by Lynn Rae
“We’re just friends.” And that was as much detail as he was willing to reveal at this time. Lia took a sip of her own wine and considered him over the rim.
“How many people do you think feel as she does?”
“Here on the planet, or in the universe as we know it?”
She grinned and snagged an olive. “I’m not going looking for trouble. I have enough to deal with in this square kilometer or so.”
Colon thought a moment and took another sip of wine. Now that he was more relaxed, he could appreciate how tasty it was. He’d been drinking Joli’s homebrew for so long that the complexity of this drink intrigued him. And he wasn’t sure how much of Lia’s question he wanted to answer. Sitting on the chair arm wasn’t so comfortable anymore, so he slid into the seat and reached for a cracker. “I can’t say. She’s the only person who has said anything to me. I know some people in town are worried you are going to make trouble, start laying down rules.”
Lia leaned forward from her seat on the sofa and caught his gaze with her own. Which was good, because if he wasn’t looking in her soft brown eyes, he’d be very distracted by the tiny sliver of cleavage her changed posture revealed. That robe she wore was thin and he saw no evidence of any garment underneath. It also seemed slippery, as if it would slide over skin…
“Do you think we’re going to have problems tomorrow night at the meeting?”
Colan struggled to maintain the thread of conversation. He tried to assimilate how warm he felt and how attractive Lia was. It must be the wine. He wasn’t used to such alcohol content anymore. “I doubt it. Most people on Gamaliel are, by inclination, pretty uninvolved. That’s how most of them ended up out here.”
“Like you?”
“No, Gamaliel was my planet to map. I’m here for my work. But lots of people in Pearl and the surrounding area are here to ease away from congressional attention. That’s why there’s some worry on their part about all the new people and rules coming their way.” Again, Colan noticed he wasn’t including himself with the native people like he would have a week ago. He certainly didn’t feel as if he was allied with the congressionals, but he wasn’t quite like regular folk either. Gina had really put the squeeze on his identity by assigning him this role.
“But the survey is complete, isn’t it? We’re trying to lay out claim sections under that assumption.”
Thank the stars they were talking business. If he was still trying to apologize, he would have been maneuvering himself onto the sofa cushion next to hers and trying to look down her robe.
“It is. My last crew shipped out three weeks ago. I finished up the satellite linkups just before you arrived, so I can monitor the delta developments in the southern hemisphere and some areas of geologic activity.”
“So, you’re scheduled to be rotated out?”
Colan grimaced in dismay. Considering his behavior, she should be eager to be rid of him. “You want to put my departure in your master timetable?”
“No, I—” A gentle chime interrupted Lia, and she rose and excused herself as she went to her door.
She made a surprised sound, and as Colan turned around he could see her open the door to admit Rue and Tun, who ambled in beaming from ear to ear. Tun spotted him first and gave a glad cry of greeting as he shuffled over and embraced him. Colan hugged the older man back, pleased to see them. Rue inclined her cheek for a kiss which he gave. They were freshly cleaned up and radiating with good will.
“There’s our Tor, looking fit,” Rue trilled as she squeezed his hand. Her thin fingers and pliant skin felt fragile in his grasp. “What good luck to find you here. We were just stopping by before bed to thank Lia here for all her help. She’s been simply marvelous to us, Tor. Did you know she programmed a butlebot just for us? It brings us anything we want and has been cleaning our shoes. And the chef made up some of our favorite dishes, after Lia asked us what we liked.”
Tun nodded and wriggled his eyebrows. Tor glanced at his and Rue’s feet and noticed they were only wearing socks.
“Would you care for some wine?” Lia smiled as she walked toward her kitchen.
“No, no sweetheart, we need to get to bed. Exciting day and all. Our old bones are aching tonight,” Rue declined as she herded Tun toward the door. “Didn’t mean to interrupt the two of you at all. Go back to whatever it was you were doing.”
Colan wanted to groan. Of course Rue would read into his presence in Lia’s suite late at night, with two glasses of wine on the table, and her lovely hair down around her shoulders. It couldn’t be further from the truth, but Tun’s knowing grin made him realize, no matter how he protested their assumptions, by tomorrow morning everyone in Pearl would assume he was having intercourse with Lia Frei. Best try to nip that gossip at the source.
“No, I was just leaving. I need to get back and work on some things before tomorrow’s meeting,” Colan lied as he headed toward the door, waving farewell impartially to everyone in Lia’s living room as he sped away. Lia looked as if she wanted to say something but he just kept moving, counting himself lucky to have escaped before he asked her more questions or told her more truths.
Chapter 6
“The evidence is irrefutable!” Riva Estep howled from the crowd. Lia could only see the top of the dark-haired woman’s head through the crowd of people standing and sitting in the lobby area of the new admin building.
Somehow this meeting to go over the construction plans and immigration schedule had devolved into some sort of referendum about alien intelligence. When Moca opened up the floor to questions after a brief presentation, Riva barged right up onto the platform and started in on her theories. If Colan hadn’t given her a clue the night before, Lia would have been completely confused at this point. And thinking of the silent surveyor made her wonder where he was. She hadn’t seen him yet tonight. In fact, she hadn’t seen him at all that day. He’d sent her one terse and grudging reply to a long list of updates and that had been all she’d heard from him. Maybe he hadn’t liked the wine last night.
There was only one large space with working wall displays on the planet, so everyone from Pearl and the congressional team were crowded in the lobby amongst the sofas and chairs recruited from surrounding offices. She estimated there were at least fifty people in attendance, everyone from Joli-the-barkeep to Georgina Healy. The scientist’s sons were nowhere to be seen, and Lia wondered where they were and what sort of mischief they might be getting into.
A sharp babble of voices from the corner caught her attention, and Lia craned her neck to see who was trying to be heard. She recognized a few faces, but considering how few residents she’d met so far, most of the people were strangers to her. The mood of the crowd seemed dissatisfied and whispers of nervousness trickled up her spine.
Zashi had been circulating through the crowd, but she hadn’t seen him in a while. Moca and Cordon sat at a platform between two wall displays, and the rest of her co-workers were scattered throughout the room. They’d started out the meeting by assuring the residents they would hold clear title to their properties and allotted one share each in the open territory, theirs to explore or lease to a newcomer. Some residents had cheered at the news, but others grumbled that they should have gotten more. Now, everyone was grumbling.
“You expect us to believe the curlers are talking with the stomas and the flivvers are plotting something?” an older man shouted, a skeptical curl on his whiskered mouth.
“Nothing that overt, no.” Riva shook her head as she peered at her questioner.
“Aw, that makes no sense. I’ve eaten a metric ton of curlers, and none of them has ever asked for help!” the man replied. Guffaws echoed from the people standing near him.
Moca stood and tried to gather the crowd’s attention, but between the joker in the back and Riva’s tense exposition in the front, most people were happily entertained now. Despite her own devoted interest in scheduling and timetables, Lia was well aware those topics didn’t hold many people’s interest
beyond their desire to have their package arrive on time. Lia smiled when she recalled her mother’s favorite saying about the shipping business; people only cared about it when their flowers arrived wilted.
“Who is amusing you? Riva or Donte over there?” Colan’s voice rumbled, and she shivered with surprise. Turning slightly, she saw him standing behind her. He nodded a quick greeting and then turned his attention to the platform. Lia watched as Moca leaned down to whisper something to Cordon. They were probably trying to decide how to wrap the meeting up in a polite fashion.
“Neither one. I was just thinking about a shipping joke.”
“There are jokes in shipping?”
Lia nodded and shuffled backward so she could stand next to him. This pressed her against the wall, close enough to Colan that her shoulder brushed his arm. His shirt had sleeves tonight.
“Tell me later. I’m worried about Riva. She seems troubled.” Colan stared at the front of the room, and Lia studied the woman. She was flushed, breathing hard, and pecking away at her datpad as if it could tell her all the answers. Her neighbors watched with varying degrees of amused interest.
“You’ll all see. You’ll understand when this place is reduced to a wasteland and the ground is useless sludge. By then it’ll all be too late, and you’ll have nothing but a few marks covered with the blood of Gamaliel! ” Riva stared out at everyone as if they were a huge disappointment. “All it takes is one brave person to stop this tragedy!”
“You go on and be our brave person, Riva!” someone catcalled from the audience. “I’m hoping for a few marks from the newcomers at least; don’t much care if they are bloody or clean.”
The agitated woman on the podium threw up her hands and rushed off as if she’d just remembered an important appointment. Colan watched Riva leave but stayed by her side. Lia was surprised; she’d half expected him to follow his friend out. People spoke to each other, commenting about the dramatic scientist or what they’d had for dinner.
Moca raised her hands and called out a request for any other questions, and several people laughed. She smiled along with their humor, and Cordon rose to stand next to her, his good looks enhanced by the flattering lights. Somehow, he’d positioned himself perfectly under a spotlight.
Lia sensed they were ready to bring the meeting to an end. Nothing more substantive than the overview had happened. If the local residents had concerns or worries about the development, they were keeping it to themselves. Other than Riva Estep, that is.
Colan’s arm rubbed against hers, and she glanced over at him to find he’d turned toward her. Their noses nearly touched, and she smiled automatically, pleased to see an easy expression in his chocolaty eyes. Not grumpy yet. His fingers bumped up against the soft skin of her inner arm, and she shivered.
“Is it over?”
“I think so.”
He nodded, not taking his fingers from her skin or his gaze from hers, and Lia had to admit to herself—at that moment she liked Colan Nestor in a pheromone-enhanced way. There was nothing to it of course. He was far too brash and glowering to suit her, but Lia could appreciate how her body lit up in response to his presence. It felt good to be on alert like that.
“Are you—”
An incredibly loud noise interrupted Colan’s question. The lights in the ceiling rattled, and the people around them shifted and muttered. Lia found herself wrapped up in Colan’s arms, her face pressed into his shoulder as the echo from an explosion rattled the room. Someone screamed, and another boom crashed against their eardrums. Loud conversations filled the air, and Lia sensed people beginning to move around her; feet scraping along the carpet, chairs and tables shifting and crashing as residents rushed toward the door. Lia pressed against Colan’s body, and his grip on her tightened for a moment. He relaxed his hold, and she stepped back against the wall which felt nearly as solid as he had.
“Are you injured?”
“No. Are you?”
“No. Let’s go see.” Colan reached out for her hand, and Lia took it. She hardly needed assistance, but his touch steadied her as they followed the mass of people out the front doors. The large group of chattering and staring people assembled in the muddy open area outside the front of the building complex. Night had fallen, and there weren’t many exterior lights installed yet so it was hard to make out what had happened.
Lia scanned the crowd for her associates and found Moca conferring with Zashi. Tugging Colan along with her as she maneuvered past chattering people, they reached the magistrate and security officer who stood next to one of the half-completed modular units. The lean structure now had a large smear of some sort of sooty material sprayed along the side. It was hard to make out in the low light.
“Lia, you’re all right?”
“We’re fine, Moca.” The magistrate glanced at their joined hands and raised one well-shaped eyebrow. Lia extracted her fingers and took a deep breath to get her mind back on the proper path. “What happened?”
“Unknown, but we need to disperse these people in case there is a secondary explosion,” Zashi spoke up. He seemed pleased to have something criminal to investigate.
“So, it was explosives and not a problem with the construction site?” Colan asked, sounding as intent as Zashi looked. The security officer shrugged noncommittally.
Moca turned toward the crowd and spoke up as loudly as she could to be heard over the fifty different conversations. “Citizens, please head back home. Anyone requiring medical assistance should make their way to our clinic through that set of doors.”
She pointed out the correct modular as people continued to chatter but obediently made their way toward the sagging buildings of Pearl. Several stopped and greeted Colan as he stood there. One Pearlite who joined them didn’t leave. It was Georgina Healy. She frowned as she evaluated the burned wall.
“I’m going to check on my boys, and then I’ll be back. With them if necessary.”
Zashi turned away from the smudges he examined with a tiny flashlight and shook his head. “I’ll be by in a few minutes to talk with them. Just keep them at home.”
“So you think they did it?”
“Preliminary analysis indicates the same chemical signature as the explosion in your backyard.”
Lia shook her head. It was one thing to blow up a stack of buckets in a deserted yard, but to set off explosions so near a large group of people was incredibly dangerous. Gina Healy seemed to agree, and she stepped back and shook her head once, distress clear on her face even in the shadows.
“Of course, Chief Zashi. We’ll be waiting for you.” The worried mother hurried off into the shadows behind the retreating forms of other attendees. Lia had a feeling tonight’s excitement would fuel a lot of entertaining conversations in the days to come.
“Magistrate, I’d feel better if you’d get yourself back to the suites and out of sight.” The security officer spoke in a low voice as he returned to his examination of the site of the explosion. Moca shook her head, but Lia felt a trickle of worry. The inhabitants of Pearl weren’t pleased they were here, and it was far too easy for someone with ill-will to hide in the shadows of the empty buildings surrounding them.
“Come on Moca, let’s get back.” She turned to say good evening to Colan to find he already watched her. He gave her a nod and joined Zashi near the crumpled barrel that seemed to be the locus of all the destructive force.
“But Mom, I swear we didn’t do it!” Perrin’s anguished cry sounded genuine. Colan took a deep breath and tried to remain impersonal as he leaned against the living area’s doorframe, but it was difficult. The little boys were seated next to each other on a sofa in their home, while their mother hovered next to them, and the security officer crouched in front of them. Perrin received the brunt of the questions since he was oldest, but Ermil contributed equal amounts of denial.
“No one is saying you did.” Gina looked from her distressed children back at Zashi who was silently watching the interplay. “But the chemicals
were identical to the one you did in the backyard, and in nearly the same proportions.”
“We didn’t do it, Mom,” Ermil piped up. “We were here the whole time. You can check the housebot. Luci too.”
Luci, the Healy family’s intermittent housekeeper, had already explained she’d been there the whole evening with the boys, but had fallen asleep after dinner and couldn’t necessarily account for their whereabouts for nearly an hour. The house security program hadn’t functioned reliably since Ermil decided to reprogram it a few months prior in an attempt to repel visitors by routing small electrical charges through the floors. It seemed they were at an impasse.
Zashi shook his head. “I know you boys understood me when I told you that explosions were forbidden, correct?”
Both little brown heads nodded solemnly.
“Did you tell anyone how you made your compound?”
Gina’s head turned at this question from the still crouching security officer, and he held up a warning hand. Ermil glanced at Perrin, who sniffled, close to tears. Colan sympathized with the boy, surrounded by unhappy adults and pleading innocence had to be incredibly upsetting for him. Colan couldn’t quite believe the boys had anything to do with this latest incident. Once they were caught in one of their escapades they always confessed. They also hadn’t shared any conspiratorial glances this evening.
Ermil shrugged in response to the question, and Perrin burst into tears. Gina swooped in and gathered them to her in a protective hug. Zashi rose to his feet with a sigh and braced his hands on his hips.
“I’ll ask them about that later, when they aren’t so upset. Is there anything else?” Gina asked, clearly ready for the evening to be over and hoping her children would be left with her and not incarcerated. She’d been cooperative, but the strain showed in her tight expression and tired eyes.
“Not for tonight. I might have more questions in the morning. Let me know who they talked to.”
The security officer said his good nights after a long stare at the boys. Colan asked if Gina needed anything, and when her list of requests included having a good night’s sleep and wishing that someone could get the congressionals off the planet so everything could return to normal, he knew it was time for him to go. There was no way he could perform either miracle.
