Everyone in the room was staring at Dimitara as if she'd somehow lost her mind, but there was also no disapproval in anyone's expression, except the councilors visible on the screen.
“Is there a reason you are verbally attacking one of our allies?” The Bukarian councilor asked, his tone sharp.
“Yes.” Dimitara turned to him and the smile she gave told Lucy to never, ever underestimate a Bukarian. Those teeth were for rending.
“Bane has been helping our security team monitor all comms from the Urna, and it turns out that Ambassador Cynoa here has been in clandestine contact with the Tecran military since before we arrived, and that ten minutes ago, some of the Garmman military team tried to release the head of the Tecran military from the holding cell where he was being kept.”
Lucy could tell from the stillness behind her from Dray, Cossi, and Chep that this was stunning news to them.
“You had Tecran Defense Leader, Suu Ulima, in custody?” The Tecran councilor leaned back against her chair in outrage.
“Yes.” Cossi took the question, smiling in the same predatory way as Dimitara. “After he abducted Ambassador Dimitara and tried to torture her into revealing the whereabouts of the Earth woman so that his teams could kill her, I took him down myself.”
The Bukarian head of the United Council leaned against his chair and lifted a hand to his forehead.
“Did the Garmman succeed in freeing Ulima?” Dray asked.
“No.” Dimitara gave Cynoa a side-long glance. “Given how poorly they'd integrated into the rest of the teams, no one trusted the Garmman enough, and before they released Ulima they sought confirmation. Surprisingly, the Garmman involved took that as a signal to disappear.”
“I see that saying things took a surprising turn with your mission was a slight understatement, Ambassador Dimitara.” The Bukarian councilor finally lowered himself into his seat. “What next?”
At that moment a Grihan officer ran into the room, gaze fixed on Dray.
“Sir.” He pointed out of the door, his expression panicked.
“What is it?” Dray turned sharply.
“Two Class 5s just entered the solar system.”
Chapter 43
“You might have told me you'd called Sazo and Oris as back-up.” Dray hadn't stopped grumbling about being taken by surprise.
“They had to light-jump here numerous times and I couldn't predict when they'd arrive. It seemed better to keep quiet about it.” Bane sounded distracted, and Lucy guessed he was probably talking at high speed to his newly-arrived friends.
She didn't care about the how or when. She was just excited to meet Rose McKenzie and Imogen Peters.
The newly arrived Class 5s had chosen to encircle Tecra with Bane, so at least one could be seen from every point on the planet below. Rose and Imogen had left their ships on drones and were on their way to Bane.
“There they are.” Lucy stood on the bridge, which was redundant now that Bane was in control of himself, but which had a huge screen that allowed a wonderful view.
She watched two drones moving toward them and smiled when Dray came up behind her, pulling her gently back against him, his hands on her shoulders.
“What will happen now?”
“I honestly don't know.” He let his hands run down her arms and rest on her stomach.
“Will you get into trouble for choosing to come with me, rather than stay on the Urna?” Ever since Zutobi's lighthearted remark, she'd realized there may be consequences for Dray for his relationship with her.
“I don't think so, but we can ask Dav Jallan and Camlar Kalor what happened to their careers when they got involved with Rose and Imogen.”
Lucy twisted back to look at him, saw he seemed extremely unconcerned. “Rose and Imogen are in relationships with them?”
He gave a nod. “So I hear.”
“And Fiona Russell?”
“I believe Captain Hal Vakeri is still captain of his own battleship, even though he's clearly involved with the new, Earth-born operations chief of the Larga Ways way station. It hasn't seemed to have caused him any trouble.”
“That's good.” She pulled away from him, turned to face him. “You'd tell me, though? If it starts affecting you? I understand the military has been your life--” She stumbled to a stop, unsure where she was going with this.
“It has been. Up until now.” He was looking at her so steadily, so sure and confident, and she stared back, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth.
“I don't want anything bad to happen to you because of me.”
“Like--?” He tilted his head in that alien way of his.
“I don't know. You get demoted or something. Or kicked out.”
His gaze suddenly sharpened, seemed to pierce every protective layer she had. “What's this really about, Lucy? Are you worried I can't keep you safe?”
“She has me for that.” Bane's voice made her flinch, a reminder this wasn't a private conversation.
Then she took a deep breath, and met Dray's gaze. “I'm not bad at keeping myself safe, but yes, I have Bane, and he's pretty kick-ass.”
“You also have me.”
She blew out a long breath. “I know. I . . . it's just that things aren't the same as they were. We won't be forced together anymore. From here on, every moment we spend together is because we want to. I didn't want you to feel . . .” She lifted her hands, suddenly out of her depth.
“Feel that I have to keep seeing you?” He grinned. “When have I ever given you the impression for even a second that being with you has been anything but exactly where I want to be?”
She slowly matched his grin. Lifted a shoulder. “I don't know. There were a few moments when you were trying to get me down that cliff--”
He leaned forward and shut her up with a kiss.
Someone cleared their throat delicately behind them, and Lucy drew back and saw four people standing just inside the doorway.
The sight of Rose and Imogen struck her harder than she expected.
She took a step forward and then hiccuped. The tears started to fall before she managed a second step.
Crying for everything she knew she'd lost. Because it was finally real. The knowledge she was never going back again.
“I scared the Grih off.” Lucy wiped away the last of her tears.
Dray had put a hand on her shoulder when she'd started crying, but when Rose and Imogen had stepped forward and thrown their arms around her, he'd motioned to the two other men and left her to get to know her new friends.
“Are you and Commander Helvan . . .” Rose moved her index finger from side to side.
Lucy gave an unwilling snort. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Rose raised a brow, and Lucy gave a sigh and leaned back against the couch in the officers' mess.
“Yes.”
“I'm glad.” Imogen's voice was soft. “We've lost so much, its good to be able to build something new.”
“Not all the new is bad,” Lucy agreed. She reached forward to grab the box she'd put on the table earlier in readiness for her guests and offered them each a spiky chocolate hailstone.
“Mmm.” Rose bit into the chocolate and then turned wide eyes up to the camera in the corner of the room. “You had this the whole time I was onboard saving your behind, and you didn't give me any? Thanks a lot, Bane!”
“I didn't know the components of chocolate at the time, or that it was something you valued--” His flustered response died off. “Sazo says you're teasing me.”
She grinned. “Yes.”
“Oh.” He sounded thoughtful.
“So what is going to happen next?” Lucy had tucked herself into the corner of the couch, and tried to relax her hands on her thighs. She was grateful Dray had taken Rose and Imogen's tall, stern-faced lovers off somewhere, not just so they wouldn't see her crying, but also so she didn't feel rude speaking in English.
She could only make conversation with them in Tecran, and she had the feeling nei
ther spoke it well.
“First thing that'll happen is the UC will have to decide if there are going to be more penalties for the Tecran. There'll be a hearing and you'll most likely be the star witness. I had to go through one.” Imogen moved a little closer to her, and touched her shoulder. “It wasn't too bad.”
“I had to go through one as well.” Rose licked her fingers. “Things have changed since my one. They don't call us oranges anymore. Or not to our faces, and I think most of them have realized we aren't some backward, dumb version of the Grih.”
“Backward, dumb, short version of the Grih,” Imogen said.
Lucy started to relax into the sense of solidarity she was starting to feel. “The Tecran treated me like a clever pet,” she admitted.
Imogen pointed a finger at her. “Me, too. I was in an actual cage for awhile.”
“What?” Lucy had thought of her time in the facility as bad, but she hadn't been in a cage.
“I was caged as well,” Rose told her. “In the hold of Sazo's Class 5. And Fiona was held as a slave on a Garmman trader.”
“So I had it relatively easy.” She leaned back, looking between the two women.
“You were held longer than we were. And Sazo said Paxe, the Class 5 involved in your abduction from Earth, tried to kill you. That's why they brought you to Tecra. To keep you safe from him.” Imogen tapped her fingers on her knee. “Paxe tried to kill me, too, at first. In the end, though, he was really sorry about it. He told the others about you, so they could look for you and rescue you.”
“I wouldn't be here without Bane.” Lucy glanced at the camera in the corner. “They'd have taken me in the square just before I met Dray, and no one would have been any the wiser.”
“Well done, Bane.” Rose stretched out on her couch.
“It was my pleasure,” Bane said. “And also satisfying to block their every move.”
Rose laughed. “I hear you threatened to blow up their statue.”
“If it hadn't put Lucy in danger, I would have.” There was no hint of remorse in Bane's tone.
“Even though you protected the city from cannon fire when the Levron were shooting at you?” Lucy leaned forward on her elbows, surprised.
“I only chose to draw the Levron fire away from the city because they could just as easily have hit you as anyone else.”
Lucy stood, suddenly blinking back tears again. “Thank you, Bane. Really. You risked yourself for me, and I want you to know how much I appreciate it.”
He was silent a moment. “I would do it again without regret.”
She couldn't respond, her throat was too tight, so she simply nodded and sat again.
Imogen must have gone to fetch grinabo, because she suddenly had a steaming cup thrust at her, and she took a grateful gulp.
“Aside from the hearing, what can I expect, though?” She set the cup down and worried the fabric of her pants, pinching it between her thumb and forefinger, letting it go, pinching it again. “Is there a way back home? What happens to me if there isn't?”
“Sazo destroyed all the maps to Earth so the Tecran couldn't go back there.” Rose leaned forward, her expression serious. “There is a way he can retrieve them, but Imogen, Fiona and I have made the decision that there is no going back. We don't want anyone with bad intentions finding Earth, and there are still traitors among the Grih who supported the Tecran, as well as the Garmman and even a small clique in the Fitalian empire who have revealed ties to what was happening with the Class 5 project.”
“So there is no group we can trust?”
“We can trust the Bukari, the Fitali and most especially the Grih, but there is always the chance of one or two corrupt individuals. We decided not to take the chance. Now we need to include you in the decision.”
Lucy had already shed her tears, made her peace, so she gave a slow nod to Rose and then Imogen. “I agree with you.”
They nodded back.
“The UC have paid each of us compensation for the loss of our former lives on Earth. None of us have to work again. But Fiona is now running a major way station, and Rose and Sazo accompany Dav on his exploration missions.” Imogen tucked her feet under her on the couch. “I'm working as a singer. A music maker, the Grih call it. Camlar is stationed at UC headquarters on Bukari, and I live with him, and I'm slowly getting the Grih used to the idea of listening to music through visual comms. It was considered scandalous at first, they only ever considered listening to music live before. Although I've done two live performances as well.”
“If you like singing and want to do it, the Grih will literally fall all over themselves to welcome you wherever you decide to settle,” Rose said.
“The singing thing.” Lucy lifted her hands, happy to move on to lighter topics. “What is with the singing thing?”
Rose and Imogen looked at each other for a moment, and then started to laugh.
The Class 5 Series
Other books in the Class 5 series:
DARK HORSE (Book 1)
Some secrets carry the weight of the world.
Rose McKenzie may be far from Earth with no way back, but she's made a powerful ally--a fellow prisoner with whom she's formed a strong bond. Sazo's an artificial intelligence. He's saved her from captivity and torture, but he's also put her in the middle of a conflict, leaving Rose with her loyalties divided.
Captain Dav Jallan doesn't know why he and his crew have stumbled across an almost legendary Class 5 battleship, but he's not going to complain. The only problem is, all its crew are dead, all except for one strange, new alien being.
She calls herself Rose. She seems small and harmless, but less and less about her story is adding up, and Dav has a bad feeling his crew, and maybe even the four planets, are in jeopardy. The Class 5's owners, the Tecran, look set to start a war to get it back and Dav suspects Rose isn't the only alien being who survived what happened on the Class 5. And whatever else is out there is playing its own games.
In this race for the truth, he's going to have to go against his leaders and trust the dark horse.
Dark Horse is the winner of a Galaxy Award and the Prism Award for Best Futuristic 2016.
Buy Dark Horse
Dark Deeds (Book 2)
Far from home . . .
Fiona Russell has been snatched from Earth, imprisoned and used as slave labor, but nothing about her abduction makes sense. When she’s rescued by the Grih, she realizes there’s a much bigger game in play than she could ever have imagined, and she’s right in the middle of it.
Far from safe . . .
Battleship captain Hal Vakeri is chasing down pirates when he stumbles across a woman abducted from Earth. She’s the second one the Grih have found in two months, and her presence is potentially explosive in the Grih’s ongoing negotiations with their enemies, the Tecran. The Tecran and the Grih are on the cusp of war, and Fiona might just tip the balance.
Far from done . . .
Fiona has had to bide her time while she’s been a prisoner, pretending to be less than she is, but when the chance comes for her to forge her own destiny in this new world, she grabs it with both hands. After all, actions speak louder than words.
Buy Dark Deeds
Dark Minds (Book 3)
The mind is the most powerful weapon of all . . .
Imogen Peters knows she's a pawn. She's been abducted from Earth, held prisoner, and abducted again. So when she gets a chance at freedom, she takes it with both hands, not realizing that doing so will turn her from pawn to kingmaker.
Captain Camlar Kalor expected to meet an Earth woman on his current mission, he just thought he'd be meeting her on Larga Ways, under the protection of his Battle Center colleague. Instead, he and Imogen are thrown together as prisoners in the hold of a Class 5 battleship. When he works out she's not the woman who sparked his mission, but another abductee, Cam realizes his investigation just got a lot more complicated, and the nations of the United Council just took a step closer to war.
&nbs
p; Imogen's out of her depth in this crazy mind game playing out all around her, and she begins to understand her actions will have a massive impact on all the players. But she's good at mind games. She's been playing them since she was abducted. Guess they should have left her minding her own business back on Earth…
Buy Dark Minds
Sky Raiders Series
Sky Raiders series is made up of Sky Raiders, Calling the Change and Shadow Warrior. I’ve also written a prequel to Sky Raiders, INTENDED, which is only available to members of my new release notification list.
About the Author
(c) Daniel Navaratnam
Michelle Diener is an award winning author of historical fiction, science fiction and fantasy.
Michelle was born in London, grew up in South Africa and currently lives in Australia with her husband and children.
You can contact Michelle through her website or sign up to receive notification when she has a new book out on her New Release Notification page.
Connect with Michelle
www.michellediener.com
Also by Michelle Diener
Science Fiction Novels
Verdant String series:
Interference & Insurgency (Two Novellas of the Verdant String: Box set)
Breakaway
Breakeven
Trailblazer
Sky Raiders series:
Intended (Prequel to Sky Raiders: Exclusive to VIP Newsletter Members)
Sky Raiders
Calling the Change
Shadow Warrior
Class 5 series:
Dark Horse
Dark Deeds
Dark Minds
Dark Matters (Class 5 Series Book 4) Page 26
