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J’Qhir nodded thoughtfully. “How will you explain the ssship’sss disssappearance for fourteen hoursss?”

Steve frowned. “I won’t. According to the spaceport log, the ship never left Bay 3.”

“It can’t work,” she protested with less conviction.

“Well, let’s find out, shall we?” Steve nodded again and trained his Blaser on J’Qhir. Phillips keyed the lock open while both held their weapons at the ready. “By the way, I tossed a few things in the flightpack. There are enough protein packs for a few days plus a few other things that might or might not be useful.”

“Steve, this is insane,” she called out as they watched the two men step backward toward the lifecraft. “What is the point?”

“Wealth, power, revenge. I have a dozen Zi jewels which will be a fortune on the market, as well as the crysium, another fortune. With you out of the way and Cameron’s illness, McClure Shipping is as good as mine. I’ve been trying to convince Cameron to expand, but he won’t listen. He insists on staying strictly Earth-based. And revenge? I told you you’d be sorry for turning me down, didn’t I?”

“And the Commander? You could have easily sold him the cargo at an inflated price and kept the difference. Dad never would have found out.”

Hancock shrugged. “I just don’t like Reps. Good-bye, Leith. Who knows? You two might manage to survive, after all.”

J’Qhir watched as the two men jumped into the lifecraft then shifted his gaze to the sa`aloh. Her round eyes were incredibly large as the doors lowered and sealed.

“Steve! Steve!” Before J’Qhir could stop her, she took flight, darting across the clearing toward the lifecraft. J’Qhir ran after her, giving in to the searing pain with each limping stride. The foolish sa`aloh would get herself killed on the spot if the craft took off with her so near. She reached it and beat her hands against the gray metal. “You can’t leave us here! You can’t! Steve, there has to be another way!”

He scooped her off the lifecraft and threw her over his good shoulder, turned, and ran as if the sandpits of the Bh’rin’gha sucked at his heels.

The sa`aloh’s legs churned in front of him, and her fists battered his back. The lifecraft lifted, creating a gale that reminded him of the windy season except void of grit. The force of it drove him to his knees.

The sa`aloh dropped away from his shoulder, but he could do nothing to soften her fall. He screamed as most of his weight landed on his bad knee, twisting it. He rolled to his side and doubled up, clutching the joint with both hands. Liquid filled his eyes as flames burned a path from knee to hip.



Leith landed hard, her head snapping back against the unyielding ground. White dots sprang before her eyes. She thought she lost consciousness for a moment and dreamed the primal scream of a wild animal in the distance. When she opened her eyes, a flowing black mass obliterated the sky. She blinked and focused. Birds. A flock of birds moved across the sky in a rough V-formation. When they passed over, she rolled to her side and groaned. Her hips ached and her head pounded incessantly. She felt along her scalp and found the bump, as big and smooth as a Zi jewel.

Bruised and battered from the jarring ride on the Commander’s shoulder and their fall, she dragged herself to her feet, every muscle in her body aching. She shaded her eyes against the glare of the afternoon sun. The lifecraft was gone. Steve really had left them stranded on this empty planet. She heard the Commander take a heavy, limping step behind her and whirled to face him.

“You! Why didn’t you say something, anything?” she screamed at him. “Why didn’t you threaten him? Or promise to shower him with a thousand Zi jewels? Anything, anything to buy us some time until we could find a way out.”

She didn’t care how awful he looked, standing on one leg, the other bent at an odd angle. She refused to allow the expression of pain on his face to move her.

“Why don’t you answer me? I’ll tell you why!” She flew at him and beat on his chest as she had the side of the lifecraft, emphasizing each word. “Because—you—have—no—excuse—”

His hands moved in tandem with hers until he caught her wrists and raised her arms in the air. Her eyes flooded with tears, making her angrier.

“You just stood there, all big and inscrutable, and didn’t say a damn word!” Tears blinding her, she butted up against him, struggling to pull her hands free from his unbreakable grip. “Not a damn word!”

She slammed into him one more time, and they toppled over, crashing to the ground. She landed on top of him, and his face twisted in agony. His crested brow furrowed, his eyes squeezed shut, and his mouth drew tight, but his grip never lessened. She couldn’t pull free, so she threw her body to one side. He rolled with her, and once again she found herself pinned beneath his long, heavy body, his hands holding hers above her head.

Her chest heaved with each breath, from the exertion, from his weight, from the tears that dampened her cheeks. With each breath she drew she smelled him, that unfamiliar alien scent that made her body react in a most peculiar way.