I sighed out the unexpected jealously, not knowing which of my personalities let it out in the first place. I focused until I had Kazan front and center again. We had a mission here. If Lizzy could talk to them better than me, good. I needed to be using my head for other things, like figuring out what the fuck was going on, and who was doing it.
“Okay, we’re going to get to the bottom of this. Maybe it’s a misunderstanding. Maybe a survey team got over-zealous.”
“Maybe we got bad guys already.”
“Maybe you better not translate that. Let’s get off this cliff and find out what we can.”
Lizzy followed me to the steps. Yinet led the way, helping us down the huge steps, almost making it a game with Lizzy, swinging her down from one step and over the next to the ledge below.
To not be the stick in the mud, I played along, even had a bit of fun before we hit our terrace. Schaef and Remy were waiting.
Schaeffer wasted no time. “I called the ship’s captain. She said our other ship is a thousand light-years off in the other direction. She’s running an EM scan, but you know as well as I do, we only have these two ships.”
“That you know about.” Remy chirped in. “Remember where the science came from, private industry. They wouldn’t let something this major get past them.”
Remy had a point, though neither of us wanted to hear it. Schaeffer scowled. “Nothing’s impossible, so we need to address the likelihood that either the Corps or the corporations are scamming the LR, and head it off before they get really pissed off.”
“Yeah…” I looked up at Yinet. “You really don’t want to see what an angry LR looks like. Not so warm and fuzzy.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Can we fix one thing before we go any further?” Lizzy still had an arm wrapped over Yinet’s, like they were now best buds.
I squashed down another wave of jealousy, Batista’s jealousy. As much as she loved her friend like a sister, Lizzy always had a knack for becoming the center of attention among their friends. Kazan knew it was a benefit here. “Fix away.”
“They have a name. Calling them LR is like calling them It.” She glanced up at Yinet. “Pa-re-dat.” She said it slowly.
“Par-red-et.” Yinet rolled the r’s, a half-growling sound, the last syllable sharp.
I repeated it precisely, getting what passed as Yinet’s smile. “Parredet. Sorry if I offended.” I bowed my head to her. “I should have asked as soon as we started talking.”
“Well, Babe, not like you run into aliens every day. At least not yet.” Remy wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “Let’s get details, how you came by your info.”
Thanks to the lapel cameras, we replayed the scene from the art gallery, wowing our men who’d been deprived of the private showing. Schaeffer was pissed off, but kept it hidden, even as I told him of the Parredet once achieving space travel.
But it was Yinet asking about the ‘other humans’ digging up the far mountain that broke Schaeffer’s calm. He pulled up a topographical map of where we were, our camp and the mountains.
Yinet liked the holographic technology, not the least bit afraid of it. Rather, she located her village without his help. She ran her long finger through the mountain range, over several peaks, to a precise target.
Armed with specific coordinates, Schaeffer passed them along to the captain, and again we waited. It seemed to take an eternity, but soon enough she came back on-line. “Col. Schaeffer, we did a full sweep of the area and got some unusual readings.”
“You’re picking up activity? Human activity?”
“We’re picking up something we shouldn’t be, a lot of scanner interference. I have my guys working to get a better reading.” Funny how distance did little to distort her underlying message. She didn’t like being jammed.
“Well, if you can’t get a specific answer with your scanners, send us a shuttle and we’ll go take a look.” Schaeffer snipped.
“Sorry, I won’t authorize that. Not yet.”
“What?”
I cringed. The pissing match was about to start.
“Sir, we don’t know what’s down there. Do you really want to risk a fly-by, unprepared, unarmed?” She hesitated on her end, making him think about it. “Give us time to see if we can break through these wacked out signals. If we can’t get detailed scans by the end of the day, I’ll put together an armed detail and send the shuttle to you.”
Lizzy started translating. I almost stopped her, but Yinet’s trust was important. We had to be totally honest with her. Which meant telling her why we were here. “Yinet?” I pulled the rock out of my pocket, holding it out to her, giving it back. “Let us talk more.”
Lizzy had to get out her sketchpad to explain why we came here. Yinet remained quiet for such a long time. We had come here for the specific reason of taking away the ore, to build more ships. The difference was our intentions. Our mission statement was clear we wouldn’t take resources if the planet’s life forms were sentient.
The Parredet changed the plan. My new mission was to negotiate any possible trade agreement. Unfortunately, someone violated the plan before I could even start. I promised we would make them stop.
I waited, sitting easily within reach of Yinet’s long arms, and teeth. I had to be honest and vulnerable, if she was to believe in me.
It took a long time, but finally she bowed her head to us. “Ara, friend. Litty, friend.” She said the words, but we didn’t get the nuzzle, making my chest ache. “Parredet talk.”
She got up and left. Lizzy let out her breath. “She’s not happy, but she’ll stand by us.”
“Glad you’re confident.” Schaeffer came to the bench. “I don’t like waiting for answers.”
Remy stood at the terrace edge, watching Yinet leave “I’m sure they
