Seth let Khoe study the display panel on the edge of the disk. “Comes in handy,” he said. “What is this thing?”
“Your new best friend. One of our lab rats figured out a way to collect some sort of particle in subspace. These disks attract them and lock them up. Those particles enhance your brain with a whole new set of talents.”
“You’re joking with me?” Seth said, sounding incredulous. “Like what?”
“EMR manipulation, from what I saw. Cutting through security systems. Power conversion, who knows. We can get past Air Command pretty much at will with these. So now we’re looking for volunteers.”
Seth raised his eyebrows. “Funny, I could have sworn you were looking at me when you said that word.”
“Afraid?”
“Rumor says these aren’t good for your health.”
“Only if you get exposed out here. Our people can do this safely in the lab. Interested?”
“Of course.” Seth turned the disk over for Khoe’s inspection. “Walking through walls seems like a damn fine skill. What’s the job worth?”
The rebel stood up. “Talented or not, you’re a smuggler and a masterless mercenary. The question is: what are you worth to us?”
“I prefer ‘privateer’. I get paid, you get what you want.”
Tov Pald waved his six-fingered hand at the device. “With this, you’ll never have to worry about anyone’s security system again. So don’t worry about money.”
“Let me run this errand for you while I think about it.”
The Caspian shrugged. “Don’t think too long. Take this collector with you and go for a nice long jump through subspace. Just twist that band there when you enter. It’ll do all the work. Return here. You’ll get fifty doubles for it.”
Seth whistled. “That’s a pretty sum.”
“If you catch one.”
Seth glanced at Khoe. “What’s been happening to those that don’t?”
“As far as we can tell, those subspace particles get into the crews instead of the disks. It goes bad for some. Feydans and Centauri do okay.”
“Delphians?”
“Don’t be absurd, Kada.” He walked to the door to gesture to his men. “Got anyone else for me?” he said to Tieko.
Seth tucked the disk under his robe. “I guess I’m done here.”
“I’ll expect you back within the next ten hours. Don’t make me wait in this hellhole.”
Seth nodded and stepped over the ramp to the exit. There was no one there now. “What do we have?” he whispered to Khoe as he fastened his robe on his way out and pulled a hood over his head.
“Why did he say that about the Delphians?”
He stepped outside the hull and started to walk back to the Dutchman. “Because there isn’t a Delphian alive that would volunteer for this, even if the Union were doing the experimenting. But we have no way to know how this will affect Caelyn.”
“Doesn’t matter. We don’t have to jump.”
“Huh?”
“I can make it look like that thing has captured particles. You wouldn’t know it’s empty until you opened it, or whatever they do with them. Besides, I really don’t want you to actually use one of these. It’s what we’re trying to stop from happening.”
“That’s true. We can just take off for a while and then return.”
She grinned. “This is the part where you pay up, Kada.”
He had to smile at the mischief on her face. The smile turned into a gasp when he felt her hand again, not on his thigh this time. “Back to the ship with you,” he said.
“Caelyn is there. Not asleep.”
“Did you just pout?”
“Did I get it right?”
“Yeah. Out with it. What else did you find?”
“We don’t have to come back here, either. These disks are being collected for a lab on some planet called Csonne. Let’s just go straight there.”
“Csonne. Good hiding place. There are a few research stations out there. Privately owned. Astrophysics, if I recall. Something to do with the atmosphere there is good for that sort of thing. They’d blend in pretty well. No Air Command presence out there. Did you find out where on Csonne?”
“Got the coordinates for a place called Suncion,” she said. “Right from that Caspian’s system. Tov Pald got that project on Csonne prioritized with whoever he’s working for. They’re called The Brothers on his system. They’re sending more supplies, equipment, ships. There was talk about more security, too.”
“When?”
“Now. They use a lot of code to talk to each other but I think they’ve got some more volunteers ‘safely infected’. I resent that word.”
“I do, too,” he said absently. “Sounds almost like they’re building an army. Or some sort of special ops team. Not a bad idea, actually. I can imagine the damage they could do with someone like you on their side.”
“You’re not saying that my people would be willing to go to war with you? We’d never agree to that.”
“Unless it’s fun? Khoe, you didn’t even know what war is until you came here. Everything you know came from what’s on my ship. And you believe it. How do you know what your people end up believing if they’re on a Shri-Lan ship? Inside a Shri-Lan’s head?”
“We’re quite able to think for ourselves!” she said.
He stepped inside the Dutchman and shrugged out of his heavy robe. “I’m quite aware of that. Some of your thoughts are… delicious.”
“Don’t make light of this. I won’t have our people used like this. Another weapon in your stupid, endless fighting out here. Turning us into tools for you to use. It’s outrageous.”
“The outrage started the moment one of you was taken from subspace. It doesn’t matter why.”
“Of course it does! I’d started to hope we could come out here, into this world, and learn and explore and maybe play. It would have been so wonderful to visit with your people, like this. Instead I end up tangled up with you beyond escape and now your people are using us to harm each other. That’s just wrong, Seth.”
He pulled her into his arms, surprised by her outburst. He kissed her face, expecting tears, but she just leaned against his chest as if intending to stay there for a while.
“Of course it’s wrong,” he said. “We’ll go take a look at Csonne. If we have to we’ll try to get some help from Targon.”
“No! They’ll want us for the same reason your rebel friends do.”
Seth looked past her shoulder to see himself reflected vaguely in the cover of a storage bin along the wall. Alone. Standing in this cargo space as if lost in some thought, or like someone who had forgotten something but could not recall what. He looked back into Khoe’s unhappy face. She had also seen the empty reflection and pulled away with a sigh.
“They’re not my friends,” Seth said and walked into the main cabin. “Caelyn? Time to fly.”
“He’s not here,” she said after checking with the ship’s system. “Left a little while ago.”
“Without telling us?” Seth tapped his com band. “Caelyn? You out there?”
“Where else would I be?” came the calm reply over the speaker.
“What are you doing?”
“Relieving my boredom. I wasn’t going to land on a whole new planet without taking a look around.”
“Has anyone ever, just once, let you walk around a remote location without securing the area, first?”
“There is no one about. Don’t worry; I’m well wrapped up pretending to be Centauri. Did you know that this entire valley used to be a lake? The fossils at the bottom are not to be believed. I’m trying to run some imaging but I just don’t have the right equipment. We’ll have to come back here.”
“Later that. Can you come home now, please?” Seth sighed and closed the link. “I had to bring a scientist. To a rebel planet.”
“Someone’s coming,” Khoe said at the same moment that the Dutchman’s systems voiced their agreement.
Seth ru
shed into the cockpit. “Damn.” He punched up the sensor displays to see that three Air Command cruisers had dropped into Belene’s airspace at maximum velocity. They punched through the atmosphere and swooped west, their destination clear. A glance at the Dutchman’s proximity monitors confirmed that the rebels outside had detected them, too, and with as much surprise. There was much rushing about, waving or arms and shouting as the mercenaries regrouped. Had no one been monitoring?
“Caelyn!”
“Yes?”
“Get back here. Air Command on its way down.”
“Oh. That doesn’t bode well for us.”
“I’d like to get out of here before someone starts shooting. Hurry up.”
“Surely they won’t just open fire,” Caelyn said. His voice sounded strained as he picked up his jog back to the settlement.
“Let’s hope not,” Seth said and began pre-flight procedures. Tov Pald’s men seemed more disciplined than the usual rabble of thugs cruising the edges of Trans-Targon but the sight of Air Command would have them panicked by now. “Battlecruisers,” he said to Khoe. “Not Vanguard. They’ll be fully loaded.”
Khoe swiveled the external cameras to look out over the plains. “Where is he?”
A crackling sound emitted from Seth’s wrist unit. Someone was talking, but distantly. Seth relayed the transmission to the ship’s sound system. “Can you fix that?”
She adjusted the quality until they made out separate voices.
“Those are plant samples,” they heard Caelyn’s measured tone. “Please handle them carefully.”
“So why are you out here picking flowers?” a surly voice demanded, sounding Human. “Those are poison.”
Seth cursed.
“What?” Khoe asked.
“Must have come across a patrol out there.”
“Because they interest me,” Caelyn said. “And they’re not flowers but succulents. Given the environmental conditions, the flora on this planet is astounding.”
“I think you’re either a lunatic or you’re lying,” came the gruff reply. “We don’t need either of those here.”
“I assure you I am merely exploring. But this is your homeworld and I will abide by your wishes and return to my ship. We’ll leave as soon as the captain returns.”
“I think you ought to talk with ours, first.”
Seth scooped up a flight jacket and gloves on his way to the Dutchman’s exit. “I don’t believe this,” he grumbled. “Delphians! More intellect than any known species and not a single brain cell wasted on common sense.”
“Well, in terms of their evolution they never really needed—”
“Don’t you start.” Outside, he jogged around one of the ruined cargo modules where he had earlier seen a few dusty ground vehicles parked. Finding them locked down, he took a closer look at a skimmer leaning crookedly against the wall. Little more than a floating cargo box, it hummed to life when he touched it.
“What are you about?” a voice behind him said.
Seth spun and backhanded the watchman, then dropped him with two rapid blows. After a quick look around, he dragged him behind the air cars before returning to the hover. He crouched in it as low as possible, feeling weirdly like some ancient warrior in a horseless chariot. “You drive,” he said after an obstacle on the ground confused the cart’s sensors, nearly toppling it. He drew his pistol and adjusted its setting, ready for more people about to get in his way. “Do you see him?”
“Yes, his signal’s over that rise.” Khoe pointed past the jagged cave openings. “There are three others with him. They’re coming this way.”
“Hurry before he says something annoying.”
She sped up, forcing him to grip the edge of the cart with his free hand. “Wait till they’re behind that rock. Then you can jump out and punch them.”
“Not going to punch them,” he said.
“Because you remembered to draw your weapon before running into trouble this time?”
“You notice far too much. Go around to the left.”
She swung aside just as a group of four rounded the boulders. By their clothing they were not Tov Pald’s men. Caelyn, the tallest among them, wore the comfortable weather gear Seth had chosen not to use. A burnoose covered his head and most of his angular face. Two rifles jabbed into his midriff.
Seth raised himself up, keeping his gun out of sight, and waved to the group. “There you are!” he shouted to Caelyn.
The men stopped to watch him approach.
“Did you get those samples?” Seth said. “We’re nearly done with the collection. Time to head back and get warmed up.” He pretended surprise at seeing the others with him. “What’s with the guns? Is there a problem?”
The Human wearing what might once have been a carpet exchanged knowing glances with one of his companions as some silent signal passed between them. One of the others, a Feydan, stepped aside to circle out of Seth’s field of vision.
“Good,” Caelyn said, rubbing his hands. “I could use a hot bowl of soup.”
When he stepped toward the sled, one of the barrels moved up to point at his chin. “Not just yet,” the bandit said. “Let’s see what you’ve got on you other than… what did he say they were?”
“Flora,” another said.
“He said succulents.” Seth’s hand lashed out to grasp the Feydan who had sidled close to his sled. Khoe unleashed a burst of energy from Seth into the man, throwing him back and off his feet, unconscious. Seth’s gun dropped the one threatening Caelyn.
The Delphian jumped aside with surprising agility before the others reacted. Seth leaped from the cart, using its edge as a springboard to kick the Human’s chest. The man went down, taking Seth with him as he fell. Seth twisted to fire at the one still standing. Another blow from Khoe silenced the chest-kicked robber.
“Damn, it’s like you’re reading my mind,” Seth said aloud to Khoe.
“I’m clever,” she said. “Although, to be honest, I can just tell which way you’re going to move.”
Caelyn still looked around himself in astonishment. “They were going to steal from me? You said these were friendly people.”
“That doesn’t mean you should turn your back on them. Or wander off into the middle of some frozen desert by yourself. We’re ready to go if you’re done with your botany collection.”
An ear-popping thrum filled the air, startling them. Two Air Command battlecruisers descended from the low-hanging clouds to land at the edge of the colony, uncomfortably close to the parked rebel ships. Seth sighed and gave up his plans for a quick exit from Belene.
“I know, I know, Centauri,” Caelyn said, stepping onto the platform. “I have a lot to learn about being a spy.”
“As long as we’re clear on that,” Seth grumbled. “You should at least take a weapon. That’s often helpful.”
“I’d likely just shoot myself in the foot. Did you get one of those disks?”
“Yes.” Seth winced into the cold wind when the sled turned back to the colony. “And an offer to turn myself into a Dyad. I didn’t mention I already joined that club.”
“You know,” Khoe said thoughtfully. “That gives me an idea.”
“What does?”
“Caelyn shooting himself in the foot. I think I could diffuse a shot like that. Lasers, I mean, not bullets. Would take a lot of energy, though. Unless…” She nudged his hand. “Try it.”
“Try what? Shoot myself in the foot?”
“Yes.”
“And you don’t think that’s a really bad idea?”
“How else would we find out? You could be completely resistant to any sort of electromagnetic weapon.”
“We’ll discuss this later. Much later.”
She shrugged. “Just being helpful.”
Seth sighed and then noticed Caelyn’s eyes on him. “She’s being impossible,” he explained. “I can’t wait to get both of you off this planet.”
“I’m not so sure we’re going anywhere,” Khoe
said when the settlement came into view. Two of the Air Command cruisers had landed near the rebel ships and disgorged an unnerving number of Union soldiers. They stood in stiff formation, guns at their side. Some of them were inspecting the Dutchman.
Seth took control of the hover’s navigation. “I wonder what brought this down on us way out here. Let’s see if we can blend in.”
They trundled back to the small motor pool as if they belonged there. Seth half expected to find a bruised and very angry mechanic waiting for them but the man was still tucked in his corner. They left the vehicle and circled their way around the confrontation taking place on the landing area.
An Air Command major stood in a central space cleared of both soldiers and civilians, speaking with Tov Pald, Tieko and another rebel. The troops on either side of the confrontation ringed the area uneasily, weapons holstered but ready for the draw.
“Khoe…” Seth began.
“Working on it,” she said. “Something’s blocking their system. Kind of like yours but they’ve added some nonsense that’s hard to get through. A lot of them have cut their com links so I can’t get in at all.”
“That doesn’t sound good. Could mean that they’re here because of us, not just on some random rebel round-up mission. Guess they figured out that I’m able to breach their systems after what happened on Feyd. No wonder they’re being careful.”
“Three ships just for you?” Khoe said. “I’m impressed.”
“Where is the third ship?”
She pointed up. “If it wasn’t cloudy you’d see it from here.”
“Strange,” Caelyn mused. “I always assumed that everyone starts to shoot as soon as one of your people comes across one of theirs.”
“They do,” Seth replied, weaving through the throng of onlookers. “But Air Command has rules of engagement. There’s no way to know which of these people are rebels and which are civilians.”
“You people should just stop wearing uniforms,” Khoe said. “Then the rebels have the same problem.”
Seth smiled grimly. “That would be a good idea except that people like Tov Pald don’t give a damn about civilians.” He stepped up on a rock to get a better view of the discussion between the Caspian and the Air Command major. Looking beyond them, he counted a half dozen soldiers now gathered near the Dutchman.
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