Shanelle stepped back then, and the lid closed on Brittany. Panic flared, but didn’t last long. Once again she was completely encased in one of their machines, but this one was simply like a soft heat that moved around her, passing over all her limbs, a tingle here and there, and then the lid popped open again.
Brittany frowned as she sat back up. No more than a few seconds had passed, barely enough time to hear the low hum on the machine as it came to life and to feel that gentle heat surrounding her. Just as she’d figured. They were going to claim the thing had malfunctioned.
She beat them to it. “Not working, huh?”
Shanelle frowned at her. “Why? You still have some scars left?”
Expecting excuses, Brittany hadn’t even thought to look down for proof. She glanced at her left hand, the one that had suffered the most injuries during the years she’d been learning her craft. She looked at both sides of it. Then she brought it up in front of her face for closer examination.
Her expression must have mirrored her incredulity, because Martha, viewing the room from the wall unit across from her, complained, “Oh, sure, I offer her a walk on the moon and she’s still skeptical, but one little visit to a meditech and she enters ‘have to believe it’ mode.”
Brittany snapped her jaw shut and gritted her teeth. “It’s hypnosis, isn’t it? The scars are still there, you’ve just convinced my mind not to see them.”
“Hey, I’m impressed,” Shanelle said with a chuckle. “That’s a really good logical deduction if you’re determined to doubt. But let’s hope we don’t need the meditech to prove any more points. Shall we adjourn to the Rec Room now? Dalden’s probably done with Jorran by now and wondering why you’re not where he left you.”
Brittany had forgotten all about Jorran. “That egomaniac is behind lock and key, I hope?”
“Better than that, he’s in a containing cell. It doesn’t have doors, windows, or any other means to get out of it without Transfer. A very luxurious suite, actually, which inmyopinion he doesn’t deserve. But we don’t mistreat prisoners, we just make sure those needing isolation get it. Though Martha has been Transferring his people aboard—they’ve all elected to travel with Jorran, rather than return home on their ship—they aren’t going to be allowed to speak with him during the journey and are being delivered to an unused portion of the ship where they’ll be kept happy but out of the way. Putting him with them would just be asking for trouble. How’s the collection going anyway, Martha?”
“Two rods left unaccounted for,” Martha replied. “But two of Jorran’s people haven’t checked in yet to know he’s been captured. Current estimate is another three hours before we can depart.”
“The captain of Jorran’s ship is being very cooperative,” Shanelle explained as they headed out of Medical. “Once he got a look at the battleship hovering over him, he gave the exact coordinates for the remaining Centurians on his ship, wanting them alloffit immediately, and he’s making every effort to find the remaining two still down on the planet.”
“Then he’s not a Centurian himself?”
“No, it’s just a simple trader with a full crew that Jorran hired to transport him to his new ‘kingdom.’”
They had arrived at the Rec Room. It was a really big room, designed to entertain the ship’s crew in their off-duty hours. This ship had Martha, rather than a crew, but the Rec Room was filled with men anyway—nearly fifty of them, and all huge like Dalden.
“You aren’t going into shock again, are you?” Shanelle asked with concern. “Weren’t you told that there were other Sha-Ka’ani here?”
“I don’t—recall.”
“These are my father’s warriors, sent along to protect my mother on her trip to Kystran. We were on our way home from that planet when we got the distress call from Sunder. Mother insisted the warriors accompany us, and went home alone.” Shanelle’s voice rose to reach Martha amid the noise in the room, even though there was a wall monitor right behind them. “Assure me again, Martha, that the Probables say shedidn’tget punished for that?”
“Stop fretting, doll,” Martha replied. “You know your father is more understanding than that.”
“Except when it comes to the protection of his lifemate,” Shanelle said in rising agitation.
“Punished?” Brittany choked out.
“You don’t want to know,” Shanelle replied before she stomped off, really upset now.
“Martha?”Brittany demanded, her own upset getting out of hand.
But Martha just purred, “She was right, you don’t want to know. Besides, Shanelle typically overreacts whenever she thinks her mother has earned her father’s displeasure. In this case she’s dead wrong, but there’ll be no convincing her of that till she gets home and sees for herself.” And then Martha added, “But why get into the oddities and peculiarities of a people you don’t believe exist?”
Brittany opened her mouth to protest, then snapped it shut. Shedidwant to know what they’d meant by punishment, but she’d be damned if she’d ask now. The Sha-Ka’ani didn’t exist, she wasn’t in a spaceship, none of this was the least bit real. But where the hell did they findfiftygiants to participate in this bizarre scam?
Chapter 33
“TEDRA ISN’T FROM SHA-KA’AN?”
“No indeed, she was hatched on the planet Kystran in the Centura star system, which is fortunate for you, doll. I’m sure she’ll set you up with all the modern conveniences from other worlds that she enjoys, which most Sha-Ka’ani refuse to introduce to their daily lives. Kystran is a major exporter of luxuries, a member of the Centura League of Confederated Planets.”
Brittany had settled into a chair near the entrance to the Rec Room, with a monitor on the wall behind her. She wasn’t about to proceed any farther into that room with all those giants lounging about, and Dalden not among them. She had felt the chair move under her when she sat on it, shrinking somewhat, but wasn’t going to comment on it.
Martha was less reticent, had remarked nonchalantly, “The beds here adjust to size as well, just so you know. When you’re ready to crawl into one usually isn’t the time for such explanations.”
