There had been war for nearly six years until every TS was defeated. And Professor Fayir had died in the fighting, still insisting he could fix things.
She looked at the date, and realized that was nearly two hundred years ago.
She leaned back in her chair and stared out at the stars.
How had Sazo come to be? Had someone decided to give thinking systems another go after all this time?
She shook her head. Sazo was hardly the result of some exploratory toe-dipping. He was fully actualized, fully conscious. He was a person in all respects except for a body.
She got into more recent history after that. The near-war between the Tecran and the Grih on three occasions over the last fifty years, the part the Bukari played in keeping the peace through the United Council, and the ongoing issues with a race of people called the Krik, whose planet was on the outer-reaches of United Council held territory, and who seemed to either be trying to gain a place on the council or start up a war with each individual signatory, sometimes both at once.
There was always one.
It cheered her to know that was true, even on the other side of the galaxy.
“Excuse me.”
Rose looked up, saw a group of eight Grih standing nearby. The one whoʼd spoken to her looked familiar, and Rose realized it was Dr. Revil.
“Hello.” She smiled. “Howʼs Gyp?”
The doctor smiled back. “Heʼs fine. Not so grumpy today.” She looked over at her colleagues, and then at Rose again. “We are about to do a particular Grih exercise called The Flowing Way. We wondered if you would sing for us?”
“Sing for you?” Rose was sitting cross-legged, and she dropped her feet back on the ground.
“You sang so beautifully for Gyp, and the Flowing Way was originally meant to be done to song, but with less and less music-makers, only two mass classes a year are held with a music-maker in attendance. You would honor us.”
Rose looked at Revil, saw she absolutely meant that. “What kind of music?”
“The Flowing Way is part music, part exercise. The participants work to a specific beat and cannot drop it, or theyʼll interrupt the overall harmony of the piece. Itʼs both pleasing to listen to, and difficult, because even if you get tired, you have to keep your rhythm steady. It keeps you focused.”
It sounded interesting. “Why donʼt you start the rhythm, and Iʼll see if thereʼs a song I can work into it?”
Revil nodded, and the group faced her, each moving a little away from the other to give each other room.
They warmed up slowly, but soon the participants stamped and clapped, even hitting the floor with a hand when they bent to touch their toes. It created a complex rhythm that reminded Rose of dancers stamping in steel-tipped boots on metal grids, and she thought of a train clacking on the tracks, thought of a song that was easy to sing that had a similar rhythm, and began.
The dancersʼ rhythm almost faltered during her opening verse, but Revil kept it together, and Rose sang the song through twice before she stopped.
The group slowly wound up their movements, drawing out the beat so that it ended harmoniously.
There was silence. Rose focused beyond the group for the first time, and saw everyone whoʼd been in the open area had come to stand in a circle around them.
“Thank you, Rose.” Revil came forward with her hands together, and Rose clasped them between her own.
“It was my pleasure. Thank you for sharing a part of Grih culture with me.”
She had said the right thing, because all around her were murmurs of approval.
“What was it about?” Revil asked. “Your language sounds so beautiful.”
Rose leaned back in her chair. “It was about needing to take a journey, to go on to the next stage in life, and wanting to know if the person you love will come with you.”
“That is an . . . unusual thing to sing about.”
Rose shrugged at the man whoʼd spoken. It had sounded almost as if he had planned to say ʽwastefulʼ. “Not where I come from. We sing about anything.”
“Will you do one more?” The person who asked was part of Revilʼs original group, and Rose recognized her as Jay Xaltro, one of the guards who had originally shown her to her room.
Rose wet her lips, looked around at the audience of thirty or more and quailed inside. But she could see they were desperate for her to say yes, and she didnʼt have the heart to deny them.
“Weʼll make a different rhythm,” Revil offered.
Rose nodded, and they began again, a slower rhythm this time, and she started up a Billy Joel ballad.
Her voice wobbled a few times, but by the second time around, she felt good about it, clear and on pitch.
When she finished, and Dr. Revilʼs group played their last beat, there was a perfect stillness around her, as if everyone held their breath.
One of the woman closest to her began to warble or ululate, like a mourner at funerals Rose had seen in Africa, and it was taken up all around her, so she was surrounded by a wall of sound.
She stood, spun round, and found even more people crowded around her now.
It was too much. She had been locked away on her own for too long, and panic thrummed at her chest, threatening to explode outward.
“Thank you.” She managed to choke out the words as she grabbed up her handhelds. She gave a bow, and dived for the closest gap in the crowd, angling her body this way and that to avoid bumping anyone, and then, when she was free of them, she ran for the nearest opening.
“Rose, whatʼs wrong?” Sazoʼs voice in her ear steadied her a little.
“Too many people, too much attention.” She gasped for breath, slowing down now that she was in an empty passageway.
Eventually she leaned against a wall, bent at the waist, hands on her knees and concentrated on sucking in gulps of air.
Not her finest moment.
She was so angry with herself. She wasnʼt like this. She could lecture to a room of bored twenty year-olds who found their phones more interesting than linguistic studies, but a rapt audience did her in?
Then again, that was before sheʼd been trapped in a glass cage for months. And it didnʼt help that she felt like a fraud. She wanted to wince at just how mediocre she was as a singer.
They had no business applauding.
She clenched her fists. Suck it up, buttercup.
She heaved a final breath and straightened. There was no one in either direction, and she took out her Grih handheld, tapped on an image of what she thought might be the Barrist on the start-up page, and tried to see where she was on the ship.
Sure enough, a steady blinking light showed her position, and she saw if she walked a little further and turned left, she would be in the corridor the pool was in.
She could swim. It was just what she felt like and she had barely done two laps before Dav Jallan had hauled her out last time.
She made her way to the room, looked inside, and sagged in relief. She had it to herself.
“Iʼm taking out my earpiece to go for a swim,” she told Sazo, and slipped it deep in the pocket of her tunic before he could reply.
She put on another voluminous swim suit and tugged at it while she waited for the solid cover to retract.
When it was fully locked in place, she dived in and swam the full length under water, stopping at the end to suck in a breath before going under again.
It was indescribably good.
At lap three she was just beginning to tire when she heard a humming sound. She rose out of the water to grab her next breath of air, and turned to see what was making the noise.
The pool cover slid across the water toward her, and for a long moment she tried to make sense of it.
When she did, when she realized she was in trouble, she turned, hands on the pool edge, feet against the side to pull herself out.
And was pushed straight under.
She could feel someoneʼs hand on her head, large, squeezing painfully as well as pushing
her down.
When she came up again, she was coughing, her lungs screaming for oxygen, and down she went again, the shove even harder this time.
She turned under the water, sinking out of reach of the hand, to look down the pool, trying to gauge how close to her the end of the cover was, and shot to the surface as she realized it was almost on top of her.
As her head and shoulders broke the surface, she felt the hard edge of it against her collarbone, just below her neck, and it trapped her for a moment against the side of the pool, but then she felt it inch back.
It was like an electric gate with a sensor, she realized, tears of relief forming in her eyes. It wasnʼt going to crush her against the side, there was a failsafe.
She twisted her head to look up at her assailant, but he was gone and when her gaze moved to the door, she saw it was just closing.
He must have realized about the failsafe as well, she thought. And every moment he remained, trying to drown her, was a moment he could be discovered by anyone coming along.
She turned, grabbing the edge again and pushing back against the cover with her back.
“Rose?”
She looked over her shoulder, and Dav Jallan stood in the doorway, with Filavantri at his side.
“Captain.” She turned away from them, rested her head on the hands gripping the edge.
“What happened?” Filavantriʼs voice was sharp.
She closed her eyes, her teeth chattering as if the water was cold. “I think someone just tried to kill me.”
19
Dav brushed past Dimitara, striding down the length of the pool.
For the second time he caught hold of Rose under her arms, lifting her carefully from the water so he didnʼt scrape her back on the pool cover. He swung her as he lifted her, cradling her against his chest. He ignored the surprised look Dimitara sent him.
“Did you see who it was?”
She shook her head, resting against him, shivering a little. “He shoved me under the water. He wanted to force me under so the cover would come over me and . . .” Her voice caught and she went still.
“We heard someone running away when we arrived.” Dimitara looked around the room thoughtfully. “No lenses?”
Dav shook his head. “This is considered a private space. No lenses here.”
Dimitara sighed. “I agree with that reasoning. Itʼs just a pity, this one time, thatʼs all.”
“You were looking for me because of what happened in the spacescape?” Roseʼs voice was soft as a whisper now. He could feel the tension in her, the way her muscles flexed against him.
He couldnʼt help holding her a little tighter, and didnʼt loosen his grip, even though Dimitara sent him a sharp look.
“We were concerned about you.” Dav tamped down the fury heʼd felt since Dr. Revil had contacted him, as per the ship-wide instructions to report any incident with Rose, and heʼd learned sheʼd been surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd.
“Iʼm going to take you to the med-chamber, and then weʼll see if anyone saw anything.”
She shook her head violently, rearing back from him and struggling to be released.
“No med-chamber.”
Filavantri Dimitara came to his rescue. “It would be best if Dr. Havak could make sure youʼre all right——”
“No.”
Heʼd set her down, and she stumbled back a step.
“I swallowed some water, and thatʼs about it. I got a fright, and if heʼd succeeded, Iʼd be dead, but all I want is to have a warm shower, and crawl into bed for a while.” She looked up at him, her body shaking. “Please. Donʼt send me to the med-chamber.”
What the hell could he say to that?
“Either I, Dr. Havak or Officer Dimitara will check on you in an hour. And weʼll escort you to your room now.”
She gave a nod, and tried to hitch the hopelessly big swimming suit up a little to cover a bit more of her breasts. “Iʼll just put on my clothes.”
By the time sheʼd gotten dressed and theyʼd walked her to her room, the heat of his temper had morphed into something that could cut through the hull of the Barrist.
She was under his care, and someone on this ship, someone he trusted, had attacked her.
Everyone heʼd contacted for an emergency meeting was waiting when he and Dimitara entered the conference room.
Dimitara had been quiet since theyʼd left Rose in her quarters, but as soon as the door closed behind them, before sheʼd even taken her seat, she pointed a finger at him. “What are you going to do about this, Captain?”
He eased himself into his chair and surveyed the oval conference table. All his senior officers were in attendance, and he wished that somehow he could have found a diplomatic way to exclude Dimitara, but given her fury, the fall-out would not be worth it. Heʼd tried to suggest she stay with Rose, but it had been obvious Rose wanted time on her own, and Dimitara wanted in on the hunt for whoever had hurt her.
He sighed. “For a start, Rose will now have a security detail assigned to her full-time.”
“Are you saying there wasnʼt one before?” Dimitaraʼs tone was disbelieving.
“I had two officers watching her for her first twenty-four hours, but that was just precautionary. They were pulled back to simply checking on her whereabouts every couple of hours.”
“And how do they know her whereabouts?” Dr. Havak asked.
“Her new handheld has a homing device, naturally, but if you must know, all visitor clothing has one embedded in it, as well.”
“Thatʼs why you didnʼt want to give her her bags and clothing?” Dimitara sounded as if she could barely take a breath, she was so scandalized.
“I gave her bags back personally this afternoon,” Dav told her, but that had been one of the reasons they had wanted her in their clothes. Especially in the beginning.
“What does it matter, anyway?” Appalʼs voice cut through the tension. “Sheʼs been attacked on our own ship. That either means someone got on board without our knowledge, which will be an unprecedented breach, or we have someone on the crew who wants her dead.”
“Sheʼs only been here for two days, how could she have made any enemies in that time?” Havak asked.
Borji cleared his throat. Opened his mouth and then closed it again.
Dav turned to him, eyes narrowed. “Spit it out.”
Borji sighed. “There was a transmission earlier. From an unidentified source.”
“When?” Dav sat straighter.
“About an hour before the attack on Rose. They used an old frequency which would probably have gone undetected by us, but fortunately it was detected by the comm system on the Class 5, which seems to be monitoring all comms within a truly staggering range of space. Iʼve set up an alert if anything happens in the Class 5 system, so I got a ping when it came through.” He paused, took a sip of water from the glass in front of him. “The signal was a written comm to a private handheld on this ship, asking if Rose was an advanced enough sentient to testify about what the Tecran had done to her. Whether she could ruin the plan.”
There was silence in the room.
“Were you able to pin-point which handheld it went to?” Lothric asked him.
Borji shook his head. “But I will. I will make it my mission.” He looked like he wanted to throttle the drinking glass in his hand, he was gripping it so tightly. “Whoever received the message had to have planned the communication in advance, or knew there was a chance they would be contacted. They actively planned a way to circumvent my comms system . . .” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “I am going to shut that down.”
“Did the owner of the handheld respond?” Dav wondered who the hell on board could be involved in this, but it did solve one mystery, how the Tecran knew to put themselves exactly at the Barristʼs light jump destination. Heʼd always thought that was so unlikely as to be impossible, but if someone on board was reporting to them, or whoever had brought them here, that would make a lot more sense.
/> Borji gave a nod. “The Class 5 comm system had another little sweet surprise for our traitor. Iʼm not sure why the Class 5 did this, but the outgoing message will look to the sender as if it was sent, but it was blocked. I got notification of the message, but whoever contacted our private handheld user is still waiting for a reply.”
“And what did the response say?” Dimitara asked.
“They replied that she was most definitely a danger to their plans.”
“Thatʼs all?” Havak tugged at his ear.
“All? It says Rose is a threat to what they have planned because she can tell the UC exactly what the Tecran did to her. And not an hour later, someone tries to kill her.”
“I think itʼs safe to assume whoever received the message and sent the confirmation back is the person who decided to eliminate the threat Rose posed to them.” Dav could hardly believe he was saying this. But one aspect of this was winding a thin tendril of relief through him, and that was that it was looking increasingly unlikely that Rose was involved in any of this, other than as an innocent victim.
“Good work,” Appal told Borji.
Borji made a face. “To be honest, itʼs all the Class 5 comm system, not me. Iʼm just glad I set an alert, thatʼs all.”
“So, we were lucky. But this still throws a whole new light on our coming across the Class 5.” Appal looked up at Dav, and he appreciated that sheʼd come to the same conclusion as he had.
“Yes. The chance of us light jumping to exactly the same place as the Class 5 has struck me as highly unlikely from the start. The Tecran captain either didnʼt know where his light jump was going to end up, given his convincing confusion, or heʼs a good actor, but someone knew weʼd be arriving here, and when, and had the Class 5 waiting for us. Now we know someone on board is in secret contact with another ship, either Tecran or someone else, itʼs logical they gave our light jump coordinates in advance.”
“They were probably planning to attack us as we arrived.” Appal tapped her fingers on the table.
“Something obviously went wrong on their side.” Dimitara had caught on, too. “Something disabled their ship, it malfunctioned, for whatever reason, and now a smaller Tecran vessel is out there, trying to find out what happened and what kind of trouble theyʼre in from their contact on this ship.”
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