(( A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update. I was hit by a bit of a writers-block for APS. I'll do my best to update more frequently again.
Also: welcome back Peya Luna .
Aspergian: if you have msn, we can :p
And on another note; it's such a pleasure to receive reviews from you guys (and girls of course) . They're full of curiosity and such. It makes a writer want to write XD ))
Chapter Three.
El'is perched on rock she was sitting on. She looked at the compound below and in front of her. Somewhere in there was their friend. She absently put a hand on her ever-growing belly. It was starting to get hard for her to move around with it, at the speed it was growing. And that wasn't even mentioning the morning-sickness, or the cramps she got in her back.
F'gath had not exactly been pleased, last time she talked to him. That was nearly a week ago now. He hadn't preached at her, but she had seen it in his eyes. He was angry at her for not telling, but he was more than a little worried about her welfare. She felt guilty about that. But how was she supposed to know her pregnancy would get so unusual? He had liked the idea of twins though. Yautja never had twins, so that in itself was very unique.
Vi'can however had had more difficulty with it all. She had seen him pale on the spot before starting to yell at her, almost too fast for her translator to keep up with. She knew he would be upset with her, but she had never seen him that angry. At the end of his tirade, he had simply turned and walked away, not allowing her to say another word. She had closed the line afterwards, despite F'gath still being in that room. Her helmet had hidden them, but she had cried.
She hadn't spoken with him since. It was too dangerous to contact their homeworld often. That was the excuse she used anyway. She was just afraid that he would yell at her again, or tell her he wanted a divorce or something of the kind. But she didn't want to admit that she was afraid. She loved him more than anything. If not for the fact that she wanted his children and knew that he wanted to have them too, she might have aborted them.
It had been two weeks since she had arrived on Earth. After G'rel, they had also found J'ven, M'rids son. She had known him as a pup, but when learning of her pregnant state, he hovered over her like a father. An inexperienced father at that. J'ven was one of M'rids older children, but he had no experience with families or mating or pregnancies. He tried though, she had to give him credit for that. It was him that had told her that the third of the hunting party, B'pog, had been captured by the humans.
That had been the reason she had had to contact the homeworld. Though F'gath and Vi'can wanted her to come home immediately, the council had ordered them to retrieve the other Yautja first, or terminate him, destroying all data the humans had in the process. Vi'can had yelled at them, but F'gath had, be it grudgingly, agreed with them. He knew that he couldn't let his personal feelings for the ones at risk get in the way of what was best for the entire race.
El'is looked at her belly, before feeling J'vens hand on her shoulder. She silently moved back behind the rock. She looked at her two companions. At least they were at full strength. J'ven had even been trained the way she liked to see. G'rel was a bit more conventional, but he would listen if she asked him to. She outranked them both, so that wouldn't be a problem.
"All the doors and windows will be guarded," she said in a whisper. "Until we learn where B'pog is being held, we can't enter by force. Searching for him might take too long, and they will certainly increase security before we even get close. If they use heatvisors or nightgoggles, we'd be doomed."
Her companions nodded, knowing she was right. They thought a moment.
"Entering via the roof would make too much noise, but-," J'ven said, but stopped when he noticed El'is jumping to attention.
"The vents!" she exclaimed in a soft voice. "I can sneak in through the vents. I'm still small enough, despite my belly. As long as I'm cloaked, they won't register me."
G'rel frowned, while J'ven shook his head.
"That's too dangerous," he said. M'rid would kill him if he let anything happen to El'is, he knew that much. Then again, he might well just kill himself if he did that. El'is had been his mentor for years, he held her in the highest regard. "If they discover you, both your life and the cubs' lives are at stake."
"All other options are even more dangerous," G'rel reminded him softly. He knew the risks, but going through the front door wasn't an option, and like El'is said, if they entered by force, it would all be in vain anyway. He looked at the Earthen woman. "You have to be careful. I know Vi'can is mad at you, but he would die if you failed to come home."
El'is remained silent for a moment, biting her lower lip. Part of her wanted to never return, fearing his reaction, but the rest of her wanted to run home this minute and bury herself in her husbands arms. She nodded slowly, knowing they were awaiting her reaction.
"I'll get inside. When I've found B'pog, I'll activate my signal. Then you can come get us," she said. She rose to her feet. "Stay out of sight and stay camouflaged. The less notice they take before we've got B'pog, the better."
Both Yautja nodded. She turned and walked around the stone, heading towards the place that held their friend. She walked slowly, not wanting to be noticed. Once she reached the buildings, she used a rainpipe to quickly get onto the roof. Halfway up she had to halt as one of the guards looked around and in her direction. She felt her heart beat in her throat. She had no trouble killing any creature, but fellow humans? She didn't know if she could do that.
She heaved herself onto the roof and went through her visors. Humans really were too confident. They hadn't installed any security measures on the roof. Apparently, they though no one could get close enough for that to be needed. She shook her head slightly then headed for her goal: a big pipe leading into the building with a curve. Pulling the roster off was no problem at all. Still holding that, she climbed in. She pressed her feet against the sides of the pipe as she put the roster back. A thing like that missing would certainly be noticed otherwise.
She descended slowly, trying to keep her breathing calm and even. She didn't want to stress herself too much. This pregnancy was hard enough without any more complications. As she reached the first intersection, she lightly marked a side with her wristblades, going into that direction. She crawled further, passing roster after roster, but no sign of B'pog. They had probably taken him to a lower level. She would have to find the main shaft to descend further.
Luckily, finding that wasn't much of a problem. All vents led towards it in the end. She descended further and further, until the temperature around her suit told her she must be far below the ground. Arriving at the lowest level, she started looking around there. Chances were best to find the Yautja on this level, as far away from any threat as possible. She grinned. She had to admit her race was quite predictable that way.
A roar snapped her out of her thoughts. It held no meaning, but she could hear the pain that resounded in the noise. She quickly crawled that way. Security was a lot better in here. There were guards at every corner, holding automatic rifles. From what she had heard from other huntingparties, the ammunition was a lot more dangerous these days. The alloy they used was harder and the guns could fire more bullets per second. She hoped they didn't know what Yautja suits were capable of. If they did, they would have to destroy everything on the base. She didn't know if they had enough bombs to do that.
She turned left at the next intersection, crawling towards a room. She could hear B'pog's moans and groans of pain from inside. As she reached the roster in the room, she looked down. People in white coats were hovering around the tied down Yautja. They had not yet removed his armour. That much was good at least. B'pog roared and pulled at his bonds. Judging by the scraps of metal lying all around the place, he had done that before and succeeded. This time however, the bonds held.
El'is frowned. That might be why he was still alive. They hadn't been able to hold him down long enough to remove his armour and experiment on them. She moved her fingers through the roster and silently lifted it into the shaft, placing it down just as silently. She activated her signal, knowing that J'vens and G'rels entrance would cause enough of a distraction for her to get the captured Yautja.
She slid her legs through the hole the roster had left and jumped down. Her belly shook painfully as she landed and she had to suck in a breath. She quickly activated her shouldergun. The humans were still turning around when she fired. The first was blown against the far wall, a gaping hole in his chest. She had to admit she was shocked at the amount of damage the shouldergun could do. She quickly made her way over to the captured Yautja, using her auto-locking sequence to take care of the remaining humans in the room.
"Are you alright?" she asked B'pog softly as she used her wristblades to cut open his bonds. The movement of his head showed his surprise.
"El'is?" he asked. She gave him a nod before pulling him to his feet. She checked him briefly for injuries. At that moment, alarms resounded throughout the compound and she could hear sounds of weaponfire above them, echoing down through the vents. No doubt J'ven and G'rel were making their way towards them.
"Do you still have your bomb?" she asked B'pog. He nodded. She held out her hand and waited for him to give it to her. She adjusted the timer slightly, to give them a bit longer. "Activate your gun. We won't have long."
She placed the bomb where B'pog had been tied down before heading for the door. Instead of opening it, they blasted it into the hallway before running out. She didn't want to kill any human, but she knew she had to in this case. Too much was at stake. She heard B'pog's heavy footsteps following her, along with his gun firing. At first she wanted to go back through the vents, but then she saw the elevator door. She beckoned B'pog to follow her and blasted the door of the shaft. She jumped into it and started climbing. B'pog being stronger than her, he easily kept up with her, despite the extra weight he carried. Then again, she doubted he'd be able to do this if he was the one pregnant.
Halfway up, she cursed loudly. The elevator was heading down towards them. She blasted the nearest elevator door and quickly climbed out, pulling B'pog in behind her. The elevator passed, showing surprised soldiers. With one salvo, B'pog took care of them, the elevatorcable being blasted to shreds and the elevator falling. El'is did her best not to get too affected by this all. It was necessary, she reminded herself.
She grabbed what was left of the cable and continued climbing up, using another blast to open the elevatordoors of the ground floor. She jumped into the hallway and started to run. They didn't have long at all now. She could hear B'pog follow her still and judging by the damage she could see ahead, J'ven and G'rel had cleared their path. She turned a corner and there they were, each leaning on a side of a hole in the wall, sometimes shooting to keep the humans from getting in.
"Bomb!" B'pog yelled at them and they turned. El'is quickly handsignalled them to move. One after another, they left the compound and headed away from it at a dead run. El'is closed the line, despite J'vens protest. She wanted to be sure they were safe and okay. The humans fired after them, but as they couldn't properly see them, they missed.
Then a loud rumbling noise deafened them. Behind them, the compound exploded. The last thing El'is thought was that perhaps she should have called Vi'can after all. Then the explosion hit her and blasted her forward, making her world go black as it knocked her out.