Read Online The Morcai Battalion by Diana Palmer - Free Book Online Page B

it also said of the word of Chacon?”
    Her eyes flashed brown at the Rojok as she recognized him from textdiscs. Here was no ordinary soldier. This was the most powerful field marshal of the Rojok army, the most famous of them all.
    “You!” She stepped forward, momentarily forgetting the required dignity of her station. “Murderer of women and children! Torturer of boys!”
    A muscle in his cheek flinched. “The attack on Terramer was perpetrated without my knowledge,” he stated flatly. “As was the murder of your brother. Those responsible will be punished.”
    “And what punishment will return my brother to me, Commander Chacon?” she asked bitterly. “Tell me that.”
    “I cannot undo what was done. Atrocities are frequently committed in the name of war, by all soldiers.” His eyes softened slightly. “Come. You will be provided more suitable quarters.”
    “In your prison, no doubt.”
    He watched her quietly, with eyes as deft as a hunter’s aim. “Your bitterness is understandable. But bitterness is an acid. Beware, lest it eat you alive.”
    “Grief is not shared with outworlders,” she told him.
    “Not among Rojoks.” He stood aside to let her pass. “Have you eaten?”
    “I care for nothing,” she replied. Inside, her ribs felt near collapse from the three-day fast.
    “You will eat,” he said, “or you will be fed forcibly. Do you understand? I will not allow you to commit suicide.”
    “Allow?” She looked at him defiantly, with brown anger coloring her pupils. “And do you think to dictate to me?”
    He smiled. A thin, self-confident smile that was disconcerting. “Until the war is over, at least. You are a political prisoner. As such, you will tolerate my ‘dictates.’”
    “And the consequences?” she chided. “Shall you send me to Ahkmau? ”
    “If you continue to oppose me, you may be sent to my harem,” he warned mockingly.
    Had she known how, she would have blushed. A mingling of color touched her eyes, and she hid them from him. Dtimun would teach this Rojok choapha manners. Among other lessons the Holconcom would provide.
     
    Stern was still nursing hostility when he went into the mess hall with Madeline and Hahnson two “days” later. The tension in the room was so thick it could have been filleted.
    The compartment was filled to capacity, with humans and Centaurians sitting uncomfortably integrated at the long tables. The close quarters bred tension.
    The ship was still running from the oncoming net of Rojok ships, which it had managed to avoid with amazing tactical skill. Stern was beginning to believe the C.O.’s reputation for eluding superior forces. Apparently there was some sort of technology in use that was able to broadcast false ion trails to lead the Rojok ships astray. How long that would continue to work was anyone’s guess. Meanwhile, hope was growing that the vessel would make neutral Benaski Port in time.
    The situation aboard the Morcai , however, was growing desperate. In the past twenty-four standard hours, disaster had been averted by seconds on every deck. The mixture of aliens and humans grew more explosive by the minute. Thanks to the translators, the humans understood enough Centaurian to realize that they were being chided, denigrated and insulted with every other breath. The Holconcom were eloquent about their distaste for having to share quarters with those they thought of as inferior beings. They abused the humans for being unable to meet the same physical challenges as the Centaurians. They chided them for their lack of stamina. The humans, on the other hand, knew that the Centaurians were clones, and treated them with contempt. Among human colonies, clones had no status, no rights, and were frequently kept in cooling tanks in suspended animation and used as spare parts for their originals.
    Some of the Centaurians had to move out of their quarters to accommodate the unexpected guests aboard their vessel. The humansgot in the way of