Hunting Dreams

Part 06

She wasn't afraid of the humans here –well, most of them. No, she was worried about far worse than humans.

As if to prove her point, there was a soft whine off to their left. Then their right. And Nova paled when she saw three red dots in a triangular pattern appear on Stans chest. "Down!" she screamed.

Even as several dropped fully onto the ground so that they were laying prone, Stans was already dead. The others only dropped for the nearest cover, or to one knee, as they brought up their weapon. Searching for a target.

For Nova, things went oddly. The part of her brain that controlled how quickly she moved through the timestream around her decided that things needed to slow down. So she got the full effect, shocked enough that she could only watch…

Nova's eyes went wide in horror at the carnage that simply appeared before her eyes. A mild part of her noted that to still leave a corpse, the plasmacaster's power had to have been turned down. Another part noted that Stans chest now looked like hamburger meat. On the tail of that thought came the acknowledgement she doubted she'd be able to eat hamburgers, meatloaf, or meatballs for a long time, if ever again.

Mombasa died next. He had only dropped to one knee, search for an enemy to fight. The spear, or perhaps it was a combistick, got him directly through the heart. Instant death. His body hung limp, only being held up by the rest of the shaft that had buried itself in the ground, out the other side of penetration. Shish-kabobed.

There went another thing she wouldn't be able to eat for a long time.

As if such things mattered right then… Nova fought not to vomit.

The yautja she had rescued wasn't at full capacity, but he would try to defend her anyway because she was an unarmed female. His honor wouldn't allow any other action. However, he was also intelligent enough to know when to 'strategically retreat'. He would follow her if she ran, because he knew he could put up a better fight later.

Time reversed. Sped up. Faster than seemingly possible for humans to move.

Royce seemed to appear out of nowhere and used his ginormous gun to make several trees into toothpicks, providing cover. "RUN!" He kept shooting.

The others started shooting—or had they been shooting the whole time? —creating large plumes of dust, fires, avalanches of dirt and debris. Which revealed the previously-invisible Bad Bloods…

Three of them.

Three Bad Bloods.

She grabbed the yautja's arm, tugged with as much force as she could, and ran.

Blue plasma bursts came after her. She didn't stop. She didn't let go. She just ran. She didn't pay attention to if the others were following her. She didn't know where she was aimed. She just ran. She couldn't fight a yautja. She couldn't fight a Bad Blood. No way, no how. So she ran, the yautja never leaving her side.

+++HD+++

It wasn't until she finally ran out of breath that she slid to a stop. As a companion of the Doctor for the last 40 years, she had a lot of practice in running. It took a while for her ability to run out, but it did happen. She had no idea how far they'd come. She didn't think she'd ever run herself out before. Usually she was pacing herself to either the Doctor or, more often, to the other human companion. Companions, even those already used to running with the Doctor, still were still (usually) human. They had human limitations.

Nova was only half human.

So when she finally collapsed, unable to get enough oxygen into her system to run any farther, she had far outstripped any of the others. That was assuming that they had even been going in the same direction at any point. She had been so frightened that she hadn't thought. She'd just run.

Though the yautja was right beside her. In this case, she had been his limiting factor instead of the other way around. How poetic.

Nova looked around. The pair of them were alone. Separated from the others.

She fought back tears. The Doctor would be so disappointed with her…

She looked at the yautja. She knew he would sense and see her fear. He was a warrior, a hunter. He'd be disappointed with her too. She sniffled. "Sorry."

He peered over her, a couple soft clicks telling her he was probably using different settings in his mask to look her over. When he was done, he gave a single shake of his head. "M-di h'dlak, jadhi. Yin'tekai nrak'ytara."

She winced. She recognized the word 'no' and 'female'. But the rest? "I'm sorry, I don't know what you're saying." She sighed. One more thing to hang on her head. "I usually rely on the ship to translate, but it's too far away right now. I did call the Arbitrators, once I knew where we were. That was a few hours ago… Do you know when they might get here?"

He tilted his head to the side, as if analyzing her words. Did he not know English? She'd kinda assumed that he would, hadn't she? Another bad assumption. Another disappointment.

She tried again using Common Galactic. Then snorted as she realized which pronunciation she was using was probably fifty-first century. She tried a third time with the pronunciations for their current era.

He had been paying strict attention to her words. On her third try, he snorted and gave a grunt. "M-di."

So he didn't understand twentieth century Earth English, but he did know twentieth-century Common Galactic. Well, that was something. Especially since she was definitely fluent with it, rather than her sparse bits of his own language.

*Have no fear, female. Upon my honor, I will protect you.*He used Common Galactic this time.

Nova nodded and gave him a half-hearted smile. She responded in the same language. *I know. The Hunter Honor is well known throughout the universe.*

He gave another snort, his mandibles clicking rapidly. *You are little?*

Nova blinked, wondering at the odd word choice, then realized what he meant. *I'm young for my species. Barely half-grown.*

*You look human.*

She gave a tired half laugh at the age-old question. *My species came first. Humans look like us.*

He jerked back slightly, surprised. He paused for a long time. Finally he asked, *What is the original planet of your species?*

She raised her eyebrows at the phrasing. But given that most species spread out in an ever-widening circle from their planet of origin, it did make a kind of sense. However, to her knowledge, Time Lords had never done that. She figured it had something to do with the Untempered Schism, and how it affected their biological development. "Gallifrey."

One arm immediately came up diagonally across his chest. It was the arm with the wristblades. Guarding against her. He even took a step back from her!

Nova sighed, her shoulders drooping. "Yeah, I get that a lot." Any species that was sufficiently advanced, knew of the Doctor, thus they knew of the Time Lords, and Gallifrey. Given how they usually came by such information, their reaction when they learned that she was Gallifreyan usually wasn't a good one. If they didn't actively run away and hide, it was to instead attack her.

His head tilted and his mandibles began to slowly click together again. Studying her.

She sighed and took several steps back from him. *It is not my intention to harm you. I hold your honor fulfilled, warrior. You are under no further obligation.* She shook her head. Common Galactic had some odd phrasing sometimes. More formal than most languages because it was designed to be a bridge across multiple species, hoping to decrease the amount of bloodshed by increasing the amount of formality.

"I won't make you stay. You can go. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." She started to walk away, calling over her shoulder, *I await the Arbitrator.* She'd try to find that cliff where she'd first sent the signal and wait there. Or something. Maybe just a good hiding spot. Try not to think about hamburgers and beef kabobs.

There was a harsh snort from behind her, then the yautja was beside her. Walking with her. *You are a female youngling. I will stand as your shield until you are back among your own kind.*

Huh. Well, that was unexpected. *Your name?*

That rapid clicking. *Hard Shield.* Maybe it was his version of laughter? It was pretty ironic. She smiled in amusement. *Your name?*

She didn't like her name when it translated into Common, but he had asked. *Exploding Sun.* She winced when his steps faltered slightly. "Nova." She corrected hastily, tapping her chest in the universal sign for someone's designation. She cleared her throat nervously, waiting for his reaction.

He just kept walking with her, his stride once again unwavering.

+++++HUNTING+DREAMS+++++

No beta right now, all mistakes are mine.

It's the end of another semester…

Please tell me what you think! Your reviews keep me going!