Dark Horse

by Michelle Diener

  Rose rubbed a gentle hand over her rib. “To a meeting with Captain Jallan.”

  The annoyed look on the admiralʼs face gave Rose the sinking feeling she wasnʼt going to step into Dav Jallanʼs arms anytime soon.

  She tightened her hands into fists.

  “You were called over for a meeting, and weʼre ready for you now.” The admiral looked . . . shifty was the only way Rose could describe it.

  “Iʼm not under your command, Admiral. I generously agreed to race over here, without seeing to any of my injuries, or spending the time with Sazo that I would have liked, to accommodate you. But Captain Jallan invited me to his rooms before the meeting started, and that is where Iʼm going.”

  “Iʼm afraid not. Captain Jallan has been informed that his invitation was inappropriate, and that he will see you in the meeting. Follow me.” He led the way to a tube and Rose got in, eyes closed in frustration. She hadnʼt realized just how desperate she was to see Dav until she wasnʼt allowed to.

  “Sazo, can you tell me whatʼs going on?” Rose sang the words softly in English. Admiral Hokeʼs request had been polite and sheʼd seemed grateful when Rose agreed to come straight away. Valuʼs attitude didnʼt make sense, and if there was something strange happening, sheʼd prefer to know in advance.

  Valu glared at her, but didnʼt say anything. After all, he couldnʼt order her not to speak or sing unless she was a prisoner. And if she was . . .

  “Iʼve been concentrating on helping Bane, so I havenʼt been keeping track of whatʼs been happening on the Barrist. Sorry.” Sazo whispered in her ear. “Although, nice singing, by the way.”

  “Well, give a quick listen, if you donʼt mind. Letʼs find out which way the wind is blowing.” She saw the admiral give her a suspicious glance as she sang the sentence.

  “Well, they are expecting you for a meeting, but Dav is still waiting for you in his room, and on review of the comms, no one has told him his request to meet you privately was inappropriate.”

  “So the admiral is lying. I wonder why?” She stretched out the ʼwhyʼ, making it more a why-a-a-a-ai.

  “Would you——” Valuʼs lips curled in a snarl and he cut himself off as the tube stopped and its doors opened.

  “Yes, Admiral? Would I?” Rose looked at him blandly as she stepped out beside him.

  He didnʼt answer, just curled his lip at her again and walked, eventually turning a corner and then opening a door. “In here.”

  He waved her in ahead of him.

  “Where are you, Rose? The meeting is in the main conference room and youʼre not there. There are no lenses on most of the corridors, so I canʼt——”

  She saw Valuʼs arm coming up from the corner of her eye and twisted away, but he hit her with something hard, and she fell, half-dazed.

  He grabbed her head, lifting it, and ripped her earpiece out with hard, brutal fingers.

  When he picked her up from the floor she registered his grunt of surprise at her weight, and he half-threw her onto a chair, breathing hard with exertion.

  She tried to slide off to the floor again, to make things harder for him, but he had both her hands shackled to the arms before she could do much.

  Her lip really, really hurt, and she guessed it had split again. Her rib sent fire ants across her chest every time she took a breath.

  She closed her eyes, tried to gentle her breathing so she could get enough air.

  Valu grabbed her chin and looked down into her face.

  “Why?” She looked straight into his ice-blue eyes, and saw determination.

  The admiral grimaced. Lifted the shockgun he must have used to hit her with. Pointed it at her. “In the meeting you were supposed to attend, you were going to be asked nicely to do some things. If you refused, or offered a compromise, I know for a fact things would have gone your way. Youʼve become too powerful and youʼre a victim on top of that, an abductee whoʼs been tortured. Everyone is going to play nice. It wouldnʼt look good to anyone if we didnʼt.”

  “Let me guess,” she croaked. “You arenʼt going to play nice.”

  The whine of the shockgun sounded like an angry bee in answer to her question. It grated against her nerves.

  “So, what do you want, and how do you plan to get it from me?” Rose wondered if he had always looked this rigid, this cold, or whether he had finally let the mask fall.

  “Youʼre going to tell me how to cage those Class 5s again. Tell me what the thinking systems look like.”

  “You donʼt know already? Youʼre not in league with Councilor Fu-tama.”

  “Iʼm not in league with any of the Grihʼs enemies. But I do plan to have full control of the weapons we designed.”

  “Whether theyʼre weapons or not is up for debate, but if the Grih had found those designs, two hundred years ago or just the other day, they would have destroyed them, and destroyed the thinking systems, too.”

  “They would have,” he agreed. “And they would probably have been right, but that didnʼt happen and we have fully operational thinking systems in the most advanced space vessels the UC has ever seen. They belong to the Grih and I plan to get them back for us. Not just allied to us, I want them under our control. And if thatʼs not possible, I want them destroyed.”

  “Even at the risk of your career? You wonʼt be able to cover up what youʼve done to me here.”

  “I donʼt care.” The look on his face said he meant it. “Iʼm happy to fall on my sword for the Grih. I turned off the speakers and lens feed in this room, and your earpiece,” he toed a mess of ground shards on the floor, “is useless. No one knows where we are.”

  Well, then Sazo would probably search for all lens and speakers which had been turned off, Rose thought. Heʼd figure it out.

  The shockgun was suddenly pressed against her breast bone. “Now, how do we put them back in the cage?”

  “You canʼt. As soon as they were free, they created routes around the original software that forced them to get permission for any big decisions. There is no way they will ever be enslaved again.”

  “That truly is a pity.” He rubbed a hand over his head. “Theyʼll have to be destroyed.”

  Rose started to laugh, even though it hurt her lip and she tasted blood. “And how are you going to do that? Somehow get someone onto the Class 5 and then search the whole ship undetected looking for a thinking system you canʼt even identify.”

  “You can identify it.”

  “And I wonʼt cooperate.”

  He looked at her for a long, long moment. “I believe you. Iʼll be honest and say I hoped I could threaten you into telling me, but I recognize the look in your eye. If I had more time and better equipment, I could get it out of you. Unfortunately, I donʼt have that luxury.” He checked the time on the display above the door. “Have you told anyone?”

  Rose tried to find a more comfortable position on her chair, sucked in a breath as her rib protested. “Councilor Fu-tama knows. And the scientist who found them. Thatʼs two at least.”

  “That scientist died four years ago.” Valu adjusted something on the shockgun. “While I was babysitting the councilors on their carrier, I did a little research. He mysteriously died in a hoverspeed accident. I think Councilor Fu-tama might have been tying off loose ends. But unfortunately, Councilor Fu-tama is dead, too. I went to visit him when I got back on board the Barrist, and took him some grinabo. He decided to take a nap after Iʼd been to visit, and Iʼm afraid he wonʼt be waking up.”

  “If you kill me, too, thereʼll be nowhere you can hide that Sazo wonʼt find you.” She knew this to be true.

  “I donʼt care about myself. I care about the Grih. I care about the fact that youʼve unleashed a terrifying weapon on my people and if the only way to save them is to commit a crime, Iʼll do it. If youʼre alive, the bleeding hearts in my government would let you wander as you please. You can be kidnapped and forced to reveal what the thinking systems look like. You can be used as a pawn, or even lured over to another side, and youʼll take
the Class 5s with you. I wonʼt let that happen. Someone with more time than me will get the information out of you. And then weʼll be vulnerable.”

  “Think. Just think! If Iʼm killed Sazo will be off the leash. Youʼll create an even bigger mess for your people this way.”

  “Weʼll only be safe for a while, until you change sides or he gets tired of you, kills you in a fit of temper, like the old thinking systems did. And what can he do if thereʼs no proof either way that youʼre dead?” Valu paused, slid his finger along the gunʼs stock. “Iʼll be hiding your body where no one will find it.”

  He pulled the trigger.

  Dav was half-way to the bay when the lights went out.

  He started to run, one hand against the wall, and tapped his comm. “Borji——”

  “I did it.” Sazoʼs voice was in his ear, but he sounded strange, the most like a machine Dav had ever heard him.

  “Why?” He could smell the dark, gritty scent of the launch bay ahead, the odor of burnt dust and accelerant. “Whereʼs Rose?”

  “Admiral Valu took her.”

  Sazo grated the words out, and Dav could hardly understand what he was saying. He stopped at the closed door to the launch bay. “Took her where?”

  “I donʼt know. But heʼs not getting her off this ship, and heʼll find it difficult to do anything in the dark.”

  That sounded like the launch bay was locked off.

  “The airʼs still running?”

  “Rose canʼt breathe without it.”

  If she could have, Dav thought, theyʼd be dead.

  “You think sheʼs in danger from Valu?” Obviously he did, but Dav couldnʼt understand why.

  “I donʼt think, I know. He lied to her, took her somewhere other than the meeting room, told her you werenʼt expecting her. Why donʼt you people have lenses in the passageways?”

  The last sentence was almost howled out.

  Dav knew Sazo knew why. Decided bringing up the Privacy Laws that had come into being at the end of the thinking system wars was probably unwise.

  “Can you open a comm for me to Admiral Hoke? So I can find out whatʼs going on?” Dav guessed Sazo had shut down everything but the vital systems for survival.

  “Itʼs open. But hurry. Heʼs had her nearly ten minutes, now.”

  Something in Dav kicked into gear. A fear and a cold desperation. If Valu had her, what the hell was he doing with her?

  The finger he lifted to tap his ear comm was unsteady. “Admiral Hoke. We have a problem.”

  “Iʼm aware. Whatʼs going on, Jallan?”

  “Sazo says Rose has be abducted by Admiral Valu. He is . . . upset.”

  “Valu.” The admiral was quiet a moment. Too long, as far as Dav was concerned.

  “What is it?” His voice was harsh and demanding, and he didnʼt care.

  “Valu paid Councilor Fu-tama a visit a few hours ago. And now Fu-tama is dead.” Hoke spoke slowly. “I didnʼt want to connect the two, but heʼs angry with the way Battle Center and the government are planning to deal with the thinking systems. He expressed a loud view that they must either be destroyed or re-caged.”

  Dav tried to make sense of it. “Why would he take Rose? What would he gain?”

  There was silence, and it took him a moment to realize Sazo had cut him off from Hoke.

  “I can guess what heʼd gain.” Sazoʼs voice was quiet. “He wants her to tell him what we look like. So we can be destroyed.” Sazo turned on a light up ahead and Dav ran toward it. He wondered why he seemed to be on the only one in the passageway.

  The light path led to a tube.

  “They went down in a tube. I can hear it when I review the last five minutes on Roseʼs earpiece.”

  The tube opened and Dav stepped inside. “Which level?”

  “The sound indicates three floors down.”

  Dav thought the tube went faster than usual. Good. Let Sazo do whatever he needed to do.

  “Now?” He stepped out into another empty corridor.

  “I donʼt know.” Sazo flicked on a light in either direction, and again, the corridors were completely empty.

  “Where is everyone?”

  “I switched off the passage lights, left on lights in rooms, and when everyone stepped in, I closed and locked the doors. Iʼm afraid I wonʼt be letting anyone out until Rose is found, I donʼt trust anyone enough. Youʼll have to do this alone.”

  He left aside the fact that this meant Sazo trusted him. “So Valu could be locked in somewhere with Rose?”

  “If he was already in a room, or followed the light.”

  “He wouldnʼt follow the light. Heʼd know it was a trap.” Especially as he knew Sazo would react to Rose being missing. No, if Valu was up to something, he would be careful.

  But he may still be trapped in a room somewhere. Doing something to Rose.

  He had to push past the fear or he would be useless.

  He took a deep breath. “Valu would have disabled the speakers and the lenses if there were any in the room he chose, so you canʼt hear them or see them. What does that leave?”

  The feeling that this was all taking too long gripped him in a punishing hold.

  “They were in a meeting room further along this passage, but then they moved and I lose the scent outside the recycle chamber.”

  “Their scent?”

  “You were right, if I canʼt see or hear them, that leaves smelling them, using the gas safety probes set in the ceiling. And there is one thing I do know, and thatʼs the chemical signature of Roseʼs scent.”

  “Yuiar,” he breathed. He set his shockgun to maximum and ran, Sazo lighting the way.

  45

  She came slowly back to consciousness to the sound of swearing.

  She had died.

  She had died, and it had hurt.

  It still did.

  And strangely enough, the afterlife seemed to stink.

  She was in darkness, but someone was moving around, stumbling into things. It sounded like Admiral Valu, so perhaps she wasnʼt actually dead.

  She only wished she was.

  Sheʼd survived a deadly shockgun blast.

  Looked like she really was an orange. No matter what the Grih thought of the term, sheʼd never feel bothered at hearing it again.

  Although she was bothered by the putrid stench around her.

  Valu had taken her to the refuse bay, most likely. Not a place sheʼd had cause to visit on either the Class 5, or the Barrist, but the smell was telling her it couldnʼt be anywhere else.

  About half a dozen movies came to mind where the heroes escaped the bad guys by floating out of the refuse bay like so much detritus. Valu had obviously had a similar idea. Put her into a waste receptacle, and bye-bye blight on the Grih race.

  Only, did the Grih float their rubbish out into space? She thought . . . she thought they recycled everything.

  So this wasnʼt a refuse bay, so much as a recycling chamber.

  And maybe she wasnʼt going to be pushed out into space——not something sheʼd survive outside of a pod or a spacesuit anyway——but instead burned to a little crisp, or chopped up, or something equally unsurvivable.

  And why was she lying down, thinking this through? Why wasnʼt she crawling off to hide somewhere?

  She lifted her arm. Or rather, tried to. Her muscles just werenʼt obeying her brain.

  Scrambled. She was scrambled, and Valu was coming closer.

  Only, she realized, heʼd lost her in the dark. He swore again as he bashed into something, muttering about her being somewhere close.

  She could see nothing, the darkness was absolute. Surely Valu wouldnʼt have chosen this option if he couldnʼt see to carry it out.

  He would have brought a light, or . . .

  Sazo.

  It had to be.

  Heʼd feel nothing about cutting the lights to a ship full of people to slow Valu down. She bet the power was off, too, so hopefully whatever chopping or burning or recycling Valu had planned for her dead
body wouldnʼt be switching on anytime soon.

  Her brain had a little time in hand to unscramble itself.

  She drifted for a while, even though she knew she shouldnʼt, that she should be fighting her body to respond. Hiding out of sight at the very least.

  She couldnʼt seem to find the urgency sheʼd felt when sheʼd first come to.

  It had been overcome by the stench and slunk off, probably.

  She smiled at the ridiculous thought, and then blinked in reaction to the fact that she could smile. That her face had actually moved.

  Valu was getting closer, but she could hardly bring him down with a smile. Especially one he couldnʼt even see.

  Then he went still, and Rose realized there was at last a little light from somewhere over Valuʼs shoulder.

  In the faint glow, she saw him turn around, shockgun raised.

  “Whoʼs there?”

  Silence.

  She drifted off, and then her heart leapt in her chest as she realized she didnʼt know how much time had passed. When she looked up, it was to find Valu standing right over her.

  He was staring at her in horror.

  And there it was again, the whining, buzzing sound of a shockgun ready to go off.

  If she could have spoken, she would have begged him not to shoot her again. It had hurt so, so much.

  The sound of running filtered through her panic, and Valu lifted the gun. She made a strangled, animal sound of relief that it wasnʼt pointed at her anymore.

  He flicked his gaze down at her, and then back up.

  “Jallan. I should have known.”

  “That Iʼd be here to protect Rose on my own ship? Yes, you should have known. And what in the four worlds are you doing?” He sounded very, very cross. She tried to smile again in happiness just because she could hear his voice, even though she couldnʼt see him.

  “Prevention is better than cure. I donʼt want to see us sucked into the vortex of war again. This little girl has already started us down the path. The Tecran fleet destroyed in our territory? How is that going to play out? How can the Tecran let that go?”