I squashed the flutter of panic in my belly. I hadn’t felt this uncertain since my basic training with the Rangers. I glanced at Jai, to catch his expression, but he wasn’t watching the Lythion drift away from us. He’d turned his head and was staring at Terra’s blue and white face.
The pilot at the shuttle’s controls splayed his hands over the sloping dash, and the shuttle swung to face Terra fully. Then it nosed forward with a gentle acceleration, heading across the face of the planet in a westerly direction.
“My money’s on Europe,” I murmured.
“Normerican,” Jai murmured back.
We still didn’t know where the meeting would be held on the planet. The Terrans had not bothered to tell us and neither Ven nor Seong, who were the most familiar with Terran ways, could make any suggestions.
“They did not tell us where they were taking us. Ever,” Ven explained.
Neither had their ‘training’ provided them with information that might suggest a city that would be a natural venue for such an occasion.
Jai had told me to deal with limiting parameters. This had been another of them. We had mined the little Terran data we had and studied it deeply, but we were still woefully ignorant about our hosts.
Yeah, that didn’t make me nervous at all.
We were descending steadily, and now we were in full atmosphere, we could hear it rushing past us. In front of the pilot, the air was heating and distorting the view, which didn’t seem to bother him at all. He kept his head down, staring at the dashboard. He was piloting via instruments.
Braking thrusters slowed us as we dropped and the shuttle eased into a flight vector that was nearly horizontal in relation to the surface, but I suspected our direction had changed. It was difficult to estimate for there was no land beneath us anymore. Just blue featureless ocean, and some clouds casting shadows far below. We were moving slowly enough that heat was not distorting the view in front of the pilot.
The flight went on, with nothing but blue beneath us and ahead of us. Occasionally, I spoke to Lyssa to ensure the connection remained steady.
Then I saw Colton and Calpurnia, in the seat in front of me, tap each others’ arms and point through the windows. I looked through myself and saw a pin prick of something far below. An island, I realized.
Then another one. This one larger, and discernably green, with a white border.
I could see a chain of them stretching out ahead of us. We seemed to be following the path they made.
We were descending.
Jai tapped my wrist and pointed directly ahead.
I shifted my gaze from the side and beneath us, to the view beyond the pilot’s shoulders. A larger island lay ahead, with white beaches around it. It was similarly covered in green growth and I could see no buildings anywhere, yet we were heading directly for it.
There was an even larger island beyond it—was that north? I couldn’t say for sure. Whether by accident or design, the Terrans had managed to keep us in the dark about our exact location.
The island farther on was also covered in growth, with no evidence of human habitation among it. Now we were low enough I could see many fringed trees made up most of the growth. They had single trunks rising to tufts of green fronds. Some of the trunks were curved or leaned at alarming angles.
The shuttle came in over the smaller island and sank. Trees sprang up around us. We were landing on a green strip of some sort of ground cover that was naturally short or had been trimmed short. Over by the trees, a long row of ground cars waited upon the edge of the grass, with more Terrans beside them. These Terrans did not wear armor. Their clothes flapped in the winds created by the shuttle’s thrusters as it lowered to the ground and settled.
“We’re still not there, yet,” I murmured to Van Veen.
“A chance to look around and see what we can see,” he said, his tone equitable.
Everyone else was doing just that. Their heads swiveled as they took in as much of the view as possible.
Outside, I heard more doors open and the shuttle shivered. Terrans wearing simple tunics and flat shoes, with bare legs and arms, were pulling our baggage out of the rear compartment and loading it upon a flat vehicle.
The shuttle doors opened as we got to our feet. Immediately, air heavily ladened with moisture and heat rushed into the interior.
I sucked in a surprised breath. The heat was a shock. My skin prickled with it.
Weather. I’d forgotten I’d be exposed to air that moved by itself, here.
Then I saw Ven’s face and forgot about moving air. His expression was stricken, as he stared through the shuttle windows at the Terrans unloading our baggage.
With almost a thud, understanding clicked into place in my mind. These people hauling our crates and luggage were Drigu.
Slaves.
I squeezed past Jai and Vara and moved over to Ven and touched his arm. I wasn’t surprised when he jumped at my touch. “Do you know any of them?” I murmured.
He swallowed and shook his head. “They’re…workers. The lowest. I was…domestic.”
Jai came up beside us. “They’re slaves?” he asked quietly.
“Yes, laborers,” I murmured back.
We studied them. My gut stirred uneasily as I watched them sweat in the heat and the bright, direct sun. None of them looked the same as any of the others. There were no genetic patterns. They were both sexes, a range of ages in appearance, and their flesh was of various shades from ebony to palest white. One of them had mottled skin, brown and cream, a variant that did not exist in the Carinad worlds.
“We knew we would see this,” Jai reminded us both. “We’re here to make sure this is not the fate of any more Carinads.” He turned and headed for the door of the shuttle.
We followed. Everyone had lingered in the shuttle, waiting for Jai to step out first.
The Terrans—the Drigu—had pushed mobile steps up to the side of the shuttle. Just two broad, shallow steps, then onto the earth itself. Earth earth. Terran earth.
I held my breath as Jai stepped down the two steps, then onto the shorn grass.
He beckoned and we all rushed to join him and step about the grass or look up at the blue sky and wispy clouds. Some laughed. Others wore bemused expressions. Some crouched to touch the grass. The parawolves bounded around us.
Dalton scooped up a bit of dirt from between the grass clumps and stood with the earth sitting upon his palm. He looked at me, his brow raised.
Baller, I mouthed at him.
He grinned, moved over to me, picked up my hand and dropped the little pile of dirt onto my palm. “It even feels different,” he assured me.
“It’s just in your mind,” I shot back.
“Yeah, and yours, too. Tell me it isn’t,” he challenged me.
Only, I couldn’t. I stared down at the small pile of dirt and prodded it with my finger and damn if it didn’t feel…weighty. Significant.
Then a tiny creature wriggled out from under the dirt and waved around…things. It had more than two legs and it was black. I shrieked, dropped the dirt and backed away.
Everyone whirled to check on me, as I scrubbed my palms on the sides of my new trousers, over the lines of braid stitched down the sides. My heart hammered.
“Insect,” Dalton said, and shrugged.
The Drigu watched us with puzzled expressions but said nothing. Most of them stared at the parawolves. Further away, the six Terran soldiers waited patiently. Suit-sans-helmet came over to us. “To palace now.” He pointed to the ground cars.
—5—
There were six ground cars. We split up and spread ourselves across them. Jai moved directly to the car at the front of the line. Coal, Vara and I followed him.
The interior of the cars was much like the interior of the shuttle. A single pilot control, only the pilot sat rather than stood. Chairs for the rest of us, three across, accessible by doors on either side.
The pilot looked like he might slide right out of the car whe
n he saw both Vara and Coal jump up into the seats and turn themselves around and around until they were comfortable.
I smiled at the pilot and scratched Vara’s head until the pilot drew in a slow breath and returned his attention to his controls.
The pilots were Drigu, but the Terrans who had stood waiting by the cars to open the doors were not. Those Terrans wore more complex, layered clothing which hid most or all of their legs. Their garments were strange, and they wore multiple layers, each of them with a central fastening that ran down the middle of the garment, unlike ours. Most of the Terrans that were not Drigu were dark-headed and brown skinned. All of them were male.
“Ami,” I murmured to Jai. He nodded. Ami, the middle class. Military, administration and directors of the Drigu.
Once we were settled, the cars moved off soundlessly. Their tires crunched over grass and twigs. All the cars had clear canopies on the top, giving us an unobstructed view. The canopy also cut off the slight breeze and stopped my hair ruffling and getting in my face, which pleased me.
The cars moved between trees through a cleared alley. A road, I guessed. Then they turned out onto what would be a road by anyone’s definition. It was paved and wide enough for two of these ground cars to pass each other with room to spare. Yet the road was devoid of any traffic at all.
The cars rolled along the road as it curved. I check the sun and decided we were heading northeast. As the road curved even more, the sun swung behind us. We were heading north.
Then we broke out of the trees. The road, now built up, speared out across white beach and turquoise green crystal-clear water.
I peered ahead. The causeway continued out over the water, which grew a darker blue. Then the land fell away beneath the causeway, which became a proper bridge. The bridge rose in a slow, graceful arch high over the water.
At the peak of the bridge, which looked to be nearly a hundred meters above the water, a flap of the roadway was being lowered down.
A drawbridge.
On either side of the lowering drawbridge were lines of soldiers in their dark blue armor. These had helmets and weapons, although the weapons were lowered as they watched the line of ground cars approach.
As we reached the peak, the drawbridge dropped into place across the open span. One of the soldiers waved us through. The pilot waved back.
We crossed onto the drawbridge with barely a bump. Once all six cars had crossed, I was absolutely certain the drawbridge would be raised behind us. Then we would be cut off even from the shuttle which brought us here.
I glanced over my shoulder to peer through the back of the canopy at the peak of the bridge we were leaving behind. My heart thudded unhappily.
“It’ll be fine, Danny,” Jai murmured.
I glanced at him. He wasn’t looking at me.
“Easy for you to say,” I shot back.
He shook his head. “I’ve always had a greater faith in the goodness of humankind than you.”
I snorted. “That’s called naiveté.”
He didn’t reply. Jai had stopped arguing with me weeks ago. He’d stopped talking nearly altogether. I’d shared more words with him since we’d arrived over Terra than I had in the last three months.
But that was probably my fault.
Nah, it was all my fault.
—6—
The arguments had started pretty much the moment a general consensus was reached that we would go to Terra as invited. That had been three months ago. Everyone who was anyone in the Carina worlds converged on Triga, as preparations to head to Terra flashed into a fever pitch almost instantly. Of course, every man and his parawolf wanted to be part of the group that went.
Except me.
Jai and Marlow lived on Triga. The day after everyone agreed we were going, after I argued myself hoarse on the two separate committees I’d been appointed to, I printed a bottle of Scotch that even Jai wouldn’t turn his nose up at and made the chime ding on their door.
Marlow opened the door. “You know this portal is keyed to your biometrics, right?”
“It’s not that sort of visit,” I told him. I tapped the pavement beneath my feet. “This is the end of the freight ramp, right here.”
“Then you’d better come aboard,” Marlow said, stepping back from the door to let me in.
I stepped through the door. I didn’t need to brace myself because I’d moved through my day with all my defenses up. I just didn’t lower my guard, for I was about to confront Jai Van Veen, who was one of the most slippery operators I’d ever come across.
“Is Jai in?” I asked Marlow.
“Just finishing eating.” Marlow pushed against my shoulder as I hesitated. “If you want to speak to him at all, then you’d best take him in whatever circumstances you find him.”
“None of us are going to have much downtime in the near future,” I admitted. I continued on into the big room that was nearly all of the house. It was a very large room with more than half the walls made of floor to ceiling windows through which to take in the stupendous view up and down the man-made valley and lake at the bottom. Red faux-wood floors gleamed in the last of the sunlight—real sunlight, for Triga was a city of transparent carbon steel, made to soak up the heat and energy of the yellow sun.
Colorful rugs held together small islands of chairs, an office area on the far side of the room and the dining area, where Jai sat at the long table—not the head of it, I noted with curiosity. The place at the head of the table had a plate with the remains of a meal. Marlow had been sitting there.
I moved directly to the table and put the bottle in front of Jai. He placed the knife and fork on his plate and raised a brow. “Beware Gretnies bearing gifts,” he intoned and reached for the bottle.
Marlow placed three glasses on the table and took away the plates. He pushed on my shoulder to encourage me to sit on the chair opposite Jai.
I sat reluctantly. If I was going to drink the man’s scotch, I should at least do that much. But I really wanted to pace.
I took the glass Jai pushed across the table toward me. He raised his glass and sipped. I did, too, while my heart picked up speed.
Jai returned his glass to the gleaming red wood table, which matched the floors, except for the glass-like finish which emphasized the grain of the wood. He raised a brow at me. “Long day,” he observed.
“And it’s not over yet.” I pushed my glass away. “I’m curious, Jai…who decided that we should go to Terra?”
Marlow sat at the end of the table and picked up his glass. He’d pulled his chair out far enough that I suspected it was a way of indicating that even though he was present, he wouldn’t invite himself into the conversation unless I actually roped him in.
Marlow was acutely sensitive about such things, which I deeply appreciated right then. One strong, stubborn man at a time was my limit.
Jai didn’t show any surprise at my question. “We all agreed.”
“Who is we?”
“Everyone who has been sitting around that square table set up, every time we have to figure things out when it comes to the Terrans.”
“Was there a vote? Because I don’t remember there being one.”
“There wasn’t any need to vote,” Jai replied, his tone even. “It was very clear that the majority of people were in favor of the idea. We’re taking action based upon that.”
I put my hands together. “I’m wondering if they’re the best people to make such a decision.”
Silence.
I’d caught the attention of both of them. Even Marlow’s eyes narrowed.
“You don’t feel they are the most qualified people to determine the next step?” Jai asked, his tone utterly neutral.
“They’re civilians,” I pointed out. “They’re in the room, some of them, because they had a few milligrams more leadership ability than anyone else on their station when the Shutdown happened, and by default, they’ve been leading that group of people ever since. They weren’t voted in. They’re no
t true representatives of their people. I don’t think a single one of them, except perhaps for Kristiana, has any diplomatic training, or political experience beyond public speaking. I know for sure that none of them has any military training.”
“Politicians don’t, as a rule,” Jai pointed out. “Their skill is to know who to consult about military matters, so the advice they base their decisions upon is the best.”
“And who would they consult now?” I pressed. “There is no military, anymore.”
“But there are still experts to be found,” Jai pointed out.
“Yet not a single soul consulted me,” I shot back.
Silence.
Jai didn’t look upset, or even thoughtful—not the way Marlow was looking. Marlow appeared to have been handed a large slice of meaty thought to wrestle with.
“You don’t think we should go to Terra,” Jai concluded heavily.
“I think it is a terrible idea!” I squeezed my hands together and reminded myself to control my volume. “I’ve asked questions all day on those committees you dumped on me—”
“As a military consultant,” Jai shot back.
“No one cares about that!” I railed back. “Everyone is so desperate to get rid of the Terrans and the problems they’re causing our ships, they’re looking for the easy answers. They all seem to think that after a couple of meetings on Terra, we all shake hands and go home! Tell me that isn’t what you think, Jai?”
He rubbed his jaw, his expression thoughtful, but there was a hint of irritation there, too. “I don’t think we will be able to resolve the differences between us with a couple of meetings, no,” he said. “But this is a step toward a peaceful solution, Danny.”
“You think that because the Terrans want you to think that!” I cried. “Any corporal worth her training will tell you that sending the pick of the Carina world leaders to Terra in one ship is just asking for them to shoot us out of the sky. It’ll bring peace for the Terrans, but I don’t think that’s the sort of peace everyone here is dreaming of.”
Planetary Parlay Page 3