The Better Part of Valor by Tanya Huff Read Free Book Online Page B

were very blue and the secrets in his smile had taken on a strangely intimate extension.
    Intimate? Where the hell was that coming from? She’d never met the man.
    “So, Captain Travik tells me you’ll be helping him out on this little excursion.”
    Torin shot a look at the captain, who showed teeth. It was quite possibly exactly what the captain had told him. Verbatim.
    “I’m Captain Travik’s senior NCO, Mr. Ryder, if that’s what you mean.”
    “Is it?” Both brows flicked up. “All right, then. Well, as Captain Travik’s senior NCO, I thought you should know that I’ll be heading inside with you on that first trip.”
    “No, Mr. Ryder, you will not.”
    “Yes, Staff Sergeant, he will.”
    She slowly pivoted to face the general. “Sir?”
    “It was one of the conditions Mr. Ryder imposed when he agreed to take us to the ship. And what I intended to speak with you about. As Mr. Ryder has beaten me to the punch, you two might as well carry on with your discussion.” The general’s expression made it clear, at least to Torin, that he appreciated the CSO’s interference. “Lieutenant…”
    “Sir.” The di’Taykan fell into step beside the general as he left the room. After a moment’s hesitation, Captain Travik hurried to catch up.
    “Alone at last.”
    Torin pivoted once more, a little more quickly this time. “Are you out of your mind? You have no idea what’s in that ship.”
    His eyes sparkled. “Neither do you.”
    “But
we
are trained to deal with the unexpected, the dangerous unknown.” Torin held onto her temper with both hands. “You, Mr. Ryder, are not.”
    “I intend to protect my investment, Staff Sergeant.”
    “From what? We don’t want your
salvage
.”
    “Nice try, but I’ve worked with the Marines before. You don’t know you don’t want my salvage until you’ve had a good look at it. Just to keep things on the up and up. I’ll be looking at everything you do. Might as well accept it graciously.”
    “Graciously?”
    “Kindly. Courteously.”
    “Mr. Ryder, if your presence endangers any of my people,” Torin told him in as gracious a tone as she could manage, “I’ll shoot you myself.”
    “Woo.” He rocked back on his heels, both hands raised in exaggerated surrender. “I don’t like to criticize, Staff Sergeant, but have you ever considered cutting back on your red meat?”
    A moment later, watching the rigid lines of the staff sergeant’s back disappear out the hatch, Ryder grinned. “Well, when I’m wrong, I’m right wrong—looks like I’ll be having fun with the Marines after all.”

T HREE
    T he temperature in the narrow corridor had risen to just over 47°C, but the line of sweat running down Torin’s neck had more to do with exertion—inside her suit, it remained a chilly 13°. For the last half hour, her suit had been maintaining di’Taykan conditions and couldn’t be reset.
    At least the environmental controls worked.
    Early on, an electromagnetic pulse had knocked out her mapping program. Fortunately, the homing beacon had been unaffected and she’d been moving steadily back toward the air lock through a maze of corridors. The builders had gone in big for dead ends, rooms with no recognizable purpose, and huge pieces of machinery that seemed as much historical as alien. Torin had looked down a ladder into the heart of a steam turbine and, shortly after, on a long straightway, had raced against something that wouldn’t have seemed out of place back on her family’s farm—had any of the farm machinery ever tried to kill her.
    The air lock was now only eight meters to her right.
    Behind a wall.
    She was standing at the bottom of an L-shaped area. Another dead end.
    She had twenty-three minutes of air left.
    There had to be a way.
    Slowing her breathing, she mentally retraced her steps.
    And smiled.
    Three long strides toward the end wall and she released her boots. Momentum kept her moving forward. Feet up, she pushed off