Read Online Judge by Karen Traviss - Free Book Online Page B

those thoughts almost like a stranger’s voice whispering to her. This wasn’t how she would have reacted in the past. She considered c’naatat , of the way it resurrected the attitudes and memories of previous hosts, and remembered thinking she would be better able to handle human deceit through the genetic memory of Mohan Rayat, an accomplished spy and liar.
    I took on those traits. I have to be careful how I handle them. I have memories and characteristics from every host c’naatat has passed through.
    It made sense to keep it from Shan, though. The woman was so adamant that the parasite shouldn’t spread that she trusted nobody else with it.
    This is how corruption begins. One small concession at a time. One thing you feel you have to do for a good reason.
    Esganikan wondered what else c’naatat was going to change in her attitudes. Would she even know it was happening? That was what she feared. She’d been prepared for her body to alter out of all recognition, like Aras’s, but not her mind. That was much more disturbing.
    She walked down the ramp and onto the desert itself, through the defense shield that also maintained a habitable environment. Searing dry heat hit her in the face like something solid; she heard Shan puff out a breath. Ade Bennett fanned his hand in front of his face and said something about redders, which was incomprehensible, and the three of them stood looking at an undulating layer of air that warped the horizon into a hazy mass floating above the horizon.
    â€œHome, Boss,” said Ade. He turned to Shan and gave her a quick display of his teeth, eyes darting over her, but he smelled agitated and distinctly wess’har. They were all chimeras now, all a ragbag of species. “Hey, it still feels like…well, we did it.”
    â€œDon’t get too used to it,” Shan said.
    Esganikan was satisfied with the location. It was as lifeless as she expected: no other creature would be inconvenienced by their arrival, and her Skavu forces could set up camp here away from everyone else, out of temptation’s way. She didn’t trust them close to humans. They would react, she suspected, as they reacted to the isenj, and she needed a more managed approach to restoring Earth. But Deborah Garrod’s colonists would need to be removed to a more hospitable environment. This place was not for them.
    â€œWell, you’ve got the prime minister trekking all the way out here to welcome you,” Shan said. Aras walked past her with Aitassi, Esganikan’s ussissi aide, followed by two of the environmental engineers who stopped to begin sinking probes into the ground to locate the deep aquifers. “Look. I bet they want to congratulate us for following their landing instructions so fucking inadequately.”
    Black shapeless blobs wobbled in the heat haze, as formless as Eqbas hulls in their transition phase. The shapes resolved into a convoy of vehicles kicking up plumes of dust, and which came to a halt a hundred meters from where Esganikan stood. Shan’s skin and hair betrayed the slight gloss of the barrier gel, just like Ade’s. They were taking no chances.
    I could tell Shan. But I have enough to contend with now without starting a battle with her. I’ll have to pick my time.
    Esganikan could now see humans walking towards her, four of them, all obscured by what looked like environment suits. They came to a halt at fifty meters. She started walking towards them, and that seemed to start a panic.
    â€œQuarantine,” Shan said, keeping up with her. “Remember?”
    â€œWe’re not at risk from them.”
    â€œIt’s not us they’re worried about.”
    â€œWe understand the human genome well enough now to guarantee—”
    â€œThat’s not a good start,” said Shan, and held her arm out in front of Esganikan in that gesture that said stop. “Let me handle it.”
    Esganikan stopped. Shan