“One and the same,” Martha replied in one of her cheerful tones.
But Shanelle complained, “Mother,mustyou describe them like that?”
She had been sitting on an adjusticouch with her lifemate’s arms wrapped around her. Falon Van’yer had been talked into letting his lifemate come on this trip, but not without him. And he hated space travel, really hated it. Yet Shanelle had wanted to come, and he would do anything to make her happy—within reason.
Shanelle now glanced back at him warily. He had good reason to despise the Sunderans and wouldn’t like being reminded that they had tried to keep his lifemate from him, had even tried to make him completely forget about her. But Falon was looking absolutely inscrutable, though Ba-Har-ani warriors didn’t usually hide their emotions. Kan-is-Tran warriors like Dalden and Challen didn’t hide their emotions, either; they just had such unique control of their bodies that they seemed to lack any emotion of a strong nature, be it anger—or love.
But Tedra also had good reason to not like the Sunderans. Martha had given her a full account of all that had happened to her daughter while she was there, and if Tedrahadbeen there, there would have been a lot of hurting Sunderans before she left.
She snorted now at Shanelle’s complaint and turned her aquamarine eyes on Falon. “You know I love you to pieces and will, just as long as my daughter does,” she told theshodanof Ka’al. “But she sought help from those people and they failed to supply it. It’s a moot point that the help was needed against you in particular. And they want help from us now?”
Tedra’s ending tone implied,Fat chance they’ll get it. Falon merely nodded. Dalden knew better than to comment when his mother’s dander was up. He left it to Martha to point out the obvious, which she did now.
“They want help from anyone. We just happen to be close enough to hear it. And having heard it, there is no option of ignoring it—or did you suddenly become an uncaring, callous individual when I wasn’t looking?”
That got a baleful glare out of Tedra, directed at the intercom on the wall that Martha’s purring voice was coming out of. “I didn’t say we wouldn’t help, but I don’t have to like it, do I?”
“Shanelle doesn’t hold grudges against them,” Martha pointed out.
“They didtryto help me,” Shanelle explained. “They just weren’t very good at it. But they were dealing with Sha-Ka’ani warriors, so it’s hard to hold them at fault for their failure.”
“Not hard at all,” Tedra insisted. “Incompetents have never been high on my list of want-to-know people. The Sunderansdidhave a weapon in their Altering Rods that could have worked without hurting anyone—physically,” she quickly added for Falon’s benefit, since he was the one who would have suffered if he had been made to forget about Shanelle. “And don’t get me wrong. I’m pleased with the way that whole fiasco turned out in the end, and so are you. But that doesn’t alter the fact that if you had really needed help of a life-threatening sort, you definitely picked the wrong people to get it from.”
“Exactly,” Falon put in.
Shanelle turned around to her lifemate. “Youagreewith her?”
“Absolutely.”
Shanelle threw up her hands in exasperation. “I give up.”
The distinct sound of chuckling was coming out of the intercom unit. “Now can we get around to helping the ‘incompetents’?”
“By all means,” Tedra said with a smile.
Chapter 2
IMPATIENCE WAS SETTING IN.FEW ANSWERS HAD BEENsupplied after they had arrived on Sunder and been escorted to General Ferrill’s office. The little general had immediately gotten on Tedra’s bad side with his belligerence and condescending attitude, particularly since the Sunderans were the ones asking for help this time around.
Normally she would have ignored it, but in her present fretting mood, it very quickly had them shouting at each other. Which was when Shanelle suggested tactfully that Donilla Vand be summoned to deal with them.
Ferrill had acceded to that request gladly, obviously uncomfortable arguing with a woman he had to look up at, and had left them there alone in his office. He had neglected to mention, however, that Donilla would have to be fetched from prison. That information was volunteered by one of the military types standing guard at the door outside the office when asked what was taking so long.
When Shanelle had sought help from the Sunderans eight months earlier, Donilla Vand had been the general in command of Sunder’s military forces. She was also the one who had explained how the women of Sunder had wrested control of the planet from their men, to keep them from going to war with their neighboring planet, Armoru.
It had been a global conspiracy made possible by the invention of what they called the Altering Rod. Sunder was, after all, quite advanced in the fields of science, having conquered all their known diseases. The rods had been created to control the minds of the mentally imbalanced, to make them useful citizens again. That they had been used by the women to take over all positions of power on the planet left many of them feeling quite guilty about it, Donilla included. So Shanelle wasn’t really surprised that some of them had finally reversed the process to let their men take over again, though apparently the consequence was that those women had been sent to prison for what they’d done.
But there was no point in speculating about it until they knew for sure what had happened to put the men back in power. And they still didn’t know what kind of help was needed or who had sent out a distress call, though that could be easily guessed at, now that the men were in power again. No doubt Sunder was in a state of war and possibly losing, now that their aggressive, war-minded men were ruling again.
Unfortunately for them, Tedra and her family were governed by the policies of the League of Confederated Planets, of which Kystran ranked twelfth, and by which the neighboring Niva star system also abided. Steps could be taken to prevent war, which had been done to keep more advanced planets from trying to take over Sha-Ka’an when it was discovered in the Niva system. But once war was declared, no help or hindrance could be offered, for the simple reason that some planets were too highly advanced for others to hope to compete with. For example, the battleship they had in their control could totally wipe out both Sunder and Armoru.
Nearly an hour had passed since the general had left them alone in his office. Tedra sat cross-legged in the center of his desk. The chairs in the room were too small to risk sitting in without breaking. Dalden, Falon, and Falon’s brother, Jadell, were sitting on the floor, leaning against the walls. Shanelle was pacing the room, feeling the worst of their impatience, since she alone had any sympathies for the Sunderans, having gotten to know Donilla Vand during her short stay here and liking the women.
Not surprisingly, when Donilla finally arrived, Shanelle pounced on her with her first concern. “Whyhave you been imprisoned?”
Donilla smiled. She was a small woman, barely five feet in height, which was the norm on this planet. Their men only averaged half a foot more. To them, the Sha-Ka’ani really were giants, and Tedra and Shanelle, only a few inches short of six feet each, were close runners-up.
But Donilla showed none of the nervousness that other Sunderans did in their presence. Her gray eyes warm in greeting, Donilla held out a welcoming hand to Shanelle.
