Mission: Planet Biter (Veslor Mates #4)(9)

Clark’s eyes widened as Maith explained. “I see.” He stared at Roth. “Who’s in charge of your grouping if you leave the surface?”

“Drak.”

“Take her up to Defcon Red and stay with her until the doctors say she’s stable. Find out what you can once she is.” Clark sighed. “I need you down here, Maith. Keep digging into their medical logs. Send everything you find to Defcon Red. The doctors up there will want as much info as they can get to find out what the hell is going on with her. I’ll send Birch’s medic with you, Roth. He’ll meet you at shuttle two. I keep forgetting the kid’s name. He’s new.”

Roth met Maith’s gaze. “Be careful. Inform the rest of our grouping that I’m leaving.”

“Right away.”

Roth leaned down. “Vera?”

She turned her head, peeking at him.

“I’m going to let go of your hand.”

“No!” She used her free hand to claw at his leg, her nails scratching on his suit.

“Listen to me,” he growled.

She froze, panting.

“I’m going to let go of your hand to pick you up. You can hold on to me. Do you understand? I won’t leave you.”

She nodded. “You’re real. Right? You don’t want to kill me or think I’m food?”

“I’m real. I won’t hurt you in any way. You’re not food.”

“Man, she’s really messed up,” Clark whispered.

“Yes,” Maith agreed.

Roth let go of Vera’s hand and quickly scooped her into his arms. She wrapped her fingers around the back of his helmet and buried her face against his chest plate. He turned, facing Clark, and shrugged. He had no idea why the female trusted him.

Clark stepped out of the way. “Good luck with that one.”

“Full decontamination,” Maith reminded Roth.

“I’ll inform Defcon Red.” Clark touched the side of his helmet to broadcast to the rest of the teams. “Peterson, I need you to relay a message up top. I have one survivor and two team members coming your way. Suit up, pilot, or seal your ass inside the cockpit. Full decontamination routine. Have our Med Bay ready for intake.”

“Fuck,” the pilot sighed. “Got it.”

Roth didn’t wait to hear more, walking out of the exam room and leaving the facility’s Med Bay. He had to find his way back to where they’d blown an opening to enter one of the pods and reach shuttle two as quickly as possible. The female in his care needed more help than he or his grouping could give her.

He didn’t like taking the female outside but scans indicated the atmosphere wouldn’t harm her. The planet’s oxygen was breathable and the weather wasn’t cold or hot enough to harm her. He moved fast though, striding into the shuttle. The young human medic was already waiting.

“I reclined a seat to strap her to.”

“That isn’t feasible.” Roth took another seat, adjusting the female on his lap. Vera clung to him, keeping her face hidden against the hard shell of his suit.

“But—”

“Close the doors and tell the pilot to lift off,” Roth ordered.

“You’re not strapped in.”

“I can’t put her down. She doesn’t react well. Tell the pilot to fly carefully to avoid hurting the female more. I’ll just hold on to her and my seat.”

“But regulations state that―”

“Do as you are told. I’m a team leader. Not yours, but I still give the orders. I can keep us in the seat when gravity is off. Remind the pilot to slowly stabilize gravity when we reach Defcon Red.”

The male sighed, closed the side door, and used a communications pad on the wall to let the pilot know he had two passengers that weren’t strapped down.





Chapter Three



Vera screamed and clung to the hard-shelled suit of the alien man when he tried to put her down. She wasn’t about to let that happen. He felt real. Solid. Scary as hell too, but then, she’d been seeing bigfoot for days. A bloody one that taunted her constantly. An alien wearing a white spacesuit who promised not to kill her and agreed that she wasn’t food seemed like a huge improvement to her situation.

“Vera Wade,” her alien growled. “Stop. We must go through decontamination together since you don’t feel safe without me. We’re about to be sprayed, and then we need to strip everything off and do it again. I can’t remove my suit if I’m holding you. I’ll stay with you if you insist. I just can’t keep you in my arms. Do you understand?”

She was so tired. Clinging to his suited neck was hard, especially when he kept trying to get her to release him. “No! Don’t leave me.”

He sighed. “I’m not leaving you. I gave my word. We need to be decontaminated. Do you understand? The drug that has done this to you might be on my suit and your skin. It needs to be washed off. Have you been through the procedure before? Try to concentrate on answering me and think about it.”

She fought to do as he asked. Decontamination sucked. She’d been through hundreds of those miserable showers. It was one of the downsides to working on a survey team tasked with documenting information about newly discovered planets.

Her previous survey job had been difficult. Toxic air on that planet had screwed with the drones. It was not only her job to fly them but to perform maintenance. She’d been so glad when that assignment ended. No more suiting up for every shift. It was hard enough to make repairs on drones but wearing a spacesuit while doing it had made it even trickier. Then she’d faced being decontaminated going back inside to the living areas of the ship they’d used for that gig every single time.