“Claire. Claire Lankan,” Shank said, his voice flat.
Allie felt cold fury at being manipulated, but under that she had to admit she was impressed. She wondered how many pieces of bait the SC had littered throughout the part of space where theMitakuye Oyasinnormally operated. These weren’t people they could avoid. “I vote we deal with them head-on.”
“That’s my vote,” Shank agreed.
Zeke looked around, and finally Copta offered, “Trying to avoid them is futile. If they’ve gone to this much effort, they are unlikely to stop trying until they succeed.”
“So, we go talk to the SC,” Zeke said with a sigh. “Everyone stay close. Ben, escort our prisoner up front. Allie, keep Copta and Becca toward the back. If this turns ugly, get them clear and keep your heads down. If you shoot at these people, they’re going to shoot back.”
“No shit,” Allie said softly. But she stayed with the two women as Shank moved up into the middle of the pack with Jacqs. Ben was in the lead, forcing the prisoner to walk in front, and Zeke fell in right behind him. Ben led them up and over the crest of the hill, and now Allie could see the trouble. In the middle of the landing site squatted an SC ship.
Some of the SC ships were indistinguishable from private ones or even Command. However, others had huge back ends and hyperdrive engines grossly out of proportion with the frame of the ship. This one had that, and it had the external structures to reinforce the rounded hull, suggesting they spent a lot of time skirting the laws of physics as they pushed their ship to dangerous speeds.
As the seven refugees from theCandirutrudged down the dusty hillside, Allie noted that they were in a good formation to get slaughtered, but without any sort of heavy ordnance, backup, or plan of escape, she didn’t see many other choices. So she followed along.
They were halfway down the hill and heading for the landing site when the scorched metal hull of the SC ship opened. A loading ramp quickly dropped down, and a man stepped out. He raised his hand as though waving and then brought it down to shade his eyes as he watched their approach. Alone. Seemingly unarmed and standing outside the safety of his ship.
Copta said what they were probably all thinking. “He tries hard to appear unthreatening.”
“He tries,” Allie said. No matter how much effort he put into it, Allie was never going to see an SC member as anything other than an extreme threat.
“Stump!” their prisoner called out. “You old dog! How are you?”
“Better than you. You got captured by a bunch of rookies.”
“And Aluino. You remember Ben Aluino, one of the few marines who kept your sorry ass alive when the rest of your Nicve marines turned on you.”
Stump smiled in Ben’s direction, and Allie walked a little faster to close the distance. “Of course. Actually, I seem to remember most everyone here. This is a pleasant reunion, if rather unplanned. Mr. Lacroix, Ms. Grah, I am impressed.” When the man met Allie’s gaze, she knew who he was. Commander Jasper had escorted the bat ambassador onto theCandiru, and he’d all but kicked the captain and Zeke off the bridge when he’d done it. He was rather distinctive with his prosthetic arm and deeply wrinkled, leathery skin, so she was surprised she hadn’t recognized him immediately.
“They had nothing to do with this.” Zeke stepped forward so he was at the front of their group.
“Other than leaving their posts, ignoring orders, stealing a ship, and illegally entering Ba’kel territory? No, other than that I’m sure they’ve done nothing,” Commander Jasper commented.
“We did what you should have done,” Allie snapped. Shank eased back to her side and rested his hand on her arm.
“That’s debatable,” Jasper said. “However, it is done. Despite all Command’s warning that removing people from bat territory could restart the war, you’re here.”
“It could what?” Jacqs demanded. “I ain’t restarting any war.”
“It wouldn’t,” Shank hurried to reassure him, because Jacqs was looking a little homicidally annoyed. “The bats would blame us, not Command, and certainly not all of the Earth alliance government. They don’t think humans are one monolithic culture, and I don’t know why you insist they do.”
Jasper smiled at him. “Because until a couple of decades ago, that’s exactly what people thought. SC has transitioned to a new understanding of bat psychology, but Command is a little more hidebound. It’s been hard for them to set aside old assumptions.”
“So what are you doing here?” Zeke asked quietly.
Commander Jasper sighed. “Even admitting that the Ba’kel are more psychologically sophisticated than we assumed, you have to admit that we can’t be seen as facilitating theft. You were part of the treaty—property left behind by humans when the Ba’kel took control of this planet.”
“Fine.” Zeke’s voice was strained. “We’ll stay. We won’t give the bats any trouble. Don’t charge the rest of them for trying to do the right thing, even if your politics don’t allow it.”
“Wait,” Allie said, but Zeke was shaking his head.
“Jac and I will be fine. It means more than we can say that you tried to come, but this isn’t worth going up against the SC.”
“So you’re martyring yourself?” Commander Jasper asked. He sounded entirely too smug. Allie could see Jacqs’s finger tighten on his trigger, and she started mentally chanting,Do it. Do it. Unfortunately, Jacqs wasn’t telepathic.
Zeke stood a little straighter. “No, you’ve made it perfectly clear you consider us property of the bats, and we don’t have the firepower to fight our way past you. I’m bowing to the inevitable.”
“I thought I might offer you another choice. One that gets you off the planet and even solves a few problems.”
