Knaleg: A Terraneu Novel (Book 3) Read Free Page A

inspection looked like cracking ice. Bending over
carefully, one eye still on Kneus, she checked the pulse of the woman closest
to her. She felt a strong beat against her fingers, this woman was going to be
fine as far as she could tell.
    “None of the females are in any danger. They are all being well cared
for. You don’t understand what is happening, and I am out of time to explain it
to you. Please step off the ring.” Kneus was looking at her, pleading in his
eyes. She was used to die-hard criminals looking at her with anger, or malice,
or glee over the acts they committed. She had never had one look at her with
eyes full of pleading and something deeper…pain and misery.
    “I am not moving until you tell me what is going on!” Catherine insisted.
Backup should be here any second, if she could just keep him talking.
    Kneus just shrugged, “May I please show you something? It is not
dangerous.” He made to move his hands down, that is when Catherine noticed he
had some type of remote control.
    “Is that to detonate a bomb? Is what I’m standing on some sort of
explosive?” Catherine raised her gun again to point directly at him. “Don’t
move!” She demanded. “I sent out an SOS and have backup coming!” As if on queue
she could hear distant sounds of sirens.
    “This device is my way home, not a bomb. Shoot me if you must, if I am to
be stuck on this planet I would rather be dead.” His face held such misery that
Catherine froze for one second and began to lower her weapon.
    “Remember, I did ask you to step off the port pad.” Then he pushed a
button.
    “Port…?” The area glowed florescent blue and she felt an awful pulling,
dropping sensation and she had the urge to scream. Her arm flew wide from the
gravity as her sidearm spiraled away with a bang. She saw lights flashing past
her at an abnormal rate. She felt a burning sensation in her chest. Had she
just shot herself? Then everything went dark.
     

Chapter Two
     
    Catherine struggled to wake up. She could hear music
playing, which made no sense. Her alarm was set on the annoying beeping because
she would usually just sleep through music. She moved her hand to feel for her
alarm, and when she couldn’t find it right away, she patted around the space
looking for it. Where could it have been moved? With a frown she went to roll
over to see where she had placed it.
    “What the…” with a curse she crashed onto the floor.
That was going to leave a few marks. What the heck had she just fallen off of?
Catherine was suddenly wide-awake. The last thing she recalled was facing off
with “Kneus McPherson” on what he had called a “port pad”. Then she had felt a
horrible pulling sensation, lights had flashed all around her and a sudden,
searing pain in her chest. Then she remembered that her gun had gone off too. Had
she been hit?
    She jumped up frantically searching for any signs of
damage to her body. When she looked down her hair swept in front of her to fall
over her shoulders. That caused her to pause for a second. She had never worn
her hair this length, how long had she been unconscious?
    She stilled for a moment, trying to get her heart
rate to slow. Taking deep breaths in through her nose, out through the mouth.
She took stock of her body. With the exception of just falling off of the bed
and getting some bruising from that she couldn’t find anything wrong. In fact
there was something weird going on. No matter how hard she trained lately she
hadn’t been able to get her body back to “fighting” form. Now as she moved, and
flexed her muscles she realized she was much stronger than she had ever been.
Then her eyes fell on her clothes. What was she wearing, some type of medical
gown?
    “I see you are awake.” A female voice spoke out. “I
remember when I went through the change. I thought my hair was an animal that
was trying to eat me.”
    Catherine spun around to see a hugely pregnant woman
walk into the room. Although as