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Authors: Lisanne Norman

Between Darkness and Light (78 page)

BOOK: Between Darkness and Light
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“No need,” she said, feeling the caffeine rush start to hit her.
“I'd leave it till tomorrow, if I were you,” said Ruth, eyeing her carefully. “That coffee was a little too strong for sensitive conversations.”
“I'm fine,” she said.
“You should drink decaf if it gives you the jitters,” said Ray.
“Wouldn't make any difference,” said Ruth. “It affects us and the Sholans the same way, like alcohol.”
He looked at her in surprise. “You can get drunk on coffee?” He grinned and shook his head. “We should be so lucky as to have such cheap booze!”
“Coffee can be quite expensive here,” Carrie said, finishing it off and getting up to fetch her jacket.
Zsurtul got to his feet and followed by Ray, went to fetch his own coat.
Take Zsurtul at least,
sent Ruth.
If the worst happens, the Cabbaran won't make a move against you with the Prime Prince there.
Mothering me again?
Sure,
grinned Ruth.
Why not? It's tough enough being a mother to twin babes and a toddler without Kaid as well, and the worry of Kusac on top.
Carrie was laughing as the two males returned.
“You will not prevent me going, Carrie,” said Zsurtul firmly, fastening the seal on the front of the full-length, padded coat. “It is my duty and responsibility to you. The TeLaxaudin are our allies, and Kzizysus was on our ship.”
She nodded at him. “Come on, then. But there's no need for you to come with us, Ray. This is a friendly visit.”
“You can't stop me either,” he said with a slight grin. “Besides, I haven't yet met this TeLaxaudin. I'm not going to miss that opportunity.”
Carrie raised her eyebrows and was about to assure him she could, when she caught Ruth's gently shaking head. Sighing, she turned to leave. “You can come, if you do exactly what I tell you,” she said. “Protocol is important here. Our relations with both the TeLaxaudin and the Cabbarans is not as free and easy as it is with some of our other allies.”
He nodded. “Understood.”
 
The shuttle was the same one that Annuur and his family had lived in before they'd joined the
Watcher
patrols with the U'Churian, Captain Tirak, and the rest of their crew. As they neared it, Carrie knew that Kzizysus would see them approaching through the hull of his main living quarters. Though it looked opaque from the outside, Cabbaran technology was capable of turning it transparent from the inside.
With a shudder, she hoped the slightly built alien would remember her dislike of it in that state. The impression of walking in midair had made her feel decidedly queasy.
They'd barely set foot on the ramp when, with a gust of warm air, the air lock slid open for them.
“Welcome, Liegena,” said a voice over the intercom that could only be Shrulo's. “Apologies not meet you. Too cold it is for us. Come to lounge. The way you know.”
“I hope you don't intend to leave me out here in the cold,” said Ray, glancing up at the darkening sky.
Carrie sighed and beckoned him to follow them. “Remember, do exactly what I tell you,” she said as they stepped inside and the door closed behind them.
It was warm, even in the corridor, and they had to open their coats. Carrie led them to the lounge, and to her relief found that the bulkhead was opaque.
Shrulo was sitting on one of the sloped Cabbaran loungers while round him, piles of cushions were scattered on the floor.
“Please, be comfortable,” he said, sitting up on his haunches and indicating the cushions with one forearm. “Annuur told me the view you not like, Liegena,” he said with a sound approximating a chuckle.
“Thank you for the courtesy, Shrulo,” she said, picking her way toward a pile of cushions. “I think you know Crown Prince Zsurtul of the Primes, and this is Ray, a visiting doctor from Earth.”
Shrulo dipped his long-snouted head low in the direction of the other two. “Greetings, Enlightened One,” he said. “And you Earth Doctor Ray.”
“May you always be remembered,” said Zsurtul in his own language as he inclined his head to the small alien. Then, in the first graceful move she'd seen him make, he sat down next to her.
“A pleasure,” said Ray, sitting down beside them.
“Some refreshments?” asked Shrulo, leaning down slightly to activate the small control unit on the arm of his lounger.
Carrie heard a slight noise and looked round to see an automated trolley roll into the room and wend its way between the cushions to them.
“That's new,” she said, helping herself to one of the mugs on it. “Annuur didn't have it when I was last here.”
“Were many here then, including their U'Churian family. Not so easy for one you call Kizzy, and me.”
“True,” she said, sipping the delicate warm herbal drink as Zsurtul and Ray helped themselves.
“What aid can we be to you?” Shrulo asked.
In her mind, she could feel Kaid's awareness of where she was, and his disapproval of what she was doing. Pushing it aside, she strengthened her shields until she could no longer sense him. She had no intention of leaving until she had the information she wanted, and she didn't need Kaid's interference.
“Actually, I came to see Kizzy,” she said.
“Pardon intrusion, but what about?”
“Something I wanted to ask him about our stay on the
Kz'adul
,” she said, putting the mug back on the trolley. She began to get to her feet. “Since he's not here, I assume he's in the lab? It won't take me more than a few minutes. Ray and Zsurtul will stay with you as I know Ray would like to ask you many questions.”
Shrulo began to object, but Carrie was already heading out of the lounge and back down the corridor. She knew that by abandoning him like that he'd be torn over what to do since his natural politeness dictated he remain with his other two guests.
She found the spindly alien perched on a stool working in the medical lab.
He looked up as she entered, his black oval eyes whirling as the lenses adjusted so he could see her properly.
He began to hum, then the translator kicked in. “Carrie,” said the almost inflectionless voice. “Unexpected this visit is.”
“Really?” she asked, leaning in front of him on the other side of his desk. “I thought you'd have expected us to work it all out sometime and come looking to you for answers.” She let her mind search for his mental frequency, knowing when she found it, she'd be able to at least sense his emotions.
“Your pardon. Not understand,” he said, the small mandibles on either side of his mouth clicking gently.
“I know about the growth tubes on the
Kz'adul
,” she said. “I also know about the samples you took from Kezule and how they were fast-bred into adult Warriors of twelve years old in a matter of weeks.”
The mandibles were clicking faster now, and the draperies around his neck began to stir slightly, emitting a scent that reminded her of overripe fruit. Her mental searching stopped, and she could sense his anxiety.
“This not secret,” he said. “Primes know it.”
“No one thought to tell us,” she said.
“Important to you is not.”
“To us, yes, it is.” She leaned a little closer. “Why were we not told that a female Prime had sex with my husband, Kusac, and scent-marked him?” she demanded, narrowing her eyes till the pupils became angry vertical slits.
“Nothing of this known to me,” said the translator before spitting out a burst of static as his words became untranslatable.
“You're lying,” she said, letting a snarl creep into her voice. “You said you didn't treat Kusac till after it was discovered that Chy'qui had him. You allowed my mate to be sexually assaulted while under your medical care! I want to know if breeding samples were taken from him by that female!”
The scent got stronger, and the mandibles began to move in almost spastic convulsions as Kizzy sat back on his stool and peered at her.
“Who tell you this? I know nothing of it. They lie.”
“
You
lie! I know who it was! It was either Doctor Zayshul, because it's her scent he's marked with, or some female called N'koshoh. I want to know which of them it was and why!”
“N'koshoh dead. Chy'qui killed. Nothing more I know.” Kzizysus' small hands were flapping agitatedly in front of his face as if trying to protect himself.
Carrie moved her head back a little, waiting a few moments till the TeLaxaudin appeared to calm down slightly.
“Did Chy'qui take breeding samples from us?” she asked more quietly. “All the telepaths were taken, two at a time, a male and a female, out of our quarters for several hours, then returned. Why—if not to take eggs and sperm from them?”
“Impossible!” the translator said as Kzizysus again became very agitated. “Cannot do. Prime growth medium not for hybrids!”
His panic was palpable, and she could feel he was lying. She thought it through furiously, sensing that Kaid was heading for her and the shuttle; she didn't have long left. Then she remembered Kaid's conviction Kate had been pregnant and miscarried.
“One of our females was pregnant,” she said, walking round to his side of the table. “We know she lost the child. Chy'qui and you took it so you could reproduce the growth medium, didn't you?”
Kzizysus suddenly jumped down from his stool and began to run jerkily for the doorway. She lunged after him, grabbing him by one spindly bronze arm, taking care not to harm him. Swinging him around, she grabbed him by the other one. He weighed almost nothing and she was suddenly afraid of hurting him.
Squashing the fear, she shook him several times, making the large head bob alarmingly on the spindly neck. The scent he was emitting now smelled like rotting fruit.
“Your people are the breeding experts,” she spat at him. “You taught the Primes all they know, provided them with the technology to do it. So don't lie to me about this. Our people had breeding samples taken from them, didn't they?”
The translator was emitting a constant stream of high-pitched unintelligible noises so she shook him again. “Shut that bloody noise up!” she said when she stopped. “Tell me the truth or I'll do a damned sight more than shake you!”
“Yes! Yes! Were taken! Chy'qui do same you! Breed hybrids. Eight of them only.”
Stunned, she almost dropped him. Eight, not six, eight hybrids. Hurriedly she collected her thoughts as in the corridor behind her, she heard rapid footsteps heading toward the lab and her name being called out.
“And the female—who was it?” she demanded, tightening her grip on him just enough so he could feel it pinch.
“I not know!” he said.
As she released Kzizysus, she felt hands grabbing hold of her and pulling her away from the TeLaxaudin. It was Ray.
“Carrie, what the hell are you doing?” he demanded.
With her mind as open as it was, Ray's touch was intensely painful.
“Don't touch me!” she snarled as she turned on him, seeing Kaid in the doorway beyond him, his face a mask of rage.
Everything happened at once as she spun into Ray, wrenching herself free in the process and punching him across the room with a blow from the flat of her hand. Instead of heading for the Human, Kaid slowed down, coming to a stop by the cowering Kzizysus.
With controlled fury, he reached out and grasped hold of the TeLaxaudin, lifting him into the air until their eyes were level.
“What made you think you had the right to abuse the bodies of my mate and my crew like that?” he roared. “You created lives from us, children that you gave to that abomination Chy'qui! Where are they now?”
The translator screeched its garbled sounds at him until he shook Kzizysus, once, hard.
“Directorate,” was the first word they could understand, followed by, “Kezule has.”
As she felt Kaid's rage suddenly cool, and as the translator fell silent, she was aware of an animal screeching elsewhere in the ship.
“Zsurtul and Shrulo,” she said succinctly, heading out of the room at a run.
Kaid lowered Kzizysus to the ground and let him go. “This will not end here,” he snarled then turned on his heel to follow her.
 
An astonishing sight met their eyes as they burst into the lounge area of the shuttle. Shrulo was pinned to the floor under a somewhat bloodied Zsurtul, who had his work cut out to stop the Cabbaran from escaping him.
I'll see to this,
he sent to Carrie, striding over to help the hard-pressed youngster.
“Desist immediately, Shrulo,” he ordered, using subliminal voice commands.
Instantly the Cabbaran froze and Kaid leaned down to help the Prince to his feet. Shakily, Zsurtul stood up and staggered back from the Cabbaran.
As Shrulo tensed, ready to spring, Carrie stepped forward, her pistol drawn. “Don't even think it,” she said, her voice as cold as ice.
“Fetch Kzizysus,” Kaid ordered her, drawing his own weapon. “Zsurtul, go with her and see to the Human, please,” he added as she left.
“You break treaty,” snarled Shrulo, crouching back on his haunches to lick an injured forelimb.
“I've no quarrel with you at present, Shrulo,” he said more moderately. “Prince Zsurtul may want to press charges for assault against you, though.”
“He attack me!”
“I don't think so. The Primes are known to be pacifists,” he said, activating his wrist comm to call for the estate security.
Carrie returned, holding Kzizysus by the arm. Behind her came the Prince and a still dazed Ray.
BOOK: Between Darkness and Light
2.01Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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