B00CH3ARG0 EBOK (14 page)

A gentle smile flickered across his lips, as she sensed wonder
blossom in him.

“Haven’t you ever felt a baby kick before?” she asked.

“No.” He tightened his hold.

She turned in his arms to face him, nonplussed. “How can you
be one hundred forty-two years old, have thirty-seven—” she corrected herself
to include her baby “—no, thirty-eight children, and never feel one kick inside
the womb?”

He smiled down at her. “I suspect that my life is very
different from that of a human,” he said. He laid a hand along one of her
cheeks and brushed her lips with his.

“Well,” she said, at a loss for words. “Well.”

He gave her another brief kiss and said, “I must return to the
meetings.”

She nodded, deflating a little, but grateful he’d found some
time for her, however brief, in his busy day. He disappeared and was gone. She
sighed, picking up her tablet to resume her search.

She still hadn’t found the poem she was looking for when a
guard flickered to remind her it was time for the midday meal. She pocketed the
tablet and went to Laura’s quarters. The woman needed to come out of there
sooner or later.

Laura was on her veranda, leaning on the railing. She turned
at the sound of Marianne’s voice in the doorway.

“Do you feel up to braving the refectory?” Marianne asked.

“I suppose so,” she replied.

Marianne twitched her mouth to one side. “Your enthusiasm is
underwhelming.”

Laura smiled, seemingly in spite of herself. Then she
sobered and shrugged. “I’m not usually so much of a recluse.”

“I understand, really I do. Come on, let’s get you something
to eat.”

The refectory was crowded with scientists and still subdued
from the tragedy. Laura didn’t look at the Sural as Marianne pulled out a chair
for her at the high table, next to her own and across from Thela and Kyza.
Thela, Marianne was glad to see, picked at her food and occasionally took a
bite, while quietly talking to Kyza. Laura gave the girls a warm smile.

“That’s Thela beside Kyza,” Marianne said. “She doesn’t
speak any English, though.”

Laura looked around. “Is it always like this? So crowded?”
she asked. “It wasn’t like this at breakfast yesterday.”

Marianne shook her head. “There’s a conference going on
right now. Those are scientists and engineers in the brown robes.”

“Scientists and engineers? I thought Tolari only studied
music, art, and literature.”

“No culture can exist without some kind of science and
engineering,” Marianne replied in a bland tone. “How do you suppose they manage
to construct such massive stone buildings?”

Laura nodded, her eyes drifting back to the girls across the
table. Done with their meals, they got up from their chairs. Kyza trotted off
without looking back. Thela sought a hug from the Sural. Laura watched as Thela
exchanged a few quiet words with him before following Kyza out.

“What happened to her?” Laura asked.

“Her father died suddenly,” the Sural answered from his
place at the end of the table. “I allowed her to bond to me in his place. She
is a musical prodigy.”

Laura bit her lower lip. “I see,” she said, her voice tight.

“It was a freak accident,” Marianne added with a shudder. “She
was there when her father died.”

“So were you,” Laura commented in a sympathetic tone. The
Sural raised an eyebrow. Marianne just nodded.

“Remarkable,” he said. “Tell me, Mrs. Howard, can you find
the nearest guard?”

Laura stiffened and stared down at her food. “I don’t know,”
she answered.

“Do try.”

Marianne glanced at the Sural, wondering what he was trying
to do. He had to know Laura didn’t want to talk to him.

Laura bit her lip again.

Marianne put a hand on Laura’s forearm. “You don’t have to,
Laura,” she said.

“It’s all right. I’ll try.” She rose from her chair and
stood for a moment with her eyes closed. Then she turned slightly to the right.

“Remarkable,” the Sural murmured.

Marianne gave him a look. He raised his hand slightly, urging
patience.

After a moment, Laura opened her eyes and took a few
hesitant steps toward the wall, hand reaching out in front of her. Just before
she could touch the guard, he dropped his camouflage. She started backward with
a sharp breath. The guard spread his hands in apology and winked back out of
sight. Laura returned to her place at the table, looking a little shaken.

The Sural studied her without speaking.

“Are you quite sure you’re human?” Marianne asked, half
joking.

“The last time I checked,” Laura replied, her brows knitting
together with confusion. “I don’t know how I did that, but when I close my
eyes, it feels like there are more people in the room than I can see with my
eyes open.”

“It would seem our empathic abilities could have some roots
in our human origins after all,” the Sural said. “We have always believed it a
side-effect of our adaptation to this world. You have a remarkably
well-developed empathy for a human.”

“What would the Jorann’s blessing do to it?” Marianne muttered
softly in Suralian.

“I cannot say,” he answered, his eyes still on Laura.

She turned back to her friend. “Laura – come with me when I
go to the apothecary tomorrow morning. I’d like you to let her examine you.”

“Huh? Why?” Laura asked. “I’m fine. Central Command didn’t
hurt me at all when they kidnapped me. Well, except for a few bruises, but
they’re not deep.”

“Just humor me, please.”

Laura peered at Marianne with a doubtful expression. “As
long as they don’t stick the Tolari equivalent of leeches on me, I suppose it
can’t do any harm.”

* * *

“Explain this to me, Major Russell,” demanded the voice.
Angry.

Adeline stared at the blank monitor and swallowed, reminding
herself that
he
could see
her
.
He does this to be intimidating
,
she thought.
Be calm.
“We sent two long-range scouts to Beta Hydri,” she
said aloud, keeping her voice business-like and even. “One carried Laura
Howard—”

“The widow of the admiral who got us kicked out of Tolari
space?”

“Yes, sir.”

There was a mollified grunt. “Good choice. Go on.”

“As I was saying, sir, we had Citizen Howard and one of our
pilots on one ship, and Michael Gould and his crew on the other. It looked like
all was going according to plan, until Gould’s ship lost power to the engines
as well as to its phase platform. At the same time, they lost contact with
Howard’s ship.” She paused, letting that sink in, before continuing.

“Gould had to accept a tow from the Kekrax – they’re the
only race the Sural will allow to operate in his system, and they’ve got a
station just a few light years away. We picked up Gould, his crew, and his ship
there.

“Before the Kekrax towed them out, they had a chance to scan
the planet. There was no sign of Howard’s ship. There should have been
traceable debris, but there was nothing. Literally
nothing
. There’s not
a single piece of high-tech material on the planet.” She stopped and took a
breath, pushing down a sudden upwelling of apprehension. “Laura Howard and the
pilot are missing and presumed dead.”

“This has turned into an expensive bungle, Russell. You
agreed to recover Marianne Woolsey without attracting the attention of the
Trade Alliance, and now you’ve done just that.”

“Sir, the Tolari are primitive – and I’ve seen for myself
just how primitive they are. They still use chamber pots, for God’s sake! But
whoever is protecting them can disable a Kline-Thompson-Nishida engine from a
distance.”

A fist hit a desk.

“With respect, sir, I think we need to wait out the
interdict and then see what information we can coax out of her. If she doesn’t have
the information we need, she’ll still be in a position to find out. If we pull
her out, she’s out, and it will be the devil’s own job trying to get a
replacement in there.”

Cena held her scanner over Laura, lingering at her head. Marianne,
still half-naked from her morning exam, lay on a nearby bed with Cena’s tablet,
absorbed in watching the display of her baby.

“Well, Doctor, do I pass?” Laura asked as Cena studied the
readouts from a console.

“You are in excellent health,” she answered in a preoccupied
tone of voice.

“What’s wrong, then?”

Cena looked up, flashing a reassuring smile. “Nothing is
wrong,” she said. “I am seeking a physical reason for your empathy. For us, it
is the nerve bundles in our foreheads. I wondered if you had vestigial traces
of them.”

“Do I?”

“No, none.”

Marianne propped herself up on her elbows. “We need to talk
about your locater chip.”

“Everyone in Earth Fleet gets one,” Laura said. “I’ve had
one since they started using phase tech to implant them. But they’re harmless
unless someone tries to tamper with them.”

“We have to get it out of your head.”

Laura made an unhappy noise and leaned back on the
examination bed.

“Laura, if a Central Command ship picks up your signal,
they’ll know you’re still alive, and they won’t stop trying to get to you, just
like they haven’t stopped trying to kidnap me. You’ll be safer if they think
you’re dead.”

“Can’t the Sural just keep them from getting close enough?”

“We don’t even know how close that is.”

“Three AU.”

Marianne stared at her.

Laura looked guilty. “My husband was an admiral,” she
explained, shrugging. “I heard things. Sometimes I remember them.”

“Be that as it may,” Marianne said, “they’ll figure it out
sooner or later. Right now, Central Command doesn’t even know what happened to
that ship.”

“What did happen to it?”

“The Sural had it destroyed.”

“Wasn’t there anything he wanted out of it? It was state of
the art.”

Marianne laughed. “The Tolari aren’t as primitive as Central
Command thinks they are.”

Laura glanced at Cena’s medical scanner for a moment. “So it
seems.” Her eyes went back to Marianne.

“Let us get that chip out of your head, and I’ll tell you
anything you want to know,” Marianne added.

Laura growled. Then she heaved a sigh. “Doctor, are you sure
you really can get it out without killing me?”

“I am certain of it,” Cena replied.

“Well – if they catch me they’ll kill me, so I’m dead
anyway,” Laura said. “I guess it wouldn’t be any worse to die on the operating
table instead.”

Marianne laughed. “That’s one way to look at it. But you
won’t die. You’ll just wake up with a headache that’ll make you wish you had.”

“The voice of experience?”

“Oh yes. But I had other things to keep me from thinking
about the pain.”

“Really? Is it anything I can try?”

Marianne sputtered a laugh. “Not exactly,” she said. “That
was – um – when the Sural and I were bonding. He distracted me.”

“I was not pleased with them for initiating their bond
before the surgery,” Cena added. “But it was an effective method of pain
control afterward.”

Marianne laughed again, and then pretended innocence when
Cena glanced her way. She cleared her throat. “No, she really wasn’t pleased,”
she agreed, stifling her mirth.

“Take a walk in the gardens,” Cena said. “When you return, I
will have my team assembled and prepared.”

* * *

In the garden, Marianne angled toward a gazebo and sat in
its shade.

Laura sat next to her. “I don’t know where to go.”

“You can stay on Tolar,” Marianne said. “You’ll be safe here,
and I could use the company.”

Laura looked toward the huge stone fortress. “I don’t know
that I want to live with the Sural. It’s going to take me a while to forgive him
for killing John.”

Marianne said nothing.

“Even though—” She heaved a sigh. “When I looked at Kyza, I
knew I would have done the same thing to protect her if she were mine.”

The chattering of flutters filled the silence.

“She looks just like any other little girl.”

“She is,” Marianne said with a smile.

“They’re aliens.”

“Not so much.”

“What?”

“The Tolari are more closely related to humans than any of
Earth’s great apes,” Marianne answered. Laura leaned back, seeming to digest
that. “Think about it. How could a race that evolved on a different planet be closer
to us than the apes that evolved on Earth?”

“I don’t see how they could,” Laura said. “But if they’re
human, why doesn’t the food here poison them the way it poisons us? And how do
they disappear? Let me tell you, Central Command wants to know how they do
that.”

“They’ve been altered. I don’t know a lot about who did that,
but I know it made the Tolari empaths as well.”

Laura gave her a penetrating look. “You’ve been altered too,”
she said.

Marianne stilled. Slowly, she nodded. As she thought about
what to say, she became aware of the Sural approaching. Laura frowned, glancing
at the nearby path. He dropped his camouflage and burst into view, taking a
seat next to Marianne, on the side away from Laura.

“Beloved,” he murmured. Then he nodded at Laura. “Mrs.
Howard,” he said in English.

Laura shifted uncomfortably. “I guess you can call me
Laura,” she said. “It looks like I’ll be here for a while.”

“That would be wise,” he agreed in a quiet voice. “I cannot
in honor send you away.”

“I haven’t forgiven you.”

He nodded. “I would not expect so.”

“Just so you understand me.”

“I believe I do.”

An awkward silence fell, filled with the sounds of flutters
calling to each other and insects humming. A breeze rustled the leaves of a
nearby cora tree.

“Can you alter me so I don’t accidentally get poisoned while
I’m here?” Laura asked.