Enemy Within (30 page)

“Relax,” he ordered, hand on her arm. “Even if they are within range, there are protocols. You have time.” He took the tea from her and put it back on the tray. He held a morsel of Grebnol fruit to her lips.

She shook her head. “I can’t . . .”

The Myallki spawn popped the sweet fruit into her mouth where it promptly dissolved. Twelve Gods, it was good.

“If I eat too much at one sitting,” Ari warned, “I’ll be sick.”

“You haven’t yet eaten anything at this sitting.” He offered another piece, his gaze on hers, coaxing. When she just looked at him, he said, “What is the Second Point?”

“Strength.”

He forced the fruit on her again and nodded. “As in, I intend that you’ll need every last bit of yours.”

Her blood went hot. She cursed.

He laughed, low and heartless, and fed her another piece.

Something on his desk chirped.

He straightened, the cool mask claiming his expression once more. Wiping his fingers on her napkin, he rose, dropped the cloth on the tray, and strode to his desk.

Ari admired the play of tight muscle outlined by the seat of his pants.

A click. “Riorchjan,” he said.

“Auhrnok, Her Majesty requests your attendance and that of your guest to com channel two,” a young man’s voice said. “Will you comply?”

She grabbed a hurried sip of tea and rose.

“By Her Majesty’s will,” Seaghdh said. He glanced at her and held up a hand.

Message received and understood. Ari waited.

“Engaging visuals,” the voice said.

Did Seaghdh have any idea that she now understood nearly everything he and his crew said? Would it matter?

“Acknowledged. Visual engaged,” Seaghdh replied. “Awaiting Her Majesty’s pleasure.”

“Auhrnok Riorchjan,” the communications officer said, “Her Majesty, the queen.”

“Good morning, Your Majesty.” Seaghdh snapped to attention.

“Fair morning to you, Auhrnok Riorchjan,” Eilod replied.

Ari stood behind the screen, unable to see her, but her lilting voice was unmistakable.

“Auhrnok, the
Balykkal
requests speech with Captain Idylle,” Eilod said. “I believe they wish to assure themselves that she is recovering well from the brief coma brought on by that tree venom.”

Ari blinked. Coma?

They’d spoken to Armada personnel at least once already without mentioning the fact to her. Should she be concerned or encouraged that they’d lied to her people on her behalf? Why had they done it at all?

Ari smiled, not at all amused. Her commanders had tried to reach her via her transponder after the codes had been changed, or more likely, Armada had activated the destruct code on her transponder. When that had failed, they’d dispatched the
Balykkal
with orders to retrieve her. By any means possible.

“I stand ready, Your Majesty,” Seaghdh said.

“Our appreciation, Auhrnok. Yeoman Onnyth?”

The screen apparently blanked. Seaghdh tossed Ari a troubled look. When the yeoman announced the patch through complete, he’d switched to her language.

“Captain Idylle,” Seaghdh said, firmly back in his guise of official representative of the Empire. “The captain of the
Balykkal
requests your presence on com.”

She flinched at “captain of the
Balykkal
.” That was her title. Hearing it applied to someone other than she felt like a knife in her solar plexus.

She discovered her vanity was still intact when she found herself looking down at her uniform and straightening her bars. The irony of the move made her scowl. She strode to Seaghdh’s side.

“Thank you, Auhrnok Riorchjan,” Ari said after making certain the com link was video enabled. She offered a hand to Seaghdh.

Expression set in the hard lines required of his station, he shook her hand and nodded.

“I appreciate your assistance, sir,” she said.

A glint of amusement lit his eye. He squeezed her hand, released her, and stepped back.

She turned to face the screen. “Captain Xiao. Good to see you,” she said to the man sitting in her command chair. “I don’t believe I had the opportunity to congratulate you on your promotion, Zhong. It was long past time you had your own ship. You wear the bars well.”

Her former first officer hesitated. His eyes slid sideways. Checking his screens for data, to see if the Claugh were using her as a distraction while they powered up weapons. Good boy.

“Captain Idylle,” Xiao said. “Are you all right?”

Raising her eyebrows, she nodded. “Of course, Captain. Perhaps you’ve not been briefed. Our outpost on Kebgra suffered an attack. The
Sen Ekir
issued a distress call. The Claugh nib Dovvyth Stalker, the
Dagger
, was on patrol at the edge of the Zone. They were kind enough to respond.”

Xiao blinked. “Kebgra? I had heard . . .” He broke off, his gaze turning inward as he considered. “Survivors?”

“Unknown,” she lied.

Xiao frowned, propped an elbow on an armrest, and leaned forward.

Ari recognized the gesture and had to suppress a smile. Apparently, she’d trained her first better than she’d intended.

“Death toll?”

“Also unknown,” she replied. “I didn’t have time to count before the creatures attacked again.”

Xiao’s eyes lit and the bridge crew spun to run scans without being told. “Chekydran?”

“No,” she said. “I’ve prepared a report for Armada Command. I will trans it into isolation at a location of your choosing.”

“Lieutenant Whyt,” Xiao ordered.

“Aye, Captain,” Celene Whyt, Ari’s former computer security officer, said. “Isolated block path on your screen.”

“Acknowledged. Prepare to receive data, Captain Idylle.”

Seaghdh stepped up beside her, touched a command code, froze the path information, then opened an access port for her handheld. “With your permission, Captain?” He took the unit from the desktop where she’d left it and plugged it in, then entered another command set. A familiar control panel, in her language, materialized in the tabletop before her. “Use this panel for your transmission.”

Ari glanced at him. “You understand, Auhrnok Riorchjan, I must report your replication of our technology to my superior officers.”

He looked at her from beneath his brow, enjoyment obvious in the crease at the corners of his eyes. The rest of his expression reflected only ominous disapproval.

“You will, of course, do as you see fit.”

She sent her report to keep from laughing at his clipped tone.

“Transmission received, Captain Idylle,” Whyt said.

“Thank you, Lieutenant.”

The woman grinned. At least someone was happy to see her. Ari had expected conflicting emotions in Xiao. It couldn’t be comfortable facing the captain whose command you’d taken when she’d been presumed dead. She wasn’t dead and was still called “Captain.” Xiao had to wonder what that made him. They were even. One ship couldn’t have two captains. What did that make her?

“Security sweep on the file complete, Captain Xiao,” Whyt said. “Copied to your screen.”

Xiao didn’t answer in favor of scanning the first few lines of the report. He knew she got straight to the point. Frowning, he looked up at her. “Source of the attacking soldiers?”

“Mother ship in orbit,” Ari said. “Ran when the
Dagger
came to our aid. There’s more, Zhong.”

Xiao sat back, bracing himself, conditioned to know by the tone of her voice that she had bad news.

“It isn’t in my report,” she said, “and it occurs to me that it’s no longer my job to notify next of kin. It’s yours.”

His eyes widened and he nodded.

“Tommy Heisen was one of them.”

“Baxt’k.”

“This is the Claugh royal flagship,” she told him. “You’ll want to mind your p’s and q’s, Xiao.”

Seaghdh suppressed a chuckle. He knew a code phrase when he heard one. He watched the surprise on the man’s face followed by a real smile. Xiao rubbed a hand over his scalp. Though he would have a head of thick, glossy black hair to complement his dark complexion and black eyes, he seemed to favor painfully close buzz cuts.

“Understood,” Xiao said, looking like a man who’d never expected to hear a code phrase again, but who thoroughly enjoyed having to respond to it. “We owe you a debt of gratitude, sir,” Xiao said to Seaghdh. “Captain Idylle is a valued member of the Armada. We are relieved to find her safe.”

Seaghdh inclined his head.

Xiao’s gaze darted to Whyt’s station, then back to Ari. “P’s and q’s, Captain. Logging disabled. We have only a few minutes.”

She grinned.

Seaghdh’s blood quickened and he cursed under his breath.

“It is damn good to see you, Xiao,” she said. “It’s good to see all of you.”

“Thank you, Captain. All due respect, you’ve lost too much weight.”

“Chekydran prisons are a hell of a diet plan,” she agreed.

Xiao grimaced. “We lost six crew attempting to recover you. We spent three months in dry dock, patching up the ship.”

Ari dropped her chin to her chest.

Seaghdh’s heart constricted in sympathy. He knew too well what it felt like to lose crew.

“I never doubted that you disobeyed my direct orders to not engage the Chekydran,” she said, her voice muted.

Xiao’s smile looked sad.

She straightened. “You owe me a beer. I told you you’d get the next command.”

They grinned.

Misgiving prickled through Seaghdh and he peered hard at Ari. Just what had their relationship been? Was she merely facing down the man who’d taken her command? Or a former lover?

Xiao looked troubled. “I do owe you a beer, Captain. I wish to all the Gods I didn’t. The last ship I wanted was yours. You are still senior, you know.”

She shook her head. “I was relieved of command, Zhong, and from all indications, it’s going to be permanent even if it isn’t fatal. I’ve prepared a recorded statement for Tommy’s family. Would you review it? You’re in the best position to decide whether it will help.”

“Understood. Transmit to the same secured block.”

“Acknowledged.” She keyed in rapid-fire commands and in an offhand way said, “You might relieve your transport officer. You won’t get a lock on me through the shields without my transponder code.”

Seaghdh allowed himself a tiny, admiring smile. She’d broadsided Xiao with her guess about the purpose of Xiao’s com call. The man’s discomfited look gave Seaghdh a clear glimpse of his motives. He was trying to decide if she deserved to be murdered by trans-shield teleport.

The pained look in Xiao’s black eyes said he had indeed been ordered to teleport Ari out, at any cost, and that he hadn’t had the heart to make the grab. Encouraging.

Ari seemed to see the same thing. She pressed harder. “Get your transponder removed. The implant is armed with remote destruct capability.”

Xiao froze. Horror clouded his features, followed swiftly by denial and disbelief.

“Think,” she ordered. “It makes sense.”

Shaking his head, Xiao said, “If it’s true, why not use it rather than order me to kill you with a trans-shield port?”

“It may have been tried, Captain,” Seaghdh said. “When Captain Idylle’s medical scan revealed the transponder, I programmed our shields to disrupt command streams coming into the unit. I cannot ignore the fact that Captain Idylle’s distress call coincided with the brief time this specific ship was within range of Kebgra. It hasn’t escaped me that Captain Idylle might have been sent as an unwitting assassin.”

“Assassin?”

“Her Majesty, Queen Eilod Saoyrse, is aboard this vessel,” Ari said.

SEAGHDH
could see Ari’s former first officer working through the implications of her on board a Claugh ship in the company of the two highest-ranking officials of the Claugh nib Dovvyth.

“You’re an Armada man, Xiao,” she said. “Yet you just disobeyed a direct order to teleport me out. Why?”

“Two hours ago I received a coded, off-channel message from IntCom,” he replied, his look assessing, “claiming you as an undercover operative. It ordered me to retrieve you unharmed.”

Surprise showed in the faces of the few bridge personnel Seaghdh could see over Xiao’s shoulder. A stab of alarm drove through him. Had she neglected to disclose her exact mission? Scientist-sitter or master operative?

Ari uttered a sharp laugh.

“Is it true?” Xiao asked.

“Yes.”

Seaghdh glanced at her. Captain Alexandria Idylle stood at his side on full alert, her expression unreadable. He couldn’t tell if he’d just heard more truth than she’d wanted him to hear or if she didn’t want to burden Captain Xiao with the details of her undercover babysitting job.

“Twelve Gods,” Xiao breathed. “What in the Three Hells is going on, Captain? The rumors—”