by A. C. Ellas
“I did. He sent me to you.”
Damn. Yeri stifled a sigh as his attempt to pass the issue off failed. If he’d been in Vericho’s position, he’d have done the same. Any issue involving psionics really was Yeri’s to deal with. “Tell me what you propose.”
“I want to employ Rovania as psions. I will offer training if they need it, a decent salary, and membership in the Guild—without memory suppression and without the legal claiming process you find so objectionable. Belonging to the Guild gives a psion a great deal of protection and prestige.”
“I don’t see why you need my permission for this. There are already many recruiters stalking the halls of the compound. You’re free to join them.”
“I want your council to encourage strong psions to join the Guild.” Ashad grimaced. “I could demand mandatory join-up, but I respect your point about the right to choose. It hasn’t escaped our notice, however, that the younger Rovania are very much influenced by the edicts of your council. If the Rovanis Council were to endorse the Guild, we would have a mutually satisfactory resolution to the issue.”
Yeri turned his gaze to the viewscreen. The proposal was a fair one, but he hated the idea of giving any concession to the high-handed Guild. Ashad was an astute man if he’d managed to figure out that the young mostly did what the council suggested. Few of the other humans had noticed this tendency, or if they had, they’d chalked it up to the habit of obedience and chosen not to take issue with it. Or make use of it, as Ashad proposed to do. He wants me to give him our psions. Two can play at that game.
He returned his gaze to the guildmaster. “I will accept your proposal on one condition.”
Ashad had remained politely silent while Yeri thought. Now he smelled worried. “What condition would that be?”
“I want my friends back. You said yourself you were having issues with them. Give them back to us.”
“It’s not that easy. They’ve been legally claimed by the Guild.” Ashad tapped his fingers on the table in a rhythmic pattern. “Here’s what I can do. I can reverse the memory suppression on the ones who were successfully suppressed and offer them positions with the Rovania. If the Rovania are going to be joining the Guild without being claimed, I’ll have to open a Guildhall at the compound anyhow. We can help you train the young psions, too.”
“The suppression didn’t take on everyone?” Yeri wondered if the Rovani bonded psions—Mark, Angel, Kyle, and Erika—had proven difficult to suppress.
“Several of the psions have deep telempathic bonds that prevent the suppression techniques from working,” Ashad confirmed. “Those are the ones giving me an issue, but returning them to you solves that.”
“The bonded psions need to return to their mates,” Yeri said gently. “Separating the pairs hurts both sides. Whatever future lies before them must be decided by both of them.”
“Angel is bonded to you. You’re planning to go into space. Doesn’t she get a say in that?”
“When she returns to me, I will be happy to hear what she has to say.” Yeri was very unsurprised that Ashad had traced the bonds. If the guildmaster had hoped to score a point that way, he’d be disappointed. “Veloki is already in space, however. I hope Mark doesn’t mind.”
“I’m sure he won’t,” Ashad riposted. “Very well. Are we agreed? The Rovanis Council will encourage the Rovani psions to join the Guild, and the Guild shall give the psions who were in stasis with you the option to work with the Rovania in an official capacity. The psions bonded to Rovania shall be reunited with their partners, and we shall treat these pairings as equivalent to marriage.”
“Guild members can marry?” Yeri hadn’t heard that before.
“Of course they can. I’ve even had an Astrogator wed his captain.”
Yeri returned to the topic. “I accept the agreement and will notify Vericho of the details. He’ll take care of the rest.”
“Thank you, War Leader.”
“Call me Yeri. I am no longer the War Leader.”
“You will always be the War Leader. Even though you’re no longer the head of your council, even though I’m sure you’d rather leave the past behind you, you’re a historical figure we all learned about as children. You can’t escape from yourself.” Ashad’s scent was highly amused. “And though you now deny the title—you are still the leader of your people and probably always will be. If you weren’t, we wouldn’t have an agreement, we’d only have a starting place to an eventual agreement.”
Though he wanted to argue, he couldn’t. Ashad was right. Vericho was the official leader of the council, but that honor was more titular than literal. “You’re surprisingly perceptive for a human,” Yeri replied dryly.
“Why do you think they put me in charge of the Guild?” Ashad chuckled. “Working with psions isn’t easy, as you well know. I’ve read your journals from your time in the Psion Squad, you know. The Guild is the direct descendant of the Squad, and as guildmaster, I have access to everything the Squad documented.” The man abruptly held out his hand. “Would you like to know the one thing I really, really want?”
Yeri couldn’t resist that. Curiosity was his genetic right. “Yes, I would.”
“I want to consider you a friend and have that feeling be reciprocated.” The sincerity was as obvious as the hope... and the fear of rejection.
“I don’t have many friends,” Yeri replied quietly. “Leadership is lonely. And being a historical figure, as you put it, makes it even harder. About half the people I meet are in awe of me, and the other half have a deep desire to dominate me. Very few people exist outside of those two extremes... you’re one of them.” He set his hand on Ashad’s. “I think that yes, we can be friends.”
Chapter Nine
Doctor Evelyn Gillespie studied the amassed data provided by all of the probes from the two teams sent down to the planet, looking for clues as to how the colony had been destroyed. She had no doubt that the local ecology had been responsible, not after the way those trees had acted. How had they called the swarm of scavengers? That was just one of the many questions she urgently sought answers to.
“Doctor?” The voice was smooth, rich, pleasantly deep, and with the hint of an accent.
She smiled to herself every time she heard him speak. The rest of him was as beautiful as his voice, too. She half turned to face him, admiring his red-brown mane, feline features, and expressive yellow cat eyes. “Yes, Lyto?”
Lytario Pemezo was the only Rovani assigned to the science section. Sometimes his intelligence and perception took her breath away. He was nearly finished with his biochemistry degree; the Corps encouraged—and paid for—all its people to attend college if they so chose.
“Have you seen this?” He tapped a second screen, calling up the information in question. “It appears to me that the chemistry involved at the root level is markedly similar to a predator’s intestinal tract. I think the plants were hostile because we represented a food source.”
Evie looked at the screen, an isolated set of probe readings taken during the main attack—and only gotten because the trapped marine had dropped his probe and it had fortuitously landed probe end down in the roots. As an outlier, this set of readings hadn’t shone out from the amassed set of data—in fact, it had been dropped by the algorithm she was using. She quickly saw what Lyto had already seen. “You’re absolutely correct.”
She immediately placed a call to Nick. “Captain? Can you come down here? We’ve something to show you.”
“On my way,” her brother replied immediately.
She informed the head of her department next. Scott was much closer—in the next room in fact. “Doctor Quinn, come look at what Lyto found.”
Scott came in immediately, looked at the data, heard the hypothesis, and nodded immediate agreement. “Good work, young man!”
Lyto blinked at him. “Thank you, Doctor.”
Evie bit her lip to keep from laughing at Lyto’s obvious amusement. Mo
st of the Rovania objected to being called men; when asked why, they would invariably reply that they were cats, not apes.
Lyto glanced at her and smiled knowingly. The warmth in his eyes caused her to smile back. Damn, he’s handsome. Not for the first time, she considered making a pass at him. None of the Rovania aboard were shy about that sort of thing, and she was sure he wouldn’t laugh at her. But still, he was a colleague and a friend, and she didn’t want to risk damaging their relationship.
Nick strode in. “What have you found?” he asked directly, skipping the pleasantries.
“Lyto found it,” Evie corrected. She showed Nick the data, explained it briefly—an in-depth explanation wasn’t required, Nick was well versed in the sciences. He’d taught her basic ecology when they were still preteens.
Nick nodded as he looked over the data. “That’s very interesting, but it’s not conclusive. I can’t take this to the admiral and tell him the plants ate the colony. Not without more proof than this.”
“Give us some time,” Lyto said. “I’d like to run some experiments down on the surface, too.”
“That’s dangerous,” Nick replied, frowning briefly. “Veloki wants me to send the data on to his father. What’s your take on that?”
“Yeraki is an earth talent,” Lyto replied. “If anyone could actually communicate with a tree, he’d be the one to do it.”
“That’s what Loki said.” Nick shrugged and glanced at the data again. “Bring me your plan for a mission with minimal risk to personnel. Tomorrow.”
“Yes, sir,” Lyto replied evenly.
Nick nodded. “Thank you, Lytario, Evie, Scott. Carry on.” He strode back out as abruptly as he’d entered.
Evie watched him go then shook her head. Lyto placed a hand on her shoulder and glanced down at her. “He’s got a lot going on.”
“Oh, don’t I know it.” She set her own hand atop his. “Do you need help designing that mission?”
“I’d like that,” Lyto agreed, though she suspected he could manage it just fine without her.
* * * *
This time, Veloki brought an ax as well as the fighting spear. He was in full uniform and also wearing boots. They’d all suffered chemical burns on their bare feet during the last mission. They hadn’t felt it immediately because their feet were toughened, but his sense that even the grass was hostile had definitely been borne out. He hadn’t particularly wanted to return to this planet, but Lyto said they needed more data, and that was that. He studied the grove of trees carefully as he approached the perimeter.
He carefully inserted the probes into the soil at the base of the trees, one per tree, working along the outside only. Mali was doing the same on the other side of this grove, while Riko and Raki were planting probes on the grove north of this one. Once all the probes were in place, the fun would begin. When he reached the tree Mali had started on, he still had a dozen of the slender probes.
He knelt and carefully reached into the grove as far as he could and slid a probe into the soil. He retracted his arm, stood, and padded around the perimeter until he found another extra-wide gap. He repeated the process of implanting probes inside the grove. Mali handed his extras over when he saw what Loki was doing and helped by pointing out good targets. When Loki ran out of probes, he stood and brushed stray bits of soil from his hands and uniform.
They headed back to the shuttle to collect what was needed for the next phase of the mission. Loki and Mali each took one end of the steel container and carried it over to their grove. They set it on the grass, opened it, and removed what were essentially biodegradable water balloons filled with blood. Loki took aim and lofted the first one into the grove. It impacted against a cluster of roots and exploded. The blood quickly sank into the ground. More balloons followed, interspersed with chunks of raw meat. They observed that the roots enveloped the meat and dragged it down within a few minutes of impact. Once they’d emptied the chest, they closed it and carried it back to the shuttle. Riko and Raki returned with their empty chest a few minutes later.
Loki thumbed their radio. “Dark Star, do we retrieve the probes?”
“Negative. They will continue to record data and transmit to the satellite we’ve placed in orbit.”
Loki acknowledged, turned off the connection and told the others, “That’s it, then. Let’s go home.”
* * * *
Lyto and Evie analyzed the data in real time as it came in. Evie found herself noticing the quiet Rovani more and more. His presence at her side was oddly comforting; it was strange how quickly they’d gone from colleagues who saw each other occasionally in the course of their duties to partners in this endeavor. His smooth, accented voice was pleasing to her ears. Yes, she knew all the Rovani had the same accent, but somehow, she liked his better. Perhaps it was just the particular timbre of his voice. She also liked the spicy scent he wore, not that she’d dare tell him that.
“Doctor,” he murmured. “Look at this.” He showed her the modeling he’d just finished, a graphic display of how the roots absorbed the blood and also excreted acids to break down the meat so that, too, could be absorbed.
“You were right, the plants are carnivorous.” Evie shook her head. “It’s not without precedent, but I’ve never heard of it occurring on this scale.” She continued to study the model as it evolved based on the newest data. “How do the scavengers relate? What prevents the plants from eating all the animal life on the planet?”
“I think the plants may have called the scavengers chemically. The scent of that grove seemed slightly different to me, but I didn’t go into any of them, so I don’t know for certain if there was chemical messaging going on.” He turned and opened a channel to the returning shuttle. “Loki, did the grove’s scent change while you were there?”
“No, Lyto... but it didn’t smell the same as the last grove, either. Of course, there could be individual variations between groves, like there is among people.” There was a slight pause, then Loki asked, “Do we need to go back?”
“Negative.” Cai’s voice broke smoothly into their conversation. “A return to the planet is not authorized at this time. Return to Dark Star for debriefing.”
“Understood, Astrogator,” Lyto and Loki replied together.
Lyto broke the connection and turned to Evie, shaking his head slightly. “I am sure he has his reasons, but we should have checked it out.”
Boldly, she reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. “Maybe there’ll be time for a second mission. We can ask.”
“We?” Lyto’s eyebrows raised slightly.
“Yes, we. I’ll back you on this, I’m curious to see if you’re right. Chemical messaging makes sense, and it’d be nice to prove it.”
He touched her hand, which was still resting on his shoulder, and smiled. “We have some time while the puter runs the rest of the data through my analysis program. Are you hungry?”
“Yes, but not for food.” She met his gaze and his smile deepened.
* * * *
Nick looked over the amassed data from the science team. Evie and the Rovani called Lyto were sitting across from him, waiting for his decision. They wanted to send another mission down to the clearly hostile planet. He hated to tell his sister no, but he couldn’t allow his personal thoughts to affect command decisions. Distracting him from the real issue here was that he’d never seen Evie so relaxed around anyone outside their family. He forced his mind to remain on topic even as he studied the pair, taking note of the little nuances such as body posture and how they silently interacted.
“The plants are clearly hostile,” he told them. “They are demonstrably heterotrophs, and our kind of life represents nothing more than a food source for them. There are obviously unanswered questions here, such as how any animal life survives there at all. Whether or not the plants use chemical messaging is, frankly, a moot point. We were sent to determine why we lost contact with the colony. We’ve done that. We now have to retur
n to Hevetich and report our findings. The most I can do, and I will do it, is recommend a follow-up visit with a dedicated science team to look into this planet’s irregularities.”
Lyto took it well. He inclined his head and murmured, “Yes, Captain, I understand.”
Evie was more inclined to argue. “Nick, it wouldn’t take much time to run this experiment. Less than a day! Yes, we’ve answered the basic question of what happened, but there’s a lot we still don’t know, such as exactly how or when or why. The colony managed just fine for several decades, after all. I wasn’t aware of this mission being time sensitive, so has there been a recall order?”
Nick sighed and leaned back in his chair. “No, there’s been no recall order, but I don’t see that the risk to my people is justified compared to the minimal amount of new data another mission would produce right now. What I want to do is return to Hevetich, submit our report, and convince the admiral to send us back here with specialized equipment, a full science team, and the earth talent the Rovania want.”
Lyto’s eyes widened, and he shifted in his seat. “You would permit that? You would invite him here?”
“Of course,” Nick replied.
“You don’t need another science team,” Evie sniffed. “We can do the analysis.”
“I know.” Nick offered a smile. “All we really need is Yeraki and permission to really study this place, but it’ll be an easier sell if we ask for a science team and better equipment.”
Evie chuckled and nodded. Lyto smiled.
Via the shipnet, Nick asked Cai, “What do you think?”
“Invite them to dinner,” Cai replied in the same manner.
“Cai and I would enjoy your company at dinner tonight. Both of you.” Nick was gazing at Evie as he said this, and he didn’t miss her slight flush.
“How did you know?” she asked after spending a few moments to regain her composure.
