No problem.
She'd sat in the cell on the Fasbe for over six weeks before something had changed and Tak had let her out and tried to pretend she had never been a prisoner in the first place. So this was nothing.
It had also been done with an explanation and an apology.
It made her all the more willing to not be difficult about it, even though she sensed that if she'd refused, they would have locked her up anyway. It sounded from what Carmain had said that it wasn't only her who would be in danger, but that the whole ship could become a target if the Tecran were to discover she was on board.
She wouldn't have blamed them for forcing her if she'd objected, but as it was, they'd been grateful for her acceptance and lack of a tantrum, and everyone was happy.
So why, after all that, did they want her to go out onto Larga Ways?
Fee shifted her gaze from the official at her door to the huge screen that made up one wall of her room. She'd set it to show Larga Ways itself, using an image taken from the Illium's outside lens feed as it had approached the way station.
They'd arrived mid-afternoon, and the way station had been awash with sunlight.
She had no objection to exploring the place.
It looked breathtaking, and as a whole day had passed since they'd docked, and Pila told her they'd been delayed and would be here another twelve hours at least, it was mid-afternoon again. She wanted to feel the sunshine on her face.
The picture she'd built up in her mind of a trading way station circling a planet had been drawn from grungy first person computer game imagery, all dull gray metal and long passageways, dark alleys, and dangerous figures lurking in the shadows.
Instead, Larga Ways looked like a child's drawing of a sun, a disc with rays streaming from it at even intervals. Each ray was a docking arm, and the whole of it was encased in a dome of dark purple light.
When she'd asked, Carmain had explained that it was the same technology as the gel wall in the launch bay. A strong metal grid below the disc anchored it, and then soared up to arch over the station itself. Underneath the way station and near the top of the dome, the grid was intricate and dense, providing a strong support for the gel, and it was only at the docking arms that the grid was more open, to allow ships to enter.
The buildings on the way station were three stories high at least, and while it didn't seem as if there was anything resembling a park, plants and trees were obviously grown in pots and raised beds, thousands of them, making the buildings looks as if they were rising out of a lush forest.
The architect in her longed to explore, so she was hardly going to say no if Captain Vakeri was letting her out.
“Are you sure this is right?” she asked her guard again. “Shouldn't we wait for Pila?”
Hisma shrugged. “Commander Chel ordered him to communications ten minutes ago. I've tried to contact him twice and he's not answering, which probably means he's in a meeting and can't be disturbed.”
She looked at the United Council officer standing patiently with his handheld, which he'd shown them twice now, the seal of the Way Station Commander blazing bright from the screen. According to Hisma, it was completely legit.
“And you're sure this is okay with Captain Vakeri?”
Hisma nodded, and there was no doubt in his eyes. “He contacted me by comm and told me personally to expect Officer Talbo.”
Well. She sure as hell wasn't going to say no, then. At least they'd sent a Grihan United Council officer, not a Garmman. She may have had to turn the opportunity down if they had, because no way was she leaving alone anywhere with a Garmman.
“Great. Then I'm all set.”
“We need to wait for the helmet,” Officer Talbo said.
There was something about him. A twitch of nerves in the way he tapped, tapped, tapped on his handheld with his fingernail. Fee wasn't sure if he was intimidated by Hisma, whose shockgun had not fully lowered to point to the floor since Talbo had arrived, or whether it was his natural disposition.
It was hard to know what was normal and what wasn't when the new normal was completely out of her experience.
“Helmet?” Hisma frowned, and then turned, shockgun rising, as a member of the Illium's crew rounded the corner, a helmet in her hands.
“Commander Chel ordered this for you?” Her voice rose nervously and she held the helmet out, frowning at the shockgun.
Hisma lowered it. “What's it for?”
“To hide her ears and hair,” Talbo said.
Ah. It was making more sense now. They weren't going to flaunt her, they were going to pretend she was Grihan.
Although, if they were all so nervous about the Tecran finding out she was here, she wondered why the United Council was insisting she travel to them for a meeting, rather than seeing her on the Illium.
If they were all like Councilor Vilk, they probably thought they were too important.
She lifted her hair, twisting it and tucking it into a bun. Hisma took the helmet and gently put it on her head, and pushed it down.
“It's a little big, but then, they always are for the cadets, and that's what you look like,” the woman from the stores said, watching them with interest.
“Except for the . . .” Hisma stopped, and bit his lip.
Ah. Her breasts. She'd slowly gotten the picture that they were bigger than the Grih were used to. They tried not to stare, but they weren't always successful.
She raised an eyebrow at him, but the impact was lost because the helmet came down to her eyebrows and mostly hid them.
“Let's go, then.” Talbo looked like he was anxious to get moving.
“I know the captain said you had arranged security for her but . . .” Hisma looked Talbo up and down. “You don't even have a weapon.”
“Weapons are not allowed on Larga Ways, except by security, and there are two security officers waiting outside on the dock for us.” Talbo turned and started walking, and Fee shrugged at Hisma and followed. Hisma brought up the rear, and Fee guessed he'd stick to her like glue until she stepped down the Illium's ramp. He'd watch her back until the last minute.
“I won't look much like a cadet if there are two armed guards hovering over me,” she said to Talbo as they reached the main passageway.
The double doors out to the dock platform where right up ahead.
“They won't be hovering, and they're not going to be in uniform. You won't even know who they are or where they are. They'll blend in to the crowd around us and keep watch.” He spoke quickly, as if reciting from a script, and Fee guessed he'd had to say it a couple of times before to various twitchy visitors.
Fine with her. Even though Talbo was taking her directly to the United Council offices on Larga Ways, she would get to walk down the streets of this place. She wondered if it was possible to see Balco from within the dome, or whether the purple of the gel wall obscured it.
Two guards stood at the doors, and they came to sharp attention at the sight of her.
“Captain okayed it. She has permission to leave,” Hisma said from behind her. “UC business.”
Tablo waved his commander's seal at them and the double doors opened.
She took a deep breath and stepped outside for the first time in over two months.
14
The purple gel that encased Larga Ways was less intense than the blue of the gel walls in the launch bays.
Fee stopped halfway down the docking arm and tilted her head up. It was more a translucent lavender than the dark purple it appeared to be looking from the outside in.
She turned her head and closed her eyes against the brightness and warmth of Balco's sun. Tears pricked the back of her eyes and she had to swallow hard to keep them from spilling.
“Please. We need to keep moving,” Talbo said, almost directly in her ear, and she reluctantly opened her eyes and faced the cluster of buildings up ahead.
She stumbled as she took her first step, as she realized the planet Balco was right in front of her. It
rose up above the silver reflective roofs; green, gold and blue.
The sight of it made her heart beat faster in her chest.
Talbo tugged at her arm and Fee stiffened.
“It's dangerous for you to be out in the open. Please, let's go.” Talbo was on the edge of panic, and Fee tried to bury her resentment at being rushed and fell into step with him.
They walked to the docking gate, and Talbo simply nodded at the guards on duty and stepped through what resembled an airport security scanner. Fee followed him, and after she stepped through, she heard a hum behind her as it was reactivated.
She looked over her shoulder, and noticed the faint snap of purple light from one side to the other.
So, likely, you'd get a nasty shock if you ran through it without permission.
She wondered where the guards who were supposed to be watching her were hidden. She and Talbo had been the only people on the docking arm but now they were among the way station crowds and as Talbo led her down a narrow street she looked around to see if she could spot them.
There were Garmman and Grih, but there were other races as well; a few Fitali like Kwo, and men and women with a shorter, stockier build and flat faces with silver eyes.
Perhaps they were Balcoan.
The buildings were all covered in the most amazing mosaics, and Fee realized some of what she'd thought were greenery and flowers earlier were designs on the walls.
There were plants, though.
Tiny dark red flowers carpeted the sides of the streets and what looked like pale green arum lilies curved up and out from pots, their frilly leaves a mix of pink and green.
The trees were similar to cypresses, tall and thin, but when she got closer, she saw the trunks were a twist of four or five separate stems, entwined together, and the tiny leaves looked thick and succulent.
“This way.” Talbo turned off the street into what Fee would describe as an alleyway, but of course, they would make their streets as narrow as possible here, to maximize the space for buildings.
They walked the length of a short block, deep in shadow, and then stepped out onto another street as wide as the one they'd just come from.
It had the same beautiful buildings and plants, but there were a few places that Fee thought looked like market stalls and tiny stores, and there were more people here.
To the left, at what was surely a street cafe, she caught sight of someone familiar sitting at a small table, a cup in front on him. He was big and Grihan, although he wasn't in uniform.
She knew him, though. She would never forget his face——Rial, the medic who'd helped her on the Fasbe.
She waved and smiled at him and just as Talbo hustled her down the alley on the opposite side of the street, she saw Rial's face go slack with surprise.
Me, too, she wanted to call. I can't believe they let me out either.
Excitement danced over her skin again as she took a deep breath and realized she could smell food cooking in the air. It was spicy and smelled as if it was being seared over a hot fire.
The contrast of such earthy cooking methods with the sophisticated dome overhead thrilled her, made her want to pull away from Talbo and explore.
Maybe she could wheedle an hour of exploring Larga Ways out of the UC committee members waiting for her after the meeting.
It was worth a try.
“In here.” Talbo held a door open for her in what looked like a building back entrance.
They were taking precautions, she'd give them that. The helmet, the low profile, coming in the back way.
The heavy, reinforced door thudded shut behind them, and it took Fee a moment for her eyes to adjust to the gloom of the small hallway.
It was all white and silver and a staircase rose up to her right.
Talbo lifted his handheld, and she realized he was looking at a floor plan.
“This way,” he said, moving forward, past the stairs to a door at the other end of the hall. “This is it.”
Again, he held the door for her, and she stepped in to a room that seemed too small and empty to be a meeting place.
Talbo stepped in behind her. She turned to ask him where they were, and saw his eyes go wide, his expression collapse into one of pain, and he went down, face first.
The door thumped shut, and she wrenched her gaze from his body, to find a person standing against the wall.
He'd been hiding behind the door, she realized, and now, only now that she saw the weapon in his hand, pointing at her, did she hear the faint whine of a shockgun.
“You shot him.” She wanted to kneel beside Talbo and check if he was all right, but as she took a step forward, the shooter raised the shockgun higher.
“I used the third lowest setting,” he said, his Garmman rough and deeply accented. “He'll come round in an hour or two.”
She forced herself to look at him, to work out what he was, and found her breathing getting short, fear squeezing her chest.
He had feathers. Feathers instead of hair, it looked like, and his mouth was more beak than lips, his eyes huge in his face.
She hugged herself. “What are you?” But she knew. She couldn't remember it, but she must have seen them when they took her, or when they had her under sedation in that strange glass room.
She'd told Captain Vakeri that she remembered feathers, and she was looking at feathers now.
The Tecran had found her. Or, given that Talbo had led her straight to them, they had somehow orchestrated this whole 'meeting'. They had fooled the crew on the Illium, they had fooled a UC officer.
And they'd gotten everyone to cooperate quite happily in handing her over. Herself included.
“It doesn't matter who I am.” He looked down at his shockgun, and she thought he might be adjusting the settings. “Take off your helmet.”
Fee thought about refusing, but the shockgun rose to point at her face, and she lifted it off and set it at her feet.
He sucked in a breath, gaze going to her ears. “So it is you.”
“What do you want?” If the captain was right, they'd want to get rid of her. Not just kill her, but make her disappear completely, so there was no trace of her existence. Likely, they wouldn't shoot her and leave her body here, they'd take it and jettison her into space, out of their hair forever.
“I want you to come with me.”
There was no way she was going with him so he could kill her quietly in some more private place and then dispose of her body. If she was dead either way, she'd make things as difficult as possible for him. Then at least the crew of Illium would know what had happened to her.
Just like when she'd stepped out to speak to the Krik on the Fasbe, she didn't have anything to lose.
“Where are we going?” She took a step to the side, so she could get around Talbo. The Tecran lifted the shockgun again, and Fee raised her hands.
“To my ship.”
Fee frowned. “The Tecran have a ship docked at Larga Ways?”
She knew she wasn't crew, or in any need-to-know group on the Illium, but she would have thought Pila or Carmain would have told her how close danger lay if a Tecran vessel was docked at the same way station. They couldn't know, or even Hisma would have asked more questions before letting her go.
“Not in any official capacity.” He gave her a look she couldn't interpret. “We wouldn't have been given permission, even if we'd asked.”
She took another step to the side and finally had a clear run to the door, except that the Tecran was standing right beside it.
Maybe it was time to unleash one of her secret weapons.
Aside from the encryptor, she had one surprise up her sleeve. She'd hidden it from Tak, waiting for her chance to use it, and that chance had never come.
It looked like it had now.
The gravity here was less than on Earth. Everything happened a fraction slower, but she could jump higher.
She could leap, flip, and somersault like an Olympic gymnast.
She'd always
wondered what it would feel like to be able to do that, and since she'd discovered that she could jump high enough to touch the ceiling with ease in her cell on the Fasbe, she'd been able to find out.
Probably, over time, her body would adjust and she'd lose her edge, but right now, her muscles and bones were used to a slightly higher gravity, and if she wanted to, she could jump over this Tecran's head.
“I will shoot you if you try to run.” He motioned her toward the door, opening it and standing right in the doorway, so she'd have to squeeze past him.
She took a few steps toward him, her gaze never leaving his face, and then leaped, in a head first dive.
She flew just over his head, turned a half-somersault in the air and landed hard, staggering as she took her next steps. Her momentum was too much, and she fell forward, and the whine of a shockgun shot sounded over her head.
She scrabbled her feet to get traction, pushing herself up with her arms, and just as she was about to launch herself forward again, pain burst across her shoulder blades and her whole body went numb.
She fell back to the ground, her cheek pressed against her forearm, and realized she couldn't move her limbs. She could close her eyes, though, and she lowered her lids so they appeared shut, but so she could still see a little.
Boots approached her.
“Shit. I hope to the stars you're not dead, because I was told not to shoot you.” Hands grabbed her, and he strained to pick her up.
He was half a meter taller than she was, and stocky in build, but she could hear he was having real trouble. He grunted as he tried to lift her, and dropped her back to the ground with a thud.
Ow.
“Why do you weigh so much?” He rolled her onto her back, moved round to her head and grabbed her under her arms and started dragging her.
He switched to speaking Tecran, muttering under his breath, and Fee wished she hadn't avoided learning it.
As the Tecran pulled her along, her legs and arms started tingling, and Fee thought she might be able to move them soon.
Dark Deeds (Class 5 Series Book 2) Page 10