She had barely finished speaking before the spacecraft rose straight up and disappeared, ripping the camouflage net away as it went.
“Was that you?” she asked Sazo into the sudden, stunned silence.
“I found a way in to their system using the comms they had with the Garmman trader. I didn't want to risk any debris hitting you or Dav if I hit them with a laser strike.”
“Nice work.”
Except now, the other Krik in the clearing all turned toward them. There were only ten at most, but there was murder in their eyes.
As they started to run toward them, Jia and her people opened up with shockgun fire. The Krik faltered in the face of it, lifting their own shockguns, and Rose looked wildly around for cover.
She could survive a shockgun blast, but she was sure it wouldn't be good for her pregnancy.
Suddenly, to her right, a blue glow blossomed. It expanded almost in slow motion, and as it reached the Krik it lifted them off their feet and threw them across the clearing, as if a giant beast had swiped them away with a claw.
Dav.
For a moment, there was absolute silence as everyone tried to work out what had happened.
A scream of rage came from above her, and Rose spun and looked upward, just in time to see a Krik leaping from the hill slope above the cave entrance to the ground.
He landed between her and the mouth of the cave, out of Dav's line of sight, and bared his incisors as he lifted his shockgun.
She wouldn't have time to activate her device and use it before he shot, Rose realized, even as she tried to do just that.
Out of nowhere, and with a screech of indignation, a little furry handkerchief with big eyes sailed through the air, landed on the Krik's head, screeched again, and then leaped at Rose.
The Krik shrieked in panic, lifting both hands to his head to work out what had landed there, and as soon as Sweetpea was on her shoulder, Rose flicked the device and watched the Krik fall sideways as the filaments went from glowing red to silver, wrapping around his raised arms and his knees.
She switched it off and stuck it in her pocket, and then lifted Sweetpea off her shoulder to cuddle her close under her chin and give her little head lots of kisses.
“Such a good girl. So brave and clever.” She didn't realize she'd switched to English until some of the Grih turned in her direction, a look on their faces that she knew meant they were fascinated and entranced by the sing-song rhythm of her words.
Everyone straightened a little, turning to look in the same direction, and she saw Dav emerge from the trees. He'd been in his tactical gear the first time they'd met, and this moment reminded her of that, when he'd rescued her from an enraged gryak, a sort of bear-like creature, and opened up a whole new world of possibilities for her.
“What weapon was that?” Jia asked him and he murmured something as he walked past her, handing her the weapon as he did.
He kept going though, not stopping until he was standing in front of Rose.
He pulled off his helmet and set it on the ground, and she reached out, cupping his elbows with her hands and tilting her face to look up at him.
“Nice shooting.”
He stared down at her, no humor on his face, not even in his eyes.
“I don't want that to happen again,” he said.
“Me, neither,” she smiled up at him. “But life happens.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Rose.”
“How likely is it to happen again?” she asked.
“Not likely. I'm going to make sure they do something about the Krik. We know they're ambitious, that they want to increase their standing in the United Council, but they can't be allowed to think this is the way to go about it. Their ambition has gone too far here.”
“Great.” She stepped a little closer. “And now that we've sorted them out down here, can we stay and finish the job we came to do?”
He looked like he wanted to say no, but didn't want to deny her anything, either.
“No reason not to stay,” Kila said, coming up to them. “Especially now we have these spiders to study. If this is a type of hyr silk, which I think it is, this could be a way for us to make our own, instead of depending on the current supply.”
Dav sighed. “We're down here now, I suppose. But I might have to get back to the Barrist.”
“Borji is bringing the Barrist back,” Sazo said. “I sent him the decryption key to the Krik's systems, and he was able to neutralize them at the mining station. They've got a few wounded miners in the medbay, and Sub-lieutenant Nur has secured the Krik, and will wait for you to come back and fetch him and his team on the mining station.”
“Sounds like everything is in hand,” Rose said.
Dav shook his head as she grinned up at him. “Sounds like.”
He pulled her close, under his arm.
Around them, Jia's team were securing the Krik, and Sweetpea had been watching them with bright-eyed interest, but she suddenly leaped onto Rose's head.
When she landed back on Rose's shoulder, she had a spider in her paws.
“Was that in my hair?” Rose looked at it in shock as Sweetpea took a delicate bite of it. “That's a very good girl,” she said, voice a little weak, and Sweetpea finished the spider off and then tucked herself under Rose's chin.
“You all right?” Dav asked, and there was a lot packed into that question.
Rose tightened her grip on his waist. “I really am.”
10
“I don't know what to do.” Rose knew she was being indecisive, which was really unlike her, but she was in a quandary of her own making.
Sweetpea did not want to go her own way. Rose had left her on a tree and walked away a few times now, and with a chirp of distress, the little glider had raced after her and needed a lot of cuddles to calm down again.
At the same time, Rose didn't like life onboard a spaceship. Why would Sweetpea?
“Look at it this way,” Dav said, and she could hear the hint of exasperation at the situation in his voice. “She would be dead without you. She doesn't want to leave you and you don't want to leave her. Just take her with you.”
Sweetpea gave a chirp of agreement.
“What if she's unhappy onboard?” Rose was so torn, and she hated it.
“Then Sazo can bring her back. I'm sure he wouldn't mind.”
“Dav's right,” Sazo said. “We can bring her back anytime. And you would like coming back, too, wouldn't you?”
Rose sighed. She knew she was already considered a special case amongst the Grih. She, Fiona McKenzie, Imogen Peters and Lucy Harris were the exotic new additions to the Grih population, and having Class 5s run errands for her was only going to make her stand out all the more. But what the hell, she did want to come back here, and if Sweetpea got sick of space, then they'd bring her back and let her be happy here.
“Thank you. Let's do that.”
Dav made a sound she interpreted as the Grih version of thank God, and she couldn't help the snort that escaped.
“I was being difficult, wasn't I?”
Dav turned to her and rubbed a thumb over her cheek. “You can be as difficult as you like.”
She outright laughed at that.
“It's good to hear you laugh. I don't think you've done much of that for a while now. I want you to be happy.”