by Joyce Lavene
"They feel the same. Everyone waits, Captain Amato, until we reach the planet."
"You contacted your superiors without mechanical means, didn't you? I've heard Rians could speak with their minds but I've never witnessed it myself."
"As you say. There is another Rian in the leadership that I report to directly."
"And are other Rians the only ones lucky enough to speak to you this way?" She licked her thin lips as she stared at him.
"Anyone with telepathic skills can be reached. Have you ever been tested?"
"No. Perhaps you could test me, Kalatri."
He bowed his head. "I'm honored that you would trust me with this, Sadah. But I'm not a teacher and not trained for the guidance this requires."
"I have heard other stories of Rians...abilities. That they pleasure with their minds as well as their bodies. Is this true, Kalatri Sadoh?"
Gael couldn't hear Kat's response to Captain Amato's question as the food was trundled in, but the captain sat back suddenly, drinking her wine sullenly. Kat's expressive blue eyes were bland, carefully revealing nothing.
The chef, a tall, grizzled man, entered the room with a brazier and a young boy who carried a huge tray of meat and vegetables. The fire was struck in the brazier and the helper, who didn't look up as he poured the wine, handed the meat to the chef. His scuffed and scarred arms told their own story.
Denby looked at the captain as though urging her to put down her glass. "Well, Lieutenant. What will it take to convince ENDO that Bonding is behind all this?"
When she didn't answer, Kat looked at Gael to find her keenly watching the young boy as he poured more wine for the captain. A thin silver wire on the boy's face glinted in the light. It was in the same location as the scar on Gael's face. The wire on the boy looked to be an implanted detector of some sort, probably proclaiming the boy to be a slave.
"Lt. Klarke?" Denby tried again impatiently.
"Yes?" She looked back at him, her hand going unconsciously to the scar near her ear.
"Both ENDO and ECHO will be satisfied with hard evidence that Bonding was on the planet," Kat filled in, drawing their attention away from her. "There will have to be more proof than a disk, however, Sadoh Denby."
"And if we can give it to them? Or rather, if you and the Lieutenant here can give that to them?"
"Then it will be in the hands of the two groups and Central will decide what becomes of Bonding. However, I must remind you, Sadoh, Central loves competition. It's likely that even if Bonding does lose its license that Central will create another group just to compete."
"Do you really think that's possible?" Denby's face went red.
"You know Central as well as we do," Gael rushed in, trying to keep the conversation on an even heading. "They pit ENDO and ECHO against each other for almost every operation for the competition. It stands to reason since ore operations are so large and so important to industry."
"The Lieutenant has a very good point." Captain Amato ended the discussion. "We'll find what we can on the planet. After that, it's up to Central to decide. For now, we eat."
Simple and to the point. Gael looked directly at Kat, picking up her glass of wine.
Indeed. His blond head tilted slightly, one brow raised over a blue eye that dared her to say anything. He sipped his wine.
"If you'll excuse me." Denby made his apologies, getting up from his place at the table. "I find that I'm not feeling very well. Lieutenant, Captain, Officer Astri."
"Very touchy, that man." Captain Amato held out her glass for more of the thick red wine.
The smell of the roasting meat was slightly unsettling, definitely unappetizing. Gael swirled the wine in her cup more than she drank it. The boy came towards her again with the wine just as the chef started to serve the meal. She dropped her heavy hand towel on the floor and bent to retrieve it.
"More wine?" the boy asked in his reed thin voice.
"No, thank you. Who are you?" She whispered the words furtively in a Fargan patois used in the streets by slaves and gutterlings.
He glanced sharply at the big chef who was serving vegetables to Kat across the table. He answered in the same slang. "I am called Toine. You-you're Fargan?"
"There must be something very interesting going on over there, boy." Captain Amato intercepted their conversation though she couldn't speak the language.
The beefy chef stopped in mid stride before reaching Gael. He yelled a curse at the boy in fluent Fargan. Toine scurried away, his dark head bent low.
Gael looked up into the chef's ugly, angry face and smiled as he held out a plate for her to choose her meal. She spoke quickly. The softly spoken, guttural words she casually used had the effect of waving a red flag at a bull. He threw down the platter of food and ground his teeth, balling his huge fists. There was no doubt when he stepped back that he wanted to fight right there.
"There seems to be a problem." Captain Amato laughed, leaning heavily towards Kat. She hadn't been so entertained in months.
Kat leaned forward and felt the captain's restraining hand on his arm. "Relax. Let them handle it."
Gael was already on her feet.
There was a relaxed composure to her stance that Kat knew was deceptive. The cold gleam in her dark eyes reminded him of her service record. When she'd told him that she'd scored well on his image on the training field, he knew that she wasn't bragging. She was the pride of ENDO and could kill with a single blow from her slender, scarred hand.
The chef's glittering eyes went to the weapon in her belt. He tossed the double-edged knife away from him, nodding towards her service weapon.
Gael nodded and threw her weapon on the floor, kicking it contemptuously from her.
"How interesting...and evocative!" The captain nuzzled Kat's right ear.
Her hand was still on his arm. Kat determined that it was time to teach the woman that no one touched a Rian randomly. She suddenly found the blue- sleeved arm writhing under her hand and moved away quickly, seeing the thick head of a Quellan Ha'lt snake.
In the next instant, the maddened chef found himself possessed of an urgent need to visit the galley. Without so much as another look at Gael, he left the room. Toine followed in his wake, not daring to glance back.
Captain Amato poured out the remainder of her wine, convinced something was wrong with it. When she looked again, Kat's arm was normal, resting lightly on the table. "I'm not feeling well myself." She leaned down close to Kat but didn't touch him again. "Perhaps we can meet later and you could show me some Rian mind magic that will make me feel better."
Kat smiled and nodded his head, watching her as she left the room.
"I think she's already seen some Rian mind magic," Gael accused stiffly, the words grating from between her clenched teeth.
He acknowledged her words with a nod.
"I didn't want your help."
Kat rose gracefully from his chair. "No. You wanted to kill him. I acted in the best interest of the mission."
She glared at him across the table. Blue eyes warred with brown, a silent battle of wills.
"All right," she agreed. "It wasn't the time or the place. Satisfied?"
He watched her retrieve her weapon from the floor. "What did you say to him?"
She looked at him uncomfortably, realizing how much of herself she'd given away to him because of her temper. "There really isn't a literal translation from Fargan. It's only an insult in the streets there. If he'd been well born, he wouldn't have understood what I said."
"And the boy?"
"I only asked him who he is." She clenched her fists. "No one should have to live that way."
"Farga has its own rules for civilization just as other worlds of the Central system."
She disagreed. "Slavery shouldn't be allowed just because it's a custom."
They reached her door as several Guardsman staff passed them. Gael glanced at them feeling dark and empty. "Everything on Ria is bright and beautiful." Like you. "It's not like that
on Farga."
"We could talk for a while, if you like." He felt her withdrawal as strongly as if a wall had dropped in place. In her way, she'd found a way of controlling her psi abilities but only at the cost of her fear and anger. Kat tried to reach her with his mind but she was as clearly devoid of any psi as the captain. It was a remarkable gift, this disguising of her inborn abilities. He was beginning to understand how the ENDO council had missed it.
She looked through him with a flat refusal to acknowledge his presence. "I just need some rest." The panel slid open at her touch and she disappeared behind the wall screen, leaving him standing alone in the hall.
He sighed, wishing he could reach her. He could show her the remarkable achievement she'd made. Patience, as his father had told him, was not one of his better virtues. He came to his compartment and the door slid open to reveal that he was not alone. Captain Amato was waiting for him. Her unsightly gray uniform was gone and her wild red hair was falling over her shoulders.
"I've come for some Rian magic, Kalatri." Her eyes devoured him hungrily.
Devoid of the mesh of Gael's tangled emotions, Kat couldn't summon any anger at her advances. Ruefully, he found he couldn't find any passion either. The thought of mating with a female who would receive him only with her body was distasteful with the most interesting of women. With the captain, it was repugnant.
He chided himself with the image of Menor had held of Gael in his mind. Kat was fairly certain Menor had never experienced anything with Gael except a working relationship. The lusty, wild-eyed woman with Gael's face was almost a caricature of the real thing. Still, it inflamed his senses then as it had earlier.
He was still confused with her emotional responses. He and Gael were an unlikely match. As for the captain --
***
Gael lay awake in her quarters, staring into the darkness. Seeing that young boy had been like seeing herself years before. She'd been much younger than Toine when she'd left Farga but they had much in common. She pressed her fingers to her cheek where she'd ripped the slave's wire from her flesh because the ENDO council wouldn't take slaves. She would have ripped off one of her arms to join them and get away from her world. The detector wire had left a scar on her face that even the finest ENDO surgeon could only reduce to its present state. She'd always remember the pain and the determination that put it there.
She'd wanted to kill the chef at dinner and would have if Kat hadn't acted. She'd seen faces like his in some of her worst nightmares. They were saying the things he'd said to Toine, to her. She'd never gone back to Farga but she carried her scars with her. She could never forget that it was hard work and discipline that saved her from Toine's life. Kat could have his ECHO ways with his Rian charm and his background of easy acceptance. It could never be for her.
Folding herself into a tight knot of pain and misery, Gael drifted into an uneasy sleep. She was dreaming. She was walking along a green path through wet foliage. It was a pattern from another one of the R-12 tapestries. The threads were alive around her. The air was hot and heavy, redolent with strong floral perfume. She looked up into the pale sky and the sun was blazing red. Where was she?
In your bedport, she told herself sternly. Yet she couldn't recall where. Was she still at ENCOM or had she left for Miccah? She wasn't in this jungle but she was confused and suddenly trembling. She felt a hand on her shoulder, caressing her arm. She turned and found herself in Kat's arms. His golden hair showered over her face and shoulder. His touch was a trail of fire on her sensitive skin. She felt him lower them both to the steaming jungle floor, his lips on her neck and breast.
A door slid open at her touch and she stood in the doorway of Kat's room, not sure how she came to be there or if it was real. He was sitting in a chair near the wall. Captain Amato was on his bed, moaning audibly. Her eyes closed and her hands were making the movements of holding a phantom lover.
Kat opened his tired eyes and stared into Gael's for a long moment. He saw in her face what she had seen, felt what she'd felt in her dream. While she'd slept, their energies had meshed once again. The dream that he'd given Captain Amato in his stead had overlapped into Gael's. The passionate force of the dream permeated him as she stood there, her dark eyes stricken with understanding. He didn't dare move or attempt any explanation, not sure he could control the strength of the emotions that passed between them. He could feel the warmth of her skin against his; taste the faint wine still on her lips.
Without a word, Gael turned and left him there, the door sliding closed behind her.
When he could end Captain Amato's dream, when the insatiable woman had gone with a last crude caress, Kat tried to reach Gael within his mind. But the wall was there between them.
Chapter Seven
Gael huddled in her bedport, dosing herself with Try-sting to stay awake. When she could feel the familiar surge through her veins, she combed her hair and changed her uniform for the clean one in her bag. She took out her info disc on the ore-mining planet and its controversy and settled in for what remained of the surrogate night with a cup of djine.
They were close to solving the processing problem. She wouldn't let down her guard again. A few days of staying awake would be good for her. As cadets, all ENDO officers were required to stay awake for long periods of time just for the practice at the exertion.
The Try-sting raced through her mind and body, making her hand shake faintly, a restless energy welling up inside of her. When she'd reviewed the files, she'd go down to the cruiser and check out its systems. Then she would take on some target practice in the freighter's game room.
She was luckier than she thought and glad that she'd decided on the game room first. The captain's chef was taking all comers with gloves and spars when she arrived. Most of the freighter's crew knew second hand what had passed between them in the dining room. Money changed hands and the crowd grew steadily.
There was heavy silence when Gael, refusing to don a helmet, took up a heavy spar. The Fargan born chef growled at her from the ring. She jumped the gate. Kat wasn't there to stop the fight. The crowd cheered them on.
It wasn't much as fights went. The chef was in poor condition and though brutal, he had no stamina. He went down after inflicting a few minor discomforts to her. He didn't get back up.
His friends carried him from the ring, throwing angry glances back at Gael as she replaced her spar on the wall. She was holding together the torn pieces of her uniform with a satisfied grin on her face. She held her head high, knowing her face must be a mess. He had aimed hard for her eyes.
"He's a street fighter. You're much better." Toine came from behind a unit holding sports equipment, opening a packet that contained antiseptic wash and handing it to her.
"Thanks." She used the same Fargan the boy used. "Can you use the Alliance tongue?"
"Yes but you can understand me. We are Fargan."
"We are." The wash stung her eyes and lip where the cuts were the deepest. She could taste the blood in her mouth and flexed her shoulder experimentally. It was going to be sore and awkward for a few days.
"You fought for me." It was a flat statement.
She looked at him sitting beside her on the floor, his dark eyes so like her own. "I fought for both of us."
He touched the scar on her cheek with a knowing hand. "You were a slave. How did you escape?"
"I ripped the slave brand off of my face. I almost died. ENDO found me on Farga." She smiled though it hurt to do so. "Or I found them. It was a very long time ago."
"It's hard to imagine you as a slave. You're so strong."
"I'm like you but older," she told him quietly. "I escaped from Farga, from slavery. What about you?"
"I am a slave."
"And happy to be so?"
"No but I can't escape. I'm not brave or strong like you. Only small and weak. One day he will beat me too hard or the captain woman will kill me. It doesn't matter."
Gael took his scarred little hand. "I'll take you with me
. There are places you can go."
"Places?" He sneered. "I've heard of them. Where you work always and sometimes they feed you. Where they forget you're alive until you die. Then they feed your body to the master's pets."
"There are many more places." She didn't deny that he spoke of what made up orphanages on some planets. "You could 'prentice to ENDO with me. You'd have good food, be able to travel. You'd have a home."
"I could?" He dared to imagine it, dark eyes huge in his excitement.
"You could if we can find a way to get you off this ship."
"You'd buy me from them?"
Buy? She hadn't considered that possibility. Money wasn't one of her strong assets. Negotiation might be the answer -- giving the chef or the captain something they wanted in return for the boy. Their situation was delicate. Hopefully that wouldn't come too close to be considered coercion. Would they see it that way?
Toine found her a uniform to exchange for her ENDO red that had been destroyed. She had only brought two uniforms with her. With everything that had happened, she considered that it might be wise to save the other.
"No one will miss you?" She didn't want to make the task of getting him away any harder.
"He won't." He gestured to the door where they'd taken the unconscious man out. Toine grinned. "And the captain woman is being pleasured by your friend in blue. I go to her soon."
Gael frowned, knowing that information only too well. She pushed it from her mind. "Have you gone to school? Do you read?"
"No but I can drink more rum than any of my masters. I can cook. I can fire a weapon. A man showed me once. And the captain woman." He grinned showing two missing teeth. "She says I'm good at mating."
Gael tossed her uniform into the trash receptacle and looked at his eager young face. It made her stomach churn to think about it. Yet he was proud of his accomplishments. "You're already a man." The words almost choked her.
"You'll take me with you when you leave? You'll buy me from them?"
She couldn't say no though she was sure to regret her actions later. What did she know about children? "One way or another. I'll get you away from this."