“Totally not my people,” Miles said. “In any way, shape or form, not my people.”
Slowly more shapes appeared out of the darkness. Miles risked his flashlight on its lowest beam. Thank heavens it was an old fashioned, non-electronic version that he carried as a matter-of-course.
With some unease, Miles realized that some of the shapes had deployed their weapons. The one Lira had called Drun was central to the weapons carrier group. He was going to make a wild guess that these weapons weren’t electronic and still working. Oh good, jumpy, scared, and possibly trigger-happy inhabitants. His favorite thing.
“This is your people’s peaceful arrival?” The scorn in the voice was unsettling.
At least he was looking at Harold. But he noticed people were starting to eye him with suspicion. Apparently yelling at them to take cover was now going to be considered a hostile act.
“These are not my people,” Harold said. “That was not the ship we were expecting.”
“We?” Drun said, his gaze shifting toward Miles. “You are with him, aren’t you?”
It would be challenging to do an autopsy on him in the current circumstances, so he nodded.
“But Harold is correct, these are not our people. No way our people would have fired on us.” Had they fired on us? On the planet? It felt more like they’d sucked up the Vorthari. That didn’t seem hostile.
None of the weapons wavered. It was possible they were experiencing trust issues. He certainly felt a disconnect between what he’d expected and what they’d just experienced.
Another figure approached Drun.
“Our vehicles have been disabled.”
Miles was pretty sure that was Pollin.
“The entity deployed an electro-magnetic pulse,” Harold said. “Electronics may reboot. Or not.”
There was an unhappy murmur from the group around them.
“Maybe don’t be so blunt with the bad news delivery,” Miles murmured to Harold. Louder he added, “Let’s let Harold here take a look at our vehicles. He might be able to help.”
Before Harold could dispute this, Miles gave him a very pointed look.
“You can examine them, can’t you, Harold?”
There was a pause, then Harold said, “Very well.”
Even with the robotic tone, Miles heard the lack of encouragement.
“You will wait here,” Drun said. “Watch him.” A pause and then in a hardened tone, “Watch them.”
“Drun?” Lira’s father sounded outraged.
Miles could have told him that the proper response might be an “et tu, Brute.” Or at least their version of it.
12
Tim activated the shuttle’s cloaking as they cleared the Quendala’s cloak. He’d talked to Rinna and Captain Kellen about the pros and cons of using the phased cloak to just pass through the entity, but neither of them was sure that the cloak would react well with that entity or within it.
It was a complete unknown so far. They’d even been reluctant to insert probes for fear of giving their presence away.
As their shuttle passed by it, they scaned it as much as they dared, but their main mission, their main goal, and still their primary mission, was to make contact with Dr. Walker and Harold and extract them from the planet’s surface.
Their secondary mission was to assess the Vorthari problem. It had been a long shot when they set out and now it seemed to be an even longer one.
They would, Tim thought, as he set a course that would keep them clear of the entity, be fortunate if they could make contact with Dr. Walker.
Despite the problems they faced, Tim felt at peace. Riina sat in the copilot’s seat next to him. It was both familiar and comforting—as long as he didn’t look at his human components.
