Shadows of Mars (Broken Stars Book 1) I.O. Adler (read people like a book TXT) 📖

Who Waits, physically moving her as its girth couldn’t quite squeeze past. The hairy Melded bounded forward and took Carmen by the arm. He pulled her aside as the worm surged past her and down the corridor. Its misty exhalations smelled of wet grass.

Green Eye’s throat swelled and he let out a squawk.

The rest of the boarding party followed their leader. She Who Waits fell in with them. Carmen’s new escort shepherded her and Barrett along, gesturing and nudging as if it wanted them to keep up.

“I’m Agent Barrett. Human. From Earth. We want to establish relations with your kind. I speak for mine. We understand we were all attacked. We would like to exchange information. Is that your leader?”

He received a shove.

Carmen smirked. “Exchange information? Did we just get into a car crash?”

“You’re not helping.”

“We’ll need She Who Waits to translate.”

“Well, why isn’t she doing that now?”

They arrived at the chute. The worm had already descended. A second Melded dropped down without bothering with the handholds. The rest paused as She Who Waits approached the chute.

“Hold on,” Carmen said. “We need to be able to talk to them too. Where are they taking us?”

“I have been requested by designate Melded Primary Executive to bring them to the audience chamber.”

“Because it’s your job, right?”

She Who Waits hovered above the chute. “I don’t understand your query.”

“You said you translate. Well, we need you too. You helped us get this far. Let me talk to them.”

“Designate Primary Executive is not agreeable to talking. And I must hurry.”

Carmen could only watch as She Who Waits sank down towards the ring. One of the Melded gave Barrett a hard push. He almost fell into the chute. Carmen moved towards a four-armed alien who stood a head taller than she. Without hesitation he pointed the barrel of his weapon at her.

Instinctively she raised her hands, not knowing if even this gesture might be viewed as a threat.

The furry Melded with the green eye urped at the other alien. They exchanged sounds before Four Arms disengaged and went down the chute. The confrontation appeared to be over. The other Melded didn’t seem as if they were going anywhere.

Green Eye crouched and motioned to the chute with his hands.

Carmen was about to start climbing, but then she waited for Barrett. “Will you want help going down?”

“You’re going to get us killed,” he hissed.

He managed a clumsy one-armed descent and she went after him.

As frustrating as waiting for the Cordice negotiations had been, at least there was the start of a dialogue. But the Melded were a whole new ball game.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The audience chamber was in the opposite direction of the medical bay and not far from the chute leading back to the spine of the ship. It was a plain white room with a single box machine that projected a hologram image Carmen recognized immediately: the Cordice homeworld, a moment before the disaster began.

The Melded Primary Executive dominated the center of the room, its head craned forward, its weapons slung. She Who Waits stood next to it as the hologram began to play.

The scene of destruction of the Cordice world unfolded. A thunder of crashes and booms filled the chamber like it was a theater designed to shatter eardrums.

The Primary Executive bellowed. The hologram paused. The worm shouted again as She Who Waits’ red light pulsed. The image of rocks burning through the mountainous planet’s atmosphere vanished. The worm chuffed steam. This too appeared to receive a translation.

Where the hologram had once been, a four-legged creature appeared. It was identical to the caretaker in form, but it was covered in a neat layer of green-and-yellow moss. A wiggling pair of thick twiglike antennae stood erect on its head. It had no face or obvious eyes or ears. A soft chirping came from a speaker. A heartbeat later She Who Waits’ red light let out a series of short groans. The Primary Executive responded, the calmest reply yet, with a wet popping sound.

The exchange continued, with both Four Arms and Green Eye standing politely by and Barrett leaning at the doorway and wiping sweat from his pale face.

Carmen approached She Who Waits slowly, not wanting to cause alarm. “You can translate for us too, can’t you? We need to know what’s going on.”

She Who Waits gave no indication she heard as the Cordice chirps and the Melded grumbles continued back and forth.

Carmen spoke louder, as if addressing the room. “I’m Carmen Vincent. I represent Earth. I’m requesting to be part of this discussion.”

“Carmen!” Barrett hissed. He waved her back to him.

As what she could guess was a negotiation over the harvester continued, she realized her chances of bringing any of them home again might be slipping from her hands. She put two fingers to her lips and whistled. The shrill blast interrupted the Cordice and caused the red light to blink.

The Primary Executive let out a rattle and turned her direction.

Carmen felt her knees weaken as she faced the monstrous worm. “She Who Waits can repeat my introduction. You’re talking about the harvester, aren’t you? It belongs to the Cordice. You Melded are here to take it. But what you’re forgetting is that as of right now, we control it.”

She glanced at She Who Waits. A second red light appeared. But for the moment none of the aliens were saying anything.

“I’ll keep it simple. I want my mom freed along with Hamish Townes. Then I want to hear from whoever gets to keep the harvester that we’ll be brought home. If you have any further desire to talk to us, we’d like that too, but for right now, that’s my demand, with all respect to everyone here.”

The worm let out a sharp exhalation. It began breathing