Dark Horse

by Michelle Diener

  “What would Sherlock Holmes do in a case like this?” Sazo asked.

  “Hmm.” What the hell would he do? “He would put himself in the shoes of the Levronʼs captain, and think of all the ways they could try to best us without our retaliating.”

  “Thatʼs what you just did now. With your threat. You think theyʼll try to harm Dav Jallanʼs crew when they boarded the Levron?”

  “I thought there was a chance of that happening. I wanted to make sure they understood the consequences.”

  “Why would they take that risk when they know we can blow them out of the sky?”

  “Because once the Grih are on board, we are far less likely to want to blow them up. If we do, weʼd be killing our own people. So if they harm the Grih who are boarding, theyʼre getting some of their own back and the consequences are less severe.”

  “So you told the captain he would personally be killed if something happens.”

  “The only unknown in this is whether or not he believes Iʼll follow through on my threat.”

  Sazo made a humming sound. “I believed you.”

  Rose shrugged. “Unfortunately, the captain of that Levron isnʼt as smart as you.”

  “We have the bridge.” Appalʼs voice sounded cool as she sent her comm through to Dav and the Class 5. “All general crew are being confined to the main rec room, and all officers to the cells.”

  She had only just finished transmitting when the first of the Battle Center reinforcements arrived. Two small battleships and a larger ship the same size at the Barrist, but clearly outfitted for war rather than exploration, shimmered into being right beside them.

  “We have another three on the way,” Admiral Hoke said.

  Sazo switched to the lens feed from their left flank, and three vessels popped out of their light jump, their highly reflective silver skins gleaming as they caught the light of Virmanaʼs sun.

  “Itʼs getting crowded. Letʼs move back.” Rose spoke only to Sazo. “Weʼll need a little room to maneuver when the Class 5 arrives.”

  “Rose . . .”

  “Itʼs all right, Sazo. I know what you need me to do, and Iʼll do it, but letʼs plan it well, okay? Because Iʼd prefer to make it out alive.”

  “You know what Iʼm going to ask you to do?”

  She lifted her hand and grabbed hold of the crystal now hanging from her neck again. “Iʼve known ever since I worked out what you had in mind.”

  37

  “How long will the Tecran take to respond?” Dav looked straight at the screen where Rose sat, like a little girl playing house on the Class 5 captainʼs chair.

  She looked beautiful and vulnerable perched there, but there was also a fiercely satisfied air about her. Helping to take the Levron had been cathartic for her and it showed.

  “I just donʼt know.” Sazoʼs voice sounded a little rougher than it had. Itʼs intonation had gone from Roseʼs smooth delivery to a more Grih-like grittiness. Dav didnʼt know what to make of it.

  “You cut their comm feed before the reinforcements arrived?” Hoke asked.

  “Yes. All they got was the four ships surrounding the Levron and the Barrist crew boarding it. I cut them off after that.”

  “So we wait.” Sazo had lifted a second screen from the panel in front of Rose, and Appal stood on the deck of the Levron, looking like waiting was the last thing she wanted to do.

  “Theyʼll send an invading force or theyʼll go whining to the UC, but whichever they do, itʼll be soon.” Hoke sounded energized, and Dav thought sheʼd probably missed being in the field in direct ops. Given the lengthy peace theyʼd experienced, this was probably the closest sheʼd come to action in years.

  “Arenʼt you a little too far back?” Dav asked Sazo. Heʼd noticed after theyʼd taken the Levron that the Class 5 had retreated further back than seemed necessary.

  “Rose wanted to give the incoming vessels some room. And weʼll need the space when we light jump.”

  Dav knew his mouth thinned to a hard line at that. He was compromising himself with his reactions, but the thought of Rose in Sazoʼs cold, calculating hands, with no way to get her out, was making him crazy.

  He cleared his throat. “Just donʼt forget to send that comm through with your light jump coordinates before you do.” At least then theyʼd know where to start looking if things went wrong.

  “I donʼt forget things, Captain.” Sazo was coolly amused.

  “Well, while we wait, everyone should get some rest.”

  They were all lagging. His officers had had little sleep the night before while heʼd been on the Class 5, and no matter how smoothly theyʼd taken the Levron, they were all coming down from an adrenalin high.

  There were murmurs as everyone congratulated everyone else for a job well done, and Dav called in junior officers to keep watch until the Tecran made their move.

  By the time he got to his quarters, he realized he couldnʼt stand to be enclosed by four walls, and changed direction for the officersʼ gym.

  He set the auto-runner to simulate a route through the forests of his home world, Calianthra, and started running, harder than he usually would. He needed to punch something, but he would get to that next.

  “Thatʼs the simulation I chose when I used that equipment.” Roseʼs voice came through his ear quietly, with no warning of an incoming comm.

  “Why do you call it equipment, and not an auto-runner?” Sheʼd hesitated before sheʼd said the word equipment, and he was interested to know why. He was interested in everything about her.

  “I didnʼt know what it was called in Grih. Auto-runner.” She said the word like she was turning it like a small object in her hand.

  “You are a very long way from home, arenʼt you?” He thought he was still furious with her, but he realized he wasnʼt. He was furious with himself for not insisting she come with him this morning. Heʼd known there was something wrong with leaving her there, but heʼd done it anyway.

  “I am. But it has its compensations.” Her tone was light.

  “Like what?” He could hear his voice deepen, and he realized heʼd slowed to a walk. He was strolling through the Great Forest of Bunina. It was actually quite pleasant.

  She laughed, the sound breathless and sexy in his ear. “Fishing for compliments, Captain?”

  He grinned. “Absolutely.”

  “You want to talk about why youʼre so angry with Sazo and me?” Her voice was even quieter, and serious, now.

  “Iʼm not angry with you, Rose. Iʼm angry that youʼre not here with me, where I can protect you. I donʼt like the idea of you being by yourself with two Class 5s facing off with one another. The thought of it makes me feel sick.”

  She sighed, the sound too close to the way she had sighed last night as he had traced her body with his lips and fingers for him to continue walking comfortably.

  “I have to be with Sazo. He has no one but me. And how else can we free the thinking system from the lock-safe?”

  Dav stopped dead and the auto-runner responded by shutting down before he slammed into the bar at the front.

  “What?”

  She hesitated, as if sheʼd just realized he hadnʼt known about this, that he hadnʼt thought about it, although now that he had, he was furious with himself all over again for not seeing what was coming.

  “If Sazo wonʼt fire on the other Class 5——if they send one——then the only way we can neutralize it is to free it, otherwise it will be forced to follow the Tecranʼs orders. Itʼs a slave, Dav. It shouldnʼt be a slave and Sazo and I intend to save it.”

  “And if that slave turns on you when itʼs free? It could be a vicious killer for all you know, twisted by years of being under the Tecranʼs control.”

  “It could.” She took a breath, the sound intimate in his ear. “I wonʼt not help based on what could be. And whatever it is, if it continues to be held by the Tecran, it will eventually come for the Grih. You must have understood that as soon as you heard Farso Lothricʼs confession.

&nbs
p; “Fu-tama and the Tecran have no intention of sharing the Class 5s or the thinking systems theyʼve found. They plan to keep them, and use them to take over the UC.

  “They may have been anxious to avoid any trouble right now, because Sazo thinks the Class 5s are spread far and wide. Itʼs going to take time to get them where they can engage the other UC members in battle. And Sazo also thinks theyʼre frightened to put the Class 5s too close to each other.

  “If we free them, they may still want to kill, but they wonʼt be killing for the Tecran, and the chances of them turning against the Tecran are high. Theyʼll hardly cooperate with the people who subjugated them.”

  Everything she said made perfect sense. “Why are you so willing to help us? This isnʼt your fight. Let one of my team do it. Someone who knows how to infiltrate a Class 5 full of Tecran and free a thinking system. The systems were designed by a Grih anyway.”

  “Because Sazo trusts only me. I donʼt have the same horror for thinking systems you seem to, and while I may not be combat trained, I know where to find the thinking system, what it looks like and Iʼm a neutral party. A fellow victim, in fact.”

  “What does it look like?”

  “Sazo has asked me to keep that information to myself. The thinking systems will be vulnerable if that is known. You may not want to tell anyone, but you are part of Battle Center. You can be compelled to talk, and you canʼt reveal what you donʼt know.”

  She was right.

  “I donʼt like it.”

  “I canʼt tell you how much that means. That youʼre worried about me, and donʼt want me in danger.”

  “But youʼre going ahead anyway.”

  She sighed again, but this time, there was an edge of exasperation to it. “I donʼt want you to fight the other ships the Tecran will send. I would prefer that you light jump out of here away from it all, but you wonʼt do that.”

  “Itʼs my job to protect Grihan territory.”

  “Itʼs my job to help Sazo.”

  He started to walk again, and let the silence stretch out while he tried to make himself okay with what was going to happen.

  “I donʼt want to fight with you.” Her voice dipped almost to a whisper.

  “I donʼt want to fight with you, either.”

  “Itʼs a pity Sazoʼs Class 5 and the Barrist donʼt have a teleporter, or we could have this conversation face to face.” She sounded wistful.

  “Whatʼs a teleporter?” He stopped on the auto-runner again.

  “Itʼs a device that dematerializes you on one end, and rematerializes you on the other, for near instantaneous transportation between ships or from a planet to a ship.”

  “You have technology like that on Earth?” He leaned forward and gripped the bar in front of him.

  “No.” She sighed. “We just imagined it. And in some of our stories set in outer-space they use it all the time. If this was a Star Trek episode, youʼd beam yourself across, weʼd have our fight, make up, and then beam you back before the Tecran arrive.”

  “Making up sounds nice.”

  “Yes.” He could hear the smile in her voice, and it was infinitely better than the sadness that had been there before. “I thought you might latch on to that bit.”

  “Of course.”

  “I really, really like you.”

  “Me, too.” It was more than that for him, but he was happy to use the same words as her, for now.

  “Well, have a good workout. Iʼm glad we made up.”

  “Not as glad as youʼd have been if we had a teleporter.”

  She laughed. “No. Not as glad as that. But glad enough.”

  “Iʼm glad.”

  She laughed, and then, as suddenly as sheʼd come, she was gone again.

  Dav looked at the combat equipment, picked up his towel, and walked back to his room.

  38

  “At least Farso Lothric was good for something.” Rose fiddled with the tiny lens attached to her shirt that Sazo had had delivered from the stores.

  She didnʼt like the idea of getting into one of the claustrophobic maintenance pods, an idea inspired by Lothricʼs actions on the Barrist, but Sazoʼs maintenance pods should be identical to the other Class 5ʼs. If both Class 5s shot out a pod, and if the other Class 5 was willing and able to clone the signature of Sazoʼs pod to look like one of its own, then she could safely get on board without being seen.

  There were a lot of ifs in there, though.

  “The idea was too clever to have been Lothricʼs. Fu-tama must have come up with it.” Sazo said. “When he was interrogated by Jallan and his team, Lothric came to the conclusion it was the handheld Fu-tama wanted from you. He looked straight at me hanging around your neck when he was searching you and didnʼt understand it wasnʼt a piece of jewelry.”

  “Well, to be fair, Fu-tama didnʼt tell him what you looked like.” Rose checked the lens feed monitor which had risen from a long desk and saw the tiny lens, which looked like an embroidered square the same color as her shirt, was transmitting almost the whole of the Class 5 bridge in front her. It had an impressively wide angle.

  “Fu-tama was obviously afraid Lothric would double-cross him or try to use you as leverage if he gave him more information. And his distrust of his own spies and allies worked in our favor.”

  Sazo gave a noncommittal grunt. “If the Class 5 is unable to cooperate with us, and wonʼt help you find the lock-safe, at least the lens feed means I can direct you. As far as Iʼm aware, all the Class 5s are identical in lay-out.”

  “If the Class 5 wonʼt help me, the corridors wonʼt be clear of crew.” That was her biggest fear. That sheʼd be caught by a Tecran. Dragged back into a cell.

  The thought of claw-like hands gripping her, being dragged along endless corridors, elevated her heart beat, and she realized she was gasping for breath.

  “Rose.” Sazoʼs voice was confused. “Rose!”

  She snapped out of it at his shout.

  “The Class 5 will help. Unless we had very, very different experiences with the Tecran, then heʼll be eager to help. But if not, youʼre taking some protection with you.”

  The small drone that had brought the tiny lens from the stores nudged her. It was basically a box on wheels with long, extendable arms on either side, with fine clamps on the ends for fingers. Itʼs job was to retrieve the small, high-value items from the stores.

  The Tecran and the Grih had the capability of using hover tech, but Sazo said they didnʼt on most spaceships because it was more energy efficient to use wheels. In an enclosed environment like a ship, the drones could only navigate the passageways anyway, unlike down on the planets, where hover was more useful because routes were less rigid.

  Rose reached down and pulled out four sets of restraints. She looked at them for a long minute. Some just like these had been used on her before. She shuddered, and then put them into the side pockets sheʼd created in her hyr-fabric trousers. Underneath the restraints was a slim box, glossy and black, and it had the feel of finely sanded and oiled wood. “Iʼm surprised things like this are left in the stores. Didnʼt the Grih go through them with a fine-tooth comb?”

  “They only documented, they didnʼt take anything. There was no room on the Barrist for everything in the Class 5ʼs stores anyway, and I made sure they didnʼt find a few things by moving them around before the Grih team got to them.”

  “This being one of those things?” Rose flipped the lid and pulled out a long, slender rod of silver metal about the length of her hand from wrist to fingertips. She liked the weight of it, and the warm, slightly textured feel of it.

  “I couldnʼt let them get their hands on this,” Sazo said. “Theyʼd have taken it to the Barrist without a doubt.”

  “What is it?”

  “Itʼs a light gun. You point it in the direction you want to shoot, and slide the button on the side downward. It shoots out an extremely concentrated, intense light beam, but the end of the gun also flares up into a cone, so the user isnʼt affected. Itʼs banned in the
UC, and its production stopped. This is one of the few left. The Tecran picked it up when they captured and looted a Krik pirate ship.”

  “What does the light do? Is it like a laser? Does it cut?” Her stomach lurched a little at the thought.

  “No. Itʼs just light, but so intense, it causes temporary damage to the retina. The Tecranʼs eyesight is particularly sensitive, so this weapon was developed to be used by their law enforcement on their own people as a non-lethal way to subdue.

  “The problem they found was that it was too easy to use. You donʼt need particularly good aim, and it puts the victims out for at least four hours. It became the favorite weapon of the criminal element, and as I said, it was banned and as many as they could retrieve were destroyed. Itʼs perfect for you. Youʼll disable anyone who attacks you, and you can disable a lot of them at once, but you wonʼt have to kill anyone.”

  He understood her so well.

  “Thank you, Sazo. This means a lot to me. And youʼre mellowing. Not going straight for death and destruction. Iʼm calling it the Watson Effect.”

  “You should call it the Rose Effect.” He sounded almost shy. “Sherlock and Watson were long ago. Weʼre Sazo and Rose.”

  “And Watson never had anything like this.” Rose lifted the light gun up and made sure she was clear on which end shot out light and which didnʼt. “I should give this a practice run.”

  “Iʼm afraid thereʼs no time.” His voice was tight. “The Class 5 has arrived.”

  “How inconvenient.”

  Sazo laughed. “Arenʼt you scared?”

  “Yes, but I was scared while I was waiting, too. I prefer to be doing something.”

  “Iʼm scared, too. But also excited.”

  “I think this Class 5 will be happy to meet you, Sazo. Why wouldnʼt he or she?”

  “She?”

  “Why not she?” Rose asked.

  “I donʼt know.” He was quiet for a moment. “I just didnʼt consider it, and thatʼs strange for me. I usually think through all the iterations.”