O'Rrin The Protector Read online




  O’Rrin The Protector

  Thoherian Barbarians: Book 1

  Roxie Ray

  Contents

  1. Hetta

  2. O’Rrin

  3. Hetta

  4. O’Rrin

  5. Hetta

  6. O’Rrin

  7. Hetta

  8. O’Rrin

  9. Hetta

  10. O’Rrin

  11. Hetta

  12. O’Rrin

  13. Hetta

  14. O’Rrin

  15. Hetta

  16. O’Rrin

  17. Hetta

  18. O’Rrin

  19. Hetta

  20. O’Rrin

  21. Hetta

  22. O’Rrin

  23. Hetta

  24. N’Ashtar

  N’ashtar The Alien Prince

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  O’rrin The Protector

  1

  Hetta

  It took the second, louder warning ping to break through my focus and get my attention, because I was too busy basking in the fact that after twenty-four years, I was finally going to be free from my family’s shadow. Although not royalty themselves, my family was ‘that family’ everyone knew. The ambassadors to alien worlds, the politicians, the diplomats. All of them—except me. I just liked plants, which was how I ended up hiding on the Ambassador Twelve as the youngest scientist aboard.

  I may not have been good at politics, but I was sure as hell good at my job. I was about to stand up and clean my already clean station when the warning ping shifted to something else, something that sent shivers down my spine. I recognized that alarm. It started blaring in the background, and I heard the scattering of people as they raced down the metal corridors that passed by my lab. As the youngest, I’d been shuttled to the back, the least desirable lab. The joke was on them, because I would work in a broom closet if they wanted me to. This was my dream…Except now, it seemed, it was turning into a nightmare.

  “Hetta!” Jackie’s voice was harsh as she threw open the door to my lab, bypassing the bio-lock somehow. “We need to get to the pods.”

  “But—” I looked longingly at my research setup, my mind a maelstrom of chaos. I’d just spent the better part of two days arranging everything in preparation for the planet we were to land on in a couple of weeks, but with the way Jackie was pulling at me, I was about to lose it all.

  “We need to go,” Jackie said grimly, grabbing my hand and dragging me after her.

  I stumbled after her, my brain still desperately trying to catch up to what was happening. I couldn’t protest, not when I knew that the alarm was only supposed to sound when there was danger to our lives. It was supposed to be a last resort, and they had assured us over and over again that it wouldn’t be needed. “Why is the alarm going off?”

  She paused long enough to throw an incredulous glance at me. “Not my job,” the nanotechnologist said wryly. “But if you see Erica after this whole thing is done, feel free to ask her.”

  “Point taken.” My brain was finally catching up to what was going on and I moved forward, running by her side instead of being dragged behind her. Since the siren had been activated, bright blue highlights emphasized the path to the escape pods. As we headed down the final corridor, uneasiness weighed heavily in my stomach, aggravated by the lack of humans alongside us. “Where are the others?” If the alarm was going off, everyone should have been heading for the pods, not just us. It wasn’t loud, not filled with the clatter of feet and the smell of desperation as I would have expected in an emergency.

  “The ship will self-destruct in eight minutes,” the ship’s AI declared pleasantly. “Please proceed to your designated emergency areas.”

  “I don’t know,” Jackie said grimly. “Get in the pod.” She used a code to open the bay that held the escape pods. They weren’t much to look at, really. Tall and slim, they had just enough room for a person and had emergency supplies stored in the base that we couldn’t access until it landed. The inside was sort of like those foam puzzles with the letters, except the people were the letters and the escape pods the foam. Well, that, and the ‘foam’ was actually a high-density material that could shield the pod’s inhabitants from almost any impact.

  The first two pods were occupied by two of the other women on board, although I didn’t remember their names. As the most socially awkward person in existence, I was always that person who had to ask for introductions three or four times before things finally clicked. The third pod was already opened, and that was the one Jackie herded me to while the alarm got louder and louder in the background. Jackie’s face contorted into a grimace, but her focus was obviously somewhere else.

  I put my hand on the pod but stopped, looking at her. “Jackie, what’s going on?” The ship said it was going to self-destruct, but at the rate the occupants were going, no one would escape in the pods designed for that purpose. Something was wrong.

  “Get in the pod,” Jackie said firmly. She glanced over her shoulders, the uncertainty making me hesitate. “I need to go find Erica and Rachel.”

  “But—”

  Jackie let out an exasperated sigh. “Do you ever do what you’re told?”

  “No, I don’t,” I muttered. This was different. I wanted to know what was going on, if I could help. I didn’t want to just stand to the side, yet it seemed I didn’t have an option. Finally, I nodded and stepped into the pod, watching Jackie’s face shift into relief as the glass door hissed shut, sealing me in the safe enclosure. Between the oxygen stores and the food supplies, I would be safe for a while, no matter how far we traveled.

  Not that it stopped the alarms. No, they echoed in my ears, even though they were now dimmed. The lights on the far wall were starting to flicker, and I could hear the AI talking about starting exit procedures. Those were excuses, but they were all I had for why I didn’t notice the hissing of gas until it was too late. It was only the faint smell of rotten eggs that teased at the edge of my consciousness, telling me something was wrong, but when I opened my mouth, reached out to try and open the pod door, to escape…

  The world went dark.

  I groaned in pain as I blinked back into awareness, my whole body feeling like it was hit by a truck. Where the hell was I? It definitely wasn’t my bunk on the Ambassador Twelve, that was for sure. It wasn’t the cot I’d snuck into my lab, either.

  Bright sun battered my face as I struggled to open my eyes, and I couldn’t stop a hiss, the pain making me want to shield my eyes and just go back to sleep. But I couldn’t. I had to figure out where I was, what I was doing. I had to find the others, more importantly. Wherever I was, for the moment, at least, I was on my own. The pods ejected individually, although theoretically they were supposed to be programmed with the same coordinates, and I wanted to know what happened to my fellow humans. I was socially awkward as hell, but that didn’t mean I didn’t care. I just sucked at showing it.

  The rap of knuckles against glass made my eyes open, only to reveal Jackie standing there, looking worse for the wear. There was a cut across her forehead and hints of burgeoning bruises decorating her arms and legs where her clothes clearly hadn’t protected her. Like me, she’d been dressed casually, since we weren’t supposed to arrive at our destination for another two weeks, and the durable shorts and short-sleeved shirt bared a lot of skin. She also looked like she was shivering, which concerned me. Was it cold?

  Reaching up, I pushed at multiple buttons, trying to figure out how to get the pod to crack open. When it finally did, Jackie yelped and jumped backwards, almost getting smacked by the door.

  Oops.

  “I’m sorry,” I blurted out.

  Jackie just gave me a bemused look, the
n her expression shifted. “Are you okay?” She held up her trembling hands before slowly placing them on my shoulders, as if she was waiting for permission.

  “Sore,” I admitted, starting to shiver now that the world’s air was circulating into my pod. It was frigid, and for a brief moment I missed the quiet, hermetically sealed environment of the pod before it had been opened.

  “No broken bones?” Jackie asked, carefully running her hands down my limbs.

  I flexed my fingers, wiggled my toes, then slowly shook my head. I felt hungover, probably from a mild concussion, but I didn’t feel too bad. “Not that I can tell.” If there was something more, the adrenaline could be masking it, but I didn’t know for sure. It was probably colder than I thought it was already, something that would settle in later.

  “Be careful,” Jackie said, gingerly helping me out of the pod. “We’re on a grassy tundra sort of thing.”

  “Tundra?” My eyes widened as I lifted my head and took in the wide green-and-white terrain surrounding us. “Grass and snow?” I repeated, my voice getting squeaky. We were supposed to be on Hotar, a lush jungle planet…that didn’t have a climate like this.

  We were surrounded by rolling lands, hills with scattered grass, dirt, and snow near the peaks leading towards mountains that could be seen in the distance. The grass was a pale lavender and the blades curled in on themselves like ferns. There were three moons in the sky, even though it was during the day, which was definitely not what was supposed to be in Hotar. Hell, I couldn’t even think of a habitable planet that had three moons. If there was one, we didn’t know about it.

  Yet another indication we were somewhere else.

  “Snow,” Jackie agreed, clearly not thrilled. I could see a decent distance in each direction, which didn’t thrill me, either.

  “Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore,” I muttered. Jackie just gave me a quizzical look. My cheeks flushed and I shook my head. Starting off with old Earth references really wasn’t going to get me anywhere.

  I stepped out of the pod, wobbling slightly. Gripping the glass panel, I took a few tentative steps, the light no longer as blinding even as the cold made me shiver. We definitely weren’t in Kansas anymore, that was for sure. Or anywhere that I knew of. As the child of ambassadors, I was familiar with all the settled, first-contact planets. This didn’t fit anything I had ever heard of. Maybe, if we went searching, we’d find a way to contact home. Someone would have to realize that we’d disappeared, right? Although I couldn’t see a city, or a town, or anything, one had to exist somewhere.

  The astrobiologist in me crouched down and picked up some of the dirt, rubbing it between my fingers. To my surprise, it was far closer to Earth sand than it was to dirt. No wonder the plant life was sporadic at best. Maybe there were better planting conditions elsewhere? I brightened up. Since we seemed to be okay breathing, could this planet support more plant life? Did they function here like they did back on Earth? I may have been freezing, but the scientist in me was pleased.

  Fingers snapped in front of my face, and I looked up to see a mildly amused Jackie looking at me. “You there, girl? You looked like you went somewhere else.”

  “Sorry.” My cheeks flushed. I dusted off my hands and stood, my fingers itching with the desire to catalog more about the biome. “I get distracted by dirt and plants.” I tucked my hands under my armpits, trying to keep them warm.

  Jackie patted my shoulder. “We all have our things,” she assured me. “At least yours is visible.” She winked.

  I snorted, then clapped a hand over my mouth. “I’m not laughing at you, I’m—”

  Another pat on my shoulder. “Breathe, girl.”

  I mumbled something incoherent to even me, then let out a deep breath. Focus. I needed to focus. I spun in place, trying to take in an overview of my surroundings. Plains, yes. My escape pod, yes. The steam that rose from a place just out of sight was probably our ship, and I fought the desire to immediately go over there. I was freezing, and it was probably warm, even if it was destroyed. The sun was high in the sky, the ghosts of three moons spread out across the bright blue. Sunlight reflected off the patches of snow, making my eyes hurt.

  “My pod’s over there,” Jackie said, pointing parallel to mine. “I haven’t found any of the others. If you get in the emergency supplies, there’s a thermal blanket.”

  I grimaced, not sure what to say to that. Instead, I dug back in the pod, digging for the blanket she’d mentioned. Thankfully, it was the right size to wrap around my shoulders, even if it didn’t completely eliminate the cold.

  Loud shouting from near the blast of steam caught me off guard, and I jumped. Alarm flooded through me. Was it a local? Was it someone from the ship?

  “Dana!” Jackie’s face brightened. She clearly recognized the woman’s voice, which I had thought was familiar even if I couldn’t place her. I could place the name, however, since I was familiar with it. Dana was the diplomat aboard our ship, one with a stellar reputation, and she’d crossed paths with my parents several times before.

  “Are you okay to walk?” Jackie asked, turning back to focus on me.

  “Sure,” I said gamely. I wasn’t actually sure if I was, but Jackie clearly wanted to go check on her friend and I didn’t want to stop her.

  Jackie gave me one more look, clearly hesitant, before she urged me back towards my pod so I had something to hold onto. “Don’t move.”

  “Okay.” I clutched onto the edges of the pod’s open door, grateful for the stability. Jackie was the closest thing we had to a nurse or doctor on board, which made her go a bit mama duck over all of us. It was kind of nice, having someone who genuinely cared. My family certainly acted like they did, but the moment you went against their expectations, it was a different story. I’d learned that the hard way. Even now, I hated going with the grain, with what they wanted. I didn’t want to make who I really was disappear just to fit in.

  “Let me know if anything hurts.” Jackie intently picked up each of my legs, testing the joints, then did the same to my arms. It was sort of sweet, even if it felt pointless. I felt fine.

  “I’m okay,” I said quietly, although I left out that I was about as okay as one could expect to get on a foreign planet with no signs of civilization.

  Jackie let out a sigh. “Stay close, okay?”

  I nodded because I wasn’t sure what to say and followed her, slow enough that I lagged behind. I couldn’t help it, my body still recovering from the crash. Jackie jogged ahead, reaching a hand down into a crater we couldn’t see from where we’d been and pulling Dana out of it. The relief on her face was palpable as she gave Dana the same look-over she’d given me, the tenseness of her shoulders easing as she apparently realized her friend was safe. Then Dana was talking, her voice loud and borderline hysterical, and Jackie tensed up again. Jackie said something to Dana, half-turned back towards me, and then jogged back. I was close, but not quite behind her.

  “We need to go,” Jackie said grimly. “There are multiple bodies in the bridge of the wreck, and Dana said she’s found Erica but she’s unconscious.”

  “Bodies?” My eyes widened. So some people hadn’t made it to their pods, then. I still wondered why, but it wasn’t the time or the place. I exhaled in a rush and then carefully took off after Jackie, quickly catching up with Dana. The heat got worse as we got closer to the ship, which part of me was grateful for. It made the cold easier to bear, even if the smoke made it difficult to breathe.

  “She’s still in her pod,” Dana said, her voice no-nonsense even as her teeth chattered. Her caramel-colored hair was still expertly up in a ponytail, somehow, even though the rest of her looked worse. She sported some of the same bruises that Jackie did.

  I couldn’t help but look at my own arms as I followed. No visible bruises, not yet, but I could see the hints of them, the darker spots where blood had pooled under my skin. I didn’t remember getting hit, but apparently, I had. Fascinated, I made a mental note to go over the pod in
more detail once we were able to.

  We went around the crater caused by the ship and I was surprised to see one of the pods half-buried in the ground. From the distance we’d been, I had thought it was a rock.

  “Here.” Dana slowed, and we slowed next to her, stopping a few feet away. “She hit hard.” Worry was written clearly on her face.

  “There’s an emergency release,” Jackie said absently, her hands crawling over the pod. “So we can open it from the outside.” We stood in silence for what felt like forever, Jackie groping the pod, before the door hissed open. Creepily enough, Erica didn’t even flinch. Didn’t open her eyes or anything.

  “Is she…dead?” I asked, my words barely audible.

  “No.” Jackie’s fingers went to Erica’s neck, her eyes flickering closed as she counted. “Pulse is regular. She’s in a coma.”

  My eyes widened. “That’s not good,” I said in the most obvious of obvious statements.

  Jackie gave me a warm smile. “It actually is,” she said.

  “What?” Dana said, clearly incredulous. I felt a bit better knowing that I wasn’t the only clueless one around.

  “The nanobots we got as an injection, before we got on board? They’ve put her in a coma so they can fix the damage she’s sustained,” Jackie explained. “I need to get something from my pod.” Before either Dana or I could say anything, she turned and jogged off.

  “Go follow her,” Dana ordered before I could say or do anything.

  I blinked.

  “I’ll stay with Erica. It’s safer that way.”