Eluria's Enforcer by Adrianna Dane (EXCERPT)

CHAPTER 1

Danger, Will Robinson, Danger! 

Those were the first words that entered Devon Andromeda’s mind as he swerved the hovercade to avoid another fireball. The fragment of memory caught him unaware. Come and gone that fast. Lately, there’d been a number of uncomfortable, yet similar flashes. None joined, none threaded to emotion. Confusing.

Another fireball exploded on the uneven earthen track ahead of him. Again he swerved. He’d need to stop until the firestorm subsided or take the chance of disabling the hovercade in a nest of craters left in a fireball’s wake.

Haydon! He wished he could engage the hovering capabilities of the vehicle; he would get to his destination much faster. But there was too much instability in the atmosphere of the planet even without the storm. Why anyone would use Serdion for a hiding place, he couldn’t fathom. In his opinion, it was on the verge of splintering and was as unstable as they came. Intermittent firestorms bombarded the planet’s surface leaving deep gouges in their wake.

He was too close to his target to take chances, had come too far. He pulled over to the side of the track he followed and powered down the vehicle. Leaning back, he closed his eyes, emptying his mind, knowing patience would net him the prize.

Having achieved the rank of First Level Enforcer, there were none who possessed his level of skill. Enhanced through Nanus, all emotion and memory forever barred from consciousness, he’d been reborn to serve the Argadian Tribunal, the highest power on Argadia. Enforcers were molded from adolescent Argadian youth, each chosen carefully by the members of the Elite Tribunal.

Devon was selected in his seventeenth year. So they informed him. He retained no personal memory of the event. There were only three emotion levels allotted to an Enforcer. Stasis. Aggression. Killing Frenzy. Memory was viewed as an impediment to an Enforcer’s usefulness. Enforcers were controlled and monitored by the Tribunal. And terminated efficiently if dysfunctional.

Devon rose to First Level Enforcer status because of the number and intricacy of missions he’d completed successfully. And lived through.

These breaks in memory disturbed him. Once this mission was complete, he would present himself for assessment and reprogramming. As required, he’d reported the memory breaks to his commander. The only reason he wasn’t at the Nanus refusion facility now was because of the apparent importance of this mission. He’d been specifically requested by a Tribunal member.

The target had eluded or disposed of all previous Enforcer attempts at capture. From the chip they’d implanted in his neck, Devon possessed all the pertinent data he required to identify, locate the target, and...disable...it. The photosimiles transmitted to him gave him pause and caused some confusion.

Over the years a lone image had approached him somehow through stasis visions. Female. Tall. Seductive. She’d floated within his stasis mind, beckoned him. Fleeting bits, quickly vanishing, soon forgotten. Until recently.

He’d often wondered who she was. There’d been nothing to connect her to him as far as he knew. For some unknown reason, he’d never mentioned her image to anyone. It was solely with the implantation of the chip he was now able to name her.

If he’d been susceptible to the passion emotion, he would experience desire for her. He knew of its effect, understood its purpose, but had never personally experienced it. Not that he hadn’t been trained in seduction techniques. In fact, he had a reputation for being quite skillful in that area. It didn’t require feeling the emotion to use it against an opponent.

Nanus programming allowed his khout to stiffen on his thought command when seduction mode was required. His ability to pleasure and fully satisfy had served him well to elicit necessary information from informants.

His thoughts returned to the target. He’d wondered if the stasis visions stemmed from yet another fracture in memory. It disturbed him the way they continued to occur. It represented an imperfection. He was no longer an imperfect being as existed before conditioning.

The fact he still lived and had risen to a rank no other had been able to achieve in the last twelve years was evidence of that level of performance. No, imperfection could not be tolerated.

When they’d implanted the chip with her image, aggression consumed him. Foolish female. Now knowing her identity, he reasoned she’d sought to disable him through his stasis visions. She’d obviously thought she could elicit a softness in him and deter him from his mission.

Her name was Eluria Zydon. One of the rebel leaders to a group of young, idealistic Argadians who had recently led a new, futile insurrection attempt against the Elite Forces. As expected, it ended in swift and bloody defeat. The Tribunal had hoped to wipe out the whole cell. But it was discovered shortly thereafter that Eluria Zydon survived, and had disappeared.

Fortunately, the Tribunal was able to plant an informant within the Freelion rebel organization, and information had finally been received as to her whereabouts. She’d been adept at eluding him so far. Unusual for a rebel. But then again, Eluria Zydon had slipped by more than one skilled hunter. Devon had tracked her movements for months, and it ultimately led him to this desolate, ravaged planet.

The information chip he received also informed him she was the eldest daughter of an Elite Tribunal Member. She was dishonored, her Purity compromised, and for a number of years supported herself as a twilight companion, one who provided skilled sexual release to those who would pay a twilighter’s high price.

It was not uncommon for those in power to contract for a twilighter’s services to provide long-term companionship when transferred for duty to one of the lesser planets. Devon surmised her skill as a twilighter was what allowed her to breach his stasis. In some instances twilighters were known for their unique enhancements beyond simply physical pleasuring and companionship.

It was her father, High Commander Zydon himself, who sanctioned the mission and requested Devon specifically to carry it out. Eluria Zydon had been an embarrassment to him for years, but now she’d become a danger as well—apparently more than just a worrisome thorn in the High Commander’s side. One that would not be allowed to continue.

Upon arriving on Serdion, Devon drove past field after field of flat desolation. There was no longer life on Serdion. Elite Forces conquered this planet long ago. All inhabitants had been moved to Argadia to serve the Tribunal. Hence, even with its obvious instability and dangerous environment, it often served as a perfect hiding place for those seeking refuge from Argadia’s brand of justice. Although there were several smaller planets more conducive to life, Serdion was positioned an equal distance between Ednos, the rebel stronghold, and Argadia, the home planet.

His informants indicated this was where Eluria’s transport unit had landed. Each time he thought he had her location pinpointed, she’d changed transports, requiring him to wait until new information filtered out to him. Hopping from one planet to another, to this point she’d successfully evaded him.

Not this time. Finally, he’d tracked her present unit here. There’d been no indication of lifeforce nearby when he’d discovered her ship. He’d searched it for anything useful, then destroyed the unit, making certain she had no way to leave the planet, or to change transports before he located her. He’d followed the trail left by her land conveyance.

Traveling these lifeless tracks for days, he followed her zigzagged pattern. Until today she’d invariably eluded him, but now he understood her pattern of evasion. She was clever, but not clever enough. Or she was tiring. One less skilled would not have discovered the seemingly random movements she followed, never resting long enough in one place to target her. But he would have her soon. Having discovered the pattern she used, he could anticipate her next move and would have her soon.

Yet now another delay. This time a firestorm hindered the completion of his assignment. And this was a mission he wanted over. Chasing some scrap of a rebellious female was not what he’d been trained for. It offered too much down time as he awaited news from his informants, time in which to receive more fragmented memory best left submerged until it could be rectified. A First Level Enforcer should only concentrate on the task at hand. Memory and confusion were not acceptable.

He squinted and looked up at the cobalt sky. The storm appeared to be easing. He turned and stared down the length of the dark, deserted track. He narrowed his gaze as he targeted the brief glow of a soft yellow light in the distance. It was not the reddish-orange of the tiny, heated embers falling from the sky. It was a steady cream-yellow glow in the night, indicating lifeforce. Possibly a dwelling or an encampment of some kind.

Devon sensed the elusive quarry would soon be his. He inhaled deeply, centered and narrowed his dark inner power, felt its surge within him. He focused on the mission, capture...defeat of the enemy...a quick termination. Hot, sizzling energy flooded and encompassed him. The window of the hovercade reflected back to him the familiar fierce red glow of his eyes as he simmered with the inner molten frenzy he called upon, the signature of a true Enforcer. It was a look that made more than one enemy quake before him.

The familiar power of rage coursed through him, heating him until it was a fire enveloping him with an intensity that blistered away all unnecessary thought. He started the hovercade and slowly directed it toward the beacon of light. Eluria Zydon was about to confront her fate.

*  *  *

Eluria sat huddled beneath the overhanging rock formation, a fire lamp her only source of warmth and light. She didn’t dare sleep, knowing an Enforcer was on her trail and closing in quickly. With only snatches of sleep over the last few days, her strength was almost at an end, and her alertness was not what it should be.

She’d come to Serdion thinking to avoid detection. Apparently, it hadn’t worked the way she planned. This Enforcer was better than the others, more persistent, determined. His thought processes more refined. He’d kept close, forcing her to constantly keep moving, and she’d only just managed to stay one step ahead of him.

This firestorm had halted what little progress she’d made. She could only pray that it stopped him as well. All around her the fireballs fell, flashing showers of orange and smoldering to gray ash, leaving huge gouges in the planet surface.

She’d wound up here because the research team had discovered the antidote. After all these years of testing in the Freelion labs, finally it had been perfected enough to try out on a living, breathing Enforcer. She carried the first precious vials with her. The attack on Argadia had been a diversion to allow her enough time to flee.

It pained her to think of so many lives lost, just so she could escape. But this antidote could mean the difference between their future success and a continued long, drawn out battle against the Elite Tribunal. The struggle had already cost too many lives.

When she’d discovered what her father had done, it had started out as a personal crusade to right a wrong. But when she’d witnessed up close the brand of justice the Tribunal meted out to innocent citizens, the enforced slavery it termed “service to the Tribunal” her involvement had turned into much more than that.

It was her task to get the vials off the planet without detection. Another arm of the plan was in place to capture an Enforcer, incapacitate and transport him to Ednos. They would meet at the home base of the rebel faction. It was secure, a sanctuary for them, and offered a place to detain a trained Enforcer while the antidote attempted to unweave the nightmare Nanus enforced.

If they were successful, they would use it to turn enough Enforcers against the Tribunal. They could re-educate them and gain entry to Nanus, destroying the facility before more Enforcers could be molded. Once infiltrated, they would be able to overthrow the Tribunal and end the terror of their domination over Argadia.

It sounded good in the planning. But an informant, a traitor, had breached their security. It was something they hadn’t counted on. Their plans were revealed to the Tribunal and everything unraveled. The last communication she’d received said the entire cell on Argadia had been destroyed. They’d also informed her an Enforcer beamer had been attached to her current transport unit and she was alone with a hunter on her tail.

She’d placed a rebel beamer inside the container of antidote. If she didn’t return to Ednos, others would at least be able to find the precious cache and complete the mission. It was imperative the vials be kept out of the Tribunal’s grasp, whatever the cost.

When the firestorm first started, she’d taken cover, and hidden the antidote. The metal container now rested beneath a pile of rocks near where she sat, hidden in case she was discovered. Once the storm abated and she was certain the Enforcer was not close by, she would recover them and make her way to safety.

For days she’d eluded him, trying to get to the secure cave she’d prepared without being discovered. There was no way she could capture him by herself. Kill him maybe—if she caught him unaware. Yet, she was so weary of the deaths. Each time she killed it was another mark on her soul. And there were so many already.

She sought only to evade him. The point of the antidote was to save lives, not sacrifice more. Once she reached her sanctuary, he would be unable to detect her location as it was veined in plordium, a natural yet effective mask to any tracking devices the Tribunal might use.

Eluria stepped out from beneath the overhang and squinted up at the sky. The firestorm had abated. She scanned the desolate, rocky area around her, hand poised in readiness above the weapon strapped at her hip.

Serdion had once been the home of a benevolent, thriving community. It had been destroyed because word spread that Serdion insurgents planned to overthrow Argadia. But it had been a ruse.

Once it was a beautiful planet, rich, lush, teeming with life. Until it was discovered it contained several rich deposits of Talagite. The indigo colored, glowing nuggets were considered priceless by the greedy and powerful on Argadia. A very lucrative deal had been struck with certain members of the Tribunal, and the Enforcers were sent out to secure the planet and subdue its supposed insurgents. It was such a surprise when exploring the planet, a team accidentally discovered the Talagite.

Once the Talagite had been mined, the planet was stripped, and all life destroyed on Serdion. All done in the name of the Tribunal for some pretty baubles and more power. Such tragedy, pain, and suffering from what had once been a welcoming, indulgent society. All based on lies. The Tribunal must be stopped, whatever the price.

Eluria began to gather her things quickly and moved toward her velocitor. She had to get to the cave.

A shadow moved between her and her destination, halting her abruptly, heart thudding in her chest. She dropped what she was carrying and reached for her weapon.

“Rebel Leader Eluria Zydon, dishonored daughter of High Commander Clorial Zydon of Argadia, your end has arrived. Prepare.”

She stayed her hand as she eyed the weapon aimed at her. Her gaze slowly rose and her eyes widened in disbelief. “Devon Andromeda,” she rasped out. Shock pulsed through her. Standing before her was her nemesis. The man she’d sacrificed everything to save. Merciful Symion, was this how it would end? Would Guardian truly be so cruel?

She saw a brief, halting flicker of what looked like surprise in his merciless blood red gaze when she’d uttered his name. Then the fire banked and surged. She knew by the look of him, there was no hope, there would be no salvation.

He didn’t recognize her. How could he, when he had no memory of the Before? She carried no weapon powerful enough to stop him, nor was she fast enough. He was in Killing Frenzy. She knew his reputation. Impotently, she watched as his finger tightened on the deadly weapon.

She knew defeat. Even if she had a worthy weapon, this was the one Enforcer she could never destroy. If her death meant he would live, so it must be.

“It is good you recognize the means of your end, Female. May your journey to Haydon be less painful, knowing the means by which you pass. You have been a worthy opponent.”

Closing her eyes, she raised both hands, curled them into fists and placed them over her heart. Delivering herself freely to death, she whispered the chant of acceptance. “Guardian, into your hands I release my light. I embrace my destiny. Your justice will endure.”

The sound of exploding zyflamite missiles filled her ears, and the next thing Eluria knew she was flying through the air, hurled by their force and slammed to the ground some distance away. At the hard impact as she met the solid rock and tasted dirt, her breath was knocked from her body and blackness engulfed her.

Copyright 2005, by Dream Romantic Unlimited, LLC

All Rights Reserved

• Eluria’s Enforcer by Adrianna Dane
• Author URL: http://www.adriannadane.com 
• Publisher: Amber Quill Press/Amber Heat
• ISBN: 1-59279-349-5
• Purchase URL: http://www.amberquill.com/store/p/444-Eluria-s-Enforcer.aspx
• Amazon Purchase URL: http://www.amazon.com/Elurias-Enforcer-Argadia-Rebellion-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B001O1O668
• Cover Art Copyright by Trace Edward Zaber