The Mandala Maneuver Read online

  “I will admit that sometimes I can be a little…unapproachable.”

  “Just a little,” he said, and reached out to touch her hand.

  The feel of those thousands of tiny scales on his fingers, rather than repulsing her, sent a shiver down her spine. They were so marvelously tactile. The heat returned as she wondered if he had those scales everywhere…and what they might feel like against her.

  Inside her.

  God, I really have lost my mind. She shook her head, trying to free it of those completely out-of-character thoughts. Even so, she didn’t pull her hand away from his. His fingers felt too good clasping hers. “So what now?”

  “Whatever you want,” he said simply. “I will not push you, Alexa, or do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. This must be somewhat strange for you — although I have to say I was encouraged when I heard you mention that your previous relationship was with an Eridani. At least that proved you have an open mind when it comes to such things.”

  Well, there was open, and then there was open. Lots of Gaians dated Eridanis, married Eridanis, had children with Eridanis. There was a long and glorious tradition of the two races intermingling. But the Zhore? Most of the galaxy wasn’t even sure whether they were humanoid or not.

  “I don’t….” The words trailed off, and she shook her head. “I’m not going to deny that I’m attracted to you, that there’s something…but I don’t know where to go from here.” All right, part of her did — directly to pulling him into the bunk with her and putting out the fire he’d kindled. But that would only complicate things further. At the moment all they’d shared was a kiss. If they slept together — oh, don’t be coy, Alexa — if they had sex, that would be opening a whole new can of worms. A really big can of worms.

  Lirzhan appeared to sense her turmoil, for he squeezed her fingers gently before withdrawing his hand. “Right now, we don’t have to go anywhere. We are both tired, and we should try to get some rest. I am willing to wait as long as necessary.”

  That’s very noble of you. I just hope I can do the same. She only nodded, though, and said, “That’s probably a good idea. I’ll try not to wake you up with any more nightmares.”

  And what that nightmare had been, she couldn’t even remember. Something about running through the dark, something chasing her, but nothing more concrete than that remained. Just as well, she supposed.

  To her surprise, he leaned down and kissed her again, this time on the cheek, softly and quickly. Then he rose and went back to his own bunk.

  Since when could a simple kiss on the cheek make her insides melt? But his did. She reached up and touched her fingertips to her cheekbone, as if she could still feel the warmth of his lips there.

  You, Alexa, are in very big trouble….

  No doubt. But she knew she’d be in even worse trouble if she didn’t get some sleep tonight, so she rolled over on her side again and tried to pretend that she couldn’t hear the creaking of the bunk across the room as Lirzhan settled himself on the mattress, or see the gleam of his eyes in the darkness.

  And eventually she pretended enough that she convinced herself to fall asleep.

  Some hours passed. Exactly how many, he didn’t know, as he was not attuned to this world’s rhythms the way he was to his beloved Zhoraan. He had slept, that much he knew, slept and dreamed of holding Alexa in his arms. That she was so near and yet so far troubled him, but he knew he should be glad that she had responded the way she did. The taste of her lips was sweeter than anything he could have imagined, and she had kissed him back, hadn’t pulled away or protested. She was troubled by the situation, of course, but he could not fault her for that. In time he knew that he would not be sleeping alone.

  Something had awakened him, though, some prickling of unease. No, his people were not precisely psychic, but they were sensitive…and he could feel the edges of negative emotions or intentions or whatever one wanted to call them intruding against his consciousness.

  He sat up in bed, glad that he had put his trousers on over the strange Gaian underwear. His tunic and robes remained where he had left them, draped over the foot of the bunk. Moving quietly, as much to avoid disturbing Alexa as to keep from alerting anyone or anything that might be lurking outside, he reached into the bundle of clothing and drew out the pulse pistol. It was a weapon of last resort, but he knew he would not hesitate to use it to protect Alexa and himself. The Gaians sneered at the Zhore behind their backs, calling them pacifists, as if that word were an insult, but Lirzhan did not take it as such. A peaceful solution was always best, but if one did not present itself, then so be it.

  A few soft, cat-like paces, and he was out the door and down the corridor. As a precaution, Alexa had locked the door to the station and closed the storm shutters, so Lirzhan guessed it would be almost impossible for any wild creatures to gain entry. The so-called “civilized” kind of creature, however….

  Pulses of negative energy beat against him as soon as he entered the front room. They had shut off the lights in here before retiring for the night, and so the glowing cherry-red circle of metal around the lock told him something was very, very wrong.

  He dropped into a crouch at once, using the table where they had eaten their evening meal as cover. Peering between its legs, he saw a flare of sudden light, then heard a clank as the lock came free from the door and fell to the floor. Almost at the same time the door itself swung inward, and human males dressed in dark clothing entered the room, weapons drawn. Although he could not read their thoughts directly, he still felt the malice radiating from them, the intention to kill whoever they found.

  Irzhaan, forgive me for the lives I must take.

  The first pulse bolt hit the lead man in the head, and he fell at once. His companions swore, and began to fire back in Lirzhan’s direction. Luckily, though, the table took the brunt of the damage, and he shot through its legs, aiming upward, hitting another of the men in the stomach. The intruder dropped to his knees, cursing and shrieking in pain, while the lone man still standing continued to fire at Lirzhan. Bits and pieces of the table and its surrounding chairs began to explode outward under the assault, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to hide there much longer.

  “Hey — were you looking for me?” Alexa called out, and the man immediately turned to fire in her direction. She dropped to the floor, and Lirzhan took advantage of her attacker’s brief distraction to shoot him again twice — first in the knee so he stumbled and lost his balance, and then right through the neck. He slumped to the floor and lay there, unmoving.

  “You all right?” she asked Lirzhan, although she did not come to check on him. Instead, she went directly to the man with the stomach wound.

  “He’s still — ”

  Lirzhan had meant to say “armed” but didn’t have enough time, as she apparently spotted the man’s dropped pulse pistol and kicked it away from his desperately straining fingers, then bent over and picked it up herself. She pointed it at the man’s head. “Talk.”

  “Go fuck yourself,” he said, clutching his stomach and groaning.

  “Well, that’s not very professional,” she said, then looked over at Lirzhan. “Check the other ones — see if they’re carrying any identification.”

  He pushed himself up from the wreckage of the table and chairs, and went over to the last man he’d shot, as he was closest. Pulse wounds tended to self-cauterize, so there wasn’t a great deal of blood. Even so, Lirzhan was not exactly comfortable being so close to the aftermath of that brief round of violence.

  But as he did not wish to appear squeamish in front of Alexa, he squatted down next to the dead man and began going through his pockets. All of them were empty, although he did have a second pistol still in its holster and several spare battery packs attached to his belt.

  “We’re — not — amateurs,” the gut-shot man mumbled, his eyes turning glassy. Going into shock, perhaps?

  “Well, I’m not so sure about that, considering a couple of diplomats just
got the drop on you,” Alexa replied coolly. One would have thought she was facing him across a negotiating table while wearing her most tailored suit, instead of standing there in men’s underwear and a T-shirt that almost covered up the briefs, the shirt was so long on her.

  “Blow me.”

  Lirzhan reflected on the curiosities of human invective while going over to the first man he’d shot and performing a similar inspection. Nothing there, either.

  Despite his deteriorating state, the wounded man couldn’t seem to stop staring at Lirzhan as he went about these tasks. “So that’s what you look like under those robes. Freaky.”

  While he himself really didn’t care what the mercenary — or whatever he was — thought of his appearance, apparently Alexa did not share those sentiments.

  “He’s a darn sight better-looking than you,” she said coldly. Then she knelt down next to him and placed the muzzle of the pulse pistol against his temple. “You might want to start talking.”

  “Don’t have anything to say.”

  “I find that highly unlikely,” Lirzhan said, as he had completed his search of the second man and found nothing. “Who sent you?”

  “Santa Claus.”

  The words had no meaning for him, and Lirzhan shot a puzzled glance at Alexa. She scowled, saying, “Kids’ stories. He’s just messing with us.”

  The man grinned, although his breath was beginning to rattle in his throat. It was clear enough that he required immediate medical attention. The station probably had a first aid kit of some kind, more extensive than the rudimentary supplies included with the emergency bag, but Lirzhan doubted that would be enough to save their attacker. No, he needed surgery and a real medical team…both of which were in short supply on Mandala.

  Then Alexa got down on her knees and began rifling through the man’s pockets with her left hand while keeping the pulse pistol pointed at his temple. Lirzhan could feel the pulse of animosity before the fallen mercenary even moved. The man reached up, trying to grab Alexa’s wrist. She started and pulled the trigger, sending a bright green flash of energy directly into his temple at close range. His head fell back against the laminate floor with a sharp crack.

  “Dammit,” she said softly, and got to her feet.

  Despite her studiously casual expression, Lirzhan could tell she was shaken. “Are you all right?”

  She appeared to ponder the question for a few seconds, as if she were not entirely sure what he meant. Then she replied, “Well, I just shot a man in the head. It’s not really something I’ve done before, so I suppose I’m trying to process what it means.”

  At once Lirzhan went to her and took her in his arms. For the briefest of seconds she remained stiff, not allowing herself to relax into his embrace. But then she buried her head against his chest and took a deep breath.

  “I probably shouldn’t have shot him.”

  “You did the right thing,” Lirzhan said, and reached up to stroke her hair down to its tangled braid. “He was trying to take the gun from you so he could shoot you. You were only protecting yourself.”

  She lifted her head and stared into his eyes. Her own looked strained, the pupils dark, dilated, but he did not see anything worse than that in her gaze. “I thought the Zhore were pacifists.”

  “We are, up to a point. There is nothing wrong with defending oneself.”

  “You continue to surprise me every day, Lirzhan.” Very gently she pulled away from him and surveyed the room, taking in the bodies of their three downed assailants. “I doubted they walked here. So let’s see what they’ve left for us, since they didn’t oblige us by carrying any ID or anything else to help us figure out who they are.”

  “Would you rather not wait until morning?”

  “No,” she said shortly, going to the ruin of the door. Well, the door itself was more or less intact, but with a hole where the combination lock/latch had been located, it wasn’t going to do much good in keeping anything…or anyone…out. She pushed it open an inch and peered outside, clearly making sure the men hadn’t left a companion outside before she moved out of the station.

  He followed her out the door. The air was cool and damp, and although it was still very dark beyond the pool of light provided by the security light next to the door, he could feel the hush around the world that seemed to suggest dawn was not far off.

  “Jackpot,” Alexa said, hurrying over to the skimmer parked a few yards off among the trees.

  It looked identical to the one that had been shooting at them several days earlier, and he guessed the men they had dispatched were those same unknown assailants. He could see that it was a small open-cockpit craft intended for low-level atmospheric flight, with wheels and heavy tires for transport over rough terrain and a retractable roof. Most likely the tires and wheels tucked up into the undercarriage when the vehicle was in the air.

  “This would have come in handy a few days ago,” Lirzhan remarked, as she opened the door and climbed inside. “But as it certainly won’t get us off-planet, I am not sure how much good it is going to do us now.”

  She glanced over at him, and even in the gloom he could see the lift of her eyebrows. “No, of course it won’t get us off-planet, but it’ll get us back to wherever they came from. They’ve got to have a base of operations somewhere. I’ll just pull up the trip log and backtrack us to where they came from. They’ll have left a larger ship capable of interstellar flight there.”

  “And do you know how to pilot such a ship?” he asked gently, not wishing to quash her enthusiasm too badly.

  “No.” She pushed a lock of wayward hair off her forehead, and seemed to be thinking furiously. “But any ship designed to travel between star systems will have a subspace comm system, one that’s not programmed to call home directly to GEC HQ the way our emergency beacon is. So we’ll use that to contact someone to come get us. You can even get in touch with your superiors on Zhoraan if it makes you more comfortable.”

  For her to make such a concession told him how much her attitude toward him had changed, even if she were not yet prepared to admit such a thing openly. And he had to confess that her plan seemed sound enough.

  “What if there are more mercenaries — or whatever they were — back at this ship you’re convinced is there?”

  She actually smiled, her teeth flashing in the darkness. “Well, we didn’t do too bad a job of handling these three, so it might not be that big a problem. Or they might not have left anyone there at all. Why bother to mount a guard when you’ve landed on an uninhabited planet?”

  “Perhaps. And we will have their guns as well. But I would suggest changing into more appropriate attire before we leave.”

  A quick glance down at herself, and she smiled and shook her head. “You’re right, of course. Well, let’s get changed and packed and out of here as quickly as we can, just in case those men did leave a companion behind, someone who might be expecting a check-in call from them at any moment.”

  “Good point. Very well — let us get what we can, and start moving.”

  She let herself out of the skimmer and came back to the station, striding past him and inside, then heading on to the bedroom. Once there, she pulled a set of coveralls out of the closet and drew them on over the undershirt and underpants she already wore.

  “I figured this would be a little more practical than a skirt and jacket,” she explained, tucking the legs of the coveralls into her boots before strapping her belt around her waist. The coveralls were somewhat big for her, and puffed out slightly both above and below the belt.

  Lirzhan smothered a smile. “You’re probably right.” He gathered up his robes and put them on, although he did not draw the hood over his head. Not yet, anyway.

  If Alexa was bothered by his wearing the robes once more, she didn’t show it. A quick nod, and she went on into the bathroom, taking the spare towels and some soap — “just in case” — before she headed out to the front room and gathered up several days’ worth of SRPs.

&nb
sp; “I don’t want to strip the place bare, just in case another research team gets sent here,” she explained as she shoved her loot into the now over-extended emergency bag. “But I also don’t know what we’re going to find at that ship, so I figured we’d better play it safe.”

  He couldn’t really argue with that. Perhaps he would have raised some protest if she’d attempted to take any more than she had, but as it was….

  “Are we going to do anything about them?” he asked, looking down at the bodies of the three dead men, still sprawled on the floor.

  “Well, since we don’t really have the equipment to bury them or burn them, what do you suggest we do?”

  “Drag them outside. If there are any predators or scavengers in these woods, they should take care of them for us.”

  Her eyes widened. “That is…remarkably realistic of you.”

  “Is it?” He had not thought of the matter that way. Even predators and scavengers had their place in the natural order of things, and in this situation they would be providing a necessary service. “No worse than leaving them in here to rot. Besides, at least that way some animals may be fed, and since these men are long past worrying about such things, it seems the simplest way to handle the problem.”

  A reluctant nod. “Okay.” She went over to the man she’d shot in the head, as he was closest to the door. “Give me a hand with this?”

  Ten

  It had been, as one of her foster mothers liked to say, a hell of a day. And the sun wasn’t even up yet.

  Alexa sat in the pilot’s seat of the skimmer, as Lirzhan said he had no idea how to operate the vehicle. She wasn’t sure whether knowing how to drive a ground transport made her that much more qualified, but she hadn’t bothered to argue. If she kept them just above the trees and didn’t try anything fancy, she figured they should be okay.

  It had only taken a few minutes to figure out the onboard log and program it to retrace its trip to the science station. Judging by the maps scrolling across the screen on the dashboard, their destination was some hundred and fifty kilometers away, which meant a journey of a little less than an hour in a vehicle of this type. An old boyfriend had owned one that was similar, if an older model, and so she had a basic idea of their speed rating. Behind them the horizon began to glow, which meant they were traveling due west.