No Words Alone (4 page)

It was a lot easier to finish the soup than
it was to explain to everyone else how it was made. She turned a
little green, much to the amusement of the Scorpio. She saw several
of them laughing to each other and talking quietly but animatedly
as they gestured in her direction. She’d have thought they were
jerks, but noticed that several of them were eating the gray soup,
too. Maybe they thought she was finicky, or they were making the
best of a less than gourmet meal by cracking jokes. Even Atarus
seemed amused.

To her surprise, her own captain slurped the
slop right down. Must not be a picky eater, she assumed, or he just
liked a full belly.

Afterward, she gave language lessons.
Occasionally she had to ask an alien for confirmation regarding the
meaning of a word. They seemed willing enough to talk to her, if
especially aloof around her crew. The feeling was mutual.

Well, she reminded herself, the two groups
had
been shooting each other out of the sky just yesterday.
Feeling more like an ambassador than an interpreter, she often
stood between the two races, using her body as a kind of
buffer.

It was tiring work, and she excused herself
after an hour to hobble back to her bench. She lay down, inserted
her ear buds and listened to music. The device was small enough to
fit into a necklace and contained millions of files, many of which
she’d still never heard. Now, given time and the lifetime warranty
on the battery, she might just get a chance. She shoved that image
out of her mind as soon as it formed and concentrated on other
things. It had been a gift from her sisters on her last birthday
and contained many family photos. She flipped through them as she
listened to music, feeling wistful. She missed them and wondered
what they’d be told about her disappearance. They’d worry. For that
matter, she was worried..

The downside of teaching everyone the
language was that she was helping herself out of a job. She didn’t
think it would change her situation, though. What might? She
couldn’t think of anything, so she concentrated on simply doing her
job. Any intel she might get from the aliens about their culture or
language would be a powerful tool if she ever got back to the GE.
To cheer herself up, she imagined herself being in high demand as
an expert on the Scorpio race. Of course, not knowing when they
might be rescued, she might find out more than she wanted to know
about their mating habits....

Stop torturing yourself, she ordered herself
sternly, and sat up. There’d been no comb in her pack, so she tried
to untangle her hair with her fingers. The motion was soothing and
it gave her something to do.

Ensign Trevor must have noticed. He came over
and offered his comb. “Here. I don’t need it.” His hair was cropped
regulation short.

She smiled gratefully. “It’s short now. Give
it time. But, thanks.” She couldn’t see what she was doing while
she combed, but at least she now had a prayer of undoing the rat’s
nest.

Trevor sat down on the bench next to her.
“Quite a hike yesterday, huh? Felt like I’d been sucked into a
horror movie.”

“It isn’t over. There’s still the food,” she
said with a grimace.

He laughed. “Yeah. At least there
is
food.” He let his gaze trail aimlessly around, clearly stalling. At
last he spoke. “Look, Harris-d, I was thinking we could do each
other a favor.”

She stilled. He didn’t meet her eyes, or he
might have flinched at the suspicion there. She’d had too many
come-ons start with that very line.

“You’ve really got a bad situation here, and
I’m sympathizing with that. Being the only woman and all.” He
looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “I was thinking maybe I
could help you out.”She waited. She’d thought he was all right,
maybe a little geeky, but he was no different than the rest. He was
making a play for her. She wanted to hit him for trying to take
advantage. In her present mindset, that was the only way she saw
his offer.

“It would really help if you had a guy on
your side, you know. I’m willing, if you like.” He got a little
red-faced. “If the others thought you were taken….”

“So you want sex in exchange, is that it?”
she asked coldly.

He flinched. “Well, it would be nice, but I’m
not trying to force you or anything. I just thought I’d offer. It’s
not like we…I mean….” He stumbled to a verbal stop, his face
glowing red.

She couldn’t speak right away, didn’t trust
herself. She’d always had a temper, but she had common sense, too.
He stood up. She almost let him walk away. “I’ll think about it,”
she choked out.

He paused, looked over his shoulder. “Okay,”
he said.

He hesitated, then moved on. Xera gripped the
comb so hard it bit into her hand. Suddenly she didn’t care about
her hair.

“The first one’s approached her,” Toosun
observed softly. He was sitting with his brother, and the two men
watched the quiet scene unfold across the room, just as his brother
had predicted. Ryven also watched the way Xera just sat there,
staring at her feet after the human ensign left. It was a dead
giveaway.

“Yes,” he said. He continued sharpening his
blade. The eight-inch knife had the same shifting coating as his
uniform and was already razor sharp. An enemy would not see it
coming in the dark.

“Will her captain permit her to go to another
man?”

“That one? He’ll let her service anyone who
asks, then demand her for himself when he wants her. She will not
be permitted to refuse.” Ryven’s eyes were shuttered, deceptively
focused on his task.

“We will keep watch, then. If she chooses a
man of her own free will, do we still intervene?”

Ryven looked at him. “In this situation, will
any choice of hers constitute free will? Even if it did, it would
not change my plans for her.” Toosun nodded. “The men are settled,
then. Shall we start with drills this morning? They need to stay
busy.”

“Yes. After they’ve bled off some energy,
they can participate in more language studies with the translator.
Also, ask for volunteers to do recon outside the shelter; we need
to know more data about our environment, need to see if there’s any
recoverable equipment outside. If your group finds remains, burn
them with lasers. Burial is too hazardous now. You have one hour.
If you do not return on time we will send out a search party, but
anyone left outside at dusk is expendable.”

The brothers held each other’s gazes. They
had done this often enough that nothing else needed to be said.
They had love but also duty. It had always been that way.

“We’ll recover what we can and stay on the
rocks. That should keep the diggers at bay, and the fliers are
sleeping until dusk.”

“Just don’t walk into any caves,” Ryven said
dryly. After a moment he added, “Ask the humans if they’re brave
enough to go.”

Toosun grinned. “The translator won’t tell
them my exact words.”

Ryven flashed a brief smile in response. “Be
discreet, then. I would rather our numbers be even; not that they
impress me as warriors.”

“No. I will ask her.” Toosun hesitated. “What
about their weapons? Will we take them soon?”

Ryven knew his brother wouldn’t question the
wisdom of his decisions directly, but he was sure his men were all
wondering. “We will wait a little longer. Let them think they have
nothing to fear; it will lull them.” There had been enough
casualties. There would come an opportune moment, and then he and
his men would act.

He hadn’t forgotten his objective; the
interlopers would pay for their indiscretion. They were
trespassers, and would be treated as such. Even the woman would
learn her place…as soon as he decided what that place should be. It
seemed a waste to send a woman like her to prison. He darted a
glance her way. He had to think about the possibilities.

Xera eyed the Scorpio second-in-command,
Toosun, and contemplated what he’d just said. As she didn’t feel
like hobbling over to her captain just then, she caught Khan’s
attention with a gesture. It wasn’t hard; he’d been watching her
with alarming frequency, especially whenever one of the Scorpio
spoke with her.

“What?” he demanded as he approached. “You
too lazy to bring a message to your captain?”

She gestured to her bound foot. “I’m still
recovering, sir. It’ll heal faster if I stay off it.”

Khan’s small eyes gleamed with nasty
satisfaction. “So you’re only good for sitting on your butt or
lying on your back, eh? That’s about….” He broke off as the Scorpio
shifted toward him, just enough to make him wary.

“The Scorpio are making up a reconnaissance
party,” she explained quickly, keeping her voice even. “They want
to know if any of us is brave enough to accompany them. They plan
to be gone an hour.”

“Brave enough?” Khan snarled. “Any of us is
braver than a stinking, filthy alien. Cort! Trevor!” he bellowed.
He looked at those two men, who hurried over. “Get ready for a
recon mission. I want to know what these guys know at all times!
Grab any gear you happen to see lying around outside.”

The men paled but hurried to do what he
said.

Captain Khan turned to Toosun and eyed him
arrogantly. “What else do they want?” he asked Xera.

She kept her sigh to herself, though she was
suddenly exhausted. In his own language she told Toosun, “They are
getting ready. Is there anything else?”

Toosun looked at her and ignored her captain,
who practically breathed down his neck. “My lord has told our men
to watch out for your safety. It is not our custom to see women
mistreated. If you become afraid, you may move your sleeping place
to our side of the shelter. You will not be disturbed or harmed.”
He gave her a slight nod, then turned and looked down at Khan.

Faced with the Scorpio and his superior
height, much of the captain’s bravado leached away. Khan turned his
back and stalked off.

A dark expression flashed through Toosun’s
face. It was leashed but not gone when he nodded to Xera and
returned to his own men.

Xera took a slow breath then exhaled. She’d
just been offered protection by people she knew nothing about.
Unfortunately, she knew too much about her own kind. She’d better
be down to zero options before she took such a huge risk She took
her laser rifle crutch and hobbled over to sit by a few of her
human companions. They were fiddling with a radio, clearly waiting
to get reports back from the imminent reconnaissance mission. In
response to the few curious looks they shot her, she said, “You
might need translation help on that.” She wasn’t going to give Khan
another chance to say she was useless.

The communications officer nodded and handed
her a headset.

Chapter 4

Xera didn’t envy Cort and Ensign Trevor as
they followed Toosun and his crew outside. Both humans and Scorpio
lined the entry tunnel, ready to blast anything that came through
the door, though the shelter’s sensors had reported nothing deadly
beyond. A flash of light appeared as they exited, then darkened to
artificial light as the heavy doors closed on the sun outside. It
didn’t take long before Ensign Trevor reported, “We found a
boot...Scorpio make.”

There was grim silence in the room as
everyone heard the transmission. Xera remembered the Scorpio who’d
gone down under a flyer.

“There’s a ripped pack. We’re gathering the
goods. Doesn’t seem to be anything else.”

There was apparently a path carved into the
rock that wound up to the top of the shelter, and the team followed
it. Toosun explained the path was for maintenance on the solar
array, and Xera translated. The top of the rock opened up into a
rough plateau.

“Good place to land a ship,” Cort reported
tersely.

Captain Khan tensed.

“You can see for miles up here,” Ensign
Trevor broadcast. He was looking through electronic binoculars.
“Not that there’s much to see. Desert, rocks, sand.”

“Same thing as yesterday,” Cort affirmed.
“There’s a few other rocky hills scattered here and there, but
that’s it. This rock isn’t very big, either. Maybe the size of a
football field. Makes you wonder why they bothered to build a
shelter here at all.”

The hour of reconnaissance passed quickly and
uneventfully, but it provided a much-needed distraction. The men
made it back to the shelter with no problem.

“Sandstorm looked to be kicking up,” Cort
remarked as he entered.

“Tell me about the landing pad,” Kahn
demanded. “Any sign of recent use?”

Cort shrugged. “Hard to tell.”

“What I want to know is if they have a ship
on the way,” the captain snapped. “For all I know we’re sitting
ducks, with no way to know if or when our own distress signal will
be answered.”

His crew tensed. However brief their truce
here, no one wanted to be a wartime guest of the Scorpio. POWs had
no guarantee of fair treatment, no matter what the GE claimed.

“They killed Genson,” one of the men added
bitterly. “We’ve got no call to be trusting them.”

Xera couldn’t argue; everything her
companions said was true. She didn’t like where this was going,
though. The building tension could lead to bad decisions, maybe get
somebody killed.

Khan looked at her. “Harris-d, you’re going
to question them. Ask them about the planet, about its resources.
Ask ’em why a shelter was put up in this place, find out everything
you can. Be careful about it! They don’t need to know we’re
suspicious.”

“Yes, sir,” she said soberly.

“The rest of you, keep your eyes peeled! We
don’t need any nasty surprises. From now on, two of you will be on
active watch at all times.”

Xera limped back to her bench and waited a
while before approaching the Scorpio. It was hard to view them
objectively; they had been kind to her. There was no telling what
would happen to her or her crew on an alien ship, though. They
could end up under the authority of someone who was less lenient,
with harsher views on the treatment of captive females. She hadn’t
been home in three years, and she wanted a chance to see her
sisters again.