Free Liaden Universe [19] - Alliance of Equals - eARC by Steve Miller, Sharon Lee Page A

them.
    Or not. Ports were fickle things, and had become more fickle still in these new circumstances in which Korval found itself.
    But, there! One would strive to think happy thoughts. Anthora swore that a positive attitude had the ability to change worlds.
    …which was a fairly unsettling thought, considering the source.
    The breakout bell sounded; the Passage shifted into normal space with scarcely a quiver. Shan smiled, and turned to his screen as it flashed and cleared, gong announcing an incoming emergency report.
    * * *
    It was a preliminary report, very brief, with a promise of details to follow:
    Pale Wing , one of Korval’s first-line ships—in fact, the ship on which Padi had served as cabin boy—had been fired upon on approach to a port where she was well known and, previously, welcomed.
    Shan drew a hard breath, his stomach clenching, reaching for the comm even as it buzzed. He touched a key.
    “Yes, Priscilla, I have it,” he said.
    “The detailed report just hit,” she said. “Forwarded to all pilots and reserve pilots. Meeting at fifteen hundred hours in the second-level conference room.”
    “I’ll be there,” he said, turning back to his screen and the detailed report.
    —•—
    Hazenthull leaned against the counter where Tolly had been, and closed her eyes, the better to think.
    It was true that she was the least of the small-Troop which had been come under the command of Hero Captain Miri Robertson, who had vanquished the Fourteenth Conquest Corps. Though she had received several so-called “therapy sessions” from Lady Anthora yos’Galan, who had the ability to reach inside heart and mind and make such adjustments as were deemed necessary…
    Despite this, she, an Explorer, had not progressed nearly so well as even Diglon Rifle. Diglon had embraced their new circumstances with enthusiasm, and set himself to learn…everything, while she…found comfort only in her work cycle at the port, in the simple duties of a guard, as if she were nothing more than a Rifle herself.
    Comfort in routine, and then, when Commander Lizardi had paired her in duty with Tolly Jones, something more than comfort. Something that she had not felt since before the Elder had fallen.
    Comradeship.
    Tolly Jones had deserted his post, and she—she had followed after him, to ensure that he came safe to his next destination. She had chosen— chosen —her partner over the Troop.
    She had chosen her partner over her service to the captain, if it came to that, though she had not expected to find herself—
    The door to the galley whisked open. Hazenthull straightened, hand rising in a salute to the pilot’s honor…
    …and hesitated a damning instant before completing the strike to her shoulder.
    The pilot was small, seemingly fragile, perfectly clean and white. Perhaps she glowed somewhat. Or, thought Hazenthull, perhaps it was merely that she was so very white, that she seemed to glow in the galley’s low lighting. Certainly, she floated , a little distance above the decking, wafting forward under some noiseless compulsion.
    “Good waking to you, Hazenthull Explorer.” The voice was mellow, and female. She spoke Terran with a light, lilting accent. “I am Tocohl Lorlin, pilot. Allow me to welcome you aboard Tarigan , and to thank you for your care of my copilot.”
    “You are welcome,” Hazenthull said, which was an important civilian phrase.
    There was a pause. The screen at the apex of the pilot’s body tilted slightly upward, and Hazenthull saw the shadow of a woman’s face.
    “Perhaps I distress you, Hazenthull Explorer. Speak frankly, please.”
    Hazenthull drew a breath.
    “Pilot, not…distress. Surprise. Is it permitted to inquire into your nature?”
    “Certainly. I am an autonomous intelligence; a full individual person.”
    Hazenthull nodded. Such persons lived, as she had learned, a perilous existence, pursued by mercenary hunters, should they reveal themselves, whereupon they would be stripped