Dark Horse

by Michelle Diener

“We have a problem.” Pallen Hui called from the front, where he was flying the attack craft.

  “Which is?” Dav stepped closer, saw with his own eyes. Whistled. “A collapse of some kind.”

  “This moon is riddled with cave systems. The combined weight of the two explorer craft they landed must have forced a cave-in.” Kila took over the lenses, zoomed in. “There is still one orange by the craft.”

  “Injured in the fall, maybe,” Appal said quietly. “Some things are dangerous when theyʼre injured.”

  “And this thing may well be responsible for the bodies up in that Class 5.” He let that sink in, just in case they got too cocky. Theyʼd all seen the carnage on the Tecran ship.

  “Land as close as itʼs safe to,” Dav ordered, and was pleased they could see the sink-hole from where Pallen put them down. “Tread warily, people.”

  They were all suited up, body armor, weapons, but no breathing apparatus was necessary. As the gang-plank lowered, Appal and her team fell into formation and Dav followed them down, leaving Kila and Pallen on board.

  The gang-plank snicked closed behind him, and he moved to the front, to stand with Appal.

  It was an idyllic scene. The river flowed, fast and deep, to his left, and the air, after too long in deep space, was fresh and clear. He could stand here all day and just breathe it in.

  “Sir.” Kilaʼs voice came through his comm. “There is a gryak heading straight for our stationary orange. My information is they live in the cave systems, and this collapse must have brought it to investigate. Theyʼre big, sir. And can be dangerous if their territory is invaded.”

  “How far away from the orange is it?” Dav started forward.

  “Half a thou. But moving fast.”

  Appal motioned to her squad, and they fanned out in a line, so that they all reached the edge of the hole together.

  Dav and Appal took the middle position.

  Dav peered down and saw the two craft, the larger one on its side, the smaller one right-side up, and less damaged. The gang-plank was down, and a figure stood at the bottom of it.

  It turned and looked up at him.

  They stared at each other for a long moment.

  This was an advanced sentient. It——why was he even using that term?——she, wore close-fitting clothes in pleasing shades of dark green, and her long hair was tied back in a complicated braid. It was the color of sunlight, and he had never seen anything like it. It was hard to see the color of her eyes, but the intelligence in them was unmistakable.

  She began to raise her arm, as if in greeting, and at that moment, one of Appalʼs team, to the right, got too close to the unstable edge, and the ground beneath him collapsed.

  His cry bounced and echoed in the cave, and as he fell, he activated his weapon. The blast didnʼt hit her, but it hit the cave ceiling above her, and rock and soil fell down onto the ramp she was standing on, forcing her to stumble off it, as rubble blocked the entrance to her craft.

  The falling soldierʼs automated grapple engaged, found purchase, and stopped his fall, jerking him to a halt. He swayed from side to side as it winched him back up.

  It had only lasted a second, two at most, but Dav saw her demeanor change from cautiously friendly, to uncertain and wary.

  He swore, and Appalʼs gaze cut to her subordinate. He swung easily back up next to his team mates, but Dav didnʼt miss the slight hunch of his shoulders.

  There was a moment of silence, as everyone settled down.

  “Sir. You should have visual on the gryak.” Kilaʼs voice in his ear was urgent, drowned out a second later by an ear-splitting shriek as the gryak burst out of a tunnel on the other side of the underground river to the woman. It rose up on two legs, mouth snarling.

  The womanʼs attention swung from Dav and the team to the latest threat, although he didnʼt see much surprise on her face. She knew the gryak was coming, he guessed, using the scanners on the explorer craft, although he saw no remote screen in her hand.

  The gryak scrambled to a stop at the sight of them and went down on all fours, a long, rumbling growl coming from deep in its throat.

  She called something to it, softly, and remained standing quite still. The sound froze Dav where he stood. He could feel the same reaction from Appal. It was almost music, but with her voice. He could swear it was with her voice.

  He wished he could somehow mute the sound of the river running just at her feet, so he could hear her better.

  The gryak snarled at her, unappeased. It lowered its head and bared its teeth, and before Dav could react, it leapt into the river, straight at her.

  About a ton of fluffy, gray-white fur and extremely large teeth was coming straight for her, and there was nowhere to run.

  Rubble and rocks blocked the door into the explorer craft, and the other craft was on its side.

  Rose stood still, hoping the gryak was mock-charging, and wouldnʼt cross over the river.

  No such luck.

  She was reluctant to try out her new-found jumping trick, not trusting herself not to land on her head, but as the gryak launched itself from the water, icy droplets flying, she gave up, turned, and jumped for the craft.

  The pleasure of using her muscles, the freedom of near-flight, flooded her senses and she reveled in it. After being confined for so long, it was a heady shot of champagne through her blood. She landed on the wing and jumped again, reaching the roof of the craft perfectly, even gracefully, more out of luck than skill. She couldnʼt help the little whoop of joy that came from somewhere deep inside.

  She looked up, and saw the Grih soldiers lining the opening above her were coming down on thin cables like the one that had saved the soldier whoʼd fallen.

  Her jump surprised them as much as their jump surprised her, she guessed, from the way they reacted to the sight of her suddenly crouched on the roof of her little spaceship.

  With a hand signal and a barked command, the big guy whoʼd been standing in the middle, the one sheʼd exchanged a look with earlier, had them all letting the cords on their fancy automatic grappling hooks winch them back to the top again, weapons trained on the gryak. He stayed behind, though, eyes never leaving the gryak, and walked carefully to her ship.

  He was going to climb up to her.

  The gryak had stopped when sheʼd jumped, and gone very watchful when the soldiers had dropped into its cave, but now it prowled up and down in front of her craft, confused and distressed.

  The black helmet and then the enormous shoulders of the Grih whoʼd stayed below with her rose up, her rescuer easily pulling himself onto the roof with her.

  They stared at each other again, not that Rose could see much of his face through the helmet, and she mentally called up the Grih sheʼd learned over the last eight weeks.

  “Iʼm Rose McKenzie. Pleased to meet you.” Grih informal greetings required her to touch her nose to his left cheek, and he to hers, but they were on more of a formal footing, she was guessing, and his helmet was in the way anyway, so she extended her hands palms facing each other, waiting for him to either cover hers or let her cover his. She couldnʼt remember who should do what, right at that minute.

  There was a moment of silence, and then the thin, gray-tinted glass on his helmet retracted, and she looked directly into startled pale blue eyes with a dark outer-rim of navy blue. “You speak Grih.”

  “Iʼve been studying it.” She looked at him, and tears pricked her eyes.

  Sazo had said the Grih were as close to being like her as it got in this part of the universe. But sheʼd thought heʼd been talking in general terms. Bi-pedal, with two eyes, a nose and a mouth. That was the most sheʼd hoped for.

  She even thought it didnʼt matter. She would be happy to be alive, and wouldnʼt care if she looked completely different to the people who would hopefully take her in.

  But Sazo had come through for her.

  The guy looking back at her was big, head and shoulders bigger than a tall man, but while his nose was a little sharper t
han average, and his eyes were the shade of a wolfʼs sheʼd once seen on a nature documentary, no one on Earth would have looked twice at him.

  Well. They would, but because he was good looking and intimidating, not because he looked like an alien.

  The first tear slid down her cheek, and she sniffed and flicked it away with the back of her hand.

  The gryak chose that moment to charge the craft.

  With another shriek, it slammed massive, clawed hands on the side of the explorer, and started trying to climb.

  “Maybe time to go?” she suggested, and the Grih looking at her tears with absolute confusion gave a nod, grabbed her around her waist, and shot his grapple hook up into the air.

  She was well out of reach when the gryak managed to get on the roof, held tight against her rescuer as they slid smoothly upward, and then passed to waiting hands when they reached the top.

  She took a step back to let the guy whoʼd saved her swing up, and held out a hand to him.

  He looked at it, still with that bemused look on his face, and easily pulled himself to his feet.

  She realized things were strangely quiet. No one was talking.

  And thatʼs when she noticed every one of the Grih had their guns trained on her.

  She looked back at her rescuer, the only one with the glass front of his helmet retracted, and gaped. He was pointing his weapon at her, too.

  7

  Inexplicable.

  Looking at the petite little alien, Dav tried to work out, quick as he could, if they were all being played.

  Because she looked extremely unlikely as a suspect in a mass murder.

  Sheʼd actually cried when he climbed on the roof of her craft, although he wasnʼt quite sure why. She was more compact than she looked, as well. There was no question heʼd drop her, but when the grapple had pulled them up, heʼd been surprised to find she weighed much more than heʼd have guessed, based on her size and slender form.

  Her bones must be far denser than his. Her muscles, too.

  She could pass for Grih, though. Well, she would be considered very short, but the similarities between her and them were startling.

  If her genetic structure showed up orange, and Kila assured him it did, then there was a world out there that had somehow taken a very similar evolutionary path to his own.

  Right now she was looking at them all, at their weapons, and the look on her face was one of . . . betrayal. Like sheʼd thought better of them and theyʼd proven her wrong.

  She bit her lip. “You shoot me?” she asked. Then she shook her head. “Are you going to shoot me?” Her second try was perfect Grih, but melodic and smooth.

  He shifted uncomfortably, and he wasnʼt the only one.

  Two of Appalʼs team dropped their weapons slightly, and Appal gave them a sharp look. The weapons rose again, but Dav could see they were losing the high ground. The longer they gave her to talk, the less inclined any of Appalʼs team would be to harm her, even if she was a threat.

  “We donʼt know what you are or where youʼre from. These soldiers are under my command and I donʼt want to risk their lives.” Dav kept his weapon level as he spoke.

  The woman lifted her arms from her sides and gave a nod. “I can understand that. Iʼm unarmed, and I have no intention of hurting anyone.”

  She stumbled over a few of the words, but that just made the words she did say properly all the more beautiful.

  A Class 5, and a music maker, all in one haul. Dav didnʼt know whether to laugh or groan. Because this was definitely the most important day of his life.

  “What happened on the Tecran ship?” Appal retracted her helmet screen as she spoke, and the woman blinked at her, and then smiled. A sweet, friendly smile.

  Dav wondered why Appal would get that reaction, and not him.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Why did the Tecran send you down here, to Harmon?”

  She shrugged. “They werenʼt in the habit of explaining themselves to me.”

  Now that heʼd seen her, Dav wondered if the Tecran had already been having problems with their ship, and, knowing they were stranded, had tried to hide her and the animals theyʼd taken from her planet.

  They would have known that if the Grih boarded them, theyʼd have been in serious trouble over their violation of the Sentient Beings Agreement, as well as evidence that they had explored so deep into the universe they had come across unknown planets and not declared them to the United Council.

  Harmon was uninhabited and if theyʼd managed to get the explorer craft away soon enough, Dav would have had no reason to look at Harmon at all. The Tecran could have had plans to fetch them later, after theyʼd accomplished whatever theyʼd invaded Grih territory to do, if their Class 5 hadnʼt malfunctioned.

  “Do you know what the Tecran are doing in our territory?”

  The woman tipped her head toward him, and there was something closed off in her. “I have been in a cell on the Tecran ship for the last three months. In that time they have poked me, observed me, opened me up and welded me back together. Just about the only thing they havenʼt done to me is let me know what theyʼre up to.”

  Her unspeakable anger vibrated through her words.

  They were all silent, looking at her, and she drew in a deep breath, smoothed back wisps of hair that had fallen from her braid onto her face, and then shrugged. “Sorry. Why donʼt you ask them? Unless they got away?” She looked up at the sky for the first time, but there was no way to see either the Class 5 or the Barrist from here, and she looked back at Appal.

  He found it interesting, and a little bit annoying, that since sheʼd seen Appal, sheʼd directed every comment to his commander, and ignored him.

  “They didnʼt get away, but asking them will be difficult. Most of them are dead.” He spoke bluntly, and at last she looked his way again.

  There could be no hiding the shock on her face.

  “Dead?”

  “Only eleven are alive.”

  Her legs collapsed from under her and she sank to the ground, her head bowed, her hands gripping her knees in white-knuckled shock. “But there were hundreds of them. How . . . ? Did you kill them?”

  The look she gave them was wild-eyed.

  Dav shook his head. “Their power and air were cut off for two hours. Only those with a personal breathing apparatus survived.”

  Unless her race were the finest manipulators in the universe, she hadnʼt known the Tecrans had died. But something did cross her face. A sort of sick horror.

  She closed her eyes and hunched her shoulders, and Dav was sure then that if she hadnʼt been involved, she knew exactly who had been.

  The soldiersʼ clothing had seemed black when theyʼd dropped into the cave, but now they were walking toward their sleek, silver-gray ship, it shifted and changed as they moved, and Rose decided it was some kind of camouflage, but it was sort of ruined by the dark sepia outline that made them stand out almost more than no camouflage at all.

  Their uniforms reminded her of her own things, left back in the damaged craft, with a gryak sitting on the roof.

  “Do you think the gryak will leave, so we could get my things out of the Tecran ship?” She addressed her comment to the woman pacing beside her, the one who had retracted her face guard and questioned her earlier. When sheʼd realized the second-in-command had been female, sheʼd felt a weight of fear lift off her shoulders.

  Illogical or not, she felt safer with a woman in the group. Felt they were less likely to treat her badly. There may be more women amongst the soldiers who walked in tight formation around her, but with their bulky protective gear and their helmets, it was impossible to say.

  And all this mental . . . chatter . . . she admitted, was to distract herself from the horrifying thought that Sazo had tried to kill the whole Tecran crew.

  Heʼd never so much as hinted that particular detail to her.

  “What things do you have?” The woman stopped and signaled with her hand, so everyone else exce
pt the big guy in front, who was obviously in charge, stopped too.

  “Clothing, mainly.”

  The woman looked at her carefully. “Iʼm sure we can get them for you. Letʼs give the gryak some time to calm down. Weʼll bring your things to you as soon as we can.”

  Rose frowned, picking up a definite subtext. “Thanks. There are two small black bags, thatʼs all I have. But you made it sound like Iʼm going somewhere, and youʼre staying behind.”

  The woman cocked her head, in a way that humans didnʼt. It sent a quick little shock through her, a reminder that these were a people and a culture she didnʼt understand.

  “You are correct. You will go with Captain Jallan back to the Barrist. We will stay behind and collect the animals from your planet and make arrangements for the two Tecran craft to be lifted back to the Class 5.”

  “There are cages for the animals in the other craft. But if you transport them, please put the coyote in a different room to the others. I can sketch which one that is so you know. The others are afraid to be near him.” She worried her lip a moment. “You arenʼt going to hurt them, are you? You just want to look at them? And theyʼll have a good environment to live in?”

  The woman shivered, the movement so strange and alien, Rose took a step back. Sheʼd been a little too hasty in thinking these people were just like her.

  “They will be treated completely within the rules of the Sentient Beings Agreement. You have no need to worry about that. Although your concern does you credit.”

  The words were spoken in the same harsh, clipped way Captain Jallan had spoken, the same way the voices Sazo had piped through her earpiece had sounded when she was learning Grih back on the Tecran ship. She didnʼt think she could match the rough tone, or the staccato sound of it, but they seemed to understand her more fluid speech well enough.

  The woman indicated they should continue forward again but now the moment had arrived where she was expected to get into the ship theyʼd obviously arrived in, she felt the burn of vomit in her throat.

  She looked down, and her hands were shaking.

  She wrapped her arms around her waist and stayed where she was. “Thereʼs another ship coming to pick Captain Jallan and I up?”