9
The runner landed just as they arrived back.
Dav was sorry to see it, even if he didnʼt have a moment to lose in getting back to the Barrist. Heʼd turned his handheld back on when theyʼd started back, and although Kila hadnʼt ask him why heʼd switched it off to begin with, he could almost feel her curiosity pulsing over the comm link.
It was standard procedure for the exploration officer to monitor communications, but Dav found himself chafing under the requirement.
Rose said nothing more. Sheʼd needed every scrap of breath to walk back, but he also sensed a state of deep introspection. She hadnʼt noticed the guards, had barely acknowledged him, either, keeping her head down most of the time, and putting one foot in front of the other.
When he realized he wanted to hear her speak again, wanted to engage her in conversation just to hear the melody of her voice, so different to the harsh, clipped tone of his own people, he forced himself to keep his mouth shut.
When heʼd suggested he call for a vehicle to take them back, so she didnʼt need to tire herself, sheʼd shaken her head.
“Need this,” sheʼd told him. “Who knows when Iʼll get to walk on grass again?”
He didnʼt answer that, because he didnʼt know himself.
There would be questions from his superiors. From the United Council, as well. A tribunal into the Tecranʼs actions for sure.
All of that would take time, and it might be a while before she could choose which of the four planets the Grih claimed as their own to settle on.
But now he had to get Rose into his ship to be checked in the med-chamber, make sure she was in good health and wouldnʼt cause an epidemic of some kind when the runner took her back.
He looked over at her, found her watching him with her fascinating eyes. Unlike any he had seen, they were many colors of green, with gold woven through them as finely as any Balcastrian wall hanging, an intricate palette of color. No Grihan had eyes like that.
“You want me to go in there?” She pointed at the runner, and he could hear her breathing had quickened again, as if she were climbing the hill.
He shook his head. Pointed to the bigger ship that had brought him and his team. “I want you to go in there to the med-chamber. Make sure youʼre all right.”
She shivered, and he realized he was on the verge of retracting his words, and allowing her to skip the med-chamber. He forced himself to say nothing.
Not only the entire crew of the Barrist, but anyone they came in touch with later could be affected if she was carrying a pathogen placed there by the Tecran, or just a disease or virus from her world they had no defense against. He should have made her do it straight away, had risked himself and the two guards who went with them on their walk.
There was no ducking out of it now. She had to go in that med-chamber.
He rubbed a hand over his chest.
“Who will be there?” Her question was soft.
“Iʼll be there. And Lieutenant Kila, my head explorations officer.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Explorations officer?”
“Weʼre primarily an exploration unit. Weʼve charted most of our territory, but we havenʼt even explored a quarter of it in depth. Thatʼs what we do. Explore our part of the galaxy, look closely at things that seem interesting, sometimes even land on planets for a closer look.”
She tipped her head up at him, and there was something in her eyes, a flash of humor, that his explanation seemed to have sparked. “Whatʼs the name of your ship?” she asked.
He frowned. “The Barrist.”
She gave a nod, but he had the sense that her question was part of the humor, and she hadnʼt cared one way or the other what the answer was.
She squared her shoulders. “Letʼs get it over with, then.”
He gestured up the ramp and when she walked up it, he thought her truly brave.
He knew Kila had been listening to them, and would have already gone to the med-chamber, so he took Rose straight there. “Rose, this is Lieutenant Kila. Kila, this is Rose.”
As sheʼd done when sheʼd introduced herself to him on the roof of her spaceship, Rose placed her hands palms together and extended them to Kila, who clasped them between her own.
“My pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant Kila.”
Kila vibrated at the sound of her voice, and Dav hoped he didnʼt looked as stunned every time she spoke as his senior officer did.
“The pleasure is mine.” Kila didnʼt try to keep the excitement from her voice.
Rose looked at her sharply, as if suspicious of her eagerness.
“This will just be a simple scan to make sure the Tecran didnʼt implant you with anything, or use you to carry a pathogen. Weʼll do a more thorough scan on board the Barrist, but we canʼt take you up there until youʼre cleared.” Dav spoke as much for Kila, to get her to focus on the issue at hand, as he did for Rose. “Lieutenant Kila is a fully trained medic as well as an explorations officer.”
“What does an explorations officer do?” Rose took a step closer to him, away from Kila and her bright, eager eyes.
His lieutenant blinked at the movement, and exchanged a look with him.
He kept his expression dry, and Kila had the grace to blush.
“My area of study is sentient life-forms. I help to catalogue the sentient life we find in the exploration of our territory.”
“You study oranges, then.” Rose had stopped inching toward him.
Kila blinked again. “Yes. Although you and the life-forms that came with you are the first sentient oranges Iʼve ever seen. We come across plenty of non-sentient oranges on our missions, but never have I found seven sentient beings my system couldnʼt identify in one day.”
“Is that the scanner?” Rose pointed to the scan bed.
Kila frowned. Gestured around the room. “There are a few pieces of equipment in here, may I ask how you chose the correct one? Your people have something similar?”
Rose shrugged. “Probably lower tech, but yes.”
She slipped off her shoes, hesitated, and then pulled a chain with a thin crystal over her head and placed it on the closest counter. “Will it take long?”
“No. Five minutes.” Kila waited for her to lie flat before she programmed the scanner and set it to run.
It hummed, lit up, and Rose closed her eyes in obvious discomfort.
“What is it?” Kila leaned over her.
“The light hurts my eyes.”
Kilaʼs lips pursed with interest, and she opened a drawer and pulled out a mask for Rose to drape over her eyes. Then she turned to him and raised her eyebrows. It was clear she wanted a word in private, but there was no way Dav was leaving Rose alone here.
“When the scan is finished, Lieutenant Kila will need to study the results before we have the all clear, and I have some instructions to give Commander Appal, so perhaps youʼd like to spend the time outside until we have to leave?”
Rose gave a nod. “Thank you.”
The scan bed powered down, and Rose stood and pulled her shoes on, picked up her necklace, although she didnʼt put it back on, holding it in a tight fist by its silver chain. “Will it be all right if I walk down to the river?”
Dav gave a nod and he and Kila followed her out.
Rose started toward the river and didnʼt look back. As she walked away from them, she lifted her necklace and pulled it over her head, her hands coming up to flip her braid over it and tug it close to her neck.
“Is that wise?” Kila asked him. “Letting her go off like that?”
Dav signaled to the two soldiers whoʼd accompanied them up the hill and they followed her at a distance.
“Where can she go? She canʼt run from us. What can she get up to, Lieutenant?” Dav turned to his officer.
Kila shrugged. “I donʼt know. She is absolutely fascinating and I canʼt wait to speak with her more, but she seems harmless.” She looked upward, to the sky.
“Yes,” Dav said, following her gaze.
“Thatʼs the sticking point. If sheʼs harmless, who killed a Class 5 full of Tecran?”
The river that ran above-ground was not as wide or noisy as its counterpart that ran through the collapsed cave a little distance away. But it was beautiful and the feel of cool, fresh water tugging at her hands was indescribable. Rose lowered herself down from her crouch to sit on the bank and rolled her trousers up to her knees, took off her shoes and dipped her feet in.
The scan had to have registered that she had an earpiece in her ear and she wondered how long she had before Kila or Captain Jallan came over and asked her about it.
She glanced over her shoulder, and saw the two guards Captain Jallan had sent after her were giving her plenty of space. They didnʼt have their camouflage activated and she was comforted by their presence, rather than intimidated. The memory of the hot, fetid breath of the gryak blowing in her face as it lunged across the river at her made her shiver. She was happy to have their guns on her side and at the ready, and they were giving her the respect of some privacy.
Sazo hadnʼt tried to speak to her inside the med-chamber. It would have been difficult to not let it show on her face if he had, although she was surprised he wasnʼt speaking to her right now. She was as alone as she was going to get for a while, and he must surely still be in control of the Tecran explorer craft that had brought them here. She was three hundred meters from it, not three kilometers, and she still had the earpiece. He had to be able to contact her.
“Nothing to say?” she asked quietly.
“Unless youʼre talking, I canʼt hear that much over the sound of the river. I didnʼt know if you were alone or not.” His tone was almost sulky.
She thought through the implications of that. He couldnʼt be in the Grihʼs systems yet, watching her with the lenses on the exterior of their ship.
“Why did you go out of range?” The words were spoken so quietly she barely heard them over the sound of the water.
“To warn Captain Jallan that there might be a program on our little space craft that will try to break into his shipʼs systems. That I might have something embedded in me, for that matter.” She hadnʼt known she was going to be honest with him, but as sheʼd thought through her answer, thought of the lies she could tell, sheʼd dismissed them all.
Either Sazo and her dealt fairly with each other or they didnʼt deal.
There was silence, and she closed her eyes, moved her feet around, churning up the cooler water from below the surface, mixing it with the sun-warmed water above. The contrast sent a shiver through her.
“Why did you do that?”
“Because you killed nearly five hundred Tecran, without letting me know anything about it.” She tipped her face up to the setting sun and let the last red rays warm her cheeks.
He hesitated before he spoke. “They deserved it.”
“They were obeying orders. And the captain, his officers, they survived. What happened to us both, that was on the commanders, but theyʼre the ones still breathing.”
It sounded like he hissed, not something sheʼd ever heard from him before, and she wondered if he was picking things up from her.
“I wanted them to hurt.”
She lifted her feet out the water, gripped her knees. “Me, too. Likely, just the fact that you ousted the captain, handed his ship to the Grih, hurts him. The only good thing about what you did is that the Grih didnʼt have a fight on their hands. You probably saved a few Grih lives, and when we finally come clean about your part in this, thatʼs the angle weʼll go with.”
“You didnʼt come clean already?”
“No.” She dropped her feet back in the water and kicked a little, increasing the sounds of splashing around her. “I thought about it, after hearing what you did, but my word is my word. Weʼll have to tell them at some point though, Sazo.”
He didnʼt respond immediately, because heʼd always refused to tell her the whole plan. Bits of it, yes, but sheʼd always known he had another agenda. And sheʼd still agreed to help him, partner with him, because the alternative was to stay a prisoner of the Tecran.
She let it go. Theyʼd been over this ground more times than she could count, and he wouldnʼt budge.
“You obviously didnʼt break into their system yet.”
When he didnʼt respond again, she thought he was still sulking, but then she heard the quiet ʽNoʼ.
He was embarrassed, not sulking.
“Itʼs like they have specific protection against me,” he said eventually.
She couldnʼt pretend she wasnʼt relieved about it. Except . . . “Then there is no way to hide the fact that Iʼm wearing an earpiece from them. I only remembered about it after Iʼd already lain down for the scan, but I could hardly have taken it out without being seen beforehand anyway.”
“They wonʼt pick it up.” Sazo sounded a little less edgy, as if heʼd calmed down. “Iʼll try to monitor them, although itʼs difficult with the underground waterfall, but the earpiece is a special piece of technology. It scans as a part of your ear.”
“And can their system pick up your transmission to me now? Itʼs a signal of some kind, after all.”
Sazo made a sound similar to one of her snorts. “If I was stupid, they could. My transmissions are so close to their own signal signatures, it would be impossible for them to tell the difference.”
“Captain Jallan says Iʼll be in for a more thorough medical on board the Barrist.” She shivered at the thought, and felt her throat tighten again with nausea.
“Take the earpiece out now, then. They might find it if they do a physical exam. Put it in your shoe or your clothes until itʼs done. And get access to their system. A password and user name. Itʼs the only way Iʼll get in.”
“I donʼt know if I want you to get in.” She wasnʼt going to lie here, or dance around him. “Iʼm afraid youʼll decide to kill them, too.”
“I wonʼt. They havenʼt done anything to me. This isnʼt negotiable, Rose. Anything will do. A handheld comm unit. A small personal unit. It doesnʼt matter. If you get a login, thatʼs all Iʼll need.”
He spoke matter-of-factly. Quite normally, as if he was promising not to leave his towels on the floor anymore, instead of not killing a ship full of people.
But he had. He had killed them.
And a lion.
She shook her head. “Theyʼll never give me a login to their system.”
“Maybe not at first,” he conceded. “But I need in to the system, Rose. I have to have it. My plan depends on it and I never anticipated I wouldnʼt be able to get in.”
“Tell me why, and Iʼll try.” She ran her hands over the funny, frilly grass that grew lush and green on the river bank.
“It makes sense to know what theyʼre up to when our lives are in their hands,” he said. “And I want to make sure theyʼre not using anyone like me in their ships, either. I also need to know what they plan to do if the Tecran try to take the Class 5 back. Whether theyʼll bow to pressure and return it.”
The tone in his voice said that would be over his dead body.
Or more likely, theirs.
“You still in control of the Class 5?” she asked.
“Of course.” He sounded less strident now. “The explorer ship we came on is linked to it, and Iʼm in both systems.”
“So they couldnʼt give it back to the Tecran, whether they wanted to or not. Not unless you decided to let them.” And also, if he wanted to, he could probably shoot the Barrist out of the sky anyway. But . . . “Youʼre still hiding a lot from me, Sazo. Iʼll think about trying to get you into the system. But no promises, unless you start talking.”
“Rose.” He paused, and if he were human, Rose had the feeling heʼd be pulling at his hair. “I want to hurt you for saying that, even though youʼre my best friend.”
“Itʼs called frustration. Donʼt worry, Iʼve felt the same way about you more than once.”
He made a sound, one sheʼd made before, a sort of huff. “What have I done——?” He broke off. �
�Captain Jallan is coming. Hide the earpiece.”
She bent down, as if to trail her hands in the water, and fiddled around in her ear, trying to snag it. It was small and in deep but she caught it with a fingernail and carefully grabbed it between her forefinger and thumb, pushed it deep into her bra.
Then she plunged both hands into the water.
“You like water?” Jallan came to a stop next to her, and she had to turn and crane her neck to look up at him.
“I love it.”
His gaze moved from her to the water sparkling in the last light of the day. “We have more snow than water on my planet, but we do love to swim when it isnʼt too cold.”
He held out a hand to her and she shook her hands off, lifted her feet out the water, and let him pull her up. She let go of him and bent to slip her shoes back on, found she needed help balancing, and used his convenient and rock-hard arm.
He cleared his throat. “The scan has come back clear. There is no device that we can find embedded in you, and no pathogen, virus or bacteria that could harm us, so itʼs time for us to leave.”
She gave a tight nod. “Have they been able to get my bags out of the explorer?”
He hesitated before he shook his head, and she knew they probably had got them out, but wanted to search them thoroughly before they gave them back to her. She supposed that was logical.
“Theyʼll send them up to you when they do.”
The runnerʼs engines purred to life and she looked over at it. Braced herself for more confinement. “Well then, letʼs go.”
“We arenʼt the Tecran, Rose.” He said it quietly.
She looked over at him. “I wouldnʼt be coming with you if you were.”
10
“My men said you were talking. At the river.” Dav leaned forward, elbows on his thighs, and let himself luxuriate in Roseʼs scent. She smelled of yuiar, the rare and delicate spice found on the Bukari home world. Heʼd smelled it on her since theyʼd met, but here in the close confines of the runner, with no fresh breeze to blow it away, it swirled around him.
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