The Ninth Orb (16 page)

As stunned as she was by the assault, Eden recovered quickly and her own anger surged to the forefront. “I’m not one of your soldiers, Captain! You’d do well to remember that! I’m escorting them out.”

“Like hell! Have you any idea what sort of repercussions we could be facing from this incident!”

“No! And neither do you. I do know, though, that it’ll be a hell of a lot easier to patch this up with only one casualty to apologize for!”

“It could blow up in our faces!”

“It’ll sure as hell blow up in our faces if we try to take these men prisoners!”

Ivy stared at the retreating Xtanians through narrowed eyes. “This is a military matter, Eden. Step aside and let me handle it.”

“Are you mad! This is a diplomatic incident! And I’m not about to allow you to make bad worse. Take your troops and restore order and find those responsible for this!”

Ivy’s face hardened. Instead of responding to Eden’s demand, she activated her communications. “Secure the gateway and send a platoon to secure the prisoners.”

Eden gaped at her in disbelief for several moments before she pivoted to watch the troops rush to respond to Ivy’s command. The Xtanians had to see the troops gathering before them, closing in around them, and yet they did not hesitate. They continued to march in an orderly manner toward the disaster Eden had hoped to avert.

When she returned her attention to Ivy, she saw that soldiers were double timing it in their direction.

“I am your commander in chief!” she announced as the troops came abreast of them. “Seize Captain Sterling … NOW!”

The troops blinked, exchanged looks. For several heartbeats Eden was afraid that they would refuse to follow her orders. Abruptly, Lt. Carter saluted, stepped forward and grabbed Captain Sterling’s wrist. Too shocked by the seizure to move, Ivy merely stared at her second in command as two more soldiers stepped forward and grabbed her, jerking her hands behind her back and securing her wrists.

Relief flooded through Eden. “Take her to the brig infirmary and see that she’s treated for space dementia,” she said sharply.

“What about the Xtanians, Madam President?” Lt. Carter asked.

“Release them and allow them to return peacefully to the alien citadel. Until I’ve thoroughly investigated the incident, I have no idea where we stand, but the militia should remain on high alert until we can see just how badly we’ve blundered.”

Nodding, Lt. Carter gave the command and Eden sagged as she watched the troops escort the Xtanians from the city and close the gate once more. Feeling weak and ill, all she wanted to do was to retreat to her quarters now that the worst seemed to have passed off without deadly incident. She knew it was important, though, to get to the bottom of the incident as quickly as possible. She couldn’t try to negotiate peace with no idea of what had happened.

“Locate the culprits,” she told Lt. Carter, “secure them in the jail and let me know as soon as you have them in custody. I’m going to the infirmary to check on the Xtanian’s condition.”

“They’ve been arrested. They’re in the drunk tank.”

Eden’s brows rose in surprise. A faint smile curled her lips. “That was quick.”

Sarah Carter shrugged. “I can’t take credit for it, Madam President. Captain Sterling ordered a squad off to retrace the Xtanian’s tracks the moment he staggered onto the green and collapsed. We met up with two of the perps almost at once---They were trying to sneak back to the party before their absence was noticed. They were happy to supply us with the names of the other four ‘ladies’.”

Eden considered the new information. “It won’t hurt to let them stew a while,” she said tightly. “Thank you, Lt. Carter. Keep me informed of any unusual activity in the alien citadel.”

“Madam President?” Sarah asked as Eden started to turn away.

Eden turned back, lifting her brows questioningly. “What will become of Captain Sterling?”

Eden’s lips tightened. “We’ll have her evaluated.”

Sarah looked uncomfortable. “Do you really think she’s suffering from space dementia?”

“No. I think that she perceives the potential for disaster the same as I do, but she also perceives a far different solution that I. She’ll be facing disciplinary action at the very least.”

Eden found when she reached the infirmary that the Xtanian was unconscious. “Do you think it was wise to sedate him?” she asked Deb, who’d come to stand with her at the observation window.

“I don’t and we didn’t. We pumped his stomach. Those idiots had poured enough alcohol down him I’m surprised he didn’t drown. I just hope we managed to pump enough out of him to keep him from dying of alcohol poisoning.”

Rage suffused Eden. She tamped it with an effort. “What the hell were they thinking?” she muttered.

“They weren’t. They’d had way too much themselves to have a thimble full of sense between the lot of them. Four of them had already passed out when the MPs arrived and hauled them off. The other two barely had control of their motor functions. What do you think’s going to happen?” she ended worriedly.

Eden stared at the unconscious man grimly. “A lot depends, I think, on whether or not he pulls through … and how much he remembers. Do you have any idea what happened beyond them getting him dead drunk?”

Deb eyed her a moment. “They took turns with him. When the ring leader proposed another round the guy took off. I’m still not sure whether they meant another round of drinks or another round of him. Not sure he knew.”

Eden considered that for several moments and felt the blood drain from her face. “The only group sex that’s acceptable to them is ONE queen and her brood. I don’t think they could’ve done worse if they’d set out to start a war.”

Deb looked a little ill. “I could try to manipulate his memories,” she offered hesitantly.

A coldness speared through Eden. “Don’t! We don’t know enough about them and the one thing I don’t want is to return him to them as a vegetable. You think he’ll recover?”

“From the shock? Or the alcohol?”

“Both.”

Deb shrugged. “It’s too early to tell. We’ve got him stable right now. Give it a few hours and check back with me. By that time we’ll have a pretty good idea of what’s happening with him.”

Eden nodded duly. “How many injured in the riot?”

Deb blew out a gusty sigh. “We’ve treated about twenty with minor injuries. Another dozen with broken bones. Three fell and were trampled, but they’re stable. I think they’ll be alright.”

Eden rubbed her temples, applying counter pressure to the throbbing pain. “My god!”

Deb placed a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t beat yourself up. You did the right thing--the only thing you could’ve done. The crowd should have dispersed in an orderly manner and no one would’ve been hurt if they had. It was the one’s who panicked that caused the problems. No one knew what was happening. They couldn’t see anything except the women that ran and they reacted to the possibility of a threat.”

“Which means there are probably a lot of colonists right now who think the Xtanians attacked.”

Deb grimaced. “Probably.”

“I need to make a broadcast,” Eden said decisively. “And then I’m going to my quarters to try to think where to go from here.”

“You want something for your nerves?”

Eden smiled wanly. “Can’t afford it--but thanks for the offer.”

Chapter Thirteen

Baen had himself well in hand when he stopped at the stone that indicated the end of the gateway and waited to be acknowledged, but the darkness of fear was not entirely dormant. In point of fact, he was fairly certain that it was fear that had driven him to seek an audience. The populace of the entire kzatha was falling apart with the strain of waiting, and the expectation of sudden and complete annihilation. For they were just as certain that they had broken the peace as they were that the women of the city had weapons far beyond any that they had, or had protection against.

He’d come because he could no longer bear the waiting. The sun had risen five times since the disaster. If he was going to die, he wanted to do so now, while he still had some dignity left to him, before the waiting drove him beyond his self-control.

“What is your business here?”

A jolt went through Baen. He saluted when he spied the female warrior atop the wall and then knelt and bowed his head respectfully. “I crave an audience with my queen,” he said evenly, relieved that none of his anxiety shamed him by being evident in his voice.

A prolonged silence followed his request and he had begun to wonder if he was being dismissed, or if they simply hadn’t understood his request when the queen spoke again. “Who is your queen?”

He glanced up in surprise, feeling his belly knot as it occurred to him to wonder if his brood had been mistaken about being selected.

Or perhaps, after what had happened, Eden had decided to rescind her choice?

“Queen Eden.”

There was a commotion among the warriors. “Baen?”

Baen wasn’t certain whether to feel relieved or more apprehensive when he recognized her voice. Before he could repeat his request, however, he heard the faint sizzle that he’d learned to recognize as the opening of the portal. “Come in.”

Rising, he straightened his shoulders and focused on Eden as she came forward to meet him.

She looked as nervous as he felt. He tried not to think that that might mean he was in someone’s crosshairs, but he was fairly certain he was.

“You wished to speak with me?”

There a faint breathless quality to her voice that rippled through him pleasantly. He was so attuned to the sound of her voice, he didn’t actually listen to the translation from the device on her head and his brain was slow to assimilate what she’d said.

“I need ….” He broke off and tried again. “I wished to know if our peoples are still at peace since Letheen transgressed and if you had come to a decision about the kzatha.”

Eden merely stared at him while her mind processed the little he’d given her to feel her way. Letheen had transgressed--As impossible as she found it to credit, it seemed they were laboring under the impression that the fault was all theirs, or at least Letheen’s. She knew that had to be the poor man the colonists had nearly killed forcing booze down him and then taking advantage of his state.

It was the chance she’d been hoping for, hadn’t dared to consider a possibility. She supposed the meeting should take place before the council, but she sensed that Baen was far more uneasy than he was willing to show and she didn’t want to take a chance that someone might inadvertently do or say something to upset the tentative truce.

Besides, she needed time to think what would be the best approach.

She forced a polite smile. “Please, come with me. We’ll talk.”

He seemed to relax fractionally and followed her readily enough as she turned and headed back along the corridor. She only glanced back at him once, when they stepped onto the roadway.

Acting commander, Lt. Carter joined them when they reached the first intersection. “Do you think it’s wise to take him to your quarters?”

Eden resisted the urge to glance back at Baen. “He’s come to make sure the incident the other day didn’t disrupt our peaceful relations. I decided a friendly, relaxed atmosphere would be more conducive to peace than cold formality before the council.”

Carter studied her a moment and leaned close, closing a fist over the mouthpiece of the translator. “I will have you on my monitor.”

Eden nodded and smiled as the Lt. stepped away instead of telling Sarah she didn’t think that was necessary.

The truth was, she wasn’t completely easy in her mind and it was comforting to think she would have back up.

When they reached her domicile, she indicated that Baen take a seat and offered him some refreshment--water, because she was afraid to offer him anything else. “How is Letheen?” she asked when she’d settled on a lounge across from him.

He looked puzzled, but finally shrugged. “He and his brood are disgraced. We do not see them.”

Eden blinked several times and sat up, placing her feet on the floor and sitting rigidly erect. “Because of …what happened? His whole brood?”

He looked surprised. “Latheen transgressed. The brood shares the disgrace. They will be banished from the kzatha and most likely will seek lscindee (ritual suicide) for being doubly disgraced. We would have slain them at once, but Latheen was returned in health and we were not certain, at first, that he had been dismissed by his queen.”

Eden bowed her head and covered her face with her hands, feeling vaguely ill. She knew the perps had not expected or intended anything so drastic to come of their little ‘lark’, but that didn’t change the fact that the repercussions were very serious indeed. And she found that most of her sympathy was with the Xtanians. Not only had their overtures of peace been violated, but an entire brood was suffering for something that they were completely innocent of.

She couldn’t excuse the behavior of the women. They weren’t children, although they’d behaved as thoughtlessly as children. They had been ordered not to give the Xtanians anything of an alcoholic nature, and been told, moreover, that great delicacy was required in dealing with the Xtanians until they understood them better.

They’d disregarded everything in search of their amusement.

Eden’s anger toward the colonists very quickly displaced the sense of pity she felt about the Xtanians’ plight. “He was not dismissed,” she said, dropping her hands and looking at Baen as she abruptly came to a decision. “His queen only awaits a … uh. Our customs dictate that the brood must build a home to receive their queen, for the city is only for those who have no brood.” She gestured toward the room. “As you’ve seen for yourself it simply isn’t big enough. And I have seen the domiciles of the kzatha. That wouldn’t do at all.

“You must go back and tell Latheen and his brood, and everyone else. We are pleased and they are not disgraced.” She formed her lips into a facsimile of a smile.

He stared at her in blank faced surprise for several moments before a slow smile curled his lips that made Eden’s heart flutter. A chuckle escaped him. “This is what we have done wrong?”