by H. E. Trent
“Monk,” he intoned flatly.
Ais might have disagreed with that.
Fastida shrugged. “Close enough, at least until recently, but that’s your business.” She said something else in Jekhani to the women, and they all made the same sound in response—one Owen was pretty sure was the Jekhani equivalent of “Oh.”
“The man said they were related,” Owen said.
The woman with the child transferred her young charge to the woman with the limp arm. The child hugged her new holder tight and put her head on her shoulder.
The lady whispered something and kissed the top of the child’s head.
Oh.
“My sisters,” the elder one confirmed. “We were lucky to stay together for this long.”
“All the way from Buinet to here, huh?” Fastida asked. “At least, I’m guessing. I imagine most of you came from Buinet.”
“Buinet, yes. I’ve never seen any others from home. Maybe they were lucky. Maybe none of theirs were taken.”
“Where’s home?” Eileen asked.
The woman with the child said, “Little Gitano. Have you heard of it?”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
“Cunning,” Alex murmured.
Ais wrung her hands as Alex put his up in the air and nodded at Murki, who was pointing a rifle at him.
“Just let him go, Murk,” Court said with a sigh.
Murk raised a skeptical brow. “So he can attempt a maneuver like this again?”
“Serves me right for not doing better research,” Alex said. “But can you blame me?” He shrugged. “Reg generally doesn’t deal with people who cause him so much trouble.”
Reg happened to be facedown on the arid, canyon ground with his hands tied behind his back.
Courtney had convinced Alex to set the flyer down by claiming there was a specific herb on the ground that could prevent Ais’s wound from getting infected. He’d spotted the truck on the scanner moments after landing. He’d made a promise, though.
“I’m sure bothering McGarrys won’t be the last mistake he ever makes,” Courtney said.
“What do you want to do with him?” Headron asked.
“Perhaps you can take him back to the prison I released him from. There should be few others who’d—”
Rock exploded just over Murki’s head—shots coming from the distance—and they dove. In the near distance came more echoing booms. Shards of rock flew, and, sounding a chorus of curses and screams, the group scrambled back into Alex’s flyer. He put the hatches down in a hurry.
Reg was still out there, but no one seemed to care at the moment. Ais sure didn’t.
“Damn, what now?” Courtney pressed her face against the apparently bulletproof glass and squinted. Some sort of projectile bounced off the window right by her nose, and she didn’t even flinch. “Look.” She pointed at an angle upward. Up on that ledge of the canyon wall. There’s a bunch of people with guns.”
“Tyneali?” Murki asked.
“Judging from their heights, I don’t think so, but they’re wearing long cloaks that may make them look wider rather than tall. My perspective may be off.”
“You want me to try to get a few shots off at them?” Erin was gripping a gun one of the men must have carried from the truck.
“I’m hesitant about shooting anyone who doesn’t deserve to be shot,” Courtney said, “but they shot first.”
Ais put up her hands. “Wait.”
“What?”
“Maybe they’re just…reacting. They don’t know.” Ais couldn’t bear to think about any other people getting hurt for no good reason. There’d already been too much of that happening on Jekh, and she didn’t want to contribute to it.
“If we’re on the same side, they have a funny way of showing it,” Erin said.
“Maybe they can’t tell,” Court said. She turned to Alex. “Do you have rooftop projectors that can alter the flyer’s appearance when necessary?”
His nod came on a slow delay. “All sides, actually.”
“Can you get me into the system?”
“I could, but to what end?”
At the loud plink of a laser beam striking the window behind her, she clutched her chest and took a deep breath. “Jeez, let me in. I’ve got the weak bladder of a pregnant woman and that sound makes me leak. I want to try something. If this doesn’t work, no harm done.”
He nodded toward the console and she walked around him and took the seat. With a few taps of the lighted command screen, he let her into the system.
Courtney synced her wrist COM to the input feed. “I just need to find a certain… Ah, there it is.” The icon of the Jekhan Alliance appeared in the screen inset.
“I see where you’re going with this,” Erin said. She peered out the window, too, but she didn’t jump when bullet struck the glass. She just squinted. “Where’d Reg go?”
“He’s gone?” Ais went to check the door locks, but Headron and Murki beat her to them.
“I don’t see him. He must have wriggled out of the way.”
“The picture is up,” Courtney said. “Let’s see if they stop shooting. They may not buy it, especially if they recognize this flyer as Hauge’s.”
“I’ve never had problems moving from one place to another on the planet,” Hauge said. “No one’s ever accosted me.”
“Things are changing,” Murki said flatly. “This may not be a wise time for you to be on Jekh.”
“Is that a threat?”
“A warning, Mr. Hauge.”
“Shh,” Ais whispered. “Listen.”
They all turned toward the left side of the flyer where the bulk of the bullets and laser strikes had been pinging. They’d stopped.
“Perhaps I should step outside so they can see me,” Headron said.
“Just wait,” Ais said. “Give them a moment. If you move too quickly, they may think you’re a threat.”
He nodded. “I agree.”
“I know the way scared people think. Scared is what I know best.”
Courtney slipped an arm around Ais and rubbed her side. “Now you get to learn things other than being scared.”
A din like wind chimes clattering sounded from the console, and Alex dove for the panel. “It’s the COM,” he said. “I can’t tell who the transmission is originating from, only that the origin is close.”
“Answer,” Ais said.
He hit a button, and looked to the group.
Murki squeezed into the front and pivoted the pilot’s seat toward the COM console. “This is the flyer,” he said, and then repeated the same in Jekhani.
There were crackles. Static. Then, after what seemed like a minute or more, a gravelly voice said in Jekhani, “Identify yourself.”
“What is he saying?” Courtney whispered.
“I’ll translate in a moment,” Headron whispered back.
“For what reason?” Murki asked the voice.
“Who do you have in there? Terrans?”
Murki let out a breath. “Two Jekhan males, our mates, a hybrid female, and a Terran male.”
“Who is that outside your flyer running toward the truck?”
“Shit,” Headron muttered.
Erin nudged him. “What’s happening?”
He leaned in and whispered.
Her wide-eyed expression of curiosity quickly devolved into a vicious scowl. She went to the window, pulling Courtney along with her.
“He’s of no concern to us,” Murki said. “If he is a threat to you, incapacitate him, if you’d like, but please avoid damaging the truck. We need the vehicle to run our farm.”
More crackling. “He is attempting to flee,” the man said.
Murki banged his fist against the console and leaned toward the windshield, peering out. “Coward bastard. He must be using voice commands. His hands were tied.”
“We could shoot the vehicle down,” came the Jekhan’s voice.
“And if you do, I’ll have to replace it as soon as they’re manu
factured again, and that’s money out of my pocket. I don’t need to be a Beshni to know that’s a bad deal.”
“Beshni,” the man said. “I knew some Beshnis once.”
“I’m sure many people knew Beshnis very intimately at some point or another,” Headron muttered.
Erin gave him a playful swat.
Ais swallowed down a giggle. From what Ais had gathered, the Beshnis had reputations for being both aggressive merchants and accomplished lovers. She was unclear if one thing had to do with the other.
“Your truck is gone,” the man said. “Good luck retrieving it.”
“Are you letting us go?” Murki asked.
“Whether you stay or go makes no difference to me, however I will give you a warning.”
“What is your warning?”
“We’re cleaning up,” the man said. “Mind your Terrans carefully, or perhaps suggest they find transport off the planet. We’ll turn a blind eye when they leave, but not so much if they land. We’re spreading now. We’re watching.”
“I believe that was a threat.”
“Why should you be so offended?”
“My mate is Terran. We have a number of Terrans on our farm. They’re family.”
Silence.
Too much silence.
The man didn’t say anything for long enough that Headron was able to catch the non-Jekhani speakers up on the conversation.
Courtney cringed.
“We will make allowances,” came the voice.
“How?” Murki asked. “As the Terrans might say, you can’t shoot first and ask questions later.”
“Perhaps we’ll corral them all like they did us, and vet them and chip them like livestock.”
“I’ll kill anyone who tries to put a chip into a person I love.”
“No need to get hostile.”
“You started the hostilities. I’m simply informing you of the error of your ways.”
“Have you gone soft during the occupation, then?”
“Have you gone daft?” Murki asked.
“I’ll do what I must to save this planet.”
“And I’ll do what I must to protect my legacy. Many of us have done things we would rather not recall to survive the past twenty years, but we mustn’t leap to rash, self-defeating strategies to reverse the damage. We’ll only drive the poison in that much deeper.”
“You sympathize with them, then?”
“I’m no sympathizer,” Murki hissed. “Like my brother and others who I now call friends, I was simply able to accept that perhaps we are enough alike that we can love each other. I won’t have anyone treating my woman poorly just because we were treated poorly. She saved me, not Jekhans.”
Silence.
Ais took her turn catching Courtney, Erin, and Alex up on the exchange and, then, gripping her throbbing shoulder, she moved to the front and peered out the windshield along with Murki. She whispered, “If he knows the Alliance, does he not know Lillian? He would know she’s Terran.”
Murki nodded, and said to the man, “Do you trust Lillian Devin?”
“Why?” came the return.
“She is Terran, is she not?”
“Lillian is an outlier.”
“No, she isn’t. You simply know her well, I suspect. There are others. Owen McGarry, for one.”
“Outlier.”
“And his grandchildren?”
“Outliers.”
“You just shot at two of them.”
“N-no!” the man said in a stutter. “We didn’t—”
Headron whispered rapidly, explaining to Erin and Courtney what was happening.
Ais tugged on Murki’s tunic sleeve. “Do they have visual access?”
He leaned forward and tapped the console. “Says they should.” To the man, he said, “Activate video on your end. See who is inside our flyer. You would know my Courtney when you see her.”
“Courtney…is yours?”
“She belongs to me as much as she could belong to anyone, I suppose.”
Ais gestured Courtney forward. “Come.”
Murki turned on the camera as Courtney settled onto his lap.
The other man turned on his. His face was scarred, or burned, perhaps. Jekhan. He’d left his bright red hair unbound, perhaps to shadow the disfigurement. He notched back his hood and furrowed his brow as a dark-haired man peered over his shoulder.
He swallowed. “Hello, Miss McGarry,” he said.
Murki cleared his throat and muttered, “Beshni.”
Courtney waved at the man. “Thanks for the ceasefire. Today’s been a hell of a day.”
“It’s been a hell of a day from here to Buinet.”
“All the way from Little Gitano to Buinet, probably.”
“What is happening in Little Gitano?”
“There was a Tyneali standoff this morning on our farm. My other man says they’ve left, but they probably just took the fight somewhere else.”
“Tyneali? Why?”
“We can only speculate.”
“Mysterious creatures, aren’t they? Why are you in this canyon?”
Courtney cringed and glanced over her shoulder at Alex.
Please, Ais pleaded silently.
Perhaps Alex had gone about doing things the wrong way, but Ais didn’t want him to get hurt, or even her father. He’d been ignorant and was probably deserving of scorn, but they needed people like him to sound the call to pull back the veil on what was happening on Jekh. They needed people like him to speak up and set the truth straight. People would listen to them. They had privilege.
“That’s a complicated story,” Courtney said. “We just want to go home. Well, after we’ve retrieved our truck. Hopefully, that asshole won’t crash it before we can catch up to the tracking signal. Why are you guys here?”
“We’re moving where we can to stifle traffic.”
“You’re trying to herd them.” She cringed. “Um. Us.”
“Until we can secure passage for them off the planet.”
“You’re taking them all back to Earth?”
His nod came slowly. “I suppose, we’ll…have to make some allowances. We hadn’t considered that—” He turned abruptly behind him, and shouted in Jekhani, “Get down!”
The truck clipped in and out of the shot, and suddenly there was an explosion.
The camera’s feed shook and scrambled briefly.
There was so much shouting, so much chaos. So many men running past the camera.
“What’s happening?” Courtney yelled.
A moment later, the scarred man returned, dragging Reg by the collar. He thrust him in front of the camera, and shouted, “Is he one of your Terrans?”
“You know damn well he isn’t,” she said. “If you know Lillian, you know who he is.”
“I know precisely who he is. What is he doing with you?”
“He tried to kidnap one of ours. We were dealing with him.”
“Kidnap?”
“Don’t sound so surprised. He’s done far worse.”
“Oh, he has.” He leaned in close and whispered, “The only reason I’m not twisting his head off right now is because I need to be able to sleep tonight. I’ve lost years of sleep.” He let Reg fall to the ground. “Your truck is gone.”
“Dammit,” Murki spat.
Courtney pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath. “Small price to pay, all things considered,” she told him.
“I’ll pay to replace it,” Alex said quietly. “If you can find another.”
Ais smiled at him.
His cheeks went pink before he pinned his gaze onto the floor.
Courtney’s COM chirped. She stood from Murki’s lap. He continued his conversation with the rebel lieutenant as she moved into the back of the compartment.
“Trig?” she whispered.
The connection cracked and popped, and Trigrian’s voice echoed. “Hold on, Court. I’m patching him through.”
“Who? You’re breaking up.�
�
“…in three days,” came Owen’s voice.
Ais squeezed into the back and grabbed Courtney’s wrist. “Owen?”
“Owen, you’re breaking up. Repeat what you just said,” Courtney said.
“I said we’ll be back in three days. Are you safe? What’s happening?”
“We’re fine. We, uh…” She looked over her shoulder at Murki, who was still bantering to the guy in the COM image. “We’re going to go home soon.”
“Did I hear Ais?”
“Yes, she’s fine. Everyone’s fine.”
“Hi, honey,” he said quietly.
She very nearly curled into a little ball of bashfulness. He’d never called her “honey” before, and her big grin probably looked very silly and out of place given the circumstances.
“Hi,” she whispered.
“What’s happening with the search mission?” Courtney asked.
“Long story short, we’ve got about sixty women and children we need to find temporary homes for. Actually, fifty-six. Already know where four of them are going. We found the Merridons.”
“What?”
Trigrian chuckled on his end. “They found my sisters. They’re bringing my sisters home, and my…niece.”
“Niece?”
“Yeah.” Owen let out a long, ragged exhalation voice. “We’ll…hash out what that means later, I suppose. We would be back sooner if The Tin Can weren’t so slow. We sent Luke and the rest on ahead to check out a couple of other stations before people have a chance to move bodies around. The ladies couldn’t tell us much, but hopefully we’ll be able to pull the whole puzzle together with each raid.”
“What is happening?” asked the man in the COM image. He seemed to be trying to peer around Murki’s body. “Are you speaking of slavers? Are you looking for our women?”
Murki pinned his gaze on Court. “Perhaps we should confer?”
Court nodded. “Tell them to hold their fire. We’ll fly up.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
At the sight of singed earth and darkened walls, Owen cringed, and stepped out of The Tin Can at the farm.
“Oh my God.”
Fastida bounded down ahead of him and put a hand up to shield her eyes. “Oh, sunshine, I missed you. Sheesh, what the hell happened here?”