“It's a good idea, I'll send one off,” Oris said.
Cam was standing below Imogen, looking at the screen, and he leaned forward. “Can you zoom in, Oris?”
The Tecran were suddenly close enough to touch. In front of them was a grouping of much smaller craft, and Imogen slid off the captain's chair and walked closer.
“Those are the traders and mining vessels that Paxe allowed to leave.”
“And the UC fast cruiser with my crew.” Cam pointed it out.
The UC fast cruiser was by far the largest of the vessels huddled together in front of the Tecran fleet, but it was dwarfed by the battleships. It had taken point position, facing the Tecran, with the other ships dotted in a haphazard fashion behind it like bedraggled survivors.
The Illium arrived at last from its light-jump, moving into place between Sazo and Oris.
“I'm being hailed.” Hal's voice came through the comms.
“I like how they wait for a Grihan ship before they try to talk. What are you and Sazo, chopped liver?” Imogen was insulted on Oris's behalf.
This whole thing seemed so very medieval to her. Sides lining up against each other, a few refugees and hostages in the middle, horse trading and jockeying for advantage. That it was all happening in space, with vessels beyond a medieval knight's imagining, didn't seem to make that much difference.
The knight would have grasped the strategy just fine.
She realized there was silence and turned from the screen to see Cam looking at her, bemused.
“Chopped liver?” Hal Vakeri asked, tentatively, as if he must have misheard.
“Of no account,” Rose translated for her, voice laced with amusement. “I'm so very glad you're here, Imogen.”
Imogen smiled.
“Let's answer that hail.” Dav forced them back to the reality before them.
Imogen frowned as she watched the screen. “Do you see what I'm seeing?”
Cam shook his head. “What?”
“One of the little trading vessels that were there,” she pointed to the place on the screen, “has gone.”
While she was speaking, another tiny vessel drifted almost nonchalantly to the right, disappearing off the screen.
“They're slipping away, while the Tecran's focus is on us,” Cam said. “I'm assuming my team is coordinating this, because the ones on the outer edge are going first.”
“The less civilians involved in this the better.” Dav, traveling with Rose in Sazo's Class 5, was approving.
“Captain Carro of the Levron battleship Diatr is getting impatient.” Hal didn't sound particularly concerned.
“We'd better let them talk.” Cam's eyes were firmly on the part of the screen that held the small array of hostage vessels.
“Captain Carro.” Hal's voice took on a clipped, formal tone.
“Who am I talking to?” The Tecran's voice was calm enough, no sign of the screech they sometimes had when tempers flared. Imogen had heard her fair share of arguments when she'd been on Balco.
“This is Captain Vakeri of the Illium. You are in breach of our treaty, being in Grihan territory without permission or cause. Leave immediately.”
There was a moment of silence. “There are two Class 5s with you, Captain.”
“Yes.”
“They are our cause. You have taken them, and we want them back.”
“But we haven't taken them,” Hal said. “We don't claim any ownership over them at all.”
Carro did not answer straight away. “Then why are they here?”
“Sazo has chosen to integrate himself into Grihan society. Oris is here for revenge against you for injuries done to him.”
Another silence.
Imogen didn't blame him. The idea of Oris bent on revenge was frightening.
“And the Fitalian battleship?” Carro's voice rose a little.
“That's nothing to do with the Grih.” Hal was clearly enjoying himself. “Oris came across it, again, in our airspace, and was able to take control of its systems. I suppose you can consider it an extension of him.”
Without warning, a shot was fired from one of the Levron, arcing over the UC fast cruiser and cutting off the surreptitious sneaking of another small trader.
“You do realize that is a United Council vessel, Captain Carro?” Hal's voice was mild, and Imogen admired him for it. “Even firing a warning shot carries consequences.”
Cam was riveted to the screen. He would know everyone onboard that ship. His hands curled and uncurled at his side, his arms flexing as if he would like to throw himself into a fight.
He looked magnificent and her heart gave a painful skip.
“How's the listening drone coming along?” she asked Oris quietly, even though she knew Carro couldn't hear her.
“Still half an hour until it locks on to Paxe's hull. If the Tecran don't see it and destroy it before then.”
“How likely is that?” Cam half-turned away from the screen, as if he couldn't look any more.
“It depends on whether they——”
“We have an incoming message from Eazi and Fiona.” Sazo's voice spoke over Oris's.
“I've cut Captain Carro off, so you can talk freely,” Oris told Hal.
“Fiona?” Hal couldn't hide his fear.
He'd fought for her to stay behind, and Imogen knew it was because he thought she'd be safer there. He'd only won because Eazi had come down on his side. They'd both convinced Fiona she would be able to help more on Larga Ways, keeping watch on what was happening on Balco, which seemed to have become the center of this strange battle.
“I'm afraid we have a problem.” Fiona appeared on the screen. She angled her body, and pointed upward.
Two massive Fitalian battleships dominated the lens feed above the gel dome.
“They aren't friendly,” Eazi said. “I can confirm that they both have weapons locked onto the way station.”
“Oris, put me through to Captain Leto. Visual comms.”
Cam could see the battleships above Larga Ways were the same type as the one Leto commanded.
That they would send three of their best ships after a single grahudi did not make sense. So there was something else going on. They were acting for the Tecran——it was the only logical conclusion——but Cam knew Leto. Knew she'd been outraged at the revelations of the Tecran's Class 5 project, of their abduction of advanced sentient life, and at their incursion into Grihan territory two months ago.
She had not been acting. He was sure of it.
Which meant she would not be comfortable with what the Fitali were doing now. That she had been ordered to shoot him had to have gone against everything she professed.
“Suri.” He bowed when Oris connected them, using Leto's first name, just to remind her of the meals they'd shared together at UC headquarters.
“Captain Kalor.” Her voice was cool and professional, keeping the distance between them.
“What is going on?” Cam tried to relax his stance, asking as if he were enquiring about the health of a mutual friend.
Leto went stiff. “Why are you asking?”
“I'm asking because there are two Fitali battleships ranged over Larga Ways, weapons hot. And before they submit their demands, and are unable to take anything back, I thought I'd try and help them.”
Leto jerked as if she'd been shot. “One moment.” She leaned forward and turned off the screen, but he could hear a low murmur in the background.
“Can you make out what they're saying?” he asked Oris quietly. He was very aware of Imogen standing just to one side, out of lens view, her eyes on him.
He looked over at her, and she held his gaze, solemn and quiet. He had wanted her to stay on Larga Ways with Fiona. Had argued with her about it, and only given in when both she and Oris had reminded him that if Paxe was with the Tecran fleet, she would be the only one he would trust.
Now he wanted to hold her close and kiss her in relief that she had refused to listen to him.
&n
bsp; Not that she was much better off facing the Tecran, but she had more chance in Oris than under Larga Ways' gel dome. And he was here, and he wasn't letting her out of his sight.
“Captain Leto thinks she's switched off audio and visual comms, forgetting I control her bridge. I've allowed her to send a communication to her leaders in the Horde. She must know I can hear what's being said, but she's obviously decided to take that chance to find out what's going on. And it suits us to know what they have to say.” Oris must have reactivated the visual comms, because they saw Leto turned slightly to the left, looking up as if addressing someone on a screen above head height.
“What are they saying?”
Leto did not look happy. Cam had never seen her so upset. But she needed to argue less, to hurry. Those battleships above Larga Ways were going to make a move soon.
“Apparently, the Tecran have got proof of something the Fitali are doing on Huy. They're using it to extort support.”
“Something the Tecran discovered when they were there stealing the grahudi?” Imogen frowned.
“Even more than that. From what I'm hearing, they stole some information when they took the grahudi. The notes and observations of a team of scientists on Huy. When the Fitali realized what had been taken, they went looking for the grahudi in the hope that the information would be in the same place. But the scouts were captured, and the grahudi seems to have disappeared. Now the Tecran are demanding they give them assistance or the Fitali will be exposed.”
“What were they doing on Huy?” Cam tried to think of what the rigid, ordered Fitali could be guilty of.
“Whatever it is, they think it will shock their own people, and it may get them suspended from the United Council. They're facing massive loss of face and shame.” Oris paused. “The Tecran have demanded they hold Larga Ways to ransom in return for myself and Sazo being handed over.”
“But . . .” Imogen looked at him with big eyes, “the Grih can't hand Oris and Sazo over. Even if they wanted to, they don't have any power to do it.”
“And we will not go.” Oris was implacable.
Cam realized his hands were in tight fists. They would have to find another way out of this. Hal would be listening to this, Dav, too, and they would all know the stakes.
Either they found a way to bring the Fitali over, or they were looking at the start of a war.
Leto said something sharp and angry, and then turned back to the screen, reached out as if to turn it on, and then seemed to realize it already was.
She blinked. “You heard that?” She didn't waste time being angry about it.
“We did. What do they have on you, Suri?” Over the last day, Cam had felt angry at Leto, disappointed, and confused, but now he realized sympathy was uppermost.
She looked devastated. Whatever front she'd put up before when they'd run into each other behind Gu-gijeron had vanished. Now she simply seemed beaten down.
“It was a group of four scientists at the Huy outpost. They began as a team sent to evaluate the likely success of making Huy habitable for the Fitali. Our numbers are growing, and we can terra-form plenty of the planets in our territory, but Huy already had a wide array of life, which always means the terra-form is quicker and more efficient.”
“What happened?” Cam asked.
“They decided to run a test. It wasn't approved, and I'm not sure why they did it. They thought they would be vindicated by their results, perhaps? It's inexplicable, but there's no denying they began experimenting. And the organisms on Huy reacted.”
“The grahudi,” Imogen breathed the word, and although Leto couldn't see her on the lens feed, she turned in the direction of Imogen's voice.
“The grahudi,” she confirmed, grim. “They have a fast life cycle, and they changed rapidly, seemed to advance in ways that took the scientists by surprise.” She shook her head. “They'd always been predators, but they became super-predators. And the scientists found that out first hand.” She looked down at her feet. Then looked up again, and Cam could see the anger in her eyes. “Every single one of them was killed.”
“It was weeks before someone realized the team wasn't answering comms, hadn't reported in. When a new team got there, they found the terra-forming tech running without any oversight, the gruhudi elevated at least to the level of crude tools, and not a single Fitali alive.”
“And there was your problem. If the grahudi were coming into advanced sentience, you couldn't take the planet for the Fitali.” The irony of it was incredible. Cam caught Leto's gaze and she nodded.
“The problem is, Huy is perfect. The terra-forming did its job. But now we had the grahudi running amok, starting to speak in a type of sign language, and forming communities.”
“The Sentient Being Agreement meant you had to leave the planet alone.”
“The Sentient Being Agreement would have damned us for artificially advancing the grahudi, as well.” Leto shrugged. “It was a disaster whichever way you looked at it. Until . . .” She shook her head. “Until they realized the grahudi were killing each other off.”
“They were going to war with each other?” Cam tried to grasp it.
“As the terra-forming took hold, it started changing the environment faster than the grahudi could keep up. Resources they needed became scarcer and scarcer, and they started killing each other to survive. Someone high up in the Horde decided to wait it out.”
“Let them kill each other off, and then the last few would die when the terra-forming was complete?” Imogen spoke again, and this time, she stepped into the lens frame.
“Yes.” Leto eyed her curiously. “We managed to shoot a tracking chip into most of them, but the Tecran stole one, along with a console containing most of the information I've just given you.”
“Have they shown you proof that they have this information still?” Imogen asked Leto.
Cam turned to look at her, surprised.
“No. But we know they have it.”
“They don't have the grahudi anymore. It was killed when the Tecran's facility was destroyed by one of the Class 5s.”
Leto nodded. “One of the battleships above Larga Ways has confirmed the facility is gone, and the tracker was destroyed, so we're sure the grahudi is dead, but the Tecran insist the Class 5 that stole the grahudi never sent the consol down with it to the facility. They still have it.”
“Which Class 5 was it?” Cam felt his heart beat faster. If it was Oris, the information could be right here.
“Paxe,” Imogen told him, remembering that Oris had said it wasn't him, which meant Paxe was the only one left. She went very still and then looked straight at him, eyes wide. “I think I know where that consol is.”
Chapter 37
“What if I told you the Tecran don't actually have access to that consol?” Imogen watched Leto's face, but the Fitali was so difficult to read.
She had considered asking Oris to cut the Fitali captain off while she discussed this with the others, but they didn't have the time.
Leto closed her eyes, opened them. “We would be interested to hear what you have to say.”
“I've been on the Class 5 which took your grahudi, and I know where the consol is hidden.”
Cam was standing close to her, his shoulder brushing hers as she moved, and she knew the moment he understood what she was talking about. The look he sent her was piercing.
“You mean, I take it, hidden from the Tecran?” Leto sounded confused.
“The Class 5 is run by a thinking system, Paxe, who is at war with the Tecran who are trying to control him. He knew the consol was important to them, that they were using it to further their aims. Paxe wants to thwart them in any way he can, so he hid it. I watched the Tecran hunt for it and come up empty, and I know it is safe. They will never find it.”
Leto was silent again. “I'd like to believe you. The Fitali Horde does not like to be forced into anything, and especially not to act against our treaties.” She turned to look at her senior officers, th
en back to Cam and Imogen. “I'll take this to my leaders, but it'll be hard to convince them with no proof.”
“The grahudi is gone, and I promise you the consol is not in the Tecran's hands, whatever they want you to believe. Ask them to show it to you. Not just the physical item, which I'm assuming can be duplicated, but the information contained in it. They won't be able to.”
“They could have copied the information,” Leto said.
Imogen shook her head. “Then they wouldn't have been so desperate to find the original. I think they found it, saw what was on it, and put it in their store. When they decided to use it to gain your support they couldn't, because Paxe had killed his crew and run away. And when they did manage to board him, they couldn't find it. I witnessed that myself.”
“I did, too.” Cam looked Leto straight in the eye. “I saw them search the store, and I saw their fury when they realized Paxe had hidden it.”
“Your word will carry more weight than the orange's,” Leto said, satisfied, and then took a step back.
Imogen frowned, then saw the cause. Cam was glaring at the Fitali captain.
“No offense meant,” Leto told her. “But my leaders know Captain Kalor. He has a good reputation in the United Council.”
“Talk to your people, Captain Leto.” Cam was suddenly all formality. “It would be a pity if you threw yourselves into war based on a Tecran trick.”
Leto opened her mouth as if to say something, then shook her head and bowed. “I agree. I will be as fast as I can.” She leaned forward again, and the screen went black.
“What's happening on Larga Ways?” Hal spoke for the first time, and the screen switched back to Fiona.
“Sazo kept us linked in, so we heard all that,” Fiona's smile was fierce. “Imogen, you might have saved this way station. The Fitali have pulled back a little, and the weapons are no longer hot. My guess is they've been told to hold in place, but not make any threats or overt moves.”
“They'll be able to claim they came to our aid if they keep quiet for a bit longer,” Hal agreed.
Dark Minds (Class 5 Series Book 3) Page 27
