Quantum (6 page)

His gut told him there was something to this he couldn’t see yet, some vital piece of information missing. Until then, he’d keep her at arm’s length and keep a watchful eye on every move she made.

Petros glanced his way, catching him staring. For a moment he held her gaze, wanting to prove to himself that he could remain disconnected. Deep inside him, though, a low burn started, one he hadn’t felt for a long time. With a silent curse, he turned his attention to poking at the fire, sending a shower of sparks upward with the smoke.

The forced intimacy of their situation made things complicated. But as soon as they got back to the familiar surrounds of the
Swift Brion
and commenced a normal working affiliation, as soon as he could do some extra digging on her background and assure she was legit, everything would be in control, just as it should be.

He stole another look at her, and tension tightened his muscles. With any luck, a ship would come into range overnight and they’d be able to get Jaren the medical attention he needed and return things to normalcy sooner rather than later.

…

Mae leaned closer to the fire, trying in vain to soak up more warmth without looking desperate. Since the sun had gone down, it’d gotten damn cold. Now, wispy tendrils of white fog rolled out of the surrounding forest, making for a decidedly creepy atmosphere.

If she were a more practical kind of soldier, she would have gone back into the shuttle and helped herself to the dead officer’s coat. But she just couldn’t do it. Okay, so she’d seen and been a part of many horrible things over recent years in UAFA and with the IPC during the war. However, this wasn’t a war, and she’d rather stay a little on the cold side than wear a dead man’s jacket.

Jaren had fallen asleep a while ago, while Graydon and Nazari had settled into a conversation about some of the current happenings on the
Swift Brion
. She hadn’t bothered trying to join in, since she had no idea about the inner workings of the IPC flagship, but it was interesting to hear how involved Graydon seemed to be with his crew, knowing and caring about details that other captain admirals might not have bothered with.

A shiver racked her, and she crossed her arms tighter. Maybe if she moved down off the log and sat on the ground—

“Here, take this, Lieutenant.”

She glanced over to see the admiral holding out his jacket.

“Oh, no, thanks, sir. I’m okay.”

He sent her an exasperated look and stood, moving around Nazari to place the jacket over her shoulders. “And here I thought you were a smart woman. You’re shivering so hard, you look like you’re having a seizure.”

Instead of returning to where he’d been sitting, he dropped down next to her. The log wasn’t exactly long, and in order for them to both fit, he had to squash right up against her, his entire side pressed into her.

On one level, it seemed inappropriate to be practically sitting on her pretend commanding officer, a man who could be an alien she was supposed to be exposing. But damn, he was so
warm
. Heat radiated off him far more effectively than the fire. And as soon as his thick dress jacket had settled around her, the night cold was well and truly blocked out.

“Thank you,” she murmured, glancing up at him. Now that she’d heated up, she realized how tense and miserable she’d been. With a long breath, she relaxed, letting the warmth seep into her limbs.

“No problem. Can’t have the brains behind this operation freezing to death.”

She shook her head. “It’s cold, but I don’t think it’s going to get that cold. And what about you? We can’t exactly both fit into your jacket.”

A wicked glint lit up his toffee-colored eyes, and her breath stalled in her lungs. “I bet we could find a way to both fit. But you’re right. I don’t think it’ll get that bad. The thermal blanket will do me fine once we bunk down for the night.”

Forcing a calming breath before she went and did something idiotic like hyperventilate from a single devilish glance, she returned her attention to the fire. On the ground beside her feet, the display screen lit up, even as a chiming started.

“Has it detected a ship?” the admiral asked, leaning over to look.

She accessed the data, but her hand froze against the screen.
Oh my god.
Her heart faltered. No, it didn’t make sense—but the information didn’t lie.

“Incoming!” She jumped to her feet, gripping the display hard enough to make her knuckles ache. “A missile’s locked on this location. We’ve got just over a minute before this whole area gets blown to hell.”

Graydon’s expression turned stone cold and deadly as he shot to his feet. “Grab what you can and head for the far tree line.”

She shrugged her arms into the sleeves of the admiral’s jacket so it wouldn’t slip off, then grabbed three packs and headed over to lend an arm to Nazari, who’d started at a fast limp toward the dark, towering trees.

The admiral fell into step beside her with a still unconscious Jaren slung across his shoulders. As they made it to the trees, a high-pitched whistling echoed from above.

“Take cover!” Graydon’s words were sharp, but composed, making her war-honed instincts kick in and instinctively respond to his order.

Everything was murky and shadowed as she passed two more huge tree trunks. She couldn’t even see where she was putting her feet, let alone search out any decent shelter. A large hand closed around her arm and yanked her to the right. She went with the change in direction, pulling Nazari with her. Mae collapsed in a heap and ended up sandwiched between a warm, solid body and what felt like a smooth, cold rock face.

The whistling grew louder, so she ducked her head and pressed her hands over her ears, knowing what would come next. Everything lit up in an intense white flash, and she looked up to find Graydon crouched above her, a mere breath away, his gaze catching hers.

The final blast detonated, an explosion of sound cracking through the atmosphere like thunder, chased by an invisible wave of heat and energy. She flinched, and Graydon’s arm around her shoulder tightened. The bright light faded into the flickering orange of flames. Lucky the forest wasn’t dry, or their next concern would have been outrunning a wildfire.

The admiral released her and moved back, flicking on a flashlight. Not that it made much difference—she could see well enough with the burning wreckage illuminating the forest.

“Is everyone okay?” Graydon swung the light around as he looked at her and then Nazari.

She nodded as Nazari murmured a confirmation. The admiral turned to check on Jaren lying next the boulder they’d sheltered behind.

“Goddamn it,” the admiral muttered, then dragged a hand over his face. His grim expression made her insides run cold.

Oh, no.

She swallowed, her throat too tight. “Is he—?”

“He’s alive, but I can’t bring him around. Without those medical supplies…” Graydon stared off toward what had become ground zero, a muscle pulsing in his jaw. “Someone is damn well going to answer for this. When I get back to the
Swift Brion
, I’m not going to stop until I find out who the hell is responsible for this frecking disaster.”

“First we need to make it back in one piece,” she muttered, turning to lean against the cold rock surface.

Any doubts she’d had before just went up in flames along with the wreckage of their shuttle. A missile instead of a rescue ship?

Someone out there wanted to make sure no one had survived that crash. And unless Nazari or Jaren had some powerful enemies they didn’t know about, then either she or the captain admiral was the most obvious target.

This situation had turned into one huge problem, because either the Reidar were onto her, or somebody was trying to assassinate the admiral, which didn’t fit in with Rian’s suspicions that Zander Graydon was no longer human…

What if the Reidar planned to replace the admiral and this was their attempt to kill him so they could do just that? In that case, Graydon needed help and protection.

An ache of confusion started behind her forehead. She had no evidence to support either theory and she was on her own, with no one to help her sort out this mess. She’d been due to check in with Rian a few hours ago—he’d wanted an immediate report on her initial impressions of Graydon’s state of mind.

Well, she’d say Zander Graydon was pissed off and determined. That didn’t help her deduce whether or not he was human.

“It looks like our decision has been made for us,” Graydon said as he moved to sit with his back against the boulder next to her. “We’re going to have to hike out of here come morning. I’m not going to sit around and wait for whoever’s out there to take another shot at us.”

His gaze seemed to sharpen on her, and an uncomfortable buzz, like she was under interrogation, cut through her. She was meant to be scrutinizing him, so why did she suddenly feel like the one being examined?

She picked up the display from where she’d abandoned it next to the packs, shut down the program, and disconnected her comm.

“I’ve disabled the program scanning for ships. If someone out there is searching for us for the wrong reasons, they’d be able to use it to track us.”

Graydon’s expression turned grim. “We won’t know if our people come looking for us. But you’re right. We can’t risk it. Looks like we’re on our own.”

“So, now what?” Nazari asked.

The admiral glanced at the sergeant. “We can’t risk hiking in the dark. It’s too dangerous, and we’ve already got one injured ankle to deal with. We don’t need any more.”

Nazari straightened her shoulders. “I won’t slow us down, sir.”

“I know you won’t, Nazari, but even if you weren’t injured, I still wouldn’t want to be taking on these woods in the dark. Hopefully whoever shot that missile at us is thinking they got lucky and won’t try anything else. We’ll stay right here and start out first thing, as soon as it gets light.”

The captain admiral gave them each a watch, with Mae taking first shift, the admiral second, and Nazari the last and shortest. None of them were able to rouse Jaren. In the couple of packs they’d managed to grab, there were several more thermal blankets, but if they lost these, they’d be in for several cold nights.

Graydon bunked down next to Jaren after checking on him one last time. While Nazari settled in on Jaren’s other side, Mae wrapped one of the blankets around her shoulders and stayed sitting against the boulder. As her three survival companions became still and quiet, the night noises of the forest sounded louder. Through the thick branches of trees above, two of Tocarra’s four moons shone weakly though a soupy cloud cover that also blurred the stars.

Two days.
Two days of hiking through rough wilderness—likely carrying an injured soldier if they couldn’t bring Jaren around—before they reached any type of civilization and could call for backup. When she’d agreed to the maniacal plan of hijacking Zander Graydon, she’d never imagined things would turn out like this.

The first thing she’d be doing when they got out of this forest would be contacting Rian and giving him a piece of her mind. And then she’d be telling him that instead of bringing Graydon to him, he could get his ass and his ship over to meet them so
he
could work out whether or not the captain admiral was really a shape-shifting alien. Hell, it’s what she should have told him in the first place.

Chapter Five

Nadira

The problem with backwater worlds? They were exactly that—nothing more than poor farmers scraping a living off the land. Besides fresh food, there were no decent supplies to be had. And apparently not one bottle of Rian’s favorite weakness of choice: Violaine.

Zahli and the ship’s doctor, Kira, haggled over the price of some fruit. Easy enough to tell the trader had jacked up his prices by about 200 percent when he’d realized they were from offworld.

Rian leaned over, plucked an apple from the display, and took a huge bite out of it, stopping the argument as everyone turned to look at him.

“I hope you’re going to pay for that. In hard credits. We don’t take red currency here on Nadira.” The trader leaned sideways a little, his eyes flashing between them all, while his hand dropped below the line of the table, bowed from the weight of produce.

While taking a second bite of apple, Rian kept a close eye on the shifty trader. The guy better not be going for a gun, because ending this little bargaining attempt with weapon fire would just make him cranky, especially considering how low his supply of Violaine was getting.

Then again…

Rian pulled out his nucleon gun in a quick movement and aimed it at the trader’s forehead.

“We’ll take your goods at the local price.” He took another slow bite out of the apple, his aim unwavering.

The trader paled and went motionless. “The local price is thirty credits per pound.”

Yeah, maybe on a rich planet like Yarina.

“We’ll take your goods at the local price, or we’ll just take them. It’s your choice.”

“Gentlemen, please!” Another man approached, but Rian didn’t take his gaze off the trader, in case the rip-off merchant was stupid enough to go for whatever weapon he had hidden under his table.

“There’s no need for such excitement.” The man stepped into his line of vision wearing an IPC government suit. “Cormann, give our visitors your goods at the local price. After all, we don’t get many offworlders stopping by this part of the galaxy.”

As the trader nodded reluctantly and turned to address Zahli, who currently held all the credits, Rian lowered his weapon.

“Welcome. I’m sorry I didn’t get here to greet you sooner, but I was stuck in a subspace conference with the IPC,” the newcomer said.

The guy held out his hand, but Rian stared at him for a long minute as he reholstered his gun, weighing up his initial impression of the man before slowly returning the handshake.
Clueless local given high government position on some no-account world—no threat.

“I’m Leroi Hendricks, the grand chancellor of Liese and high president of Nadira.”

Behind Hendricks, Zahli and Kira shared a concerned look.

Frecking hell. So much for flying under the radar…or Reidar.

Rian forced a smile and moved into an easy stance. “Well, how about that. I can’t say we’ve often been met by a planet’s high president when stopping to purchase supplies.”

Hendricks clasped his hands in front of himself and rocked back on his heels, looking more than pleased. “Like I said, we don’t get many people stopping by this part of the galaxy, but we’re hoping that’s about to change.”

Rian took another piece of fruit from the crate Zahli had purchased. “How so?”

Hendricks motioned for him to come along and then started off at a stroll.

He glanced back at his sister. “Once you’ve secured the supplies, you’re off the books until the twelve hours are up. Comm me if you need anything.”

Zahli nodded and then headed after Kira, who’d already gone on to the next stall in the marketplace.

Rian took a moment to check his comm, but like the last twenty times he’d done so, there was still no new message on the ship’s logs. With every hour he didn’t hear from Mae, the icy claws in his spine dug harder and deeper, telling him something had gone wrong and he needed to help her.

Slipping his comm away again, he took a few quick strides to catch up with Hendricks. As he did, Callan, the ship’s security specialist, and Lianna fell into step a few meters behind them.

“We’re hoping to turn our little planet into a tourist mecca for history buffs,” Hendricks continued, as if there hadn’t been a break in conversation. “You’ve actually landed at a very fortuitous time. We’re having an official celebration tonight to commemorate the discovery.”

“Discovery?” Rian tossed the core of the apple into a garden and glanced back at Callan and Lianna still following at a distance. Hopefully the celebration, whatever it was, wouldn’t get in the way of their plans to launch later in the day.

“We discovered some carvings in a stone wall outside the city. The language is like nothing in this galaxy. Would you care to visit the site? Once you leave Nadira, you could spread stories of the marvel. Help get the word out.”

He’d only been half listening, because he didn’t really care about what some small-time high president thought would put his back-of-beyond planet on the map.

Except at the mention of a language like
nothing in this galaxy
, his skin started pricking like there were icicles in his flesh. Was this the other boot he’d been waiting to drop and kick him in the guts since going with the unsettling urge to land on Nadira?

“I would love to see your discovery. Can I bring a couple of my people along? We’d be more than happy to spread the word.”
Not.
No way in the fiery pits of Erebus. Not if his current paranoid thoughts turned out to be right.
Jezus
, he really hoped for once that he was wrong.

“Of course. The more the merrier, I say. It really is something everyone should see. I think our little planet is going to change history.”

Rian glanced back and nodded at Callan and Lianna. The two of them caught up as Hendricks led them to the edge of the marketplace, where a shuttle sat waiting.

“We have scientists, archaeologists, language specialists, all sorts of people coming and going from the site all day. None of them can make heads or tails of the carvings,” Hendricks said as they boarded the bus.

“You don’t say,” Rian muttered in return, taking a seat near the doors. The more he heard, the less he liked.

The trip out of the city limits to the discovery site took a little over half an hour, and Hendricks kept up a steady, one-sided conversation about the planet and his hopes for the future of his world.

The shuttle set down on the edge of a field bordered by scraggly forest at the bottom of a sheer cliff. Above, inhospitable mountains provided a stark backdrop. A chaotic tent city blocked view of the site, as though it had started out as one or two tents and then increased over time. The makeshift shuttle stop had a line of people waiting to depart once the current passengers disembarked.

Rian followed Hendricks off and then waited for Callan and Lianna to join him before they headed down the track worn into the grass from heavy foot traffic. Closer to the rock face, it got more and more crowded, people working on various instruments, taking notes, and conducting group discussions. Rian shook his head at the commotion. It really must have been the most exciting thing this planet had ever seen.

“And here we are.” Hendricks stopped and waved his arm at the wall with a flourish.

Rian hooked his thumbs into the loops on his belt, waiting for a couple of nerds to move out of the way so he could get a clear look.

The discovery turned out to be a door-shaped indent in the smooth rock face. To the left, a hand-sized square had an orderly bunch of symbols carved on it, while along the top what appeared to be words in a sentence ran the length of the seam.

Frecking hell.
Reidar.

Of course, it wouldn’t have run to his current streak of crappy luck that his hunch about the planet was wrong.

And that wasn’t just some random carving in a rock—it was actually a doorway, the symbols on the left a kind of keyboard. Being forced to read and understand their alien language had been just one of the many wonderful things the bastards had imparted to him.

“Fascinating.” He tried to sound interested, really, he did. But it was kind of hard when he was so goddamn pissed. For once, he’d wanted that damned heebie-jeebie, bad-juju sensation that wormed its way down his spine every now and then to be wrong.

Hendricks frowned at him, while Callan and Lianna had knowing, wary looks on their faces.
Hell.
Those two had gotten to know him too well. Inevitable when they practically lived in one another’s pockets onboard the
Imojenna
.

“Do you plan on staying very long?” Hendricks asked as they started back through the tent city to where the shuttle waited. “Because you’re more than welcome to attend the celebration tonight.”

Rian glanced back at where the nerds were swarming around the discovery like ants on a dead slug. He had to get back here and take a closer look when no one was around—he needed to know what was behind that door.

“You know, I think we will stick around. Any excuse to join in a party, right, guys?” He aimed a silent check at his two crew members, who both nodded their agreements.

It would eclipse the twelve-hour time limit he’d put on being dirtside, but he was the frecking captain, and if he wanted to change his mind, well, that was his prerogative.

On the shuttle, Callan and Lianna got closer seats to him.

“What’s the shakedown with this situation?” Callan asked in a low voice. “Why are you so hot to party all of a sudden? I thought you wanted to get to Barasa like yesterday.”

Rian glanced around to make sure Hendricks wasn’t close enough to listen in.

“Those symbols? They’re Reidar. And it’s not just a pretty picture—it’s a doorway to whatever’s hidden in that mountain. We’re not going to the celebration, we’re going to wait until everyone else has gone and then come back here to see if we can get inside.”

“Jezus damn.” Callan sat back, a scowl darkening his features. “Even when you make us go dirtside on some piss-poor excuse for a planet, we still can’t get away from the scum bastards.”

“I don’t know whether this means there are any Reidar around. It could just be an unmanned outpost of some kind. But we’re going to find out and add it to our arsenal of things to use against them.”

“Yeah, ’cos that’s working out real well so far,” Callan muttered.

Rian clenched his jaw at the jab. Did they think he liked skulking around the edges of the galaxy? While they’d managed to collect valuable information, they didn’t have the man- or firepower to take the Reidar head-on.

Somehow, he had to find a way to beat back the incursion before the invasion was complete. He might not know what the Reidar had planned for the universe, but years of experience at their hands had taught him it would definitely be the stuff of nightmares.