“Greetings, citizens.” His voice was modulated. He looked a happy man and likely was, if his message could be believed. “Some of you may remember me from my bid for the Directorship in 2134 A.C......, five years ago.”
Now she knew where she’d seen him before, with his brown hair an even mousier shade than hers had been, and his gray eyes like chipped steel. The challenge for the Directorship had taken place before she had been transferred to Goverance Building, when she was still a Sec 2, but she remembered how outraged the citizens had been at this man’s underhanded tactics in trying to buy votes from the Council of Nine, who were only all-powerful during election time every ten years when it was their duty to decide the matter, and were mere advisors otherwise.
“Whether you remember me or not is of no importance,” he continued, seeming to have read Tedra’s thoughts. “All that you need know is that I am Crad Ce Moerr, your new Director—”
“The hell you say!” she growled, almost missing the rest, since he didn’t stop to allow for her fury.
“—by virtue of might. I have this day taken control of Goverance Building and do not intend to give it up. The takeover was accomplished with ease and a minimum of casualties. And you will be pleased to know your previous Director will not be harmed as long as there are no attempts to remove him from Goverance Building, where he will enjoy a comfortable confinement as hostage for your good behavior during the transition of power, as well as in the years to come. Let me assure you there will be no major changes under my Directorship. Your careers and lives, good citizens, will continue as they are, including those of Security, the only difference being you have a new Director to lead you in peace and prosperity, a new Director to protect and revere. I am he, Crad Ce Moerr.”
The screen went blank, and Tedra’s thoughts exploded in a whirl of outrage and disbelief. It was a joke, and in very bad taste. Yet there was that word “revere,” which planted the doubt and twisted it around in her gut. Demanding reverence? How utterly autocratic. Garr Ce Bernn was loved and revered. He didn’t have to demand it. By virtue of might? Security against Security? No! Impossible! But how else?—if it was true.
She flipped on the long-distance channel and keyed Goverance Building direct. Her fingers bit into the arms of the chair as she waited for the screen to flash on again. Security at Goverance Building was the best. How could they be defeated? Bribery? Payoffs? Could she work with men for so long and not know them at all? Damn and damn, why hadn’t she been there? She could have done something, made a difference. The screen remained blank, refusing to give answers.
Immediately she tried another location while the channel was still open. On the second chime the screen lit up with the face of one of her closer friends, Rourk Ce Dell, Chief of Relics Hall.
“Thank Heaven’s Stars, Tedra, we were so afraid they’d—” He broke that off, running a hand over his blue eyes in a sign of extreme weariness—or relief. Her heart had already accelerated again, expecting the worst after that. “Listen up, babe, and don’t interrupt. It’s true if you saw it with the rest of us, at least the fact that they’ve got Goverance Building locked up tight. And the Director was still alive, last we heard. But the rest—nothing but lies. You wouldn’t believe some of the things we’ve heard ... the farden slime’s issuing directives left and right ... so many changes, and he’s getting away with it.”
“Just tell me how, Rourk.”
“I will, as soon as you get here—”
“Rourk!”
“There’s no time now, Tedra!” he said with as much frustration and anxiety as she was feeling. “I’ve got to keep this line open for Slaker. He’s working magic at the computer lab. When I couldn’t reach you, I took the chance that you were still in Fanya and had him list you dead as of yesterday, so there shouldn’t be any suspicion. We’ve worked up new stats for you, too, but there’s been some trouble with the Records computer, as if they’ve already figured out there’ll be tampering and have put a lock on the files. But Slaker’s working on it, and you know how good he is.”
“Yes, I—”
“Just get back here as soon as you can, Tedra, and come straight to my place. Don’t even think of going near Goverance Building or the Security Complex, or your new place. Don’t talk to anyone else, and try not to worry. Slaker and I will get you off the planet somehow.”
“Off the planet?” she said in a small, disbelieving voice. “I’ve got to leave the planet?”
“That or worse, babe. Crad Ce Moerr has to pay his mercenaries with something. Every female Sec they can get their hands on is the first installment.”
Tedra blanched, but got out, “Mercenaries, not Security? Who?”
“The Sha-Ka’ari.”
But the Sha-Ka’ari were sword-wielder’s, was her incredulous thought as the screen went blank again.
Chapter Two
In her four-seater air cruiser, it took Tedra less than twenty minutes to return to Gallion City. It took several hours to find parking, however, since Rourk’s apartment was right in the heart of Gallion, and to find space for an air cruiser was never easy, today almost impossible. She wished she dared zip out to the suburbs to exchange the cruiser for her much smaller Fleetwing II, which she usually used for city travel, but after Rourk’s warning, she’d be crazy to try it. She still didn’t know what the hell had happened at Goverance Building, and until she did, she’d follow Rourk’s suggestions to the letter.
At last another cruiser took off from a parking roof three blocks away, and before enough Fleetwings could zip in to fill the space, she set her craft down. It was likely Crad Ce Moerr’s broadcast that had brought such traffic congestion to the city today. Tedra wouldn’t be the only one anxious to find out what was really going on.
Her mind was still spinning with it, and it still made no sense. She knew so little about the Sha-Ka’ari, but there had to be tons of information about them on computer file, since Kystran had been trading with Sha-Ka’ar ever since the small planet was first discovered tucked away in the north sector of Centura Star System not too many years ago. All she knew was that they were reputed giants who clung to many of their old beliefs and customs, such as the keeping of slaves and the making of war on their own planet. Despite that, however, they coveted the advanced technology of other worlds to improve their lifestyles, which they had done considerably. But the last she had heard, they were still slaveholders, and still sword-wielding warriors, which really made no sense—unless Ce Moerr had trained and supplied them with modem weapons for the takeover.
Even as the thought occurred to her and seemed to be the only answer, she got her first look at the devils in question, and it was swords attached to their belts, not lazors. Two of them rode the avenue glide, which got the foot traffic where it wanted to go about three times faster than walking would. She was cruising down the avenue under her own steam herself, having wanted to keep a distance from the crowded glides, if just a few feet distant, Rourk’s warning not to talk to anyone ever-present in her mind.
Just seeing them, heads above everyone else on the glides, set her adrenaline pumping. They really were bigger than she had counted on, even if they were reputed giants. Kystran men obtained height; at least a few did. But they didn’t obtain brawn. The two Sha-Ka’ari warriors were huge in comparison, even the one who was likely no more than six feet himself. His buddy had maybe another four inches to top that, but they were both so muscular it was worth crying over. Heaven’s Stars, were they all like that?
But they carried swords, for Star’s sake. Again it made no sense. Against a phazor, they might as well be unarmed. Her own weapons were in her carryall, but she could get to them quickly enough if she had to. Against mere swords, she wouldn’t even need to. She wasn’t a Sec 1 for nothing. She had advanced beyond Security training years ago, and gone on to self-train in some of the more deadly techniques of weaponless fighting. Rourk, who worked in the Relics Hall, supplied her with all the tapes she could ask for. He’d even
hooked her on general ancient history, which had become her second passion, next to her job.
If she had thought nothing would come of seeing these two warriors, her pumping adrenaline had told her otherwise. Sure enough, they stepped off the glide in front of her, her height likely having drawn their notice. Big and wide as they were, there was no room to pass around them unless she got on the glide. But they weren’t standing there blocking her way for nothing. And being chased after on the glides was not her idea of fun, or any way to keep a low profile just now.
They were grinning at her, as if she were something that had been lost but now was found, and speaking gibberish to each other, probably Sha-Ka’ari, which was really rude when you considered they weren’t likely to come invading without having slept on some Kystrani Sublims first, to acquire the language of the target planet. Even if they hadn’t come prepared to be understood, they could have been given the language their first night there while they slept. They did sleep, didn’t they? Most humanoids did require at least a few hour’s sleep a day, and they were definitely humanoids, and damn handsome ones at that.
They wore uniforms similar to Security’s, long-sleeved, long-legged one-piecers in a dark blue material she didn’t recognize. It was kind of thick, probably to hold in all those muscles that looked like they were about to pop open all available seams. Their boots were standard material, as were their belts, the major difference being they were sword belts, designed to hold nothing else.
Even as they talked back and forth, they were paying her as close attention as she was them. But that gibberish was starting to annoy her. She could speak every language in the Centura League of Confederated Planets in the Centura Star System, all seventy-eight of them. Kystran ranked twelfth in the League in the matter of importance, being a major exporter of luxury items like solaray baths, hair-and-eye changers, adjustichairs and beds, air blankets, all the little things that made life more comfortable and efficient, so Kystran received a good deal of Centura League visitors. But Sha-Ka’ar wasn’t a member planet. There had been no reason to sleep on its Sub-lim, if Kystran even had its language on file.
She was about to say something about their rudeness when the taller one spoke, his Kystrani very slow and precise, as if he distrusted the new language inside his head, which was funny if you thought about it. Not many people from lower-tech worlds believed you could learn a whole new language in just a few hours, especially when you didn’t even have to be awake and listening to do it. First timers were always skeptical, not trusting the new words in their subconscious to come out in accordance with their conscious thoughts. It took a little longer to be able to think in the new language as well.
“You are a Security, are you not, woman?”
Stars, was it the way she stood, ready to take them both down at the slightest wrong move? Or was it her height? They were only guessing, of course. She’d just have to get them thinking along different lines.
“Security? Me? You’ve got to be kidding, sweet-cakes. Do I really look like a Security?”
She spread her arms wide, which parted the lower half of her vest to reveal a wide expanse of bare midriff. As she had hoped, that was where both pair of eyes went, getting their minds off Security.
“I’m a programmer over at Exports Exchange,” she continued, in case there was any suspicion left. “Got transferred there about three years ago, but I’m still not used to living in the city. Stars, the convenience of it all! Plays hell with the body, if you know what I mean. Have to get out and exercise on my off days or I’d go nuts.”
“Off days are free days,” one warrior said to the other.
But neither was really sure. There were always some words or expressions in a new language that made no sense, because you had nothing to compare it with on your world. Such things took a little verbal explaining if you were going to use the new language for an extended period of time.
“You both must be visitors to our fair city, right?”
It was the logical thing to say at that point, and after all, Ce Moerr’s broadcast hadn’t mentioned the Sha-Ka’ajri, so the average citizen wouldn’t know these warriors were the “might” that had somehow accomplished the takeover. She didn’t get an answer, and hadn’t expected one. Besides the fact that they were probably under orders not to alarm the citizens with knowledge of who they were and what they were doing there, who other than a Sec would push the matter if he didn’t get an answer? And she had denied being a Sec, hopefully to their satisfaction.
The taller warrior stepped closer to her, forcing her to bend her head back to keep eye contact with him, a quite foreign experience for her, and frankly a little intimidating. She had never tried her skill on someone his size. Of course, size didn’t really make a difference for most of her moves. But there was always that slim chance that he might get lucky. If her hands and feet weren’t free for her to use, strength could indeed make the difference. Her training demanded that she not let him get so close where he could use that strength against her, but to move back now might bring their suspicion back.
“We are pleased your time is free, woman. Our time is also free, thus you will share your time with us.”
Not “will you” or “how about it,” but “you will.” She had just learned one new fact about the Sha-Ka’ari. Their arrogance was unbelievable. And she had obviously done too good a job of playing the carefree flake of no danger to them. Then she gasped as the taller one’s hand slid through the lower opening of her vest to press flat against her midriff, a hand large enough to cover nearly the entire area, leaving her in absolutely no doubt about what they wanted to do while sharing time with her.
She had an excuse to step back now, to pretend outrage. “Sharing? As in a threesome? What do you take me for, fella, a Stress Clinic worker?”
He was unbelievably fast, grabbing her wrist before she could move back too far. In two seconds she could release her wrist, but she’d be showing them what she could do and the game would be up.
“Hey—” she began, only to hear, “Choose, then.”
So they could be reasonable—as long as one of them got what he wanted. Well, that was all right, certainly better than their first idea. She had already made a mistake by being so friendly, so it was too late to change her tune. And their libidos were already working overtime, if the look in their eyes was any indication, so she knew changing her tune wouldn’t work now anyway. She was stuck with one of them, and as long as it had to be that way, she would play it safe.
With a grin, she shifted her gaze to the warrior who topped her by only a few inches and hopefully would be the easier of the two to handle. “Are you as good as you look, babe, or am I going to have to try your friend here another time?”
With her choice made, she was released, only to have her “choice” step forward and secure her with an arm about her waist. “If you are as good as you look—babe, we will neither of us find disappointment.”
Nothing like getting into the spirit of the thing, she thought with an inward groan, but said aloud, “Then what are we waiting for? My place is just down the street.”
He said something to the bigger brute in the gibberish again and they both laughed, giving Tedra the feeling they still had every intention of sharing her since they considered her their own personal find— they’d just agreed to do it separately now. Well, that was for later worry. The taller one got back on the glide, to her relief, but her present worry wasn’t letting her out of his meaty grip—and he had come up with a new idea.
“I will be more—at ease—do we go to my ship.”
Not farden likely, she almost snarled, remembering in what manner Rourk had said they were being paid. She was afraid the payment wasn’t temporary. Sha-Ka’ari were slaveholders after all.
But none of her growing anger was in the sultry look she turned up to him. “You must have been lost, sweetcakes. Spaceport is clear on the other side of the city. Do you really want to wait that long?”
He almost crushed her ribs in answer. “After you will come to see my ship.”
“I’m likely to be too worn out,” she said meaningfully, “but we’ll see.”
He must have decided that was the best he would get for now, for he nodded and started off in the direction she’d indicated. She could breathe again—and wondered just how she would take him out. Six feet of confident, arrogant, amorous, strong warrior. Her Frimera technique might be her best bet. He wouldn’t even see it coming.
And he didn’t. When they reached Rourk’s apartment and she palmed the identilock, which fortunately had her prints on file, Tedra had one arm already around her warrior’s neck. It was just a matter of moving her fingers into place and applying the pressure while he was distracted with the door opening.
Only he didn’t go down immediately. He even turned to look at her, and for about four seconds her body went cold with fear. But then he did begin to slump forward, finally to crash onto the floor. So it just took a little longer on someone his size. Those thick neck muscles, probably. Stars, what a scare! But not nearly as much as the scare she gave poor Rourk, showing up at his door with a Sha-Ka’ari warrior in tow.
Chapter Three
“What do you mean you don’t want to kill him?” Rourk practically shouted.
“I don’t know,” Tedra answered with a sigh. “He told me his name on the way here. If he hadn’t told me his name—”
“Tedra!”
“Well, the man had his hands all over me and I didn’t half mind it. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for something like that to happen?”
Hearing that, he simply stared at her. Of all the times for Tedra De Arr to remember that she was a woman, why did it have to be now? For years he had been trying to set her up with one man or another, and all she ever did was challenge them, beat them, then never mention their names again.