The
Kahlea is book four in my sci-fi series. The people on Shakazhan have
decided to explore their planet inside and out. They discovered some
time ago that the planet of Shakazhan is an artificial construct,
like a living ship—a space age, psychotic Noah's Ark, full of
creatures, which are the results of experiments by The Maker. Knowing
they need allies from the folk below, Wil sends an exploratory force.
Unfortunately, they run across something that makes them act
completely out of character for a bunch of grown men and women, most
of whom are Galactic Marines.
Kindred
scanner skittered across the stone, sliding out of sight. Kaz started
to rise, going slowly toward his device, but Mitch jumped after it,
holding it out of Kaz's reach. Cold fury filled Kaz. Keeping a
tenuous rein on his temper, he stood clenching his fists. Above all
else, Kaz was a professional Marine recon team member, just like
Mitch. They each had a few different specialties, but they held the
same rank.
Mitch
outweighed Kaz by a good thirty pounds of muscle and he had eleven
inches on him as well. Kaz couldn't help sizing Mitch up as an
opponent; training was automatic. Holding out his hand, he kept his
voice calm and level, neither of which he truly felt.
"I'd
like that back, Mitch."
Mitch
laughed, leaping away, toying with him, his device just out of reach.
With a silent decision, Kaz prepared to jump him. The other Marine,
so absorbed in his game, didn't see the small man ready to spring
until it was too late. Kaz launched himself at the larger man, rage
twisting his features.
Anger
didn't dictate his movements. Calculating coldly, he planned exactly
how to take Mitch down with minimal damage to himself and maximum
results. Rushing in low, he grabbed Mitch in the mid section,
grappling for a hold. Before the taller Marine could react, he was up
and over Kaz's shoulder, dropped on the hard stone floor, flipped
onto his face, with Kaz's boot in the crook of his shoulder and his
arm straight up behind him. Mitch knew an Aikido pin like this would
dislocate his arm, but he still struggled to get up. A twist reminded
him how much damage someone could do with that particular pin.
The
Kindred device wavered just before Kaz's long, pointy nose in the
hand he held rigidly before him. Mitch tried to turn over, squirm out
of the pin, to get himself free. More pressure applied to the
shoulder, a slight twist and shift of weight and Mitch was screaming.
"Up!
Screw you, let me up!"
"Tap
out, Marine!" Kaz commanded.
Mitch
struggled again, giving himself more pain, refusing to tap the floor.
"Screw you, Kazinski, I will gut you in your sleep! I'll cut off
your balls and wear them as a necklace while you bleed to death! You
scrawny, freckled bastard!" He ended in a scream.
Kaz
had nearly dislocated his shoulder, ripping muscle and damaging
tendons in the process. "Tap out, you completely, stupid son of
a poxed whore! Tap out!"
"What
goes on here?" Ray bellowed, picking up Kaz in one huge hand,
disengaging him from Mitch in one swift and incredibly painful
movement.
Mitch
howled as the shoulder finally popped out of the socket. Holding his
limp arm carefully, he scuffled out of the way of Ray's feet.
Kaz
grew redder in the face, suspended about eight inches off the floor,
held by his shirt collar. The Kindred device had clattered to the
floor, forgotten.
"You
two boys got a problem, Kazinski? Mitchell, go see the medic about
that shoulder. Suck it up, Marine. I've had worse and never pissed
myself." He looked disgustedly at the floor between Mitch's legs
as a flurry of copper colored bots came out to clean it up. A jerk of
his head dismissed the hulking Marine.
Setting
Kaz down with an unnecessarily hard thump, Ray frowned. His handsome
face contorted in anger which he fought to control. Kaz couldn't
remember a time in the entire ten years they'd served together when
he'd seen the Commander this furious. Ray's fist shot out, grabbing
the front of Kaz's shirt and a handful of the chest hair beneath it.
A tug and the lanky man was face to face with his enraged superior,
wincing as the hairs popped free of his skin one by one.
"Talk!"
He shook Kaz.
©
Dellani Oakes 2015
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