“Yes,” he said warily. “He’s one of the best around, was nearly their Guild Master.” That wasn’t all they’d said, he remembered. He was the hardest bastard around and when he took training sessions, you’d better know your stuff because he took no prisoners. “You’re not going to tell me that her Leska is that same Kaid, are you? You are.” He shut his eyes briefly. “Shit!” Trust him to pick on the one woman on the whole estate who was his wife!
“He and the Clan Leader, Kusac Aldatan,” she confirmed. “Oh, you’ve nothing to worry about,” she chuckled. “Kaid isn’t mad at you, neither is Carrie now, despite being angry at the time. She’s already explained it wasn’t done intentionally.”
“He knows already?”
“He knows everything she does instantly,” Vanna confirmed. “Just as my Leska does.”
“That’s some link,” he muttered, gulping down a mouthful of coffee to steady his nerves.
“Yes,” said Vanna, a gentle smile on her face, “It is. However, I suggest you forget any romantic ideas you have about Carrie. She’s more than happy at the moment.”
“That obvious, huh?” he muttered.
“Only to me,” said Vanna, getting up. “I’m afraid Carrie hadn’t even noticed. If you want to apologize for giving her a headache, I suggest you leave it till second meal. She’ll still be over at the gym. Now I’m afraid I have to get back to my work.”
“Thanks,” he said as, taking her mug with her, she left.
At lunchtime, he headed over to the gym as usual but went to the front desk to ask which room she was in.
“Down the hall on the right,” said the Human behind the desk. “If they’re not there, you’ll find them in the gun range over there,” he pointed down the opposite corridor.
They had a gun range here? He was beginning to get the distinct impression that he’d completely underestimated Carrie. He’d seen what he thought was a young woman in an unhappy relationship with a Sholan, and had been attracted not only by her looks and what he’d seen of her personality, but by her vulnerability. From what Vanna had said, this was far from the case.
Given the noises coming from behind the door, the gym was occupied. He stepped inside carefully. As well as Carrie, who was now dressed in loose sweat trousers and top, there were three Sholans there. One he recognized as Kitra from her size and distinctive blonde coloring, the other two he wasn’t quite sure of as he couldn’t see their faces. From their size, both were males, one brown-coated, and the other one was gray.
The lighter of the two males was demonstrating a kick to the young female while Carrie was sparring with the darker male. He leaned against the wall, watching them. Her partner was launching a flurry of kicks and punches at her, at a speed almost too fast for his eyes to follow. Carrie, though backing off, was meeting them with blocks until she saw an opening and grabbed his arm. Moments later she had twisted him around so his back was against her chest and a knife he hadn’t seen her wearing was held to his throat.
The male froze, and as she instantly released him and backed off, the lighter male laughed and called out to them.
“She had you there, Dzaka. Don’t be afraid to use your strength on her, she’s tougher than she looks.”
He recognized them then. She’d been sparring with Kitra’s husband, and the other one had to be Kaid. He began to worry that he’d done the right thing by coming here.
Carrie turned to look at him. Her face creasing in a frown, she came over to him. “What is it now, Ray?” she asked.
“I won’t keep you long,” he said, pushing himself off the wall. “Just wanted to say sorry for giving you that headache. I didn’t realize fully how just touching you could be painful. Vanna explained it all to me.”
She grinned. “It’s okay, I managed to get rid of the headache quickly. Just remember you aren’t on Earth and we’re not Humans.”
He nodded, not knowing what to say next. “I suppose I’ll head off for lunch, then.”
“Good-bye,” she said, heading back to the others.
He made his way down the corridor back to the mess, realizing Vanna had been right. Nothing about Carrie was ordinary, even leaving aside her Telepathy, her eyes and her Sholan husbands. Damn, but she’d moved fast! And the way she’d stood up to Dzaka like that ... faced with a Sholan male that size, he couldn’t have stood his ground the way she had. As for pulling out the concealed knife ... He shook his head and sighed. No, she would never have been interested in him the way he’d have liked. She belonged to another world, the one she now lived on, not to his.
Toueesut’s house, night of Zhal-Mellasha 15th day (February)
Carrie stirred on the cushions, running through in her head the lists of everything she’d packed, trying to make sure she’d forgotten nothing just to keep her mind busy. She was missing her cubs already.
“They’ll be fine,” said Kaid quietly from beside her, his hand touching her thigh comfortingly. “Taizia and Meral will enjoy looking after them, and having playmates for their young one.”
She nodded, then jumped as a high-pitched beep sounded from Toueesut’s comm link.
A few, unusually short for him, trills and riffs of sound, and he was beaming at them. “We go outside now as they will be here for us in a few minutes.”
There was a general rustling as they got to their feet. Filing out into the night, they headed quickly down to the landing pad. They were traveling light, the last of their luggage having been taken to the Couana by Toueesut two days before when he’d checked his ship out.
The shuttle arrived first, doors opening as soon as it touched down. They piled in, diving for the seats as they heard the almost inaudible whine of the Couana approaching. Then their small craft was flooded by a blinding beam of light as it rose vertically into the air to dock in the tail section of the Couana high above them.
“Ray! You gotta see this!” Andy called out. “It’s a ship, an interstellar one! I’ve never seen anything this big around here before! And there’s a shuttle taking off from the landing pad!”
“What?” Ray was at his side in seconds, peering up at the bright lights hovering a couple of hundred feet above the end of the village. “Jesus! What the hell is that doing here?”
There was a loud banging at their door and Andy rushed to answer it. He was back a few minutes later, by which time the ship’s lights had gone out and the sound of the engines had grown to a skull-splitting whine as it began to accelerate. Moments later, it had vanished.
“That was one of the Brothers. We’re not to worry, it was a scheduled pickup. Seems there’s a mission on.”
Ray let the curtains drop, remembering the medical supplies Carrie and Vanna had been packing, and how Carrie had said good-bye to him when he’d spoken to her two days before.
“I think I know who’s gone and why,” he said.
“Yeah? Go on then, tell me,” said Andy.
He shook his head. “I don’t think that would be a good idea,” he said. “If they’re leaving in the middle of the night, then they don’t want anyone to know, do they? I don’t want to get on the wrong side of the Brotherhood.”
Andy shrugged. “Suit yourself. We’ll find out tomorrow anyway when we see who’s missing.”
“We staying in shuttle until out of Shola’s gravity as transferring would prevent Shaayiyisis from accelerating,” said Toueesut, looking round at them. “Speed is of essence now as we must leave orbit and rendezvous with our contact, the Tooshu, in order to further conceal ourselves from pursuit, and to finish off the modifications they were unable to do at the spaceport because of the eyes of the Brotherhood being upon everything unusual happening there.”
Kaid relaxed back against his seat and glanced at Carrie. “We’ll only be about fifteen minutes or so,” he said. “I know you hate the waiting, but relax, we’re on our way now.”
She nodded and lay back, closing her eyes.
Fifteen minutes later, they were in the Couana’s cargo bay, heading f
or the elevator up to deck two. First off had been their Suuman pilot, Ashay.
“Carrie! Kaid! And Jo!” exclaimed the young male, bouncing over to them. “Is good to see you!” He stopped beside them, his huge clawlike feet gripping the roughened surface of the cargo bay floor, his tail swinging carefully round behind him.
Carrie looked up at him as a large paw descended gently on her shoulder and the head, on its long, snakelike neck, lowered itself to her eye level. A large pink tongue flicked out to touch her cheek gently then retract.
“Ashay! You’ve grown again,” said Carrie, smiling with pleasure.
Ashay grinned, tilting his head on one side, exposing teeth almost as large as tombstones. “I will not grow much now for some years,” he said, lowering his eyelids in a coy expression. “I am now more careful because of that.”
She reached out to lay her hand along the side of his cheek, feeling the slightly dimpled reptilian skin warm beneath her touch. “It’s good to see you again.”
“I’m gunner now,” he said proudly as he removed his hand and turned to pace over to the elevator with her and Kaid. “Good enough not to hit wrong targets ever,” he chuckled.
“You were an excellent gunner on Jalna,” said Jo. “You didn’t hit the Hkariyash, did you?”
Ashay’s head swiveled round, neck lowering again to look at her as he gave his rumbling laugh. “No, not hit the Hkariyash,” he agreed.
On deck two, as Ashay headed up to the bridge, they were shown their quarters by Toueesut.
“You go with Garras, Jurrel, as your luggage we put in his cabin. It will only be a few hours till we rendezvous but you will maybe want to rest and check you have all you should before you are transferring to the Tooshu,” said the Touiban.
“How long will this refit take?” asked Kaid as the others headed off to their cabins.
“A day but the Tooshu will be taking us toward Haven so no time will we be losing.”
A shout of surprise interrupted them and they turned to see what had happened. They could hear a loud voice, but it was muted by the interior so they couldn’t make out the words.
“Curious,” said Kaid, heading slowly toward the iris that separated them from T’Chebbi’s and Garras’ cabins.
Garras emerged dragging by the ears a very subdued Zsurtul and a young Sholan. “Look what I found hiding in my cabin,” he growled.
“I had to come,” exclaimed the young Prince, eyes scrunched up in pain. “It is my responsibility to see you find Kusac safely. Please let my ear go, Garras, this is very painful!”
Kaid signaled him to let the Prime youth go and adjusted his features so his ears were sideways in anger and his brows creased and meeting above his nose.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing stowing away on this ship?” he demanded. “You lied to us when you said you were going to your Embassy at Shanagi, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Zsurtul, straightening up and rubbing his abused ear. “I knew you wouldn’t take me with you, but I had to go! It is a matter of honor, Kaid. You understand that, don’t you? It is my fault this happened for saying nothing about the Doctor’s scent marker on Kusac.”
“We’ll talk about that later,” interrupted Carrie, seeing the interested looks on the faces of the rest of the team. “Right now we’re concerned about you stowing away. As for you, Valden ...” She left the rest unsaid and glowered at him angrily. “You realize we can’t send you home, now, don’t you?”
The Prince nodded. “That was the point,” he said. “We brought our luggage with us,” he said brightly. “Valden helped me board the Couana. I can help you. Kezule will recognize my authority and it will make matters easier to get Kusac back as well as this cub, who’s probably his son.”
“I think you should start that briefing you promised us,” said Rezac, glancing at Kaid. “Seems there’s a lot about this mission you left out.”
“I intended to,” said Kaid. “The rec room here is forward on this block, you can’t miss it—the head and showers are opposite. Meet me there in quarter of an hour. Garras, can Zsurtul bunk in with you when we’re on the Tooshu?”
Garras nodded. “I’ll see our little krolla behaves himself, trust me,” he said menacingly.
“What about me?” asked Valden plaintively, head tilted to one side to lessen the pain in the ear Garras still gripped tightly between his thumb and forefinger.
“I’ll deal with this tree-rhudda,” said Jurrel menacingly, reaching out to take the hapless youngling’s ear from Garras.
“See you do,” growled Kaid, his tone angry as he turned and headed off back the way they’d come. “Zsurtul, come with me.” I’ll handle this, Carrie. You check our personal gear is all there.
Once in the rec room, the door shut behind them, he rounded on Zsurtul. “This is not the behavior of a responsible adult, Zsurtul! Have you stopped to think of what could happen if you were injured, or we are attacked by our own people? It would cause an interplanetary incident that would rock the Alliance to its foundations !”
Zsurtul braved it out, his gaze not flinching from Kaid’s. “I know this,” he said quietly. “I took it all into consideration before deciding I had to come no matter the risk. As I said, it is my duty, Kaid. Had I spoken out earlier, then perhaps there would have been no need for Kusac to meet with Kezule at all.”
“That’s not true and you know it!” Kaid snapped. “Yes, we might have been able to do something about the marker, but Kezule would still have found the cubs and left your world, so the rendezvous would still have happened.”
He hissed in exasperation, making Zsurtul take a step back in shock. “You don’t know what a difficult position you place me in! Already I’ve had to take two extra people, and now you! And frankly, you’re a liability, at least the other two aren’t.”
“I know I’m not that good at fighting, but I am learning, and there will still be a need for diplomacy. That I can do,” he said. “It could be very beneficial having me along when you hope to meet so many Primes from my world.”
“You’re not coming with us so get that notion out of your head right now! You and Valden will stay on the Tooshu with Jurel! What possessed you to take Valden with you in the first place? Neither of you have the sense you were born with!”
As Zsurtul opened his mouth, Kaid held up his hand. “I don’t want to hear it! Now get out of here before I decide to slap the pair of you in the brig!”
Zsurtul left hurriedly, only to return and hover in the doorway moments later. “Where shall I go?” he asked quietly.
“To Garras’ cabin and stay there!” roared Kaid, thoroughly exasperated.
Kij’ik Outpost, same evening
In the main assembly hall, and in the recs, the wall screens were all showing the scene as the N’zishok loosed the towing cables and set the Zan’droshi free into its final fast-decaying orbit round the gas giant. As the N’zishok turned and began to head home, they could see the ancient ship start to disappear into the planet’s envelope. Clapping broke out spontaneously from the original colonists, joined a few seconds later by the newcomers.
Banner turned aside as Kusac did. “Thank the Gods that’s finally over,” he said. “Only four more weeks to go. I know you’re working with the Ch’almuthians, but what are we doing now?”
“I’m putting you in charge of assessing the newcomers and tailoring a training program to suit them,” said Kusac as they made their way through the jostling crowd to the tables laid with snack foods and jars of ale and kheffa. “You’ll talk Kezule’s commandos through it and watch them implement it for the first week, then report to me. After that, we’ll decide what needs to be done next.”
Banner nodded as they stopped to pick up plates then help themselves to the various delicacies. “Do you want to check my program first?”
“No. You saw how I worked the last ones, this is completely up to you. You’ve had the experience, and as you pointed out, you’ve got the seniority.” He smiled
briefly at his Second. “Show me what you can do.”
Banner tilted his head slightly to one side. “I can take that Challenge,” he said confidently. “Whose idea was the celebration? Yours?”
He nodded. “I’ve told Kezule his colonists need excuses to celebrate. Since they aren’t planet-bound, there’s no cycle of weather or growing, so he has to take advantage of events on the Outpost. Like this, the successful completion of a task involving nearly everyone here.”
“Good idea. It’s exactly what we all need.”
The sound of a few practice rolls on drums, followed by small passages of music from various pipes and flutelike instruments cut through the general babble of conversation.
“Music, too?” said Banner. “Another of your ideas—and no doubt dancing, I’ll wager.”
He grinned. “That idea came from the colonists. Preparing for this gave me the opportunity to get them to really start mixing. Luckily, M’kou thought to ask the Ch’almuthians to bring any instruments they had with them. I would have asked but I was somewhat out of it at the time,” he said. “I’ve had them running practice music sessions and dancing classes in the evenings down on their side of the Outpost. They have a great many folk dances they were only too happy to teach to the Primes. It was in the news sheets, surely you read about it?”
“Probably,” Banner said. “So that’s what you’ve been doing down there with them?”
“They have a culture worth passing on,” he said. “Kezule’s people are looking for one, so why not use theirs? No point in me reinventing the wheel.”
His last sentence was drowned out by a single long note on the klaxon, followed by the Outpost intercom announcing tersely, “General Kezule to the bridge. General Kezule to the bridge.”
“Isn’t he on the N’zishok?” asked Banner.
“No, he’s around here somewhere. He had M’kou and Zaykkuh take her out. Wonder what’s up.” He scanned the room to see how the military members of the colony were responding but so far, there was no reaction from them. “I take it their hand comm units are on the blink again.
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