Defending Hippotigris by Smith, T.L. (intellectual books to read txt) 📕

didn’t either, but they spent as much time studying us as you spent trying to figure them out. They wanted Shara to come back, to reveal themselves to her, to confront her. We have to rely on that trust.”

“I don’t think it’s their trust we have to worry about.” Lizzy tucked her pad back into her bag. “What if the scans confirm there’s some illegal mining operation going on? How are we going to stop them?”

Remy turned back from the ledge. “She’s right. That ship up there isn’t a battle cruiser. You didn’t build it for that purpose. I doubt we can say the same for these others, whoever they are.” Remy stared at Schaeffer. “They came here with the specific purpose of taking what they wanted, and to hell with anyone getting in their way. You think they’ll stop, because you tell them to?”

“No, I don’t think that. Not at all.” Schaeffer looked out over the mountains.

“I’m sick just thinking about all this.” I pushed off the bench, past Remy and into the cavern. “I need to think. Let me know when we hear from the captain.”

I left them on the ledge, grabbed an MRE and headed to the sleeping chamber. I crawled deep into the ledge, away from the lighted leaves covering the ceiling, back where it was cool and dark. There I pulled out the cookies and nibbled on them, thinking about all I’d done here, since day one. All my work, undermined.

What would happen if some LR… some Parredet approached these outlaws. This could get ugly, quick, and we were light-years from home. All the firm resolve I’d put out for Yinet dissolved and I curled up under the blanket.

“Are you sulking?” Remy crawled up next to me, pulling at the blanket, the Parredet blanket, so delicate looking, but strong fibers holding up as he tried to see my face.

“No, I’m thinking how screwed we are. You know I have to go dark before I can start thinking about how to fix this mess.” It was a habit both Kazan and Batista shared.

Of course, Remy never respected it. I gave up trying to keep my face covered as he came up under the blanket too.

“We’re soldiers. We were trained as soldiers, before we went off into our separate specialties. We’re going to have to be soldiers again. We can recall our sister-ship, pack it with real soldiers and get their asses here to confront these people.”

“Yes…” Remy hesitated. “If you’re going to the dark scenarios, consider whether or not your command is behind this.”

I looked over at him. “You would bring that up.

“You know me. Devil’s advocate.”

“I’m sorry I got you into this. You and Lizzy.”

“I’d rather be here than you going through this without my even knowing.” He kissed me. “We’re in this together, remember? You, me and Kazan. No more secrets”

“I remember.” I curled up close to him, glad he’d come to join my sulking. “I can’t believe they’re doing this, virtually under our noses. What are they, less than two hundred miles away? Maybe if I hadn’t been playing secret agent, I’d have found out about this sooner.”

“You can’t blame yourself for this, part-time or full-time, you were doing your job the way you were instructed. I’m sure if command were in on this, they wouldn’t have been so demanding about you figuring out the local life. We have to keep faith in that part of the mission, though I wouldn’t guarantee all levels of command have clean hands.”

“Really? Why do you think that?”

“Someone told them about this place, in order to get smugglers here.”

I pulled the blanket down so I could look at him. “Since when are you the one to go down all these conspiracy paths?”

“Who reads all the political mysteries? Beats the crap you read.” His hands slipped down my back. “All those sappy romances. At least when you’re Batista. I don’t know this Kazan person so well yet. What do you read when you’re out here?”

“What do you think? Science-fiction, of course.” I laughed as his hands pulled me tighter. “I’m getting the impression you’d go for a bit of sappy romance.”

“Really?” Remy pinned me down for a kiss. “Why would you be getting that impression?” His hand pressed between us, unfastening my belt. “I certainly wouldn’t want to mislead you. I’m just trying to help clear your head.”

“We’re not alone. Schaef and Lizzy...”

“Went for a walk.” Remy sat up and removed his shirt. “A nice long walk.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The Parredet went about their business as we waited for the captain to get back to us on her scans. Lizzy took the time to download the history lesson we’d gotten and put in narration, as best as we could without an accurate translation from Yinet.

Schaeffer and Remy studied our morning log, catching up on details they’d missed. Any doubt as to Yinet’s meaning was erased, not that Schaeffer doubted me. It was mid-afternoon when Schaeffer’s comm chirped at him impatiently.

“Schaeffer here. What do you have for us?” He turned the volume up for us all to hear.

“We need to send the shuttle for you. The jamming is intentional, which means they know we’re here. I’ve put together an armed detail to provide protection at the camp until we can get our people aboard.”

I’d heard that tone in the captain’s voice. She was on full alert, ready to make a run for it as soon as everyone was safe. I tapped into the link. “I’m sorry, Captain, but we’re not going to abandon these people. We brought this on them.”

“Col. Kazan, you don’t know that.” She was about to order us back.

“Yes, we do. The Parredet are perfectly clear we arrived first, then this other batch of humans showed up. The fact we tried to make contact with them is why they trust us. They trust we’ll take care of this problem.”

I looked around at my small party. We’d spent the day conjecturing on how this other faction learned