They’d probably sent Trac along to look out for him. Because Trac didn’t want to go anywhere, and he really didn’t want to go anywhere not in the Najer. And yet here he was.
A bodyguard. Him. He’d been one of the toughest of the robotic models. And now he had a babysitter.
He hesitated outside the hatch, pulling his thoughts in and, hopefully, schooling his expression. This had been so much easier when he hadn’t had an expression.
He activated the hatch in time to hear Riina say, “At least only two inhabitants of Arroxan Prime know that first contact has been made. That should make our job easier.”
Tim heard a gentle cough behind him and turned to find Lt. Dish standing behind him holding a bowl filled with white…something. Something that smelled delicious. This was one part of being human he did not mind. Delicious things were so…delicious.
“I brought popcorn for the movie,” she said.
5
“It might,” Drun Marik said, “have been better if you’d brought this straight to me.”
“It’s against our charter,” Pollin said. Not that he didn’t agree with Drun. They’d had to step out into the rear of the building to hear themselves think over the sounds coming from the meeting room.
“Yes.” Drun sighed. “Well, it’s done now.” He paced away, then back. “You’re sure?”
Pollin knew that Drun asked the question, not because he didn’t believe Pollin, but because he wanted him to be wrong. It was a false hope.
“What troubles me,” Pollin said, “well, what troubles me the most, who are these aliens in contact with here on Arroxan Prime?”
He didn’t use the word traitor, not yet. Whoever it was might not be a traitor. They could be a fool.
“Can you track that signal back to its source?” Drun asked. “We could check them out before we go…official.”
Official. It had been done. Once or twice. It never went well. Again, it wasn’t that their government was particularly oppressive. It was more like impatient with anything that didn’t directly relate to fixing their tremor problems.
And it always impacted employment. One got an unstable tag added to their name and it was good-bye paycheck.
“I already did that,” Pollin admitted. “I have the location here.” He patted his breast pocket.
“Do you have a name to go with the location?”
Pollin could tell Drun sensed another level of reluctance from him.
“It’s…” he had to pause to take a breath that wasn’t panicked, “Lira Taan.”
Drun inhaled sharply. “Lira. But…she’s an archaeologist.”
“It didn’t make sense to me either unless,” he hesitated, “I haven’t heard from Herk, but I did find some new data from the southern pole. Troubling data.” He turned to face Drun. “He might be dead. The facility is gone.”
“Gone.” Drun repeated the word as if it would somehow help.
Pollin took out a small hand-held, activated it and then searched for several minutes, before handing it to Drun.
Drun studied the overflight photos that Pollin had managed to get without alerting anyone. It wasn’t as if seismic activity was unusual anywhere on Arroxan Prime.
Drun studied the image, zoomed in on the location. Zoomed out. Zoomed in again.
“It’s…gone.” He looked at Pollin. “What about the seismic? Can we get that without…”
“I know someone. I should have it by tomorrow.” Pollin bit his lip for several seconds. “Do you think its related to…”
He didn’t finish the question. He didn’t need to. Drun knew what he meant.
“We need to talk to Lira. Unofficially,” Drun said, with emphasis.
