Blowback

by Lyn Gala

  Da’shay pursed her lips and nodded. “No more wandering trails without the sparkle of diamonds lighting the way,” she promised.

  Tom let out the breath he’d been holding. He admired the hell out of Da’shay—what she’d survived and how hard she’d fought. He still felt a little shocked every time he thought about the fact she wanted him, but he couldn’t have stayed only to see her go flying off alone every time she thought there was a real threat. It would have gutted him. Now that she’d given her promise, Tom could admit that he’d been feeling fear ripping through him, fear that she’d refuse to change and he couldn’t live with that. “I love you too much to watch you get killed, got it?” Tom demanded.

  Reaching into a pocket, Da’shay pulled out a short chain, something that couldn’t be more than three feet. Tom didn’t move as she reached up and attached it to his collar. Then she wrapped both hands around the short leash and leaned into him. Closing his eyes, Tom wrapped his arms around her and held her tight for a moment.

  “Funny,” Ramsay said softly. “Crow doesn’t taste all that good.”

  Tom looked over. “What? Why would you eat crow? They’re stringy as hell and ain’t got much meat on ‘em.”

  Ramsay looked at him for a second as if he couldn’t quite decide what to say. Then he shrugged. “Can you see Kada going after Hou like that?” he asked in a total change of topic.

  Tom snorted. “Hell, no.”

  “I guess you two really aren’t much the same.”

  Da’shay pushed and Tom let her go. “Did you really think I was anything like him?” Tom asked the captain.

  “Yep,” Ramsay answered. “You both have collars and marks.” Tom had all sorts of answers for that, including suggestions about where Ramsay could shove a slave collar of his own, but Da’shay tugged on his leash and caught his attention.

  “New ant trails out of the dark?”

  “Okay,” Tom answered. Da’shay had made that sound like a question, but he certainly didn’t understand any of this well enough to have an opinion. However, she liked his answer. Smiling, she used his leash to pull him close and give him a kiss before she took off for the ladder that led down into the maze of hallways below them. “Keep captain here!” she called before dropping out of sight.

  Ramsay put his hands on his hips and was clearly trying not to scowl. He was only half successful. “Okay?” he demanded. “You’re just going to say ‘okay’ to whatever crazy she has going?”

  Tom shrugged. “Her op. If she says we put new ant trails in the dark, I’m herding ants. I don’t suppose you’ve figured out her meaning for ‘ants’ yet, have you?”

  Without a word, Ramsay started toward the ladder up to the next level. Moving quick, Tom stepped into his path. “Da’shay said we should wait here.”

  “Da’shay isn’t my boss.”

  “She’s mine,” Tom countered and he hoped that the captain understood what he was saying. He didn’t want to punch Ramsay, but he would.

  Ramsay backed off a step. “Tom, I’m grateful to Da’shay for helping us take the ship. If there’s going to be war, then Command needs to see the tech they’re up against. That said, there’s no way in hell I’m taking cati with us. I’m not going to be the one to hand over prisoners for the Information Corps to dissect.” Ramsay’s face was set into hard lines and Tom could understand the captain’s feelings. The man had spent years strapped down and getting poked by casslit, so he had reason to be a little touchy, but Tom could only put his full faith behind one person at a time.

  “I know how you’re feeling, but Da’shay said to keep you here and I will.”

  Ramsay took a step back. “Tom Frieden, I never thought you’d turn mean to prisoners you’d captured. Turn ‘em loose. Otherwise, I’m not even sure Da’shay understands what Command will do.”

  Tom thought on that. “I’ve followed your orders long enough for you to know that I tend to take them literally. Da’shay said we stay here, so I may not understand the first thing about what she’s thinking, but I’ll make sure we stay here. If I’ve got to fight or shoot you to make that happen, well, I’ll feel bad about that after you’re on the ground.” Tom watched Ramsay’s body language. The man was considering fighting over this, but Tom figured he’d win. Not only was he thirty years younger than the captain, but Ramsay just wasn’t sure of himself. He was shifting around like a man who couldn’t figure out how to attack or whether to retreat. It was an uncomfortable silence that reigned until Da’shay came back up through the hole, this time followed by Becca and Eli.

  “Da’shay got the hatch to close, so I think we’re secure for take-off,” Eli said. Before he could say anything else, Becca pushed forward.

  “Are you two settled now?” Tom figured she’d either seen or heard some part of their fight. Ramsay glared at Tom, but neither of them answered.

  “Boys having human thoughts,” Da’shay answered for them.

  “Kinda hard for us to have any other kind,” Ramsay pointed out. Tom moved to Da’shay’s side, watching her for some sign of what she wanted.

  “Only ants make ant trails,” she said solemnly. When she turned toward the ladder going up into a higher level, presumable where she had cati trapped, Tom moved with her. She wasn’t going in without backup and he didn’t care if he had to fucking chain himself to her to make that point. She smiled and caught his leash.

  “What are you doing?” Ramsay asked, he stepped forward to catch Tom’s arm, and Tom shrugged him off.

  “Following her.” Da’shay got up onto the third step of the ladder and pressed her hand to the covering. Tom’s guts twisted because he wanted to go up first, and failing that, he wanted Da’shay to go in gun first, but she looked calm and he told himself to trust her judgment. She’d kept herself alive this far, so she wasn’t the sort to rush in foolishly. Usually.

  After a second, the cover retracted like the membrane of some empty eye socket.

  “Da’shay,” Eli called. “May I follow if I stay behind you?”

  “Sergeant!” Ramsay barked.

  “Sir, this is a chance to observe alien behaviors. No offense to Tom, but I don’t think he’s the best choice for recognizing xenopsychologically significant details.”

  “He’s right. I ain’t even understanding the words in that sentence,” Tom agreed.

  Da’shay paused on the ladder and watched them. Becca inched closer to the captain and Eli stood looking at Ramsay, clearly waiting on permission.

  “I would only observe, Captain. Two classes in xenoculture does not make me an expert and I know that. I don’t want my name going down in history as someone who triggered the cati war by insulting some diplomat with my stupidity.” Eli’s gaze darted up toward Tom and then Da’shay.

  “As opposed to triggering it by attacking their ship and killing crew?” Ramsay sounded a little bitter and sarcastic on that front.

  Eli blushed. “Assuming that. I think it’s a little late to worry about the dead crew, but accidentally killing the first two crew of meaiai didn’t cause a war, so we can’t be sure that this can’t be smoothed over.”

  “These aliens know how to attack humans,” Ramsay pointed out. “I’m going up there with you.” Ramsay started walking toward the ladder and Becca’s eyes went so big that Tom thought they might just drop out.

  “No!” Da’shay’s finger pointed at Ramsay. “Memories red, stained with purple.” She pointed at Eli. “Yes. Stay quiet.” Ramsay opened his mouth as if he was going to argue, but then he snapped it closed again with a real unhappy look on his face.

  “You don’t need to tell me that twice,” Eli muttered as he hurried to the bottom of the ladder. Having Eli at his back made Tom itch a bit, but he followed Da’shay up into a larger room with piles of padding and covers around. Funny enough, a dorm looked like a dorm no matter what species it was. However, there weren’t any soldiers and the blankets were in vivid colors that would have offended any training sergeant. Da’shay went to the next ladder an
d climbed up into the next room. It was larger yet, but pedestals rose from the floor, each equipped with alien tech in that same two-toned metal Tom recognized from the hologram egg they’d found.

  “Fascinating. No private spaces,” Eli whispered behind him, but Da’shay had Tom’s leash pulled tight enough that Tom couldn’t turn around and point out that he’d promised to stay quiet. The next ladder led up into the largest room yet and Tom’s guts twisted at the sight of a whole room full of cati. This looked like some sort of VIP room with a large viewport out to the dock and wide open spaces full of nothing much.

  Da’shay pulled herself up into the room and walked right toward the one standing in the middle of the room. He or she…it was hard to tell…was larger than the others and a lot heavier. He almost had enough flesh on him to look like a human from a distance. Close up, the long face, huge black eyes and long arms were actually more disturbing than meaiai. There was something even disturbing about a creature that came so close to looking human without being human at all.

  The cati stepped forward and starting a hum-clicking sound.

  “Cati ripped out cati words,” Da’shay interrupted in the middle of a hum. Behind the leader, forty or fifty cati shifted, their voices joining in one hummed tone. Da’shay twitched the leash, pulling down on Tom, and he frowned at her, not sure if that had been an accident. She did it again and Tom sank to his knees, still not certain he was doing the right thing, but he could still launch himself into any fight. Da’shay rested her hand on his shoulder and Tom settled in, his hand on his gun and his eyes scanning the crowd behind the cati leader.

  Two of the crowd separated and came forward to stand just behind their leader. “My ship,” Da’shay said. That caused a higher note in the hum from the crowd, but the leader simply stared at her. Eli moved closer, standing behind her on the other side from Tom.

  “Da’shenya,” the leader finally rumbled.

  Da’shay kept staring at him. “Full rivers turned by three single points, prisms of light incomprehensible scattering the flow. You are Proyat. Whispers in the dark.”

  Proyat stood up straighter and Tom closed his hand around his gun and watched as the cati shifted position behind him. “Rivers overflow barriers set by…” He raised his chin. He seemed to struggle to find each word.

  Da’shay raised her arms and held them out as if someone were about to hand her a baby. It wasn’t a gesture Tom had ever seen someone use, not unless they planned to catch something falling down at them.

  “Broken girl,” Proyat snapped. His gaze went from Da’shay to Eli and then back to Da’shay. “Da’shenya. River with no banks.” He inched forward and Da’shay kept her hands palm up.

  “My ship,” she said firmly. Tom kept an eye on the growing distress in the crowd, but oddly only the two cati who had stepped forward to stand with Proyat seemed to have much personality—the rest just reflected the exact same emotion in the exact same degree. “Rivers moved. Find new trails through the sand or die.”

  Proyat made a shrill sound and then his fingers touched Da’shay’s palms. “Old rivers, long dried,” he said, his voice louder than before.

  Da’shay hummed for a minute and Proyat’s color—a sort of ashen shade of human flesh—slowly lost more and more color. It was pretty clear she was saying something to him through that hum of hers. Tom frowned as he remembered all the times she had trailed fingers over him and hummed a wordless tune. Had she been talking to him, whispering things that he was just too stupid to understand?

  “Little streams feed dry river banks, winter snows flooding down,” Da’shay said after Proyat had lost most of the color from his skin. “Da’shay river flows through, washing away Proyat or giving Proyat new banks to flow to new lands.” Despite the fact that Proyat looked mighty disturbed, he kept his fingers pressed to Da’shay’s palms. Casslit talked like that, by touching, but casslit didn’t make any noise at all.

  “Rivers flow. Da’shenya rains pass,” Proyat disagreed.

  “Rivers move, Da’shay rips out banks,” Da’shay quickly countered him. Tom shifted, ready for the fight to start. If all the cati in this room decided to rush them, they weren’t going to have spit’s chance in hell.

  “Rivers flow. Da’shenya dries out and vanishes.” He reached out and grabbed Da’shay’s wrists.

  “Kill!” Da’shay cried out and Tom had his weapon out before she’d finished the sound. His bullet went in under Proyat’s ear and exploded out the top of his head. Brain and blood splattered over the humming audience and Tom swung his gun around to one of the remaining cati who seemed intent on shooting Eli with some sort of fancy gun. Eli was falling back, his gun just coming up as Tom fired his second shot. He hadn’t had time to think about where to place his bullet, so it caught the cati low in the ribs and the creature fell with a spine-shivering cry that sounded like rough stones scraping against each other. That left them with a whole lot of humming cati who didn’t seem too much of a threat and one last officer-type. He was standing with his hand on his weapon, but his body was motionless.

  Eli softly cursed off to the side and Tom ignored him.

  Da’shay’s fingers found Tom’s neck and she stroked the skin, humming softly as she looked around the room. Out of the side of his eye, Tom could see a pale Eli step up to stand next to her again.

  “Rivers move. New directions. Bring life and beauty to new deserts,” she said. She moved in front of Tom, blocking his shot. Getting to his feet, Tom shifted to the side to keep an eye on the fallen cati and the one who was now quickly losing his color as Da’shay moved closer to him, her hands up in that gesture that made Tom think she was about to catch a falling baby. “Life and life, water flowing over new sands.” The cati looked at her, his eyes darting over toward Tom several times.

  Slowly the new alien took his hand off his gun and brought it up to rest his fingertips against Da’shay’s palms.

  “Old rivers, known banks,” he said, his voice much softer than Proyat’s had been.

  “Adjust to new banks. The river is most important.” Da’shay’s voice had a cajoling tone now and Tom wondered if she was going to have him shoot all the cati one at a time or if this one was going to agree with her. He didn’t mind killing Proyat, seeing as how he wanted Da’shay to dry out, but the one she was talking to now seemed like less of a threat. Tom would rather not shoot him. None of the other cati were reacting to the death with anything that looked like grief. This one who was talking to Da’shay kept glancing over, but not the others.

  “Waters lost in new banks.” Yep, he was a lot more timid than Proyat had been. Da’shay moved slowly, inching forward and moving her hands to catch him by the wrists. The cati shivered and the audience’s hum changed tone again, but so far it wasn’t looking like anyone wanted to do any more killing. Tom was starting to wonder if they could kill. Maybe some cati weren’t built for killing and others were.

  “New trails. New rivers. Follow and follow and then lead and lead. You are Gashta.”

  “I am Gashta,” the cati said, but he almost made it sound like a question, like he didn’t know his own name. “New rivers bring new colors,” he said.

  “Adjust to colors,” she agreed. “Colors spilling across the world.”

  Gashta glanced over at Tom. “New paths. New humans.”

  Da’shay didn’t wait for anything more; she turned to head for the ladder back down. Tom blinked, caught off guard by the sudden end because it was feeling to him as if they weren’t done. However, Gashta turned his back to Tom and went to the injured cati who was slowly turning a pasty color. Tom was guessing he was dead unless the cati had a real good doctor. “Tom,” Eli called softly from the top of the ladder.

  Tom backed away from the group, still waiting for some sort of retaliation. Two cati were dead on the floor, but Gashta didn’t seem too upset and the others were milling. Gashta reached out and touched a cati who immediately started to gather up the dead. Others started to follow suit as Tom followed
Eli down the ladder. Once they were out of the room, the membrane over the hatch closed and Tom followed Eli through the tech room down into the sleeping quarters. “I can’t believe you did that,” Eli whispered harshly.

  “Don’t rightly care.” Pushing past Eli, Tom headed down the ladder into the triangular room where Ramsay and Becca were waiting. Da’shay wasn’t here either.

  “Where’s Da’shay?”

  Ramsay poked a thumb toward the hatch that led to the corridors level. “She went rushing through. What happened?”

  “Da’shay claimed the ship,” Tom answered as he went to the next hatch. He wanted to follow Da’shay, but he didn’t have many illusions about being able to find her in this nightmare of a ship.

  “She just claimed it? The aliens didn’t have anything to say about that?”

  “Not after Tom shot two of them,” Eli said. Ramsay and Becca both turned to him with stunned expressions.

  “The one threatened Da’shay and the other tried to shoot Eli,” Tom said without any guilt.

  “I only have two classes of xenocultural studies, so I don’t presume to know much about the topic,” Eli said, “but I think Da’shay set me up as a decoy. When the shooting started, Da’shay had already put Tom on his knees and they didn’t even look at him twice. They were trying to shoot me.”

  “I could have told you she’d do that. She does seem uncommonly attached to him.” Ramsay ran his fingers through his hair and shook his head. “If there wasn’t already a war coming, I’d make a fuss about you going and getting one started by shooting aliens, Tom,” Ramsay complained.

  “I’m not so sure they’d care as much as you might think.” Eli said.

  “Not care?” Becca sounded shocked.

  “What’s that mean?” Ramsay demanded.

  “I’m not sure, but I think only three of them were actually autonomous. The others were all doing the same thing, like maybe they couldn’t function independently. I’m not sure that they’re going to be as easy to understand as the genta.”

  “Only three were actually thinking, you mean?” Ramsay looked a little green at the thought.