Badge by Viola Grace Page A

customized species who had won their freedom and been invited to have their own settlement on Decallock. Their biggest problem was that the harvest season was the same time that their females were fertile. The younger males were driven slightly insane by the scent of their females, and though the Keymin kept their young women from being swarmed by suitors, their males were tense and irritable during this time.
    The Alpha of the Keymin was supposed to keep the young males under control, but apparently, they slipped his grasp.
    She sighed and flexed her shoulders as she drove toward the eastern gate. Any other time of year, the Keymin were completely normal, welcomed citizens of Decallock. This was the one festival that they were not invited to.
    Unstable was the best term for the Keymin males at this time of year. Aggressive was another good one. She was driving toward the most dangerous collection of males on the planet, and she had no backup. It was the perfect end to a hellish week.
    The cycle ran silently through the streets. The moment she passed the outer gates, she gave the order. “Anadora, close the gates and don’t let anyone in until the morning.”
    “Badge, I don’t know if that is such a good idea. You are going to be alone out there, and no one can help you. I got two officers awake, but they won’t be near the east gate for ten minutes.”
    “Good, have them charge the gate and wait for dawn. Six more hours, and they can go back to bed.”
    “What about you, Lee?” Anadora’s voice was worried.
    “I think I will be fine, but in case I am not, set every bit of tech on me to record. This will either be amazing or horrific.” Lee gunned the bike and headed toward the writhing pile of bodies sprinting toward the city.
    The moment she could see their eyes, she did her job. The flare beacon on her cycle elicited a sharp chirp that was barely audible to her, and yet, yelps and howls came from the Keymin. The light caused them to jerk to a halt and shake their heads.
    With the men shifting from canine to bipedal, she dismounted from her bike and stood tall. “Keymin, return to your settlement or face disciplinary action.”
    A young male swaggered forward and paused fifteen feet from her. “A pretty thing like you, discipline all of us? I can think of a number of things that you would be good at and none of them match that badge uniform.”
    Lee pulled in the one and only talent she had, concentrating her personal power in her words. “Calm down and go home.”
    Her voice echoed across the plain and over half of the young men jerked back, turned around and shifted back into their huge canine forms, running back the way they came.
    She was left with nine males, all too strong-minded to turn and follow orders from a female.
    The cocky male that she faced looked surprised. “What did you do to them?”
    She clenched her hands, activating the stunners on the back of her gloves. “I sent them home. It was for the best.”
    Lee stayed tall until he was almost on her, ducking and punching upward. The arrogant male went up with a grunt and continued upward with the power shorting out his nervous system.
    The next slashed at her with hands turned to claws, and he connected, slicing into her while her fist struck his jaw, shorting him out as well.
    Her gloves were spent, so she pulled out her batons. Three men fell as they ran toward her, their bodies dropping in twitching heaps.
    She was in for trouble when the last four men rushed her, her mind blurred into a montage of strikes, punches with hands pulling at her arms.
    The male behind her had his nose broken by the back of her skull, and he howled in pain.
    A furious roar froze the men around her just as the male in front of her curled his hand in the closure of her uniform.
    He jerked back reflexively as the roar repeated, and a Keymin male of impressive proportions bounded into their grouping.
    As the men let her go, she slumped to the ground. It was hours