by Lyn Gala
“Counterevidence—Ramsay is Command officer.” Da’shay violated the last bit of security by outing the captain and the crew of Kratos and Tom cringed. Ramsay never would have let either of them off the ship if he’d had any idea Da’shay was going to turn traitor. He’d just thought the woman was crazy, but then Ramsay did tend to underestimate women.
Hou didn’t answer right away. He sat and leaned back away from the controls set into the top of his desk. Behind him, the city towers looked distorted by the long shadows created by the morning light.
“Three—Command wished to escalate violence.”
Da’shay didn’t say anything. She kept her eyes closed and leaned into him. Tom wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be saying anything or not, but Hou’s expression got more and more confused as Da’shay stood silent.
“A jigsaw puzzle with pieces missing on the edge… I can’t see the size and shape.”
“That makes two of us,” Tom agreed. “If Command wanted to escalate violence, though, they’re going to get it with Tarby’s death. He’s a fucking hero. If the first bomb had done its job and killed all of us, I’m not sure you could have found a dozen people to really care.” Tom thought about that. Ramsay didn’t have much family, a grown daughter he’d had with some doxy. Ramsay’s two brothers had died in the war. Becca had a big family, colonists mostly, and Eli…actually, Tom didn’t know much about Eli.
“Smyth didn’t want us to have the crate,” Da’shay whispered. “Vivid purple streaked with red. Frustrated. Frustrated. Can’t, can’t, can’t.” She gave a low moaning and hummed in distress while Tom rubbed her arm.
“Don’t matter now. He’s dead, so I figure he’s not any color at all right now. Just a body in the ground.”
Hou leaned forward and Tom dropped his hand back onto the butt of his gun. Instead of pushing an alarm, Hou studied Da’shay, his oversized eyes visibly dilating. Tom could feel a cold shiver go over his back and he tried to shift Da’shay so she was behind him—hidden, but she wouldn’t move. She wouldn’t move and she wouldn’t open her eyes to defend herself. Eyes closed, she hummed and leaned into Tom.
“I ain’t liking the way you’re looking at her,” Tom warned Hou.
Hou’s gaze flickered up toward Tom, the pupil constricted to a more normal size before he went back to watching Da’shay. “Genetic disparity with human or genta breeding stock.”
Da’shay’s eyes finally came open, the pupils dilated so that the eyes looked completely black. A human would have been flinching away from any source of light with eyes like that, but Da’shay stared at Hou.
“Entwining multiple species’ genetic code demonstrates superior control. Simple hybrids of human and genta are well established and demonstrate no particular skill.”
Hou blew out a huge breath and seemed to draw his whole bulk upright. Tom’s fingers tightened around the butt of his gun as the mood turned dark. “Blending species of separate planetary evolution requires great skill and leads to offspring which are superior in control.”
Da’shay shook her head. “Well established parameters for genetic compatibility. Low failure rates of embryos. Inferior makers replicate the hybrid process perfected by previous generations without expanding the genetic control.” She looked at him and suddenly her expression turned friendly. She smiled. “However, excessive control is required to overcome an inferior maker to establish a significant coterie.”
Instead of being complimented, Hou seemed to puff up more. “Uncontrolled breeding of multiple species has led to an offspring with limited control.” Hou looked at Da’shay with something that might be contempt.
Da’shay moved away from Tom as she seemed to lose track of the conversation. Wandering over to the side of the room, she ran her fingers over a metal sculpture. Hou made a little puffing noise and Tom drew his gun and targeted the genta’s brain.
“Four—Command wished to eliminate Da’shay,” Hou said slowly. That sounded possible. Tom knew Command had pushed her off on Ramsay and he wasn’t the most popular captain in the fleet. Tom figured Command would be happy enough if the Kratos accidentally flew into a black hole, and putting Da’shay on board might have been their way of putting a lot of trouble onto one ship. Da’shay didn’t argue the point and Tom figured that gave them two solid possibilities: Command wanted a war and Command wanted Da’shay dead.
“Pieces missing. Pieces missing.” Da’shay picked up the sculpture. A series of circles all balanced on one center rod so they twirled around each other, small circles darting between and through larger ones without ever touching. For a second, Tom thought Da’shay was going to throw the thing. “Incomplete information leads to faulty conclusions. Must have access to full information.”
“Sharing of information without compensation is poor negotiation. Shows lack of control.” Hou’s voice got kind of scratchy.
Da’shay carefully placed the sculpture back on its shelf. “Full access in return for sample of highly controlled genetic material from hybrid.” Da’shay held out her arm. Tom held his breath. The thought of a genta having her DNA horrified him about as much as if Hou had asked for Tom’s own. Genta, even half-genta like Hou, could do some mighty dangerous things with DNA. Clones, offspring, hybrids—you never knew where your DNA was going to end up. Hou’s pupils turned into tiny pinpoints of black inside a brown iris.
Hou turned to consider Tom and Tom kept his weapon trained on the kill spot. “Adequate payment.”
Tom gritted his teeth to keep himself from saying that it was too fucking much. Hou didn’t know that much more than they did. He’d shown his cards when he’d given them access to the arrest report and Tom figured he didn’t have much else. If he did, he would have figured out what the hell was going on without turning to them.
Da’shay, however, nodded and smiled happily. “I will provide DNA after you provide information.”
“And if you are exiled or incinerated?” Hou demanded.
Her smile grew. “Then you will not need DNA. You will need to run before Tom kills you.” With that, she turned and headed for the door. Tom was so surprised that, for a second, he was left alone in the room with Hou. They stared at each other and Tom could feel cold sweat against his spine, but he kept his weapon firm as he sidled out of the room. If he thought following Ramsay was hard on the nerves, he’d been naïve. Ramsay wasn’t nothing compared to the ulcers Da’shay was giving him.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Tom walked out of Hou’s office and Da’shay had the secretary by his arm and was heading toward the door with him in tow. Tom didn’t bother holstering his gun; he grabbed the carryall’s handle and started after them. “Da’shay? He doesn’t look like he’s too interested in coming along,” Tom pointed out. True, Tom had bullied the man last time, but the look of absolute panic on his face was inspiring a little pity.
“He will find information.”
“Information?” the man squeaked. “If there’s something you need, I’m sure Master Hou can have me use my station.”
Da’shay stopped with the door open and looked over her shoulder. Tom moved out of her line of fire and watched Hou come to his office door. If someone had come into the Kratos and started hauling out crew, Ramsay would have been fighting mad. Hou…actually, Tom wasn’t sure what Hou was feeling, but he didn’t look particularly upset.
“Master Hou?” the secretary asked softly. Hou kept his gaze on Da’shay.
“Information,” Da’shay said, lifting her chin.
He looked at Da’shay for a long time and Tom wondered how Hou saw her. More than likely he’d go out of his way to get her genetic code, and if it looked as if she wasn’t going to survive, he’d blow her up himself just to scratch the post-mortem DNA off the ground. Then again, maybe Tom was being overly suspicious. Da’shay was the only alien he’d spent any time with and clearly she was not the average genta.
“Use my apartment in Hunter Tower, provided you share all information at least once in every twe
nty seven hour cycle,” Hou said.
“Agreed,” Da’shay said. She turned and headed out the door, still dragging the secretary, who had lost all the color out of his face.
Tom holstered his gun and followed. Outside Hou’s glass walled offices, people in expensive clothing rushed past them and Da’shay stopped. She stared at a long streak of light that was coming in through one of the arched windows that dominated the public space.
“Bruise colors staining the world,” she whispered. Tom walked to her side even as he eyed their newest tag-along.
“Why bring him?”
Da’shay looked over and after several seconds she brought her hand up to stroke Tom’s cheek. Tom moved closer and rested his hand on her hip. He wasn’t sure he knew how to help her out of whatever confusion was tugging at her, but he’d do his best. “Genta-girl too easily distracted by a world colored like stain glass. Tom-boy not as good with finding patterns like mice running through the computer. Need a mind full of green and neither of us are green. All the other colors, but not green.” She sounded sad about that and Tom felt a twinge of unhappiness that he couldn’t be whatever she needed. He looked over and the secretary did look like someone who could find patterns in a computer though, at least as long as he didn’t pass out from fear first.
“I’m Tom,” he offered as he held his hand out.
The secretary flinched back, his pale eyes wide with fear. However, Tom gave him credit for having some balls because even though he was about ready to piss his pants, he focused his eyes on Da’shay and slowly held his hand out for Tom. “I’m Kada. I’m skilled at computers, Master Da’shay. I keep records and research markets for Master Hou.” He’d started to smile, but the expression vanished from his face in an instant and he looked down at the ground.
Tom shook Kada’s hand and then stood there not knowing what to do. Da’shay had started staring off into space again and Tom wondered what she could feel or taste or see in that brain of hers. Did she know she was scaring the piss out of Kada? Tom scratched his slave mark. It seemed a mighty unfriendly thing to do to someone you didn’t really know, but then Da’shay didn’t always connect well with reality, so he had no idea if she was even aware. Well, if she wasn’t gripping with reality, he was going to have to.
“We should get to the apartment in Hunter Tower,” Tom told Da’shay, “unless you’re thinking we should go some other place.”
Da’shay continued to stare off into the crowd, her head slowly tilting first one way and then the other. Something was throwing her off. Tom moved so he was right in front of her and he brought his hand up and curled his fingers around the back of her neck, pulling her close. At first she was stiff as stone and Tom couldn’t budge her a bit, but then she slowly wilted, her body swaying toward him.
“Do we go to Hunter Tower?” Tom asked. She nodded at him, her eyes still dilated black. Tom turned to Kada. “Do you know where that is?” Tom was assuming that Hou was going to order the door to unlock for Da’shay, either that or he was going to have a unit of planetary police waiting there, one or the other. Since Tom couldn’t figure which was more likely, he’d keep following Da’shay’s lead. Kada was looking over his shoulder toward the glass wall where Hou’s offices were getting back to work. Tom looked over and an older man with white streaking his red hair had taken Kada’s place behind the desk.
“Hey,” Tom reached over to tap Kada and the man shied away, his eyes coming first to Tom and then to Da’shay. “I asked if you know where Hou’s place is in Hunter Tower?”
“Yes,” Kada said. He swallowed.
“So let’s go,” Tom gestured toward the crowd. Da’shay was standing with her hands hanging at her sides and Tom caught one of them and pressed his leash into it. Da’shay seemed to come up out of whatever trance had her attention. Smiling at him, she closed her hand around his. “Miss the green sometimes when all the green is gone.”
“Right,” Tom agreed without understand a word of it. He turned to Kada. “Look, are you going to start showing us where to go or just stand there looking like a rabbit on a coyote farm?”
Kada looked at Da’shay. “Do you want the address, Master Da’shay?” he asked. Tom sighed. This guy was getting on his nerves. He was a small man, not even up to Tom’s shoulder, and he was scrawny enough to fit in an air tube, so Tom figured hitting him was out of the question, but he was feeling the temptation.
Da’shay brought her other arm up so that she had Tom’s leash in both hands. “Lead us,” she said firmly.
“Yes, Master Da’shay,” Kada agreed. He started heading into the crowd, looking back every couple of feet. Tom followed him, carryall in one hand with his other hand resting on his gun. The soft pull on his neck suggested that Da’shay was mentally wandering a bit, but as long as he could feel her dragging behind, that didn’t worry Tom much. If he had to listen to entire crowds of people, he’d go a little bug-crazy too.
Kada led them down one tower, through crowds and on escalators. As he led them up into another tower, the halls became narrower and less crowded until an escalator finally led them into a corridor carved into the center of the rock so that no natural light reached the escalators that carried them up higher. Da’shay moved closer to his back until she was eventually leaning into him, her arm going around Tom’s waist and holding on with that alien strength of hers.
They went up about six escalators, each ending in a small landing with several doors before Kada went to one of the doors. “This is Master Hou’s residence.” Tom had to struggle against Da’shay’s embrace to step off the escalators, but at the last second, she loosened up just enough to let him slip off. Looking down at her, he noticed her impish smile. She’d been playing devil with him, and Tom might have said something only Da’shay moved to his side and pressed her hand against the sensor. She’d never struck him as the teasing kind, but maybe Tom was learning all sorts of new things about Da’shay. The door clicked open and Da’shay strode into the room without even checking for ambush.
Tom whistled. “This place must be God-almighty expensive,” he commented. The room was bigger than all of the Kratos’ living quarters and half the engine compartment added on. Oversized couches were laid out in a perfect square and five huge arched windows with pink-tinted glass made the sky look like sunset even though it was only coming up on noon. Tom headed toward the windows where he could see the edge of the city and then the wide desert with broken lines of natural stone interrupting the sand dunes.
“What’s the use of having so much wasted space?” Tom asked. The four gray couches took up less than a quarter of the space, but there wasn’t anything between the couches and artwork lined up along the walls.
The leash went tight. Tom looked over to see if Da’shay was trying to get him to come to her, but she was moving toward him, walking her hands up his leash as she pulled herself along. “Every mind a different color, but genta are green. So green.” They looked more blue to Tom, but then Da’shay didn’t see the world the same way.
“And humans ain’t?” he asked.
Da’shay tilted her head. “Eli is green and Becca is some green. I like to reflect green like a watery mirror of a prism. Green is easier.” She looked at him and her frustration turned to a lazy smile. “But not as soft.” When she reached him, she laid her head down on his shoulder, leaning into him. Tom brought his arms up around her and held her. There were times Tom didn’t rightly know how to help her, but he could wrap his arms around her and offer whatever softness he had to offer. She reminded him of a high carbon steel engine rod. That rod could handle thousands of pounds of pressure and all the heat of a quantum engine, but spill liquid oxygen on it and it would snap like a tree branch.
She stood in his arms for a second before pushing him away and Tom yielded. Turning toward Kada, she said firmly, “Find data.”
Kada’s shoulders hunched up and he ducked his head. “Yes, Master Da’shay. What information should I correlate?”
Da’shay
turned toward the windows and stared out. “Whispers. Little trails left by mice feet darting through the leaves.”
Tom had used animal trails like that as a boy to hunt small animals. “She wants the slightest sign of something out of place,” Tom translated. “Rumors about—” Tom stopped and looked at Da’shay. Which theory was she trying to investigate?
“Rumors of war, machines hidden in corners, new technologies and amazing wonders slipping out of the shadows or vanishing back into them,” she finished for him. “In Corps space and slaver.”
“Yes, Master Da’shay.” Kada went and knelt on the floor and pressed his thumb against it. With a whirr, a desk rose out of the floor, a desk flat display built into the top. Another whirr and a chair appeared. With only a quick glance over at Da’shay, Kada started typing commands into his computer.
“Little breath of wind moving the sand.” Da’shay pressed her hand against the glass. The whole pane shimmered and turned a pale blue. Tom moved to her side. He wished there was something he could do, but there wasn’t anyone around to shoot or intimidate and those were his strengths. She turned to him and smiled, her hand going to his cheek and then trailing down over his shoulder until she pressed her palm against the slave mark. “Must slip through shadows where Tom will not fit. Wait here.”
Ice wrapped around Tom’s guts. “It’s not safe for you to be out there alone,” he said with as much calm as he could manage.
“Alone so long.” Her gaze wandered from the slave mark up to Tom’s face. “Not alone now. Just a kite flying high where hawks can see the world. Not cutting the string.” She tilted her head. “Don’t want to fly alone anymore.”
“You don’t have to. Let me go with you,” Tom asked. He didn’t like the idea of her out there alone, not when all her strength was feeling so brittle.
She gave him a smile. “I like that Tom worries about me,” she said in a confessional tone. Tom opened his mouth, but she turned and headed for the door. “But Tom has to stay and watch the world turn colors,” she said firmly.
