When he looked back, he saw everyone else had done the same.
He turned on the light Lenny had given him, uncaring now of attracting insects, but perhaps they weren't as populous down here, or the smoke kept them away, because none appeared.
He swept the light around, doing a visual inspection while he kept an eye on his wrist unit. It was hard to pick up individual body heat, though, with the fire that continued to burn.
The night lit up as everyone else took out their lights, and there was silence as they walked the perimeter of the crash, looking for bodies or survivors.
There was nothing.
“If there are any survivors, they're in the ship.” Lenny looked up at the runner's door, which was high off the ground.
Ben heard the sound of something being sprayed, and saw Tally had taken a fire extinguisher from the supply hover and was dousing the fire.
The glow of flames cut off.
Irwin rose up on the supply hover as soon as she was done and jumped through the jagged edges of the hole at the back and disappeared.
Ben waited for him to reappear, and when he didn't, he jumped onto the runner, grabbing handholds and pulling himself onto the roof.
He worked his way to the back, and dropped down into the gaping hole.
“Irwin didn't send the hover back down so we could follow.” There was clear anger in Soo's voice. “Can you do that before you go in?”
Ben hesitated. He wasn't sure if it was safe for everyone to be in the ship.
“Tally, Lenny and I actually knew the crew,” Soo said shortly, and with a sigh, he reached out and sent the hover back to the ground before he turned back into the darkness of the interior.
He pulled his light out again and winced at the sight of a crew member lying dead, caught against the bulkhead.
Up ahead, Irwin's light moved around, and Ben moved toward it. He saw two more bodies before he reached the bridge.
Everyone who could must have come in here when they were hit. He counted four remaining crew.
Everyone was dead.
“The door was damaged.” Irwin crouched beside it, illuminating the massive rip in the bottom of the door. “They had a catastrophic hull breach.”
“They were already planet-side, we wouldn't have seen them getting shot otherwise, but they were still high up enough they needed a pressurized environment.” Ben saw where the shrapnel from the original hit had torn through the runner, opening it up to the too-thin air of the atmosphere. “They must have hoped they could get down to a lower altitude in time, but they didn't make it.”
It had been a very long shot, and it hadn't worked out.
Soo picked her way from the back and joined them, looking at the bodies strapped into their chairs. “Hull breach,” she said. Her voice was steady, but her eyes glimmered with moisture in the light he held, and her lips were pressed tightly together.
Ben nodded. “They'd have been dead before they crashed.”
She turned around and walked back out, and he could hear her speaking quietly to the others, a small catch in her voice.
“What now?” Irwin asked.
“Get some rest. Try the comms again. Then make a decision on where to go next.” Ben looked down at the dead. “We'll have to bag up the bodies.” There would be stasis body bags onboard. Hopefully they weren't damaged. But first he should scan the interior, get an accurate picture of how they found the crew.
He told Irwin what he was going to do, and the guide reluctantly conceded it was necessary and left to get out of the way.
Ben walked to the back with him, and then set his wrist unit to full scan and record mode.
He moved slowly through the length of the runner, his gaze taking in everything.
They had been taken by surprise, that was clear enough.
There was a mug lying on the floor, a table with a design screen on it, the program still activated, and another personal screen smashed and lying near the wall.
They'd been relaxing, waiting for the Trailers to reach the extraction point, and the Caruso had swooped in.
Had they sent out an emergency signal?
Ben forced himself to wait until the scan was completed before he checked the control panels on the bridge.
It looked as though they had, but whether that was before or after the Caruso had taken out the comms satellite was unknowable.
Either way, the Arkhoran Special Forces ship VSCS Galaha was waiting for his own comm by latest five days from today, and when they didn't get it, they'd come looking.
In the meanwhile, he had his own job to do. He would need to engineer a situation where he could leave the group for awhile.
Either that, or stick to the original plan, and slip out of their camp after dark.
“You need help?” Lenny loomed in the doorway.
Ben nodded. They found the stasis bags and took care of storing the bodies.
“Leave them here? Inside?” Lenny asked.
Ben shrugged. “Better than outside.”
Lenny gave a grunt of agreement, looked down at the body at his feet. “We need to get the fuckers who did this.”
“That would mean going to war, because the Caruso aren't going to hand whoever was in that warship over.” Ben bent, and Lenny helped him lift the body and lay it alongside the others.
“Isn't that where we've been going since what happened on Garmen and Lassa?” Lenny asked.
“Maybe.” And maybe what he was looking for on Veltos would be what broke the fragile remains of peace.
He'd have to wait until he found the downed satellite he was looking for to find out.
Chapter 11
They sat around the camp fire for a second time.
It was early for a meal, but they hadn't slept in a full day, and everyone was showing signs of exhaustion.
Tally had never planned to impress and astound with the food she'd arranged. It had been partly a control issue, and partly a game with requisitions, but now she was glad she'd been able to serve up a spectacular dinner for their second night. A pall of sadness hovered over them all and the meal took everyone's minds off the bodies lying a short distance from where they were set up.
She kept to herself the fact that it was just going to get better. It had been great fun submitting her requests and wondering when the requisitioning staff were going to put their foot down.
Perhaps they'd had as much fun as her, and had been told to pander to her, because they hadn't so much as flinched.
She'd gotten everything she'd asked for.
“I thought last night's meal was a 'celebrate the first night on the Trail' thing. I didn't think it'd get better.” Lenny had already finished, and was leaning back, hand on his stomach as he patted it in satisfaction.
She grinned. “Maybe it will, maybe it won't.”
“Don't know how it could get better.” Ben leaned into the container she'd set by the fire and pulled out his dessert. He spooned up some of the spicy fruit with a sigh of happiness. “This a Raxian dish?”
She blushed a little, because when she'd been choosing the food, she'd been unwilling to take a chance on unfamiliar dishes from the other Verdant String planets. She realized now perhaps not everyone would be a fan of Raxian food. “Yes. Everything is Raxian. I hope you're all up for a Raxian culinary adventure.”
“So far, you've got me convinced.” Soo groaned as she set her half-finished bowl down, and at Lenny's look, passed it over to him.
“What's next for us?” Tally looked up at the sky. It was clear, the stars bright in a way they never were in the light-polluted cities of Raxia. They seemed like fat, sparkling gems hanging above her.
“We head toward Rainerville. Not at the nice, comfortable pace recommended for the Trail, but at the speed Commander Rainer and her team would have done.” Soo said it as if there was no question.
“And if the Caruso are there?” Frangi asked. “I mean, why would they shoot out the comms satellite and the runner if they wer
en't up to something on Veltos?”
“Might not be at Rainerville, though,” Irwin said. “There's plenty of places they could be on the planet.”
“Why did the Faldine rebels set up the base that's now the Trail's end where they did?” Tally asked. “What was it about that spot that it made sense to them to choose it?”
She sensed Ben's gaze on her, and when she turned her head, sure enough, he was looking her way.
“They chose it because it's on the far edge of the forest. That means there's plenty of open space on the plains for ships to land directly to the east, and there's a river that curves past the site, as well.”
“But that was when the Faldine rebels thought they had the planet to themselves.” Frangi waved a hand. “When they chose to ignore what was right, and establish an outpost even though they knew their presence would interfere with Veltos's biodiversity. It's not the same situation for the Caruso. The VSC has people at Rainerville now. The Caruso would have to deal with whoever is there.”
“The VSC science officers at the old base will have difficulty defending themselves from armed attack, especially with no access to communications,” Soo pointed out.
“And they have buildings and plumbing. Not to mention water from the river, which is actually rare on Veltos. There's a lot of rain in the forest, but the plains are pretty dry.” Ben leaned forward, elbows on knees. “But even if the Caruso have done the logical thing and taken the base, we still have to go there and check it out. We'll have to approach cautiously, but we need to know what they're up to if they are there.”
“They're there,” Soo said. “Bet you.”
Ben looked over at her and shook his head. “No bet.”
“How long until someone from the VSC ambles over to see what's happened to their satellite?” Frangi asked. “Longer than it will take for a pick-up to be sent to fetch us in two weeks?”
Soo lifted a shoulder. “It depends if someone's watching this area or not. If they've seen the Caruso around before, they'll send someone faster.”
“What're you thinking, Frangi?” Tally asked the question softly. Ever since they'd started talking about what to do next, her new friend had been clasping and unclasping her hands, battling with herself.
“I . . .” Frangi twisted her hands together. “I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say--”
“If you think there's any possibility it will help us out of this situation, say it.” Tally reached out and took Frangi's hands in hers, and she breathed in one, deep breath and then let it out on a sigh and a nod.
“I have a . . . friend . . . and he seemed to react when I told him I had made it onto the Trail team. I had the strong impression he started to say I'd be close to where he was, although I know close in space is a relative term. He thought better of it, changed the sentence halfway through, but I could have sworn that's what he was going to say.”
“What ship's he on?” Lenny asked.
She shook her head. “He didn't tell me.”
The way she said it, Tally understood that Frangi had been hurt by that.
“He said he was helping with a deep space repair job, and that the VSC doesn't like to say when any of its warships need extensive repairs, because that'd obviously make the ship a target.”
That made sense to Tally, but she could see Frangi hadn't really bought the excuse.
“You didn't believe him?” she asked.
From the quick look Frangi sent her, she got her answer.
Frangi hadn't believed him.
And it was tearing her apart.
“Why would he lie?” she asked. Then cursed herself at the sight of Frangi's pinched face.
“What's his name?” Ben asked, watching Frangi with that look he had, as if they were all far in the distance, rather than right beside him.
“You wouldn't know him,” Frangi shook her head. “He's Kalastoni.”
“I was involved in the mop-up in the aftermath of what happened on Cepi,” Ben said. “I might.”
“Oh.” Frangi looked flustered. “Linn Fraser.”
“I think I do. In comms?”
“Yes.” Frangi smiled at him, a brilliant smile. “He'll be amazed we were on the Trail together.”
Ben nodded, but Tally somehow got the impression Ben didn't think he would be amazed. Which made no sense.
“Why did you bring this up, though?” Irwin spoke for the first time, and Tally realized he'd been unusually silent.
“Oh.” Frangi gripped her hands again. “Linn didn't tell me his location, or the ship, but he gave me his call signature. And if he really is close by, then we don't need a comms satellite, do we? We can contact him direct.”
“You have his call signature?” Ben went even more blank-faced, and every hair on the back of Tally's neck stood up.
He was never so dangerous as he was now.
Oblivious, Frangi nodded. “He made me swear I wouldn't record it down anywhere. I had to keep it in my head.”
“You memorized it?” Ben's voice seemed a little less stark now.
She nodded again. “It's long, but fortunately I've got an excellent memory. I sent him a message already, when we arrived at the supply station.”
“Did you get a message back?” Irwin asked.
“No.” Frangi's lips thinned. “We didn't have time to wait for a return message. I did give him our call signature, though.”
“No message has come through from him.” Soo spoke slowly, but unlike Irwin, there was no derision in her voice. “But we've got time, and nothing to lose. Let's try him again.”
Frangi nodded.
“Tell him his friend Ben Guthrie says hello.” Ben tried to make the request sound casual, but Tally saw his hands fist and then release.
“We're sending out an emergency request for assistance, not a friendly catch-up,” Soo said, eyes narrowed.
“I'm a special forces captain,” Ben's voice was quiet. “If his superiors are inclined to ignore a message from Linn's friend, they may think twice if they know I'm in the mix.”
There was surprised silence.
“No problem,” Soo said, giving a decisive nod and then stepping back so Frangi could enter the signature and write a message.
“This is stupid,” Irwin said. “What are the chances they'd be close enough?”
“So what?” Lenny challenged him. “Not like we have a whole lot of other options. At least Frangi's way, we have a small chance.”
“Very small.” Frangi stepped back so Soo could close it all down. “If he was going to say he was close by, that could mean anything.”
“It's most definitely worth a try,” Tally told her. “Thank you for thinking of it.”
She glanced over at Ben again as Frangi sat down, but his face was still unreadable.
She didn't know if he was pleased with Frangi's actions, or angry. And it bothered her that she couldn't tell.
* * *
It was going to be too hard to take the team off the Trail to find the satellite without some uncomfortable questions.
Ben acknowledged that to himself as everyone said goodnight and settled into their tents.
They were all smart, well-trained and competent military personnel, and there was no way a communications expert like Soo wouldn't understand what she was looking at if she saw the satellite.
Which meant he had to go find it tonight.
The vibration of his alarm woke him after a solid four hours of sleep and he rolled silently to his feet, slipped into his boots and jacket, and stepped out of his tent.
The night was full of noise.
They were deep in the forest here, and the wind in the trees, the call of night birds, and the occasional death cry of their prey filled the air.
They had turned in early, so even with four hours of much needed sleep it was now just after midnight.
If his calculations were correct, that should get him to the downed satellite and back before anyone woke up. If his calculations weren't correct, he'd h
ave to come up with a plausible story.
He oriented himself with his wrist unit and set out, enjoying the cool night air and the silver cast of the moonlight.
He was an hour into his mission when a cry of panic and terror stopped him in his tracks.
He turned, because it had definitely come from behind him, and ran back toward it.
He nearly knocked Tally over as he raced through the darkness.
She was kneeling beneath a tree, and it looked as if she'd tripped over a rock.
She looked at him blindly for a moment, and then everything in her seemed to crumple.
“Ben.” She said his name with such relief, such trust, he fell to his knees beside her. “Where are we?”
He blinked. Then drew her shaking body against his own and held her close, running a soothing hand up and down her back.
“I thought this was over,” she whispered. “I'm sorry if I woke everyone.”
“Tally.” He drew back from her, but he could see no guile on her face, read no hint of a lie. “We're an hour from the camp.”
Her expression changed, closing down. “You followed me? Wouldn't I wake up?”
He rubbed a frustrated hand through his short, dark hair. “Tally, you followed me.”
Chapter 12
Tally walked behind Ben, throat tight with nausea. She wasn't sure whether it was embarrassment or exhaustion, but probably a combination of the two.
She had followed him.
Or rather, her creepy parasites had used her to follow him.
He was so clearly thrown by the thought that he, a special forces captain, hadn't heard her until she fell and woke up, she couldn't doubt the truth of it. She had no idea where they were, and nothing was familiar to her, but Ben obviously knew where he was going, forcing a path through the forest.
“Why did you sneak off?” She kept her voice low, addressing the question to his broad back.
“I'm not answering any questions until you tell me how you could follow me and not know you were doing it.” He didn't turn around.
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