by Lara LaRue
Norcross stood there glaring mutely at his superior. I blinked at the commander in shock. I had never expected he would come to my defense. I had hoped he would listen, especially when I had risen to the challenge of submitting to the interrogation device. “Sir, we can go over that later, if it is more convenient.”
Wickman nodded thoughtfully. “I understand. We will discuss that later. At this point, you had this symbiont in your system, you had already dealt with one crisis and an interrogation, and you had become subject to an arranged marriage with a man who apparently is not that uncomfortable a companion for you. Is that correct?” I nodded, and he made a few more notes. “What happened next?”
“I returned from the hospice with Dekkir and the others in a caravan commanded by one of their local travel specialists. On our way back, we were attacked by a swarm of combat drones. Several members of the group were killed before we were able to fend them off.” I stared at Norcross, who stood still, a single muscle jumping repeatedly in his cheek.
Once again, the machine didn’t let out so much as a beep. The commander looked between it and myself, and then sighed. “The missing drones. I assume the missing men have a similar story behind them?”
I opened my mouth to speak, only to hear Tabirus speaking to me in my mind. Grace. You cannot read Norcross’s mind or emotions, but you can get him to expose himself. Empathy works both ways. His emotions are entirely self-centered, so you cannot read them. But you can still manipulate them, just as they have been manipulated with words. Listen closely, for my part of the plan will soon be unfolding. Remember he loves to gloat. Also, remember he keeps getting more nervous the more he is caught at what he’s been doing.
I took a deep, steadying breath and decided to give it a try. I focused on Norcross: all that peculiar absence of connection, like a hole in the world. I watched his face as I started pouring my own batch of emotions into his emptiness. Pride, fear, the urge to brag. Come on, you damn fool. You’ve been quiet most of this time. You know you can’t take it anymore. You have to say something.
Norcross cleared his throat. “I am not responsible for the drone strike,” he blurted suddenly. Then he realized how suspicious that sounded and reddened.
Wickman rolled his eyes. “Were you equally ‘not responsible’ for our almost one hundred missing men? According to the latest bunk check, as of a few hours ago, over a quarter of our complement of soldiers has apparently vanished into thin air. Did you have something to do with this, or do you want to tell me that you somehow infiltrated Lyra by yourself and captured the doctor here and this Dekkir fellow on your own?”
Norcross scowled and shoved his hands in the pockets of his dress uniform. “Fine. It’s true. I was seeking to follow our original orders and work to destabilize Lyra.”
“Without my knowledge or permission? And using tactics that failed at every single turn, with the exception of taking hostage two people who would likely have come here willingly if asked in a peaceful fashion?” I could feel Wickman’s craving for a drink, and this time, I really couldn’t blame him.
I concentrated harder on Norcross. Come on, then, keep flapping your gums. Dig your career a grave. It doesn’t matter what Earth Command had in mind; you still jumped the line, and you messed up while you were at it. It’s about time Wickman realized what’s really going on here.
Norcross glared at him. “You have been ignoring orders from Earth ever since they gave the command to start the destabilization of the planet. This stupid idealism of yours was going to get us nowhere. You and this silly little bitch have only succeeded in delaying the inevitable. It was time someone got things moving!”
“Yeah, except you failed every single time, bright boy,” I snarled at him. “Just like the man said.”
The commander waved at me to be silent. “I see.” He made another note, then looked up at Norcross. “Lieutenant Damon Norcross, I’m hereby relieving you of your duty. You will be returned to Earth on the next shuttle, and I will be contacting Earth Command about these developments. I will also provide them with the new information I have received on both the costliness and the pointlessness of Lyran occupation.”
Norcross stared at him for a long moment, his face dark purple and his eyes temporarily full of fury. “I see. Well then. You leave me no choice.”
The lieutenant pulled a small energy pistol from his pocket and fired, flash-burning half the commander’s chest. Wickman stiffened, eyes widening in shock, and clasped the wound before slumping over and sprawling across his desk. The four guards turned immediately, drawing their weapons, but Norcross was already out the door.
CHAPTER 21 /DEKKIR
I was watching the culturing tanks fill with Golden Strain and the human scientist slowly sink into a trance as his body started to adapt to it, when a current of alarm and anger ran down the link I shared with Grace. I sat up suddenly and turned to look at Tabirus. He nodded and immediately sent out a telepathic beacon to link us all up. What is it?
Grace’s message back was controlled but edged with fear, frustration, and rage. Norcross shot the commander and escaped. I’m sure he’s gathering whatever sympathetic forces he has right now. Meanwhile, one of the science officers and I are trying to keep Wickman alive. He needs medical attention and now, or we’re going to lose him and, with him, any chance of winning the base. He has command codes we need to cut off Norcross’s access to escape craft, combat drones, and everything else.
Well, I wouldn’t actually say we can’t win the base without him, Tabirus sent rather casually, and I elbowed him hard in the ribs. He blinked at me.
I scowled back. Stop second-guessing my mate. She’s right at least as often as you are.
He sighed and nodded. “All right, then.” He turned to the assistant he had drafted, who was sitting there wearing a vacant smile as the first threads of bronze and gold crept into his irises. “Dr. Eastman, we’re needed upstairs. I’d like you to monitor the culturing tanks and let me know when they’re completely full.” He went over to the machine that Eastman had put the small dish of Golden Strain culture in. Scooping the dish up, he turned on his heel and strode toward the door. I trailed after him, pretending reluctance.
As I left, I heard a dreamy voice behind me say, “Sure. No problem.” I hoped it wasn’t. He was clearly sinking into an adaptation trance already, and whatever Tabirus’s plans were, the Strain was an important part of it.
Upstairs was in chaos. I pretended to be the docile prisoner again, trailing closely behind Tabirus as soldiers and technicians ran past us in what looked like a panic. A large crowd had gathered outside one of the offices. I could sense Grace’s presence in that room.
Tabirus pushed through the crowd, saying calmly, “Chief science officer here. I have medical equipment en route. Please let me pass.”
The crowd parted for both of us, though I got a few startled looks. Inside, Grace radiated regret and anger as she labored to keep the tall, aging human commander’s heart going with her palms. “We’re going to lose him,” she called out sharply. “If you’re going to do something, Dr. Stirling, do it quick!”
The room was deserted except for herself and a single technician with the reddest hair I had ever seen. Tabirus hurried over to bend over the commander with her. He looked up at the technician. “Get that interrogation unit out of here. Bring the crash cart down, along with a stasis bed. We have to get him stabilized before I can do anything.”
The tech grabbed the machine, sparing us all one last look before he hurried out. I walked over to my Grace and gently put my hands on her shoulders. “Stay calm,” I murmured in her ear. “I’m here now.” She relaxed slightly under my hands, and I smiled despite the circumstances.
I could see why it was hard for her. The man in question hovered on the brink of death, his face absolutely white, the right side of his chest and belly burned down to red and black meat, the skin completely gone. “Can anything be done for him?” I asked.
Tabirus nodded g
rimly. “There’s only one thing. The Golden Strain works faster when it’s trying to save its host’s life, and I’m about to give him a massive dose.” Opening the sample dish he had kept in his hand, he stepped forward and unceremoniously dumped the entire contents into the wound on the commander’s chest.
Wickman’s eyes flew open, and his back arched slightly. He let out a low groan, and golden light started to sparkle and dance inside his wound as the pile of spores sank into it. Grace gasped and backed up against me, and I wrapped my arms around her from behind. I murmured reassurance in her ear, but I could feel her shivering as she watched the skin across the man’s chest start to knit together.
A minute passed. I stood tensely, wishing I knew what was going on outside. Chances were Norcross was going to take advantage of his superior’s supposed death in order to take over. “What are the chances the soldiers will side with him?” I asked, wishing I had my spear with me.
Grace sighed. “On the one hand, he doesn’t have control of them all, or the ones guarding me wouldn’t have flipped when he shot Wickman. But protocol says he’s in charge if the commander’s incapacitated, and only three witnesses saw him shoot Wickman besides me. If he silences them and tells the others I killed Wickman, they’ll do whatever he says.”
“Then we will have to expose the truth to all of them at once,” Tabirus said as he monitored Wickman’s healing. The man was breathing on his own again, and the blackened, raw look to his flesh was fading. “Once he is stabilized, I will need to part company with you for a while and put the next phase of my plan in motion. Once that is done, we can use the chaos to locate Norcross and take him out. Protocol will have command here fall to me at that point.”
Grace nodded, still clutching my arms as I wrapped them around her chest. “We’ll get him back on his feet. Once that’s done, he can help us shut down internal controls and start winning back the locals.”
Tabirus let out a soft laugh as he straightened up. The color was flowing back into Wickman’s face, and his eyelids fluttered. “Believe me, by the time this fellow is back on his feet, human awareness on the base will have . . . expanded considerably.” He winked, looking Wickman over one last time. “If he doesn’t regain consciousness within twenty minutes, contact me.”
We stared after him as he turned on his heel and strode out. Grace turned to me, eyebrows drawn together. “What’s he up to?”
“All I know is he inoculated one of the other science officers, and he’s culturing gigantic amounts of Golden Strain down in his lab.”
My fingertips slid up and down her arm. I was so happy to be alone with her again that my mind went straight to my desires. Perhaps it was the desperateness of the situation. Perhaps it was watching her come into her own. I had sensed the way she stood up to Norcross and the way she conducted herself with the commander. This was the woman I had known she could become from the beginning: strong enough to handle any situation. I leaned down and buried my nose in her hair. But then I realized she had gone rigid in my arms and was staring off into space as she weighed what I had just told her.
“There’s only one thing he could need all of that Golden Strain for, Dekkir. If he makes enough, he could expose everyone on the base.” Her voice was low and a little shaky with wonder. “He could force open all their minds.”
It made sense in more ways than one. My heart started to pound as I contemplated the possibilities. “That would incapacitate everyone with their adjustment period at once!”
She nodded, running a hand up my chest almost subconsciously. “It would also immediately make them aware that Norcross is lying about who attacked the commander. And it would make it much more difficult for him to deceive them into doing anything else, even if they can’t read him directly.” She hesitated. “But what will exposure to the Strain do to Norcross?”
I shook my head, then leaned down to nuzzle her hair again. “I don’t know, my love. When a Lyran who is incapable of connecting with others emotionally comes in contact with the Golden Strain, it kills them. It acts as a deadly poison. Most with this defect of mind and spirit who are inoculated as children do not see more than a handful of birthdays. But I do not know about humans. Norcross may drop dead. Or something unforeseen may happen to him.”
I looked down at the commander, who was improving minute by minute. I wondered what I would say to him when he finally woke up. I didn’t know whether to blame him for letting Norcross get away with so much or thank him for standing up to his superiors and trying to prevent a war. Humans could be such contradictory creatures. If Grace mystified me, this man was a puzzle beyond all interpretation.
The man’s breathing became more even and stronger by the moment. I had seen the Strain save lives this way, but I had never seen it do so quickly. I wondered if Tabirus had altered it somehow in order to have it work faster and more powerfully.
I leaned down and kissed my mate’s lips lingeringly, stealing a few precious moments before we were forced to focus back on the crisis at hand. “When we get out of this, my darling, I’m going to spend many nights making up to you the time we’ve been apart.”
She laughed huskily. “Well, we were only really apart for a few hours, but if you want to make up for lost time, I’m all for it.” She leaned up and kissed me again, and I saw the faint smile on her face. Soon, everything would be all right again, and we would spend our time making love and planning for the future instead of worrying about how we would survive the next few hours.
Our kiss intensified suddenly, both of us feeling feedback from the other’s arousal that drove me especially into an impulsive frenzy. I knew for a fact the man lying across the desk would not be conscious for at least another quarter hour, and for a moment, I sincerely considered pinning her up against the bookshelf beside his desk and seeing how much pleasure I could give her in that time.
Several sets of booted feet approached outside. I stiffened, and so did Grace. Before we could do anything, I heard pounding on the door, so hard it rattled on its hinges.
“Dammit. They’ve got to be on Norcross’s side.” Her eyes narrowed. Hastily, she reached for the uniform jacket hanging off the back of the commander’s office chair and quickly laid it over his face and chest. It hid both his healing wound and the fact he was alive.
Clever girl, I thought admiringly a moment before someone kicked in the door.
I whirled, trying to shield Grace bodily, but six rifles were suddenly pointed in my direction. I froze, shaking with anger, too aware I was unarmed and had no choice but to surrender. Grace put her hands up as well, and I heard them shouting at her to step forward.
I tried to go with her. I had barely reunited with her, and here she was in peril again and about to be taken away. But before I could do anything, four of them stepped forward and closed with me, raising their rifle butts.
I flew into a rage, seizing one of the rifles and slamming it into the skull of the nearest soldier. He went down like a sack of meal, and the others immediately panicked and went back to pointing their weapons at me instead of trying to beat me with them. I pointed the rifle back at them. I had never fired one, but they didn’t have to know that.
“That’s enough!” Norcross’s voice, his tone mocking. I looked up and saw him standing in the doorway, pointing his pistol straight at Grace. “Drop your weapon, or I’ll gun her down right here.”
My mate and I looked at each other, and a silent current of understanding ran between us. We had several wild cards Norcross was not aware of, from our powers to Tabirus’s plans. And even to the man they mistook for a corpse, lying at the desk behind me. We will win this, we swore silently to each other. I refused to lose my temper, and she refused to panic.
Norcross stepped forward and took hold of Grace by the wrist. He glanced at the guards. “You four, guard him here. Send Michaelson to the infirmary when he wakes up. I’ll be back to take care of this alien as soon as I show the rest of our men the traitor in our midst. I’m sure they’ll e
njoy having some . . . fun with her. I sure will.” He spat the last part in her ear and seemed startled when she barely reacted.
Grace didn’t say anything. All she did was stare back at me as he dragged her away. The last thing I saw before the door closed were her gleaming bronze eyes, full of determination, trust, and love.
CHAPTER 22 / GRACE
“I’m going to fuck you onstage in front of everyone,” Norcross gloated as he dragged me down the hall. “It’s what you deserve. Running off and spreading your legs for that filthy alien. Oh yeah. I’m going to punish you good. Then after I tell them everything you’ve done, I’m going to give you to them. You’ll be dead by the time they’re done with you.”
I didn’t say anything. Having his hand on my wrist made me sick. The things he said disgusted me. But I knew he was not going to win. I had faith in Dekkir, and I had faith in Tabirus. There was no damn way Norcross was going to win this one. But I still couldn’t stand the thought of the public humiliation I was about to experience.
He was taking me to the main briefing room, a large auditorium capable of holding all four hundred of the base personnel. At the front of the room, a tall, narrow stage bathed in spotlight glowed. I knew what he planned to use it for tonight. I just hoped Dekkir and our allies would make their move before he managed any of it.
He marched me in, the two soldiers flanking him looking at me with a mix of wariness and curiosity. They didn’t seem to understand why I wasn’t crying or begging. Norcross didn’t either.
“What’s the matter, honey? Cat got your tongue? This is your last chance to beg me to change my mind. You should probably take advantage of it.” I stayed silent, so he angrily dragged me forward with more force, taking me up the stage stairs and towing me out to the middle. He then raised his hand to address everyone, and the muttering crowd went silent.
