“Actually, we grew up together. Normally I would consider him a friend.”
“So that’s how you treat your friends?” she asked.
He sat back on the seat across from her, and keyed something into the pod’s control pad. She felt a slight motion as the pod slid away from the station. He sat, silent for a moment, and then leaned forward
“I have no idea why we acted that way,” he said finally. “It doesn’t make sense to me at all. Xander and I have fought thousands of times, but never over a woman.”
She stayed silent, unsure of how to respond. She didn’t quite like the way he referred to her dismissively as “a woman,” any more than she had liked Xander’s tone earlier. She was getting pretty tired of everyone thinking she was Jerred’s pet, for love of the Goddess. On the other hand, in a way she was his pet. She was his toy, completely dependent on him for everything from food to affection and companionship.
The doors opened as the pod slid to stop. This transit station was much quieter, with only a few men around them. It was smaller, too. Jerred took her arm and guided her through the exit into an open gallery that stretched above and below them for hundreds of stories. Looking around, she could see bridges stretching from one side to the other, and walkways stretched along the walls to either side of them. Across the open gallery, there was another walkway and more doors. It was similar to many of the stations she’d seen in her life, but once again on a scale almost beyond her ability to comprehend. It was just so big. It reminded her of the descriptions she’d read of the Imperial warrens on Tyre, vast developments deep within the planet surface housing billions of people.
They walked down the gallery for twenty minutes before he stopped, sliding a keycard into a door that looked just like every other one on the corridor.
The door’s light blinked green, and slid open.
The apartment was good-sized, with a large kitchen and living area, fresher and a bedroom. Still, it looked as if no one lived there. The walls were bare of decoration and the furniture was plain and bland.
“How long have you had this place?” she asked, thinking of her own tiny apartment on Transit Three. Even though she’d only lived there a few months, she’d filled it with plants and cheap holo-posters of various planets she dreamed of visiting.
This might as well be a room in a hostel.
“I’ve had it about six years,” he said, dropping the rucksack holding their clothing on the floor. She looked at it in distaste. All she had was her uniform from the bar and the two jumpsuits he’d gotten her on Transit Three. She’d recycled the dress from Josiah. Despite how lovely it was, there were too many bad memories associated with it to ever wear again.
“I think you need to go shopping,” Jerred said, breaking into her thoughts. “Your best bet would be to go on the Station’s ’net. The female population is pretty low here, and while there are stores, it’s probably more efficient to simply order something and have it delivered.”
“All right,” she said, sitting on the couch. It was nice and soft despite its utilitarian appearance, and a thought popped into her mind. She bounced up and down, testing it and looking at him speculatively. He ignored her.
“I have to go and make my report,” he said. “Just go ahead and use the terminal to shop if you like. It should bill me automatically for whatever you decide to get.”
With that he turned and walked out the door. It closed behind him with a hissing noise. So much for the soft couch, she thought wryly.
Nicolai Trasky, commander of Saurellian intelligence operations, searched Jerred’s face, trying to figure out what was different. He’d already heard rumors that one of his most reclusive scouts had returned with a woman in tow—that was unusual enough in and of itself. But even stranger was Jerred’s demeanor.
If he wasn’t mistaken, the man was happy. Or at least content. And now he wanted leave to go and spend time with his new companion. Nicolai made a mental note to have one of his aides look into the situation. Unlikely as it seemed, perhaps Jerred had found a life mate. Thank the Goddess, it was something he was seeing more and more in his men. For some reason, for the first time in Saurellian history, men were finding mates outside their own people.
His own wife was one of them. Not, of course, that it was relevant to the task at hand.
“So, Josiah let you go,” he said thoughtfully. “Very wise of him. It doesn’t benefit either of us to upset the status quo at this point. I’m assuming he just meant to send us a message?”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Jerred said slowly. “I would have sworn he meant to kill me. I honestly think the only reason he changed his mind was because he got the information somewhere else.”
“Yes, well, that source was compromised a while back,” Nicolai said thoughtfully.
“We’ve suspected she was a double agent for quite a while. I would imagine we won’t hear from her again.”
Their spy was almost certainly dead by now. Not that he felt sorry about that. She’d been feeding information to the Empire as well, and they were probably better off without her. Still, they’d have to find someone new, and Josiah’s organization wasn’t easy to penetrate. For some reason his people were alarmingly loyal to him.
“Our technicians will have the information out of your databanks soon,” Nicolai continued. “I’m assuming that everything will be in order, but I’ll want you to stay here until we’re sure we don’t have any questions. Preliminary reports are that Josiah didn’t break the sub-encryption shell, which means your information is safe.”
“He’d have a pretty hard time doing it in the amount of time he had,” Jerred replied. “He was angry enough about the schematics of his station that I doubt he looked much further. Not that any of this information would have interested him directly, anyway.”
“No, but it would interest others a great deal,” Nicolai said. “And Josiah is always looking for business opportunities. Don’t underestimate him.”
“I don’t, I assure you,” Jerred said wryly. “Are we done here? I’d like to get back to Giselle.”
Nicolai nodded, and leaned back in his chair. Jerred gave a casual salute and left the room, leaving Nicolai with his thoughts. Yes, he was almost certain the younger man had found his life mate. The thought made him smile. Jerred was a good man, and he deserved better than the life of loneliness and violence that awaited an unmated male.
Now, how long would it take him to figure his situation out?
The com on his desk buzzed, and Nicolai grabbed it. Within seconds he was on his feet, headed out of the office. There had been an ambush in the truce zone, a Saurellian freighter had been looted and the entire crew left for dead. Through some miracle another ship had found them before they all starved to death.
Jerred and his life mate were forgotten.
Giselle scrolled through the clothing catalogues, trying to imagine herself in some of the stranger creations. She had quickly realized that Saurellian women’s fashions weren’t suited to her figure. These women were long and lean. She was short, and while she wasn’t fat, she wasn’t lean, either. She would look ridiculous in most of these outfits There were other types of clothing, though, designed for women with her generous body type. Unfortunately, as far as she could tell, the entire non-Saurellian female population of the station consisted of prostitutes. Cheap prostitutes at that, not licensed pleasure workers. She’d never seen such a nasty selection of tacky clothing in her life.
Finally she found some serviceable, if not exactly attractive, jumpsuits. When they left on their vacation, they would have to get more.