Shadows of Mallachrom, Book 1: Blue Fire

by Michelle Levigne

  "Yeah, but it's pretty costly to--" Gan choked.

  Rhianni turned and saw three Shadows in the open doorway of the cabin. Starfire stood in the middle of the group. Beyond them, she saw more. Their eyes glowed. She shivered, wondering what it was like to join minds and souls, guided by an alien mind.

  She felt a twinge of jealousy. Curiosity. Hunger to know what the Taken experienced.

  What would it be like to touch Petroc's mind and know his inner thoughts?

  On the heels of that thought, she remembered the humming that had flowed through her body when Petroc held her the day before. The hard strength of his arms around her as he cradled her close and kissed her cheek. The scent of him, filling her head and making her more dizzy than fear and pain had done.

  She wanted Petroc to be close. Very close. Nothing between them. To kiss him and feel his arms around her, his hands on her skin. To wrap herself around him and never let go.

  "Rhianni?" Gan touched her sleeve, jerking her from her thoughts. She was grateful, and yet peeved. She liked the sensations starting to pour through her body. "Are you okay?

  "Fine. Just tired." She glanced at the three on the other side of the table and was relieved to see them open their eyes and release each other's hands. The Shadows had vanished while she was lost in her hungry dream. "Can we get going now? I still have to get my sled before we go home."

  Before they headed back to QSE, Petroc and Gan took Rhianni to the canyon that gave them a bird's-eye view of the Black Pit. She shuddered, remembering the aerial surveys of Mallachrom that she had studied on her way back to the planet. The pre-colonization surveys had been conducted by hyper-intensity scanners. This entire wasteland that spread before her had once been a lush river plain. There had been no sign of the Black Pit, not even a hint of any poisonous presence, in that survey nearly eighty years ago.

  The colony's security satellites should have detected the Black Pit. The satellites should have detected the poachers' settlements, too. According to Nureen, the equipment recorded the information, but it never went to the right people.

  "I think we have the proof that someone in the government is definitely behind all this," Rhianni murmured. "They're hiding the Black Pit. The Shadows have set you up to watch it. Every time the Black Pit is upset--"

  Her words earned snorts and wry grins from the two men.

  "--some action is taken that goes against the Taken. And only someone with high security clearance could tamper with satellite information. It all fits together. The problem is finding out who."

  "It could just be someone hiding data to make a profit. Hide the poachers, and hide the Black Pit because any investigation would ruin their scheme," Gan offered.

  "Too neat and clean, otherwise." Petroc focused on the Black Pit as he spoke, but Rhianni saw the bleakness in his eyes.

  She wanted to hold him close and offer comfort. Thanks to her duty with the Rovers, watching her father make decisions that affected thousands, she understood the burden he carried.

  More than that, she wanted to prolong the comfort, until it turned into something more intense and personal. Until Petroc noticed her as more than his childhood friend, and the Rover sent to help them all.

  But that would have to wait until after this whole ugly mess was cleaned up.

  Until she was free of the Rovers.

  Rhianni bit her lip against a smile. She would leave the Rovers when this mission was over, and she would stay here on Mallachrom. It was what she and her father had planned before his death.

  What if Petroc didn't feel the same way toward her? That would be reason enough not to stay.

  Burkan alternated between disgusted sighs and chuckles while Gan, Petroc and Rhianni reported on the new, combined Rover-Taken effort. Petroc suspected the man was annoyed with himself that he hadn't suspected anything, while underground Taken activities were coordinated practically under his nose.

  The meeting with Rhianni's Rover team leaders was a revelation for Petroc. He thought of his dreams over the years, of leaving Mallachrom and joining the Rover Corps. His responsibilities to the Taken and then to Danil had kept him planet-bound, even if it hadn't been a death sentence for Taken to leave the planet. As Rhianni had said, now he really was a part of the Corps, special dispensation for the duration of the emergency.

  Most disturbing of all was the Rovers' respect for him, as leader of the Taken. For all the work he and his friends had done. He was a Rover by experience, if not training, and they respected him. That awed and humbled him. The little boy inside him leaped and shouted for joy.

  Rhianni had asked Cianna not to tell anyone yet about her connections and the secret plans. The less people knew the less damage if someone was interrogated. Petroc seconded her decision; it was what the Taken had been doing for years. The members of the Inner Circle worked to keep as low profile as possible to avoid notice that could turn dangerous. All except Petroc, because of his position as Burkan's assistant. He had standing orders that if he were ever taken for interrogation, and they couldn't rescue him, they were to kill him.

  Cae arrived halfway through dinner two days after returning to QSE, to report and to meet Rhianni.

  "It makes no sense." Rhianni stared unseeing at her cup of tea while her mind raced. "You'd think people would be used to everything. Frequency breeds complacency. Someone is feeding the fear, picking at the scab, so to speak. No chance for a callus to build."

  "Who's doing it?" Gan demanded.

  "You keep telling me I'm paranoid," Cae began. "My first choice for villain of the year is authority."

  "Dad would agree with you," Rhianni said.

  Could the fear of Taken be generated simply to keep people afraid of settling Mallachrom, so they wouldn't discover the poaching activity? Maybe keeping the Taken contained and feared was merely to deny them access to higher authorities who could stop the illegal activity. Petroc refused to believe it was all about profit. Hiding the existence of the Black Pit couldn't be a coincidence.

  He thumped his fist on the table, hard enough to make dishes rattle. "We need proof! Something we can send to Rover CQ as soon as Nureen gets back. We have to find out what's going on under the surface," he said. "Business transactions, supply transfers, population changes, trends; the clue could be anywhere."

  Chapter 13

  They decided to access the colony's databanks through the magisterial computer links. Rhianni took most of the work; Petroc and Gan's duties demanded too much of their time and energy. If anyone came to investigate the sudden surge of data flowing through the link, they would find Council Member Shoreel's granddaughter studying her home world, trying to decide if she wanted to settle there or return to the Corps. She only stopped for meals, rest, and whenever Danil's demands for stories and games grew too plaintive to resist.

  After two days of intense work, Rhianni thought she would go stir-crazy from sitting in one place for so long. What she needed was to go back to that idyllic place in the forest and just roam with Starfire for a month or two. Her bottom ached from sitting almost as much as her head ached from analyzing. She rested her forehead in her hands and her elbows on her desk and conceded the battle against her headache.

  "Tired?" Petroc pushed away the portable reading screen he had been studying, full of information Rhianni had gleaned. His eyes were bloodshot, nearly obscuring the whites. He and Gan tried to read through the data whenever possible, to take some of the burden off her. The Enforcer was sitting at Burkan's desk, working on reports, waiting his turn at the information.

  "Passed tired a long time ago." She rubbed at a kink in her neck. "We can't get deep enough in for the details we need." She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. "There's nothing more we can do from Burkan's link," she said with a sigh. "I have two Rovers who can get higher access, but it will take time cracking the codes someone installed that aren't part of the Galactic Security system. We might have to avoid safeguards that would alert the enemy to the origin point of t
he questions. I can't do that to Burkan."

  "So we're stopped. For now."

  "No, we just go to the source." She rubbed at her eyes and hoped she didn't look as wrung-out, dirty tired as she felt. "The kind of indepth data we want has to be taken from a higher level. In Core."

  "Closer in, it might be harder to trace." Gan's expression turned speculative.

  "We could go in under official research clearances," Rhianni suggested.

  When approached with the idea, Burkan thought a while. Finally, he nodded. "Your cover story has to be vague, to handle unpredictable territory. If someone gets suspicious, anything outside the search parameters will raise alarms. Remember those games we used to play, to train memory and perception? Hiding things in plain sight. A smart enemy will do that with the data you want. Not in the super-secret files where everyone would look first. In the places everyone can access and nobody cares to investigate. You two go to the Archives and get a batch of data, hidden inside useless data. If they can hide in plain sight, so can we. Bring it back, search, then go back. Make it appear routine."

  "So routine no one looks twice." Rhianni brightened.

  "Then," Petroc said, "we can start on phase two."

  "And that is?" Burkan asked.

  "Planning what we'll do about it." His face and voice took on a grim determination. "It's not enough to find out why things happen and stay out of sight. It's time to fight back."

  The first trip to the Archives went without incident. At the same time, those who could enter the Merger agreed it was prudent to plan ahead. Why wait until the tension started to escalate before going on the defensive?

  They set up a schedule to slowly clear Taken families out of settlements within striking distance of Core and send them to join the illegal settlements. These broke into smaller units, harder to discover in the vast forests of Mallachrom, and stayed in contact through the Merger. With fewer households to protect, the Rovers could better defend those who stayed near Core. The enemies, when they chose to strike, would expend their energy against empty settlements before they realized what had happened.

  Nureen returned. She came planetside during the night in her two-man shuttle and landed in a field an hour's walk from QSE with her tracking scrambler working at its highest output. Rhianni left a message with Burkan to bring Petroc and Gan to breakfast. Petroc had plenty of time to worry over the secrecy, the implications, what kind of changes her news could bring, before they walked down to Rhianni's house.

  "Bad news?" He stepped in through the mudroom door into the kitchen and caught her and Nureen in mid-conversation.

  "Someone once said that all news, good or bad, is a double-edged sword," Burkan said behind him. "How was the flight?"

  "Fast and boring." Nureen shrugged and grimaced before returning to cutting up fruit.

  "Boring?" Gan snorted.

  "Waiting for the interrogations to end so she could get orders from the General and return," Rhianni supplied. "Nothing definite on that air sample, but the preliminary findings aren't good. We'll have a response in three more weeks, tops."

  "Something weird going on with the poachers." Nureen mixed the fruit in a large bowl with a pale green sauce. "They know nothing about this Black Pit Rhianni told me about. Sounds strange, doesn't it? They had strict orders not to go into certain areas, and that kept them away from the Black Pit. Convenient."

  "Too convenient." Petroc nodded. "Do we have enough evidence to convict our enemies, and do the poachers know who their orders came from?"

  "The word of poachers against the word of high-level Council members?" Rhianni shook her head. "We need more data to corroborate. The General is still working on the fine details. But we have names." She gestured for everyone to sit.

  Petroc sensed something wrong. Her face was too calm, her voice too even. He felt the tension deep inside her.

  "Rhianni?" He sat next to her and rested his hand on top of hers, trying to communicate support. It was the wrong move to make. Her skin tingled and burned against his, the citrus scent of her clean-washed hair filled his head and her pulse tripled in speed under his hand.

  "Lalorn, Wallin and Shoreel," she said, her voice dry and flat.

  Gan choked on what he was about to say next. "Sorry."

  Rhianni shrugged and scooped up fruit salad. Her hand didn't shake.

  "That explains everything, doesn't it? The slow growth of outposts, the slow importing of technology, medical equipment and educational supplies." Burkan poured a mug of coffee while he talked, and his hands didn't shake either. Petroc wondered if it was Rover training, or an intensity that didn't translate into the flesh.

  "They've been raping Mallachrom for years, taking what they want and stifling growth. To avoid relocating their operations every year, they had to keep the colony from expanding."

  "The Taken and a supposed Shadow threat make a convenient excuse," Rhianni said, taking up the thread of thought. "You pretend to fight a problem while feeding the fear and suspicion and prejudice. You make people think they have to live where you can watch everyone, so they can stay safe. That keeps the colony from growing."

  "They've had years to work this all out," Burkan said. "The problem didn't arise overnight." He shook his head. "The poaching explains a lot. Mallachrom was first settled because the survey teams found so many medicinal plants. Wild game is a high-price commodity on quite a few planets. But the profits from poaching don't explain it all. There's more to this than just making money."

  "What matters is that we have names and we're getting enough evidence to shut them down," Rhianni said. "We can dig for all the reasons later, when they're out of power and the Taken are safe."

  Rhianni showed Petroc how to access her disguised communication pack, and registered his thumbprint and retina pattern for security clearance to use all her equipment. It only made sense, he knew. Just as he had several people chosen to take over if anything happened to him, Rhianni had to make provisions if anything happened to her. The Rovers already acknowledged Petroc as co-leader, and if anything happened to Rhianni, they would obey him without question.

  That night, Petroc wasn't surprised when he dreamed of Rhianni. Warm and sweet in his arms, pressed against him. Laughter bubbled up from her throat as he stroked her satiny, bare skin. The scent of her was rich and fresh, more intoxicating than berry wine. Her body radiated a heat that threatened to burn into his very bones.

  Her pulse raced under his lips as he kissed her, her fingernails dug into his shoulders as she clutched at him, holding him tightly enough to bruise. His skin grew slick with sweat as fire poured through his veins.

  But he couldn't see her face. He wanted to see her smile, wanted to see the same fire in her eyes that burned inside him. Petroc tried to draw away, just enough to look in her face.

  Rhianni vanished from his arms. He shouted and reached for her, flailing through the thick darkness that tangled around him with suffocating heat.

  Light spilled through the dream. In a split second, he saw Rhianni struggling in a knot of tentacles, beaks and multi-lensed eyes. She kicked and twisted and freed an arm or a leg for a moment at a time, always recaptured before she could free another limb.

  "Rhianni!" He leaped across an abyss that stretched wider between them with every heartbeat.

  Her eyes blazed blue, as if hundreds of Shadows lived inside her. Rhianni flung aside her attackers and reached for him.

  Petroc woke, aching, falling from the bed as he reached for her, with a shout caught in his throat.

  Huddled on the floor, waiting for his heart to slow to a normal pace, his thoughts raced. The confrontation was coming. Something was about to happen, and whether the poaching had anything to do with the persecution of the Taken or the Black Pit, he found he no longer cared.

  He wanted it over. He wanted to be free of responsibilities, dangers, secrets and the feeling that he could never offer his life to Rhianni without endangering hers.

  The next morning, word came
to Rhianni from Core about an explosion in the science wing. Supposedly, a group of Taken had tried to attack Dr. Carr to prevent him from continuing his research. Cae and Cianna arrived at almost the same time with a different story. Council Enforcers had tried to prevent the Taken who worked in and around the science wing from going home. The stories differed in many details, but the bottom line was that Dr. Carr tried to exert authority over those Taken and draft them for test subjects. Several Enforcers opened fire too close to a laboratory containing toxic and flammable substances. Power lines blew and some spilled chemicals mixed into dangerous combinations. Those Taken who didn't escape died in the fire.

  Unfortunately for the Taken, Dr. Carr wasn't even injured, though he was in the middle of everything.

  That made Rhianni doubly suspicious. What was different about the man, that he could be almost immune to the toxic fumes that killed or seriously injured half a dozen Enforcers?

  Cae and Cianna sent the word to disperse all Taken in Core who had any connection to the government buildings and functions, anything that might give Carr the slightest claim to draft them for more of his experiments. Since Cae had been so closely involved in the network that spied on the science wing, he and Cianna couldn't risk going back to work on the growing chance he would be taken in for questioning because he was a Taken. They were refugees. Rhianni hid them in her house and showed them the secret room in the cellar, which her father had built years ago for just such an emergency. Shielded from scanners, with a separate entrance, an independent power source and communications pack, no one would ever find them.

  Burkan came to Rhianni's back door less than an hour after she got the Corsis settled. He thumped once before letting himself in.

  "Call came in ten minutes ago." Burkan didn't even blink when he saw Cae and Cianna at the dinner table with Rhianni and Petroc. "All Enforcers are to be on the alert for any strangers in the area, anybody coming back from Core. Anybody with fresh wounds, who smell of fire and acts afraid."