Dark Minds (Class 5 Series Book 3) (22 page)

“
W
hat's
Leto trying to do?” Imogen asked Oris as she and Cam passed the massive Fitalian Horde battleship in the two-person explorer Paxe had given them. She felt tiny and threatened; an ant scurrying past an elephant.

“Contrary to what she promised, she tried to shoot you. She couldn't see you on the scanners——even if your explorer didn't have excellent cloaking, the deritide would make it impossible——but they had a visual on you coming through the gel wall. She's had to make peace with the fact that her weapons really won't work, and so now she's ordered three small fighters to go after you.”

“Can you stop them?” Cam asked.

“Of course. They'll believe their fighters' power systems are too confused by the deritide to work, and they'll be perplexed and angry that your explorer's aren't.”

“Looks like we're nearly out of sight of you.” Imogen touched the screen, and sure enough Oris's Class 5 was disappearing from view as the explorer rounded the far side of the moon. “We'll lose contact any minute.”

“Successful trav——” Oris's voice cut off and in the abrupt silence, Imogen turned to face Cam.

“Alone at last.” He lifted a hand and brushed back a wayward strand of her hair. He was so close he was bumping shoulders with her in the confined space and she could see the light and dark rings of blue in his eyes.

She lowered her own, suddenly flustered. “You don't like Oris?”

He lifted his shoulders. “I'm warming to him. But he is a little omnipresent, isn't he?”

She considered it. “I'm not used to privacy. Not for the last two months, and the last two weeks, I was being held in a communal lounge. So . . .” She shook her head. “I didn't notice it as much as you probably did.”

When he didn't answer, she lifted her gaze again, saw he was staring at her. “You were held in a communal lounge?” His voice was a little deeper.

She shrugged. “There was nowhere else to keep me.”

He blew out a breath. “What were they doing?”

Again, she shrugged. “They didn't know themselves. They were waiting for someone to pick us up, or tell them what to do, and that instruction never came. Knowing what I do now, I'd guess the pick-up vessel was Paxe, and he'd slipped the reins.”

“Why didn't they send Oris, then?”

She grimaced. “Maybe because when they realized Paxe was off the leash, they needed Oris to keep watch on him, see what he was up to? What to do with me has to be a lot less important to them than recovering their Class 5.”

Cam tipped his head from side to side. “I'm not sure. You're pretty important.”

She laughed at that, but not with amusement. “You have to be kidding.”

“Even if they didn't yet know what Fiona Russell had done for Eazi, they knew what Rose had done to Sazo and Bane. It could be they decided putting the last Class 5 they had control of anywhere near you was too dangerous for them. But that aside, I'm sure they would have much preferred you to stay hidden under their control than floating aimlessly in Grihan airspace on a tiny runner for anyone to find. The abduction of Rose McKenzie is a huge mark against them. Now we know they took Fiona Russell and yourself, they are finished in the UC.”

“Maybe they've accepted that, and they don't care.” Imogen moved down to lie on the strap board and Cam slid down to join her.

“They care, but you're right, they may have accepted it, and are acting as if it's a foregone conclusion. It gives them license to break any treaty they want, because those treaties are about to be void anyway.” He was so much taller than her, his head above hers, and she shivered at the stark contrast of the warmth of his breath in her hair compared to the cool air of the explorer.

She angled herself closer to him, trying to soak up more of his body heat. “So they'll try to attack Grihan ships? Or attack Larga Ways? And what? Take Grihan territory?”

She didn't understand why she was so angry at the thought of that. Probably because she had a chance at a new future with the Grih, and once again, the Tecran were messing up her life.

“I think they'll try.” Cam was grim. “What are they doing otherwise? What other reason have Tecran High Command got to give their people for the loss of UC membership? We need to get word to Battle Center, and once we make contact with Eazi, hopefully that won't be a problem.”

“
If
we can make contact with Eazi.” After all, they were in an enemy explorer. “And we've got the added complication of the Fitali.”

“Yes.” Cam had taken her unsubtle hint and put his arm around her, pulling her closer into his delicious warmth, and she tried to burrow in. “I honestly don't know what's going on with them. I've always had a good relationship with Leto. This kind of aggression from the Fitali is unprecedented.”

She sighed, and let her body relax, tucking her head under his chin. “You don't think their grahudi is carrying some viral contagion, do you? That they've been cooking up some sort of bio-experiment on Huy, and the Tecran stealing the grahudi is going to blow the whole thing wide open?”

He chuckled. “Where did you come up with that?”

“The way Leto questioned me on exactly who had had contact with the grahudi. That was before you came back into the room.”

“That
is
interesting. And worrying.” He thought for a moment. “And not completely impossible. They are up to something that I can only assume is illegal, given their response. One animal is stolen from one of their planets and they send a battleship to get it back? And are willing not only to break treaties by crossing borders without permission, but have tried to kill us both a number of times. I'm a Battle Center officer and I represent the UC, and you're a key witness against the Tecran. However their actions appear, they can't be doing this lightly.”

The control panel above them let out a quiet trill, and Cam pulled himself back up, tapped at the screen.

“Looks like we've got a possible lift.” He slid back down to her. “A Grihan trader heading for Larga Ways. I've set the trajectory so we'll meet up with them in about an hour.”

That was their only real plan. They had to catch a ride to Larga Ways on a vessel that Eazi would allow in, and Oris had shown them how to shut down the explorer's beacon, so there would be no trace of its Tecran origins.

Whatever security was set up around the way station, neither Oris nor Cam thought a Tecran explorer would make it even close. The Battle Center patrols might take a chance bringing the explorer onside for questioning, or they might just shoot. And none of that factored in the information Cam had gotten from Barj, the Grihan mercenary on the Vanad's crew, that there were Tecran spies on the way station. Spies with access to explosives and other resources, who might still be watching for Imogen.

“What did you tell them?” She settled back into the comfortable position they'd been in before, reveling again in the close contact, the comfort of being held.

“That we'd gotten away from a Krik attack in an emergency capsule, which this explorer is small enough to be, but that our systems are damaged and we're barely limping along. Also that we're Grihan and if they could give us a ride to Larga Ways, we'd be grateful.”

“They believed you?” She guessed the explorer was tiny enough, the traders probably didn't expect them to be much of a threat. Although that might change if they got a look at Cam.

He exuded threat when he wanted to.

“They don't have a choice. It's a rule of travel. No one can leave a ship in distress.”

“It's like the rule of the sea on Earth,” she said, thinking about it. “You have to offer aid.”

“There is a big sea on Earth?” He smoothed back her hair in long, steady strokes, seemingly unable to stop touching it.

“Earth's mostly sea. The blue planet, we call it, because looking at it from space, it's all white clouds and blue oceans.”

“I'm sorry you were taken from your home.” He kept stroking, and she closed her eyes and swallowed back the tears his sympathy pricked to life.

“Is this normal for Grih?” When she spoke, her voice was softer than she meant it to be. Huskier.

“Is what normal?”

“We've known each other a couple of days, and here we are, all snuggled up and touchy-feely.”

His hand closed around her hair just at her nape and he tugged it gently, tipping her head back so they could look into each other's eyes. “Are you uncomfortable with this?”

His expression was hard to read, but she sensed distress and lifted a hand to his cheek, rubbed her thumb along the high arch of his cheekbone. “No. I'm loving it. I just wanted to know if this was common for you or just the strange circumstances we've ended up in.”

She felt him relax.

“No, I'm usually more reserved. But it's been an intense few days. I think we've saved each other's lives at least once each, taken fire together.” His grin was lopsided. “We're what Battle Center calls a bonded team.”

He let go of her hair, smoothed his hand down her back to the curve of her bottom, and pressed her close.

She'd felt the hard press of his erection brush against her stomach since he joined her again, but now it was wedged between them, and she squirmed as a shaft of desire and excitement speared through her.

He choked. “Don't move.”

He pulled away, putting a little distance between them, and grinned ruefully. “I should have remembered before I did that that we've got less than an hour before we board the trader and I need more time than that to do all my adoring.”

He meant to make her laugh, but she gave a serious nod. She wanted hours of privacy with him. No greedy bite would do. She wanted to feast.

She'd asked him if it were normal for the Grih to fall so easily into trust and desire. It definitely wasn't for her. She took her time with boyfriends before she was willing to make herself vulnerable to them.

“Agreed.” She sighed and hugged him close, and he made another sound at the back of his throat.

“Pity.” His lips brushed her forehead. “But for the best.”

Something occurred to her. “What are we going to do when the traders realize I'm not Grihan?”

He stirred reluctantly. “We're not going to say anything, and I'm guessing they won't either.”

“What, just brazen it out?” She could do that. She wouldn't have found it easy in her old life, but since she'd been taken, she could brazen out a lot of things.

He nodded, his cheek brushing her head. “Leave your hair down. There is so much of it, they may assume you've taken up some strange hair fashion, and they won't notice your ears underneath it.” He slid a hand though her hair and traced around her ear.

“Whose hair are you calling strange?” Her lips curved against his neck.

He smoothed his hands over it again. Gave a friendly tug. “Strange, but beautiful.”

She gave a snort at that and then stopped talking. Her eyes were burning with fatigue, and she closed them with relief. She was so tired. The only sleep she'd gotten in the last day was right here on this explorer, when they'd escaped from Paxe. It felt like a week ago.

Cam held her close, just like he had then, and she let the sense of well-being and happiness she'd hadn't thought she'd ever feel again wash over her.

C
aptain Inita
of the Grihan trader
Veasin
was suspicious, but Cam saw he couldn't quite decide why.

Cam kept his words polite, his movements unthreatening, but he'd refused to relinquish his shockgun, and he'd expected his Battle Center uniform to make that a non-issue. Inita seemed to think Battle Center captains' uniforms could be bought at any street corner, and meant nothing.

“If you could tell me which places of business you've seen Battle Center uniforms for sale, I would be grateful,” he told the thin Grih politely. “Dealing in Battle Center equipment is a high court offense.”

Inita took a step back. “I don't know of a specific place . . .” He tried to keep his eyes on Cam, but he kept being distracted by Imogen as she pulled the small backpack Oris had found in his store for her out of the explorer. It seemed almost full, and Cam realized he hadn't asked her what was in it.

“But you said they can be had anywhere. Where is anywhere?”

Inita jerked his gaze back at Cam's insistent questioning. “That's what I've heard. I haven't seen it for myself.”

Was he lying? Cam frowned as he studied their benefactor's face.

“Do you see this symbol?” He pointed to the tiny silver embellishment on the high left-hand side of his shirt.

Inita leaned forward and nodded.

“That is the chip that identifies this uniform to my bio-signature. No one else can wear this uniform, nothing would work. Not its temperature regulators, not its shockgun protection, it won't even hold its shape.”

Inita blinked. “I didn't know that.”

“So you understand why I'm concerned you've heard that it is a simple matter to get hold of——”

Inita waved his hand, dismissing the whole argument, his gaze going back to Imogen again, now standing watching them quietly. “You've convinced me, Captain Kalor. I was obviously listening to a tall tale. Keep your shockgun if that is Battle Center regulation.”

“Thank you.” Cam's dry tone was lost on their host.

“And you are . . .?” Inita asked Imogen.

“Imogen Peters.” Imogen put her hands together and extended them for Inita to clasp between his own in the Grihan greeting Cam had taught her five minutes before they landed. “Thank you for coming to our aid, Captain.”

Inita's hands were reaching out to hers when she spoke and he stopped dead at the sound of her voice. “You . . .” He looked over at Cam, astonishment on his face. “An orange? The same as the orange music-maker?” He addressed Cam, as if Imogen would be unable to answer for herself.

Which was true, because she couldn't know what an orange was.

He'd forgotten about the clips that had circulated after Rose McKenzie was found, visual and audio comms of her singing. The comms had swept through all four planets——there wouldn't be a soul who hadn't seen them.

“She's not classified as an orange anymore, Captain. But yes, Imogen is from the same planet as Rose McKenzie.”

“Captain Inita has seen Rose McKenzie?” Imogen asked and Inita turned to her, almost melting at her feet.

Cam had forgotten something else. That her voice alone was enough to strike a cord in any Grih. His enjoyment of the smooth, lilting way she spoke had become normal to him far quicker than he would have thought. Perhaps because, aside from Oris and Paxe, she was the only person he'd spoken to for nearly two days.

“Not in person,” Inita answered her. “But I have heard her sing. The loveliest sound I have ever heard.”

“I was escorting Imogen to Larga Ways when we came under attack. Captain, I don't want harm to come to you for rescuing us, so I would strongly urge you to say nothing of our presence on your ship.”

Inita looked at him, and Cam almost saw the fawning music lover fall away and the shrewd trader take his place. “I understand all too well. We will say nothing.”

“Captain Inita.” Imogen touched the captain's arm lightly, and he turned to her. “Thank you for helping us. I know it's at some risk to you, and I want you to know we're very grateful.”

Inita drew in a deep breath, as if he could inhale the sound of her voice. “We are most honored.” He turned and gesticulated to his first officer and another crew member who were standing near the small launch bay's door. “I think you would like some grinabo and a rest, after your ordeal? It is another five hours until we reach Larga Ways.” He half-turned to Imogen, not looking at her directly, but focusing on her feet.

“Ah.” She darted a questioning look at Cam and he gave a quick nod. “Thank you.”

“This way, please.” Inita was beaming.

They followed him out of the launch bay——which only just had room for their small explorer and the pallets and stacked boxes of the trader's cargo——into a large, open area that served as the main living area for the crew.

No passageways on this compact little vessel.

Cam noticed colorful, patterned screens running along the sides of the gently curved walls which no doubt hid bunk beds for the crew to sleep in.

“This is lovely.” Imogen looked around with genuine appreciation.

Inita almost genuflected as he introduced them to his crew of eight. “This is Captain Kalor, of Battle Center, and Imogen Peters.” He looked at Imogen's feet again, and Cam thought he might burst from the excitement.

“We thank you again for stopping to help us, I know it will have delayed your schedule.” Cam gave a formal bow.

“It was nothing,” Inita said gallantly. “Of course we stopped.”

“Have you heard what the damage is on Larga Ways?” Cam asked. “I know there was an explosion but repairs are underway.”

Inita went pale, his head whipping around to skewer one of his crew. “Larga Ways attacked? There were comms to this effect?”

The communications officer shook her head. “No, sir. Nothing.” She disappeared through the far door, to the bridge, probably.

“What have you heard? I have family on Larga Ways.” Inita stepped closer to Cam, and so did a few others.

“That's all I know. There was a large explosion, but the way station was saved and is being repaired.”

“When did it happen?”

Cam thought about it. “Four days ago, I think. If my source was accurate.”

The comms officer stepped back in the room and everyone turned to her. “I tried Larga Ways customs, but they aren't answering. So I called a friend I know there who works at one of the hotels. He confirms it.” She nodded to Cam. “Larga Ways isn't broadcasting it, per Battle Center orders, but there was an explosion. The docking facilities weren't affected, though, and reconstruction is already underway. They're accepting traders as usual.”

“Well.” Inita looked at them more carefully than he had before. “Well, well, well. I appreciate knowing these things in advance, so I thank you. Your presence did not have anything to do with the explosion?” He looked at Imogen.

She shook her head. What happened on Larga Ways wasn't her fault, it wasn't Fiona Russell's, either, but Imogen couldn't help the tug of guilt, anyway.

“Imogen has never been to Larga Ways,” Cam put in smoothly.

“It is a sight to behold,” Inita told her. “A beautiful place. I heard Gurtain, the famous Grihan music-maker, sing there when Larga Ways was opened for the first time. It was magical.”

Imogen smiled at him. “As you obviously enjoy singing, would you like me to sing to you as a thank you for all you've done for us?”

Silence descended so fast, Imogen edged closer to Cam.

“Sing, for us? In person?” Inita sounded so horrified, Imogen look at Cam in distress. It reminded him that Rose McKenzie had had this same disconnect with them over the value of song.

To the Grih, it was for important occasions, and not to be overused. To people from Earth, evidently, it was something dished out with abandon. And he supposed, if they could all sing like Rose and Imogen, perhaps it wasn't so strange.

“You would not like it?” Imogen asked, after a pause.

“No, no. It would be an honor.” Inita wrung his hands and looked at Cam desperately for assistance.

“Imogen's people have a different view of song to us. They share their song more frequently, and gift it to those around them all the time.” There were only ten Grihan music-makers presently across the four planets, and their public performances were strictly rationed.

“Oh!” Inita gasped. “I never knew . . . but how could I? Of course. You are sure you would honor us with such a gift?”

Imogen now looked as if singing was the last thing she wanted to do. She shot Cam a dark look, as if he should have told her the ins and outs of singing protocol, and he caught her eye and smiled. Shrugged his shoulders.

She narrowed her eyes, then turned to Inita. “The honor is mine, Captain.” And then she opened her mouth, reached in, and grabbed hold of the heart and soul of everyone in the room.

* * *

C
ould
the Grihan attitude to singing be any more convoluted?

Imogen had been thinking of
And She Was
by Talking Heads while she lay in Cam's arms on the explorer, of how perfectly it seemed to reflect the place of acceptance she'd come to in this strange journey she'd been on. She chose to sing it now, surrounded by Grih who were staring at her with such perplexed, worried looks on their faces.

All because she'd offered to sing.

But she'd barely got into the first verse when the expressions changed from something approaching alarm to wonder, and she didn't know if that was better or worse.

She had a good voice. She wouldn't have gone into teaching music if she hadn't, but they were looking at her like she was Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. Like the Grih prisoners in Paxe's hold who'd stepped in to protect her from the Vanad had done.

Goo-goo eyes.

She glanced sideways at Cam, and yep, he was looking at her with wonder, with such bliss on his face, she couldn't begrudge him.

She realized she was clapping the beat, had started doing it without thinking, just like she'd have done in class to help her students keep time, and went with it, threw herself into the song wholeheartedly, because wasn't that what music was for?

And if the Grih were mad about it, who was she to say how mad they should be? She was pretty fond of music herself.

As she wound down, sang the last short, sharp verse, the absolute silence hit her. She'd never had such a captivated audience.

She smiled at Inita uncertainly, and saw tears streaming down his face.

“What song is that?” he whispered.

“It is a song of the blue planet,” she told him.

He said nothing more, but Imogen realized he couldn't, he was too overcome.

“Captain Inita, I know this is a further imposition,” Cam's voice was rough, and he cleared his throat. “Could you get us through customs without questions? And ask your crew not to mention this to anyone for a few days? Until I can assure Imogen's safety?”

Inita bowed his head, and Imogen thought Cam had pushed him too far. They were asking him to break customs law and to muzzle his crew.

He raised his head, but he did not look her directly in the eye. “For you, music-maker, anything.”