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Chapter Five

  Alan Denby was a Terran of indeterminate age. He grasped Kat's hand heartily then did the same to Gael. "I'm so glad we have this time to go over the operation before we get to the planet. There's a problem there and I think it's more than just machinery breakdown."

  "What do you suspect?" Gael took over the conversation undaunted, moving up to walk beside Denby. Kat was left to walk behind them up the narrow brown corridor.

  "I believe we're going to find Bonding behind all of this. You saw the original info disk?"

  "I did. I believe the plant was shut down by sabotage. Do you have any proof that Bonding is behind it?"

  "Who else?" Alan Denby's homely face was sincere. "You know what it's been like since they got the contract on that new ore refining plant on Planet 9."

  "A contract, I might add, that is being contested by ECHO at this moment," Kat added. "The environmental data was rushed through processing before we saw the findings from either side."

  "ENDO did the work there, didn't they?" Denby gave Gael a conspiratorial glance that any other time would have put her off. It did put her on guard.

  She'd seen the work done on Planet 9 and tended to agree with ECHO's demand for time to recheck the planet for life forms. In this case, however, any support in her fight for control in the mission was welcome. If Denby thought they were collaborators that was a plus for her. "So you feel Bonding shut down this plant to draw some fire on Guardsman."

  "I think when you see and hear this new info disk, you'll be convinced. Might be the best thing just to go ahead and issue some restraining order on Bonding until this whole thing can be brought up before the courts."

  "We really don't have that sort of authority," Gael felt compelled to tell Denby. "But we'll do what we can if sabotage is evident."

  Kat added, "But you understand that the proof must be incontrovertible that Bonding is responsible."

  "Well, you judge that for yourself, Officer Astri." Alan Denby opened the door to a meeting room as the ship got under way again.

  For the next quarter, Kat and Gael watched the most slanderous info disk information Gael thought she had ever had the misfortune to witness. It was, evidently, spliced footage of Bonding uniformed agents mentioning their names as they invaded a shadowy space that may or may not have been an ore processor. Then they proceeded to tell them that they were disabling it, point by point.

  "Well? What about that for proof?" Denby looked directly at her and Gael felt herself lose hope.

  How could she side with this obvious con man against anyone, even an ECHO officer? She could feel his eyes on her, urging her to proceed. Gael took the middle, refusing to look at Kat. "This info disk certainly should be reviewed carefully. I need to check in with my home base. Perhaps we should transmit the disk back to them at the same time?"

  "What a great idea! You and I think a lot alike. Get the job done. That's what I'm here for." Denby congratulated himself heartily, his sharp eyes on Kat.

  There was something between the two ENDOECHO officers that Denby felt certain could be exploited. There was always rivalry there, if nothing else. His intuition told him to push. "You check in and I'll arrange some food. We have a chef on board, you know. No trans food here."

  "That's great," Gael returned his tone and smile. "I'm looking forward to it."

  A ship's steward led Gael and Kat to their respective quarters, showing Gael how to work the COM device before he left her there. She sank down slowly on the bedport when he'd left, wondering how much worse it could get.

  A knock on the door brought her to her feet. She opened it to find Kat there and nearly groaned, further defeated. "What do you want?"

  "I want to talk with you before you send any transmission to ENCOM," he said sternly, pushing by her into the room.

  "I'm not a fool, Kat. I'm not going to make any recommendations until we have something more than a tampered info disk to present." She glared at him, hoping he would leave. He sat down in a chair at the other side of the small room and she shrugged, closing the door. "Say what you have to then get out."

  "You're the senior officer in this mission, Lt. Klarke. I have a right to be present at any and all communication," he quoted ENDO-ECHO guidelines.

  "Is that all? You just want to be here when I check in?"

  "You know that's not all. We both know there is more."

  "All right. Let's get this straight." She stood against the wall, facing him. "I'm putting you into my dreams with some sort of latent psychic ability that I've been checked for and never found to possess. This is draining you psychically and creating problems between us."

  "That is a half truth," he amended. "You do have an undeveloped psi ability that for whatever reason has chosen to manifest itself with me. Perhaps your years of discipline have enabled you to disguise this ability or control it. But your energies are too close to my own and your continued meshing is dangerous to us both. We have to disengage or control your energies until they can be properly trained and channeled."

  "And I'll bet there's a Rian ritual ceremony for just such a problem."

  "There is no ceremony," he responded coldly, hating the random anger that was welling inside of him. It had been an amusing experience when it had first occurred but it was starting to wear on him. Emotional control was the first thing every telepath learned. When a thought could kill, Rian teachings concluded, all thoughts must be controlled. Emotions were the first and the most difficult.

  When Gael's energies had meshed with his, her emotions had sent his into overtime. Fighting off his anger was proving to be more effort than he'd anticipated. He should have taken his Rian brother Juroh aside to explain the dangers before he left the station.

  There is the option of me shutting down your mind until a point in the future when we can sort the whole thing out, he wanted to say to her. But he wasn't certain it could be done, at least not by him. She had joined their energy fields before he'd realized what was going on, certainly before he could stop her.

  After all, she shouldn't have been a threat. Everyone knew that ENDO agents were carefully screened for any telepathic abilities. If he shut her down, there was every possibility that he would go down with her. That would scrap the mission and possibly destroy both their careers. "If you'd be a little less certain that this thing is not happening, Sadah, we could proceed from there. I could show you some basic techniques for controlling your energies."

  She glared at him. "This is a simple mission, or at least it should be. Let's just see if we can't get through it without any more of this stuff shall we? We're only about nine quarters from the planet. All we have to do is observe the work done, and take a look around the area. How hard can that be? The place has been barren for hundreds of years. If there seems to be some proof of sabotage, we can handle it by turning the whole thing over to Central. Endo is happy; Echo is happy. We never have to see each other again. We keep my reputation, and what's left of yours, intact."

  "We both know there is more to this than meets our initial perspective. What sounds easy out here might be much more complex on the planet."

  "Okay. Let's look at it from another perspective. We stay on track with this situation. You do your job and I'll do mine." And I'll stay on Try-sting and djine until this is all over so there's no more chances of you getting to me through my dreams, you maggot. She wanted to say the words but held her mouth tightly closed.

  Kat sighed, knowing that there was no answer at all there for him. "All right, Sadah. For as long as we can, we'll do it your way." He made a shift in his thought processes. "But you do agree with me that the info disk is a fraud?"

  "A poor one at that." She was glad to allow the change. "He couldn't hope to fool anyone with that piece of junk. So did Guardsman sabotage their own plant to implicate Bonding?"

  "That might be the case," Kat considered. "But his thoughts weren't set on that when we were with him. Alan Denby genuinely doesn't know why the plant shut down."

  "I ho
pe it's nothing more than the usual Guardman-Bonding crap. They're always trying to make one another look bad. And Bonding did just get that new contract."

  He looked at her in bemusement, not speaking.

  "What?" She eyed him suspiciously. "Did I say something wrong?"

  "You took my word for the fact that Denby doesn't know who shut the plant down."

  "Of course I did." She wondered if he had really lost it. "You're the best telepath in ECHO. I read your file. I know your reputation. You're a wildcat but you're a damned good enviro officer."

  He laughed, throwing his head back so that his hair fell away from his face. "And you amaze me, Sadah."

  "Just because I don't want you in my head, Sadoh, doesn't mean that I think your abilities aren't genuinely useful in dealing with situations like these." Knowing how very powerful his abilities were made it even worse but she didn't say so to him.

  "And perhaps that's part of the problem?" He paused as he felt the flare of anger from her. "No, Sadah. I don't have to touch your mind to know your thoughts. I've read your files and you have a very expressive face. You don't want anyone else in control."

  Gael stood up from where she had come to perch on a chair and quickly crossed to the COM link. "We better get on with checking in. Menor is very punctual."

  "What will you tell him?"

  "That we've made contact with Alan Denby. That we're only a short way from the planet and that we still don't know what's going on. Which we don't. I'm sure that I'm no less cautious than you when it comes to premature conclusions."

  He inclined his head respectfully. "I have every respect for you and your...abilities."

  Gael made contact and Menor was relieved that they were nearly there.

  "The matter is quickly developing larger proportions than we would have liked," he told her. "ECHO and ENDO have agreed to meet on Telfa in the next few days. Try to have something for us by then. Guardsman is pushing for a revocation of Bonding's license to process ore. Central likes competition in all things so they are holding out for some proof. Keep us informed."

  "We'll do the best we can, Menor," Gael responded.

  "Is this a secured channel?" he asked carefully.

  "On board a freighter?" she wondered at his innocence. "You must be joking?"

  "Wait." Kat closed his eyes and breathed carefully, not moving. "Go on."

  "Can he do that?" she whispered to Menor as though Kat wasn't just behind her.

  "Of course." Menor's lofty expression adjusted to being one jump ahead of her again. "Now as I was going to say, we all have a fear that there is something else wrong on that planet."

  "Something like what, Menor? Will you speak plainly for once? Everyone has hinted at something else but no one wants to share what that something else is."

  "If I could tell you everything that L. Lanier suspects, I would, Gael. But she wants your report clean of any influence. Just be very careful. Don't trust anyone else. ENDO and ECHO stand together on this one. Do you understand?"

  "No," Gael denied. "Not really. I wish you'd just tell us what you suspect and get it over with. I don't like playing these games."

  "Just be careful and get us something as soon as you can," Menor encouraged shortly. "Thank you, Kalatri. We'll talk later."

  The screen went blank and Gael turned to face Kat as he opened his eyes. "Well? What was he talking about?"

  "He was filled with concern for you and wishing that they'd sent someone else in your place. He also was holding an interesting picture in his mind of you-uh-out of uniform, as you spoke."

  Gael closed her eyes and sank down on the chair again, ignoring his inference. "Nothing else?"

  "That's all, Sadah. But he was right. Someone on the ship was tapping into the link. Alan Denby was very interested in what you were going to say about ENCOM."

  "Do you know for certain that it was Denby?" Her eyes narrowed.

  "Just a guess," he replied. "I wasn't able to probe both men and keep the link from being monitored. Menor's thoughts were of greater importance at the time. I don't believe that Menor knows what Lanier is thinking. Perhaps she's hinted at something to him but he doesn't know what the something is."

  "I've never been on a mission like this before," she told him in exasperation. "Usually they want you to memorize all the details they give you. This time, no one wants to tell anything."

  "It was the same with ECHO." He shrugged. "My concern is that this is not the simple assignment you believe it to be and our other problems will surface."

  Gael ignored that comment, too. "Do you want to check in with ECHO before we join Denby for dinner?"

  "I have already checked in with Juroh." He stood up and walked to the door.

  "A Rian?" It wasn't much of a guess.

  "Indeed." His eyes were shadowed. "There are many benefits to being able to communicate without a mechanical link."

  "ENDO doesn't agree with you."

  "There is always ECHO," he retorted. "Possibly we don't have the formidable weaponry that you're so fond of but you won't need their weapons."

  "Don't try to sell me on mind games, Wi-" She stopped short and looked up at him in embarrassment. "Your picture was on our target field for a long time."

  "Did you score well?" He held her gaze in his shimmering blue one.

  "Very well," She didn't look away from his beautiful face. "But it didn't do you justice."

  "In what way, Sadah?"

  "You were...are...much-uh-taller." She stammered and looked away uncomfortably.

  "And you aren't much of a liar," he returned with a knowing smile. "I find you very attractive as well, Sadah."

  "Did you --?" She gestured with one hand then pushed the hair back from her face, "Did you get that from me? I mean -- "

  "You mean did I find it in your mind?" He touched her face lightly with one long finger. "No, Sadah. As I said, you have a very expressive face."

  Gael cleared her throat then stalked out of the room ahead of him. Damn the Rians and their blasted charm! She'd take a charging, bull drunk Fargan anytime!

  Chapter Six

  Denby was waiting impatiently for them in the dining area. "If you're ready, I'll escort you into the captain's quarters. We'll dine with her tonight. She doesn't get guests very often on these repair runs. Did you contact your superiors?"

  "Yes," Gael informed him carefully, very conscious of Kat behind them. Denby had maneuvered himself between them, hugging Gael's side closely. "They were very concerned about the status of the ore operations. Here, and on Planet 9."

  "They should be." Denby nodded, pleased. "Bonding has always run a slipshod operation. I'm just surprised no one noticed before. Guardsman -- "

  "They're concerned about both operations." Gael pushed him to see where he would go next. "After all, this is a Guardsman operation that's down."

  Denby was suddenly nervous. "But the disk? Didn't they think the info disk was proof that it wasn't our fault?"

  "I'm afraid not, Mr. Denby. They think you might be trying to put the blame on Bonding just to get the rights to Planet 9."

  "That's ridiculous. We'll find evidence on the planet's surface of their sabotage," he assured her. "They won't get away with this."

  The captain's quarters weren't much different than the rest of the freighter. The plain brown walls and threadbare accessories were well worn and obviously not well cared for. The captain was a small woman with a dark complexion that had been pitted by too much hard living.

  Probably Fargan rum. Gael shook her hand. She suddenly had a clear image in her mind of the woman in a clouded drug den, her hand caressing a black rum bowl. Gael jumped back, taking her hand from the captain as though she'd been burned. The image faded but it left her shaken and uneasy.

  "Sadah?" Kat queried softly at her shoulder as they were led to a long, low table.

  "I got a cramp in my hand," she lied to him and herself. It wouldn't happen again. She almost missed the captain's exchange with Denby as sh
e took her place.

  As they took their places, Denby ended up beside Gael while the captain took Kat's arm and pulled him down beside her. Her eyes greedily devoured his face. "So you're Kalatri Astri."

  "Yes." Kat inclined his bright head, keeping his eyes on the captain's eyes.

  "You must be Rian. You people are always so attractive." She smiled suggestively, her fingers straying to the blue of his uniform.

  Kat smiled, wishing he could take Gael and leave this place. He'd felt the flare of energy between the two women when they met. Images of the captain in the rum den still felt gritty in his mind. He could put it aside easily but Gael, without training, would taste it for much longer. Perhaps it was for the best. Perhaps it will make her realize her potential for good and for bad.

  "We will dine in the traditional Derkan manner using our hands. My chef is especially well versed in Derkan methods even though he is originally from Farga. He spent a great deal of time on Derka learning their ways."

  Kat didn't care for Derkan food or their planet but refrained from saying so, studying the captain as she spoke. The woman was lazy and ill mannered. Her whole being was consumed by lust. Being the object of that lust made him more than a little uneasy.

  Gael watched the woman's dark hands trace the blue of Kat's sleeve, eventually caressing a strand of his golden hair lightly. She turned her attention to what Denby was saying beside her, refusing to wonder if Kat enjoyed the lavish attention.

  Crude wooden bowls were placed in front of each person. Derkans ate with no utensils. Gael wanted to leave, feeling slightly queasy but she stayed at the table. Even if she only made a pretense of eating, that was all that was required.

  "Lt. Klarke has already been in contact with her ENCOM commanders, Captain," Denby told the woman. "She's concerned about Guardsman's mining rights as well as Bonding's."

  "Is there some reason for this suspicion, Lt.?"

  "Only what ENDO decides there to be," Gael returned. "I only report the facts, Captain. ENDO and ECHO will decide the final analysis."

  "And what does ECHO have to say, Kalatri?" She was nearly purring. Her dark face took on an almost rodent like sharpness.