Page 32 of Black Star

“Maybe the idea was to get us away from witnesses, or to catch us by surprise to give them a greater advantage. They had to know they were no match for us on an even field.” Viktor shrugged. “I suppose you’d have to ask her. I’d ask the men who followed her, but they fled as soon as they were able.”

“Well, whatever the reason, they’ll always be able to find us as long as that chip is in her head, or as long as she’s with us.” Damon felt tired. Old and tired. “Damn.”

“If you’ll pardon me for interrupting, there’s something you should know before you go making rash decisions.” The silky feminine voice startled Damon, but Viktor didn’t seem a bit surprised.

“I take it you’ve kept something from me? Again?” When Viktor was angry, things like this only enflamed him. “How am I supposed to be your link to the human world if you won’t give me information I need?”

“I’m trying to, dear, but you’re a tad hard-headed. You tend to hear what you want to hear and not what you need to hear.”

If Damon hadn’t been in such a bad mood, he probably would have laughed. The ship sounded like his own mother.

“Well, enlighten us,dear. I’m sure we’re just dying to know.” Viktor looked angry enough to punch something.

“First of all, if you’d care to look, you’ll notice not one, but two beacons. One of them is coming from somewhere onSword Breaker.”

“So?” Viktor was probably getting himself in deeper and deeper. If he was going to continue his relationship with this ship, he was going to have to learn not to argue with a woman who had all the facts when he didn’t.

“So, dear, who is still aboardSword Breakerwho came from the same place little Phoebe did?”

“OK, so she and the other woman are both spies.” Now Viktor was being stubborn. Truth be told, he had been stubborn the whole time because the man hated being wrong even more than he hated asking for help.

“Or they don’t know they’re being followed. Have you even researched your enemy at all, Viktor?”

“I --”

“Of course you haven’t.”Black Starwas as smug as any woman Damon had ever met. He continued to believe his policy of keeping silent was a good thing. “If you had, you’d have discovered that no one has ever left their community. Those who tried were always hunted down and killed. Now, I know I’m just a hunk of metal thrown together with a human brain, but you add that to the very specific type of transmitter imbedded so deep inside the brain of these women and you realize the Hand was looking for the escaped women, not you or myself.”

For the first time since Damon had met the man, Viktor was speechless. He stood there, a murderous look on his face and a vein in his temple prominent in his anger. “Damned ship.”

“Best you not forget it either, Viktor. I’ve been damned since the day I was transferred to this hunk of metal. Naturally, I have no patience for people who refuse to see what’s right in front of them because they’re too proud to admit they’re wrong.”

“OK.” Damon figured they’d work out their differences eventually -- they had to if they were going to survive together and function as the symbiotic beings they needed to be. Perhaps if he had Nadira explain how she andSword Breakermanaged to find peace together it would help him. He looked at Viktor’s normally fierce controlled features. The pure rage and impotent fury shining there made him think there was probably nothing that would help. The man would have to find the answers on his own. For now, however, there were more important things to worry about. Damon knew the woman theBlack Starhad been, and she hadn’t changed much at all except maybe to be less tolerant. He knew Viktor, too. The man could only be pushed so far. Pushing him any more was unhealthy for everyone around him. And futile. “They were after Phoebe and her friend, but the question is did they know and simply refuse to tell us?”

“That I couldn’t say, Captain. All I know is you have a young woman in a cell who’s frightened and hurt. Perhaps you should have asked her that before you treated her like the very men she was running from.”

Yep. Just like his mother. And just like his mother, she was right.

“What I don’t understand is why she risked the lives of those eight men, taking them on a crazy space walk like she did. The only way that makes sense is if she knew she would be detected and was trying to draw the Hand back to the ship she was supposed to be on in the first place. She hadn’t intended to be taken toSword Breaker.”

“And her mad dash outside to help Diamond? The two of them single-handedly saved this ship and everyone aboard. Does that sound like someone who wanted to intentionally hurt those men?”

“No matter what Viktor thinks, Nani, you are a very wise woman. You always were.”

“Nani is dead, Damon.” The sarcastic know-it-all persona was gone in an instant. TheBlack Starnow sounded angry, bitter, and very much alone.

The only relief from her tortured existence was when she was allowed to link up withSword Breaker, who had been her lover in another life when both of them had been human. Mikiel, the captain ofSword Breaker, and Damon both tried to allow them a continuous link, but distance sometimes interfered. As a result, they tried not to separate the ships unless it was absolutely necessary.

“All that’s left of Nani is her love for Darian. The rest of her died the day theBlack Starwas born.”

“I’m sorry. Things might have been different if I’d spoken up or tried to stop the madness Samair precipitated.”

“Certainly things would have been different. You’d have been executed, or worse, stuck in a hulk of twisted metal and computer chips.”

None of them spoke for a while. The silence was deafening and very uncomfortable.

“There’s something both of you should know,”Black Starcontinued in a more controlled tone. “These two women may well be the key to the salvation of both the Vok’nair Empire and the Asalian Coalition. I can’t say why, but there’s something tickling my sensors about this whole situation. I just can’t figure it out yet.”

Damon looked at Viktor. He’d hoped to have the man offer some insight, but Viktor’s eyes were glazed over and pure fury covered his face. “You just love making a fool out of me don’t you, bitch?” Viktor was almost frothing at the mouth, he was so angry. “Why didn’t you tell me before? Better still, why didn’t you let me in on your little secret when we last practiced our link?”

---