Dark Minds (Class 5 Series Book 3)

by Michelle Diener

  “You're using one of the drones as a lens feed? Aren't you scared they'll shoot it?” she asked Paxe. When the drone that had collected her and the captain and brought them to the ship's armory had remained inside with them, she'd been relieved. It meant they would still be able to speak to Paxe.

  For him to give them a view of the action was even better, easing the sense of powerlessness she'd felt since they'd been shut in here.

  “No. I had the drones place the damaged drone you saw in the kitchen against one of the walls. It looks as if it's already been destroyed, but the lens works well enough.”

  “Sneaky,” she said with a grin and Kalor gave her a sidelong look. He didn't look happy.

  “Problem?” she asked.

  “No,” he said. “It's good strategy.”

  He looked stressed, and she wondered what the protocol was for him in a situation like this, as a Grihan officer. He had no resources, and if he wasn't exactly a captive, he was at least at Paxe's mercy.

  But for her, he could have been far away with his team.

  “I really am sorry about hurting you and Pren, you know. That you missed getting away with your crew.” She'd said it before, but they'd both been distracted at the time. “When you snuck up behind me . . .”

  “The mistake was ours.” His leg brushed hers again and he went still. “We didn't realize you were armed and we didn't want to make any noise, in case there were other Krik nearby. Pren thought to touch your arm, and let you know to keep quiet. Given the circumstances, we should have realized how that would have seemed to you, with us coming from behind.”

  She saw he meant it——his face serious, with no hint of anger in his eyes——and she smiled in relief. “Thanks. That's gracious of you.”

  The smile he returned was the first she'd seen from him, and there was a wry amusement in his eyes. “Don't feel guilty. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.”

  “Stuck on a murderous Class 5 with an alien?” She raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

  “At the center of a major incident between the Grih and the Tecran,” he countered. “As a Battle Center officer, I should be here, and as a UC investigator, the scope of my mission includes protecting you.”

  She looked over at him. “You didn't even know who I was.”

  He inclined his head. “True, we thought we were going to find and protect Fiona Russell, but you're included in that protection. I wouldn't have left you here anyway, and the United Council cruiser we came on was much safer leaving, so no matter what happened, this is where I'd be.”

  “But Pren would have stayed with you. And maybe Diot.”

  He thinned his lips, then nodded, that wry look still in his eyes. “Because this is Grihan territory, it's routine for the UC to appoint a Grihan to lead the investigative team. But we're investigating the charge that the Garmman were holding Fiona Russell captive, so they appointed Vraen as my second.”

  “And he thought he should be leading you?” She'd sensed a deep resentment in the Garmman.

  He lifted his head in surprise. “Yes. How did you know that?”

  “I could see he thought he should be in charge. You know he's the reason they left you here? He ordered the pilot crew to leave over the objections of your other colleagues.”

  Kalor shrugged. “I think he did the right thing, getting everyone to safety.”

  She huffed out a laugh. “And just coincidentally, he's now in control of the team.”

  Kalor grinned. “That would have been a nice bonus for him. But Diot, Pren, and Olan are not his biggest fans, so I don't think he can get up to much.”

  It was reassuring, really, that there was politics, one-upmanship and internal game playing no matter where you went in the universe.

  She realized they were still staring at each other, a grin on both their faces, and by the look of it, Kalor realized it, too.

  He drew back a little and then turned to the projection, and skin tingling, so did she.

  But the Tecran were still searching the launch bay and looking over the Krik vessels mixed in among the Class 5's own runners. They seemed excited about one of them, but Imogen couldn't see an obvious reason.

  They watched the feed in silence.

  “Why the armory?” Kalor suddenly asked. He practically seethed with banked energy now, although he sat perfectly still, hands in fists on his thighs. She'd have thought him relaxed, except she could see the whites of his knuckles.

  Paxe didn't respond, either because he'd left the drone in auto mode or he didn't want to share his secrets with Kalor.

  But to hell with that. Kalor deserved to know that they were at least safe in here. “I'm guessing it's because he can lock the door and they can't force him to open it.” She spoke slowly, giving Paxe a chance to tell her to keep quiet.

  Kalor stood, the move explosive.

  One moment he was sitting beside her, the next, he loomed over the bench, fingers tapping the empty holster strapped to his thigh.

  She flinched, and he went still again, widening his stance to what she guessed was an at-ease position to calm her. He was just so big. Everything about him was honed, the physicality of him filling the space, crowding it.

  “How do you know the Tecran can't get in here?” He tried to speak gently, but the natural roughness of his voice made it sound like he was whispering sweet nothings to her.

  She tried to shrug, but she didn't know if she pulled the nonchalance off. “Paxe can protect himself, the Tecran wrote that into the system themselves. If they got into the armory, they could do the Class 5 and him harm, so he's able to stop them doing that.”

  “The same way he was able to break free when they tried to fit the self-destruct.” Kalor looked over at the drone. Hesitated. “Paxe told me I can say what I like to you. Does that mean he's told you what he is? What's going on?”

  She realized he was wondering if Paxe was going to shoot him again.

  “He's told me what he is. But as to what's going on? I still have no idea.” She held his gaze. “If you can tell me that, I'd be in your debt.”

  He looked sidelong at the drone again. “Did you mean it when you said I can say what I like?”

  The drone didn't respond, but Imogen could tell when Paxe was in control and when the drone was on auto, and she was pretty sure he was listening. Messing with Kalor's head by not answering.

  No love lost there, on either side, she realized, when she saw Kalor's gaze narrow.

  “If he said it, he meant it,” she said, giving the drone a dirty look. “He hasn't lied to me yet.”

  “To you, maybe.” Kalor kept watching the drone, and then turned suddenly, looking at the range of weapons neatly held in brackets on the wall. He reached out, took a shockgun, and slid it into the holster on his leg, shoving it home with an defiant thump.

  The drone did nothing, and eventually he relaxed. As much, she guessed, at having a weapon again as Paxe allowing him to take one. It seemed to reassure him that Paxe was serious in his promise not to shoot him again.

  They hadn't been watching the lens projection for a while, and she turned to it, saw the Tecran had finished in the launch bay, and had opened the doors. They'd brought a team of ten, and the soldiers covered each other as they stepped into the passage and out of sight of the lens feed.

  “Can you follow them?” she asked Paxe. The drone she recalled lying in front of the food storage room in the kitchen had seemed incapable of moving.

  The feed went black, and then flickered on again, this time from a perspective which seemed to be in the midst of the group. She could see the back of Tecran soldiers, and caught glimpses of others to the right and left.

  “You hacked into a lens on someone's shirt.” She didn't hide the admiration in her voice.

  Kalor made a sound, but when she looked over at him, his eyes were on the projection.

  “Where are they going?” he asked.

  “The bridge.” The way Paxe said it, Imogen had the sense he was pleased a
bout that, which meant the Tecran were either wasting their time, or he'd set some trap for them there.

  Kalor frowned, and Imogen was caught by his focus. He was absorbing everything, she realized, tucking each bit of information away, to report back later.

  “Are the Tecran in trouble for this?” She'd asked him to tell her what was going on, and then they'd been distracted by what the Tecran were doing, but she might as well start getting some answers, building up a picture.

  “They're in Grihan territory, with no Grihan escort.” He looked at the drone.

  “No escort. It's just this Class 5 and a Levron battleship.”

  “Then yes, they're in Grihan territory without permission, something they did a month ago, and for which they are currently being sanctioned by the United Council. That they would do so again when they're in such a delicate position . . .” Words seem to fail him.

  “They don't have any other Class 5s left. They either get Paxe back or they've got nothing.”

  He'd been watching the Tecran slip into a stairwell and start climbing, but now he swung back to her, face slack with shock. “None?”

  She shrugged. “Paxe said the last one they had has gone missing. It was following him for a while, but it disappeared a couple of days ago and the others are either on your side, or destroyed.”

  “Maybe he just can't find it anymore. It doesn't mean it's disappeared.” His hand tightened around the stock of his shockgun.

  “He's been listening in on the Tecran. They're panicking about it, so he thinks it's also gone rogue.”

  “And no matter what they think, Paxe has too.”

  She nodded.

  Something like glee crossed his face and then he looked back at the Tecran team making their cautious way to the bridge. “Let's hope they don't figure it out before Paxe deals with them, because when they do, they'll have nothing left to lose.”

  Chapter 18

  The Class 5s had all gone rogue.

  Cam would have laughed out loud, wanted to, but there were downsides to it, as well.

  Paxe had tried to blow up Larga Ways, after all. Without a second thought.

  The reason why thinking systems were banned, the history lessons taught to every Grihan child about the Thinking System Wars, was writ large in everything Paxe had done up until now.

  And yet, Imogen continued to treat him with a friendliness, an affection, he didn't deserve, and which disturbed Cam on the deepest level.

  Every time she praised Paxe for his strategy with the Tecran, or interceded between Paxe and himself, she did so with a warmth that seemed a betrayal of Cam himself.

  Which was crazy.

  Imogen didn't know about the taboo against thinking systems in Grihan society, and if she treated Paxe like a person, rather than a dangerous entity with no morals or conscience, that was because she was literally from another part of the universe.

  And yet, he was hard-pressed not to say anything every time she and Paxe interacted.

  He shifted from the projected lens feed Paxe was providing and looked over at her.

  She sat on the bench, elbows on her thighs, chin resting on her clasped hands as she leaned forward to look at the feed.

  She was wearing the new clothes Paxe had given her; knee-high boots, and a soft-flowing tunic and pants. Something about the clothes made him think they were made of Cargassey cloth. It was traditionally never dyed, so all Cargassey cloth was a pale blue, shimmering to green when the light caught it differently. Imogen shifted, and the deep green of virgin forest winked back at him from a sea of pale blue.

  Except the Cargassey didn't sell their cloth.

  It was illegal for it to even leave their planet, so this was either the result of a bribe or some other corruption, or the Tecran had stolen it.

  They'd stolen a grahudi from the Fitali, so he guessed theft was the most likely explanation. And in this case, he was glad.

  Cargassey cloth was as good as some armor at deflecting shockgun fire. The reeds the fibers came from had developed a resistance to the tiny insects that used electric shocks to burn holes in woody stems to lay their eggs.

  If the Grih could, they'd outfit every soldier in Battle Center with a set of clothes made of the stuff.

  But the Cargassey swamps the reeds grew in were small and few, and choosing to supply one nation rather than another had become such a diplomatic nightmare, they'd decided no one could buy it but the Cargassey military.

  And now, Imogen had a set.

  Paxe may be a killer, but he was protective of Imogen.

  Cam still couldn't understand the dynamic between them.

  It was the same with the hidden holster Paxe had obviously had made for her. With her bent forward like she was, he could just see the shape of the cylinder——the whip, she called it——underneath the loose swing of her tunic against the small of her back. Unless you knew what to look for, it was invisible, and when she was standing, he guessed you wouldn't be able to see it at all.

  Paxe was taking care of her, and helping her arm herself.

  It was obvious he had formed some kind of connection with her, where he had none with anyone else.

  “They've reached the bridge.” Imogen spoke with her usual smooth, musical delivery, and it took him a moment to understand what she'd said.

  He needed to be sharper than usual around her. Her voice, everything about her, distracted him in a way he'd never experienced, and if ever he needed all his wits about him, it was now.

  He turned to look, saw the Tecran moving in formation, watching each other's backs as they opened the double doors to what was clearly the control center of the ship.

  But not all of them entered. Half stepped through, the other half turned away, jogging at a fast clip back the way they'd come.

  “Where are they going?” Imogen asked.

  “I think I can guess.” There was a nervous tension in Paxe's answer.

  The team disappeared, and the feed spun back to the bridge, as the officer whose lens they were looking through turned and stepped through after his colleagues.

  “Can you hack into one of the lenses on the group that went a different way?” Cam asked.

  “I can, but I won't show it to you.” Paxe kept his words clipped.

  Imogen turned to look at the drone, and Cam had the sense she understood why he wouldn't let them watch the other team.

  “What do you want to do?” She put out a hand, and touched the drone as if offering comfort to Paxe himself.

  “I don't know.” There was a coldness, a hard edge to his words, and to Cam, he sounded just like the thinking systems he'd been warned about as a child.

  “They won't harm you. You're all they have left.” She bit down on her bottom lip as she spoke.

  “What's going on?” Cam ignored the lens feed on the bridge, his attention fixed on the interaction between Imogen and Paxe. Something was obviously very wrong.

  “Paxe suspects they are going to the room where he is, and that they could destroy him.” The face she turned up to him was drawn with concern.

  That didn't sound that terrible to him.

  “Attention, Captain Kalor.”

  The words, in a heavy Tecran accent, came through the comms system built into the ceiling of the armory, and Cam spun to look at the feed the drone was projecting on the wall.

  A Tecran officer was standing at the captain's helm, speaking into a comms unit.

  “We have intercepted your team on the UC Fast Cruiser Hailimon and know you are onboard. We also understand both from your colleagues and from the presence of a specific Tecran runner from our Balco facility in this launch bay that you have Imogen Peters with you, or that she is also onboard somewhere.”

  “That's what they were so excited about in the launch bay,” Imogen said quietly. “The runner the Krik took me from must have been parked there.”

  “We understand you might not be able to respond through the comms system, but if you do not present yourself on the b
ridge in fifteen minutes, we will be forced to fire on the Hailimon.”

  “Are you recording this, Paxe?” Cam stared at the Tecran officer as the soldier whose lens Paxe was using moved around the room.

  “Yes.” Paxe sounded interested. “Why do you want it?”

  “They have just threatened to commit a war crime. To violate their oath of non-violence to any official UC vessel and crew.”

  “This will harm them?”

  “It will get them expelled from the UC.” It was hard to get the words past his throat.

  “I have lifted the comms ban and sent it to Battle Center, then.”

  “They can't stop it?”

  “No. They weren't quick enough, and it was encrypted, so they don't know what it was.” Paxe sounded a little more cheerful. “I'll leave the comms open. There's no point in keeping it shut down now.”

  “Can you tell Battle Center you believe all the Class 5s have gone rogue?” He didn't know he'd ever wanted a favor as big as this.

  “I can't be completely sure about the other Class 5.”

  “You can say that. That you're not sure, but that the Tecran are worried. If the Grih know they most likely won't be facing another Class 5 in battle, they'll get here faster because they won't need as much back-up.”

  “And how will that help me?” Paxe's tone remained cool.

  “The Grih have taken Sazo in as an ally, and they've accepted Bane as a neutral party. There is no reason why they can't do the same with you, according to what you want.” He never, ever thought he'd be negotiating with a Class 5 to join Battle Center.

  Ever.

  But there was no getting around the directive from Admiral Hoke since Sazo had joined them. The five thinking systems the Tecran had activated were awake, and living within UC borders. Either they made peace with them, or they threw themselves into another Thinking Systems War. Hoke had chosen cooperation and alliance if at all possible. As a Battle Center officer, Cam was duty-bound to offer Paxe a place, no matter how dangerous he thought him.

  And Hoke was right. He would be dangerous regardless. If he was an ally to the Grih, they may just make it out unscathed.