“Neeva, save your breath,” said another of the newcomers just as loudly, as if she thought they were all deaf. “There’s been no mistake. Obviously he is no longer an ally.”
“Very astute, dear lady. I put my superb mercenary forces at the service of the highest bidder. As you see, the highest bidder has changed since our last meeting.”
(Neeva! Is it really you? Oh, beloved lifemate, how I have longed to see you, but not here and now.)
Ikwaskwan was rather amused to see the fight go out of Neeva as her attention was drawn to the others of her kind in the biosphere. He hoped what was said but so far unproven about this race was accurate. Otherwise they were a waste of good air and food, as far as he was concerned.
He shrugged and left them to the scientists. He was ready to return to his own compound for a time and reunite with Nadhari. He had some rather splendid plans that would make good use of her. He planned to put her at the service of Ganoosh, whether or not she was willing.
The titillating but distracting struggle for power between them would be over for the moment, if he did so, but it would be delicious to break her time and time again. Of course, the real point was to see how thoroughly these supposedly miracleworking Linyaari could put her back together again. She would never forgive him, of course, but that was part of the fun of it. The joy in conquering a woman was* in playing the last trick and this, surely, would be the best trick anyone had ever played on Nadhari. Just to be sure he would be the one doing the taking, not the other way around, he brought along a company of the best troops he had who had not been trained by her.
When the remaining communications officer buzzed the cornlink in her room to tell Nadhari she was being hailed, she asked, “The general, I presume?”
“As a matter of fact, ma’am, no,” the officer said. “This is another party. They’ve been cleared to speak to you, with your permission.”
“You have it,” she said abruptly. She hadn’t spoken to anyone outside the station since the day Ganoosh called Ikky. Ikky had pretended nothing was happening, and Nadhari, aware of her precarious position, had gone along with the pretense, while keeping her senses tuned for an opportunity to turn the tables, escape, or at least get a message through to let the Kendoros know of the alliance.
Fortunately, she hadn’t needed to maintain appearances for long before Ikky and most of his troops departed.
She switched on the comlink. “Colonel Kando?” The halting question came from a young Starfarer girl she recognized from the Khieevi invasion of Rushima.
“Yes?”
“We would like to retain your services as a combat instructor, please,” the girl said.
Nadhari watched a figure move into the comscreen. When the face appeared, she saw -with relief that it belonged to Pal
Kendoro.
She knew she was being monitored and tried to figure out what she could say to tip them off to her situation.
“Hello, Pal, long time no see. Are you running a day care facility these days?” she asked.
“You know better than that, Nadhari,” Pal said. “Look, we’ve come to try to recruit your help, and the general’s if he’s available. We would like to dock and speak with you face to face, if possible.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Pal. I’m not at liberty to receive guests right now and the general isn’t here.”
“Be that as it may, we’ve come all this way to talk to you. We request permission to dock. We have reason to believe there’s a threat to Acorna and her people. House Harakamian has authorized us to retain your services and the gen “
“This isn’t a good time to talk about it, Pal,” Nadhari said. “The general already knows “
Her transmission -was suddenly interrupted by the smooth and friendly voice of Sergeant Erikson. “Permission to land granted. Haven. Just come on in and set ‘er down. We have a lot of vacancies right now.”