No Words Alone By Autumn Dawn
No WordsAlone
Copyright ? 2012 by Autumn Dawn
www.autumndawnbooks.com
All rights reserved.Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no partof this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into aretrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise)without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner andthe above publisher of this book.
This is a work offiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents areeither the product of the author's imagination or are usedfictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status andtrademark owners of various products referenced in this work offiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/useof these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsoredby the trademark owners.
Chapter 1
“Lookslike they want to talk.”
Xera’sgaze followed the engineer’s to the cadre of silent aliens. Theshifting tones of their black and gray uniforms made them hard tofocus on, almost as if the cloth itself repelled the eye. She didn’tsee any wounded among them, but they’d probably left their injuredaboard ship.
Shewiped at some ooze above her left eye, smiling grimly as her blackand tan uniform sleeve came away smudged with blood. Two ships hadcrash landed on this planet, crippled from the battle they’d justfought, but Xera’s craft had done more crash than land. Her ship’screw’s casualties were heavy, and they were down to less thantwenty able-bodied personnel. She counted sixteen men in the enemygroup.
“Whydon’t they do something? They’re just standing there,” theengineer, Cort, muttered. Stocky, more comfortable with machines thanmen, he gazed at the aliens with distrust.
Thecaptain of Xera’s group said nothing, just stood there in a sweat.She knew better than to mistake the fierce frown on his face forcourage under fire. The man was a coward.
“CaptainKhan? Do you want to talk to them?” Cort persisted.
CaptainKhan’s bulldog face contorted with rage. Vietnamese, with a roundhead and meaty body, he’d clearly worked his way to the top byintimidation and bluff. It certainly hadn’t been because of hismassive intelligence. “Shut your mouth, Cort. I’m still captainhere.” He looked back at the aliens for a moment then gestured toone of his officers. “Genson. Go see what they want.”
Gensongave him a wild look. “Sir, perhaps the translator…”
Xera,the translator, braced herself.
CaptainKhan sent her a scathing look. The two of them had butted heads oftenenough that he didn’t trust her to slide under his thumb oncommand. Those he couldn’t dominate, he pushed to the side asuseless. “You’re an officer; they’ll recognize that. Getmoving.”
Xeralooked away to hide her disgust. Genson didn’t know a word ofScorpio, which she herself had been learning for the past two yearssince graduating from the academy. Whenever the Galactic Explorersuploaded new findings on the language and customs of the race knownas Scorpio, she’d been on top of it. So little was known about thealien race, and she’d been fascinated. Unfortunately, the GE didn’tshare her curiosity; or at least not her professional reasons for it.It hadn’t taken long for Xera to realize her employer was aplanet-hungry entity bent first and foremost on keeping the worlds itdiscovered under its control. In the Scorpio, they’d found apowerful race intent on maintaining their liberty and the privacy oftheir territory.
Thehumans had named the Scorpio for their home planet’s position inthe sky, in the belly of the human constellation of the same name,but also because of the alien race’s stinging reprisals. Scorpiowere known to shoot first and not bother with questions. Everythingknown of Scorpio language and customs had been decoded from damagedships and survivors of small clashes. The fates of these capturedprisoners rarely came up, though the GE maintained that they weretraded back to their people in return for certain concessions. Thetwo groups weren’t involved in a full-scale war yet, thanks to theInterplanetary Council’s diplomatic intervention, but this littleskirmish might change all that.
Notthat the IC had much control over the GE’s actions, no matter theirofficial position as peacekeepers. Officially a forum for governmentrepresentatives from different planets to work toward peace andharmony, it lacked the funds and support to accomplish much. Thegovernments and cultures involved rarely agreed on anything for long,which made it ineffectual in controlling conglomerates like the GE.
Gensonwalked reluctantly across the dun sand, probably swearing to himselfwith every step. He halted about two paces from the leader and spoke.The leader shot him down.
Xera’sgroup jumped and pointed their guns at the aliens, who looked back atthem with arrogant unconcern. A few bursts of gunfire bouncedharmlessly off some unseen force field. The Scorpios made no move toreturn fire.
“Hold!Hold!” Captain Khan shouted, waving his hands. “We don’t wantto provoke them.”
“Butsir!” someone protested.
“Isaid hold it! Let me think.” His thoughts must have been rapid, andfull of self-preservation, for he turned to Xera. “You. You’rethe translator...you go talk to them.”
Shelooked at him for a moment. Voicing the thoughts in her head wouldget her thrown in the still-smoking brig. This wasn’t the firsttime he’d queered a deal then sent her in as translator to try andsalvage it. Unable to quell a trace of mockery, she asked, “Anyspecial messages for them, sir?”
Khan’seyes narrowed. “Don’t screw this up, Harris-d, or I will bust youdown to kitchen help. Find out what they want.”
“Yes,sir.” She gave him a jaunty salute and strode toward the alien linewith her usual high energy. Fully expecting to die, she figured shemight as well look proud doing it.
Asshe got closer, though, her stride slowed in surprise. She hadn’texpected the leader to look so, well....
Hewas tall, his black hair cut close with military precision One of hisears was pierced with a golden starburst, and there was a hands-freecommunication set around his ear. This close, his uniform ceasedshifting colors, remained dull, gray-black combat attire.
Coldlyhandsome, he had a strong face, a piercing expression. His eyes werewhat threw her, though. Three paces away from him, she could see hisirises were flame orange, tinged with gold at the edges.
Brimstoneeyes.
Genson’sbody was in her way. She spared him a brief look, enough to see thathe was very dead, then stepped around him, refusing to talk over hisbody. Since that brought her face to face with the man at theleader’s left, she raised her brows inquiringly and glanced betweenthem.
Theleader finally growled in the Scorpio tongue, “Why do you look tomy second? I am the leader here.”
Sheadopted a polite expression and answered him in his language. “Idon’t know your customs. It seems you kill those who speak to youfirst.” She contained a flash of rage at Genson’s death. Ofcourse, her captain was as much to blame as this man. If he’dfollowed protocol and sent her in first, this might not havehappened.
“Iwill not speak to an underling. Bring your captain back or don’tcome at all.”
Sheinclined her head, then bent her knees and grabbed Genson’s wrists.He outweighed her by fifty pounds at least and was dead weightbesides, but she managed to drag him twenty feet before some of theguys from her side broke ranks and ran to help. She would have likedto drop him right at Captain Khan’s feet, but knew she’d have tosettle for letting the men help. By the look on Khan’s face as shewalked up, she’d made her point anyway.
“Sir,”she drawled, adopting her mildest expression. “He won’t speak tounderlings.”
Hercaptain’s face turned red. “He spoke to you!”
Sheshrugged. “That is what he said.” She could almost see Khan’smind work: Stuck on a barren planet, half his crew dead, finitesupplies and no way of knowing when or if they’d be rescued… Theyknew nothing about this place, except that the GEHQ wanted it. If thealiens were willing to make some kind of alliance, they needed toaccept.
Hestared at the Scorpio. “You’ll need to translate.”
Atlast, a sensible command. After all, she didn’t want to die,either. “Yes, sir.”
Theycrossed the sand halfway, then stood and waited. The alien leader andhis second approached.
Theleader glared at Khan. “What is your name and rank?”
Xeratranslated then waited. Khan surprised her with a nudge when shedidn’t volunteer the information in return. The word for captainescaped her, so she said haltingly, “He’s the leader of thosein our ship, Captain Khan. My name is Lieutenant XeraHarris-d.”
“Hehas no other rank?”
Shefrowned over that, then asked her captain, “You don’t happen tobe a prince or something among your own people, do you?”
Khanmoved as if he’d like to hit her but thought better of it when hesaw the alien leader tense. “Just ask him his name!”
Shelooked back at the Scorpio. “He asks your name.”
Thealien didn’t look satisfied with this reply but said, “CommanderRyven Atarus, of the High Family.”
Shepassed this on, then spun out her captain’s curt, “What do theywant?” to “Commander Atarus, you wished to speak to us?”
TheScorpio’s eyes narrowed. “This planet becomes a death trap afterdark. There are nocturnal creatures here that would feed on all of usif we stay. The ships are not strong enough to safeguard anyone. Thedanger is great enough that we will ally with you long enough toreach shelter. If all go, some will survive.”
Captain Khandidn’t like that news. “What kind of creatures can get inside aclosed ship? Solid steel should keep them out.”
“Weneed to seek shelter anyway, sir. If there is water where…”
“Yourjob is to translate,” Khan snarled at her. “Do it!”
Xerasighed and faced Atarus. “What kind of animals can get inside asealed ship?”
Thecommander’s eyes traveled to their damaged spacecraft. “What’sleft of that will not keep them out.”
Sherather liked his tweaking Khan’s tail, but she needed an answerthat would move her captain, so she guessed, “Small wingedcreatures, and very large animals...I’m not sure how to translate.”
NowKhan looked worried.
“Wemust leave now. If you are coming, come. If not, stay and die.”Commander Atarus walked away.