Free The Naked Truth by Lily Cain Page A

couch pressing down on the unconscious man’s side.
    Where are the Medtechs? Asler worked to stop the flow of blood. His eyes scanned the room.
    There. Susan was pressing a flat piece of sterali cushion against the last of the flames, beating the oxygen-stealing monster to death.
    Covered in filth, she had moved first to address the thing that endangered them the most, the uncontained fire. The fire crew arrived quickly to the scene, but Asler wondered why the automated system hadn’t kicked in first. The ship had to be badly damaged. He grimaced as he pulled off his outer robe, then used it to press against the injured man’s wound.
    “Examiner Kiis, thank you. We’ll take care of him now.” The soft mental command alerted Asler to the Medtech now standing beside him. He stood back, let the man closer.
    “Has the ship been hit?” Asler asked, although he doubted the Medtech would have much information at this point.
    “An attack alarm was sounded, but that’s all I know.” The Medtech turned his attention to the care of the ashen-faced man below them.
    Asler glanced back toward the fire only to find Susan quickly approaching him.
    “What the hell happened?” Susan’s chest heaved as she fought to get the question out and catch her breath.
    “Come with me. We’ll find out. An attack here…it shouldn’t be possible.” Asler hated the fact that his voice sounded so uncertain, even to his own ears. An attack really shouldn’t be possible. The ship was one of the most heavily defended in the Confederacy contingent that waited upon the signing of the Treaty.
    His mind retraced recent events: first the ridiculously simple attack on the Inarrii warship at the Earth Starforce Base, then the surprisingly powerful attack on the secret Confederacy Jupiter Moon Base, and now this…what was driving the attacks?
    Asler grabbed Susan’s arm and led her toward the exit. Most of the other diners, injured and shaken, had been taken to safety, and only the damage crews remained.
    “Thank you for your help!” a heavily protected fire-crew member called out to Susan as she passed.
    She nodded, moving with Asler, keeping pace with him.
    Her actions had been heroic, Asler reflected as he stepped over another ruined couch. She’d moved instinctively into danger to help, despite the fact that she was on an alien vessel, facing charges. His gut feeling, as humans so quaintly phrased it, was that she was innocent, and her unselfish reaction to the enemy attack only supported his feeling. She hadn’t tried to escape or even to simply remove herself from danger. Instead, she’d acted to protect an alien ship and its crew.
    Some might say she acted only to protect herself. But Asler could almost taste her innocence, her guileless need to do the right thing, even at the risk of her safety. Now he had to prove it and make sure that he had every piece of information available. And that meant accessing her memories of the terrorists.

Chapter Six
     
    “Damage has been confined to level five, and the attacking force has retreated,” the ship’s captain explained to Asler over the communication panel. “The ships involved were unmarked, but definitely not of human origin.”
    Asler glanced over at Susan, who listened from her perch on the low couch. She took another mouthful of her dinner, clearly enjoying the yessin noodles she’d missed tasting at the dining room before the explosion. He’d ordered them brought to her here in his office instead. The scent of the savory dish tickled hi s nose, reminding him how unsatisfactory the nutro bar he’d eaten earlier had been—devoured in seconds during the captain’s report.
    Susan’s pettan and skin still bore the sooty marks from the fire in the dining room. A shiver ran along his L’inar as he thought again of how she risked being badly injured when she attempted to put out the flames.
    “Injuries?” Asler asked the captain.
    “Three Inarrii have been seriously injured. No