“I’m going to send an emergency burst.”
Alisha mouths another silent curse, though it’s clear from the curl of her lips and the fire in her eyes she wants to scream in frustration. “What the fuck went wrong?”
I study her for two heartbeats. “Do you want my honest opinion?”
She closes her eyes as if torn between asking for a comforting lie and the hard truth. She sighs. “Of course I want the truth.”
“We were too close and used too much tech. Most of your leaders didn’t want to listen, but a simple diplomatic missionmay have yielded better results. Particularly to one of my brothers’ tribes.”
“Only Tiril and you thought that was a good idea.”
Because we were the only honey warriors at the table. “I wonder why that was?”
She glances at me, as if warning me to shut up, then shakes her head. “Yeah, you know your people better.”
“This tribe is not my people. I can make guesses about how they will behave, but that is all.”
“What will happen to Charlie?”
“It depends on whether someone puts the whisperer on, and then how much the captured humans reveal about the colony.”
She grimaces. “They are scientists, not soldiers.”
“Kate is a soldier.” Which means she may have been killed fighting back. I don’t point that out, though.
“Charlie is a twit. He will tell them everything if he thinks it will win them over.”
I incline my head in agreement. I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks that. “Erica and Neve are smart. And Kate knows enough about the Honey not to do something stupid.” I am glad I am not stuck with her because she was far too interested in having a mate before she even got to know me. Alisha has gotten to me…but only wants me to save her people. “The Honey will assume one of the women is in charge, because that is how our tribes work.”
“Will the tribe risk crossing the ocean if Charlie tells them about the colony?”
“This tribe doesn’t have ships.” That is another reason they were selected. “They may speak to neighboring tribes, but the continent the colony is on was thought to be a myth, and the crossing is not easy. That is not to say it won’t happen, or word won’t pass among the banished. There will be some who believe the risk is worth the possibility of a mate or a new home.”
Alisha presses her lips together.
It’s not what she wants to hear.
“Be glad there are no Honey-human children.” If there were, the Honey would be far more interested in human women.
“I hadn’t even thought of what that might mean.”
“There are other things to consider.”
“Like?”
“Some tribes may see human women as a lesser kind of mate, suitable only for third sons because there will be no children.”
“Third sons aren’t chosen?”
“Very rarely, and men with too many brothers often have a harder time being chosen as mates because they tend to have more sons.”
Alisha nods. “Scientifically that is true, but we also wonder if it’s something in the soil, or in your DNA. I have a friend who is researching because we want to find out if it will happen to us when they stop messing with the numbers.”
I heard that the unbalanced nature of the colony, with three women for every man, is not natural among humans. On Earth, it was far more equal, something I struggle to imagine.
I hold out my hand. “Can I see the map?”
She hands the tablet over. I scan the camera footage, seeking any sign of movement. If I were one of the warriors discovering a strange ship and people, I would not leave it on its own. So there will be warriors nearby. “Are there cameras inside the ship?”
