The Commander's Slave (14 page)

“
Before we begin the
morning petitions, I will be asked again about the results of your
mission, Arais. I have been telling the Council of your,
indisposition, but they know that you’ve been back at the Residence
for a week now, and I doubt my ability to distract them any
longer.”

Ari knew that, up to that point, her
aunt had protected her well beyond what was required. The entire
Residence staff had left her alone to walk the corridors and
gardens, always discreetly present but never imposing. They had
given her as much time as they could for her to recover from her
ordeal, but now it was time for her to face her responsibilities
again.

“
I know, Aunt Inna. After
all, the future of our planet is at stake.” She hesitated. “They
said no.”

Erinan sucked in her breath. “Then
we’re doomed.”

“
They didn’t find any part
of our proposal attractive?” the dowager asked with a
frown.

Ari shook her head.

“
I related the basic
conditions as instructed. Then, I added the secondary
conditions--the alliance with the Royal House, free land parcels,
and full shared access to our superior medical facilities. They
still refused.”

“
They said no,” Onduin
repeated in disbelief. She and her mother had spent weeks
assembling the concession package. She had not even entertained the
notion that the Krat would turn them down.

“
But when I was leaving,”
Ari continued, “you said you would undertake a most rigorous
analysis of the remaining genetic material. What did you
find?”

The fact that all three women refused
to meet her eyes gave her the answer.

“
We have two problems,” the
dowager explained, “the genetic error that afflicted all our men
has permeated through fifty percent of our existing chromosome
stock. But the constant harvesting and duplication of the other
fifty percent to fulfill population demands has introduced errors
in the remaining stock. I’m afraid that if Onduin wishes to bear
children, we cannot guarantee they would survive
infancy.”

“
How could the Krat be so selfish?” Erinan demanded, her
face contorted in anger. “We weren’t after
all
their men,
just those who were willing to start new lives. After all, it’s the
survival of our species we’re talking about.”

Ari turned slowly to stare at her
cousin, something suddenly--belatedly!-- clicking in her
brain.

Survival of a species.

On the one hand, a rich world, vastly
under populated and slowly fading away through genetic error in the
male line, despite the latest research in biogenetics and
reproductive technologies.

And on the other, a lost remnant of
the Seti home world, also doomed to extinction through lack of
females.

Both looking for salvation. And, if it
wasn’t for a chance encounter at Hell’s Market, both oblivious to
each other.

“
I’ve got to leave,” she
said urgently.

“
Leave?” Onduin repeated.
“You mean this room?”

“
I mean this
planet
. I think I have
a solution.”

But the dowager was skeptical. “If
you’re considering approaching another species, Arais, then I’m
afraid it’s too soon. We chose the Krat after years of research,
and it will take almost as long to decide on a substitute. We have
to consider the economic as well as genetic consequences of any
offer we make ….”

“
I have a way around that,”
Ari interrupted, her eyes shining. “Have you heard of the
Seti?”

Nobody had.

“
I’m not surprised. They
are a very new member of the Fusion. Their home world, I found out,
was located at the edge of the sector.”

“
Was?” Onduin
quizzed.

“
It was destroyed.” She
held up a hand. “Hold on, let me finish. They were set upon by a
species called the Lasc Prein ….”

“
I’ve heard of them,” the
dowager commented, her tone chill. Their reputation had obviously
reached the ears of other Fusion members.

“
Oh, who are they?” Erinan
asked.

“
Let Ari
finish!”

“
--who destroyed their
planet after a prolonged series of disputes, wiping out the entire
population.”

“
What good are they to us
if they’ve been destroyed?”

“
Will you let me finish,
Erin? While the population on the planet was wiped out, their Space
Fleet wasn’t. Although extensively damaged, they escaped….” She
paused and eyed them before completing her explanation. “…all eight
thousand of them. All male.”

“
How do you know about
these people?”

“
How genetically compatible
are they?”

“
Would they be willing to
relocate to Fa Drunn?”

“
Where are they
now?’

The dowager tapped her spoon on the
table, demanding silence, and fixed her niece with an eagle
stare.

“
How do you know about the
Seti, Arais?”

Arais flushed. “We’ve … ah …
met.”

“
Met? Where?”

“
At first on Helson V, then
later on,” she faltered, “on one of the larger moons of a gas
giant.”

The dowager frowned. “Moon? But wasn’t
that where you were rescued from? Where you were being kept
prisoner?”

Ari opened her mouth to protest then
closed it again. Prisoner, sex captive, love slave, was there
really a difference?

Onduin caught her cousin’s gaze.
“Ari,” she asked seriously, “what is the relationship between these
Seti people and the ones who kept you prisoner?”

She took a deep breath. “They’re one
and the same.”

“
What?!”

“
Preposterous.”

“
You expect us to talk to
these people …!”

“
I know their commander,”
Ari shouted above the din. “He’s a decent man.”

“
Did he know about your
imprisonment?” Onduin demanded.

Know? He
instigated
it! Ari
could only nod.

“
Then how can we even
negotiate with such barbarians? Ari, you can’t be
serious!”

“
He had his reasons,
Dew.”

“
She’s obviously still
brainwashed,” Erinan muttered. “I think we should send her back to
the monks.”

“
Enough.” The one word from
the dowager silenced everyone at the table. “Arais, Onduin makes a
good point. How can we even countenance negotiating with a group of
people that were responsible for such,” she glanced at her
daughters, “actions.”

The look she sent Ari spoke volumes.
She knew about her lost virginity and at least a little of what
happened. “Who is their leader?”

“
He’s called Tangus. He
used to be commander of the Seti Second Fleet.”

“
And do you trust
him?”

“
Yes,” Ari said
simply.

“
They may not be a
compatible species.”

“
I … ah … some preliminary
xenotyping has already been done.” Ari flushed. “I believe I
brought back a data pad with analysis data.” At the time she didn’t
know why she had grabbed the tablet off Tangus’ desk. Perhaps,
besides the clothes she had hurriedly changed into that night of
her rescue, it was because it was the last thing he had touched.
“The results are promising.”

“
Xenotyping? Has already
been done?” This from a frowning Onduin in a mirror expression to
her mother’s. “Exactly how well did you know this Tangus,
Ari?”

“
He was trying to save his
species as well,” she countered. “He was just … exploring options.
Look, Aunt Inna, we can go round and round this argument for the
next few years and still not reach a completely happy conclusion.
But while there’s still a chance, at least let me contact them and
ask if they’re interested in a new life on a new world.”

“
And do you think that,
unlike the Krat, they will agree?”

Ari bit her lip. “I don’t
know.”

* * * *

In the end Ari took the Fast Rake
Mirror Lake
, with
a small but experienced combat team. Unlike her last diplomatic
transport,
Mirror Lake
was well-armed and shielded, and they
made good time. Still, it took five days of constant jumping before
they emerged as close as they could to the otherwise unknown
NX-8903 system.

“
Shields online,” Captain
Wresla barked the moment they entered the system. “Prime all
weapons. Sensor data?”

The science officer was quick with her
analysis. “We’re picking up a detection grid around the second
planet, captain.”

Ari, strapped in next to the captain,
frowned. “That’s not right. Their base camp is set up on one of the
gas giant’s moons.”

“
All moons showing negative for life. But I
am
picking up habitation signs on the second
planet.”

Several heads turned in Ari’s
direction.

“
It’s your mission, my
lady,” Captain Wresla said. She was a capable no-nonsense woman,
and Ari was beginning to like her. “What are your
orders?”

“
I think it’s a decoy,” Ari
said. “One of those giant’s moons should contain a compatible
oxygen atmosphere.”

“
That would be the moon on
the far side.”

“
Let’s head for it,” Wresla
ordered. “Five percent light speed.”

Ari didn’t put it past Tangus’
resourceful second-in-command to have manufactured the
misdirection, apparently leading them to one place while they were
concealed in another.

“
Captain, I’m picking up
some anomalous readings. Very faint, but there’s a definite black
body leakage trace in the vicinity.”

“
A deflection cloak,”
Wresla said with satisfaction. “You were right, my
lady.”

“
Can this Rake land on the
surface?”

“
Yes, it can.”

“
Then look for disguised
metal fabrications and a set of open fields next to two lakes near
the equator.”

While they narrowed in on the
location, Ari thought hard. The dowager would have her head if she
tried approaching the Seti without an adequate guard, but at the
same time, she didn’t want Tangus to think that she was attempting
to dominate their interaction from the moment they met. Again. This
was the second time she had escaped him, and the second time they
would reunite, and to say she was unsure of her reception was an
understatement.

She had an electronic copy of her
planet’s proposal, a variation of the one she had carried to the
Krat which Onduin had ruthlessly re-edited in three frantic days,
and she touched the pad’s reassuring flatness, and the feel of
something else she had brought along on impulse, through the
material of her skirt as they descended. Wresla’s helm had found a
flat site near the major encampment, and it was only a question of
minutes before they touched raw earth.

In the end, the question of an
adequate guard was also taken out of her hands. The dowager had
relayed strict instructions to Wresla, and the Captain remained
obdurate on that point. She was either going to follow the
Eminence’s order or take Ari back to Fa Drunn at the highest
available speed.

As she stood near the docking bay, the
guard streamed in and formed around her. For this first visit, she
had insisted on being the only person of any authority to meet with
the Seti. It was enough that she was endangering the lives of eight
of her fellow citizens. She refused to put any more in a possible
firing line.

The
Mirror
Lake
kept descending until Ari
was sure they had dug through the ground and were now subterranean.
Surely it didn’t always take this long? Then she felt a shudder and
resistance as splayed landing pads contacted solid ground and began
taking the weight of the Rake.

The whine of the engines cut out just
as the doors begin sliding open.

Ari took a deep breath.

Chapter
Nine

There was always the chance that an
enemy wouldn’t be fooled by the trick shield Daurent had installed
around the second planet, but Tangus had expected a bit more
reconnaissance before the unidentified ship began a more thorough
search pattern, time for him to either plan an attack or
evacuation. But the strange ship hadn’t been fooled for a second.
Instead of moving further into the system, it had turned and
plotted a direct route to their base.

Neither Daurent nor his surveillance
team had been able to shed any further light on the interloper. It
was an unknown configuration, not a Lasc Prein nor, to their
puzzlement, an apparent Lasc Prein variation either. A survey ship
perhaps? Daurent shrugged his confusion.

This was the first bit of excitement they’d had in more
than a month, and if he was honest with himself, Tangus could have
done with more monotony. He didn’t know when the pain of Asha’s
loss would lessen, but drawing breath each morning when he woke up
was like breathing in serrated blades, the torment searing his
soul. Still, maybe a little adventure was exactly what he needed to
get his mind off
her
.