This week I’m going back to the beginning of the Badari Warriors series, where it all started with Jill, a human, and Aydarr, the Alpha of one pack of genetically engineered soldiers with alien predator DNA. My most recent book in the series is BADARI MEDIC, where I take Brent, one of the supporting characters in this first book and finally give him his own story and romance.

I won’t try to explain all the backstory but Jill has become separated from Aydarr and has broken into the alien scientists’s lab complex in an effort to find her two sisters who are still prisoners. She frees Gabe first (he becomes a valuable ally as the books go on)…MARL is an ancient alien Artificial Intelligence Jill has teamed up with earlier in the book.

Gabe by the way gets his own book later, as does Flo.

The excerpt:

“Couldn’t you give a guy some warning?” Voice rusty, as if he hadn’t spoken for a long time, he rasped the words out, hand over his eyes. Turning on his side, he threw up.

“You could hear me?” She sat on her heels and glanced at the nearest prisoners.

“Yeah, everyone’s fully conscious in their pods,” he said, wiping his mouth with a trembling hand. “Part of the aliens’ torture process.”

“Sorry,” she said. “I needed a test case before I tried the rifle on my sister. Figured you being Special Forces and all, you’d survive and might even come in handy.”

“There’s supposed to be a revival kit with restorative crap the Chimmer make a freed prisoner drink,” he said, sitting up with visible effort.

“I find no such item in this chamber,” MARL reported.

“Just telling you what I learned liberating a few of their diabolical labs, when I was on active duty. Are you the entire rescue force, lady? And your whatever-it-is here?”

“Tech Sergeant Jill Garrison to you, and yes, there’s only MARL and me.” She rose, bracing herself to free her sister next. “I was a Special Forces support tech—I’ll show you my unit tatt later.”

“Gabe Carter, captain, retired.” He got to his feet shakily. “We should try to catch your sister when you blast her envelope. The floor is damn unforgiving.”

Jill glanced at him. “Right now I doubt your ability to catch a fly, let alone Lily.”

“Pretty name.” He staggered to her sister’s container and braced himself. “We’re wasting time—do it.”

Taking careful aim, Jill shot out the corner of Lily’s cage, wincing as the entire container lit up with rebounding energy, before her sister fell in a limp heap. Gabe managed to break her fall, even if he hit the floor with her. Jill moved to her sister’s side, setting the pulse rifle close at hand.

Gabe grabbed the weapon and rolled away before she could stop him.

“What the hells do you think you’re doing?” she asked.

He was moving among the ever shifting lines of containers. “I need my crew. You need my crew. We’re obviously in a bad situation here.” Glancing over his shoulder, he said, “What’s our escape plan?”

“I don’t have time to explain everything to you now. We’ve got to traverse a short hallway, but MARL can provide cover. Then we have to crawl for a long time through ventilation shafts and pray we don’t get discovered, so don’t rescue anyone bigger than you are, because my guess is you’ll barely make it, with those wide shoulders. After that, it’s a day’s hike to a river valley where we can hide out and regroup.” She heard a controlled blast from the rifle and then another. Cradling the unresponsive Lily’s head in her lap, she said in a fierce whisper, “Hey, two men, maximum. We’re tight on time. We can’t rescue everyone today—we’re outnumbered and outgunned.”

“We’re also over the time limit you allotted,” MARL said. “The Khagrish will be making their late night rounds and the door to this chamber is ajar.”

“Can’t you close it?” Gabe reappeared and laid the rifle on the floor next to Jill. “The guards haven’t opened the door once since I’ve been here.”

“This chamber cannot be opened from within, except via special command to the AI system,” MARL said. “Do you want to take that chance?”

“No.” Jill was decisive. “We’ve got to move. No time to search for Megan, damn it.” Leaning over Lily again, she brushed her sister’s hair away from her face. “Come on, sis, we’ve got to get out of here. Wake up.”

“We’ll have to carry her.” Gabe leaned over.

“We can’t carry her through the ventilation shafts.”

“And there’s no other way out?”

“Not at this time, other than on foot through the complex. MARL and I didn’t anticipate the need  to withdraw through the building.” Jill glanced at the floating, imprisoned humans packed into the room. “I had this naïve idea I could set all the colonists free and we’d crawl to freedom.”

“Yeah, that’s not happening.” He squeezed her shoulder. “You did good getting this far in the situation, sergeant.”

Leaning on each other, a man and a woman in utilities staggered to a stop behind Gabe. Both were white faced and barely keeping their balance as they stared at Jill and MARL.

“What have we got going down here, sir?” the man asked, his voice hoarse.

“A selective rescue. Time to evac  and plan for another try later.” He turned to Jill. “Meet Brent and Flo. This is Jill.”

Acknowledging her with a nod, Brent asked, “Weapons?”

“We might be able to scavenge a few more from the abandoned complex on the way out,” Jill said.

Brent and Flo exchanged dubious glances and checked with Gabe. He shrugged. “It’s her party. We owe her for getting us out and she’s in charge.”

Lily moaned and curled into a ball of misery on the floor. Her eyelids fluttered, but she didn’t waken.

“We gotta go.” Gabe scooped Lily from the floor and adjusted her in his arms. “Lead the way, sergeant.”

Jill worked her way through the crowded room, pushing the envelopes holding her fellow colonists aside as gently as she could. She felt the weight of their combined gaze as a physical pressure on her shoulders. At the door she halted, facing the room. “We won’t leave you behind next time, I swear.”

“The hall is currently clear, but the guard has begun evening patrol,” MARL said. “He’ll be here in five minutes at the present rate.”

“Can you hide us with your distort shield all if we go in one tight group?”

“Probably.”

“All right, MARL can project a limited distortion field, so stay tight on my six,” she said, pushing the door open.

With the AI floating at her side, Jill led the way to the room where she’d exited the ventilation system, relaxing fractionally as the last member of her newly extended party slid past her. She shut the door and locked it, going to check on Lily, who Gabe had set leaning against the wall.

“Jill?” Her sister was conscious but groggy. “What happened to me? Where are we? Where’s Megan?”

VS: So that was the first time Brent appears in the series.

AYDARR (A BADARI WARRIORS SCIFI ROMANCE NOVEL): Sectors New Allies Series Book 1 

The blurb: 

Jill Garrison, a maintenance tech at the Sectors Amarcae 7 colony, goes to sleep one night as usual only to wake up in her nightgown stranded in the middle of a forest on an unknown world. There’s no time to think as she’s stalked by carnivorous predators and rescued by genetically engineered warriors calling themselves the Badari. Turns out they and she, along with her whole colony, are now prisoners of the Khagrish, a ruthless race of alien scientists. Working for enemies of the Sectors, the Khagrish have created the Badari to be super soldiers.

Aydarr, the Badari alpha, isn’t sure he can trust Jill but his attraction to her is undeniable. He impulsively claims her as his mate to prevent her death at the hands of the Khagrish.

Can he continue to protect her from the experiments already underway? Will his claiming her put his pack in jeopardy from their alien masters?

As Jill searches for a way to rescue her fellow humans and get them all to safety, she finds herself falling for Aydarr, despite the secrets he’s keeping. She has a few of her own.

The situation becomes dire when Aydarr and his pack are sent offplanet on a mission, leaving Jill unprotected, prey for the senior scientist. Can she escape the experiments he has in mind for her? Will she be able to thwart the Khagrish plans and liberate humans and Badari alike? How will she and Aydarr reunite?

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