“You have no reason to be angry,chemar,”Challen said as he stopped her from opening the door before he could see what awaited on the other side. Nothing did.
“I’m not,” she admitted while she hurried her pace down the empty corridor. “I’m sorry. I’m just worried and needed to take it out on someone. They wouldn’t really kill Garr just because that farden alarm sounded, would they?”
“I would like to reassure you, but I cannot fathom the minds of warriors such as these.”
“Who can? Oh, Stars, I want to rush down there, Challen, but if they were going to kill him, it’s been done already. But if he’s still alive, then that alarm got him surrounded, so we’d be smart to gather our forces before we go any farther. And from the look of it, all the Sha-Ka’ari have either deserted the building or-”
“Or they have gathered below for a united defense.”
“Exactly.”
The latter proved to be true, much to the Sha-Ka’ani warriors’ delight. They’d come here to do some fighting, but hadn’t got much in so far. There had been some sporadic engagements throughout the building, but the bulk of the Sha-Ka’ari warriors had headed straight for the lower levels. Tedra could have gladly left them down there to rot, since there was only one way in or out, if Garr wasn’t down there with them.
Standing there looking at the six lifts that wouldn’t fit all of them at once, Tedra was ready to pull hairs. “It won’t work. The area in front of the lifts down there is as big as it is up here. They’ll be lined up ten deep just waiting for the doors to open. I ought to have Martha Transfer them all into deep space.”
“And have your Garr go with them? He has not a signal on him that Martha can recognize, as do we,” Challen pointed out.
Tedra stopped her pacing to gape at him. “I must have left my brains back on the Rover. You expected to pop in on them all along, didn’t you?”
“Certainly. Why else were we each supplied with the homing device?”
“So we could all Transfer into the building at the same time,” she replied, grinning. “And if we can do it once, why not again? Oh, Mar-tha?”
It was done in a matter of moments. The scene before them now was a solid wall of Sha-Ka’ari warriors facing the lifts as Tedra had assumed they would be. What she hadn’t counted on was their numbers.
“Stars, I think we’re outnumbered,” she said beneath her breath, but Challen heard her.
“Best we even the odds, then.”
He chuckled deeply, which had the Sha-Ka’ari turning en masse. Tedra would have preferred figuring out some other option, but it was too late for that. She was shoved behind Challen, then behind the next warrior, then behind the next, until she was in back of them all whether she wanted to be there or not. She couldn’t make use of her own weapon with her own warriors all in front of her. She just had to stand there and listen to the racket they were making as the battle joined, doing nothing to help, unless …
“Martha, how about getting me from one side of this area to the other?”
“Forget it, kiddo. I didn’t put you down there to die.”
“You didn’t put me down here to twiddle my thumbs either!” Tedra snarled
“So why don’t you see if you can’t find Garr while your friends are busy?”
Tedra made a face. “You really did forget to send my brains down here with me, didn’t you?”
Her answer was one of Martha’s best simulations of laughter. But Tedra wasted no more time on self-disgust. She turned to face the closed doors that surrounded the circular area. They opened into rooms of different sizes, she knew, and she also knew which one was the largest and most likely to have been turned into permanent living quarters for a valuable prisoner. She approached it now, and sure enough, a special security lock was in evidence. Tedra smiled to herself. The dum-dums had used what was on hand. Similar to an identilock, it worked on visual identification, voice verification,andhandprints, and gave clearance only to guards—and all Goverance Building Sec l’s. And since the Sha-Ka’ari hadn’t figured on any Sec l’s showing up, she’d wager just about anything the locks weren’t modified.
Sure enough, the door slid open at her command. And Garr was there, seated in a chair in the center of the room. A warrior stood behind him holding a sword across his throat, aTorenoshield raised to protect him. Tedra leaned against the doorjamb and crossed her arms over her chest, which pointed her lazor at the ceiling. It wasn’t going to do her much good againstTorenosteel. And she still didn’t want to kill this particular warrior.
“Well, hello, Kowan. Fancy meeting you here.”
The poor guy was doubting his sight as well as his hearing. He wasn’t expecting a woman to come through the door, certainly not one wearing a Sec 1 uniform, and certainly not one he thought he knew very intimately. Garr, on the other hand, wasn’t a bit surprised.
“You certainly took your sweet time, Tedra.” He grinned at her.
“I had to make a detour to another Star System.” She grinned back.
Kowan had recovered by then, enough to say, “You will put down your weapon, woman, or I will kill him.”
“Oh, come on, warrior, you’re not going to play stupid, are you? Take a look behind me. Those are barbarians making mincemeat out of your friends. Not Kystrani Secs, but warriors from your mother planet. Sha-Ka’an ring a bell? No? Well, no matter. But take my word for it, you guys don’t stand a chance. Besides, I’ve already captured your fearless leader and put him where you’ll never get him back, so the slave farm is closed. Why don’t you play smart and surrender while you still can?”
“To a woman?” he snorted.
