Between Darkness and Light (22 page)

Kusac was watching a group of three M'zullians work their way toward one of four on the newly configured assault course when Banner touched him on the arm.

“General's here,” Banner said in a low voice.

“I know,” he acknowledged, continuing to watch the M'zullians as the attackers dodged the hail of electronic shots from the four defenders.

“He wants you.”

Kusac sighed. “Take over,” he said, handing him the reader. “Keep an eye on Chazukk. He's still trying to edge Zarkil away from the rest of his unit so he'll get picked off.”

He turned and headed over to the low fence where the General waited, Shaidan standing his usual six steps behind.

“How would you and your crew like some time planetside?” Kezule asked when he joined him. “I think it's time my people put into practice what they've been learning.”

Surprised, Kusac glanced back at the M'zullians. “You'll need more than us to control them,” he said. “They're far more volatile than the ones we trained on Shola.”

“I intend to include some of my officers as well. I believe you Sholans enjoy a wager now and then. I've a fancy to have a little one with you.”

“I'm not here to make bets with you, Kezule,” said Kusac, suddenly impatient. “I want to get this job finished and take my son home.”

“We've still a way to go yet, Captain, you might as well enjoy what entertainment you can find here,” drawled Kezule, giving him a long look. “I'm aware of how intriguing our females find you and your crew. So far you've ignored them, but you're at liberty to accept any invitations.”

Kusac bristled, disliking the implications, feeling his hair starting to rise. With an effort, he forced it down again.

“Perhaps you'll find what I've planned more to your taste, then. We've been surveying a planet in the adjacent solar system. It's uninhabited by higher life-forms as yet, but it does have some interesting herd beasts. I believe it's the one my contemporaries used to keep the Outpost stocked with fresh food. I'm proposing a hunting trip lasting three days to capture livestock and fresh meat. My officers will be commanding groups of M'zullians and civilians. You can lead your own crew, Captain.”

“Hankering after the smell of blood and raw flesh, Kezule?” asked Kusac, raising an eye ridge in mock surprise. “And here was me thinking you'd given all that up. I'm surprised you're suggesting we hunt on our own. Aren't you afraid we'll disappear?”

“Not in the least,” said Kezule, ignoring the gibe. “I know what you want and it will remain here, secure on Kij'ik. As to the wager, I'll bet any group of my people against yours for the larger total of kills and live captures.”

“What're the stakes?” he asked. “Since you're not paying us, it can't be money.”

Kezule turned to Shaidan. “Go and find the TeLaxaudin and see if he needs any help,” he ordered. “I'll meet you in his office when I'm finished.”

Shaidan ducked his head in a sketchy bow and ran off. Kezule turned back to Kusac. “I'll wager what you want most, not for two hours, but for two nights.”

Kusac stared at him. “In return for what?” he asked slowly. This offer was totally unexpected. Kezule obviously assumed he'd want Shaidan to stay with him for the extra time, but did he? His relationship with his son wasn't going smoothly. The kitling still resented having to come to him each evening, despite his interest in the information he could access through the comm unit. More exposure to him would not improve the situation.

“What you've refused to give me. My wife and the TeLaxaudin want to do a brain scan and run some tests on you to make a series of learning tapes. When they're done, I'd like you to take a sleep tape yourself about our culture so you can compare it to your own and really start working on the main purpose of your visit here.”

His anger flared and he opened his mouth to refuse when an image of acceptance flashed into his mind's eye. It had happened to him before and in the past he'd trusted it. “I can ask for anything?” he said, suddenly confident that if he lost, with the torc's help, he could withstand any brain scan.

“Within reason,” said Kezule. “I will not deprogram Shaidan for that time.”

“I accept,” he said. “If you allow me some time alone with your wife.”

Shock and surprise crossed Kezule's face. Obviously it had never occurred to him he'd be interested in anything other than Shaidan.

“Out of the question,” began Kezule, skin darkening and crest beginning to rise in anger.

“I'm asking for a few hours to talk to her,” he interrupted. “Nothing more. I need some answers about my time on the
Kz'adul
and only she can give them to me.” He tilted his head to one side, mouth widening in a humorless grin. “You aren't jealous, are you, Kezule? I hear you don't restrict yourself to your wife, that you've two other females as well. Even if I did want her company overnight, she surely has the same right to choose a lover as you do. Our females have. More accurately, they allow us the same rights as they take!”

“Out of the question!” repeated Kezule with a hiss of anger.

Kusac shrugged and turned to rejoin Banner. “Then there's no bet.” If he'd judged Kezule right, the General would change his mind.

Kezule's hand clamped round his arm like a vise, jerking Kusac back to face him. “You can speak to her alone for an hour, no more!” he hissed, claws digging into Kusac's arm.

“Unacceptable,” said Kusac, reaching up his other hand to pry himself free of Kezule's grip. The claws tightened, resisting him. He felt a brief tingle from his torc, then a rush of light-headedness before a feeling of displacement came over him. As if he was standing outside his body, he watched himself force the General's hand away from his arm with a strength that made Kezule wince—a strength that until that moment, he'd never possessed. Suddenly he was back, looking out at the General from behind his own eyes with a clear knowledge of how Naacha, the Cabbaran mystic, had taught him to reach deep within himself to enhance his strength.

“Don't ever do that to me again, Kezule,” he said gently, watching the Valtegan flex his bruised fingers. “I'm not your prisoner. You need my cooperation. I want three hours with Zayshul. Alone.”

“Two, dammit! You can have two hours, no more,” Kezule snarled, tongue flicking out as he spoke. “Tell your trainees there's a briefing about the trip in the assembly hall at 19:00 hours—and be there yourself.”

Watching the General's back as he stalked off toward the hydroponics lab, Kusac was quietly pleased. He'd expected only one hour. Now all that remained was to win the bet.

 

“What was all that about?” asked Banner as he rejoined his Second.

“Later,” he said briefly, as he focused his thoughts on Naacha. Bit by bit, what had happened after Annuur and Kzizysus had operated on him to restore his Talent was coming back to him. He remembered how the Cabbaran had made him angry to prove to him that the neural damage caused by the pain collar during his captivity on the
Kz'adul
was cured. He'd been determined to leave the shuttle, and had headed for the air lock. Tirak, the U'Churian, had tried to stop him but he hadn't listened and had attempted to force his way out, but the door had been trapped. The electric shock he'd suffered only enraged him further and Tirak had to shoot him with a trank dart.

The effects had only lasted a few minutes, long enough for him to calm down and for Tirak to haul him off to the small mess area for first meal. Now he remembered that after they'd eaten, Naacha had come for him, taken him to their labs, and started to train him in how to use his newly returned psi abilities. Except that as well as relearning to use those he'd had, Naacha had taught him more. He forced the memory further, but the details were vague and his mind began to wander. Obviously Naacha had locked the memories away until they were needed, as some were now.

Just as he was about to give up, one more memory surfaced. His abilities then had been rogue, uncontrollable most of the time, with disastrous results. The image of a wrecked laboratory began to form in his mind's eye, containers exploding spontaneously, sending shards of glass everywhere as equipment fell off tables or was hurled into the air.

“Naacha! Stop him you must!”
he'd heard Annuur's translator say.
“Control his powers he cannot yet!”

He'd felt the sharp sting of another trank dart, and remembered how afraid he'd been. Involuntarily, his hand went up to his torc, holding it away from his neck as he remembered how it had vibrated then. There had been a second trank dart, then the room had finally begun to blur before everything went dark.

“What's wrong?” he heard Banner ask sharply.

“Nothing,” he said, returning to the present with a jolt. “Just a memory.”

“I thought those were done.”

He looked at his friend, seeing the worried expression on the other's face. “They are. This was something else.”

“You've been distant ever since we met Kezule the first time, Kusac,” said Banner quietly. “Before then, I shared your room and bed, helped you relive the memories so you could heal. Now I don't know you. You tell me nothing that you don't tell the rest of our crew. You've got your own agenda and I need to know what it is.”

“I tell you what you need to know.” He couldn't afford to let Banner get close again.

“It's not enough!”

“Dzaou's complaining again,” he said caustically, trying to shake off the mood of unreality that now seemed to possess him most of the time.

“No, it's me this time. Every evening one of Kezule's lackeys comes for you to take you to see Shaidan for two hours and when you return, you shut yourself in your room for another hour. You'll tell me nothing about what goes on during that time. You're losing touch with our people, Kusac. You know I'm on this mission to see you don't become unstable and act in a way that endangers our species, yet you purposely isolate yourself from me and the others while apparently turning to Kezule. I want to know what's going on now!”

“And you're forgetting this isn't a mission sanctioned by the Brotherhood,” said Kusac, watching the trainees. “I intended to come here on my own. You broke into my ship and were waiting for me when I boarded her.”

“Dammit, Kusac!” Banner's voice was low and intense. “What the hell am I—or the others—supposed to think when you behave like this?”

Kusac turned his head to look at Banner. “Do you think I'm unstable?”

Banner hesitated. “No, you're too controlled—that's the problem.”

He laughed. “You should hear yourself. I told you at the time, I'll do this my way. I don't intend to discuss my plans with anyone, and if I did, this is neither the time nor place. You know we have to show a strong, united front to the M'zullians.”

“Kusac . . .”

He grasped Banner by the shoulder, the gesture seeming more innocent than the actual force of his grip. “Do I have to tell you what I told Dzaou? You chose to come with me. I still outrank you, and I'm in charge, whether you're a Special Operative or not. If you don't like it, you have two options. One, you leave and take the others with you. Kezule has said he'll take any of you who want to leave back to Haven. Two, you take me down as Lijou ordered you to do if you had doubts over my sanity or loyalty.” He grinned a Human smile, watching Banner wince as he displayed his teeth to full advantage. “If you do that, see how long any of you will last without me, considering Kezule only wants me here.”

“Neither of those is an option,” said Banner calmly, obviously controlling his ears and tail.

Kusac released him. “Then get off my back. You wouldn't do this to any other superior officer. Your mission is over, Banner,” he said with finality. “You know it is. This one is mine, and your presence here just complicates matters for me. I have no intention of betraying Shola, you can be assured of that.”

A siren sounded, signaling the end of the exercise period, forcing them to turn their attention back to the M'zullians.

Kusac stepped forward and called them over. “There's a muster in the assembly hall at 19:00 hours tonight,” he said, speaking to them in Valtegan. “Apparently the General feels there's a need for livestock to be kept here so he's arranging a three-day hunting trip to a nearby uninhabited planet. It'll mean more work for everyone. Livestock need feeding and their quarters need to be cleaned out every day. However, I'm sure the General has good reasons to want to bring the beasts here. To hunt them, you'll need to put into practice the skills you've been learning from us. Remember, the planet's surface will be a hostile environment. The animals there are unused to a higher life-form so will be more likely to attack you. You'll get the rest of your instructions at the briefing. Dismissed.”

“A hunting expedition,” said Khadui, coming over as the damp and muddy M'zullians saluted before heading off back to the elevator down to the showers on the Officers level. “I don't suppose we're included, are we? I could do with seeing a sky above my head and feeling the wind in my face.”

“We're included. In fact, we're to hunt as a unit. Kezule's Challenged us to make more kills and round up more live specimens than his best group,” he replied.

“Shouldn't be a problem if our numbers are equal,” said Khadui. “Only Kezule has ever spent any time in a wilderness. The rest have never even been outside their City of Light unless it was on a starship.”