Dark Minds (Class 5 Series Book 3) (31 page)

T
he air
of Larga Ways was as perfect as a managed environment could be. Warm, just the slightest hint of a breeze.

The air was perfumed with flowers and as night slowly faded the spectacular sunset, the city was lit with intricate lights on buildings, strung across streets and embedded in the pavings on the square itself.

“It looks as if Inita and his cousin gauged the level of interest correctly,” Dav murmured to Cam as they stood on Inita's private balcony above the entrance to Gurtain's Song, looking down at the growing crowd. “The square was the only possible choice for a venue.”

“They certainly spared no expense on the stage.” Cam had come by earlier and seen the construction team putting the elevated circular stage together, with its filigree dome of light.

“I think Inita persuaded Eazi to pay for it, actually.” Hal came up behind them, and they made room for him beside them. “I overheard some of the negotiations, and Inita can be persuasive.”

Cam grinned at the thought of the Grihan trader getting around Eazi.

“The meetings are over for today?” Dav asked Hal, and the captain of the
Illium
gave a weary nod.

“I was able to use the excuse of this performance to close things down. It's being broadcast to all four planets, so most of the team wanted to leave to watch it, anyway.”

“Don't tell Imogen that.” Cam knew it would throw her off her stride. As far as she was concerned, this was a thank you to Inita and Takari. That it had grown into something more, the celebration of Larga Ways being saved not once, but twice, by the strange Earth music-makers, had been bad enough. She was already wary that most of Larga Ways was coming to watch. If she knew the population of four planets were going to see it, too, that might be a deal-breaker.

“I won't.” Hal's lips twisted into a wry grin. “Eazi and I are keeping it from Fiona, too.”

Dav shook his head. “Rose has no illusions. She's assuming it'll be beamed everywhere. Let's hope she doesn't tell the other two.”

“And how far along are the negotiations?” Cam asked, as the last of the sunset disappeared, and they were surrounded by twinkling lights.

He'd been involved in the United Council talks, Hal had been pulled in to a discussion the Tecran had called, and Dav had the Fitalian camp to sort out.

“The Tecran government is claiming they had no idea what High Command was up to, and they shouldn't be punished for a high-level conspiracy.” Hal leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest.

“They could be telling the truth,” Dav said.

Cam shrugged. “They could. My guess is the only way the UC will accept that argument is if they agree to massive changes in oversight and transparency. They won't be able to say they didn't know a second time.”

“And the Fitali?” Hal asked, turning to Dav.

“We're letting them save face, so they won't be sanctioned by the UC, and they're very aware of the favor we've done them.” Dav shrugged. “We have Imogen's guess that Paxe hid that evidence, and it was destroyed along with him, and that's going to have to be enough for them.”

“That works for me.” Hal's smile was coldly satisfied. “It's the perfect ending. Because Vice-Admiral Ipsos will always wonder, at the back of his mind, if it isn't still out there, waiting to bury him.”

While they'd been speaking, the square had filled to capacity with a mix of Balcoans, Grih and the myriad other races who came to trade on Larga Ways.

Inita and Takari were standing on the stairs leading up to the stage, and suddenly the center of it was illuminated, and Imogen, Rose and Fiona stood shoulder to shoulder.

“Do you know what they're going to sing?” Dav asked softly, and Cam recognized the look on his face. He was sure it was the same as the one on his own.

He shook his head. “Imogen said it might as well be a surprise for me, too, knowing how much I love hearing her sing. She said if she practiced it for me, I'd get bored of it.” He knew he sounded incredulous.

“They think like that,” Hal agreed. “They actually think like that.”

“They do.” Dav smiled. “I think Rose understands how we are a little more. She's been with the Grih the longest, but still, she never sings the same song too often. They seem to have hundreds to choose from.”

They went quiet as Inita stepped forward to address the crowd. More than one person on the way station had their suspicions about the Fitalian battleships that had loomed over them the day before, but most were content with the story that Imogen had helped Paxe sacrifice himself bravely for the good of the Grih, bringing down the Tecran incursion and stripping them of their last Class 5.

Paxe's actions had settled the Grih when it came to the other Class 5s, as well. Cam had noted a change in tone when people spoke about them, now.

They were no longer quite so scary.

Inita finished up the formalities, and then bowed deeply to the women on the stage.

There was a moment of silence, then they all started to click their fingers in time. The crowd stirred, and then Imogen started to sing on her own, the sound smooth and controlled, in time with the beat they were creating. The cadence went up and down, and then suddenly Fiona and Rose joined in, the harmony so sublime, Cam gripped the edge of the balcony rail.

They didn't chase each other with their voices, like they'd done before, but they each took different parts, then came together, creating something so complex, he was astonished.

As Imogen sang the last verse on her own, it was as if everyone had been taken on an exciting journey, and were being dropped back at home again, having seen new and wonderful sights.

“Was this like what they sang before?” Dav's voice was low.

“Better,” Cam said. “Even better.”

There was quiet over the square for a long moment, and then the Grih ululated their approval.

The three bowed, and then were whisked from the stage, something Inita had clearly set up earlier.

He still stood on the stairs, so Cam guessed he'd gotten his Balcoan staff to do it, the Grih were still too enraptured to do more than voice their appreciation.

He stepped in from the balcony as soon as the women were escorted into the building, and made his way down the stairs to the back entrance of the bar.

Dav was right behind him, Hal moved a little slower. Cam looked back at him, and saw he was as taken away as Cam had been when he'd heard the three women sing in Gurtain's Song.

Imogen was waiting for him with Rose and Fiona in the private office at the back.

She grinned at him. “That was an experience. I think they really liked it.”

Behind him, Dav choked back a laugh, and Cam pulled her in close and kissed her. “I think they really did,” he said.

She relaxed against him. “Good.”

“What was it about?” Hal slid an arm around Fiona. He still looked as if he had taken a shockgun hit.

“Just something fun,” Imogen said, with one of those infuriatingly humble shrugs.

Rose rested her head on Dav's shoulder and smiled at her. “They can't accept that answer. Believe me.” She snuggled in closer. “We sang a song called Royals, and in it, we asked to be your rulers.”

Fiona was looking at Hal with concern, but relaxed when he started stroking back her hair, his arm clamped tightly around her.

“I think if you'd asked us that in Grihan,” he said, “we would have answered yes.”

O
ther books
in the Class 5 series are:

Some secrets carry the weight of the world.

Rose McKenzie may be far from Earth with no way back, but she's made a powerful ally--a fellow prisoner with whom she's formed a strong bond. Sazo's an artificial intelligence. He's saved her from captivity and torture, but he's also put her in the middle of a conflict, leaving Rose with her loyalties divided.

Captain Dav Jallan doesn't know why he and his crew have stumbled across an almost legendary Class 5 battleship, but he's not going to complain. The only problem is, all its crew are dead, all except for one strange, new alien being.

She calls herself Rose. She seems small and harmless, but less and less about her story is adding up, and Dav has a bad feeling his crew, and maybe even the four planets, are in jeopardy. The Class 5's owners, the Tecran, look set to start a war to get it back and Dav suspects Rose isn't the only alien being who survived what happened on the Class 5. And whatever else is out there is playing its own games.

In this race for the truth, he's going to have to go against his leaders and trust the dark horse.

Dark Horse is the winner of a Galaxy Award and the Prism Award for Best Futuristic 2016.

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Dark Horse

Rescue might just be the death of her.

Far from home . . .

Fiona Russell has been snatched from Earth, imprisoned and used as slave labor, but nothing about her abduction makes sense. When she's rescued by the Grih, she realizes there's a much bigger game in play than she could ever have imagined, and she's right in the middle of it.

Far from safe . . .

Battleship captain Hal Vakeri is chasing down pirates when he stumbles across a woman abducted from Earth. She's the second one the Grih have found in two months, and her presence is potentially explosive in the Grih's ongoing negotiations with their enemies, the Tecran. The Tecran and the Grih are on the cusp of war, and Fiona might just tip the balance.

Far from done . . .

Fiona has had to bide her time while she's been a prisoner, pretending to be less than she is, but when the chance comes for her to forge her own destiny in the new world she's found herself in, she grabs it with both hands. After all, actions speak louder than words.

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Dark Deeds

R
ose slipped
her ticket out of hell over her head and tucked it beneath her shirt, where it lay against her skin, throbbing like a heartbeat.

The sensation was so unnerving, she curled her fingers around it and lifted it back out, eyeing the clear crystal oblong uncertainly.

“Iʼll try to keep all the passageways clear for you and Iʼve disabled the lenses, but just in case someone disobeys orders, it would be better if they didnʼt see me.” Sazo spoke too loudly through the tiny earpiece she wore, and she winced.

She reluctantly tucked the crystal, that was somehow also Sazo, back under her shirt, tugging the cord it hung from so it was below her neckline. After three months of being the only thing sheʼd had to wear, washed over and over again, the shirt was threadbare, and barely concealed Sazo anyway, but it was better than nothing.

She took the two steps to the door of the tiny control room tucked away to one side on the Tecran ship and it slid silently open. Sheʼd only been inside for ten minutes at most to steal Sazo, or break him out, depending on your view of things, and the corridor was as empty now as it had been when Sazo led her here.

She looked back, but the door had closed, completely concealing the control room, so it looked like an uninterrupted passageway again.

“Youʼre still in control, even though Iʼve unplugged you?” She spoke very quietly, because even though Sazo had opened doors, and diverted traffic all the way from her prison cell to this room earlier, there was no point taking foolish chances like talking too loudly when it was unnecessary.

“I would not have initiated this plan if I wasnʼt absolutely certain that it would work.” Sazo sounded a little . . . stressed.

“You okay?”

“There has been a delay loading the animals at the launch bay and the Grih have come through their light jump three minutes sooner than I calculated.” He went quiet for a moment. “Iʼm sorry, Rose.”

“What? What is it?” Freezing hands of panic gripped her heart and she stumbled to a halt. If he was going to tell her they had to abort, that she had to go back to the cell . . .

“The lion has been killed.”

She leant against the wall, her legs weak. “That is not good.” She rubbed her face. “Why?”

“Iʼll tell you as you walk. We canʼt delay, with the Grih already here. They might fire on this ship at any time when they realize itʼs disabled.”

She started walking again, and just like earlier, the passages Sazo sent her down were eerily empty. “I thought the Grih were peaceful.”

“They donʼt take force as a first option, but my changing this shipʼs trajectory in the last light jump and setting us in the middle of Grih territory was effectively a declaration of war. They might initially hesitate to fire, given the power of this ship compared to theirs, but when they realize every single system except for lights, air, and the launch bay mechanisms have been disabled, they may strike.”

“And the lion?” There was something bothering her about the way heʼd apologized.

“It was delaying the loading——frightening the loading crew. Theyʼre already frightened because I diverted the ship to this location and they donʼt know whatʼs going on. I only agreed to let the animals come with us because you insisted. Animals are unpredictable. Itʼs hard to get the timing precise.”

“You instructed one of the loaders to kill the lion.” She didnʼt ask, it was a statement of fact. She knew there had been something way off with that apology. She knew, deep down, there was something way off about Sazo, but he was literally her only escape route, and of all the beings she had encountered since her abduction, the only one who had worked to free her.

“There is a chance the wildlife on the moon weʼre going to, Harmon, would not have been suitable to sustain him. He would eventually have died of starvation.”

She didnʼt respond. She was too angry.

What he said may be true, and if so, he could have told her that sooner, but it wouldnʼt have stopped her asking for all the animals to go with them on a second shuttle. They had had as miserable a time as she in this hellhole.

And Sazo thought the Grih would come to pick her up on the moon they were escaping to. They would see the shuttles Sazo had arranged for them leaving the launch bay for Harmon, and after they had dealt with the crippled Tecran ship, they would surely be interested in who had escaped. And, she was sure, be interested in a lion.

They could have made a plan for him.

A door slid open and she walked into the launch bay. Ahead of her, two of the loading staff walked out the far door without turning around, one nursing a jagged wound on his arm.

She pressed against the wall and made no move until the doors closed behind them and she was alone in the massive hangar. Beside her, she heard the hum and double beep of the locks engaging. Sazo had sealed the doors. No one on the ship could stop her getting on the shuttle now.

The lion lay, dead and crumpled, in the massive cage that had housed him since he was taken. It stood next to one of the two explorer shuttles she and Sazo were stealing and she walked up to it and grasped hold of the bars. Hot tears welled in her eyes as she looked down on him. He was a golden, vibrant anachronism in this cold, metallic place.

A wild thing, broken.

That could have been her. Nearly had been, more than once.

The lion had been one of the things that had kept her going, kept her sane.

“I am sorry, Rose. I really am. But the Grih have gone to full alert, shields and guns. Please get in the shuttle, or this could be for nothing.”

The shuttle that had been loaded with all the animals was closed and ready. Rose paused for a moment, looking at the massive gel wall that enclosed the launch bay but which allowed ships in and out. It was a pale blue, and seemed to shimmer.

“Rose!”

She shook herself, and walked up the ramp into the much smaller craft Sazo had arranged for her, and before she had even reached the cabin, he started closing the door and revving the engines.

She lurched into one of only two chairs in the small cockpit and struggled with the safety harness. She should have been excited, or at least relieved to finally have escaped the Tecran, but as the engines began their muffled scream and the ship lifted into hover mode, she could only think of tawny fur and golden eyes.

Closed forever.

* * *

T
he Tecran Class
5 battleship hung sullenly between the
Barrist
and one of the fertile moons of the gas giant Virmana. It hulked like a prickly black ball, and Dav Jallan shifted uncomfortably in the
Barristʼs
captainʼs chair.

He could feel the tension humming off his ten-strong command staff, although they were trying to hang on to calm. Their emergence from a light jump deep inside their own territory to find themselves within sight of a Tecran ship was not unlike opening the door expecting to see a friend, and tripping over a weapon-wielding thug instead.

Dav decided theyʼd been frozen in shock long enough, himself included.

“Is there anyone on board?” That was almost the only logical reason why the Tecran hadnʼt fired on them yet. Their ship was three times the size of the
Barrist
, and Dav knew from the information he received from Battle Center that a rare Class 5 like the one in front of him had even more than that in terms of fire power.

“There are at least five hundred heartbeats, sir.” Kila said. She tapped a screen and immediately the view of the battleship on the main screen in front of them lit up with hundreds of lights on clearly defined levels.

Most of them were blue but . . .

“Are those orange lights?” Dav leant forward to get a better look. They were all concentrated in the same area, set apart from the blue, which was the only reason they were noticeable at all.

“Those are bio-signatures our system canʼt identify.” Kila said, and frowned. “This is the first time Iʼve ever come across a genuine orange before.”

“Should I initiate evacuation?” Davʼs aide, Farso Lothric, hovered at his shoulder, his hands clenching and unclenching.

“Where would we go?” Dav didnʼt need to look at his systems screen to know they couldnʼt possibly have recovered enough from the light jump theyʼd just made to go anywhere. Let alone evade a Tecran Class 5 battleship.

And while the moon behind the Tecran ship shone like a blue and green jewel against the red and cream of Virmanaʼs patterned atmosphere, and was assuredly habitable, the problem still remained that they would have to go around the Tecran ship to get to it.

“We have to do something,” Lothric said.

Dav didnʼt disagree. However, heʼd known the moment theyʼd come out of the jump and straight on course toward the Tecran ship that there was only one course of action. They had sent out a comm the moment theyʼd made visual contact, and at least two battle class ships would be light jumping to the
Barrist
ʼ
s
aid, but right now, all they could do was defend. “Shields are at full. Guns are all primed. If they attack——”

At that moment, all the lights on the Tecran ship went out.

The blue and orange heartbeats remained, but it was clear the power was down.

“The oranges, sir.” Kila stood up in her excitement, and forgot to use the pointer, using her finger instead.

The orange heartbeats detached from the ship, and Dav zoomed in with the lens, saw two explorer-class craft flying away from their mother ship.

“Is one empty?” Borji, his systems engineer, asked, peering forward.

“No. Thereʼs one orange heartbeat on that one. Six on the other.”

Dav watched their trajectory for a minute longer, but there was nowhere else to go but Virmanaʼs moon——not in those craft——and he turned his attention back to the real threat.

“Could they be on backup power and we canʼt see it?” He waited for Kila to fiddle with her instrumentation.

She shook her head. “I canʼt see any power at all.”

“Which means . . .” Lothric gripped the back of Davʼs chair.

“Which means we have a ship full of dying Tecran in front of us.” Dav stood. Walked toward the screen. He would give a lot to know what was going on in that Tecran ship right now.

It was like someone had just handed them a Class 5 warship on a plate, with no effort on their part to claim it besides a bit of messy clean-up.

He didnʼt trust that at all.

No one in the universe was that kind.

He tapped his communicator. “Commander Appal, ready Squads A to F, and prepare to board the Tecran vessel immediately. Full biohazard kit.”

He paused.

“Iʼm coming with you.”

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