Stealing Mercury (Arena Dogs Book 1) (20 page)

“The symbols—”

“Yeah. They match the ones from the terraforming platforms and that metal object we found in the cavern.”

Hesitantly, Mercury stepped up to the object and studied the symbols as she ran her hands over the surface.

“Ah, here.” She said the words almost to herself as she did something with her fingers.

One of the sides sprang open to reveal a small lit panel.

Samantha crouched down to study the small screen. “If it’s as old as the terraforming platforms, it’s hard to believe it still has power, but it does. This panel looks like an interface of some kind.”

“Something to turn it off.” It had to be. Something so destructive clearly needed a way to be stopped.

“More than that. It’s way too complex for a simple on and off switch.”

“But turning it off is all we need to do.”

“Right, well good news there.” She stopped and stepped back. “This interface panel is not as tough as the outside covering. Now that it’s open you should be able to smash it. Looks like you didn’t need me here after all.”

“You figured out how to open it.”

She shrugged. “You’d have managed.”

Mercury put his hand around the spike to see if he could pull it free of the rock ledge. A symbol caught his eye and stopped him still.

“What is it?”

“I know this symbol.” Mercury pointed to the one he recognized.

“Something from Roma?”

“Yes and no.” He closed his eyes and the image came back to him—a blue-black finger, drawing the shape in the dirt. The Mothers kneeling around it to mumble a chant.”

“Mercury?”

Samantha’s voice drew him out of the memory. “The surrogates.”

“Seriously?” Her eyes had grown wide and round.

“I wouldn’t joke about this.”

“I know, I just meant… The odds of finding a connection to the surrogates here.” Her brows drew together. “Then again. We’re at the edge of the sector and so is Roma. And I did find this planet using an unofficial Roma star chart.”

She stumbled and Mercury steadied her.

“If this is connected to the surrogates,” she said, “you can’t just smash it.”

He frowned. “You believe you could learn something from it.” He was curious about the surrogates, but his curiosity didn’t matter when he needed to see to her wellbeing.

“Maybe. I have to try.” She put her hand to her forehead and rubbed as if she could rub away the pain. “If we could find them, the people who made this place, they might be willing to help your people.”

Mercury searched his memories of the surrogates. They hadn’t been true mothers, but they hadn’t been unkind. Who could blame them for not wanting to grow attached to children they knew would be taken away from them? “If they had the strength to fight Roma, wouldn’t they have attacked when their females were taken?”

 “Maybe. Or maybe not. Who knows how far they came to colonize this place. The people that were here might have been an advance team or the terraforming technicians. Their homeworld might not even know what happened to them.”

She looked so pale and her body trembled with pain. “That doesn’t mean they would help us.”

“The Cerrillians have an old saying.
A common enemy makes for fast alliances
.” Samantha wrapped a hand around his arm to steady herself. “Any civilization that built those terraforming platforms has to be big and technologically advanced. If there’s even a chance they could help you free all of your people…” Her words trailed off.

Mercury pulled her into his arms, but she pushed against his chest, resisting.

“Give me a minute. I can figure the damn thing out. I just need to breathe. The altitude must be getting to me.”

He brushed sweat-dampened tendrils of hair away from her face. It wasn’t the altitude and she wasn’t going to get better with a few minutes of rest. He stroked her small nose with his fingertips. She had done a good job of convincing him that the Mothers’ people might help. He even believed she could figure the object out if given enough time. But it didn’t matter. He couldn’t let her die or suffer long lasting effects of continued dehydration. He wouldn’t let her suffer even one more minute.

Mercury lowered her to the stone beneath his feet protecting her head as she gave into the fatigue and pain. He strode over to the object and jerked it free of the spike holding it in place. He turned it over in his hand as he looked closer, committing the symbols to memory. It could be a link to his past and future. It wasn’t worth losing Carn. It wasn’t worth Samantha’s life or her suffering.

He squatted down and held it over his head then brought it down to the rock in one powerful movement. It smashed in his hands, breaking into countless tiny pieces.

He let the remains fall from his hands and returned to Samantha. “Rest,
courra
. Regain your strength. I’ll keep you safe and we’ll soon be bathing in Lo’s water noise that is bigger than our river.”

Planet G-45987

Earth Alliance Beta Sector- Gollerra Border

2210.163

Samantha kept her eyes closed and stretched. The bedroll beneath her didn’t provide much cushion from the hard ground, but she had a sense of having slept well for the first time in days. She scrubbed her hands over her face and eased open her eyes. She didn’t remember making camp or lying down to sleep. Had she lost a day? She guessed the time at late afternoon, the sun seemed to be hidden behind one of the nearby mountaintops.

“There’s water beside you.” Carn’s voice drifted to her from outside her field of vision.

She sat up to find him propped up against a stack of their packs. There was no one else around. “Where are Mercury and Lo?” The words scraped her throat as they went by. She reached for the water, took a sip, and coughed.

“Slowly. Sip slowly. Lo and Mercury are getting a better look around the area.”

Samantha nodded then pulled her legs up and crossed them for balance. Not only were Mercury and Lo not around, she didn’t recognize where they were. She rubbed at her head trying to bring things back into focus in her mind. Slowly, it all came back. Her head still ached, but that was the dehydration. The pulse had been silenced and she didn’t remember doing it at all, but she did remember finding...

“The artifact... ” she started then looked at Carn . If Mercury had destroyed it without telling them—

“He smashed it to stop the pulse. There was nothing left.” Carn looked sad. “It was the right thing to do.”

So Mercury
had
told them. “I wish I could’ve had more time.”

“There’s no use spending energy thinking on something that cannot be changed.”

His gentle dismissal eased her guilt over failing to save the object. “Whoever named you had you all wrong.”

His eyebrows lifted. “What do you mean? I can wreak havoc and leave a wake of carnage when the circumstances call for it.”

She laughed, almost spitting out a mouthful of water. “I’m sure you can. But I still think Owl would have suited you better.”

He frowned and she laughed again. He joined her with what might pass for a chuckle, if she were being generous with her chuckling standards. The moment passed too quickly and she found herself sitting with a man in pain. Suffering, not just from physical pain or fatigue. It was something much softer squeezing his heart.

“What sort of name,” he asked, “is Owl?”

She couldn’t contain her grin. “A big Earther bird my father taught me about. It had enormous eyes and could hear its prey from a kilometer away. It could turn its head all the way around.” She made a big eyed face and circled her finger in a spinning motion.

“You compare me to this monstrous creature?” He didn’t look bothered as he said the words.

Samantha sobered. “It’s also credited with great wisdom.”

He dipped his chin to his chest then met her eyes, looking solemn. “I’m honored.”

Samantha studied the big man. His body was covered with fresh scratches layered over old scars. She knew none of those injuries and scars mattered to him. The only wound that mattered would be the one left if he lost his mate. “Will you tell me about her?”

His jaw flexed, making the scar that cut across it stand out in white relief. “She’s not like you.”

“Of course not.”

“I mean she’s not a fighter. She’s strong in her own way, but she has few defenses.”

“Really? I’m surprised your women aren’t enhanced the way you are.”

“Some are,” he admitted. “The strong females fight and die in the games, but Hera was not made for the arena. Some of the females and even some males were created to be submissive and docile so that they could be safely used to entertain the patrons.”

Samantha remembered Lo had said something about pleasure suites. It had to be prostitution. Or was there a better word considering they had no choice and received nothing in exchange? Rape. Abuse. Yes, those were the right words. She didn’t know what to say to Carn so she waited.

“In the past only fighter females became mates and there are not many of them. The guards did not start bringing the submissive females to the kennels until a year ago. They wanted us to breed them. This is when we realized something must have gone wrong with the surrogates. No young dogs had been brought to the kennels in too many years.”

“What happened when they brought the women to you for…” She couldn’t even say the word.

“We refused at first, but each time we refused they punished the females. I couldn’t bear to see her hurt anymore. Some of the males snapped the necks of the females to end their lives quickly, but I couldn’t.”

“Of course you couldn’t. That’s crazy.” The thought made her queasy. Had Mercury or Lo done that?

“Don’t judge them harshly. Many of the females welcomed such a death.”

“I can’t imagine choosing death. There’s always hope.” Her hands tightened around the water container. It was something her father had taught her. Her gentle mother would have said joy could be found in any life.

“Easier to say when you don’t live your life in a cage.”

She blushed, ashamed. “I didn’t mean to judge anyone.”

“I know,” he said. “It’s your way to be optimistic.”

Optimistic or always chasing after the future, like her father?

“I can see how that might change, if I’d been through everything you have.”

He shrugged. “It was the only life we knew.” He adjusted his injured leg and sighed at the relief of moving. “It’s a life that taught us to enjoy the moments we could and to seize every opportunity.”

Her mother would approve the sentiment. “And Hera made you happy.”

He dipped his head. “When she chose me, all my worries and doubts became nothing.”

“I’m glad.” Samantha took a long sip of water. “How long did you have together?”

“Only six months, before I was marked for death.”

“You mean the hunt?”

“No. Before that. We didn’t understand it at the time. We were forced to divide our pack and fight against each other. Mercury and Lo against Me, Jupiter, and Senneca. I was made to fight without armor.”

“Someone stacked the cards against you.”

“They wanted me to die that day and Hera will pay the price for my survival.”

“What do you mean?”

“On the ship, the whip-master told Mercury Hera will be given to the guards. They’ll make an example of her for others who don’t cooperate.” He hung his head and his shoulders slumped. “I fear she won’t survive it.”

“I’m so sorry.” She wanted to wrap her arms around him and hug him as her mother had always done for her, but she didn’t know how he’d react.

“We have to go back for her.” Fierce determination hardened his jaw line. “Before it’s too late.”

“Yes. I know.”All three of them would go back and risk their lives for Hera. She hated it. The thought of losing them put a painful ache in the vicinity of her heart. “Was it after you were sent to the hunt that Mercury vowed to help you?”

“No. That was when Hera first came to live with us. They—” Carn’s head lifted, alert and listening. “Mercury is back.”

She saw him then, breaking out of the woods that wrapped around the base of the slope.

She got carefully to her feet and met him half way. He lifted her in his arms and pressed his face to her neck. As he set her on her feet and took her hand, he waved to Carn with the other.

“Feeling better,
courra
?”

“Much.” It felt so good to have her palm pressed to his, she couldn’t remember why she’d been keeping her distance.

“Come,” said Mercury. “I have something to show you.”

Samantha heard the rumble long before they reached their destination. He led her along a winding path that meandered through boulders and trees the likes of which she’d never seen. Bright green moss topped chalk-white boulders. Pink strings of color swirled through the stone like silk ribbons frozen in a timeless dance. Small, tightly packed vines covered the path, releasing a sharp herbal scent each time she stepped on the small, but hearty, plants.

“Careful here,” Mercury warned, lifting aside a thick strand of flowers that dropped down from one of the many trees blanketing the area.

The flowers grew on wandering vines that seemed to live in harmony with the foliage it wove through. Each time a breeze shook the trees, the flower vines were dragged across the ground making a rustling noise, but it was quickly overshadowed by the insistent roar.

When the source of the noise came into view it was still some distance away. “A waterfall,” she breathed in awe. “I’ve seen them on vids but I’ve never actually seen one in person.”

“A first for us both, then. I’m glad I could share this with you.”

Mercury pulled her further from the trees and toward the river.

“I can almost feel the water swirling in the air,” she said. Three channels of foamy white water rushed over a cliff face and spilled into the river below with varying force.

“The center channel is too deep to stand,” he warned.

Samantha accepted the warning with a nod. “Even if I knew how to swim, that water is moving too fast to be safe.”