Page 41 of Infiltration

Terig winced. He shook his head at his clanmate to tell him it had been too cheap a shot. Nako shrugged. He was still in a temper over Piper remaining on board during a dangerous mission.

Terig glanced at her. She quietly observed the com station as its operator muttered under his breath what he was doing. She was rapt, as if genuinely fascinated.

Maybe she was. As happy as she’d appeared to keep house and Ulof from losing his shit on a regular basis, Terig wondered if she hadn’t found life a little boring. He hoped not and vowed to ensure from now on she’d work on discovering and enhancing her own interests.

If Kila was offended by Nako’s snide comment, he didn’t mention it. “Sensors on full, but they won’t pick up those things if they’re around. All personnel available to do so, pay attention to the monitors, especially shadowed shapes in your peripheral vision. It could be our only way to detect them.”

Nako scowled, but his tone was straightforward as he issued his command. “Navigation, sweep for the vessel’s database. Inch by inch, if you have to. We need to find the commanding crew’s log entries if they survived.”

* * * *

Kila’s spyship

Terig didn’t have to wait long for the explosion once Kila and his weapons commander Nobek Jado shared what they’d gotten from the executive staff’s logs from the destroyed spyship.

“Not one damned entry after the first away team returned from Bi’is?” Nako slammed his fist on the conference table’s surface and jumped to his feet. “No heading? Nothing? Are you kidding me?”

“If they recorded anything, the logs were later erased, including the ship’s destination,” Kila snarled. “We’ve got shit.”

Wiry-haired Jado exchanged a glance with Terig. He glowered as much as the rest, but there was warning in his gaze for his counterpart.

They were three Nobeks and a frustrated half-Nobek who were already on the edge. Tension snapped the very air in the wake of the chief engineer’s disappointing report. Lokmi had wisely left the room as soon as he’d delivered the news.

“You dragged me here where an unknown enemy may be lurking, with my Matara, and there’s nothing to show for it.” Nako aimed his fury at Kila because he had nowhere else to send it.

Kila growled, his fists clenching. “Did you expect them to be here in the ruins of a ship? Waiting to greet you with drinks and a band?”

Jado jerked his head, white teeth flashing in his beard. Terig nodded and drew close to Nako to grab him as the other weapons commander stepped between the captains.

“Respectfully, sirs, the situation is frustrating, but we can’t waste time fighting amongst ourselves. Maybe we can lock you two in a room to beat each other’s brains out later, but this isn’t the time.” Jado’s voice held the slightest of tremors, betraying his own annoyance.

“Do you hear him, Captain?” Terig spoke quietly in Nako’s ear. “Something to look forward to, but after we’ve dealt with the current circumstances.”

A low rumble sounded deep from Nako’s chest, but his shoulders unknotted. “I have yet to indulge in my new ship’s fighting gymnasium.”

“I’ll be glad to help you break it in.” Kila’s dangerous grin lessened in voltage. “For now, unless anyone has anything actually helpful to add, we’ll set course for Bi’is. I doubt we’ll find anything of worth, but the Darks were there. It’s all we have left beyond Ensign Ilid’s broken memories.”

“Fuck,” Nako agreed.

* * * *

Shuttle between Alpha Space Station and Earth II

Stacy sipped coffee as Kuran piloted them to work. The lockdown following the bomb scare had been lifted. The suspicious package had indeed been an explosive, quickly disarmed by the station’s security team. Kuran had sent Alpha’s investigators the specs on the explosive sent to Stacy days before to see if there were similarities.

Kuran was quieter than usual. “Worried about Etnil and Rihep?” Stacy asked.

“Only if the packages begin showing signs of actual intelligence behind them,” he responded. “They’re crude. Easy to spot as suspicious. Very little range when it comes to their potential to do damage. Definitely the work of amateurs.”

“But they could still do harm.” She spoke as gently as possible.

“They could.”

“You wouldn’t prefer to remain on the station with your clanmates? I imagine you’d like to keep an eye on them. That’s what the clan protector does.”

“It would mean leaving you on your own.”

“I’m not your clanmate. You’re Earth’s security head, not yet my personal bodyguard.”

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