Tara The Great [Nuworld 2] by Lorie O'Claire Page B

on living.”
     
    He took the flat landlink out of Tara’s lap and poked at the keys with his thick
    fingers, then stared at it for a moment. He typed some more, then set it down. “Come
    on, we’re leaving now, we are.” He stood and reached to help up Tara.
     
    Pee-coo-mee turned and approached them. “Have you made a plan?” she asked
    Tara.
     
    “We’ve seen enough.” Darius seemed somewhat annoyed at Pee-coo-mee’s inability
    to acknowledge his authority. “Time for us to leave.”
     
    “Please.” Pee-coo-mee looked at Darius this time. Under her hood, her pale face
    showed sincerity as she spoke, “I’m sorry I doubted your knowledge of the people who
    are attacking us. It was an initial shock.”
     
    She stopped for a minute as if she expected Darius to say something. As if she
    expected him to act the way a man should according to her culture—asking guidance
    and offering any information he might have on the issue at hand.
     
    Darius did none of these things. He stared at her. His face was stone, completely
    unreadable.
     
    Pee-coo-mee stared back. “Well then.” She sighed. “Allow us to show you a quick
    way to the surface.”
     
    “Good.” Darius’ voice sounded a little deeper than normal.
     

 
    Tara was sure he was flaunting his masculinity. Then to make matters worse, he
    guided Tara through the cave as if she were a delicate flower. Tara wanted Pee-coo-mee
    to see that men could be intelligent and capable just like women, but Darius’ gallant
    dominance wasn’t helping a bit. She shot him a dirty look in an attempt to get him to
    behave, but to no avail.
     
    Minutes later, they reached the surface. Only moonlight lit their way, and Pee-coo-
    mee and Pee-coo were willing to accompany them as far as their trailer.
     
    “I fear a very disturbing war is about to begin,” Pee-coo-mee spoke after they’d
    walked some distance along the side of the mountain. “We have new information about
    those who attacked us. A handful of our people were taken hostage in a cavern we
    don’t use often. I guess that’s where these moon people had set up camp. It’s amazing
    we didn’t notice them sooner, really it is.”
     
    “You weren’t looking for them,” Tara offered.
     
    “What’s your new information?” Darius seemed to tire quickly of the trivial
    chitchat.
     
    “I’m getting ready to tell you.” Pee-coo-mee snapped, and a scowl could be seen
    beneath the shadows on her face from under the hood. “Well now, the hostages we
    retrieved don’t remember a lot about their captivity. They were all found strapped in
    beds and hooked up to machines. Our doctors have turned in their reports about them.”
     
    “What did the reports show?” Tara felt impending doom consume her.
     
    “Nothing at first. So our governor asked our doctors to do a more thorough
    examination. That’s the report we just got back. It appears that each female hostage was
    impregnated. Some of the women had the pregnancy aborted, and some of the women
    we recovered are still pregnant. They used the male hostages to impregnate the female
    hostages.” Pee-coo-mee wrinkled her nose. “Can you believe such a thing?”
     
    Darius led the small procession through the trees and now raised his hand
    indicating they should stop. He put his finger to his lips, then pointed through the trees
    ahead of them. A handful of dark figures wearing long flowing capes moved around
    the trailer. They’d successfully pulled it out of the cave where Darius had parked it.
    Several more figures emerged from the cave pushing Darius and Tara’s bikes.
     
    “How many do you count?” Darius whispered.
     
    “Ten or eleven.” Tara scanned the area wondering what transportation these people
    had used to get here or if they, too, had walked. “We can’t use the Eliminator, it would
    take out our bikes and the trailer as well.”
     
    “We can’t let them take our only means of transportation out of