by Mina Carter
A face came into focus, hovering half a foot above the dark wood. It was a Latharian warrior, younger if she didn’t miss her guess, with only two or three braids worked through his dark hair.
“Major General Black?” he asked, his gaze sliding past her.
“Yes. How can I help you?”
She kept her face neutral and impassive, refusing to be embarrassed by the rumpled bed behind her. Why should she? According to Latharian customs, she and Sardaan were newly married. What they got up to in the privacy of their own quarters was their own business. However, it did amuse her a little that the alien ship appeared to run on scuttlebutt and gossip just like human ones did.
The young warrior looked back at her, his gaze flicking down to her all-concealing shirt. For a moment disappointment flashed in the backs of his turquoise eyes.
“I have a communication for you. From the human vessel,” he added.
She resisted the urge to lift an eyebrow. With at least five human vessels in the immediate vicinity, it could be any of them. “Of course, please put it through.”
He nodded. “Patching now.”
The warrior disappeared in a fuzz of visual static. A second later the static disappeared, and a human man appeared in its place.
“Admiral Radcliffe.” Her nod was perfunctory and courteous to conceal the distaste rising in the back of her throat.
Of all the people Terran Command could have fielded to engage the Lathar, and they had to throw Radcliffe into the mix. Like Hopkins, he was vehemently xenophobic and anti-Lathar, and had been banging the drum about ramping up defenses and taking on the Lathar since the moment humanity had found out about their existence.
“Black.” Grizzled with gray hair and a gruff voice, the Admiral merely nodded curtly, his gaze cutting to someone off screen. His image wavered for a moment and then he asked, “Are we secure now?”
“Yes, Admiral. Level five encryption protocols running. But I don’t know how long I can keep the line secure.”
“Don’t tell me what you can’t do, young man,” Radcliffe snarled. “Make it happen or I’ll have you in the brig.” His attention focused back onto Dani.
“Black. Report. What have you found out about these blasted aliens?”
She kept her irritation under wraps by a supreme effort of will.
“They’re highly intelligent—”
“Nonsense!” The admiral broke in, cutting her off. “They’re bloody barbarians who still fight with swords!”
“They are a warrior culture,” she continued, her voice firm, as though he hadn’t said a word. “The bladed weapons appear to be mainly used in one-on-one honor bouts and as personal weaponry for higher ranked individuals. Their combat units are well trained and well-armed. I’ve seen evidence of what looks like assault rifles and they’re not what we need to be careful of.”
“Oh?” The admiral leaned forward, interest in his dark eyes. His mustache was impressive, blunt-cut over his mouth. For some reason the fact that it was obviously well-kept and groomed pissed her off just as much as the bling and braid the guy wore. Why couldn’t they have sent General McGowan? Same rank, but different branch and with shit-loads more experience in unusual battle situations.
“The combat bots.” Her voice was flat, verging on incredulous. Seriously? Had this guy not been briefed at all… not seen the footage from the Sentinel? “Like the ones they used on the Sentinel. They’re fast, agile and very difficult to put down.”
He chuckled, amusement obvious. “I’m sure our marines can handle a few dumb robots.”
She just looked at him. “That’s my point, sir. They aren’t dumb robots. They’re piloted by experienced Latharian warriors. And I might point out, Sentinel five had several units of battle-hardened marines. It made fuck all difference.”
Anger flashed in Radcliffe’s eyes. Used to it, she ignored the look. Same old, same old. He was an Old Boys Club, dyed in the wool soldier who didn’t like being corrected by a woman. Even when she was fucking right.
“Yeah, but they don’t have the advantage we do.”
Advantage? She leaned forward a little. “Oh?”
Radcliffe grinned at her. It wasn’t a nice expression. “You, Major General. You’re going to find us some weaknesses in their defense that we can punch through.”
She couldn’t help it, the snort of laughter burst from her before she could stop it. “Weaknesses? Not likely. From what I can tell, they’ve been at war with pretty much everyone for hundreds of years. They’re fucking good at it.”
She leveled a hard look at him. “Plus. I am not a spy. What happened to negotiations with the Lathar?”
Even an idiot could see that there was no way humanity could wage a war against the Lathar. Not and win anyway. However, they could wage a war and find themselves completely and utterly defeated.
Not wiped out. No. She’d read between the lines enough to know what would happen.
“Admiral, do not pick this fight,” she warned. “We cannot win against this enemy. If we try, they will annihilate us. Utterly. They’ll destroy our forces and then raze Earth and all her colonies. You’ve got a daughter, right? Well, she and every other fertile female will be enslaved and given to alien men to bear their children. Humanity will disappear within a generation. Do you want that?”
He shook his head. “Not going to happen, Major General, because you are going to find a way for us to get on that ship and kidnap this emperor of theirs. Once we have him, they will capitulate.”
He was insane.
Dani was forced to sit there for a moment as his words registered. They were going to try and kidnap the Latharian emperor… the man she’d seen just hours ago shrug off an assassination attempt.
“Or…” Radcliffe was still speaking. “Your second in command… remember her before you decided to fuck an alien? Yeah, she’s going to be facing charges. Conduct unbecoming with an officer under her command.”
Shit. He really was hitting below the belt. Her face set.
“I’ll get you on the ship,” she said, her voice cold and hard. “But the rest is totally on your head. I don’t know enough about Latharian troop movements or strength to anticipate what resistance you’ll face. And,” she added, knowing that the call was being recorded on Radcliffe’s side. “I want it on record that I think this is a bad idea.”
Radcliffe just looked at her and she knew in that instant she’d made an enemy. Given half a chance, Radcliffe would have her up in front of a court martial and end her career in a heartbeat.
“Black, you lost the right to say anything in this the moment you started sleeping with the enemy.” His gaze flicked to the bed behind her and detoured back to her eyes by way of the shirt wrapped around her. That it wasn’t human was obvious.
He leaned forward.
“You have ten hours to get us a way onto that ship, or your friend’s neck is on the line. I hear Mirax Ruas is lovely this time of year.” He cut the comms leaving Dani looking at the blank wall behind the desk.
“Fucking asshole!” she hissed, slamming her hands flat against the hard wood of the desk. Mirax Ruas was a high security facility, one with a brutal reputation. Life expectancy there was measured in months, not years.
Which meant, unless she did something… betrayed her new husband and his people… she would be handing her friend a death sentence.
14
She could do this. All she had to do was crack an alien computer system, in a language she didn’t understand, and drop the defense systems of a technologically advanced warship. In… she checked the timestamp on the console in front of her… under ten minutes.
Cold sweat slithered down her spine. It had taken her hours to get anywhere near a critical system she could use. Using her new role as Latharian-Terran liaison, she’d managed to get Sardaan to give her a tour of the ship.
It hadn’t been a long tour but it had taken them far longer than necessary given the different nooks and crannies her alien husband
had found to pull her into and kiss her senseless. The third time it had been too much for her, her need too much for her to ignore, and he’d taken her hard and fast up against the wall in here.
What he hadn’t realized was she’d noted exactly what the room was, namely one of the ship's core control rooms and—she fished for something hidden in her waistband—that she’d stolen his identity tag at the same time.
One excuse about being worn out and needing a nap later and she’d slowly made her way back here. On their tour she’d worked out which areas held the combat bots and easily avoided them. Once she’d figured out the logic of the Latharian ship, working her way through it without being detected had been easy.
Figuring out the computer system once she was in, though, was a completely different matter.
“Come on, Dani,” she muttered to herself as she studied the screen. “How difficult can this be?”
Finally, after much scrolling about, she took a chance. The Lathar might be an alien race, but by all accounts, they were related to humanity. She wasn’t going so far as to believe they were the ancestors of the human race. At most, like the usual absentee parent, they’d merely donated some DNA. The rest mankind had done on their own.
But, that being said, they were a bipedal species. Two arms. Two legs. Almost identical brain. Which meant she should be able to find something. Some similarity she could use to work this out.
Plus… the Latharian language looked familiar. Almost as if she squinted her eyes and looked at it right, it would start to make sense.
Poking at one of the symbols, she was rewarded with another screen, one full of more Latharian glyphs. On a hunch, she pressed another and hissed in triumph as a schematic of the ship filled the screen. As she watched, the language on the screen shifted, morphing into English.
Her eyes widened.
It wasn’t just a diagram of all the decks, but different colors denoted the shielding and… She leaned forward, frowning.
“Shit,” she breathed.
It even had the combat bot alcoves on here.
“No way. It can’t be this easy, surely?” she murmured, her hand hovering over the map.
Sudden guilt hit her, her stomach clenching in on itself hard. The import of what she was about to do hit her. If she did this, people would die. Both human and Lathar. Men and women she’d served with, commanded… Lathar she’d met here. Isan, Danaar, Riis… Sardaan. She closed her eyes, dread filling her soul. Even her new husband would be in danger. Might even be killed.
Her breath escaped her lungs in a shuddering sigh. Sardaan was a soldier, though. Like her, he knew the risks of what they did and accepted them. And, with the technology of the Lathar, he had more than a fighting chance.
Shannon didn’t have a chance though. If Dani didn’t do this, Shannon was on a one-way trip to Mirax Ruas. And that was a death sentence. She couldn’t do that to Shannon, not if she could stop it.
Opening her eyes, she pressed buttons on the screen quickly, setting the shields and bots to shut down at precisely the same time as the human attack. Her heart pounded like she’d run a marathon as she pressed the button to confirm the order.
Shutting the screen down quickly, she turned to escape the room. She’d done what was ordered and given Radcliffe’s force the opening they needed to get onto the ship. That was all she was going to do.
The doors slid open in front of her and she stopped dead. There, framed in the doorway, were two heavy combat bots, their red eyes fixed balefully on her.
She held her ground, hands out to the side in surrender and cold sweat slithering down her spine as they advanced on her. Their metallic feet clicked heavily against the deck plating.
“I need to speak to Sardaan K’Vass,” she announced, looking at the one on her left. They moved too easily, too much like spiders. The stuff of nightmares.
She held eye contact with the red eye, knowing that the pilot would be able to hear her. “Please. I have information for him. On an imminent human attack.”
They moved without warning and she was forced to stifle a startled cry as metal "hands" closed around her wrists like manacles. Her heart pounded against her chest, her breathing shortening as they dragged her from the room.
She’d betrayed him.
Sardaan gripped the edge of his console so tightly, he’d probably leave marks in the indestructible metal. His beautiful human mate, who he’d thought was settling in and getting used to their way of life, had betrayed him.
His mate was a faithless, lying little human bitch.
He closed his eyes for a second as he stood at his console, his body taking over and trying to block out the sight of her on the screen, taking down all their defenses. He’d watched the scene play out in utter disbelief, unable to believe she could betray him.
Not after the passion they’d shared… not after how sweetly she’d submitted to him and moaned for him in his bed. But she had, and with that betrayal the final pieces of the puzzle that the humans posed had fallen into place.
They’d been aware of the humans marshalling an attack for the past couple of hours. Oh, they’d thought they were being clever, hiding their attack ships on the other side of the ship nearest to the Veral’vias. In the shadows where they thought the Lathar couldn’t see them.
It was almost as if they didn’t realize the Latharian scanners could pick up the energy signatures of their engines. Of the powered-up weaponry on board. Cutting lasers, no matter what race had built them, were distinctive. As soon as the Veral’vias had registered them on scans, alarm bells had started to ring.
At first, there had been laughter on the bridge. After all, what could the humans possibly hope to achieve with their tiny little assault ships against the might of the Veral’vias? Not only did it massively outpower the human ships, but they’d need planet killer level tech to even scratch its shielding.
Convinced that the ships sheltered behind the human battleship like children hiding behind their mother’s skirts was a distraction, Sardaan had run detailed scans looking for the real attack.
He hadn’t found anything.
It had taken him a moment to realize there wasn’t a more complicated attack. That the small group of ships was the Terran plan.
The entire bridge had fallen silent at that point, Danaar, Fenriis’ second in command and acting commander speaking for them all when he’d said, “Seriously? Did they miss the fact we could blow their entire fleet out of space?”
No one answered that question. No one could. It seemed that yes, the humans had either missed that point entirely or didn’t care and planned on attacking anyway. Perhaps they planned on throwing themselves at the Latharian shields, dashing themselves to pieces in some sort of ultimate defiance…
“Unauthorized access to the computer systems.”
“What the hell are they playing at?” Danaar growled from the center of the bridge. “Find me that unauthorized access!”
“On it,” Sardaan replied. His hands flew over the console in front of him as he tracked the recent commands through the system. At first he’d assumed the humans had somehow managed to hack through the AI’s firewalls but there was no intrusion. There couldn’t be, not with their primitive systems.
Then he found it. The source of the commands was in a secondary control room up on the seventh level. His eyes closed as he recognized the location instantly. The room he’d taken Dani in, hard and fast up against the wall during their tour of the ship earlier. From there it had been a quick task to filter through the internal sensors and bring the feed up for the room. Roll the timeframe back…
“I found the unauthorized access,” he said, his voice locked down and emotionless. “Putting on the main screen now.”
He didn’t look as Dani appeared on the main screen, seeing it all on the console in front of him. He hardened his heart at the sight of her sitting in front of the console, trying to figure out their language, so different from her own. A little sense of pride wanted
to roll through him when she worked it out quickly, but he stamped it down.
His expression didn’t soften even when she seemed to debate her decision, a look of what appeared to be pain crossing her beautiful features. She took the shields and bots offline in quick, decisive movements.
“Avatars dispatched to ingress location,” he added. “They’ll take her into custody and bring her here.”
Danaar looked over at him, his expression level. “She’s your mate. You will be responsible for carrying out the appropriate discipline.”
Sardaan nodded. “I will deal with her. What sanctions have you decided upon, Commander?”
He waited by his console, his entire frame tight. Dani had put them all at risk, could have cost thousands of warriors’ lives. But… even as mad at her as he was… he didn’t think he could kill her, not even if Danaar ordered him to.
“The intrusion was discovered quickly,” the big Latharian rumbled in a low voice. “Shields are back online and no harm was done. Discipline your female, warrior, in whatever way you see fit. Find out why and what else the humans have planned… I don’t care how you get that information, but get it. Meanwhile, we’ll allow the humans to continue, thinking their plan has worked, and see what they do next.”
“Yes, War Commander.” He stood up straight, hand over his heart in the traditional salute. “Permission to leave the bridge?”
“Granted.”
Sardaan turned back to his duty station for a moment, sending a signal to the avatar pilots to take his faithless mate directly to the cells. Signing off and handing over to the warrior who stepped up to replace him, he left the bridge quickly.
