Blood of Denebria (Star Sojourner Book 4) Read Free Page A

Sojourner.” He started the engines. “They know we're from Alpha.” He glanced at Joe. “They'd like to know why an Alpha military scout ship was heading for Denebria.”
    The clunk of metal clamping to the hull vibrated throughout the boat.
    “That's a tow line.” Joe stood up and stared at a monitor. “They've got us.”
    “Damn,” I said softly.
    “Listen to me,” Joe said. “All of you. Remember your cover. We came as consultants at the request of the Denebrians. We're not taking sides in this conflict. We're the avant garde of a peacekeeping force. You got that, Huff?”
    Huff nodded. “I am here to keep peace from becoming war.”
    “Joe,” I said, “there's just one problem with that.”
    “And that would be?” he asked grimly.
    “The BEMs possess a communal mind, and it's telepathic.”
    He sat down hard beside Chancey. “Then we'd damn well better all believe the same lie.”

Chapter Two
    “Which one of you is the telepath?” a BEM asked us in stelspeak. His voice had a metallic ring. His sable pelt was streaked with gray, perhaps from age. A white scar ran along the right side of his mantle.
    Joe, Chancey, Huff and I stood before a curved platform in a BEM military outpost built of stones, somewhere in a Denebrian desert. It was a world as close to Earth in climate, grav, and air as I'd ever seen. During planetfall I'd watched lush green fields, forests, and the blue eye of an ocean swing past as we landed.
    “That would be me,” I said in the thick silence and bit my lip.
    He turned to his five companions and clucked. “Then you were the intruder aboard our ship?”
    I nodded.
    “What does that up and down gesture mean?” he asked.
    “It means yes,” I said.
    “State your reason for the intrusion into our home uninvited.”
    “You pretended to be from an Alpha outpost,” I told him. “We knew you weren't. We were curious. That's all.”
    “Are you curious as to your futures?”
    I nodded, then added, “Yes.”
    He slid across the platform and left a yellow slime trail. “So am I.” He said something to one of the five in BEMese.
    The other rose to two tentacles, wrapped the rest of them around his charcoal pelt, and stalked out of the chamber, his claws clicking on the stone floor.
    “What is the nature of your mission on this world?” the scarred BEM asked me.
    I glanced at Joe. “We're here at the request of the Denebrian government to act as consultants,” I said. “The Alliance is not taking sides in this conflict. It's out of their jurisdiction. Suppose you allow us to negotiate a peace treaty between your people and the Denebrians?”
    He scraped some crust from the rim of his left eye with the claw end of a tentacle. “The Denebrians will know peace and prosperity when we have consolidated their villages and cities under our benign rule. They will be better fed than they are now with their primitive farming methods, and they will experience the contentment of working for a higher good.”
    I tried a subliminal tel link and got an image of thousands of chained Denebrian slaves working under BEM overlords. I held down my thoughts, but one slipped through.
You're good!
    He stared at me.
Good is good, Terran,
he sent.
It is an absolute, like the speed of light.
    My friends don't know about your plans to conquer all of Denebria,
I sent.
Suppose you let them go?
    Why?
    A show of good faith to planet Alpha. Would your political leaders consider trade agreements with the Denebrians? They could use your high-tech products to—
    “
Enough!
He rose to his full seven-foot height and towered over me on the platform. “You must think we are fools,” he said aloud. “Why trade for that which you can take?”
    “I was hoping for honor,” I said. “And compassion.”
    We have both,
he sent.
That is why if Bountiful the Profuse decides to dine on you, we will kill you first, and quickly, with compassion, and a ritual to honor your passing.
    Through her gut!
I sent the