Read Online Dark Horse by Michelle Diener - Free Book Online Page A

choose which of the four planets the Grih claimed as their own to settle on.
    But now he had to get Rose into his ship to be checked in the med-chamber, make sure she was in good health and wouldnʼt cause an epidemic of some kind when the runner took her back.
    He looked over at her, found her watching him with her fascinating eyes. Unlike any he had seen, they were many colors of green, with gold woven through them as finely as any Balcastrian wall hanging, an intricate palette of color. No Grihan had eyes like that.
    “You want me to go in there?” She pointed at the runner, and he could hear her breathing had quickened again, as if she were climbing the hill.
    He shook his head. Pointed to the bigger ship that had brought him and his team. “I want you to go in there to the med-chamber. Make sure youʼre all right.”
    She shivered, and he realized he was on the verge of retracting his words, and allowing her to skip the med-chamber. He forced himself to say nothing.
    Not only the entire crew of the Barrist , but anyone they came in touch with later could be affected if she was carrying a pathogen placed there by the Tecran, or just a disease or virus from her world they had no defense against. He should have made her do it straight away, had risked himself and the two guards who went with them on their walk.
    There was no ducking out of it now. She had to go in that med-chamber.
    He rubbed a hand over his chest.
    “Who will be there?” Her question was soft.
    “Iʼll be there. And Lieutenant Kila, my head explorations officer.”
    She raised an eyebrow. “Explorations officer?”
    “Weʼre primarily an exploration unit. Weʼve charted most of our territory, but we havenʼt even explored a quarter of it in depth. Thatʼs what we do. Explore our part of the galaxy, look closely at things that seem interesting, sometimes even land on planets for a closer look.”
    She tipped her head up at him, and there was something in her eyes, a flash of humor, that his explanation seemed to have sparked. “Whatʼs the name of your ship?” she asked.
    He frowned. “The Barrist .”
    She gave a nod, but he had the sense that her question was part of the humor, and she hadnʼt cared one way or the other what the answer was.
    She squared her shoulders. “Letʼs get it over with, then.”
    He gestured up the ramp and when she walked up it, he thought her truly brave.
    He knew Kila had been listening to them, and would have already gone to the med-chamber, so he took Rose straight there. “Rose, this is Lieutenant Kila. Kila, this is Rose.”
    As sheʼd done when sheʼd introduced herself to him on the roof of her spaceship, Rose placed her hands palms together and extended them to Kila, who clasped them between her own.
    “My pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant Kila.”
    Kila vibrated at the sound of her voice, and Dav hoped he didnʼt looked as stunned every time she spoke as his senior officer did.
    “The pleasure is mine.” Kila didnʼt try to keep the excitement from her voice.
    Rose looked at her sharply, as if suspicious of her eagerness.
    “This will just be a simple scan to make sure the Tecran didnʼt implant you with anything, or use you to carry a pathogen. Weʼll do a more thorough scan on board the Barrist , but we canʼt take you up there until youʼre cleared.” Dav spoke as much for Kila, to get her to focus on the issue at hand, as he did for Rose. “Lieutenant Kila is a fully trained medic as well as an explorations officer.”
    “What does an explorations officer do?” Rose took a step closer to him, away from Kila and her bright, eager eyes.
    His lieutenant blinked at the movement, and exchanged a look with him.
    He kept his expression dry, and Kila had the grace to blush.
    “My area of study is sentient life-forms. I help to catalogue the sentient life we find in the exploration of our territory.”
    “You study oranges, then.” Rose had stopped inching toward him.
    Kila blinked again. “Yes.