6. Chapter 5

Jasmine's shoulders slumped. "I'm sorry about this, Callan. I wish we could convince them to listen to your message."

He shrugged. "They always were recalcitrant heathens. I should have known they would be too thick to listen to reason." He delivered a resounding slap against Rocor's shoulder. "I'm going to visit Father. Try not to resort to bloodshed while I'm gone." He walked away.

Jasmine stole a glance at her team. Most of them wouldn't look at her. Jane Simons sobbed on her mother's shoulder. "I want to go home. I don't like it here."

Abigail patted her daughter's head. "Hush, darling. Everything will be all right."

Dana got to her feet. She squeezed Jasmine's arm. "You did the right thing."

"Thanks," Jasmine breathed.

Dana headed into the passage on her way back to her room. Dr. Simons got up next. He tried to square his shoulders the way the Kratak men did, but it didn't look right on a mild-mannered family man like him. "I don't know how you could say such things about the Allies, Jasmine. I respected you, but now I don't know what to think. I don't know how you can lead this team when you tell an alien people we intend to destroy them in the worst possible way."

"Look, Ron..." she began.

He closed his eyes and held up one hand. "Don't say anything more. I've heard enough for one day. Come on, darling. Come on, girls. We better go to our room for now. We've got another big day tomorrow."

He gathered up his family and made a hasty retreat. His words stung worse than anything. Jasmine didn't want to lose the respect of her team, but she couldn't stand by and perpetrate a heartless fraud against the Krataks. She wouldn't be able to hold her head up again if she did.

Sophia pushed back her bench. Her eyes slid once toward Rex, and she nodded. "I'll see you later, Jasmine."

Jasmine nodded back. Sophia didn't have to say anything more. She couldn't with Rex listening to every word. If Sophia spoke out against the Allies, Rex could ruin her career.

Jasmine started to turn away when Rex himself oiled up to her. He cracked a grin. "That was some performance, honey bunch. I've never seen anything like it in my life. You really had me going there for a minute."

She hit him in the chest with both hands. "Get away from me, Rex. Do you think you can act friendly toward me after the way you just stabbed me in the back? Don't come near me again. I meant what I said. We're finished. I hope a grenade lands on you when the Allies start building bases on this planet."

He gasped in mock dismay. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You know good and well what I’m talking about,” Jasmine snapped. “I’m talking about you weaving some bald-faced lies to these people about the Allies being benevolent when you just admitted to me in my room that you knew they intended to conquer this planet. How could you do that? Not only did you keep them in the dark, you humiliated me in front of them and the rest of the team.”

“We have to keep up appearances in front of the Krataks” Rex replied. “Our mission is dead in the water if we don’t. You only confused them with that outburst of yours. I expected better from you than to blurt out the Allies’ secrets in front of everybody. I’m disappointed in you. I really am. I’m starting to wonder if we have a future together after all.”

Jasmine narrowed her eyes at him. “Is that all you’ve got to say? You’re disappointed in me and you expected better?”

He nodded.

“Well, get this through your head. We have no future together. I doubt we ever did, but that doesn’t matter now. It’s over between us forever. You’re not the man I thought you were. You’re…. you’re…. there aren’t any words in the English language for what you are. I only wish there was some way I could avoid seeing your face for the rest of this mission, but that’s my problem.”

She turned away so she wouldn’t have to see him leave, only to find herself face to face with Rocor. One quick glance around and she realized she was alone with him. The hall loomed still and silent all around them.

Jasmine cast her eyes down at the floor. “I’m sorry you had to hear all that. I should have waited until I could talk to Rex behind closed doors. You and your family don’t need to hear all our dirty laundry aired.”

He studied her more closely. “Are you sure it’s over between you and Rex? Maybe this is just a small disagreement. Maybe you’ll work it out with him in the morning—say, after a cozy night together.”

Jasmine’s ears burned. “No, we won’t. We’ll have no more cozy nights together, and we won’t work it out. Even if he came right out and told your family what he knows, I wouldn’t look sideways at him. He’s a toad.”

Rocor cocked his head. “A what?”

“Nothing. It’s a little animal we have back home.”

“Either way, I didn’t know you were involved with him when I met you in the passage just now. I wouldn’t have bothered you if I’d known you belonged to another man.”

“You didn’t bother me, and I don’t belong to another man. I never belonged to any man. We don’t have that in our world. I suppose you have that here, where women belong to men.”

He raised his eyebrows at her reaction. “It’s just a way of saying you were with him, that you gave yourself to him. You gave yourself to him, didn’t you?”

Jasmine’s chin fell onto her chest. “You don’t have to rub it in. I feel stupid enough as it is.”

“You have no reason to feel stupid. You couldn’t know he would betray you.”

She stole a peek at his face. “Do you believe me now, about the Allies? You heard him admit he knew they planned to take over this planet.”

“I heard what he said, and I believe you, but that still doesn’t give us good reason to change our plans.”

“What will it take to convince you? The Ulasso are nowhere near you. They have no imminent plans to launch an all-out invasion of this planet. The Allies do.”

“They might have a plan, but they aren’t here. I hate to say Warku is right, but he is. Even if you’re telling us the truth, we should wait until the Allies show some more overt sign of hostility. At the moment, they appear harmless. The Ulasso, on the other hand….”

“How can you say that? How can you deny what I’ve just told you? You have the word of the other team Commander to back it up.”

Rocor shrugged. “I can see this means a lot to you, and I believe you’re telling the truth. I simply disagree on what action to take. You say we should divert all our efforts to defending ourselves against the Allies. I say we should fight the Ulasso. That’s the difference.”

She turned away. “I guess there’s no way to convince you.”

“No, there isn’t. Not at the moment.”

She glanced back. “At least you believe me. That’s a step in the right direction.”

“How will you convince the rest of your team?”

“I don’t have to convince them. I’m only concerned about you…. I mean your family. Besides, they’re too worried about Rex making problems for them. You saw the way Sophia reacted. None of them wants to make an enemy of him, and I don’t blame them.”

“You made an enemy of him.”

Jasmine snorted. “I’m glad if I did, but unfortunately, I would have to work a lot harder to make an enemy of him. He can’t touch me.”

Rocor’s mouth twisted in a grin. “I’m sure he can if he wants to.”

Jasmine grimaced. “I won’t let that happen.”

“Whether you do or you don’t, perhaps it’s better if we don’t do any more kissing in the passageways.”

Her head spun around and she stared at him. “I never thought it was a good idea in the first place. I’m shocked you did it at all.”

“Was it so shocking?” He chuckled. “I like that. There must be more ways I can shock you.”

She looked the other way. “You just said we shouldn’t do any more of it, and I agree. I’m on a professional mission here. I’m not supposed to get involved with anybody. Studying you and your family is part of my job.”

He glanced down at her mouth. “Isn’t that what we’re doing—studying each other?”

“Come on. You know it isn’t like that.”

“No, it isn’t. You’re involved with another man. I shouldn’t even be talking to you right now.”

She turned on her heel. “Then we won’t. Good night.”

He didn’t follow her. He stood still while she walked away. She walked all the way down the passage to her room. Her heart and soul seething against everyone and everything. To blazes with Rex and Rocor and all the rest of them. What did she care about this backward little planet?

If the Krataks wanted to piss their autonomy away on some rotten civil conflict with another group, let them. That would make them all the more ripe for conquest when the Allies got around to squashing them like the bugs they really were.

Jasmine had to admire the way General Duncan operated. She sat back in her fancy office and waited while the Krataks did the dirty work for her. Instead of taking advantage of the warning General Duncan gave them to prepare a decent defense, they bickered among themselves. None of the Clans would be ready, and the Allies could sashay right in and take what they wanted.

Jasmine kicked herself for even thinking that. How could she go along with this? How could she do anything but warn the Krataks of the danger? How could she stand by while the Allies enslaved yet another unsuspecting population?

A strange sound broke in on her thoughts. She paused outside her door, but she didn’t see anything up or down the passage. She put out her hand to grasp the knob when a voice murmured behind her. “Jasmine.”