But Shanelle complained, "Mother, must you describe them like that? "
She had been sitting on an adjusticouch with her lifemate's arms wrapped around her. Falon Van'yer had been talked into letting his lifemate come on this trip, but not without him. And he hated space travel, really hated it. Yet Shanelle had wanted to come, and he would do anything to make her happy‑within reason.
Shanelle now glanced back at him warily. He had good reason to despise the Sunderans and wouldn't like being reminded that they had tried to keep his lifemate from him, had even tried to make him completely forget about her. But Falon was looking absolutely inscrutable, though Ba‑Har‑ani warriors didn't usually hide their emotions. Kan‑is‑Tran warriors like Dalden and Challen didn't hide their emotions, either; they just had such unique control of their bodies that they seemed to lack any emotion of a strong nature, be it anger‑or love.
But Tedra also had good reason to not like the Sunderans. Martha had given her a full account of all that had happened to her daughter while she was there, and if Tedra had been there, there would have been a lot of hurting Sunderans before she left.
She snorted now at Shanelle's complaint and turned her aquamarine eyes on Falon. "You know I love you to pieces and will, just as long as my daughter does," she told the shodan of Ka'al. "But she sought help from those people and they failed to supp
it. It's a moot point that the help was needed against you in particular. And they want help from us now?"
Tedra's ending tone implied, Fat chance they'll get it. Falon merely nodded. Dalden knew better than to comment when his mother's dander was up. He left it to Martha to point out the obvious, which she did now.
"They want help from anyone. We just happen to be clos enough to hear it. And having heard it, there is no option of ignoring it‑or did you suddenly become an uncaring, callous individual when I wasn't looking?"
That got a baleful glare out of Tedra, directed at the intercom on the wall that Martha's purring voice was coming out of. "I didn't say we wouldn't help, but I don't have to like it, do IF'
"Shanelle doesn't hold grudges against them," Martha pointed out.
"They did try to help me," Shanelle explained. "They Just weren't very good at it. But they were dealing with Sha‑Ka'ani warriors, so it's hard to hold them at fault for their failure."
"Not hard at all," Tedra insisted. "Incompetents have never been high on my list of want‑to‑know people. The Sunderans did have a weapon in their Altering Rods that could have worked without hurting anyone‑physically," she quickly added for Falon's benefit, since he was the one who would have suffered if he had been made to forget about Shanelle. "And don't get me wrong. I'm pleased with the way that whole fiasco turned out in the end, and so are you. But that doesn't alter the fact that if you had really needed help of a life‑threatening sort, you definitely picked the wrong people to get it from."
"Exactly," Falon put in.
Shanelle turned around to her lifemate. "You agree with her?"
"Absolutely."
Shanelle threw up her hands in exasperation. "I give up."
The distinct sound of chuckling was coming out of the intercom unit. "Now can we get around to helping the 'incompetents'?"
"By all means," Tedra said with a smile.
Chapter Two
IMPATIENCE WAS SETTING IN. FEW ANSWERS HAD BEEN supplied after they had arrived on Sunder and been escorted to General Ferrill's office. The little general had immediately gotten on Tedra's bad side with his belligerence and condescending attitude, particularly since the Sunderans were the ones asking for help this time around.
Normally she would have ignored it, but in her present fretting mood, it very quickly had them shouting at each other. Which was when Shanelle suggested tactfully that Donilla Vand be summoned to deal with them.
Ferrill had acceded to that request gladly, obviously uncomfortable arguing with a woman he had to look up at, and had left them there alone in his office. He had neglected to mention, however, that Donilla would have to be fetched from prison. That information was volunteered by one of the military types standing guard at the door outside the office when asked what was taking so long.
When Shanelle had sought help from the Sunderans eight months earlier, Donilla Vand had been the general in command of Sunder's military forces. She was also the one who had explained how the women of Sunder had wrested control of the planet from their men, to keep them from going to war with their neighboring planet, Armoru.
It had been a global conspiracy made possible by the invention of what they called the Altering Rod. Sunder was, after all, quite advanced in the fields of science, having conquered all their known diseases. The rods had been created to control the minds of the mentally unbalanced, to make them useful citizens again. That they had been used by the women to take over all positions of power on the planet left many of them feeling quite guilty about it, Donilla included. So Shanelle wasn't really surprised that some of them had finally reversed the process to let their men take over again, though apparently the consequence was that those women had been sent to prison for what they'd done.
But there was no point in speculating about it until they knew for sure what had happened to put the men back in power. And they still didn't know what kind of help was needed or who had sent out a distress call, though that could be easily guessed at, now that the men were in power again. No doubt Sunder was in a state of war and possibly losing, now that their aggressive, war‑minded men were ruling again.
Unfortunately for them, Tedra and her family were governed by the policies of the League of Confederated Planets, of which Kystran ranked twelfth, and by which the neighboring Niva star system also abided. Steps could be taken to prevent war, which had been done to keep more advanced planets from trying to take over Sha‑Ka'an when it was discovered in the Niva system. But once war was declared, no help or hindrance could be offered, for the simple reason that some planets were too highly advanced for others to hope to compete with. For example, the battleship they had in their control could totally wipe out both Sunder and Armoru.
Nearly an hour had passed since the general had left them alone in his office. Tedra sat cross‑legged in the center of his desk. The chairs in the room were too small to risk sitting in without breaking. Dalden, Falon, and Falon's brother, Jadell, were sitting on the floor, leaning against the walls. Shanelle was pacing the room, feeling the worst of their impatience, since she alone had any sympathies for the Sunderans, having gotten to know Donilla Vand during her short stay here and liking the women.
Not surprisingly, when Donilla finally arrived, Shanelle pounced on her with her first concern. " Why 'have you been imprisoned?"
Donilla smiled. She was a small woman, barely five feet in height, which was the norm on this planet. Their men only averaged half a foot more. To them, the Sha‑Ka'ani really were giants, and Tedra and Shanelle, only a few inches short of six feet each, were close runners‑up.
But Donilla showed none of the nervousness that other Sunderans did in their presence. 'Her gray eyes warm in greeting, Donilla held out a welcoming hand to Shanelle.
"They didn't tell me it was you who answered our call for help," the ex‑general said. "I can't tell you how often I worried about you, despite your assurance that you would be fine. But since he is with you, dare I hope that you are comfortable now with your father's choice for you?"
The word comfortable didn't come close to describing life with a warrior, but it did bring a smile to Shanelle as well. "Yes, I came here previously with foolish fears, all of which have been put to rest. Happiness beyond measure is what my lifemate gives me."
"My woman is being modest," Falon said as he rose from the floor to stand next to her.
The remark caused them all to laugh, even Tedra, which momentarily relieved the tension of not knowing what was going
on. Shanelle then took a moment to introduce Donilla to her mother‑she had met everyone else in the room the fir
st time they were there.
Donilla, like most people who first met the Ly‑San‑Ters, couldn't hide her amazement that Tedra could be old enough to have children of twenty‑one, when she looked no older than thirty herself. Nor did either of her twin children take after her in looks. Both Dalden and Shanelle were blond and amber‑eyed, while Tedra's long hair was pitch black, her eyes a light aquamarine. A woman of strict physical disciplines all her life, she was aging very well.
Shanelle got back to the question that hadn't been answered yet. "How did you end up in prison, Donilla?"
Donilla replied, "Several months after you left us, I had an opportunity to meet with a large number of the women who, like me, had taken over key positions on Sunder with the use of Altering Rods. It wasn't hard to see that most of them weren't happy with the way things had turned out, any more than I was. Our original motive was sound, to keep Sunder from going to war. We just hadn't counted on the results leaving us with men who were barely recognizable from their former selves, or that we would feel so guilty about it. So, in effect, another conspiracy was begun. It wouldn't have worked unless enough of us were willing, because like the first instance, it had to be accomplished in a close time frame. One man back in power could do nothing if he had no support, after all. But we pulled it off again: we gave them back their identities and memories."
"And ended up in prison for it," Shanelle said indignantly. "I can't believe‑"
"Yes, you can," Donilla cut in. "We took away their memories of who they were, took away their power, took away their aggression. They'll never trust us again.
"Sounds like you haven't stopped feeling guilty about it," Tedra remarked. "The way you went about it was underhanded, yes, but your motives were sound. And a few months' detention is long enough for trying to keep your planet from going to war, a noble effort in my book."
"Thank you‑I think," Donilla replied, blushing slightly. "But if we didn't feel we deserved what we got, we would have made a fuss about it and been freed by now. Most of us see it as a vacation, one well needed after the stress and worry of trying to keep our men under our control for so long. And it's not a real prison they've detained us in. We have all the luxuries we could ask for. it's more like a resort just one with locks on the doors."
Shanelle would have discussed it more, but Tedra was more interested in the immediate problem and asked Donilla, "You know why we're here?"
"Yes. I may be locked away, but I'm still the only one Ferrill feels comfortable talking out his problems with, so he's kept me informed about everything that has happened since he took over again.
"If you're now at war with Armoru, we can't‑"
"No, it's nothing like that," Donilla interrupted, smiling. "There was one benefit of what we did. We didn't make our men forget about what had happened during the years of our rule, and five years of seeing that we could get along just fine without conquering any more people made them not jump back into the race of who could wipe out their neighbors first. They have in fact continued our plans of defense rather than attack. We just might be ready and fully prepared when Armoru finally makes its move."
Tedra grinned. "Congratulations and welcome to the concept of Life Appreciation. But what, then, is the problem here?"
"A crate of Altering Rods has been stolen," Donilla admitted with a sigh.
"That's an internal problem. Why would you ask for off‑world help for it?"
"Because the rods have been taken off Sunder, and we have no means to leave Sunder ourselves to retrieve them."
The Sunderans might be highly advanced in most fields of science, but space travel wasn't one of them. They hadn't even
known that worlds other than Armoru existed until they had been discovered by the Antury six years earlier. They had, in fact, been trying to build their first spaceship at the time, not for space travel, but to get them over to the neighboring planet of Armoru with the intent of global war, with Armoru doing exactly the same. It had been a race about who could invade first, a race that Sunder dropped out of during the few years the women had been in power.
"Do you know who took them?"
"Yes, we don't get many visitors here, since we have so little to offer in trade. But these people came with the sole intent of buying the Altering Rods from us. This was strange in itself, since very few people know of the rods on our own world, let alone on other worlds."
"Did the Antury who discovered you know?"
"Possible, but doubtful‑unless they have some means of reading our minds. The rods weren't something we were proud of by then. Shanelle was told about them because she needed reassurance on how we could help her against giant warriors like these here.
The rods had been used on those warriors and had even worked on most of them, making them forget that they had come there to find Shanelle. The process had failed on Falon, however, because he had refused to learn the Sunderan language before coming down to their planet and for the rods to work, it was necessary for the targets to understand what was being said to them.
The other warriors who had come down didn't have Falon´s deep distrust of all things unnatural to Sha‑Ka'an, and since almost any ship computer could analyze a new language and create a Sublim so that the language could be learned in just a few hours, the old universal language that was so frustrating had long since become obsolete. Sublims made it possible to communicate with newly discovered worlds with ease. There were a few glitches, like some words not having an immediate association and so needing a visual or verbal explanation to make sense. But basically, Sublims worked amazingly well and were used by all world traders and discoverers.
"So what happened?"
"The visitors were honored, given the royal treatment, actually, being who they were. But the rods are naturally a sore subject with Ferrill. He refused to discuss selling them, and said only that the rods were locked away in our strongest vault and would never see use again.
"Why weren't they just destroyed after you stopped using them?"
"Because the men realized the day might come when they would find a good use for them."
"As in Armoru knocking on your doors with weapons in hand?" Tedra guessed.
"Exactly," Donilla replied. "Besides, quite a few women know how to make them now, and since they don't work on women, those women can't be made to forget how to make them. So the men felt that locking them away was sufficient. After all, our strongest vault is guarded by the military night and day, impossible for anyone on our world to break into."
"But not for someone from another world, obviously."
"No, indeed. They used some kind of gas that put everyone to sleep and an explosive unknown to us that easily opened our vault. They left the planet immediately thereafter, and were gone before the theft was even discovered."
"When was this?"
"Yesterday.
Tedra sighed and pushed the button on her computer‑link unit. "Martha, I know you've been listening. What's the worst‑case scenario on these stolen rods?"
"If they were stolen for profit, they could end up distributed throughout the galaxies and well‑established policies could suddenly end up changing with no one the wiser as to why or how. Entire economies could be destroyed, wars would result, the League of Confederated Planets could topple."
That got a low growl and the demand, "How high is that on your list of probables?"
"Not very," Martha replied in one of her bored tones. "Considering who stole them, it's more likely that a single planet will be a target for takeover, pretty much in the same way it was done here. Quiet, efficient, without bloodshed, and without most of the populace even aware that they have been taken over."
"Considering who?" Tedra frowned. "And how do you know who our culprit is, when that hasn't been mentioned yet? Probables doesn't come close to dissecting a simple phrase like 'they were honored.'
That resulted in a bit of computer chuckling, a sound Martha had created to perfection. "That's debatable, but the fac
t that there is only one ship within a day's travel of here does manage to narrow things down."
Tedra rolled her eyes. "A known race I hope, so we at least know what we're dealing with?"
"Better than that, you know them personally. It's Jorran of Century III, the very same High King who tried to make mincemeat of our Falon in the competitions last year."
"Farden hell."
Shanelle noticed Donilla's blush over her mother's swearing and whispered to her, "That's just the Kystrani word for bloody, pretty mild when you consider mother has seventy‑eight languages to draw on for serious cussing."
Donilla grinned, but Martha, who had no trouble picking up whispers, said, "She's in shock. Give her a moment, she'll get around to some serious swearing."
Since everyone there could hear Martha, including her mother who was raising an annoyed brow at her, Shanelle was now the one blushing.
Chapter Three
TEDRA WALKED OUTSIDE THE MILITARY COMPOUND where General Ferrill's office was located. Dalden was deeply distracted and not paying much attention to anything other than walking. Shanelle was waiting to hear what Tedra would decide.
As far as Shanelle was concerned, having been apprised of the situation, they couldn't do anything but help. And that had nothing to do with Sunder or her liking for the Sunderan Donilla Vand, nor even her strong dislike of the High King Jorran, who had wanted to make her his queen by underhanded means. No, her concern was that an entire planet of unsuspecting people could become the victims of Jorran's tyranny. But Tedra might not see it that way and being more familiar with the policies of the Centura League, otherwise known as the League of Confederated Planets which strived to keep peace among all known planets, might be wrestling with good reasons why they shouldn't get involved.
Martha was being unusually quiet, even though her link was still open. But then, Martha only interfered when she knew that something might adversely affect Tedra. Otherwise, she let Tedra make her own decisions. That it often seemed otherwise was only because Martha covered all possibilities when she dissected a problem, from the most obvious to the least likely, and every variable in between.