Ellie opened her mouth to suggest it, but he shook his head and her mouth snapped closed. They hadn’t been sitting there too long, but Zee seemed less and less focused on the spying than his own internal woes. She wanted to suggest he close his eyes, focus on his other senses, but figured he would just shut her up again.
They crouched behind the tent where they’d found the maps last time, hoping that place was significant. It made her think of old movies, where generals would hover over tables with maps and little figurines, trying to plan out their campaigns. She imagined the strange, squat, red aliens doing the same but just couldn’t picture it properly. They seemed too short, too weird.
God, when did I become such a bigot?
She shook her head. I’m not a bigot. They were weird compared to humans, but certainly not the weirdest creatures she’d encountered. She’d dealt with plenty of aliens as a cargo ship captain. Hell, even the Incirrina, whom humans had a treaty with, were weirder than these guys.
She let out a silent sigh as her legs cramped beneath her, and her back ached from sitting in the same position for too long. Wind rustled leaves, and the shade from the palm-like trees swayed back and forth, creating patterns of light on the ground and Zee’s dark skin and armor.
How much longer would they have to sit here?
Rustling came from the tent next to them, causing Ellie to jerk and groan as she shook out her leg, which had fallen asleep. Now, tingles of sensation stabbed her as the numbness persisted.
“What is your progress?” a voice on the other side of the fabric said in Usan.
Ellie’s eyes rounded, surprised she could understand them. She’d figured she wouldn’t understand a word since all the documents they’d found so far were in the Thunnus’ native tongue. She lifted her wrist and turned on the recorder in her smart watch.
Zee grew more tense, more alert, a fire in his eyes. He hissed a word under his breath that she couldn’t make out.
Did he know something she didn’t?
A gruff, garbled voice responded. “Our forces are amassing as planned.”
“Good.”
A garbled growl responded.
“Don’t take that tone with me,” the first voice said, sounding imperious. “I’m paying you a lot of money to take Ezzaruh. I expect results on schedule.”
The gruff voice growled again. “We are not your pets or slaves. We are the Thunnus!” A hollow thump filled the space, and Ellie imagined the squat red alien pounding his chest in outrage.
Its employer scoffed. “I have paid you handsomely. I don’t care what you think. Just get the job done.”
The growl turned more vicious. “We will do as we promised.”
“The time is running short.”
“The Thunnus always triumph. The people of Ezzaruh will bow at your feet.”
Ellie turned to Zee, her eyes wide as the conversation within the tent turned to the details of an imminent attack.
The conversation chilled her insides, sending anxiety and urgency caroming through her like a pinball off bumpers. This was real. This was really happening. Somehow, when it had just been maps on her wall display, it had almost seemed a little fun, like a game. She’d enjoyed sneaking around with Zee, playing at being a spy. She’d known this was real, but it seemed a part of her hadn’t been completely on board.
Ellie tried to breathe, shifting backward until her back bumped up against the hard bark of a tree. The light and shadows shifted around her as she disturbed the fronds with her weight against the trunk. She looked to Zee for guidance, for answers. He would tell her what to do. He would tell her everything would be okay. This was all too much. She was just a cargo ship captain. How did she get herself involved in this?
Zee’s expression was cold, intense, and calculating, and it brought her own inner thoughts back into order. Zee was a soldier. He knew what to do.
Didn’t he?
They trailed back to their vehicle as the sun made its downward descent to the horizon, the light changing in tint. As the light dimmed, and they reentered the trees, Zee grew more confident, moving with more grace and speed. Even with her shifter abilities, Ellie had a hard time keeping up.
“What do you know?” she asked as they came to a stop.
She’d seen the look on his face when that mystery person spoke, the one paying for the invasion. He’d almost looked ready to jump through the tent wall to get at the bastard, stealth be damned.
He looked over his shoulder at her, his body tense. “What makes you think I know something?”
She glared at him. “You reacted when you heard that voice, the first one. You noticed something.”
He nodded. “The one who paid the Thunnus to attack Ezzaruh is a Pardus.” He snarled. “Nasty piece of work. My people have long had hostilities with them. They are one of the only species that wage war with us, lose, and come back for more again and again.” He shook his head. “I don’t understand what motivates them.”
Ellie shrugged. It was her opinion that people could justify pretty much anything in their own minds. She shook her head. “Humans have been known to wrong others, then blame the victims.”
He turned to her, his face open in shock. “What?”
She shrugged again. “People blame women for being victims of rape, saying they ‘asked’ for it for wearing makeup or how they dressed.”
“That’s…” But he didn’t continue, instead hunching over and turning away.
Is he sulking?
Her mouth hung open at his behavior, not knowing what to think. Zee didn’t seem like the type to sulk, but she couldn’t see another reason for how he’d pulled in on himself, his head ducked low.
He is an alien, she reminded herself. Aliens don’t have to have the same motivations for their actions or body language. For all she knew, he was just thinking, though Ellie had thought she’d figured out his body language by now. He always scratched the back of his neck when deep in thought.
“Sorry,” she said when the silence between them grew too long.
He sat up straight, looking over his shoulder. “For what?”
She paused, then sat down next to him, a stick digging into her butt as she crossed her legs before her. She dug it out, throwing it into the distance. “I don’t know. I feel like I said something wrong.”
His dark gaze grew soft. “No, Ellie. You did nothing wrong. I just have difficulty imagining the world you come from.”
She scoffed, realizing the picture she’d painted for him, and suddenly wanted to distance herself from humanity. “Only half.”
His lips tipped up in a fragile smile. “True. So what of your father’s people?”
Ellie rested her chin on her palm, watching him. Her gaze grew distant as she thought. “I guess I’ve always held them up on a pedestal. I always fit in better among them, and they always seemed to have much higher standards than humans.
“Of course, that’s all relative. They would kill to protect the sanctity of the natural world, while humans would destroy their world to provide for more people. But then, humans will kill for far lesser reasons. Earth is a dangerous world, filled with war and crime. It’s always a stark contrast coming from one world to another, like a slap in the face.”
“You don’t like Earth,” he said softly.
She focused once more, looking at him. “No, I guess I don’t. I never belonged there, being half alien, being a shifter.” She scoffed. “Shifters are native to Earth, but you’d think that was the greater sin with the way people acted.”
He nodded, encouraging her to continue with a gentle stroking of her back.
Her gaze darted momentarily to his arm, and she sank into his warm touch. “Humans made me hate the way I look, made me want to blend in, to change.”
“You’re beautiful.”
She smiled hesitantly, enjoying how earnest he seemed. The way he said it was almost reverent. “No human would ever say that. At best, I was a novelty, a curiosity. Never beautiful.” She
shook her head. She’d stopped caring about her appearance a long time ago, at least when it came to being attractive. It took years, but she’d told herself it didn’t matter, that the only person she needed to impress was herself.
Yet she spent most of her time as a redhead, didn’t she? Her friends made fun of her for her “costume,” especially Cass, who was never afraid to speak her mind.
Zee scoffed at her words, shaking his head. “Humans are fools.”
A laugh burst from Ellie’s chest, making her snort in her mirth. “I can’t argue with you there.”
Then Zee’s gaze grew distant.
“Zee, what is it?”
“It’s just strange. We’ve had many dealings with the Pardus, many hostilities, but why would they pay another to attack us?”
Ellie frowned, leaning forward and touching his arm. “What do you mean?”
He looked her dead in the eyes. “The Pardus are mercenaries.”
Chapter Twenty
Mercenaries?
Her mind just couldn’t wrap itself around that. Why would mercenaries pay to attack a colony like that? It made no sense. And after Zee dropped that little bombshell, their conversation dried up, both of them lost in their own thoughts.
There had to be a reason. She wrung her hands in her lap as the forest grew darker until full night settled around them. Angus’s bot hadn’t returned, but she hadn’t expected it to. She was tempted to recall the bot so they could regroup, but what if they missed something because of that?
Maybe the little bot had found something as well? They wouldn’t know much until they returned to the ship, where they could upload its data to Angus. Her watch was just too small to make any sense of the data. It almost hurt her eyes to try to decipher anything on the tiny display.
She looked out at the shadows surrounding them and wondered if they shouldn’t go back and spy some more. After all, both she and Zee were well adapted to the night. They might pick up more information.
Or they might pick up nothing.
If the Thunnus and Pardus all slept at night, they would have no hope of collecting valuable information at this time of day.
But it was certainly better than just sitting around, right? She turned to Zee, opening her mouth to suggest it, but snapped it closed, her teeth sticking to her dry lower lip. What was he thinking? His gaze rested, unfocused, in the distance, his body tense, his expression one of frustration.
She wanted to take that frustration away, but knew she couldn’t.
Ellie stood, smacking him on the arm. “Come on.”
He looked up at her, then at his arm where she’d hit him, looking perplexed.
“We should do another scouting run.” After all, they wouldn’t find anything sitting on their asses in the middle of the forest. And it would get him out of his head.
He nodded and stood, quickly stepping in front of her to lead the way back to the camp.
Thank Sweet Atala for Ellie.
Zee’d been completely immersed in his inner struggle, trying to find sense in the Pardus’s actions even though he had no mind for battle strategy. It just didn’t make sense to him. Why would a mercenary race pay other mercenaries to do their dirty work? It made no sense.
He shook his head, slinking through the forest, grateful for Ellie’s intervention. Action had always suited him better. Maybe taking his mind off the problem would help.
They circled the camp, but all was quiet, their enemy having settled in for the night. Zee held back a growl of frustration. He wanted something to do, something to hit. He passed by tents, the smooth metal lines of vehicles, then the enemy ship rose up on his left.
Ellie sniffed audibly behind him. He turned around to glare at her, but waited instead. A perplexed look crossed her face. He pulled air through his nostrils, trying to pick up what had put that look on her face, but only sensed metal, plant life, and natural decay.
Ellie’s face fell, and she diverted to the side, walking away from the camp.
He opened his mouth to hiss her name, but stopped himself. It wouldn’t do to give their position away, draw the enemy to them. He knew better, even if he was raring for a fight.
Zee wanted to ask her what she sensed, why she’d taken off like that, but she’d picked up into a jog, then a run, her lithe body dancing through the underbrush, so agile and swift he wanted to kiss her.
Hacht, she was stunning.
He shook his head, realizing she was blending into the forest now, the distance between them growing. He only caught little peeks at her body heat as she disappeared farther and farther ahead.
“Hacht,” he hissed under his breath, dropping onto all fours to pick up speed. He caromed off the ground, trees, rocks jutting out of the earth. His limbs ate up the distance, catching her up moment by moment. He caught more and more glimpses of her body heat, each glimpse larger than the last as fewer trees blocked his view.
Then she stopped.
He skidded to a stop himself moments later, standing beside her. “Ellie?”
She merely pointed down over the cliff at their feet.
Zee looked down, but at first couldn’t see anything. The ground lay far below them. He looked around and realized the spot they stood on was smooth earth, free of vegetation. It meandered behind them and off to the side, a shallow recess that slipped off into the trees. It reminded him of the riverbeds back home that only ever filled after the winter thaws, when frigid water rushed down from the mountaintops.
Looking down over the cliff again, he imagined this spot would be beautiful, a massive waterfall, during the right season. Then his eyes adjusted as he noticed the faintest wave of heat coming from the bottom of the cliff, where water would likely pool during a wetter season.
He turned to Ellie, wondering why she’d brought him here. What had she smelled? It was a smell that drew her, he was certain. Her expression looked sad, guilty even. What was wrong?
Zee looked down again, trying to piece together the facts. “What is it?” he finally said, looking back at her.
She turned her head away, as if unable to look at him as she spoke.
“Bodies.”
The trek down the cliff took forever. Ellie hiked behind Zee, chewing her lip, which had split open again. His shoulders were stiff, his tail flicking jerkily behind him as he continued forward, trying to find a way down.
She knew. She just knew.
When the sickening sweet scent of decay had tickled her heightened senses, her gut had twisted with certainty. She’d known immediately it wasn’t the much gentler vegetative decay that rustled softly under their feet. No, she’d known it was more, bodies.
Of course, that didn’t mean it was what she feared. It could be the feeding ground of a large predator on the planet. Didn’t some species drag their prey back to a den on Earth? It could be something like that, couldn’t it?
But her heart told her otherwise. She knew. As the ground sloped down beneath their feet, and the roots of the trees peeked out of the cliff-face like vines, she just knew. It wouldn’t be small animals or even big ones. No, in her mind, she imagined men and women just like Zee, dressed in body armor, bloodied and broken, their weapons useless beside them.
The haunting image burned into her brain as rocks skittered and rolled beneath their feet, making passage treacherous. She grabbed onto the exposed roots for additional leverage. Just in case.
Ahead of her, Zee charged forward with keen focus, some demon driving him onward. Ellie didn’t question him, didn’t try to slow him down. She just tried to keep up, to be at his side when the inevitable happened.
And it happened far too soon. Zee jumped down the last ten feet to the bottom, his feet splashing into thick mud that squelched beneath him. Ellie stepped out from behind an outcropping that had blocked her view and froze.
At first, her mind couldn’t process what she saw just a few feet below her. Her toes curled inside her boots in an attempt to maintain her calm. She’d been right about the nat
ure of it. The edges were mud, still saturated from water flow. The center held standing water, though the water was brown and murky. Still, the turbid depths couldn’t mask what it contained.
The bodies overflowed the boundaries of the small, residual pool. Her mouth hung open as she tried to connect some living image to the bloated and distorted shapes. But while she clearly saw that the armor they wore matched Zee’s, nothing else was recognizable. Their skin had swelled so much she wondered if it would pop like a balloon. And their skin and hair had been stained by the muddy pool and their own blood so they looked reddish-brown rather than black.
She climbed down, using more roots to ease her passage. The ground below sucked at her boots as she walked up behind Zee. His body was rigid with fists clenched tight at his sides. She stared at his fist as she approached, her heart hurting for him, wanting to soothe him. She grabbed his wrist as she came up beside him. His arm stayed firm, like a metal rod at his side, but she moved her fingers farther south, running them lightly over his fingers.
She stood there for a long time, staring out at the mass grave, trying not to let it remind her of the many atrocities in human history. This was its own atrocity. It deserved its own space in her head. Her fingers continued to massage Zee’s, reminding him she was there, would continue to be there.
For him.
Time passed, but eventually, Zee’s fingers loosened, and he entwined them with her own, holding on tight.
Chapter Twenty-One
They’re monsters.
The thought rang through Zee’s head as he stood frozen in front of his unit, in front of their mass grave. Who would do such a thing? How could they be with Atala if they were left to rot within their bodies?
“We need to release them,” he said, holding onto Ellie’s fragile hand even tighter.
Shifting Cargo (A Shift in Space Book 1) Page 12
