Tasha's POV:
I yawned, glad that we had finished checking our last spaceship for the day. Taureen began walking towards the main park.
"Are you at the park yet?" I asked Keegan.
"Almost there."
I rested my head on the edge of Taureen's shoulder pad; it wouldn't be long before I would see Keegan. Once the children went off to play, we could wander away for some quiet time. Finding time with no one else around had become much harder after we had kids, and it only made us realize how much we missed the ability to simply curl up and snuggle by ourselves.
A distant siren made me lift my head and search for the source with narrowed eyes.
"Is it coming from one of the spaceships?" I asked Taureen, who had also stopped and turned around to regard the distant spaceships high in the sky above us.
A blossom of yellow and orange flames erupted from the bottom of the largest spaceship. I jumped to my feet, staring up at it with wide eyes.
Before I could even ask another question, Vick was checking his wrist comm. "They have no idea what's going on. It's a Brult ship. They never transport weapons or dangerous materials."
Taureen began searching for information on his own wrist comm. "Soranto and Tessa either just finished checking that ship, or they were still onboard. The emergency crews are already on their way-"
I tuned him out while desperately calling, "Tessa! Are you alright?"
My blood ran cold as it bounced back. She was either unconscious, heavily sleeping, or dead – and I had no way of telling which.
"My calls aren't going through!" I cried, letting Taureen and Keegan hear.
"I can't reach her either!" Keegan replied, equally as frantic. He would be able to see the spaceship as well I could. Aeria and the two guards would be getting updates just as quickly as Taureen and his two companions.
Taureen was rapidly typing something into his wrist comm. "The shuttle they took up hasn't returned. Soranto isn't responding to my calls either."
He turned and began running back towards the main port building. My claws dug into his shoulder pad as I hung on and hoped that my daughter was alright. The flames had disappeared, and shuttles from the port below were rocketing up toward the ship. More shuttles were dropping out of the spaceship – and promptly disappeared.
I shared the mental image of the dozens of small, vanishing shuttles with Taureen, adding my feelings of confusion while trying to control the panic I was feeling. The Kymari's invisibility cloaking technology was nothing new to me, but I had never seen them use it on a shuttle. It seemed very dangerous to cloak so many ships when at least a hundred rescue shuttles were rapidly closing the distance.
Taureen glanced up at the distant shuttles. "Those aren't Kymari vessels."
"They might have had hitchhikers," Vick said, glaring daggers at the scene above.
"I saw at least thirty before they disappeared. That is a lot of people and supplies to hide." Taureen replied shortly.
"It's a cargo ship." Tran retorted. "Three-quarters of their space is full of supplies and hiding places."
We were forced to slow down as we got closer to the building due to the sheer number of people also coming to help. Many were carrying weapons or heavy-looking bags. Smaller shuttles whizzed through the air above, landing near the building and letting more Kymari out. I kept trying to reach Tessa by the mindlink, but still couldn't get through.
My ear tufts pinned back as I growled faintly at the press of people, but I wanted to know where Tessa was more than I wanted my rather large bubble of personal space left intact. Taureen flowed in with the crowd, allowing us to hear shouted instructions.
"Fighters to the East Wing! Medical personnel down Corridor B! Other emergency responders to the Northeast Wing! All others to the West Wing!"
The crowd barely slowed as they split up, leaving the person to repeat his instructions again to those now within earshot. Vick and Tran flanked Taureen as we went down a hallway.
A female Kymari standing in the hall asked us, "What skills do you have and how may they assist?"
Taureen replied, "Fire lizard handler. Another fire lizard handler was on the spaceship, and I am well acquainted with his bond animal if he is injured. My side guards can assist wherever their particular skills lie, but the bond animal will also likely allow their touch as well."
Her eyes flickered to me momentarily. "Your companion won't be allowed near the spaceship until it is deemed safe and secure. If you wish to wait in one of the side rooms, we can keep you updated. Your guards can join the infiltration teams. There is nothing preventing them from changing their priorities if we locate the bond animal and its handler."
Taureen spoke to Vick and Tran. "Please keep me updated."
They nodded seriously and took off at a run, heading through a different door. Shaking my head, I chittered my agitation and lashed my tail. Taureen stroked my shoulder as he walked up the hallway and went through a different door, which led into a small room. He closed the door behind us.
Finally, in the privacy of the tiny room with no observers, I screeched my internal anguish. I didn't know if my daughter lived or not. It tore at me – and I could do nothing to help! Pulling me into his arms, Taureen cradled me against his chest in an attempt to comfort me.
"Can you hear her yet? Do you have any idea what happened?"
"It keeps bouncing back! I've been trying non-stop. She was fine at lunchtime, but I haven't tried to speak with her since. Keegan can't get through, either." My worry and turmoil saturated my mindvoice.
Taureen knew what the bounceback meant, and his jaw clenched with his own anger and pain. We waited in silence for any update or for Aeria to arrive.
"We are almost there! Where are you?"
Taureen also heard Keegan's voice and sent the directions to Aeria's wrist comm. The silence seemed far too loud, and was finally broken when Keegan spoke again.
"We are outside the door."
I climbed up to Taureen's shoulder as he opened the door to let Aeria, Keegan, and Dirk come in. Rhay and Sadria were absent, likely on their way to the spaceship to try and locate Tessa and Soranto.
"Any news?" Aeria asked.
"Nothing yet. The city's shields are set to activate at a moment's notice, and the turrets are at full power."
An idea occurred to me, and I turned my head to look at Taureen with sudden hope. "Can you access Tessa's tracker?" The elaborate piece of technology would be able to tell us her vital signs and even her exact location.
"The frequency is only keyed to Soranto's wrist comm," Taureen said, pressing buttons on his wrist comm again, "but, Soranto's wrist comm will have some basic sensors. I won't be able to access the information, but Adeline can request it from the medical groups. I'll send her a message."
Seconds after he sent the message, his wrist comm flashed, indicating an incoming call. When he touched a button, Adeline's voice came out. "Taureen, I was just about to call you. Have you heard anything?"
"Just that Soranto and Tessa were on that spaceship. If I can ask, what is his wrist comm transmitting?"
"That's why I opened a voice dialogue with you, so I can watch my messages. They are trying to tap into his wrist comm right now. There is some sort of interference with the signal. It's causing a lot of problems and slowing their efforts. Can I wait with you or Aeria? I'm ready to kill something, and I need a friend to keep my feet on the ground and prevent me from joining the fighters with my fusion blaster."
Aeria took a step closer. "Come join us, Adeline. We are in the main port. Just leave the blaster behind. I'll send you our exact location."
"Thank you, Aeria. I'm almost back to the city, so I shouldn't be much- Oh! The message came in. He's alive! His pulse is rapid and shallow; they aren't sure if he is conscious, but he's definitely alive and stable. None of the other readings are coming through, so his wrist comm might have been damaged."
"We'll see you soon then." Aeria promised before the display on Taureen's wrist comm dimmed as the call ended.
I exhaled in relief. If Soranto was alive, then there was a good chance Tessa was too. My worry immediately flooded back as I wondered how close they had been to the explosion to damage Soranto's wrist comm and alter his pulse.
"Tessa!"
My call echoed back once more. I closed my eyes, fervently hoping that she was okay.
Taureen's wrist comm beeped again.
"We have an update." He was quiet for a moment as he read. His muscles tensed as he exhaled very slowly, as if trying to contain his reaction. That alone made me tense up.
"What is it?" Aeria asked.
"Not many details yet. They believe that at least fifty Votaks arranged for a large shipment of 'crates' to be transported across the Kymari territory – and they happened to hide inside these crates. Once the crates were stacked and secured, the Votaks removed the joining walls and joined the halves of their small shuttles together. They have some sort of new stealth cloak that our scanners can't detect."
A growl rumbled through my chest at the thought of the white aliens. The Votaks were unwelcome and forbidden to enter the Kymari's territory. The last time they had snuck into this corner of the galaxy, they had located Earth and wiped out the humans in their attempt to get established in this corner of space.
The Kymari had fought them off and settled here now that the original intelligent race was gone. It infuriated me that the Votaks had the gall to return – especially since they might have harmed my daughter.
"Are they trying to track the shuttles?" Keegan asked.
"Until they find a scanning frequency that can detect or bypass the cloaking shield – and one of the devices has already been taken to one of our testing labs – we won't be able to locate them until they drop their cloak." Taureen's voice was tight, which didn't help ease my worries.
His wrist comm beeped again. "They found Sipar and Drae. Sipar is badly burned and unconscious. He has at least two broken bones and several cracked ribs. The teams are rushing him to the hospital. Drae is conscious, although he has several deep cuts from flying shrapnel. He was trying to get to his feet when they found him, but he isn't in good shape. Nothing about Tessa or Soranto yet."
Before I could reply, another beep heralded the arrival of more information.
Taureen slowly spoke, almost as if in dread. "Soranto and Tessa aren't on the ship."
My eyes flew open. My voice was flat and enraged. "What?" Perhaps I needed to borrow Adeline's fusion blaster.
"They ran a bio-scanner, and there is nothing of organic nature in the lower half of the ship that they haven't located in person. Soranto's wrist comm is malfunctioning, but it's occasionally relaying his pulse. He isn't on that spaceship, and they have confirmed that he hasn't entered any port or hospital on this side of the planet."
My words came slowly, with a deadly undertone. "Are you telling me that those filthy vermin kidnapped my daughter and her handler?"
"That is what they are assuming. They are trying to use any solar wind detectors to look for unusually tiny readings. It might give us another lead on where all those shuttles went."
I growled incoherently, wishing I could flame something– not only did they likely harm my daughter, but they had the audacity to kidnap her as well. If I ever found them, they would swiftly learn why it wasn't wise to come between a mother and her child.
Aeria's wrist comm beeped. "Adeline's here."
She opened the door, and Adeline walked in. The fire in her eyes and her fluid movements gave me pause, silencing my growl. I hadn't thought it possible, but now I wondered if her anger at this moment surpassed mine.
"Did you see that last update?" Adeline asked, her tone slightly clipped although she was trying to be polite.
"Yes. Have you heard anything more?" Aeria inquired.
"Not really. I've alerted both his family and mine. Some of our relatives work as patrollers, so they are coming as fast as they can. I've contacted almost everyone I know. It's been centuries since a Votak managed to injure a Kymari – and I want to know how those pillaging thieves got their grubby hands on a cloaking device that we have never seen before!"
"I think there are a lot of questions our fighters will be asking them once they catch one of them," Taureen said firmly.
"That had better be sooner rather than later."
I was fully in agreement with Adeline on that sentiment.