A Man For Lara

A Man For Lara

By

Beth Sadler

Copyright Beth Sadler 2014

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, Licence Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it or it was not purchased for your use only then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is written in Australian English.

Cover Copyright Beth Sadler 2014

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

Prologue

Trazan watched with dawning horror as, directly in front of his face, a previously hidden door slid solidly shut, blocking the entrance to the cave and trapping all of his team inside. He was now the only one on the outside and their only chance of rescue. The verdant, green jungle seemed to close in on his panicked mind, overpowering his senses with its powerful scents and drenching his body in sweat with its steamy heat.

Seconds passed like years, before he managed to take a deep, steadying breath and pull himself back together, trying to calm his mind and turn his energy back to the job at hand. He needed to free his men quickly and get them back to the safety of their base camp before night fell.

Worried shouts and confusion echoed from behind the door as loud banging signalled that one of his team members was trying to reopen the door. The voices were muffled but, Hail Hera, they were alive and trying to solve the problem from their side of the cave. He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled back words of reassurance, then set to tearing frantically at the vines and grasses with his bare hands, looking for a gap in the rock.

He had no tools. All of the team’s equipment had been carried by the strong, younger members of the expedition and they had been the first to enter the cave. He rubbed at the door with his shirt sleeve and received his next blood chilling shock. The door was made of solid metal, not rock and the men inside definitely didn’t have anything with them that would cut through metal.

After twenty, sweaty, hand-bloodying minutes, Trazan had cleared enough of the jungle vines surrounding the doorway to see that he needed serious help. What had appeared to be a cave entrance only minutes ago, had turned into a seamless, metal wall that continued on into the distance.

Stepping back a few feet to get a clearer look at the hill, he studied the contours carefully. It was now possible to see that, what had first appeared to be only a hill in the jungle, was actually a man made structure disguised by years of dirt and foliage.

As leader of this expedition deep into the jungles of Teeron, he would normally have been delirious with joy at this discovery. After all, little was known of the Teeron interior. Only the coastal areas as far as the first line of steep mountains, was populated. The rest of Teeron had only been mapped by sky imaging and some low-flying transporters. However, now his team was trapped he wasn’t in the mood to celebrate.

All that was known about the interior areas of the planet was that it was covered in dense jungles and roaring waterways, home to abundant birdlife, small animals and insects. These features kept the planet healthy and well oxygenated, but were not conducive to long relaxing holidays or even short camping trips.

Teeron’s population of twenty-three million people had decided centuries ago, to live happily in the coastal areas and not venture inland.

Banging hard on the metal door with a rock to get their attention, Trazan called to his second in command to give him the bad news.

Jerrol, I can’t find the locking mechanism. What can you see from the inside?

We haven’t been able to find anything either. It looks like someone left the door open when they left and the jungle has crept into this room and decorated all the walls, Jerrol replied, strain obvious in his voice even through his light-hearted remark.

How big is the area you’re in?

We estimate it’s about forty-feet wide by twenty deep and twenty high.

Okay, you should be fine for oxygen for a while then, Trazan breathed a sigh of relief at that bit of good news; three men in an area that size had plenty of air to breathe. Is the equipment all working?

Hang on and I’ll try it.

Jerrol sounded strong and in control as he left to check out the situation. However, when he returned to the door he wasn’t sounding so cheerful. "Sorry Sir, but we can’t raise base station, or home port. It seems that whatever this place is made of, it’s blocking our communicator’s signal.

Are your light and heating modules working?

There were more muffled sounds from behind the door before Jerrol spoke again.

Yes, everything we need to survive is working well, just not our communicators. We also have enough food to last for a few days, if it’s rationed out carefully.

Perhaps you had better start the rationing immediately, just as a precaution, Trazan shouted back, careful to sound at ease.

Will do, Sir, Jerrol agreed, There’s also another door that leads deeper into the hill, with a handle that looks like it might work. However, I’m reluctant to check it out in case we get trapped deeper in the structure, or poisoned by toxic fumes.

I agree, don’t take any chances you don’t have to. Make yourselves as comfortable as you can until I can get back with help, Trazan shouted in reply.

He would have to return to their base camp to get help. He’d lost his own personal communicator a few hours ago. It had been torn from his wrist by a sharply thorned vine and fallen into a fast moving stream.

Luckily, he still had his wits and an ancient compass that he carried for sentimental reasons. It had been a gift from his father when he’d graduated from the Science Academy, thirty years ago. It still worked and if he moved quickly he would be able to back-track his trail before the dense, fast growing jungle plants grew over it.

For several long, agonising minutes he pressed his hand to the cool metal of the door, willing it to open. Then, with a sigh, he shouted one last time to his trapped friends inside before turning and jogging across the small clearing.

I’ll be back with help soon. Stay strong, I won’t let you down.

**********

Eighteen hours later, Trazan startled the two men who had been left at base camp, as he staggered into the clearing and fell, bloody and delirious, into their arms. All they could get out of him, before he sank into unconsciousness, was that the rest of the team were trapped in a mysterious structure and needed help before their oxygen ran out.

With Trazan’s communicator gone and he himself in a coma, there was no way that the rescue party could backtrack his trail. All the searchers had to go on was the team’s last known position, taken when they had stopped for lunch and contacted base camp the previous day. That had been at midday, twenty-one hours earlier.

Trazan had navigated the jungle, weakened and delirious from blood poisoning contracted through the wounds to his hands. His efforts to clear the cavern walls without gloves had nearly cost him his life. Now, the lives of his team were also at risk.

It quickly became apparent that a race of people who were able to navigate the galaxy with ease, was no match for their own jungles. Even with the use of low-flying jungle scooters there was no sign of the missing men. It was going to take a special kind of talent to find the lost team. The people of Teeron had committed an unforgivable sin—they’d failed to pay due attention to their own planet and now were totally unprepared for this emergency.

**********

News of the lost research team reached Staren and Sam at midday just as they were finishing lunch at home in Freedom City.

Staren’s work as a guardian group leader meant that she was informed the minute that the forward search team declared a ‘Recovery Emergency Deployment.’ Guardians were the protectors of Teeronites both on and off Teeron and a RED alert was the most urgent. Never having had a war, Teeron had never needed a military force, so guardians were a combination of both police and military.

It was the job of the guardians to protect Teeron scientists both on and off world. A guardian team always accompanied the Interplanetary Research Pods when they explored other planets. However, no guardians had been assigned to the Teeron exploratory team, as it had been deemed a simple jungle-edge research survey, not a deep incursion. The team had simply never intended to wander so deep into the jungle.

"Hail Hera, what a disaster," gasped a shocked Staren.

What’s the matter, Sweetheart?

Sam was immediately on alert; he didn’t like anything to upset her. The six foot, black-haired beauty was the love of his life and he had taken the saying, 'Happy Wife, Happy Life' as his personal motto.

Sam had met Staren on her last mission to Earth. He had taken one look at the six foot beauty and immediately fallen head over heels in love. He’d chased her all over Earth and when the Interplanetary Research Pod had lifted off to return to Teeron, Sam had made sure he was on it. He and Staren had bonded and were now life-mates until death, a fact that made Sam a very happy man.

Once on Teeron Sam had immediately volunteered for guardian training. He wanted to be in a position to be able to accompany Staren on her interplanetary duties. The training was rigorous, but for an Australian SAS soldier, it had been just business as usual.

On average, Teeronites were stronger, healthier, could run faster and lived longer than Earthlings. However, the people of Earth who had made Teeron their home, were finding out that the longer they lived on Teeron the stronger they became. It appeared that the atmosphere and vegetarian lifestyle were conducive to extreme good health.

Three members of the science team working in the interior have gone missing and are believed trapped in a hidden cavern. From the little we know they only have a few days to live before they run out of water, Staren replied. Her mind worked fast as she processed what had to be done next.

The strain Sam saw on Staren’s face set his mind spinning, trying to find a solution to help her carry out her duties. After a few seconds his eyes lit up and a triumphant smile spread across his handsome face.

Got it! He punched the air with his fist before continuing, "We need Seeker’s help to find them."

"Who is Seeker?" questioned a confused Staren.

Sam laughed at her look of bewilderment before explaining, "His real name is Elias Smith, but I gave him the nick-name, Seeker when we were kids. We shared a foster home for a while and have kept in touch ever since. Without fail, whenever anyone or anything went missing, Eli could always track them down. He’s the man we need now; he has a one hundred percent success rate."

With an eager step, Staren quickly crossed to her desk and punched a button on her communicator. Within seconds she was informing her superiors all about Sam’s friend and giving them his details. Very soon after that call, the word went out into the galaxy, on all wavelengths.

Find Seeker and bring him to Teeron immediately.

Chapter 1

The warm, clear, sapphire-blue water closed smoothly over Elias Smith’s long, strong body, as he slowly sank into the depths of the Coral Sea, in North Queensland.

As far as Eli was concerned, there was no better place in the world to dive. Swimming in tropical Australian waters always felt like being stroked by warm silk and the ocean’s salty taste on his lips, was better than a beer.

He’d taken the time to enjoy the exotic perfumes wafted over the sea from the nearby islands, filling his lungs with the clean, salty air. Then he'd reluctantly put in his breathing regulator and sucked up the commercial air in his tank. There was always a down side to life he’d mused, before getting on with his mission.

He wished he had more time to play amongst the brilliantly coloured tropical fish and enjoy searching through the white sandy ocean floor for treasure, but work and his talent beckoned him onward.

Eli trailed a light rope behind him that tugged rhythmically against the strong currents as he descended.

Smoothly stroking his long, powerful leg muscles, he forced a faster descent towards the sea bed. One end of the rope was being paid out by his anxious, current employer, who waited in the boat above while the other end of the rope was tied to his tool bag.

Once on the bottom Eli went to work, his powerful, heavily muscled body propelling him easily over the hills and valleys of the sea bed, covering large areas on a few easy breaths.

Elias was on the latest, of a long line of his special rescue missions. John was desperately counting on Elias to save his future with this