long time, and it would be convenient."
"Convenient?" Milly hoped the motivation for Sam's proposal was anything but convenience but she wouldn't try to force the truth from him. She would settle for whatever Sam would give her.
/
"I want to help you, more than I can as just a friend." He hoped it wasn't too crude an implication that he sought intimacy with Milly. For a moment he realized how forward he was being with Milly. He put it out of his thoughts; this was too important. He couldn't go on without Milly.
"And why are we to be together for a long time, Sam?"
"Ah, that's classified information." And he finally smiled.
2-09 Black Queen to White Knight
She was here. Admiral Fidelity Demba. Keshona. Zakiya. Without the mask that admirals wore to obscure intent. She seemed angry and perhaps afraid, with tears in her eyes. He was disturbed it had come to this, especially with so little to be accomplished, but he wanted to see her, one last time.
"The Freedom has closed all hatches and disconnected from Dock Services," he said. This was too obvious but it was all that came to mind to start the dialog.
/
"Yes," Demba replied simply. She wiped her damp face. She was not yet ready to turn loose of the final sight of her daughter. To look upon the rapist Etrhnk in the next moment was hideous.
/
"As to the child. You care for him. Why?" Etrhnk was surprised he asked the question, but it was curious to him that Demba would risk so much to keep the boy. It was unprecedented that she was able to evade his transmat probe, which meant she had a choice to remain hidden and not come for the boy. Yet, here she was.
/
"If you think there is some logical reason," Zakiya answered, "you're mistaken. I can't help caring for Samson." Etrhnk, strangely, gave her time to collect herself. For a few days she had felt she had a small chance that he would actually let her stay with the mission. She even thought she had misjudged him - until he raped Aylis.
She waited for him to speak but he only stared at her. Was she to be his next sexual victim? "What now?" she finally requested in resignation.
/
Etrhnk watched this elderly admiral with fascination. He had so many questions about her, so few answers, and he doubted he would learn anything more from her. Logically, he should be in awe of her, she who had been Keshona. How did she bring her task force to Rhyandh without being intercepted? She probably didn't remember, but perhaps the Opera Master did. And Pan understood gates... He pulled his thoughts back to the matter at hand.
What now? Demba had asked. Indeed. "I wish I knew," Etrhnk replied.
"What have you done with Sammy?" she demanded. "Why did you give him to me, if you were going to take him back?"
He judged her appearance as pleasing to the eye, although the stress of the situation distorted her. Be careful, he told himself. Even as upset as she appeared to be, he knew she remained physically powerful. She had met The Lady and lived to tell about it. She had defeated Fleet officers effortlessly. She had even killed Jon Horss. She had to be physically enhanced, her body reinforced with special materials, yet nothing obvious was detectable by his security instruments beyond the usual augment mechanisms in her body.
As Keshona, she had killed millions. The old artist knew what he had: his Mona Lisa. And the Opera Master knew what he had: the sound and the fury. Perhaps Aylis Mnro knew what she had in Admiral Demba: a true friend. Etrhnk did not know what he had - if he had her at all.
"I did not give the boy to you," he said. "Nor did I take him away. It is not of my concern, or within my power, what is done with the boy. My understanding is that someone else cares about Samson, although I'm mystified by the kind of care."
She showed surprise at his words and frowned with lack of comprehension. "Can you make me understand what you just said? I want to know Sammy will be safe and happy."
"I can't explain to you that which I do not myself understand, but I do fear that he will be neither safe nor happy."
/
"You know where he is?" It was all she could think to say, as his words continued to elevate her fears for Samson and to present more disturbing questions. He seemed to be implying that his power and authority was limited and that others had influence on his actions.
"I know that much," he replied. "Are you interested in knowing why you were brought here?"
"You want to know things about me Aylis wouldn't tell you?"
"It is true I want to know more about you, and about a person named Zakiya. However, there are others who are interested in you."
A door opened behind Etrhnk and Sammy ran into the room. The first thing Zakiya thought was that Sammy wasn't supposed to run so soon after being fitted with his regenerator-prosthesis. His gait was uneven and obviously strenuous due to fear. Someone beyond the doorway uttered angry words - in Twenglish - and called Etrhnk's name. Etrhnk grabbed Sammy as he tried to run past him to Zakiya. When Sammy struggled to be free, Etrhnk squeezed his shoulder and the pain made him quit struggling.
"Kill the little bastard!"
A golden alien walked into the room, cutting the air with a rapier! It made straight for Zakiya and pushed the point of the sword to the gap of the collar of her uniform. Despite her shock and disbelief, her defense system instantly triggered, and before the sword could touch her, she pivoted and knocked the rapier from the being's hand, sending it flying against the far wall. She then retreated unsteadily and stared at the humanoid alien in fascination.
The being was dazzling in the bright light of the room. Wearing only shorts, the creature glittered with thousands of golden facets, reflecting like metal yet fitting too integrally to be other than organic matter. A feather-like growth covered its head and face, all of which flattened in apparent reaction or expression. The longer feathers on top of its head rose upward, not unlike the crest of a bird. A human smile twisted its lips and the shiny feathers on its cheeks erupted in a kind of dance of symbolic patterns for a moment.
"Ouch!" The golden being shook the hand that lost the sword. "Did you have a smart comment for me, Commander?" the alien asked Etrhnk in Twenglish, keeping its huge blue eyes on Demba.
"I would be careful, were I you," Etrhnk stated the obvious, also in perfect Twenglish.
"I heard her sing," the alien said. "How can she be so dangerous? Or is it you I should watch?"
Sammy tried to break free from Etrhnk and again suffered pain. Zakiya signaled to him with her hand to remain calm. The golden alien observed with eyes too large to be human, and the feathers of his brow slanted as though they added meaning to his words.
"The boy is not yet dead? Kill him! Snap his neck!"
/
Etrhnk moved his hand to the child's neck but waited to obey. He knew Laplace wasn't the final authority. Constant had warned him of Laplace's aberrant behavior. He wasn't sure Constant's behavior was much better. His life was about to come to a strange ending. He needn't take the child with him. And Constant had said she cared for the boy. Where was she?
/
"What are you, who are you, what is your name?" Zakiya asked, thinking to distract the alien from what Etrhnk was not doing. She could see the Navy Commander was not applying force to Sammy's neck.
"Laplace is my name." The golden one moved slowly toward her.
"What are you?" Zakiya asked again, retreating. "Are you actually a human?" It helped her cope with this impossibility in this impossible situation if she denied being in the presence of a true alien. It seemed quite human in its manner, but its golden covering, its animated plumage, its four-fingered hands... Distractions! Illusions!
"You hesitate?" Laplace spoke angrily at Etrhnk, pausing to glare at him and the boy.
/
Etrhnk reluctantly tightened his grip on the boy's neck. He tried to measure the force to make it less than lethal but enough to make the boy struggle. The boy began to strike at his arm and tried to pry his fingers away from his neck. This satisfied Laplac
e for the moment.
"What will you do, Fidelity Demba?" the alien asked. "Insult me more or save the child?"
"I doubt I can save him," she answered in Twenglish. "The room must have armaments to protect you. Why are you so beautiful but so human?"
"Yes, why, why, why? Disgustingly human! Gloriously human! Etrhnk! Kill him! Why do you take so long?"
/
Etrhnk lifted the boy off the floor by the neck, just for a moment, weighing unfathomable but dire consequences before acting against Laplace. Fortunately, he did not need to kill the boy, for Constant now rushed into the room.
"The boy is not to be harmed!" Constant shouted. "Release him to me!"
Etrhnk immediately dropped the boy. Constant caught him before he fell to the deck and pulled him out of Etrhnk's reach. She knelt beside his body, quickly appraised his injury, and forced him to resume breathing by inexpertly slapping his chest. She looked at Etrhnk and Laplace with anger as she pulled him into her lap and held the recovering child close to her.
/
Fidelity could only wonder as she intently studied the second alien. She obviously cared for Samson, holding him and comforting him as the precious person he was. She must love him! And she was female and she was not human but she acted as a human could have acted.
/
"You're interfering, Constant!" Laplace complained.
Laplace had not budged from his confrontation with Demba, and still watched her for any sign of aggression. Etrhnk was almost disappointed Demba had not yet disposed of Laplace.
"The