part0231

By the time Nova delivered her passengers to the skyranch she was utterly weary, stiff from her tumble in the desert and wondering why she had gotten herself so worked up about a gang of thugs and smugglers. She settled the shuttle into its cradle and waited for the air lock to do its thing, wishing she could fall asleep right here.

Soren was right. That one thought had wandered around her mind since leaving Bellac’s atmosphere. Keeping her mouth shut about all this would have been the healthiest option. Smuggling was an inevitable part of any shipping port on any planet, Union-owned or not. Was she so driven to seek revenge on Beryl that she’d risk not only her own neck but Soren’s as well? And now, instead of acting oblivious to that Caspian’s careless comments about payment to Beryl, she was a fresh target walking the halls of Skyranch Twelve. The message she got before the nomads intervened was all too clear. No doubt, news of the failed chase across the flats had preceded her to the orbiter.

The only way to escape more and perhaps permanent damage was to go directly to Lieutenant Colonel Thedris with what she knew, with or without a witness or anything resembling proof. And ask to transfer off the station to avoid floating out in space without a pressure suit before morning.

But first she would give Djari a chance to put her mind at ease.

Could he really be part of this? Or was it possible that he had fallen victim to Beryl’s unchallenged intimidation of those around him? Djari’s connection to the needs of the grow rings would easily allow him to bring the drug in as part of his shipments of plant material. Mince would appear as organic on the security scanners and, thanks to the other half of the gang on the ground, not deeply scanned for precisely what type of organics.

Once her passengers had cleared out, Nova signed the ship over to the technicians and headed toward the lifts. Before her fingers touched the keyplate the door slid aside and two uniformed Centauri stepped out of the elevator. She recoiled when she recognized Beryl’s men.

One of them, a sergeant named Rafe, smirked when he saw her. “Lieutenant Whiteside. We were just coming to welcome you home.”

She looked around. “I’m not sure that welcomes are required. I’m familiar with the place.”

“Well, the boss sent us to find you. We’ve been looking all over. He wants a word with you.”

Nova felt her heart jump in her chest. No doubt Trakkas had given Beryl some very firm orders about her immediate future. “What boss?”

“Lieutenant Colonel Thedris. How many bosses do you have?”

“The colonel doesn’t even know I exist. Why didn’t he just call me?”

The Centauri pointed at her forearm, still missing the data sleeve she had dropped in the skimmer before it blew. “A little hard to find without your com. So he asked us to take a look around.”

His companion nudged her not too gently toward the lift. “And he seems to be in a hurry for that to happen.”

“I’ll go see him right away,” she said. “After I get a fresh uniform. I just got back from the surface. Tell him I’ll just be a few minutes.”

The Centauri guards crowded her into the elevator that simply did not seem built for men of their size. Rafe let his eyes wander over her body for a thoughtful moment. “That uniform looks just fine to me.”

Nova swallowed the ugly lump of fear that rose in her throat. The soldiers stood too close to her. She could feel them, smell them. Her every instinct and every bit of training and experience told her to flee. There was no colonel waiting for her. There was only Beryl and these thugs, ready to silence her permanently in some entertaining fashion. She recalled Djari’s comment about the usefulness of fear. She beat it down, little by little, as the lift rose toward the upper levels. “I mean it. I don’t want to be seen by Thedris like this. It’ll just take a moment.”

“We’ll come with you,” Rafe offered. “Just to make sure you don’t get lost.”

“Are you arresting me, then, Sergeant?” she snapped, grateful when her words came out firm. Without waiting for his response, she changed the destination of the lift to stop two floors below the administrative level. With luck, some of the pilots were loitering around there as they sometimes did before hitting the lounge for a late-evening drink. “Because unless you are, I can find my room on my own.”

Both men stepped out of the lift when she did. The hallway was deserted and no one lounged around the common area near the arched windows. Nova took a few steps toward her quarters, spun around again and leaped into the lift just as its door closed. She punched the controls for the floor below, praying to the gods of Bellac that the other lift was on a distant level.

She squeezed out of the car before the doors had fully opened and raced down the corridor. She passed one, two sub-sections of residential units before slapping her hand against the keyplate of one door among many. It slid aside and she stumbled into Djari’s room with a loud sob of relief.

She pressed her mouth and nose into her elbow to muffle the sound of her deep gasps for air, out of breath with fear and exertion. She leaned against the door, listening to the menacing thump of combat boots. They grew louder, then passed. Then stopped. Rough voices murmured something too low to make out. The footfalls returned and then faded again.

Nova closed her eyes and tipped her head back against the door. Now what? Where was Djari? Working late? Or was he down at the docks, perhaps, packing up the latest shipment of dope? The bed was unmade, which wasn’t all that unusual, and once again he had left his com band on the table beside it. But the room wasn’t just empty of boyfriend but also empty of the stacks of boxes he had stashed here. None on the floor, none on the unused bunk. She now had a fairly reasonable guess as to what had been in them.

She picked up his com band and idly turned it over in her hands when a terrible thought struck home. Had Beryl’s men harmed Djari? Did they know about her involvement with him? She looked around the room again as if in search of a splatters of blood or some sign of a struggle. Was she the leverage they were using to get him to cooperate?

It would work, of that she was certain. Neither of them had indulged in breathless declarations of love and dedication during their magnificent bouts of lovemaking but they both knew the possibility was there. She needed his serenity as much as he craved her passion. He would go far to keep her from harm. It was also the reason she had not told him that it was Beryl who had assaulted her at Rim Station. She had no doubt that he cared for her deeply. What was a bit of smuggling to keep her safe? He had little to lose up here.

Nova looked around for something to use as a weapon, should Rafe still roam the halls. Feeling a little uneasy about looking through Djari’s things, she peered into some of the cabinets. Most held untidy stacks of clothes and work coveralls. But when she opened a bin near the door her breath caught. A rail gun, fully charged. A small projectile weapon and cases of bullets. A precision laser tool not usually employed by botanists. With a silent curse at finding yet more hints about his new career choice, she took the projectile weapon and tucked it into her uniform blouse.

She went to the door and pressed her ear against it. Someone, distantly, was singing off-key and joyfully. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and peered outside. Empty. It was only a few seconds to the lifts.

But instead of directing the car to the administrative level and the colonel’s office, she dropped it to the shipping floor. She had to know for sure. She had to see. Somewhere down there was the evidence she needed. She was also sure that somewhere in the back of her mind she hoped that there was nothing to be found at all.

The hallway outside the restricted area was silent. She listened to the heavy tread of boots to warn her of the guards’ approach. When she heard nothing but the muffled sounds of industry behind these walls, she stole along the corridor to the unfinished passenger lift Djari had shown her. It was still unlocked and she slipped inside and then climbed the ladder to the catwalk. The stairless gap in the wall showed her a view of the elevator hub, looking much like the last time she had seen it. Workers, supervisors, but no armed guards tonight. Were they all out looking for her?

She did not resist the pull of the shimmering stars outside and stopped to remember the moments she and Djari had shared here. Perhaps she was avoiding what she had come here to see. Turning her back to the stars, she went to the corner of the secret space and pulled one of the bins into the light. It was sealed but unlocked, marked by customs agents as cleared. She broke the seal wire and slid the lid aside.

And found coil upon coil of mince .

Nova closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, the stuff was still there. She slipped her hand down along the inside of the tub to feel more of them and encountered something hard and smooth. Pushing the coils aside exposed an opaque bottle, tapered at the ends, without markings and likely a liquid form of the drug. Quickly, she closed the bin and pushed it back into the corner to pile another on top to hide the broken seal. There was nothing left to do now but to find someone who was not on Trakkas’ pay sheet and reveal what she had found. One of the other pilots, perhaps. Rolyn, surely, would stand by her. And then it was most definitely time to see the colonel.

She hurried back down to the corridor and had just pulled the door shut when someone in stained coveralls turned the corner, carrying a container like the ones she had seen above. She froze and he froze and both of them stared at each other for a moment before he dropped the box and ran.

“Hey!” she called after him, surprised by his escape. She raced after him down the hall leading to the lifts. If he ducked into a restricted entrance on this level the chase would end quickly. Nova’s daily and strenuous exercise routines served her well and she soon caught up to the Bellac. When he sprinted past the elevator doors and to a short staircase she launched herself over the railing and pulled him to the floor. She had straddled him, her gun to his throat before he had even realized what had happened.

He squeezed his eyes shut and spread his arms out in defeat. “Don’t shoot. Please, Lieutenant!”

She let him cringe for a moment while catching her breath. “Why did you run?”

He opened his eyes slowly, one at a time. The network of veins normally visible on a Bellac’s neck had turned a deep purple with the exertion of the chase. “Because you have a gun?”

She jabbed him with the barrel. “It was holstered. Again, why did you run? You were taking the box up to the stash, weren’t you?”

“Please don’t turn me in, Lieutenant. I’m just doing what I’m told.”

He shook his head. “No, please. I can’t.”

“You have no choice.”

“No. Shoot me now. I don’t care. Better that than… that .”

“Than what?” She shifted away from him and gestured with the gun for him to sit on the bottom stairs. The foot she had injured down on Bellac throbbed steadily after her dash to catch this man. “Talk to me or we’re both going topside right now.”

Again, he shook his head. “I can’t. I have kids. Two girls. Here on the station.”

“He threatened your children?”

“I didn’t say that. But things happen. You know about that accident when one of the deck hands fell off the upper scaffolding?”

“That’s not how she broke her neck.”

“They are murdering people now?” Nova gasped.

“There were others. I won’t be one of them. I just do what I’m told and get to go home to my girls at night.”

“Names. Just nod. Beryl?”

His eyes darted around the hallway before he nodded.

“Vel Ancel? Tajana?”

She wavered for a few seconds before asking: “Nathon Djari?”

“Who? No, don’t know that one.”

“Human, works in the rings. Scar on the side of his face.”

“Seen him around. But he never talked to me. Is he one of them?”

Nova put her gun away and pulled him to his feet. “Look. These people have to be stopped. You can help stop them. Tell the colonel what you told me.”

“I told nothing!” he said and moved ahead of her back up the stairs.

“This is going to come out sooner or later,” she tried. “Is this worth losing your job over? Maybe going to prison?”

He turned back, angry now. “It’s not worth losing my life over. What do I care what gets smuggled through here?”

“People are dying over this!”

“Only the ones that don’t mind their own business. I’m doing well so far.”

“Living in fear?”

He stared at her and his mouth formed words that didn’t quite make it past his lips.

She touched his arm, again astonished by the power Beryl wielded over these people. “Tell no one you saw me. You can at least do that, can’t you? Just clear out. Go home to your girls. You don’t want to be here when we get back.”

He nodded wordlessly and stumbled away, perhaps to retrieve the box he had dropped.

Nova returned to the lift and directed it to the administrative level. Pointlessly, she tried to straighten her hair and uniform in the reflection of the elevator’s wall. She looked like some lunatic about to storm into her commanding officer’s presence with tales of drug smuggling and extortion. With luck, her so-far spotless record would convince the colonel to at least come down here to see the evidence for himself.

She felt calm and resolute by the time she stepped out of the car and onto the elegantly designed upper floor of the station. Her calm and resolution flew out of the graphene re-enforced windows when she saw Rafe. He, Ancel and two others of Beryl’s security team stood at the entrance of the vast workspace shared by the administrators of the skyranch.

This time there was no sardonic smirk to welcome her. She walked toward them as if in some sort of nightmare. The men, three Centauri and a Human, seemed like alien creatures in their ill-used, armored uniforms and well-kept weapons, covered in tattoos and scars and a cloud of ill will. In contrast, even at this hour teams of well-groomed individuals worked quietly up here, separated by invisible sound proofing, politely oblivious to the lower-level ruffians among them.

“Whiteside,” Rafe said. “Finally decided to report to the colonel?”

She frowned. Had he actually told the truth when they had come for her? What would the station commander want with her at this hour? True, he was temporarily their wing commander as well but so far had left those duties to the other officers, relying heavily on his squadron leaders.

She walked silently past the grunts to look around the vast space. Indeed, she saw the colonel near the terrace in conversation with several officers. She stopped by a receptionist who directed her into a separate area, this one with opaque walls and furnished with a few lounges and chairs. She sat stiffly near the door.

Two of the guards followed her. Ancel leaned against the wall, so close to her that his hip brushed her arm. She rose from her seat and moved to another. Rafe flung himself into a deep armchair and, out of sight of the staff in the main work space, propped his boot against the back of another.

“So what did our favorite pilot do to get an audience with the big boss,” he said.

“How would I know?”

“Could it be that you have something to tell him?”

“Not your business, is it?”

“Maybe it is. Had a little trouble down on Bellac earlier?”

He leered up at Sergeant Ancel. “Where’s that blond boyfriend of yours these days?”

She tried to ignore him but found that she could not. “What did you do to him? How did you get him to cooperate?”

He shrugged, making it clear that he had too much fun in keeping her wondering. “He didn’t take much convincing. Humans are weak. They scare easy.” He leered at her. “Not like you, though, Nova.”

“Lieutenant Whiteside,” she corrected.

“By the time Beryl’s had his say with the colonel, you’ll be lucky to be Private Whiteside. Do you really think that we don’t have this covered? That some snoop like you actually matters?”

“I do think that. You wouldn’t be up here threatening me if you weren’t scared green.”

He shook his head but it seemed to her that some of the sneering arrogance had left his unshaven face. “Beryl tells us you spread for him like a blanket.” He placed his hand on his groin and left it there. “Is that true, Nova? He said you had some decent parts on you.”

“You’ll never know,” she said, sure of his bluff now that nothing remained but lewd suggestions with the threat of more violence.

“We’ll see. Guess you haven’t had a nice piece of Centauri before.”

She regarded him coolly. “Well, I have. Although that one liked to bathe.”

Ancel, still slouching by the door, cackled with laughter when Rafe scowled at her. He sat up straighter in his chair when a woman in a stylish sky-colored wrap came to the door. She did not look at him but gestured to Nova with a polite smile and an impossibly delicate hand.

Nova stood up. She bent slightly toward Rafe as she passed. “It’s called soap, shekka’an . Write that down somewhere so you don’t forget.”

It felt odd to walk past people speaking to each other and yet not hear a word through the discreet sound baffles. She stepped through one of those shields onto the open terrace overlooking the lower levels, waiting to be called. Even at this hour, a few off-duty staffers were enjoying the space. A nice place to take a late meal, she thought, feeling her stomach rumble despite her apprehension.

“Lieutenant Whiteside,” she heard finally from some hidden sound source. “Please join us.”

She looked up to see the station commander gesture to her from his workspace further along the terrace. Nearby stood Captain Dakad and a crisply uniformed Feydan major whom she did not recognize. She fought an irrational urge to run away.

“Sir.” She saluted the officers and stood stiffly before them.

“Whiteside,” the colonel indicated a seat close to him. There was no table between them and she sat awkwardly, crossing and then uncrossing her legs. Her boots were caked with desert dust and she tucked them under the chair.

Thedris held a data unit in his hand. He regarded her for a long while and she berated herself for not having taken a minute to at least put on a set of fatigues instead of remaining in this rumpled uniform. She glanced at Dakad and saw nothing helpful there.

The colonel looked down at his screen. “Your records,” he informed her. The officer seemed relaxed, his formal jacket unfastened, the shock of black hair casually brushed over the crown of his head. The light from above reflected eerily in his eyes when he looked up again. “I’ve had the pleasure of working with Colonel Tegan Whiteside once. Outstanding officer.”

“From what I see here, you look to be following his example.”

“I try, sir. Thank you.”

“Forty hours left until your Hunter Class trials. Impressive. What is your goal after that?”

She lifted her chin. “Targon, sir.”

He raised an eyebrow. “A fine objective, Lieutenant. That’ll put you on a battleship into deep space.”

“I hope so, sir.”

“Much more interesting than guarding this dust ball.” He pointed down, toward the planet. “Or patrolling a jumpsite.”

“Those assignments have their challenges as well,” she replied dutifully.

He nodded. “You’ve lost some colleagues recently. I’m sorry. That is never easy.”

“No, sir. They’ll be missed. Our squad was… is a tight unit.”

He looked up at Dakad. “That is good to hear.”

She glanced at the Feydan major standing beside the colonel. She stood with one hand around the wrist of the other, no doubt recording this meeting with the camera in her data sleeve. Her elaborately tattooed face gave nothing away. She and Dakad would also be sitting if any of this was as informal as the colonel appeared. Nova stopped herself from squirming nervously as she tried to recall anything that might give her cause to feel as nervous as she did. Nothing came to mind.

“As you know, we’re still involved in the investigation of the horrific event on the flight deck. It appears that a new material was used to compromise the power packs on General Ausan’s shuttle. We’ve traced some components to Pelion so far.”

She frowned. “Those packs aren’t volatile. What we saw was an explosion.”

“Exactly. The labs are busy figuring that out.”

“Sabotage, then? Rebels?”

“Likely. The question is: how did it get aboard?”

“I’m sorry, sir. That isn’t my field. I would assume the material was already aboard her cruiser when it arrived.”

He tipped his head. “A reasonable assumption. Leaving the entire Siolet base under suspicion.”

“I suppose,” she said uncomfortably. “Some of us were guessing that they wanted to blow it here to make a statement about the orbiter. And bag a few pilots while at it.”

“Also reasonable. Meaning that someone up here could have tampered with those packs after the general arrived.” He gestured to the terraces. “Crew, admin, pilots.”

“Sir, surely you’re not suggesting that the pilots had anything to do with this. Our pilots suffered as many casualties as the ground crew.” She leaned forward, unable to hold herself in check much longer. “Why am I being questioned? And here? By you?”

“The rest of the station staff is being interviewed by security. But we have some additional inquiries for you.”

“Tell us about Djari Nathon,” he said, watching her intently.

He consulted his screen for the correct name. “That’s Nathon Lis Djari. You know him well.”

Nova blinked, trying to discern the direction of this inquisition. “Yes. He was with us in Shon Gat. Working with the wounded there.”

“Yes, we’re aware of what happened there.”

“He… he’s a farmer. Somewhere in the Rift. He said he came to look for work up here.”

“And you petitioned General Ausan to expedite that.”

“Yessir. He showed great fortitude at Shon Gat. He helped us escape. It seemed a small reward for his actions.”

“What is your relationship with him now?”

She furrowed her brow. “He’s been dealing with some… difficulties. But I like to think that we are friends,” she added firmly.

The colonel came to his feet and gestured for her to remain seated when he walked to the perimeter of the sound-shielded space. He looked out over the terrace for a while before returning to stand behind her. She felt him place his hand on her shoulder and fought an urge to pull away.

“Your friend is under suspicion of aiding the rebel on Bellac,” he said finally.

“What?” she cried out before biting her lip and reminding herself to hold it together in front of these people. “That’s not possible.”

“He’s suffered as much as any of the locals have. He’s no rebel.”

“He may be a spy. Or even just a sympathizer.”

She shook her head. “He has no regard for them.” She looked up at him. “And he would not even think about something as horrific as the sabotage in the hangar. He cares about people. I’ve seen it.”

The colonel returned to his chair, likely assured that they had enough video of her reaction to this news.

“Besides,” she said. “If he’s a spy he’s not a very good one. He’s never pushed me for any information that he shouldn’t have. And he was hurt in the blast, too.”

“He had no business on that deck.”

She shrugged. “He said he was picking up a shipment of seeds.”

“Five cargo pods arriving daily and he has seeds delivered to the flight hangar? The whole point of the elevator is to make that unnecessary. Security should have stopped him. Yet he seemed to know how to avoid them.”

“He’s a farmer. What would he know about placing explosives onto a guarded Air Command cruiser?”

“How do you know he’s a farmer?”

Nova closed her eyes. Chemical analysis kits in his room. Boxes of material there one day and gone the next. Guns. Evasive answers. “I don’t.”

“Coria Taren,” he said.

“Coria Taren, liberated along with yourself and a few others at Shon Gat. I’ll say that ‘liberated’ is not the correct word. She is a confessed rebel operative who’s been working in Shon Gat for months. She was also ‘captive’ along with you and Nathon Djari?”

“Yes,” Nova said. “I suspected she might have been one of them.” She looked up, feeling caged. “I was in no position to arrest her.”

“But you did not suspect your friend Nathon Djari?”

“I can’t believe he would side with the Shri-Lan.” She looked up at Dakad and then stood up to pace, as Colonel Thedris had done, to the edge of the terrace. Crossing her arms she looked up through the skylight to the glittering solar collectors above.

Was it possible? She thought about Djari’s endless patience and gentle handling of the injured at Shon Gat. His knowledge of agriculture was undoubtedly the main reason for his presence up here, with or without her recommendation. He had been a solid rock in what had been weeks of turmoil for her, and that only for a few exhausting, confusing days.

But he had not once asked her about Coria. Did he know what happened to her? When he escaped Beryl’s men at Shon Gat, was it to flee for his life or to avoid being taken to the garrison? Had the rebels captured him after that, or had he joined them on his own accord? She had heard him rail against the Union and against Air Command methods. She had dismissed it as weary grumblings in a miserable situation.

And maybe, she thought, this was the reason why he had showed so little concern over her flippant comment after he had first made love to her. If the colonel’s accusation were true, Djari knew that there was no future here on this orbiter for him and that there was none for them together. At best, she thought, he cared enough to want to stop her from boarding the doomed shuttle. And she had responded by practically flinging herself into his bed.

“Idiot,” she whispered. Gullible, unthinking, impulsive, stupid! How she ached to confront him this minute, wherever he might be. She went back to where the others waited, unmoving. “You wouldn’t be telling me this if you thought I was compromised, too. What do you want from me?”

Thedris waited until she had taken her chair again. “Normally, I’d relieve you of duty, arrest him and see how the investigation shakes out.”

“And abnormally?” she said, too angry and disappointed for military etiquettes.

“I’ve spoken to your past commander.” He peered more closely at his screen. “Andridge on Tannaday. The two tours you did there were well spent. She speaks highly of you. For the most part. Your loyalty to the Commonwealth is not in question.”

“I’m glad,” she said flatly.

He pursed his lips and shifted them around for a bit as if making up his mind about something before speaking. “You’ll continue your friendship with him. None of our agents have been able to get on anything more than a sociable footing with him. He’s polite but we get nothing but a blank wall from him.”

“You want me to spy for you?”

“Yes. We think he might be able to lead us to more higher-placed rebels in the Bellac Shri-Lan group. Perhaps even outside of Bellac. There is nothing to be gained by arresting him just yet. He’s a minor piece. We’re not even sure that he was responsible for the explosion in the hangar.”

She looked up at Captain Dakad as if for help. “I’m not trained for covert ops.”

“We’re not sending you into Shri-Lan headquarters.” Thedris smiled up at the Feydan major. “Although it would be a day for celebration if you found out where that is these days.” His expression sobered when he returned to his screen. “You have enough training in languages, surveillance equipment and security protocol to be useful. We want you to engage him, discover what you can about rebel activities on Bellac or elsewhere.”

“Is he dangerous?”

“He’s not a farmer.”

Nova had to make an effort to maintain her erect posture, wanting nothing so much as wilt in her chair, perhaps with a cozy blanket wrapped around her. Oddly, her thoughts wandered to Lieutenant Boker. Heiko Boker, who would surely come up with some disrespectful comment about this, who would ultimately comfort her with something fairly sensible, and who was dead now. Perhaps because of Djari. How she wished for him now, the only person here, other than Lieutenant Rolyn, to whom she might admit her stupidity for having trusted the man.

“What is he, then?” she said.

“We don’t know. He’s been in Shon Gat for some time, waiting for a work placement up here. None of the rebels we captured there had any information about him.”

“Including Coria?”

“Including her.” He observed her for a moment. “Lieutenant, I can imagine it is difficult to hear that a friend has fallen under suspicion. We all know that saboteurs have been able to infiltrate many levels of both Air Command and Union governance. That doesn’t make it easier to find out that a trusted person is not who they appear to be.”

She nodded but his words brought a small whisper of hope. “What about our people? Is it possible that he’s an agent? One of ours? Working in Shon Gat?”

The colonel shook his head. “We checked with Targon. There are no special ops going on that we weren’t aware of. Our own plain clothes are accounted for.”

“May I ask why you suspect him? Other than that he’s not a farmer?”

The major standing beside Thedris finally found her voice. “As part of the investigation we have been tracing the movements of all station personnel over the past few weeks. Nathon Djari made two trips to the surface to arrange for plant material. In both cases, he met briefly with the growers and then took a private skimmer into Siolet. Accurate facial recognition is very easy right now, given his recent injury. He was spotted in several locations that are known to be sympathetic of Shri-Lan members. He sent coded messages from here to a mobile operative on the surface not long before the explosion. We suspect a receiver hidden among the caravans. A closer examination of his background turned up a number of discrepancies, although artfully concealed. He is now under surveillance.”

Nova was still processing the information she had just been given. “Huh? What?”

“We are tracking his movements and have placed surveillance at key points along his daily routine.”

“You bugged his room?” she gasped, aware of a furious blush creeping up along her neck. “When?”

“Yesterday. When we received the report from Command.”

Nova dared to breathe again, suddenly very skeptical about Djari’s motive for taking their private encounters elsewhere on the station. So much for star-dappled poetry! He just wasn’t much for having his love life recorded. If he did, indeed, work for the Shri-Lan, checking his room for hidden devices would be routine.

How she wished she still thought of him as just a smuggler! Captain Beryl and his self-serving operation suddenly seemed very insignificant in comparison to these accusations.

“Colonel, I’m not sure I’m comfortable with—”

A strident, pre-emptive whine from the colonel’s com system cut her off in mid-sentence. He tapped his sleeve to receive the message without voice. His brow furrowed. Several minutes passed before he closed that communication and began another, this one audible.

“Shri-Lan forces have attacked the Rim Station with a shipment of Rhuwacs,” he transmitted. “Shrills are reported over Siolet near the commerce center. A carrier just came out of subspace at the jumpsite and has engaged our fighters out there. All are requesting reinforcements.”

Dakad and Nova exchanged a startled look. He tapped his own communicator to sound an alarm in the pilots’ quarters and on their com bands. “We’re deploying. Pilots only. Not a drill. Upper flight deck in ten.”