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  KIERCE: A Badari Warriors SciFi Romance Novel

  (Sectors New Allies Series Book 6)

  By

  Veronica Scott

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  About the Author

  Other titles by Veronica Scott

  Copyright 2019 by Jean D. Walker

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, places, characters, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Cover Art by Fiona Jayde

  DEDICATION

  To my daughters Valerie and Elizabeth, my brother David, and my best friend Daniel for all their encouragement and support! And to Jake the Cat, who is positive he’s a mighty predator himself.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Julie C and The E-book Formatting Fairies!

  CHAPTER ONE

  Elianna rubbed her arm and leaned against the wall of the crowded group cell. Weeks ago her ship had been taken captive by pirates. The captain had tried to offer the leader of the pirates the ship’s kidnap and ransom insurance to buy their freedom. Poor man had been killed in front of the crew for his efforts. Ever since then things had only been going downhill for Elianna and the others from the ship.

  Her fellow crew and the passengers had been brought to an unknown planet, and all of them were in dire trouble now. This wasn’t going to be a ransom and return situation.

  The aliens running the facility were arrogant and unpleasant. Ten people had been taken away first thing and put on another flyer before she and her companions were even escorted inside the building to be processed. Maybe they were the lucky ones? Or maybe not. The Khagrish, as her captors were named, had seemingly picked ten people at random and herded them off to an unknown fate.

  Nothing more had occurred beyond that ominous beginning, other than the humans being forced to strip, wade through a long, deep vat of what she guessed was a decontaminant, dress in beige jumpsuits and then endure being stuffed all together into an overcrowded cell.

  Lucky there were decks of weird playing cards to pass the time.

  Now the guards stood outside the cell, apparently ridiculing their prisoners, judging by the raucous laughter. The Khagrish passed a container of some liquid amongst themselves, taking long swallows and having a good time.

  Elianna suppressed her awareness of the odd buzzing underlying the barrier’s hum. It was obvious to her there was a problem with the field generator but, without tools, she was helpless to manipulate the weakness. She’d surreptitiously searched the entire cell for anything useful and come up empty handed. Maybe the damn thing will fail on its own. Except with her finely honed sense and technical awareness, she knew the barrier had hundreds, if not thousands of cycles to go before it succumbed to the harmonic dissonance. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say they were bored and drunk,” she said to the woman who sat next to her on the bunk bed.

  Suze handed her a nutrient bottle and eyed the guards. “Yeah, not a good situation. We haven’t seen the boss with the big red hair since the day we arrived. So maybe these guys are on their own now. Unsupervised.”

  Elianna swallowed hard. One guard kept glancing her way, and she did her best to avoid his gaze. He’d paid too much attention to her already, during the times the meals were brought, and she’d taken to standing at the back of the group during head count. “I hate being completely at their mercy.” She studied her wrist where the mysterious black bracelet sat. So far the guards had only demonstrated its use once, but the human picked for the example died in agony on the floor of the cell.

  An amplified voice blared through the cell. “Prisoners will muster to be counted.”

  Eyes wide, Suze flinched. “It’s not the normal time—this can’t be good.”

  Elianna and her friend, who was a stewardess from the passenger ship, left the bunk and joined the shifting mass of prisoners jostling for space on the black muster line at the front of the cell. Two guards stayed in the corridor, pulse rifles aimed at the prisoners, while the other two entered the cell and circled the line of humans.

  The guard she was concerned about stopped behind her and lifted a strand of her hair, fingering it. “Soft,” he said in Basic, the words sending a chill down her spine. Grabbing her by the elbow, he dragged her from the cell.

  The other guard selected a different woman, who screamed, fell to her knees and begged. She was married to one of the men in the crowd of prisoners, and he broke ranks to fight with the Khagrish, grabbing the pulse rifle. Other humans joined in.

  Elianna was already in the corridor, staring with horror at the melee inside the cell. One of the guards raised his neurocontroller and aimed it at the prisoners. The humans fell to the floor screaming and writhing in agony as the guard who’d been attacked staggered to his feet, grabbed his weapon and left the cell. The force barrier crackled into place.

  “What the fuck did you idiots do?” A fifth security guard came running down the hall. His black uniform bore several badges besides the one the ordinary guards had.

  As an employee of an interstellar shipping line, Elianna had paid for hypno translator implants to increase her job efficiency, and by now her device had figured out something close enough to Khagrish to allow her to understand about eighty percent of what was said, although she didn’t try speaking in the language. Better if the enemy didn’t realize she knew what they were saying.

  The new arrival chopped the arm of the guard holding the neurocontroller, which went flying. “You’d better hope you didn’t just ruin all the test subjects with this stunt. The scientists will be beyond upset.”

  The officer strutted to the barricade and eyed the moaning humans with narrowed eyes. “And what were you going to do with this one?” He gestured at Elianna. Before anyone could answer, he grabbed the flask from the guard holding it, took a sniff and swore. “Who’s been making illicit kiavo?” He glared at the guards, who averted their eyes and shuffled their feet like kids caught in a prank. “Someone better tell me, if you expect me to help solve this mess. Otherwise I’m going to designate one of you to take all the blame and that man won’t live long enough to contradict me.”

  “It’s one of the lab techs,” said a guard, refusing to meet his superior’s gaze. “The one with the yellow and pink hair. She supplements her pay by brewing the drink in her spare time.”

  The officer nodded, raised the bottle to his lips and drank deeply. Wiping his lips, he cleared his throat and tucked the now closed container into a loop on his own belt. “And the human?”

  The man holding her gave Elianna a shove. “She can go back into the cell,” he said sullenly.

  Weak in the knees, Elianna wanted nothing more than to rejoin her fellow humans right now, but the officer hesitated.

  “We have more than enough humans for the protocol.” He eyed her.

  With a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, Elianna understood she was in even more danger now. Being sing
led out for attention in this place of horrors could be a death sentence.

  Elianna’s tormentor grabbed her by the arm and yanked her close to him again. “Exactly what we thought, sir. No one’s going to miss one female.” He cupped her breast with his free hand, squeezing painfully. “This is a lonely post—we deserve entertainment.”

  With nothing to lose at this point, she kicked him in the knee, knocking his leg out from under him, and grabbed at his weapon as the man fell. Before she could get a shot off, two of the guards attacked her and tore the pulse rifle from her hands. The third guard ran to retrieve the neurocontroller. The officer held up his hand and everyone froze.

  “We’re not going to stoop to the level of having sex with the experiment subjects,” he said. “We’re not like those twisted deviant scientists. The military caste has pride, discipline, standards.”

  “But, sir, you said—” The guard sounded confused, and Elianna had to admit she was too, but nerves were making her tremble so hard she could barely stand.

  What did the officer have planned for her?

  “I’ve got something much more interesting and profitable to suggest,” the captain said as if he was reading her mind. “Bring her.”

  Following him like sheep, the guards marched her through the corridor, past empty cells of various sizes, all dark, until the procession stopped in front of the only other one showing a light.

  A huge feline predator was curled up in the cell, easily six feet tall and maybe fourteen feet long. Elianna shrank against her captors as the beast uncurled to snarl and roar, baring fangs as big as steak knives. Tail thrashing, the creature prowled energetically in the enclosed space.

  Knees buckling under her, she wasn’t too proud to beg. “You can’t put me in there. Please, don’t do that. Let me go back to the humans’ cell, I’m begging you.”

  “Has he been fed today?” the officer asked in Basic as he ignored her desperate pleas for mercy.

  “Not yet.” The guard holding her tightened his grip.

  “We know there’s quite a market for vids of the experimental animals fighting to the death, lots of blood and gore,” the officer said. “Imagine what the fans will pay for a recording of a human woman savaged by this creature?” He raised his eyebrows. “Nice bonus for all of us, and we can clean the mess up long before the scientists and techs return from their conference at the main lab.”

  One man whistled, and all the Khagrish exchanged gleeful grins.

  “Are the vids recording in here?” the officer asked.

  The man who’d whistled stood at attention and responded eagerly. “No, sir, but I can activate them from the box at the exit.”

  “Hurry up then.” While the guard ran off to obey his orders, the captain stepped closer to Elianna, taking a knife from his belt and slashing at her clothes as she gasped and flinched. “The price’ll go up if you’re semi naked before the creature renders you a bloody mess for our paying customers,” he said, leering.

  The beast paced from side to side of the cell, roaring when he turned, and eyeing them with alarming intensity. Elianna was so terrified she could barely stand. She imagined the cat tearing into her with its huge claws, and the massive fangs rending her flesh.

  Praying to the Lords of Space to die now, before the agony of being eaten alive, she nonetheless tried to study the cell and the cat, to identify any kind of weapon or space where she might be able to hide from it. She’d heard wild animals had sensitive noses. Should she punch at its snout? Maybe try to gouge at the eyes? Pulling his tail would have as much effect. Play dead? But the cat knew she was alive, and the Khagrish weren’t going to rescue her if they were after a big payday for a gory vid. An old piece of advice came to her mind, to stand tall and act bigger than she really was. Right, because this creature is as tall as I am and probably outweighs me by seven hundred pounds.

  As she twisted in the guards’ hold, she wept, unable to handle the terror of what she was about to endure.

  The man who’d gone to start the vidcams came running as if he couldn’t wait to watch her die. “All set. I made sure the feed won’t go anywhere other than our private loop. Don’t want to give away the show for free or get ourselves in trouble.”

  He and one of the other guards pulled skinny black wands from holsters on their belts and stood ready as the officer went to the control panel for the force barrier. “I’m only going to deactivate a small area, so be prepared to throw her in there fast.”

  “I’ll be ready.” Her captor got a better grip on Elianna, picking her up despite her flailing and striking at him.

  A portion of the barrier sparked and winked out. The guards with the odd weapons aimed them at the cat, which snarled and retreated, hissing, tail lashing from side to side. Desperate to avoid her grisly fate, Elianna gripped the guard’s uniform and hung on. He attempted to throw her into the cell, but she tugged him off balance, and the Khagrish fell across the threshold in a heap with her.

  In the blink of an eye the cat was on the guard, ignoring Elianna. Her first instinct was to crawl from the cell, but the beast and the screaming guard blocked the way. She retreated to the rear of the space, where there was a toilet, a sink, and a shower stall. Evidently, the cell had originally been meant for humanoids. Frantically, she scanned the fixtures, seeing no loose parts to grab for weapons, as the hellish sounds from behind her continued. She flicked a glance at the cat and even in her panic she realized the animal wouldn’t be coming for her yet. Think, do something or you’re going to be next.

  Hinges were set into the wall about two feet away from her. A door of some kind had been installed a few feet above the floor. Falling to her knees, she pushed at the panel with all her power. The wood swung open easily, causing her to tumble through.

  Stunned, she gaped at her new location in an outdoor enclosure. The yard was fairly large, bounded by sparkling force barriers rising high into the sky, and a spindly tree grew in one corner. Desperate, Elianna ran to the tree and scrambled up the trunk using low hanging branches as handholds. She crouched in the fork of the trunk, about twenty feet from the ground, and tried to control her breathing so she wouldn’t pass out. The barrier walls rose high above her head, leaving no possibility of leaping from the tree to escape.

  The beast could probably climb better than she could, being a feline, but in her panic she sought out any chance of prolonging her life even for a few more minutes. She wondered what was happening inside the cell but she wasn’t planning to go find out.

  A few minutes later, the flap of the opening lifted, and the cat flowed through the space to stand in the yard. Immediately, he fixed his golden-eyed stare on her, and he padded over to the tree to sit on his haunches and contemplate her.

  Like a bird in a tree. Elianna’s heart pounded and nausea threatened to overwhelm her as she considered the hopelessness of this situation, but the longer the cat merely sat at the base of the tree, the more she regained her self-control.

  Making a soft sound between a purr and a throaty meow, the cat tilted its head. Blood stained its muzzle and throat.

  She swallowed hard. Much as she loathed the Khagrish, the visual reminder of what the feline was capable of, and what it would do to her next, nearly made her pass out.

  But the animal continued to make no aggressive moves and finally lay in the grass in a patch of sunshine between her and the building. Embarking on a long, thorough bath of its dark blue-and-white striped fur, the cat seemed to have lost all interest in Elianna. Easily fourteen feet long, the animal sprawled carelessly in the yard, undisputed king of its domain.

  Now what? Her options were limited. Descending the tree and making a break for the jail cell would be foolish. Even if she somehow beat the cat inside, she had no way to bar the door to keep it out. And, of course, the Khagrish were waiting.

  “No way out of this fix,” she murmured.

  The cat stopped bathing and perked its tufted, blue fur covered ears, rising to its feet and staring at her
. Elianna checked the branches above her to see if she could possibly climb higher but there were no handholds. “I think we have a standoff,” she said to the alien tiger.

  In a leisurely fashion, the cat strolled to the tree, sharpened its claws on the wood for a minute, which made the entire trunk shake, eliciting curses from Elianna as she clutched the tree, and then stood on its hind feet, leaning its forepaws on the trunk. The display made it abundantly clear her adversary could pluck her from safety at any second. The cat flicked its pink tongue at her and licked her ankle before going to all fours and pacing away from the tree. It lay on the grass, again facing the building.

  As if he’s guarding me.

  Could she be so lucky? Was the cat trying to save her for its next meal or was it smart enough to realize the two of them could be allies? The uncertainty tormented her, leaving her in a state of complete indecision about what her next move should be.

  She sat in the tree all afternoon, growing tired, hungry, and thirsty. Eventually, one Khagrish guard appeared, staring from the cat to her then running inside, presumably to report.

  Did the Khagrish mean to leave her there until the cat got hungry enough to eat her? Elianna sighed. The aliens were unpredictable and cruel so maybe they didn’t care how long it took for their oversize pet to finish its task and kill her for the bootleg vid.

  Eventually, the tiger rose as if response to a signal and went inside the cell.

  The sun was beginning its descent for the night, and Elianna shivered, goosebumps pebbling her flesh as the breeze grew stronger. She startled as the tiger reappeared, butt first, half carrying, half dragging in its huge jaws a bowl full of what resembled kibble, which it brought to the base of the tree then backed away from. Making the guttural sound deep in its throat, the cat put one massive paw on the bowl, gazed at her blandly, and then retreated to the wall, sitting with its tail curled over its paws.