The Lereni Trade (5 page)

She rose to her feet and crossed to
the back of the room and the metal stairs she had been forced to
climb the night before. But now, her ankle was healed. Descending
to explore would be easy.

Intrigued by the new surroundings and
bored of waiting, she started down the stairs. They hadn't said she
couldn't explore.

"Nef!"
The sharp word from behind froze her with one foot on the
top step. The two at the table both stood, watching her with hard
lines to their lips.

A string of words came from the one
behind it as he slid out. Arms thrust with violent exaggeration as
he stormed towards her.

Krissa backed away to the wall, her
adventure on their ship forgotten.

"I don't understand," she said, but
they continued towards her, their hair flat on their heads. "I'm
sorry. I…I…" Where was Torik?

A voice rose from behind them,
stopping both. They eased away from her, but their eyes never
wavered.

Beyond them, heavy steps approached.
To her relief, the face that accompanied it was that of the alien
she most trusted.

Torik shoved both aside and
interspersed himself with his back to her. A heated exchange
between them ended with him pointing to the table with his eyes on
the one who had led the advance on her. His green eyes narrowed in
contempt, the crewmate returned to the table and slapped a
key.

"How can she understand if you don't
use the translator?" The computer voice followed Torik's statement.
Not waiting for them to answer a question that seemed more to make
them think rather than one expecting an answer, he turned to her in
harsh criticism, full of suspicion like the others.

"I'm bored," she said meekly, twisting
her fingers together. "I just thought…I'm on a ship. I've never
been in space before. I just wanted to see more."

The way he watched her made her wonder
if he would understand or turn on her.

He turned back to his crewmates and
regarded them for several seconds before saying, "The world of
Earth is primitive. Her curiosity is only natural."

"She would cause trouble," one of the
two argued.

"Perhaps less if such curiosity was
sated with guidance."

The other huffed indignantly. "You are
too soft, Torik. She should be locked up."

"And that would make matters
worse."

Another set of steps approached and
stopped.

Krissa peered past Torik to the cold
face of their captain and swallowed.

"I only want a tour, to learn about
this ship." By the looks on the faces watching her, they would
rather lock her up. Only Torik stood between them and her, hardly
reassuring. "Please?"

Without a word, Karik gave a sharp
lift of his jaw and strode back in the direction of the command
center.

Was that a yes? A no? A signal of
something else, like a pre-discussed intent to lock her
up?

Torik returned his attention to her.
"You will have your tour."

Krissa blinked, wondering if the
computer had translated correctly. "I will?"

Torik tipped his head with a hint of
the warm smile she had come to trust. "Escorted. It would be safer
than you wandering alone."

"Yeah…" This was too convenient. Why
had Karik agreed so readily? That wasn't like him in regards to
her.

Forget it. She wasn't about to
question it openly. She'd take what she could get under the
circumstances. And now she was going to have something to occupy
some of the time on that ship, however much time it might be, and
welcomed the return of a friend.

A friend.

She started at the thought. She'd
never had a true friend before.

Was he? She had hardly known him for a
day.

"Can we start down there? I've seen
enough of this area." And of his crewmates, but she kept that
thought to herself.

Torik moved away to give her a clear
path to the steps into the hold.

She took the invitation and climbed
down into the ominous near darkness full of crates and boxes and
places for things to hide. In that, she was glad not to have
wandered alone to be discovered by some strange mutant space rat
hiding in their hold.

He followed her and touched a control
pad at the wall. Lights brightened around them, revealing the scene
from yesterday when she was brought on board.

"The computer will switch and they
will hear." The voice of the translator came from a speaker
nearby.

She looked up at the tall alien next
to her. "Could you teach me your language?"

"That will take time."

"And what else can I do? How long will
I be here?"

Muscles flexed in his cheeks and his
gaze flicked to her but mostly stared away, an unfocused look in
those inhuman eyes.

"A few days," he finally
said.

"Then what?"

"You will learn."

She supposed it was the best answer
she would get from him, but he'd given her a piece she didn't have
previously.

"And what else am I supposed to do?
I'll be bored."

Torik glanced up the stairs for a
moment and returned his attention to her with a sigh. A second
later, he reached towards the panel next to the steps.

The words that came from him were not
translated.

After a tentative first few dozen
words, Torik relaxed into a teaching mode that made the rest
easy.

Krissa soon had a basic working
vocabulary that she reiterated at every opportunity in her tour
through the hold and into the engine section of the ship with what
seemed to be a large bundle of thick tubes between two towers of
light rising high to the ceiling past what would have been the
upper deck.

And Torik seemed to enjoy being able
to speak to her without the computer. He spoke slowly, giving her a
chance to incorporate the different forms of verbs and nouns and
some of the phrases. Although she didn't understand the details of
the engines, she at least knew the words in Lereni that he used to
describe them, helping her with phonetics and understanding the
patterns to begin unraveling the complete language.

In the midst of her language lesson,
they stood for a long while in the short corridor between the hold
and engine chamber, next to the break in the wall for the entrance
ramp.

Only when one of the others appeared
from the maze of storage containers in the hold did they pause long
enough for her to realize she was hungry again. It had been hours
since her meal, but she was trying to avoid the awful food
packs.

"What are you doing?" The other looked
from Torik to her and back.

"Teaching."

The air thickened with threat around
the crewmate, who eyed her darkly. He snatched Torik by his armor
to slam him into the bulkhead. His words growled in anger such that
Krissa couldn't make them out with her limited
understanding.

She didn't have to. The way he
attacked Torik and pinned him was enough to understand that they
didn't like what Torik had done. They wanted to hide something. Her
knowledge was a threat.

"It was necessary," Torik
objected.

"And when she turns on us?"

"Wait." Krissa grabbed the arm of the
one pinning Torik to the wall. "He didn't—"

In a flash, the alien whipped his arm
aside as if spring-loaded. She slammed into the wall with a clunk
that rang through her head and body and darkened the
world.

* * *

Damn him!

In a moment of panic and rage induced
strength, Torik tore free of Korr's grasp and dropped to his knees
by the unconscious figure. After a brief search, he found a pulse
on the human form and turned to Korr looming over him.

"You could have killed her! The Tah'Na
will not negotiate if she's dead." The growl of anger in his voice
was barely restrained.

"You have jeopardized us all," Korr
said from behind. "She should not be taught to understand us. It
will only allow her to learn what she is, and then we are all
doomed."

Ridiculous. He was as bad as Karik.
"Then don't speak about it around her." It was that
simple.

"You should not be telling her
anything!"

In their desperation to save their
world, they would never learn. The war had hardened them, emptied
their souls of compassion. That would ultimately be the undoing of
Lereni society, or perhaps that's what the Tah'Na had sought all
along—to ruin them utterly.

"You'd best hope she is not fatally
injured," he said aside. "And bring me a medscanner." Onduun might
be delicate creatures easily injured. Until he knew her condition,
he wouldn't risk further injury by moving her.

The clomp of steps approaching set off
warning bells that made his skin crawl and the hair at the nape of
his neck stand on end. Those steps had an all-to-familiar force to
them.

"What happened?" Karik, as
expected.

"She attacked me," Korr
said.

"No." Torik jumped to his feet. "She
was trying to stop you from attacking me."

She had tried to protect him. That
went against what they'd been told about the Onduun…Maybe they had
been told wrong.

"Why?" The accusation in Karik's tone
was directed at him, along with narrowed eyes.

"She wanted to learn our language so
we could communicate."

Karik's hair lifted with his
agitation. "And you decided that she should understand?"

"It is…less frustration."

Karik's hard eyes shifted from him to
Korr, wiping the hint of a smirk off Korr's face. "I'll speak to
you later."

"But—"

The snarl revealing sharp teeth cut
off the objection. "If she is injured or dies, this will be on
you."

Although he directed his words at
Korr, it didn't excuse Torik. The castigation returned to him.
"What does she know?"

"Basics. Simple things."

She was a faster student than he had
anticipated, but they had only brushed through the most elementary
of sentence structures and concepts—shapes, colors, numbers,
actions.

Korr inched away, but Karik's eyes
followed with a warning trailing them.

"Four more days," he said, his gaze on
the girl. "She must survive until we reach Rahmir. Some
understanding may help us control her, but that will be as far as
this goes. Beware the power of the Onduun. Already, she may be
poisoning your mind with empathy."

"I simply feel that she deserves a
certain amount of respect. Gaining her trust may serve our purpose
more fully."

"Noted."

Torik risked a look up at Karik's face
and caught a slow nod.

"She will try to pull the truth from
you."

"That will not happen." Not while he
was wary of her power.

"See that it does not. She must not
know what she really is, or we risk her fighting against us. That
treaty depends on her being presented to the premier of House Raou,
alive and healthy."

"I understand." Karik needn't remind
him at every turn that it did no good for their world if they were
dead or injured. Torik was a seasoned veteran with a few dozen
skirmishes in ground combat behind him. But warfare hadn't taken
away his soul to what really mattered.

Although he doubted the girl would do
anything to hurt him, he was grateful to the others for being
mindful of what she might do to influence him with her power. Their
world was the reason he had agreed to join this mission rather than
settle as his clan had.

"She will not learn of her true
heritage until the time comes, as we discussed." The lecture
earlier had been more than he needed; but as the one closest to the
girl, Torik had placed himself most at risk of being
compromised.

"I will deal with Korr." Karik
motioned with his chin to the girl and said, "You tend to
her."

"Yes, sir."

Relieved when Karik followed the trail
of Korr, Torik breathed easier. He returned his attention to
Krissa. She seemed so harmless. All this time among the natives of
the planet, she couldn't have learned of her heritage. She should
be harmless, otherwise the males pursuing her and preparing to
attack when their party found her would have been bowing to her
instead of threatening harm.

Unless that was her influence, the
uncontrolled fear of what she felt pressed into their minds to make
them harm her.

No. That was unlikely.

He brushed away the hair tangled over
her face, immobile with no reaction but that of the wind. She
couldn't have been influencing him now and he still felt
pity.

Upon realizing the silence pressing
around him, he looked up and realized Korr wasn't
coming.