He chuckled, running a hand through his bright red hair.
“Not much, huh, when Morrilian silk costs a fortune? Well, that solves the problem of your friend there. Come to think of it, Martha can probably get into Records easier than Slaker can. Do you have a linkup with you?”
“Yes, but do you mean to say we’ve been sitting here jawing when my future’s still up in the air?”
“He would have had it cracked by tonight, and it’ll take a day or so to get your ship supplied and-”
“You’ve got me a ship already?”
He shook his head. “We’ve got to get you on record as a pilot with Explorations first before we can request a ship for you.” He waved a hand when she started to interrupt again. “Never mind. Send Martha to Slaker’s console and let him take care of the incidentals while I tell you what we know so far.”
She did, but of course Martha had to know why first. There was a short discussion over who was boss and who had to do what she was told to do, with Rourk laughing his head off listening to it, before Martha connected with Slaker’s computer, likely shocking the hell out of him since he had no idea she was coming.
Sometimes Tedra’s top-of-the-line, ultramodern, free-thinking computer was more trouble than it was worth. Hell, most times. She’d had to go through testing just to get it, so it could be programmed to be compatible with her temperament. Naturally, she’d been shocked to find the thing would frequently argue with her, deliberately annoy and provoke her. What had happened to compatible? But she had finally realized those arguments were likely what she needed, an outlet for the stress from her job, since she didn’t use Stress Clinics like everyone else, and had been honest about it in her testing.
Tedra turned now, waited for Rourk to wind down from his chuckling, then demanded, “So tell me, how did the Sha-Ka’ari do it? How did they get through Security to Garr? What weapons did they use?”
Rourk sobered completely at the reminder. “Those swords and-”
“Don’t give me that! They couldn’t get near a Sec with no more than swords, and you know it.”
“If you’ll let me tell it, then you’ll know that that’s just what they did. Their swords and shields are made of some kind of steel we’ve never come across before, not that we have much use for steel anymore. It’s called Toreno, and only their armorers know the secret of producing it. It was there in Records for anyone who cared to look. Crad Ce Moerr must have looked, before he left the planet in disgrace. Nothing can penetrate this Toreno steel, Tedra. Everything Security fired at them bounced right off their shields.”
Tedra sat back in her chair, feeling a certain deflation. That easy? No secret weapons, no brilliant strategy, just shields to hide behind. And then she squirmed in her chair. It was her Security unit that had been defeated.
“So the weapons were useless. But Sec l’s don’t need weapons,” she reminded Rourk. “The day I can’t dance my way around a sword, I’ll retire, so how-”
“Don’t get defensive now. Have you really looked at one of their swords? The things are at least four feet long, not to mention double-bladed. And you’re forgetting the shields, which are even longer. Add to that the strength of those giants, their longer arm reach on top of the sword length, the narrow space to fight in, and lastly, that although you’d like it to be otherwise, no one in your unit is quite as good as you are.”
He didn’t say it, but it was there for her to realize, that she wouldn’t have had much chance to do any better. She could picture it, having every blow or kick she threw being met by a farden piece of metal, every technique she knew becoming as useless as the weapons.
Her body slumped a little lower in the chair. “How do we fight something like that? How do we get our planet back, Rourk?”
“We don’t-not immediately. It may even take several years before Crad Ce Moerr feels safe enough not to surround himself with guards. Nor will Secs be allowed anywhere near Goverance Building. He’ll likely still use them, in other cities, but at Goverance Building, where he’s keeping Garr Ce Bernn hostage, there will be only Sha-Ka’ari.”
“He’ll have to keep himself prisoner as well, if he hopes to stay alive,” she growled.
“Just about,” Rourk agreed. “We won’t be sitting back and playing ‘it’s all right.’ When the opportunity comes to get rid of the farden slime, we’ll do it.”
“But if there aren’t any Secs left in the city-”
“Do you think men have to be Secs to fight, Tedra?”
She colored a little. She hadn’t meant to imply he was a coward. But it would take forever if they had to depend on citizens to overcome the Sha-Ka’ari.
“I’m glad to know at least that no one’s taking this with a shrug.”
“Oh, you can be sure there are those who don’t really care. The new Director and his directives won’t affect everyone. There’ll even be some who’ll like the changes. The computers might be wrong in the objectives they’ve come up with, given all the facts fed to them so far, but it looks like Ce Moerr might have liked the way the Sha-Ka’ari do things. One of the possibilities is that he means to subjugate our women, to get them out of their present positions of power and back to the servile level they broke out of thousands of years ago.”
“What the hell has he done that would suggest that?”
“Every single woman in Gallion City holding a job of any importance, and even a few in secondary positions, have already been fired. The next male in line for that position has been given it.”
“Without reason?” she gasped.
“None is needed when the directive comes from Goverance Building. You know that.”
“What else?” she demanded, in the grips of an anger like nothing she’d ever felt before.
“They’ve already gone on file as being unacceptable for employment.”
“Then what are they supposed to do for exchange tokens? How can they support themselves-”
“That’s just it, Tedra; they can’t. They’ll either have to resort to lawbreaking, in which case the Sha-Ka’ari get them, or they’ll have to depend on a man to support them, not an easy thing for some women to accept.”
No, it wasn’t. She knew she couldn’t. To have to ask a man for everything you wanted or needed when you knew perfectly well you were capable of providing it for yourself, to be told no if he felt like it, or be forced to beg and wheedle it out of him. Tedra shuddered, quickly addressing the alternative he mentioned.
“What was that about lawbreaking and the Sha-Ka’ari getting them?”
“You’re not going to like it, babe, but I have it from Dexal, who’s been watching Goverance Building. Three women were brought in this morning on minor infractions, things worth no more than a handslap and a warning. All three were later taken to one of the Sha-Ka’ari ships. That ship has already left planet. It looks like the female Secs aren’t the only women the Sha-Ka’ari were promised for their help.”
There it was, what she had feared. “Tavra and Prish from my unit?”
“Both on that same ship. It looks like the Sha-Ka’ari especially want all female Secs, which is why I was going out of my head worrying about you before you called. I think they like the idea of making slaves of what they consider female warriors. The directive already went out, ordering every other female Sec on the planet to report to Goverance Building. And they’ll come, unsuspecting, unless we can somehow make known what is really happening. But all traffic has been suspended from leaving the city and no outgoing calls are permitted. The best we can hope to do right now is try and intercept them as they arrive.”
Tedra closed her eyes, letting it all sink in. “You think they mean to eventually enslave all Kystran women?”
“I think they’ll take all they can get, in any way they can get them without alerting the general populace to what they’re doing. The lawbreakers are an easy catch. They can be brought in without questions, and if anyone does inquire about them, they can be told they were sentenced. Se
veral laws have already been changed that will make a good number of women lawbreakers without their even knowing it. You’re-ah-one yourself.”
Her eyes narrowed on him. “Am I?”
“Ce Moerr’s lowered the women’s Age of Consent from twenty-five to eighteen. You are now illegally unbreached.”
She blanched. “He can’t do that! I’m not the only woman who’s never accepted a man before.”
It had been decided years ago that a woman shouldn’t be allowed to hold herself back from sex-sharing, that it was somehow detrimental to her health. Tedra was a living example that that just wasn’t so, but who was she to buck the laws? So an age had been picked, twenty-five, as being quite long enough for a woman to file for double occupancy, or be on file in one or more Stress Clinics. If she hadn’t taken the plunge by then to find out how beneficial sex-sharing was supposed to be, then a partner would be chosen for her, by computer of course, so he’d be ideally suited to her, and allowed to legally rape her if she was still having doubts.
It had been a source of slowly growing panic for Tedra, as she approached the Age of Consent, that even as a Sec she wouldn’t be able to get around the law. She would, of course, have chosen someone before then, likely Rourk, just to get the farden unfair law satisfied. But she hadn’t been looking forward to it.
“Don’t frown so, babe,” Rourk interrupted her thoughts, just short of grinning. “Your new stats will list you as breached and a member of no less than four Stress Clinics.”
She blushed. She couldn’t help it. She didn’t have many close friends like Rourk, but those few she did have found it a source of amusement how she felt about sex-sharing, especially since they knew she was all for it, that it was only the choice in partners that was giving her trouble.
Fortunately, Martha came back on line then, before she really got to brooding about it. “Everything’s taken care of, kiddo.” Martha was using her sexy, purring voice for Rourk’s benefit. “You’re now Tamber De Oss, a World Discoverers Pilot with Explorations. I suppose you’d like a World Discoverers craft now?”
“That would be nice,” Tedra replied dryly. “And if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, you might hook up with Supply’s computers and requisition enough supplies for a lengthy voyage.”
“No problem, doll. Anything else?”
“Yes, I want-”
Rourk’s tap on her shoulder cut her off. “You- ah-better do something quick about your friend there. I’ll tell Martha what else you need.”
Tedra was already rushing across the room to drop down beside the warrior, who was starting to make waking noises. Damn, he hadn’t been out very long. “Ask Martha to find that agent and have it delivered,” she called over her shoulder, fighting off the hand that came immediately to her when she spoke. “Easy, baby.” She pried his fingers from her hair and leaned forward to whisper by his ear, “You’re drunk. Too much good Antury wine. But you’re having a great time.”
He must have thought so, for his head turned and his mouth caught hers just as her fingers went to his neck. Swirls of want and need denied too long came rushing to the surface, almost making Tedra forget to apply the pressure that would put him out again. But she did apply it. Her lips clung to his a moment more before his head fell to the side.
Tedra sat back on her heels, sighing as she stared at him. His hair was short and as black as her original color. His eyes were a lovely amber. She didn’t think she’d ever seen a man put together quite so nicely-
well, except maybe his taller friend. It was a farden shame they had to be her enemies.
She’d been able to take this one down, but would it have been so easy if she hadn’t caught him by surprise? She ran a hand down his meaty arm, rock hard even in total relaxation. If those arms had wrapped around her in combat, she might have found herself on a ship headed for enslavement. He’d tried to get her on that ship. After he was finished with her, he would have tried again. She wondered how many other women were being stolen in that way.
“Too bad, sweetcakes.” She patted his cheek in regret. “But I don’t care for slavery, no matter how good-looking the master is. We’d have ended up killing each other.”
“What’s that?” Rourk asked behind her.
“Nothing. Are you sure he won’t remember anything after you give him the agent?”
“Not a thing. And he’ll have a sore head to assure him he imbibed too much, if his loss of memory doesn’t.”
“There was another warrior with him when they stopped me. He’s likely to remind Kowan-”
“Then why don’t you scratch him or something so he’ll have a reason to wish he could remember?”
Tedra grinned and leaned forward again, putting her lips to the sleeping warrior’s throat. When she finished, there was a small bruise of the like she had often seen on Rourk’s neck after Xeta had shared sex with him.
“That ought to make him swear off intoxicants for a good while,” Rourk said. “Are you sure you don’t want to be breached before you lose yourself in space?”
She glanced up and was shocked to see that he was serious. “Rourk!”
“Sorry,” he said, flushing. “I’ve just never seen you looking so soft.”
Had kissing the warrior done that to her? She was annoyed, thoroughly. After all, the farden slime had wanted to make a slave of her.
She got to her feet abruptly, grouching, “You picked a fine time to remember I’m a woman.”
He chuckled, now that the Sec was back. “I guess the timing is kind of lousy.”
“Did you get me a World Discoverer?”
“No, but I got you a priority rating, so you’ll have no trouble clearing port.”
“And just what, then, am I going to clear port in? What other single-pilot, long-distance craft-”
“I had to take what was available, Tedra. The Discoverers are all off planet or in repair. I got you a Transport Rover instead. It’ll go just as far as a Discoverer, even farther, and faster, too. It’s just bigger.”
“One hell of a lot bigger, Rourk. How am I supposed to pilot a craft that large? I don’t know the first think about Rovers. My studies, short as they were, were on Discoverers.”
“Not to worry.” He grinned. “Tell her, Martha.”
“He’s right, kiddo.” Martha’s voice traveled across the room, proving she’d been listening to their exchange. “All you have to do is hook me up to the Rover’s on-board computer, and I take over. I’m programmed to fly anything they’ve got. Why do you think I’m so expensive?”
“I did always wonder,” Tedra came back dryly, only to hear what sounded suspiciously like a snort from the computer.
“Now, now,” Rourk intervened, looking at Tedra with silent laughter.
Tedra just sighed. “Were the supplies taken care of?”
“For a Rover, supplies are regulated,” Martha told her. “I only had to give them the date of departure, and the craft gets fully stocked.”
“For a full crew? A Rover usually takes a full crew, you know. And what about that? Is spaceport going to let me leave without one?”
“You’re scheduled to pick up a crew on Tara Tey, as far as they know.”
“And once you’re gone, I’ll have Slaker erase all entries,” Rourk added. “The extra supplies might well come in handy, babe.” At her raised brow, he reminded her, “It could be years before it’s safe to come back. You might as well do a little world discovering while you’re out there.”
Years, Tedra thought, feeling a little sick. She thought about the new house in the suburbs that she had moved into only last week, all her belongings she’d have to leave behind, her friends…
“Stars, my possessions!” she gasped. “Who’s going to pick up Martha’s controller boards? She’s only here on a linkup. Her heart and soul are at my new house.”
“You don’t think I’d forget such important little details, do you?” Martha asked in her voice labeled smug. “Rourk’s friend Slaker is already taking car
e of it. I’ll be aboard the Rover long before you will.”
Tedra gritted her teeth. “Did you happen to think of Corth and Bolt when you sent someone to collect yourself?”
“Forget my little friends? Me? I’m not the one who can’t even remember that an identilock requires at least two seconds to make identification.”
Tedra’s face flamed with color. She wasn’t going to ask how Martha knew about her run-in with the door, she really wasn’t.
“No comment, kiddo?” Martha purred.
“Not in mixed company,” Tedra bit out, sending Rourk a look that dared him to say just one word.
Chapter Four
“Where are we now, Martha?”
“Still in deep space, kiddo, same as last time you asked. If you’re going to be so impatient, you should have elected to stay in our own Star System. There are still hundreds of planets unexplored there that you could have amused yourself with.”
“And a frequency range that could have got me called home. I am a female pilot, remember.”
“I’m the pi-”
“Don’t argue,” Tedra cut in, almost losing her patience for real. “You know what I meant. It’s within the laws of probability, and I’d just as soon not take the chance for a while of being put on Kystran’s wanted list if I refuse to acknowledge a summons home. And as long as we have some time to kill-”
“We go Star System-hopping.”
“What are you complaining about? You thought it was a great idea last week.”
“That was when I still had the occasional asteroid belt to play dodge with. This space is so empty a blind man could navigate it.”
“Don’t tell me you’re bored, Martha.” Tedra chuckled. “You have to monitor the control stations of every absent crew member. You don’t have time to be bored.”
“Child’s play.”
“Don’t give me that. You love it, being in such control. You’re just trying to pick an argument, aren’t you, since we haven’t had one in so long? But it won’t work, you know. I’m still too delighted with you for raiding the Relics Hall before we left. That was really a sweet, thoughtful thing to do.”
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