Mercenaries (31 page)

“Not sure I'd agree with the underlying assumption.”

He shrugged. “Men are bigger and generally stronger. Makes them easier to enhance. Besides, that wasn't the only reason. Our ships were big, but not that big, so . . .”

“. . . Controlling the number of females made it easier to control your population.”

“Right.”

“Except after two hundred years of that, you've ended up with a lot of hyperaggressive men, and not nearly enough women to bleed off the sexual pressure.” The fighter shimmied on its wheels. She threw a glance upward, but at least the caravores weren't digging at the canopy again.

He lifted one broad shoulder. “We manage. Successful warriors receive passes to the Women's Deck and—”

“Passes to the Women's Deck?” She gaped at him. “Like for sex?”

“Yes.”

“Jesus. No wonder you tried to kidnap the first woman you met.”

“Not the first,” Rune corrected. “The first who was worthy.”

She folded her arms and braced a shoulder against his chest, the better to meet his gaze. “Worthy. Right.”

Evidently not recognizing the danger in her tone, he nodded. “Yes, based on your intelligence, your skill in battle, your courage. These are characteristics I wish for my sons.”

“Who would also be my sons. And so far, the environment you're describing is not one I'd want for any child of mine.”

Rune glowered as if stung. “You should. We're a strong people. Honor is all to us—unlike most in human space, who do whatever is convenient, no matter whom they must betray.”

“I'm curious, Rune. How exactly is methodically scarring a young man's groin and nipples an ‘honorable' activity?”

He stiffened, offended. “It's a very solemn religious ceremony, Cassidy. And it gives new warriors an opportunity to demonstrate their determination and worthiness to the tribe.”

“Yeah? Just how old are these ‘new warriors'?”

“Sixteen.”

She gave him a long look. “So they sexually torture sixteen-year-old boys?”

“Among my people, a sixteen-year-old is no boy. I flew my first combat mission at sixteen.”

“What'd your mother think about that—the combat mission and that ‘ceremony'?”

His silence went on a little too long. Cassidy swore. “She was the one with the knife, wasn't she?”

Rune met her gaze, his level and defiant. “Should she have let another woman do such a delicate task? It was her duty.”

She snorted. “Hell of a mother. Literally.”

“Ulmana loved me, Cassidy. Until I was six years old, we were inseparable.”

“Yeah?” She studied the hard, handsome lines of his face. “What happened when you turned six?”

He lifted a shoulder. “I went to live with my father and the warriors of my tribe. I learned combat skills, the importance of duty and hard work.” Correctly interpreting the pity in her eyes, Rune glowered. “How many of your children are neglected and unwanted? We value our young.”

“Oh, yeah. They make such good cannon fodder.”

Rune glowered at her. “That was uncalled for.”

“But true.” She frowned, a detail of his story niggling at her. “Wait a minute—if you've got a population of ten thousand with one in five of them being women, that's only a couple of thousand females. How do you avoid committing incest? Sounds like a very shallow gene pool.”

“No, because every ten years, the ten ships gather and trade off their teenagers.”

“Ahhh. So you weren't raised on the
Conquest
.” She considered the implications, envisioning thousands of teens suddenly cut off from their families. “Must have been lonely for you, losing everybody you knew.”

“Not everybody. My Wing Brothers went to the same ship.”

Cassidy lifted a brow. “Wing Brother?”

Rune nodded. “My best friends. We grew up together. Even today we fly in the same combat wing. We . . .” He broke off, his eyes widening in horror. “Goddess curse it!” He lunged forward and hit a button, then swore again.

“What tripped your—shit!” The battery system light had gone out. Cassidy looked up at him in horror as the realization hit. “The solar collectors were on the wings!”

“With the caravores.” He reached up for the canopy release. She started to protest, then realized the beasts had finally given up and wandered off. Rune pushed the canopy aside, lifted her off his lap, and vaulted out.

Grimly she followed him.

R
UNE looked down at the smashed globe protruding from the wing and swore viciously. All four solar collectors had been wrecked—one snapped completely off its base, the other three crushed.

“Why the hell didn't you retract them back into the wing?” Cassidy demanded, her fists braced on her hips.

He raked a hand through his hair in frustration. “Because they were jammed—the manual controls weren't working. I had to come out here and deploy them by hand. And then there wasn't time to push them back in when the caravores came.” Rune turned away from the device in disgust and stalked back up the wing. “I assumed they'd be sturdy enough to withstand the beasts.”

She followed him, her boot heels clicking on the wing. “Yeah, well, you assumed wrong. Now what are we going to do?”

He shrugged. “Wait for a search party from my ship.”

“
If
they send one, and
if
they can find us.”

“I assure you, my Wing Brothers will make it their business to find us.”

Cassidy bared her teeth at him. “Assuming my people don't get to us first. Or that those damn caravores don't come back and fuckin'
eat
us.”

“If you have an alterative, I would be delighted to hear it.”

“There's a settlement about a week's walk from here,” she said. “There's a mountain range between us and it, but I don't think we'd have trouble climbing it. They'd have communication equipment, maybe a transport.”

He turned to look at her. “Cassidy, I'm an enemy combatant. They will not willingly help me.”

“We can't stay out here indefinitely, Rune.”

She had a point. “I could take what I need—a beamer, a com system capable of reaching the
Conquest
.” He surveyed the wrecked fighter. “Better than sitting out here waiting for a surprise visit from the enemy. However . . .” Rune turned to look down into Cassidy's clever face. “Once we climb that mountain range of yours, we will be in com range of the settlement. I can't allow you to call them.”

Something flickered in those green eyes, and he knew that was just what she planned to do. His lovely enemy did not lie well. “Rune . . .”

“I will not be taken prisoner, Cassidy. If you bring the local authorities down on us, my duty as a Dharani warrior will require me to kill you, then as many of them as I can, and then myself.”

Green eyes widened. He'd actually managed to shock her. “You'd do that?”

“Yes. My honor would not permit anything else.”

“But it's not necessary.” Cassidy shook her head. “Rune, even if you were captured, you'd be sent back to the
Conquest
after the war's over.”

“I wouldn't even be allowed to set foot on that ship. I'd be expected to suicide in the airlock rather than bring my stained honor aboard. And I'd do it without hesitation. I have no desire to live with that shame of being captured.”

“That's ridiculous!”

He sighed, realizing it would be difficult to make her understand. “Cassidy, honor is all a Dharani warrior has. Without it, we're nothing.”

“Look, no matter how good a warrior is, sometimes he just has bad luck. That has nothing to do with honor or ability, and anybody with any knowledge of combat knows that.”

“You don't understand. You're not Dharani.”

“Thank God!”

They were wasting time. “Pack up your rations. We're going to need something to eat on the walk.”

With a huff of frustration, Cassidy slid down into the cockpit, jerked open a panel in a console, and dragged out her emergency pack. She unsealed it, revealing spare beamer batteries—dead thanks to the Pulse—ration bars, and a couple of tight bundles his comp identified as a sleep sack and a tent. Cassidy dug around until she located a canteen, then pulled it out and tilted it to her mouth for a drink.

Rune licked his dry lips, suddenly realizing how thirsty he was. He'd have to get his own supplies out of his wrecked fighter. With any luck they had survived the crash better than the craft had.

To his surprise, Cassidy reached up and handed him the canteen before scrambling out of the cockpit. Giving her a long look, he took a sip and handed it back to her. “Thank you.”

“Figured you were thirsty,” she said gruffly, tucking it away before slinging the pack across her shoulder.

Together they hopped off the wing; Cassidy followed him as he strode back toward his own fighter. He could almost feel her tension.

Despite her generosity with the canteen, she still had the knife he'd given her when the caravores had attacked the ship. And judging by the agitation his sensors detected, she was trying to decide whether to use it.

“I'm tempted to tie you up,” he told her as they walked. “But the chances are good we'd encounter some more of the local predators on the trip, and I'd rather you could defend yourself. On the other hand, I really don't want that blade in my back, either. If you give me your word you won't attack me, I'll leave your hands free.”

Cassidy studied him, her gaze speculative. She didn't seem surprised he'd read her intent. “You're assuming you can tie me up again.”

“I can.”

She made a sound halfway between a snort and a laugh. “Every time you say something like that, I itch to prove you wrong.”

Rune sighed and stopped, dropping into a combat crouch.

For a long, vibrating moment they stared at each other. Finally she broke the stalemate with a roll of her eyes. “Hell with it. It's been a long, exhausting day, and I'm not in the mood for another fight.”

“Give me your word you won't attack me.”

Now faint amusement broke through her tired frustration. “You'd take the word of mercenary?”

“Most mercenaries, no.”

She stopped and looked at him thoughtfully. “But I'm an exception?”

Rune shrugged. “I fought you. I know how you think. And yes, you are an honorable opponent.”

Cassidy huffed out a laugh and shook her head. “Just when I want to punch in your teeth, you say something like that.” She sighed. “Look, I can't promise I won't fight you, but I won't ambush you, either.”

Rune contemplated the compromise, then nodded slowly. “Keep the knife.”

THEY walked through the alien forest in silence. His emergency pack slung over one shoulder, Rune moved with all his senses alert as his computer did a constant scan for predators. He had no intention of being taken off guard again.

At the moment it looked as if they were safe. There was nothing larger than small rodents and birds for kilometers.

Which meant he could safely attend to Cassidy.

Though she walked freely at his side, she had withdrawn from him.
What do you expect, fool?
Rune's mouth tightened into a grim line.
You just threatened to kill her if she calls the authorities.

Still, he didn't regret telling her the truth. First, it might make her hesitate to com the colonists.

More than that, he'd rather be honest with her. She needed to know what her situation was. Deception had never suited him anyway, regardless of the cause.

On the other hand, he had to do something to tear down the emotional barriers she was busily constructing between them.

And sex was the best weapon he had.

He knew she liked his body. He'd glimpsed admiration in her gaze even before he'd challenged her back in the clearing. So as they walked, padding through the thick ferny undergrowth, Rune opened the seal of his armor and shrugged out of the sleeves.

“What are you doing?” she demanded, turning to watch as he peeled the top half of the suit down to let it hang around his waist.

“It's too hot to wear all this armor without a functioning coolant system.” Rune let his head fall back, sighing in elaborate pleasure at the cool breeze that kissed his bare, sweating chest.

Cassidy gave him a tart glare. “You'll wish you kept it on if more caravores show up.”

“My sensors will detect them in plenty of time, now that I know they're a threat.” He glanced at her slyly. “You might want to loosen your suit, too. You wouldn't want to get heatstroke.”