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“Yep,” Ramsay answered. “You both have collars and marks.”
Tom had all sorts of answers for that, including suggestions about where Ramsay
could shove a slave collar of his own, but Da’shay tugged on his leash and
caught his attention.

“New ant trails out of the dark?”

“Okay,” Tom answered. Da’shay had made that sound like a
question, but he certainly didn’t understand any of this well enough to have an
opinion. However, she liked his answer. Smiling, she used his leash to pull him
close and give him a kiss before she took off for the ladder that led down into
the maze of hallways below them. “Keep captain here!” she called before
dropping out of sight.

Ramsay put his hands on his hips and was clearly trying not
to scowl. He was only half successful. “Okay?” he demanded. “You’re just going
to say ‘okay’ to whatever crazy she has going?”

Tom shrugged. “Her op. If she says we put new ant trails in
the dark, I’m herding ants. I don’t suppose you’ve figured out her meaning for
‘ants’ yet, have you?”

Without a word, Ramsay started toward the ladder up to the
next level. Moving quick, Tom stepped into his path. “Da’shay said we should
wait here.”

“Da’shay isn’t my boss.”

“She’s mine,” Tom countered and he hoped that the captain
understood what he was saying. He didn’t want to punch Ramsay, but he would.

Ramsay backed off a step. “Tom, I’m grateful to Da’shay for
helping us take the ship. If there’s going to be war, then Command needs to see
the tech they’re up against. That said, there’s no way in hell I’m taking
cati
with us. I’m not going to be the one to hand over prisoners for the Information
Corps to dissect.” Ramsay’s face was set into hard lines and Tom could
understand the captain’s feelings. The man had spent years strapped down and
getting poked by
casslit
, so he had reason to be a little touchy, but
Tom could only put his full faith behind one person at a time.

“I know how you’re feeling, but Da’shay said to keep you
here and I will.”

Ramsay took a step back. “Tom Frieden, I never thought you’d
turn mean to prisoners you’d captured. Turn ‘em loose. Otherwise, I’m not even
sure Da’shay understands what Command will do.”

Tom thought on that. “I’ve followed your orders long enough
for you to know that I tend to take them literally. Da’shay said we stay here,
so I may not understand the first thing about what she’s thinking, but I’ll
make sure we stay here. If I’ve got to fight or shoot you to make that happen,
well, I’ll feel bad about that after you’re on the ground.” Tom watched
Ramsay’s body language. The man was considering fighting over this, but Tom
figured he’d win. Not only was he thirty years younger than the captain, but
Ramsay just wasn’t sure of himself. He was shifting around like a man who
couldn’t figure out how to attack or whether to retreat. It was an
uncomfortable silence that reigned until Da’shay came back up through the hole,
this time followed by Becca and Eli.

“Da’shay got the hatch to close, so I think we’re secure for
take-off,” Eli said. Before he could say anything else, Becca pushed forward.

“Are you two settled now?” Tom figured she’d either seen or
heard some part of their fight. Ramsay glared at Tom, but neither of them
answered.

“Boys having human thoughts,” Da’shay answered for them.

“Kinda hard for us to have any other kind,” Ramsay pointed
out. Tom moved to Da’shay’s side, watching her for some sign of what she
wanted.

“Only ants make ant trails,” she said solemnly. When she
turned toward the ladder going up into a higher level, presumable where she had
cati
trapped, Tom moved with her. She wasn’t going in without backup and
he didn’t care if he had to fucking chain himself to her to make that point.
She smiled and caught his leash.

“What are you doing?” Ramsay asked, he stepped forward to
catch Tom’s arm, and Tom shrugged him off.

“Following her.” Da’shay got up onto the third step of the
ladder and pressed her hand to the covering. Tom’s guts twisted because he
wanted to go up first, and failing that, he wanted Da’shay to go in gun first,
but she looked calm and he told himself to trust her judgment. She’d kept
herself alive this far, so she wasn’t the sort to rush in foolishly. Usually.

After a second, the cover retracted like the membrane of
some empty eye socket.

“Da’shay,” Eli called. “May I follow if I stay behind you?”

“Sergeant!” Ramsay barked.

“Sir, this is a chance to observe alien behaviors. No
offense to Tom, but I don’t think he’s the best choice for recognizing
xenopsychologically significant details.”

“He’s right. I ain’t even understanding the words in that
sentence,” Tom agreed.

Da’shay paused on the ladder and watched them. Becca inched
closer to the captain and Eli stood looking at Ramsay, clearly waiting on
permission.

“I would only observe, Captain. Two classes in xenoculture
does not make me an expert and I know that. I don’t want my name going down in
history as someone who triggered the
cati
war by insulting some diplomat
with my stupidity.” Eli’s gaze darted up toward Tom and then Da’shay.

“As opposed to triggering it by attacking their ship and
killing crew?” Ramsay sounded a little bitter and sarcastic on that front.

Eli blushed. “Assuming that. I think it’s a little late to
worry about the dead crew, but accidentally killing the first two crew of
meaiai
didn’t cause a war, so we can’t be sure that this can’t be smoothed over.”

“These aliens know how to attack humans,” Ramsay pointed
out. “I’m going up there with you.” Ramsay started walking toward the ladder
and Becca’s eyes went so big that Tom thought they might just drop out.

“No!” Da’shay’s finger pointed at Ramsay. “Memories red,
stained with purple.” She pointed at Eli. “Yes. Stay quiet.” Ramsay opened his
mouth as if he was going to argue, but then he snapped it closed again with a
real unhappy look on his face.

“You don’t need to tell me that twice,” Eli muttered as he
hurried to the bottom of the ladder. Having Eli at his back made Tom itch a
bit, but he followed Da’shay up into a larger room with piles of padding and
covers around. Funny enough, a dorm looked like a dorm no matter what species
it was. However, there weren’t any soldiers and the blankets were in vivid
colors that would have offended any training sergeant. Da’shay went to the next
ladder and climbed up into the next room. It was larger yet, but pedestals rose
from the floor, each equipped with alien tech in that same two-toned metal Tom
recognized from the hologram egg they’d found.

“Fascinating. No private spaces,” Eli whispered behind him,
but Da’shay had Tom’s leash pulled tight enough that Tom couldn’t turn around
and point out that he’d promised to stay quiet. The next ladder led up into the
largest room yet and Tom’s guts twisted at the sight of a whole room full of
cati
.
This looked like some sort of VIP room with a large viewport out to the dock
and wide open spaces full of nothing much.

Da’shay pulled herself up into the room and walked right
toward the one standing in the middle of the room. He or she…it was hard to
tell…was larger than the others and a lot heavier. He almost had enough flesh
on him to look like a human from a distance. Close up, the long face, huge
black eyes and long arms were actually more disturbing than
meaiai
. There
was something even disturbing about a creature that came so close to looking
human without being human at all.

The
cati
stepped forward and starting a hum-clicking
sound.

“
Cati
ripped out
cati
words,” Da’shay
interrupted in the middle of a hum. Behind the leader, forty or fifty
cati
shifted, their voices joining in one hummed tone. Da’shay twitched the leash,
pulling down on Tom, and he frowned at her, not sure if that had been an
accident. She did it again and Tom sank to his knees, still not certain he was
doing the right thing, but he could still launch himself into any fight.
Da’shay rested her hand on his shoulder and Tom settled in, his hand on his gun
and his eyes scanning the crowd behind the
cati
leader.

Two of the crowd separated and came forward to stand just
behind their leader. “My ship,” Da’shay said. That caused a higher note in the
hum from the crowd, but the leader simply stared at her. Eli moved closer,
standing behind her on the other side from Tom.

“Da’shenya,” the leader finally rumbled.

Da’shay kept staring at him. “Full rivers turned by three
single points, prisms of light incomprehensible scattering the flow. You are
Proyat. Whispers in the dark.”

Proyat stood up straighter and Tom closed his hand around
his gun and watched as the
cati
shifted position behind him. “Rivers
overflow barriers set by…” He raised his chin. He seemed to struggle to find
each word.

Da’shay raised her arms and held them out as if someone were
about to hand her a baby. It wasn’t a gesture Tom had ever seen someone use,
not unless they planned to catch something falling down at them.

“Broken girl,” Proyat snapped. His gaze went from Da’shay to
Eli and then back to Da’shay. “Da’shenya. River with no banks.” He inched
forward and Da’shay kept her hands palm up.

“My ship,” she said firmly. Tom kept an eye on the growing
distress in the crowd, but oddly only the two
cati
who had stepped
forward to stand with Proyat seemed to have much personality—the rest just
reflected the exact same emotion in the exact same degree. “Rivers moved. Find
new trails through the sand or die.”

Proyat made a shrill sound and then his fingers touched
Da’shay’s palms. “Old rivers, long dried,” he said, his voice louder than
before.

Da’shay hummed for a minute and Proyat’s color—a sort of ashen
shade of human flesh—slowly lost more and more color. It was pretty clear she
was saying something to him through that hum of hers. Tom frowned as he
remembered all the times she had trailed fingers over him and hummed a wordless
tune. Had she been talking to him, whispering things that he was just too
stupid to understand?

“Little streams feed dry river banks, winter snows flooding
down,” Da’shay said after Proyat had lost most of the color from his skin.
“Da’shay river flows through, washing away Proyat or giving Proyat new banks to
flow to new lands.” Despite the fact that Proyat looked mighty disturbed, he
kept his fingers pressed to Da’shay’s palms.
Casslit
talked like that,
by touching, but
casslit
didn’t make any noise at all.

“Rivers flow. Da’shenya rains pass,” Proyat disagreed.

“Rivers move, Da’shay rips out banks,” Da’shay quickly
countered him. Tom shifted, ready for the fight to start. If all the
cati
in this room decided to rush them, they weren’t going to have spit’s chance in
hell.

“Rivers flow. Da’shenya dries out and vanishes.” He reached
out and grabbed Da’shay’s wrists.

“Kill!” Da’shay cried out and Tom had his weapon out before
she’d finished the sound. His bullet went in under Proyat’s ear and exploded
out the top of his head. Brain and blood splattered over the humming audience
and Tom swung his gun around to one of the remaining
cati
who seemed
intent on shooting Eli with some sort of fancy gun. Eli was falling back, his
gun just coming up as Tom fired his second shot. He hadn’t had time to think
about where to place his bullet, so it caught the
cati
low in the ribs
and the creature fell with a spine-shivering cry that sounded like rough stones
scraping against each other. That left them with a whole lot of humming
cati
who didn’t seem too much of a threat and one last officer-type. He was standing
with his hand on his weapon, but his body was motionless.

Eli softly cursed off to the side and Tom ignored him.

Da’shay’s fingers found Tom’s neck and she stroked the skin,
humming softly as she looked around the room. Out of the side of his eye, Tom
could see a pale Eli step up to stand next to her again.

“Rivers move. New directions. Bring life and beauty to new
deserts,” she said. She moved in front of Tom, blocking his shot. Getting to
his feet, Tom shifted to the side to keep an eye on the fallen
cati
and
the one who was now quickly losing his color as Da’shay moved closer to him,
her hands up in that gesture that made Tom think she was about to catch a
falling baby. “Life and life, water flowing over new sands.” The
cati
looked at her, his eyes darting over toward Tom several times.

Slowly the new alien took his hand off his gun and brought
it up to rest his fingertips against Da’shay’s palms.

“Old rivers, known banks,” he said, his voice much softer
than Proyat’s had been.

“Adjust to new banks. The river is most important.”
Da’shay’s voice had a cajoling tone now and Tom wondered if she was going to
have him shoot all the
cati
one at a time or if this one was going to
agree with her. He didn’t mind killing Proyat, seeing as how he wanted Da’shay
to dry out, but the one she was talking to now seemed like less of a threat.
Tom would rather not shoot him. None of the other
cati
were reacting to
the death with anything that looked like grief. This one who was talking to
Da’shay kept glancing over, but not the others.

“Waters lost in new banks.” Yep, he was a lot more timid
than Proyat had been. Da’shay moved slowly, inching forward and moving her
hands to catch him by the wrists. The
cati
shivered and the audience’s
hum changed tone again, but so far it wasn’t looking like anyone wanted to do
any more killing. Tom was starting to wonder if they could kill. Maybe some
cati
weren’t built for killing and others were.

“New trails. New rivers. Follow and follow and then lead and
lead. You are Gashta.”