Blood of Denebria (Star Sojourner Book 4) Read Free

something else. A chill settled in my mind. Were they growing those juveniles as replacements for future lost combat troops?
    Fifteen aliens manned the maze of controls in a circle. I saw no insignias nor any other signs to distinguish officers from crew. Perhaps, as with ant colonies, it was the queen who ran the show. If we ever managed to contact Alpha, the seat of the Worlds Government, I would relay that information. Kill the queens and you might abort the attacks on Denebria and other worlds.
    I chose an alien who sat at a central console within the circle. Usually a power tag is in the center, surrounded by his officers. I conjured a red coil of telepathic power within my mind and spun it like a spider forming a silk thread. I forced it to spin and grow. A tel probe is no fun. It burns out brain cells and I always end up with a headache. At the least. When it swelled into a small tornado, I threw it at him and probed.
    And was beaten back by a swarm of tel links. This was a communal mind! They descended like bees to sting my mind. I threw up mental shields as they tried to shred the coherence of my thoughts in a tsunami of deep probes.
    Uh oh.
I backed toward the hull. Time to leave this tangled web. But my shields were forced down in a synchronized attack.
    Mind thief, one sent. What are you doing here?
    Intruder
, another shouted within my mind.
Intruder! Intruder!
    Invader of the homeship!
    I'm leaving, OK?
I sent.
I'm going now. Bug off.
    They conjured a mental curtain that blocked out the control room and the ship's hull, leaving me lost in a void without reference points. I tried to squeeze out of the spider web by moving toward an image I projected of the lifeboat. A tel force came through, stronger than the others. A thought in their native tongue plowed across my mind and left erratic furrows like spaces in my thoughts.
    Was that the queen?
    The curtain dropped. I was suddenly released, as though the web was ripped aside. I willed myself out of the ship and fled back to Sojourner, followed by a swarm of tel links that struck at me like bee stings until I entered our boat and my body.
    The sensations of living flesh grew around me in layers. A murmur of voices. “I think he's back,” Chancey said. I felt the pressure of the seat and my BioSuit and helmet against my body. The taste of air was stale as I drew in a long, shuddering breath. I opened my eyes. They ached from the sudden glare of light and I tried to rub them, but my fingers hit the helmet. Huff and Joe and Chancey were gathered around me.
    “Jules Terran,” Huff said, “is your mind with your body again?”
    I nodded.
    “You were out there a long time, Chancey said. “What happened, tag?”
    “Did you find out anything?” Joe asked.
    “They're BEMs, Joe,” I told him. “The Denebrian invaders are BEMs!”
    Joe straightened. “Are you certain of that? Nobody's heard from them for over a hundred years.”
    “They're back,” I said. “I've seen the photos of them on old cubes.”
    “How come the Denebrians never told Alpha that they're BEMs?” Chancey asked.
    “The Denebrians were never in contact with them,” Joe said. “They wouldn't know a BEM from an Altairian guzzler. They're a clannish race. They weren't interested in history beyond their own planet and the BEMs didn't attack Denebria in the Twelve-Year-War.
    “I'll bet Denebria was on their short list,” I said, “before the BEMs' defeat.”
    Huff drew back his lips and shook his head, a sign of fear among Vegans. “Is my homeworld Kresthaven also on their list of shorts? We are also clannish about our clans.”
    “I hope not, Huff,” I said.
    Chancey sat and stared out a viewport. “I thought they got kicked down the technological ladder after their defeat, Joe.”
    “They climbed back up,” I said. “Great Mind! I might have led them to us. Let's get the hell out of here!”
    Chancey swiveled his chair to face the instrument panel. “That's why they didn't destroy