Free Shadow Hunters by Christie Golden

regarded as primitive but who had as bright a soul as anyone he’d ever met. R. M. regarded the animals of this place as an obstacle, and he supposed if they attacked, they would be.
    It wasn’t worth picking a fight over. “No,” he said with a sigh. “Just animals.”
    He felt suddenly weary. The nap hadn’t rested him much. And the headache was coming back, as it had during the last three days of traveling. He supposed it was to be expected. He wasn’t cut out for this sort of thing. He missed the feeling of good ol’ dirt between his fingers, of the thrill of the hard-won archeological discovery … the familiarity of friends and a job he knew and was good at. Jake supposed anyone would get a headache under the current circumstances.
    He also was keenly interested in this mystery the Conclave was about to reveal and annoyed to have been awakened right when they were getting to the good part.
    I select each memory I share with you for a purpose, Jacob. Much deliberation goes into what you see. They are all, as you put it, “good parts.”
    He chuckled softly at that, then continued briefing
    R. M. He gave her the coordinates for the underground chambers. She entered them and started their final descent.
    Jake heard a sound he’d heard before, in the shipyard—a proximity alarm. Rosemary glanced at the console. “What the hell—”
    No!
    Zamara’s mental cry was not so much a word as a gut-punch of a negative, an urgent sensation of not-wanting, and Jake doubled over. His head felt like it had had an ice pick driven through it and for a second everything went gray. He was glad he hadn’t eatenbecause he was sure he’d vomit his guts out.
Stop! Don’t land!
    “Don’t land!” he said in a raspy voice.
    R. M. turned, confused, but she’d halted their descent above the ground. “What’s wrong?” A dark shape suddenly appeared in front of the screen. “What the—” Rosemary shouted.
    The ship suddenly rocked. Something yellow-white and gooey spattered over the shield, which immediately went opaque. Sparks chased each other along the console and smoke billowed out in black waves. Other alarm systems added their voices to the din. A sharp burning smell made them cough and Jake again came close to being sick as the reek of something acidic burned his nostrils. Jake and Rosemary unbuckled themselves and scrambled back. The ship rocked again, as if something enormous and hard had either struck it or landed on it.
    “Hang on!” Rosemary shouted. Jake dropped to the floor, but there was nothing to hang on to. The ship, which had been hovering about ten meters over the ground, began to fall and crashed hard. Jake had the wind knocked out of him and couldn’t breathe. What the hell was going on?
    Zamara shouldered him aside in his own body. She forced his lungs to work, got him to his feet, had him fling open the weapons locker and grab a rifle.
    I was in error. There are indeed still zerg on Aiur after all.

CHAPTER SIX
    “WE RETURN, O QUEEN.” THE VOICE IN HER MIND was harsh and rasping. Kerrigan turned her attention upon the overlord whose mission it had been to retrieve this latest prize.
    “Show me what you have brought me.”
    The things chittered, mandibles and antennae and pincers moving. Four hydralisks came forward, the linked scythelike arms cradling a precious burden instead of ripping something to bloody bits. They slithered in front of their queen, and moving as one lowered the chrysalis to rest at her feet.
    Kerrigan felt a wave of emotions wash through her, all powerful and some long-forgotten. She realized she felt … tenderness and affection toward the being encased in the sticky cocoon. Protective. There was a kinship between herself, the mighty Queen of Blades, and this nascent new life that even now writhed in torment inside the sludgy fluids of the cocoon. Surrendering to the emotions of the moment, feeling no shame or weakness at them, she knelt beside the softly glowing