The guards frowned and started walking toward them. Placing her hands on either side of his face, she yanked Veral’s head toward the droid.
“What’s that?” she asked as her mate snarled, his muscles tensing, and the droid began to emit a sharp beeping sound. “Oh shit. That would be an alarm. Fuck!”
Terri barely got the curse out when Veral’s arms banded around her, lifting her up against him, with Harahna protected between their bodies. He snarled, a sharp curse—her human cussing was clearly rubbing off on him—as he pivoted away and took off at a full-out run away from the beeping droid. Larth’s eyes widened in realization as he grabbed ahold of Dreth, jerking him back as they too spun around, falling in at Veral’s side. Despite their size, they were quick as they raced to the opposite side of the compound at a speed beyond what Terri would have managed.
Even so, no matter how fast they ran, the beeping followed them, becoming louder and sharper until a cacophony filled the air.
White noise filled Terri’s ears, muffling all sound as metal fragments flung toward them. At the wall Veral and Dreth dropped down low, pulling Krono tight against her and wedging her and the dorashnal against the wall, the Argurma’s enormous bodies surrounding them completely as the males turned their back to the explosion hurling toward them.
A shout of denial left her lips. She wasn’t about to allow harm to come to any of them. She mentally shouted to her symbiont, projecting her need of a barrier as she moved her right hand from Veral’s shoulder where it was firmly clasped around the spine jutting up through an opening of his robe to grab ahold of Dreth’s shoulder spine instead. Somehow realizing her intent, Veral grabbed ahold of Larth and yanked him in close at her other side, his eyes staring at the mass rising from her symbiont.
Metallic tendrils flew free from her wrist, more than she had ever seen before as they burst out like a tangle of thousands of whipping vines. She could feel her strength waning as they wove an ever-expanding tight net of metal until a woven shell surrounded them. Within a matter of seconds, they were completely covered by living metal as the first of the projectiles hit.
Terri whimpered as she felt the dampened impact vibrating through her along those subtle lines like a spider feeling the vibrations of its prey caught in its web. It didn’t hurt, but was an overload of sensation buffeting her all at once. The shocks seemed to hit everywhere, and she couldn’t help the small cry that escaped her. Veral growled in her ear as his arm tightened anxiously at her back. Harahna squalled, her little body wriggling against Terri’s chest, the sound muffled by the ringing in her ears.
Then there was blessedly nothing. No more vibrations or shrieking metal. Only Veral’s continuous, rolling growl and Harahna’s cries.
A tremor of exhaustion filled her as she allowed the barrier to collapse and draw back into her. The shock of the metals re-entering her bloodstream made her shake uncontrollably. Veral didn’t let go her for many minutes, his growl shifting to a soothing purr as he stroked a hand down her back. She was distantly aware of Dreth shifting as he stood and stepped away to provide them with some privacy, but at that moment she couldn’t have cared less whether anyone was witnessing her recovery.
When at last it was under control, she lifted her head from her mate’s wide chest and looked down at Harahna still caught between them. Her daughter looked back up at her, her face still scrunched unhappily as she sucked on her hand, her tiny mandibles still quivering with distress. It was only then that she noticed the metal tendrils that were wrapped around Harahna as well as her, securing the baby to her.
Terri stared down at them, unable to tear her eyes away as the metal slowly retreated to the small, glowing symbiont on Harahna’s arm. Their daughter had instinctively protected herself and secured herself to her mother when frightened. Terri’s lips parted in awe as she exchanged a surprised look with Veral.
Despite his surprise, her mate seemed to be especially proud of his offspring’s ability to protect herself. His vibrissae puffed and he crooned down at her encouragingly. She wondered how long it would be before the entire compound knew of their daughter’s achievement.
Harahna wasn’t as impressed. She looked at both of them with her big glowing eyes before she pulled away her fist and her bottom lip began to quiver once more. Veral’s eyes widened, his vibrissae puffing and flattening at their daughter’s distress as he tilted his head down toward her and began his rattling purr once more. Terri drew her up closer, kissing her plated brow and murmuring nonsense until their combined efforts quieted their daughter.
Assured that his offspring was unharmed, Veral gently set Terri back a bit so he could stand, pulling her to her feet in the process. His brow lowered as he inspected her.
“You are well, anastha?” he rasped.
She nodded, eyes straying over the wreckage of the droid.
“Yeah, I think so. What happened?”
Her mate twitched uncomfortably, but Dreth chuffed from where he stood a few feet away, his vibrissae snapping with his lingering tension.
“Veral discovered a waynotto corrode code,” Larth remarked with mild amusement as he brushed the wrinkles from one sleeve.
Her mate shot him a dark look, but as he glanced down at Terri, Veral’s lips twitched wryly.
“I attempted to corrode the system’s control code. A forced corrode was the only probability of an intentional malfunction I had not yet tried. It seems that the reports were correct about forcing certain codes to corrode,” he admitted. “It was in the manufacturer’s warning that there was potential for an unpredictable system reaction. I had estimated that the droid locking into battle mode could have been result of that, since the manufacturer was not clear about what systems reactions to expect. Seems that explosion is one of them,” he commented dryly.
Despite his cavalier words, he still had an arm banded around her as his vibrissae slipped through her hair, betraying just how rattled he was. She patted his arm reassuringly as she looked at the metal fragments littering the floor.
“You would think ‘warning: deadly explosion’ would have at least gotten a mention,” she observed.
Veral inclined his head in agreement as Dreth let out a soft chuff and kicked a bit of the rubble with one boot.
“What now?” he asked, his head tipping at angle to glance at Veral.
“I have exhausted every idea. There is no evidence of sabotage—as it seems a stronger probability that you would have been blown up—or tampering with the codes. It is just too perfect to be coincidence,” he growled.
“Okay, so let’s go to the next plan. We will go hide with your far-kin. We only have a couple of weeks left before Harahna will be clear to travel offplanet. We can take the medic and a small guard and get away from here,” she suggested.
Veral gave her a questioning look.
“Are you certain? Even most Argurma avoid the Blowing Sands,” he said solemnly. “I admit that I desire to take you there and have since you birthed Harahna, to keep you both safe. I did not because I was concerned that our daughter’s inner throat filters were not developed enough. However, these few days have provided her with extra time for the filters to strengthen. If we go, we will have to keep her completely covered, but it would be possible if you are in agreement.”