Rose forced herself to shrug, although her heart was knocking a hard, panicked beat in her chest. “I have no control over how you feel, but I havenʼt done anything to you to warrant your suspicion.”
Hoke shook her head. “You arrived here under strange circumstances, have survived when most others did not, and are in the middle of the most baffling move the Tecran have ever made against us.” She started to pace, in the way wolves and lions circled their prey. Rose turned to keep her in full sight. “You also look disarmingly like a soft, sweet version of ourselves. But looks can be deceiving.”
A soft, sweet version of the Grih? Rose choked back a laugh.
“You think thatʼs funny?” Hoke stepped aggressively toward Rose. “What are you doing here?”
Fury knocked fear aside in Roseʼs chest and took the floor. “Ask the Tecran. I was on holiday in the mountains, sipping coffee and suddenly, I was in the Class 5. It hasnʼt been a good time for me. Iʼm not here with any agenda, and I donʼt know what the Tecran are up to.” Her hands gripped the towel. Each of those statements were true, and yet, not.
“How did you survive what happened to the crew on the Class 5?”
It was said with a hard edge, and an undertone of accusation, and Rose glared back.
“I had no idea what was about to happen on the Class 5. I got on the explorer and was sent by auto-pilot to Harmon.”
“Why? Why did they save you and not themselves?”
“I canʼt give you an answer.” She folded her arms across her chest and refused to so much as flinch.
She could see Hoke stiffen, see her draw herself up in challenge. “Donʼt push me, little orange. Iʼm in charge of what happens to you.”
“How am I pushing you?” Rose would not back down, she only got angrier. “And what will you do to me if I do push you? What the Tecran did? I was told you adhere strictly to the SBA, but if that information is wrong, by all means, tell me now.”
The admiral drew back, her eyes wide, and blew out a breath. “Youʼre pushing me by staring me down. Youʼre challenging me.”
“Damn right Iʼm challenging you.” Rose widened her stance. “Youʼve been nothing but rude since you knocked on my door, and Iʼm a little tired of being threatened. Go ahead and do whatever you have to do.”
The admiral laughed. It was so sudden, so unexpected, Rose took a step back.
“You are such a fierce little thing. I think I can see . . .” She shook her head. “I shouldnʼt have made that threat, but when you stare at a Grih in challenge like that, youʼre asking for a confrontation.”
“When you are unreasonable with a human like you just were, you can expect the same.” Rose sat on the arm of her couch.
“You seem to be very lucky.” Admiral Hoke pulled out a chair from the little table and sat. “You survived the mass killing on the Class 5, you survived a gryak attack, I hear, and an attack on your life in this ship.”
“I had some help. And after surviving three months in a tiny cell on the Class 5, under terrible conditions and with the constant threat of torture or experimentation, Iʼm too stubborn to bow out early now.”
The admiral looked at her, really looked at her, for the first time. “I understand you have gone through a few informal interviews since arriving on the Barrist, is that correct?”
She gave a nod.
“Itʼs time for a more formal debrief, with some of the senior members of Battle Center.”
Rose lifted her shoulders to convey that was fine with her. “When?”
“No time like the present.” Hoke swept her hand to the door, and Rose picked up her comb and brushed the last tangles from her still-damp hair before she scooped up both her handhelds and moved obediently to leave.
“Iʼll give you a word of warning.” Admiral Hoke opened the door and waved her through first.
Rose stopped and turned to look at her, face arranged to give nothing away.
“Youʼre holding something back, and up until now, you seem to have manipulated the senior officers on this ship into not pushing you too hard. Admiral Valu and I are not under your spell, and all this dancing around you to prevent you from being upset?” Hoke leaned in a little. “It ends now.”
25
Hoke left her in a nice enough room with facilities to make grinabo, and Jay Xaltro even brought her something to eat, but for the first time, she thought of Jay and Vree Halim as her watchers, not her protectors.
“When are they going to question me?” she asked Vree as he and Jay left her to her food and her own company.
He looked uncertain. “I donʼt know.”
“Captain Jallan will be there, though?”
The two guards exchanged a look and Rose thought she saw something cross Vreeʼs face, a decision to do something.
“We donʼt know, Rose. Weʼre not high enough up the ladder.” Jayʼs words were curt, but there wasnʼt the same irritation on her face Rose usually saw there.
They left her alone, and she made grinabo and sipped it as she ate the finger food. Might as well keep her strength up.
While she ate, she looked around for the lenses. There were four, one for each corner of the room. “I wonder if there are microphones as well?” She said it softly and in English, as if to herself, but it was for Sazoʼs benefit.
“Yes. Most definitely.” His voice was quiet in her ear. “Iʼm making progress into the Grih system, but itʼs slow. Iʼve got into some of the less critical areas, and now itʼs only a matter of time. Lieutenant Borji will have to concede defeat.”
He sounded elated, and she smiled in reaction, then tried to school her features. If Hoke was watching her, the admiral would wonder why Rose was grinning at nothing.
She finished her meal, stacked the dishes on the tray neatly to one side, and, bored, opened up the Grih handheld to see what theyʼd put on it.
The music program Yari had loaded was on there, and she accessed it. She tapped on an icon that vaguely resembled drums, and a beat emanated from the device, a simple tap-tap-tap. She played around with it, working out how to make the beat more complex and adding other instruments, some very close in sound to instruments from Earth, others completely new. When she had a soundtrack running, she tapped what she thought was the record button, to sing a few la-la-las.
The program tried to anticipate her, the music changing as she sang, but not in a way that pleased her.
The program didnʼt understand her music, and kept miscalculating, or losing the complex pattern most songs created. Rose tapped a finger to her lips until she found a way to switch the auto-compose feature off. “Damn you, auto-correct.”
As no one in this solar system would ever get that joke, she gave herself permission to smile to herself, Hoke watching her or not.
“Iʼm in the communications systems.” Sazo said.
“You sound worried.” She sang that, making it work with the rhythm she had going. At least they wouldnʼt think she was talking to herself again.
“I am. Someone sent a message to Admiral Hoke demanding the Grih release you into United Council custody. The order is that they must ferry you out to Councilor Fu-tamaʼs ship and allow it to take you to UC headquarters.”
“That doesnʼt sound good.” She clicked her fingers between words. “Why do they want me at headquarters?”
Sazo chuckled in her ear. “Good idea on the singing.” The he got serious again. “I think someone wants you dead. And what better way to kill you than to get you off the Barrist, where youʼre protected, and then blow you up en route to the UC?”
“What better way indeed?” She knew her voice was flat and hard for the last line.
“That isnʼt going to happen. I wonʼt let it. Hoke wonʼt either. She wants you under her thumb, not the UCʼs. Youʼre a useful way to keep the moral high-ground and still hang on to the Class 5. Being the victim of SBA abuse, and all.”
“You are getting cynical in your old age, kid.” Rose sang the line in a opera-ish tone.
“Qu
ite a few people have gathered around the screen to watch you sing, Rose. Iʼm in the lens system now, and Iʼm watching them watch you. It occurs to me that to buy some time, while I break into the rest of the ship, perhaps you singing a proper song, which is guaranteed to keep most eyes on you, might be a safe way to go.”
Now she was a diversion, as well as traitor. Still, sheʼd set this ball rolling. There was no going back. “What song do you suggest?”
He ran a few, crackled lines passed her, and she looked down to hide the surprise that must have crossed her face.
“From Earth?” she whispered, not even trying to sing that line.
“Just what I managed to grab off the airwaves when we took you and the animals. I like this one.” He sounded almost . . . shy as he played it.
“Why do you like it?” It was one of the recent DJ produced songs with a strong beat and lyrics she realized would appeal to Sazo. About loneliness and needing a connection to survive.
“The words seem to be written about me.”
“Thatʼs the beauty of songs. They speak to us as if the singer is singing just for us, sometimes. Can you use the program on this Grih handheld and pick out the music from that song, reproduce it so itʼs clear?”
What he had recorded was enough to help her remember the lyrics and the music, but it faded and then surged like an old gramophone record.
“I think so.”
“We can do it in layers.” She switched off the unchanging rhythm created by the program and decided she didnʼt care if those watching her thought she was mad talking into her handheld. “So one layer for the drum beat, then the guitars, the piano. Iʼll have to do the background vocals and the main vocals, but this songʼs a good choice because the pitch will work for me and itʼs simple but powerful.”
“I can record on an unlimited number of layers.” He sounded . . . excited.
“Good. Letʼs get that first beat going.”
She switched on the program again, and Sazo came through, matching the beat precisely to the one heʼd snatched from the radio-waves.
She let her head bob in time, and came in on cue, singing the first lines, and then waving a hand when the next beat was due to start. Sazo made it happen and she grinned.
She sang the whole song through, and then made him play it from the start, singing in the back-up. “Weʼre missing a few things.”
“You wouldnʼt know it from the interest itʼs getting. There is no standing room left in the room where theyʼre watching you from.”
“Huh.” She didnʼt know what to say to that. She sat down on the edge of the table, suddenly shy. “Let me hear the original again.”
Sazo played it, and she worked out what theyʼd left out, let her and Sazoʼs recording play again, and then la-la-laʼed in the places they were missing notes, to let Sazo know what to listen for. She couldnʼt help moving around as she did it, the song had come together really well, and when she played it a final time, with everything where it should be, she couldnʼt help dancing around the room a little, singing the main vocals along with herself as she did.
“They like it when you dance and sing at the same time. I donʼt think theyʼve ever seen that before. Or seen someone work on a song the way you have.”
She slowed her hip sway, suddenly embarrassed, and leaned against the table with both hands, letting her head fall so her hair hid her face. “Who all is watching? And why? Arenʼt they supposed to be questioning me?”
“Hoke wanted to question you with Valu and, via remote lens feed, the head of Battle Center, but when the comm technicians tried to get the head admiral online, it turned out he was in an important meeting with the Grihʼs political leaders, pending another meeting with the heads of the United Council. Everyone is shouting at everyone else over the Class 5 being in Grih territory and the Tecran capturing and torturing an advanced sentient. The head admiral wonʼt be able to be involved for a good four hours. At least.
“Hoke is regretting her precipitous decision to take you from your room and leave you here. Sheʼs tipped her hand. She was hoping to question you with Valu and their commander without Captain Jallanʼs knowledge, which I gather is a grave insult to him, and frowned upon in general. Sheʼs made a mistake and she knows it. She should have consulted Jallan, and if she wasnʼt going to, she should have made sure Head Admiral Krale was available before she made her move.
“Now Jallan knows, because Vree Halim told him what was going on, as per his instructions to let the captain know what was happening with you at all times. Hoke seems to have tried to order Halim and Xaltro not to contact the captain, but she knew she was in breach of protocol, so she couldnʼt make it a direct order, just implied theyʼd be in trouble if they did.
“Itʼs turned not only the senior officers, but the whole crew against her, and it looks like Admiral Valu isnʼt too happy with her, either. Heʼs all for questioning you, but heʼs a stickler for protocol and respect.”
Rose could hear the laughter in Sazoʼs tone.
“Seeing how everyone was so interested in your song, I routed the lens feed to the screens in the communal rooms as well, so the whole crew could see you.”
“Why did you do that?” Her voice came out as a squeak, and she hoped the microphones hadnʼt picked it up.
“Because if they like you, they wonʼt want to listen to the order to send you away, which will mean I wonʼt have to stop them. And when you sing, they worship you.”
She grappled with that. Found a bottomless well of discomfort at the thought. “So what now?”
“Another song.” He sounded cajoling, and she recognized that tone as one sheʼd used on him numerous times.
She sighed again. She was being played with her own arsenal. “Youʼre a fast learner.”
She thought she heard him chuckle. There was something in his attitude. An eagerness. An enthusiasm.
Making music was something Sazo obviously loved doing.
“Okay, play me some more of what you have.” She was still looking down over the table, her hair covering her, and she wondered what everyone was making of her one-sided conversation. At least they couldnʼt understand what she was saying.
She listened as Sazo played a few songs, all unsuitable as far as she was concerned, and then stopped him when he played something her step class instructor liked to play while putting the class through its paces.
“This one, I know. Quite well. And I like it.”
Sazo skipped back to the start of the song, and they listened to the whole thing. Like the others, it was indistinct in places, the quality poor.
“See what you can come up with as a match on the music program.”
“I can do that. But Rose . . .” She could almost hear the frown. “What is it about?”
“Not as obvious as the first one, is it? To me, itʼs about a woman who mistook sex for affection, lust for love, and now she realizes that what she thought was something deep and meaningful is not, so she has resolved to be strong and walk away, rather than continue down the path of falling more in love with a man who doesnʼt love her, and is only using her.” She blinked, almost surprised at herself. She hadnʼt realized sheʼd thought so much about it. “Someone else might have a different interpretation, though.”
“What you say makes sense to me.” He sounded intrigued.
“Right, well, letʼs get this over with.”
He played the opening bars, and she sang, having to come back and re-record over and over, as the song was higher than she was comfortable with in places and her voice wasnʼt always up to it. In the end, she thought she managed an okay job.
“Letʼs hear it from the top.” She stood, finding it impossible to listen and not pace, and got caught up in the song the way she had with the first one.
By the end, she was grinning and dancing around. “Awesome job,” she said to Sazo, and realized, for the first time in three months, she was happy.
And how ironic was that, because wasnʼt she under lock and key again?
<
br /> 26
“I didnʼt understand . . .” Admiral Hoke trailed off as the last notes of Roseʼs song faded.
There was silence in the room, and Dav realized it was standing room only. Some of the crew had heard Rose sing in the space lounge, and Dav had heard her in Dr. Havakʼs office, but this was on another level altogether.
For the second song, she had gone over and over each line, until she had created something flawless.
Borji had whispered to him that she was using a music program one of his engineers had loaded on her handheld, but that heʼd never seen it used in that way.
It was spectacular.
She had started each song looking serious, waiting for her cue and then, when sheʼd started to sing, sheʼd transformed, waving her hand as if to usher each new thread of music into the song, complex beyond anything Dav had ever heard. There had been a lightness about her, a happiness, and he understood at last that the Grih took music seriously, and that was the opposite of her relationship with it. For her, it was dancing, and smiling and joy.
No wondered sheʼd shuddered at the thought of being a music-maker.
But after hearing her, at what she could accomplish, she could probably call herself whatever she wanted to, the Grih would take her with open arms.
“Why does she talk to herself? And to the handheld?” Admiral Valuʼs tone was slightly supercilious, but as far as Dav could see, he was as glued to the lens feed as anyone.
“Perhaps she thinks the handheld can hear her, or converse with her? She is from a less advanced culture, isnʼt she?” Hoke turned to Dav, deferring to him, as if that could make up for what sheʼd set in motion.
“Rose had no company but her own for three months. She confided in me that she spoke just to hear a voice, even if it was her own. And now Admiral Hoke has confined her again. I donʼt think we can blame her for reverting back to behavior she had when she was in her Tecran cell.” He held Hokeʼs gaze while he spoke; seething, furious at what sheʼd done on his own ship, without consulting him.
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