Night Song (The Guild Wars Book 9) Mark Wandrey (christmas read aloud txt) 📖

“Girl, what under the alien-infested moon are you—”

With her mother’s scream echoing in her ears, Sonya couldn’t register Dailey’s words. She sprinted out of the hangar, leaping clear of a too-small Human and homing in on her mother’s scent. Ripley’s, too, tangled with something both familiar and wild, but she didn’t have time for mysteries.

Where were they? They couldn’t be too far, even her hearing couldn’t pluck her mother’s voice from kilometers away. She lifted her muzzle, forgetting to be subtle, and breathed deeply as she ran faster.

There.

Rex’s scent as well, and then she rounded a long building and skidded to a stop, working to make sense of the buzz of activity.

Her mother, smelling of fear even from this distance, crouched on the ground. Rex was snarling, not the most unusual thing, but this held a spikey wave of worry her much larger brother rarely felt.

A cluster of Human workers in a ragged circle, one off to the side talking to the air. Comms, she reminded herself, and realized she’d stopped moving and wasn’t looking down where they all were.

“Sunny!” Ripley twisted back to look at her, and Sonya moved without conscious effort, racing for her sister’s side.

Unable to avoid seeing, any longer, the unmoving form of her littlest brother.

* * * * *

Chapter 3

Brisbane Australia, Earth, Cresht Region, Tolo Arm

“He should be dead,” said Dr. Tanner, Silent Night’s chief physician. He was watching the medical table’s readouts dance up and down in the peculiar pattern of a Zuul’s physiology.

“He landed on the lumber cut table,” Alan Porter said, shaking his head. “Zuul appear to be tougher than a stack of particle boards.”

“Nothing’s broken?” Dana asked. Alan looked at his wife. She was white as a sheet, eyes red and tears slowly leaking from her eyes.

“No,” Dr. Tanner said. “He’s got a minor concussion, that’s it.”

“Then why hasn’t he woken up yet?” Dana asked.

Tanner shrugged. “Don’t know. Brain scan shows strange higher-level function. If he were Human, I’d say he was dreaming. I’ve scanned them all, and far as I can tell, this isn’t what Zuul dreams look like.”

“Give him some nanites,” she said.

Alan gave a little start. Nanites weren’t cheap, and they were in financial deep water. Bloody deep, if the company and their ship didn’t show up soon. He didn’t think they had enough funds to stand up a platoon. More than likely he’d be lucky to get contractor work for a bigger company. The Australian government wouldn’t care, either. They’d want their taxes.

“That’s a waste of nanites,” Tanner said.

Alan gave a quiet sigh.

“Alan,” Dana pleaded.

Alan turned his head to the left. The window on the examination room opened into a small waiting area, which was crowded with four more Zuul. Hugely powerful black furred Rex. Tan Drake, not as big but just as tough, if not tougher. Ripley with her straw blonde fur and pale blue eyes watched intently. Next to her Sonya with her rich red fur, perfectly still.

They all had lighter eyes, except for Shadow. His were rich, dark blue. He’d always been different, from the day he’d taken them home to Dana. Smaller, weaker, but also smarter and more interested in the world. Animals fascinated him, until he discovered religion. He’d been on a nonstop quest to learn as much about Earth’s myriad faiths as possible since then.

Shadow’s four brothers and sisters watched everyone in the room with the same sort of unblinking stare Zuul used to unnerve Humans. Alan always felt it was like being stared down by a guard dog.

“Doc says he’s okay,” Alan said, turning back to his wife. Dana didn’t like his answer, so he tried to soothe her. “If he doesn’t come around in 24 hours, we’ll reevaluate the nanites.”

“That’s reasonable,” Dr. Tanner agreed.

“Do you know why he fell?” Alan asked his wife.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I was talking to Ripley when I saw him fall.” Dana suddenly looked at him. “Oh, right. I completely forgot about the shuttle.”

“What about it?”

Dana looked at the doctor who had a slate and was comparing medical data. She moved closer to Alan and lowered her voice. “The shuttle pilot was a Zuul.”

“Oh,” he said, then his eyes got a little wider. “Oh!”

“Yeah,” Dana agreed.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I was about to bring her to see you so we could talk when Shadow fell.” Through the glass they could see Ripley talking and all three of her siblings listening with rapt attention. “Looks like they all know now.”

“How come you didn’t stop her from meeting the pilot?” Alan asked her.

“I didn’t know the pilot was Zuul,” Dana explained. “The shuttle was registered to a Jeha transport company. I didn’t think it was one of the bugs’ designs, but I’d gotten a call from one of the power plant techs asking how much more fuel we needed to process. By the time I got back to look out the window…” She sighed, then shrugged. “The two were talking, and the damage was done.”

“The shuttle still here?”

“No,” Dana explained. “It lifted off while we were waiting for medical to show up.”

“Damn, I would have liked a chance to talk to the pilot. Who knows what she thinks, or what Ripley said?”

“I think we better find out,” Dana said and gestured with her head. All four of the conscious Zuul were looking at her. Rex had his arms crossed and ears back in a sure sign he wasn’t happy.

Alan nodded. “Sooner rather than later. We don’t want four adolescent Zuul chucking a wobbly on us while their brother is sick.”

* * *

“What’s wrong with him?” Rex demanded.

“Why did he fall?” Ripley asked.

“Why was he up there?” Drake asked.