The Forgotten Six

by Part Six (lit)

  All things considered, it was probably for the best if Baen did go to fetch her. He merely nodded acceptance, therefore. "We will summon the other captains and our lieutenants and meet in the center of the settlement."

  He did not have to go far to find Jalen. As soon as he dropped from the wall, Jalen was waiting for him. "This is very bad," Jalen observed. "What is the plan?"

  Kiel sent him a grim look. "We are meeting with the other captains and their lieutenants shortly. Walk with me."

  Jalen nodded and fell into step beside him. "Where is Baen going?" he asked suspiciously.

  "To fetch Danielle," Kiel responded shortly.

  "You are sending her with him after what the bastard did the last time her safety was entrusted to him?" Jalen demanded indignantly.

  Images rose instantly to Kiel's mind, but the memory of what he had discovered at the river did not linger many seconds before it was replaced by his own encounter with her shortly afterward. "We are not entrusting her safety to him," he said tightly. "We are taking her to the others."

  Jalen halted abruptly. "What the fuck for?"

  Kiel flicked a glance at him and kept walking. In a moment, Jalen caught up again. "Why?"

  "It should not take much consideration to understand," Kiel snapped. "We cannot protect her."

  "Not here, certainly."

  "Not on this planet!" Kiel growled impatiently. "We will not go down without a fight, but we will go down, Jalen, if they attack. Our forces are already weakened by the battle with Manuta. We have only the advantage of the battlements, and that is no great advantage against our own people-against the natives of this world, yes, but not against our own kind. We are outnumbered six to one."

  Garyk, and Kaydn and their lieutenants had already arrived at the rendezvous point when they reached it. Aeyn and Dex and their lieutenants joined them moments later.

  Kiel listened absently as Garyk, Kaydn, Aeyn, and Dex immediately began discussing tactics, watching Danielle's habitat until she emerged with Baen. Baen's lieutenant, Devlyn, joined the pair before they reached the group awaiting them, but Kiel's focus was on Danielle.

  His heart had begun to hammer uncomfortably fast from the moment he'd seen her emerge. Since his memories of their moments together instantly leapt into his mind, he had no trouble understanding it. The dread and discomfort he also felt were a little harder to comprehend.

  He was not happy at the necessity of handing her over to the others, though, and supposed that accounted for it.

  Relief niggled at the edges of the desire thrumming through him, but it was not until he realized that she did not show any sign of injury that it dawned on him it was the result of uneasiness that he had been too focused on appeasing his desires to know if he had been hurtful. It discomfited him to know that he had experienced such a loss of control that he had been anxious and uncertain.

  It was more disturbing to discover that she seemed to go out of her way not to look at him directly.

  "Why has Baen brought Captain Danielle?" Kaydn asked abruptly, breaking Kiel's focus on her.

  "She will be safer with the army outside if negotiations for peace fail," Kiel ground out.

  It was clear from their expressions that their gut reaction was to dispute the comment, but none did.

  "Are we settled on our defense tactic?" Baen asked when he arrived.

  Danielle glanced from Baen to Kiel then for the first time since she had left the habitat and met his gaze for a long moment, long enough he felt his heart behave very strangely when he noticed color surge into her cheeks and an odd little smile curl her lips. He felt as if his chest had inflated with air, felt a dizzying wave of some unidentifiable emotion sweep through him.

  "I do not see that there is much to discuss. They will decide to divide their forces and attack from all sides," Garyk responded after a moment. "We are a weaker force. It will weaken us further if we must divide the forces we have to protect the settlement. I do not see that we have a choice but to prepare for an assault from every direction."

  Garyk's comments penetrated Kiel's absorption with Danielle, directing his mind to the problem at hand. He frowned, lifting his head to study the walls. They had not been designed to stand up to their own forces. They would not hold long. "We could improve our own odds if we could gain control of what is left of the robot guards," he said finally.

  The others looked at him sharply and then turned to stare at the now silent machines that Manuta had turned upon them.

  "We do not even know that we could power Manuta up again. Beyond that, it is far more likely to turn them upon us as it did before," Aeyn said angrily.

  "We do not need Manuta to control them," Kiel countered.

  "We cannot control them without a central computer!" Dex snapped.

  "I did not suggest that we could. However, we have Danielle's onboard computer. It could control them and order them to defend the city from invaders."

  Everyone stared at Kiel for a long moment before transferring their attention to Danielle.

  "What?" Danielle demanded uneasily when she discovered she had everyone's attention.

  "We may have need of your onboard computer, Gertrude, to control the robots. Would it do as you commanded?" Kiel asked.

  Danielle frowned. "Of course she would! She's designed to follow my orders. I just don't see how she could control them without a good bit of programming."

  "You have remote access to Gertrude?" Baen asked sharply.

  Danielle glanced at him, blinking. "Uh … yes," she said slowly. "But why would I need to?"

  Baen and Kiel exchanged a glance.

  "We are taking you with us to negotiate with the force outside our walls. You must be able to access Gertrude from the rendezvous point in case of need."

  Danielle gaped at him. "What force outside the wall?"

  The men glanced at one another.

  "Manuta summoned the men from the other settlements when we attempted to disable it, believing that we were attacking," Kiel said tightly. "They have arrived. I believe that they will stand down once we have spoken, but we cannot be certain and we will need help defending the city if they do not."

  Danielle felt the blood drain from her face. "How many?"

  Kiel and Baen exchanged a look.

  "Six hundred in each of the settlements," Baen responded reluctantly.

  Danielle felt a wave of dizziness wash over her. "How many settlements?" she asked a little hoarsely, visions of the aftermath of the battle she'd already seen dancing in her head. She discovered that they seemed reluctant to furnish her with that information.

  "Can you do it if it becomes necessary?" Kiel asked sharply.

  "Yes!" Danielle snapped. "I mean, if I have my communicator I can … if you haven't taken it apart. I don't understand why you want me to go with you to talk to them. I can't even speak Danu."

  The men all glanced at one another uneasily. Finally, one of the others, whom she didn't know by name, responded. "They may not believe us if we tell them about you unless they see you."

  Danielle frowned. "I still don't see what it's got to do with me."

  That time the look they shared was significant. Danielle just couldn't decide what it signified.

  "I will fetch Danielle's communicator," Kiel said decisively. "Find the best men to handle reconfiguration of Manuta's circuits and integration with Gertrude's. They must work quickly. We will meet up again on the wall."

  Danielle stared after the men as they split up and strode briskly away and finally turned to Baen. "What was that all about?"

  Baen studied her face and finally looked away. "We must consider that the others will not negotiate a peaceful agreement. If they will not, then we will fight. We are outnumbered so it will be important to control the soldier bots to even the odds as much as possible."

  Danielle blinked at him. Her stomach was churning with nerves and the prospect they'd outlined for her was enough to make it nearly impossible to think straight. She sti
ll had the distinct feeling that there were undercurrents that she hadn't entirely grasped, that there was more to this than they'd told her.

  Setting aside the fact that she didn't want to go out and meet the advancing army, she was pretty sure it wasn't actually logical to include her. What was she supposed to add to the equation? Not only did she not speak Danu, she didn't have a very clear idea of what was going on, certainly not clear enough to try to reason with the army advancing on them.

  It occurred to her after a little frantic searching that she couldn't be any worse off going with them, though. It placed all of them in the immediate danger of being captured-possibly even killed-which she didn't care for. She didn't especially want to be in the thick of things if everything went south, though, and an assault was launched on the colony.

  That bit of reasoning seemed sound, and it still didn't make her feel a lot better. In fact, when she saw Kiel returning with her communicator, her stomach cramped so badly with pure, undiluted fear that she had to struggle to maintain even a façade of bravery.

  It wasn't as if she hadn't faced the possibility of death many times since she'd joined the colony militia and become a pilot. She had engaged in a number of battles-but from a pilot's seat. She had been trained in hand-to-hand combat, but everyone knew it was very unlikely she would ever have to use it or get the chance to use it. Her hatred of the Nubiens might have sustained her in that circumstance, but these weren't Nubiens. They were mechanically enhanced Danu and while she didn't suppose she could consider them friends or even allies, not when they'd never actually said they would be, she still didn't have the motive of hate to buoy her.

  Baen caught her attention once more as she took the communicator from Kiel and fastened it to her wrist. "It will give us more of an advantage if we meet the army before they are upon us."

  Danielle nodded a little jerkily.

  His lips tightened. "We will fly out to meet them."

  Danielle nodded again although the statement threw her into a state of confusion. How were they going to fly out to meet the advancing army when they didn't appear to have any sort of transports, let alone flying transport, she wondered a little blankly?

  "There is nothing for you to fear. You understand that?"

  She blinked at Baen and glanced at Kiel uncertainly. Nothing to fear? When they were outnumbered ten to one? Were they that confident they could negotiate peace? That heroic? Or did they just lack both imagination and emotion?

  Kiel and Baen both shifted into the dragon-like creatures they had before while she was still trying to figure out what he meant. Danielle's heart slammed against her ribs. She felt the blood rush from her head so fast it left icy cold in its wake.

  The beast in front of her grabbed her in a bear-hug. "Not hurt," he said in a rumbling growl that was barely recognizable as speech, let alone English. "Baen."

  She didn't struggle because she was too petrified to move, not because she was reassured in any way. In fact, the shock wave that went through her made it impossible to assimilate much of anything for many moments. When he flapped his wings and launched the two of them airborne, it penetrated the fog, but it only added to her fear.

  Slowly, her mind put the pieces together as they reached the city wall and other dragon-like creatures joined them and she realized what was happening. It didn't comfort her much, but the sheer terror eased its grip on her-for a handful of moments, anyway. She'd just begun to unthaw slightly when she looked out at the field beyond the city at the men they were approaching and discovered a hoard of beast men instead.

  ?

  Chapter Twelve

  "Think attack," Kiel-beast said from beside them. "Land here."

  Danielle turned to look at him when she heard his growly voice, but her mind didn't assimilate what he meant until she felt her feet settle on the ground and noticed the man-beasts that had joined them on the wall had landed all around them. They shifted back into the forms she'd come to recognize.

  That's why they run around in loincloths, she thought with sudden, completely irrelevant insight! It was for the convenience of being able to shift almost instantly if provoked without having to waste time stripping off clothing!

  As unimportant as that sudden understanding seemed, though, she discovered it wasn't as irrelevant as she'd first thought. It also explained why they'd settled to the ground while they were still a good distance from the army.

  The men they were approaching had interpreted their altered state as a sign of aggression and reacted accordingly. Even as she turned to survey them, they began to resume their humanoid appearance.

  That might have comforted her except that the force they were facing produced another thought that had been rattling around in the back of her mind unacknowledged.

  She was the only woman on the whole damned planet!

  That realization was almost as paralyzing as being surrounded by beast men. She wasn't certain if it was more threatening, or less, but she couldn't think straight. She felt threatened on a whole new level and there was no dismissing it, she discovered, no matter how closely she huddled near the men surrounding her. It wasn't until they finally stopped walking, in point of fact, that she realized they'd begun advancing toward the army as soon as they'd landed and that she was nearly plastered against Kiel-close enough she was nearly stepping on his feet. She didn't even have any recollection of moving away from Baen and toward Kiel.

  Around a dozen men from the opposing force broke away from the others as they neared and strode toward them. That cheered Danielle slightly. At least it seemed they were willing to talk!

  It comforted her even more when they all stopped and Baen and Kiel seemed to close ranks in front of her. Feeling slightly more confident, she peered at the men in the new group, trying to assess the threat.

  It unnerved her to discover that she had their undivided attention. Not one of them spoke until Kiel had finished saying whatever it was that he'd come to say. A dead silence fell when he ceased speaking. It lasted so long Danielle felt her nerves tightening to the point that they felt ready to snap. Finally, the men seemed to emerge from their catatonia and everyone began to talk at once. She couldn't tell if they were arguing or if it was a discussion of terms, or something else entirely, but she finally decided it wasn't an argument. They seemed more excited than angry, but she sensed a lessening in tension in the body language of the group she was with after a while.

  After perhaps twenty minutes of 'discussion' some of the men from the opposing group left. Shifting into the dragon-like beasts, they flew off. Danielle, unable to understand a damned thing that was going on, watched them until they vanished from sight.

  They'd all taken different directions. After considering it for a while, she finally decided they must have gone to speak to the other forces surrounding the city. That supposition seemed born up when, about thirty minutes later, the men who'd left returned accompanied by more men. She'd begun to tire enough to release tension by that time. It wasn't possible to maintain high alert when weariness wore on anxiety and she felt less threatened as time wore on.

  The new arrivals sent up fresh flags of worry, though, and she sidled closer to Baen when Kiel moved away from her. What she really wanted, she realized fairly quickly, was the comfort of being even closer.

  She didn't dare demand it, however. The men weren't staring at her quite as hard as they had been, but she knew they were keenly aware of every move she made. She didn't know how they might react if she flung her arms around Baen in a demand that he do the same for her.

  This was a military/political situation and the desire was completely inappropriate, no matter how badly she felt like she needed the comfort.

  As time wore on, she finally decided that they must be negotiating as Kiel had suggested they would. It was a relief that rapidly became downright boring when she couldn't understand a damned thing anybody was saying. Under other circumstances, she would probably have demanded to have everything explained. She'd been t
oo frightened at first even to consider it, though, and once the worst of the fright had worn off reason had reared its head.

  This was between the Danu and had nothing to do with her. None of them would appreciate her sticking her nose into it and the situation might be delicate enough that she could upset things by attempting to thrust herself forward.

  Finally, Kiel turned to look at her. "Will you take fright again if I shift to carry you back?"

  Danielle felt the blood leave her face at the prospect, but she shook her head. Something gleamed in his eyes, amusement, she thought. He held out his hands. "Come then."

  After glancing at Baen, she moved to Kiel and slid her arms around his waist, pressing her face to his chest and squeezing her eyes closed. She felt a shudder run through him. When she eased away to look up at him, though, she discovered his lips twitching with suppressed amusement. "It will work better, I think, if you turn the other way."

  Feeling her face heat, Danielle released her grip on him and turned around to put her back to him. He coiled his arms around her. Even as she looked down at his arms, they changed. She felt him bend his knees as they bumped into the backs of her thighs and then he launched the two of them into the air. She heard the whoosh of wings pounding the air and the rush of the wind around them. Her stomach, which went briefly weightless, settled. The ground below rushed past them dizzyingly, but she discovered when she lifted her head to look forward it wasn't as disorienting. In a few moments, he settled in the city. Instead of releasing her immediately, he held her.

  She felt warmth shimmy in her belly until she realized he was removing her communicator. "You will not need this after all."

  Danielle whirled to look at him as he snatched it off and released her, stunned at the implication. Anger followed closely on the heels of her surprise and her lips tightened with it. Instead of demanding to know what had been settled, she turned away, found her bearings, and stalked off. She couldn't resist flicking a glance back in his direction when she reached the habitat, although she'd told herself she wouldn't let him know that she gave a damn what he thought. She was spared his discovery by the fact that he'd already turned away himself.