, making the monitors attached all over her beep faster along with her heart rate.

“Doctor Gend, her vitals are elevating quite quickly now,” the younger doctor said aloud as an older gentleman came into the room.

“Hello, Earth female, I am Doctor Gend. I am in charge of your care here, and I assure you we have the best medical facility here on Dolak,” he said in a superior tone as he motioned for the younger man to give him the handheld device with her test results on it. “We’ll start her on a fifty percent dilution of the serum. I am certain it will work.”It didn’t work. And neither did the next two batches of shots that they gave her as she continued to writhe in pain and sweat on the bed. Alison was almost delirious with the aching that was racking her body now. They’d tried to give her pain meds as well, but were hesitant, not being familiar with her body chemistry and metabolism. She prayed for Conn, Tannen, and Kal to show up and make the pain go away, but hour after hour went by and there was no sign of her former rescuers.

“Doctor Gend, there were a significant number of notes sent on Alison’s condition. The serum isn’t appearing to help her and her vital signs are becoming alarmingly erratic. We need to try the contact therapy they were treating her with.”

Ali heard the younger doctor talking not far away in the room, although the lights were making her feel like her head would explode so she kept her eyes closed tight.

“Please, help me,” she whimpered. “Please, make it stop.”

“Sir,” the young doctor insisted. “We have to do something. She’s a live person, not a lab specimen for you to experiment on.”

“How dare you!” the older doctor yelled, causing her ears to ring painfully. “Remove yourself from this lab immediately.
You
no longer work here.”

“This isn’t right. I’m going to Commander Vaughn about what you’re doing.”

Alison cracked her swollen eyelids open just enough to see the younger man look at her as though he was frightened to leave her in the older man’s care. It terrified her to think what this doctor might do to her. How could Conn, Tannen, and Kal leave her here with these monsters?

Chapter Seventeen

Conn stood in front of the desk at the medical center with a fierce scowl on his face, with his two bond mates in a similar state behind him.

“What do you mean we don’t have clearance to see Alison?” He tried not to lose his patience with the desk attendant. “There must be some mistake. Check again with Doctor Gend, please.”

He could hear Kal growl behind him when she rolled her eyes and called up to the labs to inquire.

“Yes, sir. Clan Drogan is here to visit the Earth female,” she said into the headset. “Yes, sir. I told them already, sir, but they insisted I check again. Sorry, sir.”

She looked stressed, and they could almost hear the older doctor yelling at her over the communicator. Conn had never liked Doctor Gend. He’d always been a pompous male and he had a reputation for being rather callous with his patients. Conn hated to think how a sweet, gentle female like their Alison would fare under such circumstances.

“Doctor Gend says that you don’t have clearance to see the patient and your presence is no longer required for her treatment.”

“Can we at least get an update on her condition?” Tannen asked, stepping up to the desk.

“Doctor Gend said that if you did not leave that I was to get security to escort you off the premises.” The female looked apologetic about that.

“Conn, we cannot leave her here!” Kal growled out.

“I don’t like this, Conn. He’s being evasive by not giving us an update on her condition,” Tannen added, only making Kal growl louder until he couldn’t hold back any longer.

“I don’t care if it does cost us our commission, Conn. We need to get to Alison and make certain that she’s all right!”

“We agree on that,” Conn said, before turning to look back at the desk attendant, whose eyes were now as wide as saucers with the three enraged males that now had their full attention on her. “Commander Vaughn will be in the shuttle hangar. Let’s go.”

****

“Commander, Commander!”

Tannen looked up as the three of them hurried towards their commanding officer, and he began to worry when he saw one of the younger doctors from the medical center running towards Commander Vaughn in an obvious panic.

“What is it, Doctor? What’s happened?”

“Sir, Doctor Gend has gone crazy.” the young man wheezed between huge gasps of air. “Alison Baker’s condition has deteriorated, and he’s refusing to fall back on Doctor Drogan’s treatment plan. She’s in a tremendous amount of pain. Doctor Gend just fired me and told me to leave the building when I tried to reason with him.”

“That old male has finally gone too far.” Tannen cursed as his clan mates became visibly upset to the point that the security guards were beginning to inch closer to their group. The idea that Doctor Gend would justify the suffering of any patient under his protection was infuriating, but that it was happening to
their
Alison was more than he could bear.

“Commander, we
must
see Alison now,” Conn said in an almost panicked tone. “You have to stop Doctor Gend or I will not be responsible for what happens to him.”

The Commander looked at the three of them standing there for a moment, and then nodded his head in agreement. “Take me to him right now. Lieutenant Brokk, I need three of your men with me.”

It only took a few minutes for them to reach the upper floors of the medical labs using the emergency elevator. This way, they bypassed anyone who might alert the crazy doctor to their arrival. Tannen couldn’t say he was overly surprised that this confrontation had finally come to pass with the ancient doctor. There had been more than one complaint against the brilliant but arrogant Doctor Gend. Tannen had made several himself about the male’s antiquated and biased views on the segregation of their people from the landed aliens who now resided on their planet. It was common knowledge in the medical circles that many had tried to have him removed from his position as head of the Trade Corps medical facility, but each time the petitioners had been overruled. Tannen had never trusted the man’s ethics

When they reached the lobby on the medical floors, Commander Vaughn stopped and turned towards Conn, holding his hand up to stop them.

“Conn, I realize you are concerned for her, but I don’t know what we’re walking into up there. I’m going to ask you to stay here until we reach the lab, and once things are stabilized I will send a guard for you.”

“Like hell!” Kal started to move past the Commander, but Conn grabbed a hold of his bond mate.

“I understand, Commander. We will wait here.”

Even Tannen had a difficult time not rushing past them all and taking the elevator to the top floor. He wanted to see Ali now. But he followed his Captain’s lead and tried to calm Kal as well while the other four men walked away from them in a hurry.

“Conn,” Kal yelled as he pulled away from them, “why did you agree? We need to see Alison now. He could be hurting her!”

“Stop, Kal.” Conn grabbed his mate’s arms once more. “We trust the Commander. He is an honorable male. You know that. You’re just concerned for Ali’s welfare, and we are as well.”

“Fine, but he doesn’t fetch us soon, I’m going up no matter what the cost.”

Chapter Eighteen

Alison was huddled in the corner on the bed crying, her arms wrapped around her knees as she rocked back and forth when Commander Vaughn walked into the room and stopped abruptly when he saw her. She was in too much pain to concern herself if the angry look on his face was her fault or not.

“Why are you interrupting my work Commander, and why do you have Doctor Bard with you?” the older doctor asked in a haughty tone, “He no longer works here and therefore does not have clearance to be in the lab.”

God, what an asshole.
Alison thought to herself as she grit her teeth as another wave of pain went through her body causing her to moan.

“Doctor, there’s been a report that your treatment of the patient isn’t working and you’ve been refusing alternate ideas.” She could hear that the Commander was trying to keep a neutral tone in his voice, but as he moved even closer, his face clearly showed that he was not happy with the state he found her in.

“I know what I’m doing,” was the man’s answer. “Take your complaint up with the board. I have work to do.”

The entire room went quiet for a moment, and she could see the shock on most of the faces of the medical staff and the guards. Commander Vaughn’s face was blank for a second at his dismissal, but then it quickly turned to anger.

“Get in there, and remove Doctor Gend immediately. Take him to a holding cell,” he said to the guards that had come with him before turning to the younger doctor.  “Doctor Bard, can you help her?”

“Yes, sir. I’ve read all Doctor Drogan’s notes. If it’s contact dependency withdrawal she suffers from, then we’ll need an unmated male for her treatment.” The younger doctor ran up to the computer and began typing furiously as they all ignored the yelling rants of Doctor Gend as he was escorted out of the lab.

The Commander nodded towards the remaining guard that had arrived with him.

“Corporal Fenric will assist you. He is unmated,” Vaughn added as they all moved into her room. She wasn’t happy they were moving closer. Alison just wanted to be left alone, since Doctor Gend had been horrible to her after the nice younger doctor had left.

“Alison?” The young doctor moved to kneel next to her, trying to get her attention. “Alison, it’s Doctor Bard. We’re here to help you. Can you look at me?”Alison just squeezed her eyes tighter and started muttering to herself that the pain would stop soon. It had to. She couldn’t take anymore. .

“Corporal, remove your shirt and come here. She needs skin to skin contact.” Those words had her eyes snapping open in concern, and when the young guard moved forward, Doctor Bard nodded. “Yes, just hold her. We will hopefully see an improvement in her vitals quite quickly. Doctor Drogan’s notes said it was almost immediate.”

Corporal Fenric did as he was told and sat down next to her. He attempted to wrap his arms around her, but as soon as he leaned in close, Alison took a deep breath. Immediately after his skin touched hers, she began to flail and scream out, fighting his touch.

“No! Get away!” she screamed, her eyes once again tightly closed as she continued to hit the startled male who seemed to be frozen in confusion and shock. “He smells wrong. Don’t let him touch me!”

“By the gods, Bard, what’s happening?” Commander Vaughn yelled over the wailing woman’s voice. “Why is she fighting?”

“I don’t know, Commander,” the doctor answered in a panic, checking her vitals on the hand-held monitor. “Her heart rate is increasing. This is making her worse. I was so certain that this would help.”

“Someone find Clan Drogan and get them in here now!” Commander Vaughn yelled at the guards who’d just stepped out of the elevator from escorting Doctor Gend to his holding cell in the basement of the building.

****

“I do not care that Commander Vaughn is not picking up his comm.. It’s been too long! We must see Alison now.” Conn’s voice bellowed through the foyer of the medical building as he paced back and forth trying to contact their superior officer.

The receptionist had begun to panic when Conn started yelling at her, and now Kal was busy restraining the last of the medical security officers who’d tried to escort them off the premises. He almost felt bad for them since they were just doing their jobs, but no one was going to stand between them and Ali. He had a terrible feeling that she needed them. As the elevator opened, he prepared to fight with more guards, but the instant relief on the faces of the two men who exited was confusing.

“Thank the gods, Captain Drogan,” the guard said as all three of them turned towards him. “Commander Vaughn has urgently requested your clan’s presence upstairs. The Earth female is not responding to treatment.”

Kal’s stomach dropped as he looked over to Tannen and saw the worry on his mate's face. He didn’t like it one bit. They quickly entered the elevator, and it was torture how slow it felt going all the way up to the top.

“You said Alison isn’t responding to treatment? Did they try the contact therapy?” Tannen asked in a strained voice.

“When we arrived back in the lab from locking Doctor Gend down, one of the guards was trying to make contact, but the patient was resisting and fighting quite hard.”

“Why wouldn’t the therapy work now?” Conn turned to Tannen, and there was a worried tone in his voice they weren’t used to hearing from their leader. “Did that bastard do something to her?”

“I don’t know. It should be working,” Tannen answered, his face giving away the frantic calculations going on inside of his brain, trying to come up with the right answer. “Was she conscious?”

“Once the male moved away from her, she collapsed and passed out. Doctor Bard examined her and said she appeared to be in metabolic shock from her exertion when she fought the contact,” the guard answered carefully, finally noticing that their clan was personally invested in Alison’s condition.

“Tannen, what does that mean?” Conn barked. “Will she be okay?”

Kal looked once again to the doctor in their ranks, and was scared to death to see the tortured uncertainty in his eyes. “Tannen, please tell me Alison will be okay.”

“I can’t say for certain,” Tannen answered quietly. “If the contact therapy isn’t working and she falls into a metabolic coma, we may not be able to wake her.”

When the elevator doors opened, all three of them flew out towards where Commander Vaughn was standing with a grim look on his face.

“Doctor Bard is having an issue with the Earth female’s treatment,” the Commander said, looking into the room holding the woman. “She isn’t responding well, and the doctor doesn’t know what to do. We thought perhaps Tannen would be able to help her.”

Tannen was already in the room, kneeling beside Alison examining her while drilling the young doctor who had been in charge of her care. It was all Kal could do to restrain himself from going directly to the female who had come to mean so much to them, but with the Commander’s scrutinizing gaze looking at Tannen, then back between both Kal and Conn, he knew it was only a short matter of time before the male figured out their affection towards Alison.

“Sir, with all due respect towards Shara and your family,” Conn began in a quiet voice so the guards didn’t overhear him, “we intend to withdraw our bond contract negotiations with your daughter. If Alison’s health was not at risk, we would be resolving this with your daughter right now, but we care a great deal for her and our hope is to make her our bond mate.”

Commander Vaughn didn’t speak for a moment, and then he sighed and patted Conn on the shoulder.

“I’ve known for many years that my daughter was too much like her mother, and that she did not deserve the three of you for mates,” he finally said. “You’re fine males, Conn, and I release you to care for your intended. I hope she can recover from this.”

“Thank you, Commander,” Conn answered in a relieved voice, smiling back at Kal as well. “We will give our regrets to Shara formally as soon as Alison is taken care of.”

Kal did not like the thought of how that particular conversation would go. He was certain that the female would make it as difficult as possible to get out of their negotiations. He was almost glad that she never seemed to acknowledge his presence if it meant he didn’t have to deal with her directly like Conn would have to.

“Why don’t you let me deal with Shara on this? Consider it a bonding gift to your clan,” the older man said as he stepped back and motioned them into the room where Alison was on the bed unconscious.

“Thank you, sir,” Kal said, before crossing the room to kneel beside Tannen next to the bed where he was holding Alison’s hand. “Tannen, how is she?”

“I can’t believe it.” Doctor Bard was looking at his handheld in amazement. “Her vitals are actually improving just from your touch. This is remarkable.”

“Kal, remove your shirt and pants and get onto the bed with Alison,” Tannen said as he grabbed a blanket to cover her, and carefully removed the gown she’d been in. “We need maximum skin to skin contact if this is going to work.”