What in the Unknown . . . ?

Mak tore off his comm set, held it up and checked the frequency. After a moment of staring at numbers that made no sense, he shoved it back in place, too nervous to miss anything.

“What is it?” Vasouvy asked, but Mak held up a hand, frowning at the sudden silence from his mysterious speaker.

“Can you hear me?” he asked.

“Yes.” The voice coming through was husky and breathless. It sounded like she was running. Which was good.

He heard her murmuring, speaking to someone else in urgent tones. Giving orders, it sounded like, and his frown deepened.

“Who's with you?”

She said nothing for a moment, and when she finally did speak, she kept her voice low but insistent. “Look, I'm not saying anything more to you until I know who you are. Catano said she'd recalibrated this comm set so I could speak to the captain of our pick-up, and you're not her.”

Things cleared up a little. “Catano did something to your comm set?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

More silence. “I told you, I'm not saying anything more--”

There was no way he could tell her he was the captain of an Arkhoran Special Forces team sent to keep watch over Cepi until its destruction, or that Catano was part of that team. Not without knowing who she was. And probably not even then. “My name is Mak. I'm part of Cepi's security forces. Now who are you, and who's with you?”

She was silent again. Thinking about whether to trust him, he guessed.

“If what you described to me is correct, someone just hijacked that pick-up in order to land on Cepi, and I don't think they're there to sightsee the ruins, so make your decision pretty damn fast.”

She sucked in a breath at his sharp tone.

“My name is Doctor Nyha Bartali. I'm here with my four charges from Arkhor to visit the ruins.”

The Halatians.

He knew who she was. Of course he did, he knew who everyone was on this pitiful excuse for a moon. But he hadn't thought about her and the four girls with her very much. They were clearly no threat, and they were going today.

He'd been assured . . . assured . . . that the pick-up vessel was clear when it came through the cordon the courts had ordered around Cepi.

Most of the cordon guards were Kalastoni, but at least some were Arkhoran and perhaps a few others were from other Verdant String planets. They'd been put there by the courts for oversight, but someone had been bought off, or whoever had taken control of the ship was just that good that they could fool an entire unit of Verdant String special operatives.

“Have you found a place to hide?” he asked her, a growing dread in his gut about what was going down.

She didn't answer him. When he repeated the question, the silence was deafening.

“Shit.”

“What is it?” Vasouvy, his second-in-command, was a bit more insistent this time.

“Listen up, everyone.” He lifted his hand, made a come-here gesture with his fingers, and the five members of his team, excluding Catano, who was stuck deep inside whatever nightmare was going down at the ruins, drew closer. They were all Arkhoran. He was glad now he’d insisted on only working with his regular team. None of that Verdant String Cooperation Initiative bullshit.

If they'd had anyone else with them now, they’d all be wondering if there was a traitor in their midst. Probably a Kalastoni would have been okay. It was hardly likely they’d be endangering their own planet, but that left the other five planets of the Verdant String. He was happy no one had forced him to take anyone else on board.

They were nestled down in a camouflaged lookout on one of the three hills which overlooked the ruins. They wore full space gear, although it was of the lightweight, flexible variety, even though Cepi's mysterious gravity and atmosphere generator covered the whole tiny moon. Mak had insisted on taking all precautions.

No one was wearing their helmets, but they all had them at the top of their packs.

Mak knew, because he had the clearance, that the strange fluctuations in Cepi's gravity generator had led to it spinning off course and directly toward Kalastoni.

If they were going to sit here babysitting Cepi until almost the bitter end, they would not die because everyone trusted a problematic grav and enviro generator to keep them alive.

Mak studied the live feed of the ruins playing on the wall in front of him, drawn from the scanners they had pointed at the ancient structures. He crouched down and tried to make out what was happening at the docking bay.

“Zoom in,” he said, and Erenn moved to the equipment near the door and suddenly they were looking at a group of blue-clad Arkhoran flight crew, one of whom was dragging a Cepi security guard away by his feet.

There was silence as the team absorbed their change in circumstances.

“They said the pick-up was cleared.” Vasouvy's voice had a bitter edge.

“They lied. Or were bribed. Or were simply fooled. That's for some internal investigation to uncover when this is all over.” Mak kept his own voice dry.

“What alerted you?”

“Looks like Catano was worried something was up. She hasn't gotten in touch with me, so either she's worried she’s being monitored, or her equipment's been tampered with.”

“If Catano hasn't been in touch, who were you talking to?” Vasouvy asked.

“Dr. Nyha Bartali.”

“The Halatian?” Fren rubbed the bristles on his chin. “How did she get in contact?”

“Catano must have calibrated her comm set to emergency override mode. Whenever the doc speaks, it comes through on my set. The doc told me Catano fiddled with it, and told her it was rebooting and would connect to the captain of her pick-up vessel. I'm guessing Catano was worried her comms were about to be shut down, but gambled that the Halatians might be overlooked. They're hardly a threat.”

“Where are the Halatians now?” Goojie had moved forward and was crouched down close to the wall, too. His eyes narrowed as they all watched one of the fake pick-up crew standing in the doorway of the small space craft that had been sent to fetch the doctor and her girls, throwing down weapons to the team below.

“I told them to hide. The last time I tried to talk to Dr. Bartali, she didn't answer me.”

“Couldn't?” Yari asked. He'd been leaning against the far wall, arms crossed over his wide chest through the whole debrief.

Mak shrugged. “Most likely.”

“You think the insurgents know we're here?” Vasouvy asked.

“No idea.” And it was ruining his mood. “Catano obviously suspected they did know, or she wouldn't have set up the Halatian with the comm set. Or she thought someone on the inside suspected her of being a spy. Either way, we'll find out soon enough.”

“Are we going to let someone know about this?” Erenn asked. “I’m assuming Catano tried, if it was possible. But just in case she couldn’t.”

Mak gave a slow nod. “We’re not talking to those jokers sitting at the cordon points, though. And any signal we send out to Arkhor is going to take time.”

“So we have, what, a day before anyone turns up?” Yari guessed.

“Maybe longer.” Mak shrugged. “And for all we know, whoever let that fake crew through told them we’re here.”

“So what’s the plan?” Goojie straightened.

“We make sure they don’t find us.”