Blade of the Lucan: A Memory of Anstractor Read Online Free PDF Page B

know who I am, truly?” she asked, looking around at her comrades who now regarded her with some surprise.
    “They know who you are, Marian. What’s the problem?” Blu asked, standing with her to urge her to take a seat.
    “I want to make sure,” Marian said. “We are about to commit our lives and many others to some serious actions tonight, and in meetings to come. When the blood begins to flow, and the Felitians’ grip begins to tighten on the innocents for our crimes, I don’t want any of you to question my right to being here.”
    “Why would we do that?” a stern, dark blue Daltak remarked. He stood up suddenly and stared at her with what seemed like new interest, and the flap that acted as a nose lifted slowly before settling like the blast doors on a starship.
    “I am Felitian-born and I have blood on my hands. Not just Fel blood, but—but Veece city blood as well,” she said, her words so fast and strung together that she had no chance to bite them back from being uttered.
    The group looked at one another, nodding, and the Daltak shifted his stance. She could see the hilts of two poison darts on his leg and one of his hands had moved to hover near them. Blu stood up, as well, with a pistol in his right hand, ready to act if the Daltak moved to attack Marian.
    “Seriously, woman? This is why you interrupt our meeting, to tell us about your past as if you are some sort of special fish in this boiling cesspool we call life?” another Daltak remarked. Marian looked over at this new voice and realized it was one of the faces she recognized. “We all have pasts, some more bloody than yours could ever be,” he continued, letting the words linger as he flicked his dark eyes up at the other Daltak who blinked, flashed him a return glance, and sat down.
    “Thank you,” Marian said, and the kinder Daltak grunted and went back to his wine.
    “So, what about Talula?” a grizzled, dark-skinned man asked, acting as if the interruption hadn’t occurred. The rest of the group looked like they were deep in thought, but several of them nodded at this question.
    “We need a distraction if we’re going to mount that rescue,” one of the three women in attendance said.
    “Rescue? Are you out of your mind?” the aggressive Daltak from before remarked as he looked around to make sure he wasn’t the only one who thought it to be a bad idea. “The Fels will have android guards posted all around that facility. You have to understand, they think that the people they have inside of there are the last of our organization! If there are more of us out here, they want to be sure we know that our comrades are in trouble.”
    “So it’s some sort of honeypot for suckers, then,” Blu remarked, stroking his chin and looking at Marian.
    “I know many of you don’t know me, or know what it is I can do,” she told them. “But if you can rescue the settlers on that moon, my friend and I can provide the distraction needed to make sure the Fels won’t react to you.”
    The dark-skinned man from before smiled where everyone else had thin lines where their mouths should have been. He was the only one not drinking, and she could tell that despite his kind eyes, he was the most dangerous member there. He was armed to the teeth, but in a way that only a Phaser with her training could see. His weapons were strategically hidden, and his eyes betrayed the fact that he knew she was aware of them.
    The unfriendly Daltak made to talk and the dark-skinned man waved his hand for him to remain silent.
    “Shut up, Corea, you’ve more than made us aware of your distrust of this beautiful woman,” he said. “Like brother Blu here, however, I know who she is, though she wouldn’t remember most of us – old Rafian made sure of that,” he said and snorted out a laugh. “Sha’an, they call me Saiko, and I was a close friend of your husband’s, back in the golden days of Cally,” he said, his voice trailing off sadly as he made