Free Precious Cargo by Sarah Marsh Page A

she kept her eyes closed tight.
    “Please, help me,” she whimpered. “Please, make it stop.”
    “Sir,” the young doctor insisted. “We have to do something. She’s a live person, not a lab specimen for you to experiment on.”
    “How dare you!” the older doctor yelled, causing her ears to ring painfully. “Remove yourself from this lab immediately. You no longer work here.”
    “This isn’t right. I’m going to Commander Vaughn about what you’re doing.”
    Alison cracked her swollen eyelids open just enough to see the younger man look at her as though he was frightened to leave her in the older man’s care. It terrified her to think what this doctor might do to her. How could Conn, Tannen, and Kal leave her here with these monsters?

Chapter Seventeen
     
    Conn stood in front of the desk at the medical center with a fierce scowl on his face, with his two bond mates in a similar state behind him.
    “What do you mean we don’t have clearance to see Alison?” He tried not to lose his patience with the desk attendant. “There must be some mistake. Check again with Doctor Gend, please.”
    He could hear Kal growl behind him when she rolled her eyes and called up to the labs to inquire.
    “Yes, sir. Clan Drogan is here to visit the Earth female,” she said into the headset. “Yes, sir. I told them already, sir, but they insisted I check again. Sorry, sir.”
    She looked stressed, and they could almost hear the older doctor yelling at her over the communicator. Conn had never liked Doctor Gend. He’d always been a pompous male and he had a reputation for being rather callous with his patients. Conn hated to think how a sweet, gentle female like their Alison would fare under such circumstances.
    “Doctor Gend says that you don’t have clearance to see the patient and your presence is no longer required for her treatment.”
    “Can we at least get an update on her condition?” Tannen asked, stepping up to the desk.
    “Doctor Gend said that if you did not leave that I was to get security to escort you off the premises.” The female looked apologetic about that.
    “Conn, we cannot leave her here!” Kal growled out.
    “I don’t like this, Conn. He’s being evasive by not giving us an update on her condition,” Tannen added, only making Kal growl louder until he couldn’t hold back any longer.
    “I don’t care if it does cost us our commission, Conn. We need to get to Alison and make certain that she’s all right!”
    “We agree on that,” Conn said, before turning to look back at the desk attendant, whose eyes were now as wide as saucers with the three enraged males that now had their full attention on her. “Commander Vaughn will be in the shuttle hangar. Let’s go.”
    ****
    “Commander, Commander!”
    Tannen looked up as the three of them hurried towards their commanding officer, and he began to worry when he saw one of the younger doctors from the medical center running towards Commander Vaughn in an obvious panic.
    “What is it, Doctor? What’s happened?”
    “Sir, Doctor Gend has gone crazy.” the young man wheezed between huge gasps of air. “Alison Baker’s condition has deteriorated, and he’s refusing to fall back on Doctor Drogan’s treatment plan. She’s in a tremendous amount of pain. Doctor Gend just fired me and told me to leave the building when I tried to reason with him.”
    “That old male has finally gone too far.” Tannen cursed as his clan mates became visibly upset to the point that the security guards were beginning to inch closer to their group. The idea that Doctor Gend would justify the suffering of any patient under his protection was infuriating, but that it was happening to their Alison was more than he could bear.
    “Commander, we must see Alison now,” Conn said in an almost panicked tone. “You have to stop Doctor Gend or I will not be responsible for what happens to him.”
    The Commander looked at the three of them standing there for a