Dark Horse (21 page)

H
oke left
her in a nice enough room with facilities to make grinabo, and Jay Xaltro even brought her something to eat, but for the first time, she thought of Jay and Vree Halim as her watchers, not her protectors.

“When are they going to question me?” she asked Vree as he and Jay left her to her food and her own company.

He looked uncertain. “I donʼt know.”

“Captain Jallan will be there, though?”

The two guards exchanged a look and Rose thought she saw something cross Vreeʼs face, a decision to do something.

“We donʼt know, Rose. Weʼre not high enough up the ladder.” Jayʼs words were curt, but there wasnʼt the same irritation on her face Rose usually saw there.

They left her alone, and she made grinabo and sipped it as she ate the finger food. Might as well keep her strength up.

While she ate, she looked around for the lenses. There were four, one for each corner of the room. “I wonder if there are microphones as well?” She said it softly and in English, as if to herself, but it was for Sazoʼs benefit.

“Yes. Most definitely.” His voice was quiet in her ear. “Iʼm making progress into the Grih system, but itʼs slow. Iʼve got into some of the less critical areas, and now itʼs only a matter of time. Lieutenant Borji will have to concede defeat.”

He sounded elated, and she smiled in reaction, then tried to school her features. If Hoke was watching her, the admiral would wonder why Rose was grinning at nothing.

She finished her meal, stacked the dishes on the tray neatly to one side, and, bored, opened up the Grih handheld to see what theyʼd put on it.

The music program Yari had loaded was on there, and she accessed it. She tapped on an icon that vaguely resembled drums, and a beat emanated from the device, a simple tap-tap-tap. She played around with it, working out how to make the beat more complex and adding other instruments, some very close in sound to instruments from Earth, others completely new. When she had a soundtrack running, she tapped what she thought was the record button, to sing a few la-la-las.

The program tried to anticipate her, the music changing as she sang, but not in a way that pleased her.

The program didnʼt understand her music, and kept miscalculating, or losing the complex pattern most songs created. Rose tapped a finger to her lips until she found a way to switch the auto-compose feature off. “Damn you, auto-correct.”

As no one in this solar system would ever get that joke, she gave herself permission to smile to herself, Hoke watching her or not.

“Iʼm in the communications systems.” Sazo said.

“You sound worried.” She sang that, making it work with the rhythm she had going. At least they wouldnʼt think she was talking to herself again.

“I am. Someone sent a message to Admiral Hoke demanding the Grih release you into United Council custody. The order is that they must ferry you out to Councilor Fu-tamaʼs ship and allow it to take you to UC headquarters.”

“That doesnʼt sound good.” She clicked her fingers between words. “Why do they want me at headquarters?”

Sazo chuckled in her ear. “Good idea on the singing.” The he got serious again. “I think someone wants you dead. And what better way to kill you than to get you off the
Barrist
, where youʼre protected, and then blow you up en route to the UC?”

“What better way indeed?” She knew her voice was flat and hard for the last line.

“That isnʼt going to happen. I wonʼt let it. Hoke wonʼt either. She wants you under her thumb, not the UCʼs. Youʼre a useful way to keep the moral high-ground and still hang on to the Class 5. Being the victim of SBA abuse, and all.”

“You are getting cynical in your old age, kid.” Rose sang the line in a opera-ish tone.

“Quite a few people have gathered around the screen to watch you sing, Rose. Iʼm in the lens system now, and Iʼm watching them watch you. It occurs to me that to buy some time, while I break into the rest of the ship, perhaps you singing a proper song, which is guaranteed to keep most eyes on you, might be a safe way to go.”

Now she was a diversion, as well as traitor. Still, sheʼd set this ball rolling. There was no going back. “What song do you suggest?”

He ran a few, crackled lines passed her, and she looked down to hide the surprise that must have crossed her face.

“From Earth?” she whispered, not even trying to sing that line.

“Just what I managed to grab off the airwaves when we took you and the animals. I like this one.” He sounded almost . . . shy as he played it.

“Why do you like it?” It was one of the recent DJ produced songs with a strong beat and lyrics she realized would appeal to Sazo. About loneliness and needing a connection to survive.

“The words seem to be written about me.”

“Thatʼs the beauty of songs. They speak to us as if the singer is singing just for us, sometimes. Can you use the program on this Grih handheld and pick out the music from that song, reproduce it so itʼs clear?”

What he had recorded was enough to help her remember the lyrics and the music, but it faded and then surged like an old gramophone record.

“I think so.”

“We can do it in layers.” She switched off the unchanging rhythm created by the program and decided she didnʼt care if those watching her thought she was mad talking into her handheld. “So one layer for the drum beat, then the guitars, the piano. Iʼll have to do the background vocals and the main vocals, but this songʼs a good choice because the pitch will work for me and itʼs simple but powerful.”

“I can record on an unlimited number of layers.” He sounded . . . excited.

“Good. Letʼs get that first beat going.”

She switched on the program again, and Sazo came through, matching the beat precisely to the one heʼd snatched from the radio-waves.

She let her head bob in time, and came in on cue, singing the first lines, and then waving a hand when the next beat was due to start. Sazo made it happen and she grinned.

She sang the whole song through, and then made him play it from the start, singing in the back-up. “Weʼre missing a few things.”

“You wouldnʼt know it from the interest itʼs getting. There is no standing room left in the room where theyʼre watching you from.”

“Huh.” She didnʼt know what to say to that. She sat down on the edge of the table, suddenly shy. “Let me hear the original again.”

Sazo played it, and she worked out what theyʼd left out, let her and Sazoʼs recording play again, and then la-la-laʼed in the places they were missing notes, to let Sazo know what to listen for. She couldnʼt help moving around as she did it, the song had come together really well, and when she played it a final time, with everything where it should be, she couldnʼt help dancing around the room a little, singing the main vocals along with herself as she did.

“They like it when you dance and sing at the same time. I donʼt think theyʼve ever seen that before. Or seen someone work on a song the way you have.”

She slowed her hip sway, suddenly embarrassed, and leaned against the table with both hands, letting her head fall so her hair hid her face. “Who all is watching? And why? Arenʼt they supposed to be questioning me?”

“Hoke wanted to question you with Valu and, via remote lens feed, the head of Battle Center, but when the comm technicians tried to get the head admiral online, it turned out he was in an important meeting with the Grihʼs political leaders, pending another meeting with the heads of the United Council. Everyone is shouting at everyone else over the Class 5 being in Grih territory and the Tecran capturing and torturing an advanced sentient. The head admiral wonʼt be able to be involved for a good four hours. At least.

“Hoke is regretting her precipitous decision to take you from your room and leave you here. Sheʼs tipped her hand. She was hoping to question you with Valu and their commander without Captain Jallanʼs knowledge, which I gather is a grave insult to him, and frowned upon in general. Sheʼs made a mistake and she knows it. She should have consulted Jallan, and if she wasnʼt going to, she should have made sure Head Admiral Krale was available before she made her move.

“Now Jallan knows, because Vree Halim told him what was going on, as per his instructions to let the captain know what was happening with you at all times. Hoke seems to have tried to order Halim and Xaltro not to contact the captain, but she knew she was in breach of protocol, so she couldnʼt make it a direct order, just implied theyʼd be in trouble if they did.

“Itʼs turned not only the senior officers, but the whole crew against her, and it looks like Admiral Valu isnʼt too happy with her, either. Heʼs all for questioning you, but heʼs a stickler for protocol and respect.”

Rose could hear the laughter in Sazoʼs tone.

“Seeing how everyone was so interested in your song, I routed the lens feed to the screens in the communal rooms as well, so the whole crew could see you.”

“Why did you do that?” Her voice came out as a squeak, and she hoped the microphones hadnʼt picked it up.

“Because if they like you, they wonʼt want to listen to the order to send you away, which will mean I wonʼt have to stop them. And when you sing, they worship you.”

She grappled with that. Found a bottomless well of discomfort at the thought. “So what now?”

“Another song.” He sounded cajoling, and she recognized that tone as one sheʼd used on him numerous times.

She sighed again. She was being played with her own arsenal. “Youʼre a fast learner.”

She thought she heard him chuckle. There was something in his attitude. An eagerness. An enthusiasm.

Making music was something Sazo obviously loved doing.

“Okay, play me some more of what you have.” She was still looking down over the table, her hair covering her, and she wondered what everyone was making of her one-sided conversation. At least they couldnʼt understand what she was saying.

She listened as Sazo played a few songs, all unsuitable as far as she was concerned, and then stopped him when he played something her step class instructor liked to play while putting the class through its paces.

“This one, I know. Quite well. And I like it.”

Sazo skipped back to the start of the song, and they listened to the whole thing. Like the others, it was indistinct in places, the quality poor.

“See what you can come up with as a match on the music program.”

“I can do that. But Rose . . .” She could almost hear the frown. “What is it about?”

“Not as obvious as the first one, is it? To me, itʼs about a woman who mistook sex for affection, lust for love, and now she realizes that what she thought was something deep and meaningful is not, so she has resolved to be strong and walk away, rather than continue down the path of falling more in love with a man who doesnʼt love her, and is only using her.” She blinked, almost surprised at herself. She hadnʼt realized sheʼd thought so much about it. “Someone else might have a different interpretation, though.”

“What you say makes sense to me.” He sounded intrigued.

“Right, well, letʼs get this over with.”

He played the opening bars, and she sang, having to come back and re-record over and over, as the song was higher than she was comfortable with in places and her voice wasnʼt always up to it. In the end, she thought she managed an okay job.

“Letʼs hear it from the top.” She stood, finding it impossible to listen and not pace, and got caught up in the song the way she had with the first one.

By the end, she was grinning and dancing around. “Awesome job,” she said to Sazo, and realized, for the first time in three months, she was happy.

And how ironic was that, because wasnʼt she under lock and key again?

“
I
didnʼt understand
. . .” Admiral Hoke trailed off as the last notes of Roseʼs song faded.

There was silence in the room, and Dav realized it was standing room only. Some of the crew had heard Rose sing in the space lounge, and Dav had heard her in Dr. Havakʼs office, but this was on another level altogether.

For the second song, she had gone over and over each line, until she had created something flawless.

Borji had whispered to him that she was using a music program one of his engineers had loaded on her handheld, but that heʼd never seen it used in that way.

It was spectacular.

She had started each song looking serious, waiting for her cue and then, when sheʼd started to sing, sheʼd transformed, waving her hand as if to usher each new thread of music into the song, complex beyond anything Dav had ever heard. There had been a lightness about her, a happiness, and he understood at last that the Grih took music seriously, and that was the opposite of her relationship with it. For her, it was dancing, and smiling and joy.

No wondered sheʼd shuddered at the thought of being a music-maker.

But after hearing her, at what she could accomplish, she could probably call herself whatever she wanted to, the Grih would take her with open arms.

“Why does she talk to herself? And to the handheld?” Admiral Valuʼs tone was slightly supercilious, but as far as Dav could see, he was as glued to the lens feed as anyone.

“Perhaps she thinks the handheld can hear her, or converse with her? She is from a less advanced culture, isnʼt she?” Hoke turned to Dav, deferring to him, as if that could make up for what sheʼd set in motion.

“Rose had no company but her own for three months. She confided in me that she spoke just to hear a voice, even if it was her own. And now Admiral Hoke has confined her again. I donʼt think we can blame her for reverting back to behavior she had when she was in her Tecran cell.” He held Hokeʼs gaze while he spoke; seething, furious at what sheʼd done on his own ship, without consulting him.

Vree Halimʼs quiet comm to let him know what was happening had sent him storming to the comm center to confront Hoke. Heʼd kept his voice low and his tone just the right side of civil with difficulty, and it was only Valuʼs astonishment at learning Dav hadnʼt been consulted and his clear disapproval of how Hoke had managed things that had kept Dav from ordering her off his ship.

Not that that would have helped, given she outranked him.

Hoke shifted uneasily. “Captain, may we speak in private?”

He gave a stiff nod and indicated the small, glassed off room where the head comm tech could receive confidential messages for Dav from Battle Center.

She made her way there, and Valu, although Hoke had not included him in her request, stood and followed her in.

Lens feed from the room where Rose was kept was still up on the main comm center screen, as well as on the small screen in the tiny office, and Dav saw that most of the crew barely gave him, Valu and Hoke a glance as they closed themselves off.

Rose had finished singing, but there was always the chance of a third song, and the crowd waited, riveted, for whatever she decided to do next.

“It isnʼt my usual style to explain myself, Captain, but I can understand why there might be hard feelings on your part.” Hoke stood to attention, legs apart, shoulders back. “It was my professional judgment that you were not taking the possibility of Rose McKenzieʼs danger to this ship and to the Grih in general seriously enough, and so I decided to circumvent you.” Hoke paused, and tilted her head. “Can you honestly tell me youʼre unbiased?”

Dav watched her for a long beat, but she hadnʼt become the heir-apparent to Battle Center by being easily intimidated, and she stared straight back. “You didnʼt discuss your ʽprofessional judgmentʼ with me in any way. And I donʼt think I gave any indication that I would have obstructed a debrief. Why would I? Iʼve followed the regulations to the letter with her, and thatʼs more than you can say in your handling of this matter.”

Some of that was a lie, but there was no way Dav was giving ground now. No way.

“I have to agree with Captain Jallan, Hoke. If you felt he was giving the orange an easy time, why didnʼt you ask him why? He might have been working a plan, for all you know. Have you forgotten how sacrosanct a captainʼs ship is? How would you have reacted to someone giving orders to your crew behind your back when you were running the
Helivista
?”

Hoke sighed. “Iʼd have been as furious as you obviously are, Jallan. I apologize, but there are a lot of lives on the line. A lot at stake.” She was silent for a moment, but however genuine her apology seemed, Dav was still disinclined to make things easy.

“Youʼre going to take a while to forgive me, and I canʼt say Iʼd have been any different.” Hoke shrugged. “But you need to get over it because weʼve got another problem. While I was trying to get Admiral Krale on the line, I received a comm from the United Council. Iʼve sent you a copy.”

Dav slipped out his handheld, saw the comm and opened it. It was an order, poorly couched as a request, to send Rose to Councilor Fu-tamaʼs ship, which would take her to UC headquarters.

He lifted his head, saw Hokeʼs gaze on him, intense and considering.

“What do you think?”

I think itʼs not going to happen.
Dav tried not to let that thought show on his face. “Well, itʼs from UC Headquarters, Iʼll believe that because our comm system is good enough to pick up if it wasnʼt, but whoʼs taken responsibility for this order? I donʼt see a name.”

Hoke gave a nod. “I noticed that, too.”

“So, letʼs contact them and find out.” Although he didnʼt believe for a moment anyone would admit to sending it, and would even bet it would turn out to have been sent from a communal comm station.

Hoke shook her head. “I received orders from Battle Center just before I spoke to Rose. Weʼre not to speak to the United Council. Battle Center will do our talking for us. Weʼve cooperated in letting the technicians from UC take the evidence they need against the Tecran, but there will be no more tours of the Class 5, no more allowing them access to Rose.”

“Things are getting a little rocky.” Valu spoke quietly from his corner of the room.

Hoke gave a nod. “This has everyone on edge. The UC could conceivably fracture, but right now itʼs looking like the Garmman, Fitali and Bukari will side with us, the Tecran canʼt convince any of them across because of their treatment of Rose.”

“So the first step for the Tecran would be to get rid of Rose. Despite the lens feed, a walking, talking victim is much harder to explain away.” Dav hunched his shoulders to loosen them.

“And are the Tecran really alone? Fu-tama is Garmman, and his ship arrived suspiciously soon after we picked up that mysterious signal. Not to mention, itʼs the ship they want us to put Rose on.”

“But the Class 5 took aim at his vessel, didnʼt it? How does that fit in?” Valu frowned.

“The Class 5 isnʼt being manned by Tecran anymore, there is no one to override anything. Perhaps it locked on because of the signal, but had Captain Gee been on board, heʼd have cancelled the response.” The only other explanation was the one Rose hinted at earlier. That the Class 5 was under someone elseʼs control, and given that someone had killed almost the entire Tecran crew, they were most definitely hostile to the Tecran and their allies. If the Garmman had secretly aligned themselves with the Tecran, locking weapons onto Fu-tamaʼs ship was completely logical.

Valu nodded reluctantly. “Asking Captain Gee is obviously out of the question?”

Hoke nodded. “We donʼt give him any information about the Class 5 at all. Do you think he would answer a question honestly anyway, Captain Jallan?”

Dav shook his head. “Heʼs extremely hostile and would do anything he could to undermine our control of the Class 5.”

Hoke inclined her head, as if that was no more than she expected.

“So, when is Admiral Krale available for Roseʼs interrogation?” Dav looked across at the screen, and saw Rose was sitting quietly on her chair, feet up on the table, eyes closed.

Hoke followed his gaze. “Four hours, minimum.”

“You going to make her wait in there, or let her go back to her room?” Valu asked. Dav was glad about that, because he wasnʼt prepared to ask Admiral Hoke what order she was going to issue on his own ship.

Hoke rubbed a hand through short, silver hair. Looked up at Dav again.

She was caught, and she knew it. If she backed down and sent Rose to her room, it would be seen as a victory for Dav, and possibly for Rose, as well. If she didnʼt, if she forced Rose to wait in the room until the admiral was free, her reputation with his crew and with himself, would sink lower.

“She can wait a little longer.”

She had decided to hedge her bets.

He was opening his mouth, about to utter one of the most career-inhibiting remarks of his life, when Appal came through on his comm.

“Trouble.”

He turned automatically away from Valu and Hoke, looked out into the comm room at the techs going about their business. “What?”

“There is something coming at us. Something big. It light jumped in and then ducked behind Virmana. We got a brief reading before it disappeared.”

“How big?”

“Big enough. Not a Class 5, I can confirm that. Given we have one sitting right in front of us, we can be sure what we picked up didnʼt have the same readings.”

Dav cut her off, tapped into the main system. “This is a ship-wide warning. Hostile craft approaching, all crew prepare to engage.”

Behind him, he heard Valu grunt in surprise, and he turned back. “Most likely Tecran. But not a Class 5.”

He needed to get in touch with the captains of the two battleships hanging on either side of the
Barrist
. He needed to make sure Dimitara stashed the UC councilors in a safe place on board if they werenʼt back on the fast transporter that had brought them from UC Headquarters, especially the Tecran and Garmann councilors. He needed to thank the fates it wasnʼt another Class 5.

So why was he worrying about Rose?

Because the thought of being taken by the Tecran again would surely shake her to her core.

“What do you need us to do?” Hoke asked, and Dav decided she really meant it, she was offering to help, rather than trying to take over.

Dav tapped back into the bridge. “Come with me.”