"Tam pulled your hair, not me!"
"Then go punch Tam and pass it on." She suddenly had to fight giggles. Where had that come from? She had been in so much terror just moments ago she had been ready to lose her supper.
"Rhianni--"
"It is the middle of the night and neither of us is wearing enough to clean the floor with."
"Oh." Petroc's face turned red even in the dimness of the silvery moonlight trickling through the window. He stood and backstepped to the door.
"I appreciate your trying..." She shrugged, not quite sure of what she meant to say, or what she should say.
"Best friends, remember?" He held up his thumb, scarred by their blood-vow. Then he turned and vanished into the darkness of the hallway.
For a long time after she shut the door and climbed back under her blankets, Rhianni couldn't go back to sleep. She wrapped her arms around herself and wished they were Petroc's arms. What would he say if she asked him to hold her every night to keep the nightmares and memories away?
Would he laugh at her? Be disgusted, because she was a Rover and Rovers weren't supposed to have bad dreams? Or would he finally look at her as a man looked at a woman? She had endured enough lecherous stares, enough stammering, blushing propositions from young cadets and pilots, she knew she was desirable.
Judging from Petroc's lack of interest once her nightmare broke, he still saw her as little Rhianni, his playmate.
"All for the better," she told herself, merely to break the ringing silence in her room. "You have a job to do, Captain. Rovers care, but Rovers can't let personal concerns interfere with the mission."
Petroc put himself into the Merger as soon as he returned to his bedroom, trying to use the discipline to stop the hungry images filling his brain. The memory of Rhianni's soft, hot skin and sleek muscles filled his senses. While part of him ached to dive into her nightmare and drive it away, the more sensible, responsible part of him drew back. The last thing either of them needed was to join at every level. He wouldn't be able to function. There were too many people depending on him to allow any indulgence, any distraction that would impair his judgment and reasoning.
It would be pitiful repayment for Rhianni, to tie her to Mallachrom and endanger her life.
He clenched his fists and threw all his mental discipline into entering the Merger.
It took less than an hour to gather reports from every member of the Merger who was awake. Nothing had changed. The four illegal Taken settlements furthest from Core had nothing to add, not even theories. Petroc opened his eyes to his cold room in the darkness between moonset and dawn, and knew he had failed. He could still feel Rhianni in his arms, the warmth of her, even the hammering of her heart against his chest.
The next morning, Petroc was relieved to settle into the usual routine with only minimal resistance from Danil. After breakfast, he took the boy to his room and gave him his math and reading lessons on the little portable teaching unit, and told him not to leave until he had answered all the questions in that particular section. Then, he hurried to the central storehouse to check figures for the next supply order to be sent when Gan went for his twice-a-month report to Enforcer HQ. When he returned to the office, he found Rhianni alone at the computer, frowning at the screen. He heard Burkan rattling around in the kitchen. Petroc stepped up behind Rhianni to see what bothered her. The medical certification test.
"Why are you taking that? Sorry," he added quickly when she turned around, startled.
She was pretty when she was startled, wide-eyed and her face touched with faint pink. She looked too young today, with her hair hanging in two long ponytails, dressed in a simple dark blue singleton.
"Used to be nobody could sneak up on me." Rhianni shuddered. The twitching corners of her mouth turned her reaction into teasing. "I thought I'd get colony certification and offer my skills while I'm here."
"We could use another medic. Injuries come in groups around here."
"I heard mostly Taken lived around here. Don't you need special medicine to avoid an allergic reaction?"
"So, we'll teach you to do things our way." He smiled, shrugged and decided now would be a good time to back up and retreat to his own desk before he fell into her big green eyes.
"I'd like that." She returned his smile and turned back to her screen.
Petroc took off his coat and settled in at his desk to work. It seemed his life was bound on every side with reports. He let himself go slowly and enjoyed the quiet in the office. He was still aware of Rhianni's presence, a subtle scent in the air that was pleasant despite the synthetics heavy in her blood. He felt no discomfort in the silence, nothing demanding that they speak and fill the gaps between them. It felt like they had grown up together, no lost years intervening. He hoped Rhianni felt the same. If only they could always be this comfortable and work in harmony.
Burkan came in with a fresh pot of coffee and three cups. He asked how Rhianni was doing on her certification test and if Petroc had any trouble with the supply list. The shared moment evaporated.
Once Rhianni moved into her parents' home, Petroc found plenty of errands to take him past her house several times each day. She cleared out brush that had grown up to the back door and left a ring of brush around the perimeter, creating a partial privacy screen. It wasn't very thick, and he considered it an invitation for people to spy on her. After all, he was curious about what she was doing.
Two mornings after she moved into her house, he walked by and noticed her standing still in the yard, arms raised to the sky. She wore baggy pants, a loose, sleeveless shirt, and no shoes, as usual. Petroc changed his pace, slowing and softening each step so he didn't make a sound. He stayed in the shadow of the trees along the path and strained his eyes to see.
Rhianni lowered her arms to horizontal, out from her shoulders. Slowly, she went to a crouch, keeping her back perfectly straight. She kept her eyes closed and never lost her balance as she went through a series of intricate moves. She balanced on one leg, stood and spun and changed feet. Petroc was impressed.
He had seen a handful of settlers going through the same motions, morning or evening. They were all recent newcomers to Mallachrom.
Rhianni stopped in the middle of a turn and opened her eyes to look directly at him. She put her arms down and took two steps toward the edge of the barrier. Her face changed from calm to puzzled, to an awkward, almost embarrassed smile.
"Petroc? What are you doing?"
"Trying to figure out what you're doing." He crossed the path, then the rough, mossy ground between them. "What is that? Some kind of exercise?"
"Some kind." She rubbed at her face, wiping away tiny beads of sweat that gave her skin a soft gleam. "Rover exercises, mental and physical. Want me to teach you?"
"Yes. Please." Petroc took a step and tripped over the clump of tangled pricker bushes, knee-high at that point in the barrier. He laughed and bent to free his pant leg without tearing the material. "Not right now, though. I have to get back to work."
"So do I. It's amazing what a mess a closed house can generate. Mama would be furious."
"I'd loan you Danil if I didn't think he'd make more of a mess," he said as he straightened.
"You have him so well-trained." Rhianni moved back two steps, bringing a wry grin to his lips. Did she feel as pleasantly off-balance as he did, when they were close?
Silence vibrated warm and comfortable between them. Then a humming shriek grew through the air, meaning an approaching shuttle. Rhianni's smile grew lopsided.
"Tonight? After dinner?" She took another step toward her back door.
"Sure." The sound of the approaching shuttle grew louder. Petroc had to go meet it and oversee the unloading. "I'll check with you later about tonight, all right?" he said, and started toward the path.
Rhianni nodded. She went to her back door and stayed on the top step, watching him until the path curved around trees and up an incline and the landscape came between them.
"R
over ritual, huh?" Petroc murmured. He supposed it made sense for Rovers to retire to a frontier planet. But as many as he had seen? He made a mental note to ask his friends in each outpost to look for the exercise ring and check for signs of the rituals. He hoped he was only being paranoid; it was better to worry too much than be unpleasantly surprised.
Rhianni was surprised to see a red-haired, freckled young woman sitting on the front steps of her house when she returned from visiting her grandmother, three evenings later. Even more surprising was when her visitor stood up, unfolding to reveal her pregnant belly. Some sense of knowing shivered down her back and she guessed this stranger was a Taken. Gut instinct led her through a series of ideas before she reached the steps.
"Petroc sent you?" she guessed.
"Goodness, no, but he did mention you were a trained medic and a friend of his so..." She held out her hand to shake. "I'm Maya Neely. My husband Aric and I have a place about ten K west of here."
"Taken don't much trust Core doctors, from what I heard. Checkup?" Rhianni gestured at her door and led the way back up the steps.
"Please!" She brushed both hands over her bulging abdomen. "I feel good. Taken have a sense of their own bodies, so usually we don't need doctors. But Aric worries, as if I'm the first woman who ever gave birth at QSE."
"Nope. Petroc was born here and so was I." Rhianni opened the door and led the way inside. She bypassed the front room and led Maya into the kitchen, where they would both be more comfortable. She shivered in anticipation of all the data on Taken she could obtain without anyone in authority knowing.
"What should I do?" Maya asked, when Rhianni had settled them down at the table with big mugs of sweetsoul tea.
"Just sit still and relax. I won't even touch you. Unless the scan shows questionable readings, and then I'd need a skin or blood sample," she added.
"You don't even put it on my forehead or my chest or anything?" Maya let out a shaky little laugh. "The rumors are true. Our technology is decades behind, isn't it?"
"Generations. Your exports aren't enough to dent your colonizing debt, so the Council has slowed importing new technology, to help pay off the debt." Rhianni paused in taking her scanner out of her kit. She had known that bit of information because of her mission. Didn't everyone know it?
Maya asked no more questions. She closed her eyes and held perfectly still as Rhianni ran the scanner's reading beam over her body, four times over her womb. All readings were in accepted norms for what Rhianni knew of Taken.
"Everything is fine," she said, and turned off the recording function.
"Fine?" Maya opened her eyes. "As in--what?"
"You're in perfect health, and your little passenger should arrive in five weeks at the earliest. She's fully developed, healthy, kick--"
"She?" Her voice cracked. If not for the delighted, wide-eyed expression and the tiny giggles that exploded from Maya, Rhianni would have thought she was terrified.
"You never went to anyone for checks, did you?"
"We don't dare!" Maya gestured for Rhianni to sit. "The pre-natal procedures are special for us, even if they deny it." Her snort expressed what she thought of that. "All expectant Taken mothers must have three exams in fully-equipped facilities in Core. I have friends who aren't Taken, and the Health Authority medics come to them when they're pregnant. They say it's for our own good, but we know better than to trust people who want to surround us with machines and pump us with drugs. Pregnant women stay in hiding and we don't report our babies any more than we report our marriages and deaths."
"But you came to me. Because of Petroc?" Rhianni wondered if every Taken on Mallachrom would trust her, just because Petroc vouched for her.
"We trust Petroc, and we trust anyone he trusts." Maya reached over and squeezed Rhianni's hand. "We go to empaths for help when we need it, and Cianna said I was doing fine, but to really know... I'm going to have a daughter!" She laughed and wrapped her arms tight around herself.
"You already have a daughter. If she decided to come early, she'd have no trouble." Rhianni looked at Maya's happy face and realized she was jealous of her new friend.
Yes, Maya was her friend. Somewhere in the middle of the secrets and happy news, they had forged a friendship. Other than Nureen, she really didn't have an ordinary friend; everyone else she knew in the entire galaxy was Rovers with battle stories and scars to share, but few happy times. Like this.
An ache settled into Rhianni's chest, close to her heart. She wanted to be free of the Rovers, free of her mission and the danger hovering over the Taken. She wanted to be free to live in the wilderness, to walk barefoot and live off the land and wash the taint of years of battle and death from her blood. She wanted to have a child of her own, to give life back to the universe. She was jealous of Maya and the new life hidden safe inside her womb.
Back on track, Captain Day!
"What's an empath?" she asked.
"Healer. Someone who can touch you and feel what you're feeling. It only shows up in Taken, not anyone else born on Mallachrom."
"Whatever the Shadows did to help you survive, it brought on empathy too, hmm?" Rhianni liked that idea.
Chapter 9
Rhianni sat bolt upright in bed when the tingler in her wristband activated. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Nearly dawn, the gray tones in the room made everything blurry.
The tingling stopped, then pulsed three times, paused for two heartbeats, pulsed again twice, then fell still. Rhianni stared at her wristband. A grin twisted her lips.
"Nureen, whatever you're doing..." She left the threat unspoken as she slid out of bed and hurried to dress.
The whine of a shuttle landing broke the morning quiet as Rhianni reached the bottom of the stairs. She dashed out through the front door and ran at full speed for the landing field.
The shuttle landing in the dewy field was small, built only for two. Its lines were sleek, the ceramic coating glossy. Rover issue.
"Nureen, get out here and tell me what you're doing!" she shouted as the engines died down. The hatch swung open on her last few words.
"Impatient, as always," an alto voice called from the craft. Nureen swung down to the ground and burst out laughing. She stretched her arms up to the sky, making the dawn light glisten and shift on the glossy silver of her flight uniform. "Are you ready for another puzzle?"
"Is this a good puzzle, or a bad one?" She led the way across the landing field toward the trees. If anyone was up at that hour, they would have to cross the landing field to get close enough to hear.
"We've been accessing all the satellite images using the clearance codes so kindly provided by the General. Everything is exactly as the Council reports state, but, we run into some interesting readings when we do our own scans of the planet's surface." Nureen fell silent until they reached a fallen tree at the edge of the field. She settled down onto it and made a show of smoothing the sleek lines of her flight suit.
"Big gaps or extra data that shouldn't be there?" Rhianni guessed. She stood facing her friend, one foot up on the trunk and resting one elbow on her knee, her chin in her hand.
"Eleven settlements that shouldn't be there. Eight outside the satellite ranges, three inside. The funny thing is, the ones inside the satellite ranges are huge and give off multiple energy readings, meaning..."
"Machinery and permanent power sources. Meaning there is no way they could avoid satellite detection unless someone fussed with the satellite controls, or hid the readings before someone official saw them. That answers questions and raises more."
"The ones outside the satellite range barely register any thermal readings beyond fires and Human body warmth. Very little traffic. Lots of people, compared to the three inside the line. Whoever is out there, they want to be left alone."
She handed over a packet of disks full of data for Rhianni to analyze at her leisure. Too much information to trust to the seconds-long bursts of communication they used to avoid detection by suspicious authoritie
s.
"Sounds like poachers, but I'd be more interested in the high-tech settlements that should show up on the satellite pictures like an old-style atomic blast." She shook her head. "If we find out who's fiddling with the satellite readings, we'll know who's running the three inside settlements."
"You think those outside are a different group?" Nureen smiled and nodded. "Me, too." She sat up straighter and tilted her head to the side, gesturing back across the landing field.
Rhianni turned around and saw Petroc just starting to cross the field. Danil was twenty meters ahead of him, his little legs pumping so fast they were blurs. Petroc's gaze flicked back and forth between Nureen, the shuttle and his son. She could almost see the questions in his eyes.
"Come back?" Danil begged as they walked Nureen to her shuttle after a protracted, laughter-filled breakfast.
Burkan had been awakened by Danil's excited shrieks and insisted on feeding their visitor. Rhianni wished she could have enjoyed it, but thanks to the new information to discuss with Burkan, she had a hard time not urging everyone to eat faster and talk less.
Danil hung on Nureen's hand and begged again. Petroc just laughed and Nureen blushed. It never occurred to Rhianni until now that her friend had little experience with children. Burkan finally came to the rescue.
"She's a Rover pilot. Don't you know what that means?" When Danil shook his head, Burkan scowled at Petroc and Rhianni. "You two have some serious gaps to fill in this boy's education."
"Me?" Rhianni's voice cracked. "When did I become responsible?"
"What's it mean?" Danil demanded. Petroc laughed louder. The four of them halted in front of the closed shuttle.
"Rovers have the fastest ships in the known universe, so we can go anywhere we need to," Nureen said, kneeling in front of the boy.
"You can go anywhere?" His eyes grew big and his mouth dropped open.
"Nureen..." Rhianni muttered in warning.
Shadows of Mallachrom, Book 1: Blue Fire Page 9