Dark Horse (35 page)

S
omething was wrong
.

Dav paced the small cabin with its quick-lock walls and door, manufactured to be set up in under ten minutes and dismantled in about five.

Heʼd expected a little trouble when he got to the temporary Battle Center camp, but not that heʼd be locked up and officially charged.

Rose would worry when she didnʼt hear from him. And a worried Rose meant a worried Sazo.

Anger flared in his chest, and spiked at the sound of voices coming his way.

He flicked the fabric of his sleeve to see the time, and froze.

Dav.

He flicked it again.

Itʼs. Rose. We. Will. Sort. This. Out.

Sort what out? His arrest?

Fear washed over him as the door of the cabin opened. If Sazo and Rose rescued him . . .

He tried to set that aside, deal with what was happening to him right now.

“Captain Jallan.” Commander Gadamal stepped back and indicated he wanted Dav to come with him. “Admiral Krale requests your presence.”

“Requests?” Dav asked, stepping out into the cool darkness.

More time had passed than heʼd realized and it had started snowing while heʼd been inside. It fell like ash amongst them, silent and cold.

Gadamal looked up sharply at his tone, and Dav regretted it. Whatever was happening here, Gadamal was not responsible.

A movement caught his eye and he turned toward the trees, saw a figure walking toward them. Panic surged for a moment as he thought it might be Rose, about to do something theyʼd all regret——

“Captain Jallan.”

It was Hoke. He let out a breath he hadnʼt realized he was holding as she hailed him. She came toward them, snow in her hair and on her shoulders, dressed in full combat gear, with her helmet under her arm.

Gadamal hesitated, uncertain, but then stopped so the admiral could join them.

“Iʼll walk with you.” Hoke gave Gadamal a nod that was nothing short of a dismissal, and the commander turned and led the way.

“Admiral.” He kept his voice low. “I think Rose and Sazo are planning to rescue me. I donʼt know whatʼs going on but can you get a message to them? Tell them what a disaster that would be?”

“Iʼm one step ahead of you. Already intercepted her in the woods. Although sheʼd already worked out rescuing you would be counter-productive.” Hoke spoke quietly, too. “How do you know sheʼs up to something, though? Havenʼt you been stripped of all electronics and watched since you arrived.”

Dav shrugged. “Rose has her methods. But itʼs one way. I canʼt talk back.”

“Sheʼs not telepathic, is she?” Hoke stopped dead and looked at him with mouth open.

Dav shook his head. “The thought of that is truly terrifying. No. But she is extraordinarily inventive.”

Gadamal had turned, and stood watching them, stiff and suspicious.

Hoke started moving again and Dav fell into step.

“Whatʼs happening? Rose seems to think thereʼs a serious problem.”

“Rose is right. Youʼve been betrayed.” Hoke bit off the last word as Gadamal came to a stop outside a much larger temporary structure than the one heʼd been held in, and opened the door.

Dav hesitated, searching Hokeʼs face for any chance she was joking.

She grimaced. “Itʼs true.”

“Captain Jallan.” Gadamalʼs tone was impatient now, and Dav turned to look at the commander.

Gadamal tensed, his hand drifting down to his shockgun.

Slowly, Dav approached and stepped into the room, Hoke right behind him.

“Admiral Hoke. I was told you were out on maneuvers.” Another of Kraleʼs adjuncts, Baku Fivore, was waiting for them.

Dav saw they were in a command center, with screens and equipment along three walls. At the far end of the room, clustered around a refreshments table, stood Admiral Krale and the five leaders of the four planets.

“Now Iʼm back,” Hoke said, her voice cheerful.

Dav looked down at his sleeve again, flicked it.

Glad. You. Are. Fin. Ally. Chec. King. The. Time. Need. To. Know. If. You. Can. For. Give. Them.

“Captain Jallan. Is your time piece not working?” Fivore asked.

Dav raised his head, stared straight at him. “Admiral Krale wanted to see me?”

“Yes. This way.” Fivore jerked his gaze to the back of the room, and turned a little too quickly.

As Dav followed, he flicked his sleeve again.

Let. Us. Know. If. You. Want. To. Stay. We. Can. Do. That. If. You. Want. To. Leave. Then. We.

“Captain Jallan?” Krale sounded puzzled.

Dav stood to attention, and gave a formal bow. “Admiral Krale.”

Then they would what? Get him out? Go on the run?

They could do it. Rose and Sazo could probably do anything they set their minds to. But did he want to leave everything behind?

And how would he let them know?

“You seem distracted, Captain.” Sierra Gaumili, elected leader of the planet Grih, put down her cup of grinabo.

“Guilty.” Dav gave her a formal bow, and noticed how uncomfortable his response made everyone. “Admiral Krale, you wished to see me?” He couldnʼt help his clipped delivery, as if he were in a hurry.

Which he was.

“You have somewhere you need to be, Captain?” Krale asked softly, his tone almost predatory.

Dav pursed his lips. “No, sir. Iʼm at your disposal.” He stepped forward, and started making himself a cup of grinabo.

There was a startled silence around him.

“Forgive me, but I havenʼt had anything since breakfast. Do you mind?” He was pushing them, he knew it, but Hoke said heʼd been betrayed. What better way to force that into the open than stirring the pot.

“Not at all,” Gaumili stammered. “I would have thought someone would have brought you something. Youʼve been here for hours.”

Dav shrugged, and Krale flicked a look at Gadamal, who was leaning out of the door, speaking in hushed tones to someone outside. He gestured to Krale, and the head of Battle Center went to him, the two of them bending their heads together.

Krale seemed to stiffen at whatever news heʼd been given.

Dav watched him over the brim of his cup as he brought it to his lips, and then spilled a drop on his sleeve.

He reached for a napkin and rubbed at it.

Will. Get. You. Out.

His lover would come for him. He didnʼt doubt it for a moment. Now he just had to make sure she didnʼt have to.

“We have a problem, Captain Jallan.”

Dav choked a little on his grinabo. He didnʼt say anything, but his sarcastic amusement was not lost on anyone.

He needed to reel it in. Stop giving things away. He set his cup down, straightened.

“What problem is that, Admiral?”

Krale looked like he wanted to call him on his attitude, but didnʼt.

Interesting.

They must really need him.

“We made a strategic decision, for the good of all Grih, which seems to have back-fired on us.” Vulmark, Leader-Elect of the four planets, took up position next to Krale.

“What decision was that, sir?” Dav was starting to realize he had been sacrificed somehow.

“The decision itself doesnʼt matter anymore, what you need to know is that our negotiations with Rose McKenzie and the thinking system did not go well. She seems to have left the planet.”

“Seems to have left the planet?” That was something he didnʼt know. “Did the explorer craft come get her?”

“No.” Krale turned to the screens. “But itʼs possible she left on a small, cloaked drone. We were able to get intermittent feed of its location, and then, there was the singing.

“The singing?”

Krale nodded to a technician standing by, and she tapped the screen.

Roseʼs voice floated out, slow, rich and melodic.

He stood completely still, closed his eyes, and let it wash over him.

He would get her to sing that to him in person when they were together again. It was beautiful.

As the last note faded, there was a quiet in the room, a contented silence that seemed to cling, resistant to the urgency that had come before.

“I wish I knew what it meant.” Gaumili said. “Do you know, Captain Jallan?”

Dav shook his head. “Only Sazo knows her language. She taught it to him when they were both prisoners of the Tecran.”

Their conversation seemed to snap everything back in place.

“This singing was coming from the drone. I can only believe it was meant to be spotted, the song meant to be heard, to let us know Rose was no longer on Calianthra. Shortly after this, the Class 5 sent out an encrypted message to the Bukari. Again, I have to accept that given the capabilities of the thinking system, we were meant to see the transmission. We are trying to decrypt, but my comms specialist tells me it could take months.”

“So Rose is not on Calianthra, and sheʼs making contact with the Bukari.” He said it as a statement and waited.

“Yes.” Krale almost hissed the words. “How do we make contact with her again? All our comms are being ignored.”

“Well, Iʼd first need to know what you did to make her give up on the Grih. She was happy to stay with us, last time I spoke to her.”

“We offered her a place among us.” Vulmark said stiffly.

Hoke gave a low laugh. “With a condition.”

Krale turned on her, lips drawn back in a snarl. “You exceed your authority, Admiral Hoke.” He glared at her. “Youʼve been running around out in the woods, and Commander Gadamal reported that one of your men said you spoke to Rose McKenzie on her way to the drone, but let her go.”

There were sounds of shock from most of them.

“Of course I let her go.” Hokeʼs words were contemptuous. “Iʼm not going down in history as the idiot who started a new thinking system war.”

There was stunned silence at her words.

“If Rose had been taken against her will, Sazo would have razed Calianthra to the ground.” Dav agreed. He rubbed the side of his head. These people were too out of touch, they didnʼt understand what they were doing.

“You think weʼre fools.” His own planet leader, Cavile Lostra, spoke up for the first time.

Dav sighed. “Let me guess. You behaved like condescending bigots to her, and then tried to trick her somehow. And it involved me. Am I close?”

Hoke laughed. “Iʼd say spot on, Captain.”

Radie Silvan, another of the leaders of the four planets, cleared his throat. “The plan was to charge you, Captain Jallan, for leaving your post. We know you did it to save the fleet, but that would be evidence that Sazo was unstable. You were protecting your people from him. That would have made keeping public sentiment against the kill order hard. Then we were going to get on board the Class 5 and re-cage the thinking system.”

Dav gaped at them. “You obviously didnʼt tell Rose all of that?”

“She figured it out pretty quickly,” Hoke said, a sparkle in her eye, and Dav had a feeling that somehow Hoke had played a small part in that. “They donʼt seem to understand that sheʼs as advanced as we are.”

“We do now. We wish to apologize. To find a way forward.” Vulmark shifted uncomfortably.

“Even though Sazo can be unstable when Rose is in danger or threatened?” Dav was sure they would be prepared to accept a lot of risk to keep Sazo on their side, but he asked the question anyway. He was pretty sure Sazo would be listening in.

“Weʼd rather have him with us than against us,” Krale said.

“Why should either of them trust you?” Dav crossed his arms and looked Krale directly in the eye in challenge.

The admiral took a threatening step forward, and then dropped his gaze. “We are hoping they trust you, Captain Jallan. That you will vouch for us.”

“After you just admitted to betraying him?” Hoke asked.

Gaumili grimaced. “What was being proposed never sat well with me, and I would be angry if I were in your shoes, Captain, but this is the safety of the four planets weʼre discussing here.”

“Sazo.” Dav spoke up a little. “Can you forgive them?”

Again, they gaped at him, all except Hoke, who gave a small smile.

“Heʼs thinking about it.” Roseʼs voice, rich and smooth, came over the comms. “But if any Grih thinks theyʼll ever set foot on his Class 5 now, theyʼre living in la-la land.”

Dav nodded.

“And you, Captain Jallan?” She spoke formally, but he could hear the hint of amusement in her voice, a private joke between the two of them. “Can you forgive? Because it all hinges on you. Just say the word.”

Suddenly, he was the center of attention. He let the moment draw out.

“I will tender my resignation,” Kraleʼs voice was hoarse.

Rose suddenly appeared on screen, and the technician leaned back in her chair in surprise.

Dav looked at her. “Is that enough?”

She smiled at him. “Not to put you on the spot, but itʼs your call. Sazo and I can understand wanting to protect the Grih. What we donʼt like is they were greedy. They didnʼt want anyone else as Sazoʼs ally, but they didnʼt want him as he is. They were going to betray him and you.”

Dav glanced at Hoke. “Who would be promoted to head of Battle Center?”

Krale made a face. “Under the circumstances, Admiral Hoke seems the best candidate.”

“Then yes, thatʼs acceptable to me.”

“And Vulmark?” Hoke tipped her head and studied the leader-elect.

Vulmark took a step back. Drew himself up. “Iʼm as guilty as Krale, but my position is elected, not appointed. If you want stability through this transition, I need to stay where I am.”

“Dav?” Rose asked.

“Heʼs right.” Dav would like the leader-elect to fall on his sword just like Krale, but he made sense.

“Well then, he will never know privacy until he no longer has any power.” Sazo spoke up again. “He will not have the opportunity to try to enslave me again.”

Vulmarkʼs eyes snapped, but he kept quiet.

“Are we done here?” Dav suddenly wanted to be away from them all. To find Rose and actually have some uninterrupted time with her.

Hoke nodded. “Youʼre free to go, Captain Jallan. You have some leave coming to you, I believe.”

“Good.” Rose smiled from the screen. “Iʼll meet you back at your house.”

The screen winked off and Dav turned to go.

“Captain, a word.” Hoke walked to the door and they stepped out into the thickening snowfall together.