Dark Horse

by Michelle Diener

  “Sazo saved me, issuing orders as if they were from Captain Gee or Dr. Fliap to make my life better. From the moment he took over, there were no more operations, no more visits. I was left alone.

  “I got the handheld, got an ear comm, and Sazo and I started making plans. When I did find out how you would react to knowing a thinking system like Sazo was alive and well and running around in your world again, it was too late, and it had gone too far. I had given my word.”

  He said nothing for a moment, but his fingers slid along her jaw and then buried themselves in her hair. “You always keep your word?”

  She nodded, and his fingers slid to curve around her nape.

  “Your knowing about Sazo, hiding him from us . . . it wonʼt be easy for you to be accepted by the Grih when it comes out.”

  “And what about you, Dav? Do you find it hard to accept me now?”

  He sighed. “Did Sazo let you hear the conversation we had with Farso Lothric, or did he just tell you about it?”

  “He just told me about it.”

  “If what my former aide had to say was right, you might just be the embodiment of Hevalonʼs Law in this equation.”

  “Hevalonʼs Law?”

  “The unknown factor in any complex scenario.”

  “Roseʼs people call that being a dark horse.” Sazo spoke for the first time, and Dav started at the sound.

  He drew back, his hand dropping to his side as if heʼd been caught with his fingers in the till.

  “Perhaps you wouldnʼt mind letting the Barrist know you are safe, Captain. They seem to be concerned, and Lieutenant Borji is even trying to hack his way back into the Barristʼs weapons systems.” Sazoʼs voice was wry.

  Dav tapped his ear comm and she saw he half-expected it not to work, but Sazo let the comm through.

  “Checking in.”

  He waited for a response. “Yes. Iʼll check in every hour until otherwise stated, to keep you appraised.” He cut whoever heʼd spoken to off, Kila, or perhaps even Admiral Hoke.

  “All right?”

  He ran a hand down a face she could suddenly see was exhausted. “Yes.” Then he lifted his gaze to hers. “No. Not really.”

  “Perhaps between the three of us, we can do something about that?”

  31

  Dav had been on the Class 5 four times since the Barrist had stumbled on it, but for the first time, he was really paying attention to the design.

  Rose led him to a comfortable room which he guessed was the officersʼ lounge. Something heʼd missed before was that everything was in standard Battle Center layout. If any of them had been concentrating, they might have wondered why the Tecran were building ship interiors exactly like their own.

  And one of the reasons he hadnʼt been concentrating was walking in front of him. She looked as cute as she had when she recorded the songs in the debrief chamber, her golden hair pulled back in a thick, glossy tail, her clothes clinging to her curves.

  He forced himself to look away. “Did you know when you light jumped the Class 5 into Grih territory that it was a Grih design?” He glanced up at the nearest lens, like Rose tended to, to indicate the question was for Sazo.

  “No, I didnʼt. I didnʼt know any of what Farso Lothric told you. I really did choose Grih territory because it seemed likely that Rose would be happiest with the Grih.”

  “And ironically, you landed our own mess back on our doorstep.”

  Rose frowned at him. “I wouldnʼt call Sazo a mess. Iʼd call him an abused minor.”

  An abused minor.

  Dav tried to get his head around that.

  “My apologies. I meant the situation was a mess of our own making, not that Sazo himself was a mess.”

  “What would have happened if Sazo had been found straight after Fayir died? What would they have done with the thinking systems heʼd developed?” Rose asked.

  “By law, they would have been destroyed.”

  Dav suddenly regretted the turn of the conversation. If he was going to negotiate with Sazo, bringing up the kill order on all thinking systems in Grih law was not a fruitful place to start.

  “Thatʼs probably why they werenʼt found. Fayir must have known the fate of any thinking system he developed. He probably made sure they wouldnʼt be found for a long time after his death. Perhaps he even set things in place for them to be found when they were. Two hundred years after his death, he must have thought there could well have been a change in attitude by then.” Rose took the container of grinabo over to the small drinks station, and Dav saw her making them each a cup as if sheʼd grown up doing it.

  She really had taken to life with them, whether because of a strong need to fit in, to find a new place in the universe, or because their ways were similar to hers. The sheer scale of what sheʼd had to give up hit him, and he wanted to shield her, and keep her safe.

  “There hasnʼt been a change, though, has there, Captain Jallan?” Sazo asked. “Even though two hundred years have passed.”

  Dav could hear the edge in his voice. Wondered how a thinking system could add that edge.

  “The laws havenʼt changed, thatʼs true, but attitudes may have. Lothric is right in that non-UC nations are working toward thinking systems of their own. We experienced the good of thinking systems and leapt far ahead of everyone else, and when the trouble hit and we cut thinking systems out of our lives, we still had the benefits of the original collaboration. Medical advances, no energy or food shortages. Would the Grih or even the UC think it wise to combat foreign thinking systems by developing new thinking systems of our own?” He shrugged. “The answer is almost certainly no, especially with the current laws as they stand. But having a live thinking system already here, wholly formed and on our side?” Again he shrugged. “I think that would be different.”

  “And if Iʼm not on your side?”

  Dav hesitated. “If you werenʼt on our side, you would be considered a threat.”

  There was silence.

  “Calm down, Sazo.” Rose handed Dav his grinabo and perched on one of the chairs, a look of exasperation on her face, even though Sazo hadnʼt made a sound. “You could claim neutrality, and play things that way, but if Iʼm going to live with the Grih, Iʼd prefer you to be on their side.”

  “They havenʼt all been nice to you.” Sazo almost sounded sulky.

  The exchange stunned Dav. Rose behaved as if she had a real say in Sazoʼs decisions. Dav had told Hoke he hoped Rose liked them enough to intervene with Sazo on their behalf, but it was more than that. She had the power to change his mind. To direct his actions. She didnʼt behave as if he would automatically obey her, but as if they were a team.

  “Well, Iʼll admit Admiral Hoke didnʼt win any friendship prizes, and Admiral Valu was really only interested in the Class 5, but they didnʼt steal me from Earth, keep me locked up for three months and laser me open when they felt like it, either.”

  Dav raised his gaze to hers. He hoped she would have better things to say about them one day than the comparison that at least they didnʼt torture her.

  “A declaration of alliance would certainly help.” But Dav wondered whether it would. A fear of thinking systems was so entrenched.

  “Why donʼt we start by mentioning Sazoʼs worry for the crew of the Barrist before they boarded the Class 5 for the first time?” Rose took a sip of grinabo, her face quite neutral. “The Tecran were well-armed and instructed to kill. While he regrets he was forced to kill so many of the Tecran crew, when it comes to protecting his allies, he is ruthless.”

  Rose kept her gaze on him while she spoke, and Dav got the message loud and clear.

  “Iʼd be happy to convey that information to Battle Center.” He didnʼt look away from her, and he made no attempt to hide that he thought it was all yurve shit. Sazo hadnʼt given Davʼs crew a second thought. Heʼd killed those Tecran out of revenge. What happened on the Class 5 was what had started the thinking system wars in the first place.

  He decided to push for a conc
ession, seeing as he was being asked to swallow an absolute lie. “Sazo giving us back control of the Barrist and the two battle cruisers would help ease any tension between us.”

  Rose had crossed her arms over her chest at his expression of distaste, defensive. She turned her head and looked at the lens. “Iʼm sure he could do that.”

  “I could. But Iʼm not going to. Why would I give up my advantage.”

  Rose sighed. “Sazo.”

  “No, Rose. They have a kill order out on my kind, and I must just give up control of their ship to them? That doesnʼt make any tactical sense.”

  “It does if you want your ʽconcernʼ for the crew of the Barrist to be taken seriously.”

  There was silence. Dav waited it out, but Sazo remained quiet.

  “What about the Levron?” At least he could find out what the status was there. “Rose said you had it under control, too.”

  “With threats, not because Iʼve been able to take the system. Their access gates are impenetrable. Far more difficult than the Grihʼs, and yours were hard enough. My guess is that no matter how much they gambled on controlling me, they still took some strong precautions.”

  “So,” Rose stood. “Where does this leave us?”

  “It depends on what Sazoʼs intension are.” Dav kept his tone short. “Are you with us, or not?”

  “Letʼs say that I am.” Sazo spoke reluctantly.

  “Then the odds are in our favor even if you donʼt have the Levron under control,” Dav said. “The Class 5 alone out-guns it. If Sazo drops the comm block heʼs set up, we can send for more ships, in case the Tecran send more Levrons our way. But honestly, with you on our side, the only way weʼll be in real trouble is if the Tecran send another Class 5.”

  “I donʼt think you get it,” Rose told him, and he could see from her posture he wasnʼt going to like what she had to say. “Thatʼs exactly what Sazo is hoping theyʼll do.”

  32

  It was hard to argue with Dav that Sazoʼs plan wasnʼt insane.

  As the man responsible for everyone on the four ships around them, he wouldnʼt be able to see it any other way.

  “He wants to meet his own kind.” She spoke to his back because he had moved away to lean against the far wall, shoulders hunched as he looked at the lens feed of the Barrist and its two battleships on the large wall screen, with the UC fast carrier off to one side.

  “Let him meet his own kind somewhere else.” The words were tight, angry, in that rough voice of his.

  He looked like a prize fighter, about to go into the ring. Furious and contained, his hands clenched, the muscles on his arms bunched with tension.

  He turned to look at her over his shoulder, and she stopped breathing for a moment when her gaze clashed with his.

  She lifted her hands in surrender. “Iʼm not in charge here. Sazo planned this ages ago, Iʼve got nothing to do with it.”

  “Change his mind.”

  “She canʼt change my mind.” Sazo inserted himself into the conversation, and Rose wondered what had taken him so long.

  “The Tecran have been obsessive in their determination not to allow any Class 5 within half a galaxy of each other, let alone within sight of one another.”

  Rose saw Dav still at Sazoʼs words. Hah. His interest was caught.

  “I didnʼt even know there were other Class 5s until an officer on my Class 5 slipped up and mentioned it to someone in casual conversation. Sometimes, they forget Iʼm there, that Iʼm what makes it all work. That was the start of my . . . rebellion.”

  Rose hadnʼt known that herself. “So finding out you werenʼt alone was the trigger that made you start to build your independence in the system, even though you were still held prisoner in the lock-safe?”

  “Yes. And I canʼt be sure any of the other Class 5s know they arenʼt alone. I might be the only one who started to wake up and the chances of any of them finding someone like Rose to rescue them arenʼt high.”

  “So you arenʼt just trying to meet someone of your own kind,” Dav said into the silence, “youʼre knowingly bringing a Class 5 which is most likely fully under Tecran control into this territory. Can I ask you, if it tries to attack us——and it will——will you fire on it?”

  There was silence again.

  Rose closed her eyes. She knew the answer to that. There was no way Sazo would fire on another Class 5. No way.

  “You canʼt endanger so many people just to jolt a Class 5 awake.” She spoke quietly. “You need to come up with another plan.”

  “There is no other plan.” Sazoʼs voice boomed through the speakers, and Rose had to cover her ears. “I have thought through ever single alternative. None will bring the Class 5 within hailing distance but the threat that without it, they will lose me. They cannot let me get into Grih hands, and they know it. The consequences would be their expulsion from the UC and the loss of all trading privileges. And they also know if Iʼm free, I could hunt for the other Class 5s. Try to wake them.” He was quiet for a moment. “They wonʼt want another Class 5 anywhere near me, but if they have evidence that Iʼm under Grih control, they will risk it. Even if just to destroy me so that my firepower canʼt be turned against them and I canʼt be used as evidence of what theyʼve been up to.”

  Dav tipped his head up to the speakers. “How will you pretend to be under Grih control?”

  Rose had wondered the same.

  “Iʼll shoot the Levron.” Sazo kept his voice expressionless.

  “No.” Rose knew this was the steep part of a very slippery slope that had started with the lion, and moved on to the Tecran crew. The first had been done in panic, the second in revenge. This third act was coldly premeditated. It would kill something in Sazoʼs burgeoning soul.

  “Rose——”

  “No, Sazo.” She could hear the chill in her voice. “There has to be another way. You do not kill people who are already abiding by your order to stay put and disarm their weapons. You do not.”

  Dav looked up at her, his expression considering. “If you want to show youʼre under Grih control, simply shooting at the Levron wonʼt work, anyway. You could be acting alone, for all they know.”

  “What do you suggest?” Sazoʼs voice was quiet, and, she thought, chastened.

  “How about we surround the Levron in a coordinated operation? The Barrist, the two battleships and the Class 5. Lift the comm lockdown and we can demand they surrender, give their lens feed some good footage to send back to Tecran High Command. There could be no confusion, then. Youʼd have to either be under our control or in alliance with us. Either way, the worst outcome they could imagine.”

  Rose waited for a response. “Sazo?”

  There was quiet, and then, in a soft whisper in her ear comm, not over the speakers: “I need to think about this, Rose.”

  “Why doesnʼt he answer?” Dav crossed his arms over his chest, and clenched his jaw in exasperation. A very frustrated, handsome elf.

  Rose took him in and shivered. “I think heʼs shaken that he didnʼt think of that himself, but then, to be fair, he didnʼt expect your cooperation.”

  “He could have forced us to do it, he has control of our ships anyway.”

  “Yes, he could.” Rose smiled slowly. “But I donʼt think that occurred to him, either.”

  Dav sent her a narrow-eyed look. “What now?”

  Rose yawned. “Sazoʼs thinking about it. It sounded like heʼd be a while and thereʼs nothing we can do until he gets back to us. How about bed?”

  He could have made light of her comment, which he knew had been innocent, but he simply wasnʼt capable.

  He stared at her, and watched as her cheeks turned a delicate shade of pink.

  “Bed?”

  “Sleep.” She cleared her throat. “I would need at least a kiss before I contemplated bed.”

  It was his turn to feel heat in his cheeks.

  “Although,” she suddenly grinned at him, “you have had your hands on my naked breasts, so maybe a kiss isnʼt stric
tly necessary.”

  A wave of lust swept over him. The memory of her soft skin beneath his fingers, the weight of her on his lap, the brush of her lips against his ear, ripped down the wall heʼd built to keep himself away from her.

  He took a step toward her and his face must have shown some of what he was feeling because the smile on hers disappeared.

  “You donʼt look that angry with me anymore.” Her voice, usually so smooth, was hoarse.

  “I seem to have gotten over it.” He took another step, and the fire that burned in him leapt higher when her breathing hitched at the movement.

  She took a step back, and the hunter in him sat up and took notice. He wanted her to run. Wanted to chase. And catch.

  “You just got a really scary look in your eye.” It sounded as if she was forcing the words out.

  “Scary?” He took another step.

  She strangled out a laugh. “Well, hungry.”

  “I am hungry, Rose.” One last step and he was in reach of her. But he didnʼt touch. Not yet. “Iʼve wondered a few times over the last couple of days if I was mad. Iʼve put my career in jeopardy more times in the last two days than I have in all the years since I joined Battle Center. Appal has questioned my sanity, Iʼve tried to convince myself I was behaving logically, but since I came aboard the Class 5 and followed you into this room, Iʼve slowly become aware that there was no logic involved, no sanity to be found. I am just very, very hungry.”

  She looked at him with big, startled eyes but she didnʼt move back or avoid him as he bent down and gave her the kiss sheʼd joked about.

  It started slow, a gentle brush of lips, but her hands slid up his chest, up the sides of his throat, and then linked behind his neck and she committed herself to it, fully.

  She opened her mouth beneath his, the tip of her tongue brushing the seam of his lips and he sank in, pulling her up and against him.