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CHAPTER 13: SERENITY
The warm night air rushed over Serenity’s skin as the ukkur carried her away across the prairie. The popcorn smell of crushed grass filled her nose, a surprisingly pleasant aroma after the less appealing machine smells of the cargo hold. But most of all she smelled the scent of the ukkur, intense and animalistic.
It was night, and the moon was still up, casting its silvered glow over the grasslands. That was good. It meant Serenity had only been knocked out for a few hours at the most. Assuming it was still the same night. But ithadto be the same night, otherwise the nith ship would have flown off to another location. And Serenity was sure that had not happened because the ukkur would never have been able to find her if it had.
But howhadthe ukkur found her so quickly?
Serenity and Patrick had ridden skriks to the nith ship. Skriks had a long stride, and when the creatures got up to full speed, they were nearly as fast as a car. Plus, she and Patrick had ridden the skriks for nearly an hour—at least it had felt like an hour, it was impossible to be sure—and that meant they had covered a lot of ground.
The fact that the ukkur had managed to catch up in a matter of hours was almost beyond belief.
But now, witnessing the ukkur’s speed first hand, Serenity understood. The alien warrior was not as fast as a skrik perhaps, but he was sprinting through the tall grass at an incredible speed.
Already, the shadowed bulk of the nith ship was far behind them.
But the ship was not completely out of range, apparently.
From her backward-facing vantage point, slung over the ukkur’s shoulder, Serenity saw several flashes of light along the side of the dark ship.
The nith were shooting.
Serenity felt an impulse to cry out in fear, to give the running ukkur a heads up, a warning, something. But just like the rest of her body, her mouth and vocal cords were still weak from the drug, and all that came out was a hushed croaking sound.
It didn’t matter. By some kind of sixth sense, the ukkur warrior knew they were under attack. He changed direction, swerving from their previously straight course.
Red flashes of energy skewered the air where Serenity and the ukkur had been just a split second before.
She felt the crackling heat of the shots as they streaked past.
More shots came from behind.
The blasts pelted the prairie around them, raising geysers of debris, but the ukkur slalomed gracefully between the explosions. Serenity smelled smoke and burning grass.
The third volley of shots fell well behind them.
They were out of range.
But the nith were not giving up quite so easily, it seemed. Even though the ship had receded far behind, Serenity was still able to discern some activity back there. A mechanical ramp lowered from one side of the ship. By the dim light coming from inside the ship, Serenity saw two nith descend the ramp. They were riding what appeared to be hovering motorcycles.
Shit. Not good.
The nith vehicles were fast. It took them no more than thirty seconds to close half the distance between the ship and the running ukkur.
Still incapacitated by the drugs, all Serenity could do was murmur a weak warning to the warrior.
“Nith…”
But the ukkur warrior already knew they were back there. No doubt he’d heard the high-pitched whine of the hoverbikes’ engines as they throttled forward.
The ukkur came to an abrupt halt and dropped Serenity from his shoulder. To call his action ungentle would be an understatement. Serenity tumbled to the ground like dead weight, but luckily the dense prairie vegetation cushioned her fall.
She lay on her back in the tall grass and stared up at the ukkur.
His right hand fell to his hip and detached a piece of rawhide cord dangling there. Serenity had just assumed that was part of his loincloth, but now she realized it was a weapon—a sling.
On the other hip, the ukkur wore a sheathed dagger—Serenity had seen that in use already—as well as a small leather pouch. The warrior’s left hand dipped into this pouch and retrieved a pair of smooth round river stones, exactly the kind Serenity had been collecting earlier that morning.
God, that seemed like an eternity ago.
