Dark Stranger Read online

  “I think I went to the academy with Fujira.”

  She shook her head. “Perhaps with one of his children—the admiral’s in his late sixties. He transferred out of the marines a long time ago.”

  “Right.” He decided to get down to business before Zoe asked him about his own academy days. “What’s your world like?”

  “You know I’m from Terra, sir.” She gave him a look that said she knew where this was going, and countered, “Where are you from, General?”

  He started he tell her that it was none of her concern, but decided to play the game her way. He waved vaguely toward the world above. “You wouldn’t have heard of the place.”

  A devilish twinkle came to her eyes. Nice eyes. Dark-as-night eyes, but still bright with amusement and curiosity. “Try me.”

  “It’s one of the Dark Star colonies,” he answered.

  “Really? Which one?”

  Her enthusiasm didn’t surprise him, though most people in the Empire had little knowledge of the Dark Star worlds.

  “You are the one with all the data stored in your head, Lieutenant. Take a guess.”

  She studied him, looking him up and down with an intensity that very nearly made him blush. She tapped her datastylus against her chin a few times. “Let’s see … You’re from a plus-one gravity world, I’d say.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “Well, you’re built like a bull, aren’t you?”

  He flexed a heavy arm muscle. “Maybe I just like to work out.”

  She lifted an eyebrow in response. Next she tried, “Mining world?”

  “Guess again.”

  “Medical hydroponics?”

  “What makes you think that? Because I’m a doctor? Guess again.”

  “You tell me.”

  He crossed his arms and smugly said, “Pleasure planet.”

  She clearly didn’t believe him, though she looked him over once again with a certain amount of suspicion.

  Before she could ask any more questions Corporal Arco walked into the room.

  Doc swiveled to turn a frown on Arco. “Why do you keep bothering me, Corporal?” Doc joked.

  “Commandant’s sent word down, Doc,” he announced, totally ignoring Doc’s feigned displeasure. “He wants to see all of the camp leaders up top.”

  Somehow Doc didn’t think there was about to be an announcement that the war was over and that they could all go home.

  “Any clues to what’s up?” He appreciated Arco’s gift of gab even if his timing sucked, and one of his most important duties was gathering intel.

  “The Kril are all pretty nervous. They suspect the radical Asi might try a break. And what’s worse, the Hajim are putting a lot of pressure on the POW commandants all over the sector to find some high-ranking human. Our keepers don’t want any trouble. They’re worried their masters will come back and tear the place apart and they’ll get blamed if anything’s wrong.”

  Doc was aware of Zoe becoming more tense with every word. The tension was to be expected at any bad news, but he had the impression that her reaction was more personal. Maybe the time for his being discreet was over. When he got back from this meeting they were going to have a real talk. Even if he had to order her into a telepathic link to do it.

  15

  Zoe was going to ask to go with him, but the stern look she got from Doc kept her quiet. That didn’t stop her from following him out of the infirmary.

  Out in the plaza, Adams and Dyal were still at it, the debate having descended into angry shouting about the Empire controlling energy grids and terraforming rights. The crowd egging them on had grown since she entered the infirmary.

  “Not only are all settlement applications granted at the whim of the Terran overlords,” Adams shouted. “But even the old-line colonies have no say in their own affairs!”

  “Don’t tell me we don’t have representation! My mother’s on the planetary council back home,” Dyal yelled. “She meets with the sector governor all the time!”

  “Sector governors are Imperial stooges!”

  “Break it up,” Doc snapped in passing, and silence reigned instantly. “Stay here,” he added to Zoe as she continued to follow him toward the ramp.

  She forced herself to come to a halt in the deep shadows at the entrance of the plaza. From there she and every human present watched Raven move across the open space. He moved silently as a cat.

  The weak light that filtered down from above outlined his huge muscular body with an almost pearles-cent glow. He moved with far more grace than such a big man ought to, she thought. Or maybe it was just in her imagination that she saw him as graceful. She hated that she questioned her own objectivity, but put her self-doubts aside when she noticed a Denthera in a ragged hooded cape slip like a ghost through the light on his way to the ramp.

  A moment later she lost sight of the thin alien when a group of Asi scuttled into the plaza and humans scattered to get out of their way. The aliens were shouting, claws snapping against hard shiny shells. They surrounded Raven in a black wave, but they were intent on fighting each other. She wasn’t sure they even noticed Doc. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t threatened.

  Zoe stepped forward. At the same time a pair of Kril guards came down the ramp, but they hesitated at the edge of the light, weapons half raised.

  “General!”

  She wasn’t the only one who shouted, or moved forward.

  Doc gestured for his people to stay back.

  Zoe reluctantly obeyed, but called, “It’s an assassination attempt on their leader.”

  “Not when we’re just learning how to talk to the guy,” Doc called back.

  Then he lunged at the Asi leader’s large rival. There was a flurry of movement. Claws snapped. Odd screams filled the air. Bodies flew.

  The Kril did nothing to stop the fight.

  Zoe wanted to add her own scream to that of the aliens. She did start forward to help. So did Arco and several other human prisoners. But it was all over before they reached their commander. The stench of pale pink and dark purple blood filled the air.

  Most of the Asi backed away. So did the Kril, and all of the humans but Zoe. This left Raven and the Asi leader standing over the remains of the rival.

  “I said I’d watch your back,” Raven said to the Asi.

  Zoe translated his words, and the Asi’s answer. “Your word is proven.”

  “We still have a meeting to get to,” Raven said.

  He stepped over the body, and he and the Asi leader walked together to the ramp. The guards kept their weapons trained on the pair until they were well up the ramp, then followed cautiously behind them.

  The humans stared at the alien gore on the plaza floor.

  Arco whistled. “Son of a bitch,” he murmured.

  “That’s our Doc,” Gunny Kathiu announced proudly.

  * * *

  As Doc walked into the Kril commandant’s office he wondered if he’d still be in charge of the human prisoners when he left. He’d taken a big risk by killing the Asi, one that might even lead to an order to execute him. The truth was he was more worried about Lieutenant Pappas’s disapproval of his own brand of diplomacy than he was about the Kril. They might want to kill him, but she could give him a withering look—

  He firmly took his mind off Zoe and assessed what he saw in the office. The Kril commandant was not seated in his usual spot behind a horseshoe-shaped computer console, but a Benso stood there. The commandant stood at what would have been the Benso’s left shoulder, if the insectoid aliens had shoulders. The commandant spoke Denthera and Imperial Standard—after a fashion—but he had a guard fluent in Asi with him to translate that language.

  Doc came to attention. The Asi and Denthera leaders performed their own species equivalent of the action. Doc didn’t know whether his attention should be on the Kril or the Benso, but he looked to the commandant for the moment.

  The commandant focused his large eyes on Raven. “Why did you kill
? You who are supposed to keep peace. Punish—”

  The Asi leader began to clack and shout, drowning out the commandant. The translator rapidly whispered the leader’s meaning into the commandant’s aural socket. The Benso calmly waited through all the noise. Doc exchanged a look with his Denthera opposite and they wordlessly took a step back and kept out of the Kril and Asi conversation. The Denthera pulled his hood even farther down over his face to indicate even further neutrality. Doc considered rocking on his heels and whistling tunelessly to try to emphasize his—

  Human, can you hear me?

  Not by a flicker of an eyelash did Doc show he was aware of the telepathic communication. I didn’t know the Benso were telepathic, he thought. He strengthened his own mental shielding to keep any but the most basic information from passing between himself and the Benso.

  I did not expect you would be able to respond as well as hear me, human. Only a small minority of humans have the Gift. I am glad to see that you are one of them, Healer-Leader.

  You honor me by choosing to speak mind to mind with me.

  Your flattery pleases me, though I note that all but your mental barriers except those for words are closed tight. But since I detect no effort on your part to test my own thought barriers I take no offense.

  What is it you wish to communicate so privately to me?

  My official purpose in traveling camp to camp is to apologize to all human, Asi, and Denthera prisoners for a Hajim decision to indefinitely suspend allowing my people to deliver aid. But my private reason is to warn the humans in all of the prison camps that a great anger grows among the Hajim against your kind. There is talk of torturing or even killing all humans in their custody.

  Why?

  This I do not know. We are only aware of great tension and dissension among the Hajim. They signed the Covenant of Dalasai the Benso sponsored.

  I do not know about this Covenant.

  Humans obey similar rules without our need to sponsor them. It is the Hajim’s obligation to treat prisoners of war with the compassionate rules set down in the Covenant. All my kind can do is warn your species to be on your guard that the Hajim may abandon the Covenant. You have been warned.

  The mindlink with the Benso closed abruptly. Doc didn’t try to reestablish it. He gave the faintest nod of thanks and understanding as all the clacking, yelling, and whispering stopped. Once the Asi and Kril were silent, the Benso delivered his official message four times, once in the language of each species. Then the huge insect left the commandant’s office. Everyone else instinctively backed up against the wall to keep out of the insect’s way.

  Doc hoped they would then be dismissed without any repercussions for the killing, but the Kril commandant wasn’t letting it go.

  “Asi claim they do not regret killing of one troublemaker by human. Asi claim no revenge be sought. Good. I mind killing. All will be punished for one death. Go back to your warrens. All power will be cut for five time units once all prisoners below.” He pointed toward the door. “Go quickly.”

  Doc was out of the office before the others could even turn around. Five minutes in total darkness might not sound like much of a punishment, but five minutes of sensory deprivation could be an eternity to fragile human minds. Nobody was going to like it. Some were going to panic. If they weren’t warned there were some that might go mad. Even then it was going to be touch and go with a few of his people.

  He was shouting even as he hit the top ramp, his deep voice carrying down to the plaza. At the same time he sent out a telepathic warning and a command for those who could receive his thoughts to pass the alert to everyone they could—not all humans were receptive to telepathic communication.

  Once he passed the warning his thoughts turned to Zoe. She hated the dark. He wanted more than anything to find her and comfort her. He needed with all of his being to be there to protect her and see her through the coming total eclipse.

  But who needed him the most?

  The doctor in him demanded an answer he hated to give. He stopped and made himself think before he could give in to impulse so strong it could well be instinct. He was responsible for every human in the POW camp even though Zoe’s image was uppermost in his mind. Never mind what he needed.

  Who needed him the most?

  Zoe’s tough, he reminded himself. She won’t enjoy the darkness, but it won’t break her. But Barb … Yeah, Barb Langly’s been down here too long. She’s already wound way too tight.

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he murmured. His thoughts were on Zoe Pappas, but he went in search of another woman.

  16

  After the incident in the plaza, Zoe returned to the infirmary. Alwyn hadn’t returned yet, so she sat down at the reception desk. She tried to go back to the linguistics notes she’d been making about the Asi, but her heart wasn’t in it.

  She worried about how the Kril would react to what had happened, and hoped the guards would be more relieved at the loss of a troublemaker than anything else. Mostly she kept thinking about Dr. Matthias Raven, Imperial marine general and camp commander. The scene of his killing the big Asi played over in her mind again and again. Raven had moved so fast, he was so strong.

  What was he?

  She was very tempted to access her data implants, but she wouldn’t risk it for the sake of private curiosity.

  Use your unaugmented brain, girl, she thought. You can’t stop thinking about him anyway. You might as well be efficient about the process and analyze what you know.

  So, what did she know?

  He was from one of the Dark Star colonies. They were rather romantically called “Dark Star worlds” after the Dark Star, an exploration ship that had found the first habitable planet-sized moon orbiting a giant gas planet that in turn orbited a giant red star. Red giants were dying stars bloated to gigantic size, but with millions if not billions of years of light left in them. Enough light to sustain life on a few rare places, although it wasn’t the same sort of light most humans thrived in. But for some groups of humans the time left to the red giant was considered more than adequate to settle on such worlds for many generations.

  As far as she knew—and she knew just about everything about the Empire—there were only six of those worlds, all scattered on distant edges of the Empire. Should she believe his claim of being from a pleasure planet? Because there was only one …

  Zoe shook her head. “I do not want to take this any further.”

  The general as a person, as opposed to his function, was taking up far too much of her attention, she decided abruptly.

  In another time or place, perhaps …

  She sighed, the sound as wistful and romantic as any school girl’s crush on a holcin star. Truthfully, her feelings were as lustful as they were romantic, and she knew the combination did not bode well. She couldn’t get involved—it would be too dangerous for her to care for anyone in this time and place. And not so much for her as for whoever she cared for.

  “This time and place … ” Zoe sighed.

  An image of how she and Raven might have met flashed through her mind: a military medal ceremony. Everyone in their dress uniforms and she in all her regalia. Even better, she would be in that low-cut slinky blue gown her grandmother had claimed was too revealing, the one she’d gotten her hair dyed the same shade of blue for. She would pin a medal on the brave doctor and their gazes would meet and they’d both smile, maybe blush a little as heat sparked between them. Then they’d dance at the ball afterward, and things would develop from there.

  After all, a personal life wasn’t completely beyond the realm of possibility. How else could her parents have had her?

  There is nothing wrong with having an imagination, she told herself, though she worried that it might be dangerous to have too much of an imagination in a place like this. It could be too tempting to live in her head.

  Or in his bed.

  Stop that! she chastised herself.

  But wasn’t doing anything but hiding out alone
in her cave dangerous here?

  She was glad Doc had given her something to do, helping to administer the camp. She needed a purpose beyond feeling sorry for herself. She’d seen how hard this place was on people. How the lethargy set in, the boredom, the hopelessness despite all efforts made to keep up morale. This place was dangerous to the soul, and she swore, once they were out of here she was treating everybody to a party.

  As well as all the counseling they needed.

  But helping the prisoners recover was for some indeterminate time in the future. Right now she had to do what she could inside the camp.

  And, oh, yes, try not to get caught. Be killed. Tortured. Used against her own people….

  “Enough, Zoe.” She took deep breaths and made herself think of other things. As usual, it was Doc Raven who came immediately to mind.

  A part of her desperately wished she’d been able to go to the meeting up top, to find out things for herself, to help him, but she knew it was better to keep her head down. Okay, she didn’t think the man needed any help. Doc would take care of them.

  Maybe she could stand beside him and lend him moral support.

  As irrational as the thoughts were, she couldn’t help but smile. Oh, well, at least she’d considered his competency in the plural instead of just thinking about herself—and Doc Raven, as her personal champion.

  Zoe finally forced herself to concentrate as long as she could on the linguistic data.

  At least, until Alwyn came back into the infirmary and shooed her away from his desk. She reluctantly gave up the privacy and the stronger light and relinquished the reception room to the tardy duty nurse.

  Restlessness clawed at her as she went out to the plaza. She looked at the ramp and then up and up the wide circular opening that led to the outside world. When was the last time she’d thought about escape?

  Where was Doc? Was he all right?