that the female who just threw herself at the mercy of The Order of Intergalactic Peace to save a child not her own? One, if I am not mistaken, that was a stranger to her. An action that could very well have cost her in pain if nothing else. One who caught the attention of every one of us, in one way or another for her courage, innocence and beauty. What are the chance that this female lives alone in unmarried solitude?”
Tolis snorted. “But she didn’t lie about that. You would have known if she had.”
“There is that” he said thinking the matter through as his men waited for his orders. “How many sensors did you manage?”
“Three,” The General said easily and with no apology. “Two active and wired to record sound as well as pinpoint location. One I left inert and directly on her skin, in case she is more than she seems and finds a scanner sophisticated enough to find the active ones, strips, or both, but if I may ask, why did you let her leave at all?”
“I wanted to see where she would go. Besides,” he added when usually he would not deign to answer questions, and certainly not before his men. “She told no lies, had no power signature and managed to save the child before I was forced to step in and stop the questioning.” He motioned to the skimmer around him and waited with the general for the men to pile back inside. “And she did save us some time, pointing out where the rebels kept a safe house we can now watch.”
“Yes, I will have a word with the guard. When I told him to gather randomly from the crowd I assumed he would naturally know I didn’t include the children in that.”
“Have more than a word,” Mal said absently. “Had I been forced to intercede it would have been perceived as a weakness. And if the hunters reacted as their nature demanded when a child was threatened, the consequences would have been even worse.”
His General as usual saw far more implications with his abilities than he did. “Maybe that was the intention.”
Mal considered that. “A brilliantly subtle play. Find out who orchestrated it.”
His mind went back to the female. His power had liked the taste of her, even without an answering gift of her own he would have had to force his power down to get it to stop trying to read her. He didn’t bother, allowing his power free reign to play had kept him calm. He had been around many powerful women who hadn’t incited him the way this one powerless beauty did. And he could not remember the last time anyone had challenged him in even small ways.
Yes, his power had liked her taste. Even now he felt bereft at the loss of her. Yet another thing about her he didn’t trust.
“We will know everything there is to know about her soon enough. Now to the other mystery before us.” He felt the temper he was renowned for flash hot and call for blood. “Can anyone tell me how Nolan Rand is still alive, and why he was brought to Earth of all places to be healed?”
The silence that met his question was not unexpected. But it was frustrating.
Chapter Five
Most OIP bases were self-contained cities unto themselves. The one on Earth was an exception to that rule. Built towards the beginning of the war, it was destroyed and rebuilt several times before it found its current form. Which was that of a small base for cast offs and forgotten men. Calling it a base in Mal’s opinion was a joke. Compared to the usual smartly run and extensive bases he was used to it was something of an afterthought in the universe.
He had never had the chance to visit this one in the past and he hoped never to have the chance in the future. Like the rest of the planet, it was small, underpopulated and reminded him of nothing so much as a slowly deteriorating graveyard.
Which made hosting the obligatory welcome banquet the small puppet government insisted on particularly painful. A necessary evil, having the brightly colored well fed Earthers mingling with his troops and feasting on the exotic offerings of an OIP command frigate.
Watching the Mayor and the rest of the so-called government of Earth stuff themselves on his food and kowtow to him and his officers was painful. Their well-fed and well-dressed state in sharp