The Breeding Experiment - Laurann Dohner Page 0,51
not fleet. And who attacked them?”
“The Blaze is owned by Outreach. It’s one of those companies that surveys planets like the one we’re going to, only they specialize in planets without sentient lifeforms. They had just finished a survey of a planet and were heading back toward Earth when they came under fire from another vessel. From the recordings of the attack…” Clark appeared angry, glancing briefly at Gnaw. “We’re pretty certain it was the Elth. Roth agrees. The Veslors have some history of fighting these bastards and can identify their ship designs.”
Gnaw snarled and stood. “Are there human females on the Blaze?”
Clark met his gaze. “Yes. It’s an all-human crew. They lost six people due to the attack, but they’re reporting forty-six men and thirty-one women survived. I know what you’re thinking, Gnaw—and you’re right. Those Elth bastards went for the women, probably because we retrieved the ones they’d kidnapped from our transport shuttle.”
Maith stood and gripped Gnaw’s arm to help him calm. It didn’t work. He still felt enraged.
“Defcon Red is going to destroy the Elth ship after we assist the downed civilian ship,” Clark promised. “United Earth wants to send those bastards a clear message. Fuck with humans and die. Our tactical teams are going to protect the stranded crew of the Blaze on the planet until we get them back in space. The Doverson, another military vessel from our fleet, is heading that way, too, but they’re a few days behind us. They’ll give the Blaze an escort all the way back to Earth since we’re still needed on Torid.”
“The Doverson only carries a crew of three hundred, or near that,” one of the females from team five called out. “My brother is assigned to it.”
“Right,” Clark nodded. “It’s why they can’t handle the situation on Torid, but they have the firepower to protect a civilian ship. A lone nonmilitary vessel probably seemed like an easy target to the Elth. They were wrong, since the captain refused to surrender. They had minimal weapons but from what I’ve learned, she sacrificed the five transport shuttles and seven emergency pods they had onboard by remotely piloting them to slam into the Elth ship. Last she saw before they fled to the primitive planet was the Elth set adrift. Their ship might still be there, where the fight took place, just waiting for Defcon Red to find them if they weren’t able to do fast repairs.” He grinned suddenly. “That captain’s a woman I want to meet and shake her hand.”
Gnaw fought for control of his temper. The Elth still wanted to collect human females. That likely meant they hadn’t given up on the idea of breeding experiments. He met Roth’s gaze.
“I sent another message to our king to update him,” Roth rasped softly. “The Elth can’t do their experiments without one of our males. All of our ships and colonies were already warned after you were taken. Abby also contacted the Brar. They are fine and on alert. There’s only one female on their ship, but she is Abby’s close friend and she recently had a cub.”
Gnaw remembered that Vivian was also pregnant with a second cub. He hoped the trader Veslors had many weapons on their ship, or even decided to fly to their home solar system, where they’d be heavily protected by other males of their race.
Clark loudly cleared his throat. “We’ve got a lot of planning to do and only sixteen hours before we reach our mission target. There is limited information from the survey about all the wildlife and environmental hazards. That means there could be some plants that like to eat flesh or are poisonous.”
He kept talking but as Gnaw retook his seat, he tuned out. His thoughts immediately went to Darla. Humans loved to talk and share information. Abby called it gossip. Would Darla be frightened or emotionally unsettled when she heard that the Elth had attacked more humans?
The urge to track her hit hard, making his body tensed.
Maith reached out again and gripped his arm. “Calm.”
He turned to the male sitting next to him.
“You want to go to your female to soothe her. I would, too. Perhaps we can ask Abby to seek her out to speak face to face. She could plead your case and talk her into meeting with you.”
That seemed like a good plan to Gnaw.
He tried to pay attention to Clark as more survey images showed on the large screen, revealing what little they knew about the