Broken Vision (6 page)

Growing up on Treaine, she had exasperated his adolescent self by attaching herself to him
like a banditol leaf every chance she got. He'd tried to ignore the precocious, too-young girl, but
ended up being amused and intrigued with some of her antics. Yes, he'd even been a little in awe
sometimes of her frequent blithe disregard for the conventions of their culture and tolerant when he
should have firmly corrected her behavior. Her resistance to authority had manifested itself even
then.

"Alerik, for the sake of Sagar and your own sanity, if not everyone else's, reconsider. Find
a way out of this mess. Refute the Match Key. Question the results."

Alerik let out a long breath in a whistle. "Commander Foster, highly decorated hero, a
conformist to the end, advocating for rebellion against an institution. Shocking!"

"Why aren't you taking this more seriously?" Sharm's amber eyes glittered with anger.
"She'll destroy everything you've worked for your entire life."

"No." Suddenly tired of the argument, Alerik surged to his feet. "She won't. She has some
radical views but why, in the end, is that so bad? We're a culture mired in tradition and convention.
This galaxy is going through one of the greatest transformations it's ever seen. We're nine distinct
great nations learning to co-exist and working to craft a common rule of law. Why is Mariltar
doctrine so right and eight other nations so wrong? Maybe it's time for us to change."

Once again, he'd shocked Sharm. He'd shocked himself. Where had that come from? It was
something Maegan would say.

Sharm recovered with a shake of his head. "I wish it were that simple, Alerik."

They eyed one another carefully.

Sharm shook his head again and wiped a hand down his face. "It doesn't matter what I say,
does it? I can see you've made up your stubborn, arrogant mind. What do you want me to do?"

Alerik grinned with relief. No matter what, he could count on his second. "Help me tether
a jaloswing before she flies free again. Have my quorum at the med clinic in fifty nans."

The console chirped with an incoming communication. Sharm reached back to activate it.
"Yes?"

"Drakal and Corenna reporting in, sir."

"Find anything?"

"No, sir. Covered the entire island."

"Report back here immediately. You have another assignment." Sharm closed off the
communicator, then folded his arms. "All right. We'll be there since nothing's going to change your
mind. Just warn me when you plan to tell her the part about the miniature Aleriks so I can be
around to pick up the pieces."

Alerik gave a bark of laughter. "Count on it!"

As he left the command center, he felt freer than he could ever remember feeling. The
enormous burdens of his rank seemed to be gone. This was the right step. He was now positive
about that. Everything else--the future that had been mapped out so carefully, his career, even what
he'd be doing ten rotations from now--had acquired blurred edges. This was the one thing,
unplanned and unexpected as it was, that had absolute clarity to it.

* * * *

The nightmare had assumed gigantic proportions. Her head was fogged from the pain
medication that had been administered earlier when her body had gone into convulsions from, the
med technician explained, the lingering residue of poison in her body left by the batriel. All she
wanted to do was sleep, yet six--no seven--large men were jammed into the tiny healing room.
They loomed over her, stared at her.

Her arms and legs were still restrained. She was naked under the thin sheet. She had never
felt so vulnerable.

She squinted. Governor Mariltar, of course, she recognized. He had promised to come back
and interrogate her. This must be it. Too bad for him the part of her brain that housed her memory
wasn't working. Only totally random, disconnected thoughts were making their way through the
blanket of medication.

Don't know, don't know, don't know,
she practiced in silent glee. There was that
other thing he had told her she knew she should be worried about, but she couldn't quite drag it
from the gray, fuzzy recesses.

Commander Foster she also recognized. He had been one of her favorite instructors at the
academy. What was such a nice man doing attached to Alerik Mariltar?

And there--she couldn't remember their names--but there were Brown-hair and Black-hair
pasted together like they'd been that day on the beach. How long ago had that been?

She lost interest in her visitors as she snatched at elusive memories.

"Maegan!" Governor Mariltar's face, oddly distorted, far too close, filled her vision. She
wanted to poke at the dimple that showed briefly.

"Try to pay attention. This will be over soon. Then you can sleep."

He lifted her right hand from under the thin blanket. How could he do that when she
couldn't?

Someone spoke some garbled words. Alerik stroked her palm, which sent odd tingles
racing straight to her nipples.

"Maegan, stay awake."

Her nipples felt like balloons. Were they poking through the thin sheet? Was everyone
looking at them? She wanted to check but it was too much effort. She decided she didn't care. The
sensation against her palm was...arousing. She wanted to just enjoy it. The garbled sounds
continued.

Movement drew her attention.

Pretty sapphire light. The same color as Alerik's beautiful eyes.

Her entire hand exploded.

Margaine Confluence:/Third Rising
Pallas Five

Maegan awoke in a room filled with natural light. She lay on a normal sleeping platform,
but the panels, monitors and equipment on the wall behind her head were a good indication she was
still at the med clinic. She shifted one arm experimentally, then the other, then her legs.

Still naked, but she wasn't confined in any way. Her mind was clear. Her body felt more
rested than it had in a long time. She sat up. No aches. No pains.

Time to go home. She hadn't a clue how long she'd been at the clinic. She didn't even know
where the clinic was.

First, she needed clothes. The walls around her were opaque with the exception of one that
had a clear top panel designed to let in the light. That didn't mean they weren't transparent from the
other side.

She reached to pull up the thin covering to wrap it around herself and froze. On her
outstretched hand a deep blue light glittered--a thin band of sapphire wrapped around and
embedded in the flesh of her three middle fingers.

A confused rush of memories assaulted her. A foul stench. Stinging pain. Alerik bending
over her. The hated ride through the tunnel. Inability to move. Alerik again with dimples in his
chin. And Alerik again, this time surrounded by a large group of men.

"What have you done?" she whispered. She rubbed at the bright band in her flesh. The feel
of it was no different than her skin. It was her skin.

A slight sound penetrated the gathering panic. A panel in one of the opaque walls slid open
and a woman she had never seen before stepped through.

"Counselor Shale," she said brightly. "Awake finally. I'm Medtech Sumnuer. How are you
feeling?"

Maegan gathered herself together, and shoved her hand under the cover. "Fabulous," she
responded equally brightly. "Just fabulous. I'd like to go home."

"That's always a good sign." Medtech Sumnuer studied the panel of monitors behind her
patient's head. "Lie back, please."

Maegan complied with reluctance. She saw Sumnuer frown and shake her head.

"Not recommended. You still have residual poison in your body. You need to continue the
anti-toxin regimen and have complete rest for at least another cycle or two."

"I can rest at home," Maegan shot back. "I'll do whatever you want me to do. Just let me go
home. Where am I anyway?"

The corners of Sumnuer's mouth twitched. "I will never understand why our patients are
always so desperate to leave our fine hospitality. You're at the med clinic on Pallas Five. We were
better prepared to deal with your, ah, condition than Pallas Four was."

Alerik's image popped into Maegan's head. Pallas Four had a fine clinic. She suspected her
transfer had more to do with someone's interference than Pallas Four's medical capability. Which
made it somehow more imperative she return to her own territory and get out of his.

She tossed aside the thin cover, sat up and slid her legs over the side of the sleeping
platform. "Sorry, I really can't stay. If you would just point me to my clothes."

For a moment, the medtech looked like she was going to argue. Then she gave a slight
shrug, bent and opened up a lower cabinet.

Forty nans later, Maegan sat on a shuttle, clutching a pouch with medication and
instructions. The medtech had not only given her back her repaired clothing, but found her a ride on
a med shuttle to Pallas Four. Too easy. It had all been too easy.

What was Alerik Mariltar up to? She studied the bright slash of blue across her fingers and
dug in her memory for fragments of a conversation. Her stomach churned. His mark of ownership,
no doubt. He'd made good on his threat. But why? What was he up to?

* * * *

The answer was no more apparent when, two cycles later, Maegan stood in her office and
tried to focus on the holographic image of the Grogon Asteroid Belt. She had to devise a new route
away from Pallas Four. With increased surveillance on air traffic, her missions had become
exponentially more difficult.

Her gaze drifted to the spiraling Alawind Tunnel. Never been done before. But there was
no reason why it couldn't. It was clean. No obstacles. The strong wind pressure would take a vessel
and push it through to the other side. The problem could be the barren quaoars lurking at the exit if
she went through too fast.

"Planning a getaway?" The deep voice was right at her shoulder.

She yelped and whirled. Alerik, dressed more casually in tan matfiber breeches and a pale
blue tunic than she had yet seen him, stood with legs braced apart, arms folded, his intent gaze
focused on the image. Her finger fumbled frantically to push the right button on the control in her
hand. She heard the hiss as the image evaporated.

Alerik's gaze shifted to her.

Her heart felt like it was about to burst out of her chest. She sucked in a great gulp of air.
"How did you get in here?"

His brow lifted. "Coryon understands that a husband doesn't need to be announced to his
wife."

Stinking starpits and damn, damn, damn. The truth that had been so easy to ignore raised a
rash of heat prickles all over her body. She decided supreme indifference had to be the way to go.
"What can I do for you, Governor?"

One dimple appeared in his chin and a corner of his mouth kicked up. The sapphire gaze
simmered.

"Well, now. That question does raise an interesting range of options. For instance, I could
say, talk to me about the batriel attack. Or, I could ask you to disclose where you're hiding your
space vessel. Or, even better, tell me about your activities when you're in it." He paused and lifted
an eyebrow again. "But, on the other hand, maybe we should just discuss our...marriage."

Supreme indifference became a sad casualty. "Which has to be illegal," she snapped, as
another rush of heat prickles attacked her body. "I'll go to the Coalition Council if I have to."

"Ah." Alerik unfolded his arms. "A smart move. Unfortunately, they've already ratified the
union, which you'd know if you'd picked up your comm messages."

He took a step toward her. "Make no mistake, Maegan," he said with a quiet firmness,
"there is nothing--nothing--illegal about this partnership."

She held her ground although she badly wanted to move. He sucked up more than his fair
share of space and his proximity did odd things to her body. The room was cool, but a trickle of
perspiration worked its way down her side as his sapphire gaze bored into her and dried up any
vestige of intelligent response.

"Tell me about your star vessel, Maegan."

Huh? The man had an attention span of a womat pup. Her brain was still trying to find a
suitably scathing, definitive denouncement of the marriage and he had hyper-jumped back to the
other dangerous subject, which she wanted to talk about even less than the marriage. Except she
didn't want to avoid talking about the marriage anymore. She wanted to attack it, beat it and kill it
once and for all. That pleasure would have to wait because, unbelievably, she had a bigger problem
to deal with.

She got her tongue moistened enough to stutter, "I don't know what you're talking about. I
use public transporters. Haven't flown since the academy."

They couldn't have tagged her. She hadn't been that careless or dysfunctional from the
batriel attack. At least, not until she'd passed out.

He nodded. "You do. We're going to find it. Pallas Four isn't that big. It would be better if
the information came from you."

"Don't you think your resources have better uses than chasing imaginary star vessels?"

"With five dead bodies on Pallas Seven? I'd say so. But it's one imaginary star vessel,
Maegan. One is all I'm interested in. And I'm even more interested in where that vessel has
traveled. Tell me there's no connection with Pallas Seven. Tell me you're not trafficking in
humanoids."

What in Cor's name was happening on Pallas Seven? She'd heard nothing about dead
bodies or humanoid trafficking. Rumors, yes, there were always the rumors, but nothing confirmed.
Her mind bounced to her other problem as, with a kind of morbid fascination, she watched the
sapphire of Alerik's eyes and his temple mark darken to almost black. It was possible they could
locate the Lady Melia. Question was, had she erased the last log? She still couldn't remember some
things from the night of the attack, and she couldn't remember doing that at all. Nor had she yet
been able to summon the energy to make the tunnel trip for only that purpose.