Landis looked up at her, and his gaze locked to her eyes. Wetness gathered in the corners of his eyes, but he blinked a few times, and the tears retreated. "Yes, it hurts, but time has eased it somewhat."
Shane regained some of her composure. "You can't kill an entire race for something one group did. We learned that long ago on Earth. Sometimes, small groups of people would do things, and the natural tendency is to blame all members of the larger group they belong to." She shrugged. "Pretty soon, no one is left."
"Again you speak wisdom." Clemmons sat beside Landis, his face a study in concern for his close friend. "But as we have said, the dragons won't talk to us."
"Maybe we can help you with that. Well, maybe Lieutenant Talbert can help. Like I've said, I'm no diplomat."
Landis brushed at his left eye with his fingers. "Perhaps you can."
* * * *
"I understand the problem fully, Captain, but we still need answers." Admiral Reeves didn't look too happy about things, but Elsa knew the man also understood command and the need to let her handle the situation. "What do you think is going on?"
"Talbert and Rawls think it's a communications problem." She thought for a moment, glancing over the report from the surface again. "We're still relying on electronic translations, and that misses the emotional side of the coin. My people on the planet think there's some kind of deep-seated emotional conflict between the people and these dragons."
"But you haven't even seen the dragons yet."
"That's correct. Well, other than some scans and long-range visual contacts of them flying overhead, we've had no contact with them."
"Exactly. Are they intelligent?"
"From what we've gathered, I think so. The dragons have their own loosely structured feudal society, and they have language, but as far as we've been able to learn, they don't make tools or build what we think of as cities."
Reeves sat quietly, staring out at her from the communications screen, his expression as neutral as thirty centuries of life could make it. Elsa could no more read him than she could Lord Admiral Q. He finally leaned his head to one side, and a small grin played over his face. "Tell me what you think all of this means."
Elsa had been asking herself that same question for several days now, and she didn't have enough facts to reach a conclusion. The memories of her meeting with the Emperor when he gave her this job came back to her. She recalled how he made no secret about the fact that he selected her to command Daedalus because she had good instincts and followed them. And her instincts were all she had to go on right now.
"I don't think the people down there are hiding anything from us, but we don't have all of the story yet. I think things could get more than a little tense before we get the full story, though."
Reeves nodded, his grin broadening. "Jim is right. Standby one." He reached for something on his desk, and the display switched to split-screen mode. The image of the Emperor swam into focus.
James the First, By Grace of God Emperor of Mankind, looked up from his desk and smiled. "Elsa, so good to see you."
"And good to see you, Your Majesty."
Reeves interrupted the pleasantries and outlined the situation to his father-in-law. "This is probably nothing, but since Daedalus's mission is your personal project, I thought you'd like to know."
The Emperor nodded. "That's just fine. Even with eighteen quadrillion people in the Empire, I like to have some clue about what's going on. On the other hand, I'm paying Elsa to make the decisions."
"Maybe you are, but we need another opinion on this one, Jim."
"That's what you pay me for." The Emperor grinned, the same grin his picture on the currency carried, as he looked out at her from the screen. "What is your gut telling you to do, Elsa?"
She swallowed. Despite the easy way he talked, she was giving advice to the most powerful man in the galaxy. Elsa knew he would follow her suggestions unless they were totally off the wall. She also knew if things went terribly wrong, he would take the heat. Yes, she'd get her lumps but in private. Any consequences from the Senate, media, or public would fall squarely on the shoulders of the men she now faced. It occurred to Elsa that she had, perhaps unconsciously, modeled her own command style after that of the Emperor.
"We should proceed with caution, but we should proceed. Of course, we need to get the information as quickly as possible, but the lack of information is no reason to bail out." She smiled. "I have good people on the ground, and we need to let them do their jobs."
"I couldn't agree more." A lopsided grin flashed from the face of the Emperor. "I have good people out there, and I intend to let them do their jobs."
Reeves laughed a bit. "Then that's all settled."
"As far as I'm concerned, yes. Carry on, folks." The Emperor's image faded, and the screen showed only Admiral Reeves.
He nodded. "Just keep me informed, Captain." Reeves's picture faded to Technicolor 3-D static.
* * * *
In eight days, the linguists had made little progress in understanding the language of the planet, even though the electronic translators were working fairly well. The delay was causing problems, and the Captain was getting worried. Shane didn't understand all the talk from the linguists about tenses and pronouns, and she really didn't want to understand.
In some ways, the problems with the language also prevented Shane from broaching the subject of what she'd seen in the woods a few days ago. She didn't trust the electronics to handle that for her, because there were too many emotions involved.
So far, all attempts to contact the dragons had failed. Landis and Clemmons had no idea how to make that happen without it turning into a battle, and the king and his ministers said it was impossible. Shane saw the dragons flying high overhead from time to time, but that was all.
Of the other animals on the planet, the most dangerous seemed to be a small creature about the size of a rabbit. Beyond that, it didn't look much like a rabbit. Long, shaggy hair covered the animal like that on pictures she'd seen of some long-extinct dogs, and it had the disposition of a badger on illicit psychoactive drugs. But the animals were all bark and no bite, and if you moved away from them, they would fade back into the brush and run away.
Shane had walked into the woods to think, and her thoughts wandered aimlessly. She wanted to find a way to meet the dragons, a way to make contact and sort out the relationship between the people and the creatures. She'd learned the dragons had a crude society and some kind of language, but they lacked other trappings of intelligence—they didn't build towns or tools. If she used the strict rules defining intelligence, the dragons didn't fit the definition, but they were clearly more than simple animals.
The sound of a breaking twig to her right caused Shane to whirl around and draw her sidearm, her thumb flicking the safety off in one smooth motion. Landis stepped from the low branches and smiled.
"Hello, Shane." He kept his hand far from the sword hanging at his side.
"Landis, you startled me." Shane flicked on the safety and dropped the weapon back in its holster.
"Forgive me." He looked around the area. "You shouldn't be out here alone."
"The same goes for you. Where's Clemmons?"
"He rode to town for a meeting with some of the ministers." He looked around again, and the slight breeze caught his black hair, blowing it softly, like a semaphore flag. His gaze came to rest on the translator hanging at her side. "I hope we'll soon be able to talk without the need for your box."
"That will be nice." It occurred to her that some forms of communication didn't need words at all. "I'm just out for a walk to think a little. What are you doing out here?"
"Same for me." He shrugged. "I guess the real reason is I saw you leaving the camp and followed to make sure you are safe."
"I can take care of myself." She found his thinking she needed protection both comforting and irritating at the same time.
"I know that, but old habits die hard." Landis smiled. "I should go and leav
e you to your thoughts."
"No, that's OK. I'd like the company." She wasn't sure what made her say that.
* * * *
Standing less than two meters from Shane, Landis fought hard against the urge to tremble. He fought nearly as hard not to tremble as he did to keep his eyes on her face and not let his gaze drift over her petite body. She wore the casual uniform he'd come to know over the past few days, but she'd left the closure—she called it a zipper—on the top half undone to well below her breasts, and the sight fascinated him.
After inviting him to stay with her, Shane held her arm out toward him. "Come and walk with me." Her move was so like that of the ladies of the court that he reacted without thinking. Landis stepped to her and took Shane's arm in his. He knew instantly that was a mistake.
The bare skin of her arm felt warm against him, and his skin tingled where they touched. Reverberations of shocks rolled through his body, running up and down his arm in waves. The feeling was much like that he had years ago when lightening struck a tree near where he walked during a storm. The hair all over his body stood on end, and his skin tingled and crawled, but unlike the fear he'd felt in the storm, these sensations were pleasant.
As Shane led him off through the forest, Landis realized there was an element of fear, though. He took a deep breath to clear his head, but the tactic backfired. His nose filled with a scent he'd never before smelled, and every instinct in him screamed that the wondrous odor came from her. Something, perhaps the smell, or maybe the touch of her warm body, reached into his brain and grabbed him.
Now Landis had another battle to fight within himself—he struggled with the urge to pull Shane to him, to kiss her full, red lips and run his hands over her soft and supple body. He fought the overwhelming desire building in him with words, his only weapon, but he didn't know if he was winning or not. He reminded himself he was in love with Clemmons. He recalled that, as a knight, he should be able to master his baser instincts. Landis tried to control his cravings by remembering he was representing the king to Shane. He hoped Shane was oblivious to all of this, and she continued to walk beside him, her arm linked in his, and chattered about things he completely missed.
She suddenly stopped and turned to face him, only half a meter in front of him. "There is something I need to talk to you about." She frowned. "Actually, I should probably talk to you and Clemmons both."
Landis looked down into her pretty face, the skin tanned and looking like it would be as soft as velvet. Shane's deep blue eyes sparkled in the afternoon sun, and he thought he could see the wispy clouds floating in the sky reflected there when she stared up at him, the top of her gorgeous hair reaching nearly to his chin. Quivers ran amok in his body while his muscles worked to control his ruffian urges.
A small frown painted itself on Shane's face. "Are you all right?"
Chapter 3
All The King's Men
"I'm curious, Sir Clemmons, why you haven't taken advantage of the lizards' reluctance." The king seemed in a much better mood today than on Clemmons's recent visits. "Why haven't you attacked them?"
He didn't like being away from the camp, Landis, or, if he let himself admit it, Shane, but Clemmons couldn't refuse a direct command from the king to appear at court. "Landis and I don't think that would be wise until we understand how the humans will react to that course of action."
"Since when do we care about what others think of things? This is my kingdom, and we do what I want."
"You don't understand, Sire. These humans value restraint and peace. We would be wise not to offend them."
Sayid made a dismissive gesture. "They are weak and don't understand the ways of our world."
"They are neither weak nor ignorant, my lord." Clemmons decided to risk ruining the king's good mood. "They are different. Shane is a warrior, no less than Landis or myself, yet she loves peace and tries to avoid war. She doesn't fully understand our fight, but she wants to end it."
"Fools."
"No, not fools."
"I won't get into this debate with you, Clemmons, and I won't order you to attack the dragons, at least not yet." Sayid leaned forward on his throne. "But I suggest you consider it carefully."
"Yes, Sire." Clemmons bowed and turned to leave the throne room. As he walked toward the door, he felt something, a sensation he couldn't explain. Somehow, he knew something was wrong back at the camp, and he quickened his stride without conscious thought.
* * * *
Shane studied Landis's face carefully. She'd seen that look before, but it took her a few moments to figure out where and when it had been. Finally it hit her that it was again back on Klendau when her company liberated a school full of children the PLF terrorists had held as hostages. General Damon Hyde, husband of Princess Allison and son-in-law to the Emperor, had personally led the assault Captain Harry Douglas, also the son-in-law of the Emperor and Allison's other husband, had planned down to the last detail. When the smoke cleared, fifty-six terrorists lay dead and two hundred and thirty-five students, none older than seven, were safe and unharmed. She had held one little boy, maybe six-years-old, as he shook with fear. Shane did the only thing she knew to do to help him calm down—she cuddled him.
When the little boy looked up at her, his face looked much the same as Landis's. Yes, there was fear in the expression, but there was so much more. Landis looked like he fought for control, just as the little boy had fought not to cry. Where she still touched his arm, Shane could feel tremors rippling through the big man's body, just as the child had shivered in her arms so many years ago.
Since he hadn't answered her, she decided to ask again. "Landis, are you OK?"
As he stared at her, his eyes flickered back and forth, tracing a path over her face. Black hair spilled down across his cheeks, and the fine stubble of his beard snagged the more wayward locks. The hair spilled over his shoulders to his chest, covered today, not by armor, but by a white shirt whose material looked like satin or, maybe, silk.
She was about to repeat her question for the third time when Landis grabbed her shoulders and pulled her face to his. The flavor of his lips exploded in her mouth like a delicious grenade. His tongue pressed gently against her lips, and when Shane parted them slightly, Landis probed her mouth deeply.
As her arms came up to wrap around Landis's neck, Shane latched onto the last of her reason and pushed him away. She strained to speak through the rapid panting his kiss had started in her. "We can't do this. It isn't right."
He took a half step toward her then stopped, closing his eyes. Landis stood before her, his body shaking. "Tell me why."
"I saw you and Clemmons in the woods a few days ago." She didn't really want to bring that up, at least not now. Shane felt shame for her desire to bring it up after she had Landis. "You and Clemmons are lovers."
Landis still had his eyes shut, and shivers moved over him still. "No, we are life-partners. Being lovers is a small part of that."
She shook herself. Courses of warmth and want had swept over her in the few instants she spent in Landis's arms, and she yearned for the feelings to return, but Shane knew it was wrong. She just didn't know why it was wrong. "We can't do this."
Landis opened his eyes, and the determination Shane saw there frightened her a little. He'd already made up his mind. "I want you, and I think you want me." He took a deep breath. "If I have read you wrong, say so now."
He stepped forward, closing the gap between them, and put his bulging arm around her waist, pulling her close to him again. Once more, his lips pressed to hers, and Shane knew his tongue met no resistance as it slipped between her lips.
Shane should pull away, or push him from her, and then run as fast as she could, putting distance between them, but instead she wrapped her arms around Landis's neck, pulling his face tighter to hers as the taste of his lips filled her mouth. His body felt like a rock against hers. From his broad shoulders, working firmly under her arms as he hugged her, to the expanse of his chest, the hu
manlike pectorals flexing like boulders against her breasts, to the steel-hard shaft in his pants that pressed against her hips, Shane relished the delightful touch of this alien—no, this man—on her body.
Visions of Landis and Clemmons in the woods danced through her head until the feel of Landis's hands cupping her ass and pulling her hips against his hard cock made other thoughts fade in importance.
She pulled her hands from his neck and clutched at his cheeks, his long hair and the stubble of his beard blending silky softness with a coarse sensation into a compound Shane never knew could exist. Landis released her ass, and his hands slid up her sides, tickling and teasing her ribs, to grasp her breasts. As he kneaded and squeezed, fits of shivers rocked through her body. He tugged at the zipper of her jumpsuit, pulling it down to its lowest point, and then slipped his hand inside her uniform.
When the heat of his palm spread across her breast, another dichotomy of sensations hit her as the roughness of his muscular and callused hand mixed with the softness of the lacy material of her bra. Her nipples, already hard with the excitement of his kiss and touches, burned with a fresh flood of hot desire. Landis moved his hand, sliding it under her bra to touch the bare skin of her breast.
He took her nipple between his thumb and forefinger, and Landis squeezed hard as he rolled the rigid nub. A shockwave of pleasure shot through Shane, and for the first time since the kiss began, she pulled her lips from his, and a scream of delight leapt from her mouth. Her head lolled back, and he kissed her neck, nibbling and licking from her shoulder to her ear, where his tongue flitted wildly.
While he kissed her neck, Landis moved his hands to work the jumpsuit from her shoulders, and it slipped down around her waist until he unfastened her gun belt and pushed it and the suit past her hips to fall to the ground. When he lifted her in his arms, Shane kicked the suit from her feet. He carried her like she massed nothing at all, and placed her on a pile of leaves in the shade of a large tree. Despite her total trust of Landis, a small wave of fear hit her when he pulled the dagger from its sheath at his hip. He moved quickly, first slicing the material between the cups of her bra and then that of her panties, leaving her naked on the forest floor. With a casual flick of his wrist, his eyes never leaving hers, he threw the knife, and it buried itself in the trunk of a tree some ten meters away.
Knights of Desire [Flights of Fancy 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 5