The Price of Conquest

"Kressa, where the hell have you been?" Halav asked, his voice thick with emotion.

Kressa paused outside the doorway of his downtown office and looked askance to where he sat behind his desk.

She had called Guard HQ as soon as the Conquest dropped out of hyperspace in the Arecian system. Despite the fact that it was late at night in Cint-Istep, the Guard soldier she spoke with told her to meet the general in his office as soon as she arrived. She'd done as instructed, but if this was the kind of thanks she got, maybe she should have let him sweat a while longer.

"Happy to see you, too, Hal," she said with a sneer.

"Kressa." Jonathan's voice came from inside the office.

Her throat tightened uncomfortably, and she stepped through the doorway to find him rising from a chair. His eyes met hers. She swallowed hard and took a hesitant step forward.

Jonathan closed the distance between them and took her into his arms. He pulled her close for a moment, then held her at arm's length and gazed down at her, as if searching for injuries—or simply assuring himself of her presence. "Are you all right?"

She caught his eyes and fought down a swell of confused emotions: desire, terror, need. She wanted to lean into his embrace and let him hold her until everything she had been through dulled to a dim memory. Instead, she took a tight rein on her feelings and gave a quick nod. "I am now," she said quietly.

Halav cleared his throat. "If you two love birds are quite through…"

Kressa whipped her head around. "Hal!"

"Damn it, Kressa, you're three days late!" he snapped, rising to his feet and glaring across the room at her. "We got word from Vsuna that you never showed, and no one's been able to find any hint of what happened to you."

She let the familiarity of her relationship with Halav eclipse her other emotions and slid out of Jonathan's arms. She turned to face the desk. "Been worried about me?" she snarked.

He frowned and returned to his seat. "You're damned right I have. Where have you been?"

"Would you believe Eminence?"

Halav studied her for a moment. "Coming from you, I just might."

"It's true, and I found out who those priests are," she said. "They're called th'Maran. They came through some type of gate from a place called Marasyn, and they think it's their purpose to unite with humans. They're the ones giving the Patrol their new technology and—"

Jonathan put a hand on her shoulder. "I think you might want to slow down a bit, Kressa." He steered her to a chair. "Now," he said once she settled into the seat, "tell us everything that happened." He took the chair next to hers. "From the beginning."

* * *

"… between the fighter attack in the Vsuna system and the escape from Eminence, the Conquest's in pretty bad shape." Kressa neared the end of her story. "The flight back was rough."

"I'll have some of my people get to work on the ship first thing in the morning," Halav said. "How's Connie?"

"It took me almost a full day to get her up and running again, but she's doing all right now. I'd sure like to know how the Pattys were able to shut her down, though. She's got orders to ignore any shutdown requests from unauthorized sources."

"Connie doesn't remember what happened?" Halav asked.

Kressa shook her head and frowned. "Which really has me worried."

"Maybe these th'Maran can control computers, as well as minds," Jonathan suggested.

Kressa considered that. A computer was little more than an organized electronic brain, and a computer as complex as Connie was very close to the real thing. She whistled. "Think what that could mean…"

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Halav sighed. "It means the Patrol has some very powerful allies."

"At least we know where they're getting their new technology," Jonathan said. "But it still seems like a hell of a coincidence."

"I wish I could have learned more about them and why they're here," Kressa said. "They seem to be on some sort of crusade to save us humans from ourselves."

"Why do you refer to them as if they're not human?" Halav asked. "From what you've described, they seem human enough to me."

Kressa pursed her lips. Were the th'Maran simply another race of humans? In form, they had much in common, but something about them suggested they were more than that.

"If they are human," she said slowly, thinking out loud, "they're like no race we've encountered before. Think about it. Few humans knew about those on other planets until Alliance scouts contacted them, but the th'Maran have known about us long enough to develop a religion centered around uniting with us. You don't develop a belief that strong in just a few years, or even a few decades. Hell, they might have known about us for centuries. They might even know how humans came to be scattered about the galaxy."

"Or this might all be a lot of pointless speculation," Halav said.

Kressa shot him a resentful look.

He sighed again and shifted in his seat. "Look, Kressa, this is all very interesting, but it's not getting us anywhere. Regardless of who these th'Maran are and what they might know about us, we have to deal with what they've done, and what they're doing."

Kressa nodded. Now was not the time for purposeless conjecture, but there was a mystery here, and too many unanswered questions. She did not intend to ignore them forever.

"I'd like to know what that fleet was doing at Eminence," Jonathan said. "Who are they planning to hit? Arecia? Vsuna?"

"Both?" Kressa added to the possibilities.

"Both would make the most sense," Halav said. "But you said it was Gaunis's ship that picked you up at Vsuna, and his flagship was at Eminence. What's his involvement in all of this?"

"I've been wondering the same thing," Kressa said. "Maybe he wants to share in the glory of capturing the Free Worlds. Does it really matter? The fact is, Gaunis is in it. Which reminds me…" She reached into her pocket for the liquid-gas vial she'd brought from the Enforcer. "This was set to be released into the th'Maran ship's air system. And I found two others just like it," she glanced at Jonathan, "in a box with Gaunis's seal."

He cocked an eyebrow, took the vial from her, and held it up to look at it against the overhead lights.

"Any idea what it is?" Halav asked.

"Some kind of poison, I think," Kressa said.

"Something like that," Jonathan agreed. "Something that will take out the th'Maran without harming any humans nearby. A sort of failsafe."

"Are you sure?" Halav asked.

"From what we've seen and what Kressa said, I can't think of any other explanation. But just to make sure," he stood, "I'll drop it by the lab on my way out."

"You're leaving?" Kressa asked.

Jonathan nodded. "I was getting ready to hop the Stingray over to Vsuna to look for you when you called. Now I can use the trip to make sure Gaunis is behaving himself. Plus I can deliver some hyperwave gear to replace the stuff you lost, and meet your friend Commander Vel. Halav's told me a lot about her."

Kressa took a moment to imagine Jonathan and Dania Vel together. She did not like what she saw. Dani had led the uprising that freed Vsuna from the Patrol and caused the initial downfall of Captain Betz, but as much as Kressa liked the woman, she did not want to think about what might happen if Jonathan managed to win his way into the Vsunan's confidence.

She stood and met his eyes. "Take me with you."

"Haven't you had enough of Vsuna for a while?" he asked.

"Jon, I—"

"Kressa, no," Halav interrupted. "We need you here. These th'Maran may not be all bad, but some of them haven't got the message yet. They're destroying my forces. I can't have you running off to Vsuna for no good reason."

Kressa held his gaze for a long moment, then turned back to Jonathan. "Captain, I—"

"Jonathan," he corrected and slid his hand down her arm in a gentle caress, his eyes locked on hers.

With a sigh, she leaned into his embrace. "Be careful," she whispered.

He held her close. "Hey, I'm only going to Vsuna," he mimicked her words of days before. "Two days there, two back… Less with the IT drive. I'll see you then." He gave her a quick kiss, turned, and left the room.

Kressa stared after him, her emotions once again in a turmoil. When she was away from Jonathan, her feelings for him were muddled, but when he was near…

"Is our Kressa Bryant falling in love?" Halav asked in a teasing tone, then stepped up beside her.

She smirked, wrapped an arm around his waist, and rested her head on his shoulder. Her senses filled with his familiar warmth and scent, and she gazed out the door after Jonathan. "What do you think he'll find at Vsuna?"

Halav brushed a hand through her hair. "With luck, nothing."