By Other Means by Evan Currie Page B

over her HUD.
    No way he’s Diplo-protection,
She breathed, eyes wide and glowing.
    The Lucian was the one she’d faced after her skydive from the Hayden tether car.
    *****
    Kriss looked over the assembled Terrans with a cautious eye. He wasn’t expecting trouble, one normally didn’t try to start anything during a welcoming ceremony. If anyone was planning something for later, however, they might slip up here. Unfortunately he wasn’t trained in recognizing the body language of the species, so it would be a difficult task at best.
    The closest ranks were garbed in blue, carrying weapons but near useless ones. He presumed they were for ceremony only, given that the metal blades likely wouldn’t be able to cut synthetic fabrics let alone armor or Lucian flesh. If he weren’t carrying an example of Terran combat blades on him, he might make the mistake of underestimating them right then and there.
    Those in white were the shiphandlers, and good enough at the jobs to earn a modicum of respect from the Pari. They were of little concern to him, however, given that few shiphandlers had even a modicum of competency with weapons small enough to be carried without a heavy transport.
    No, it was those in black that drew his attention.
    They were all armed, which made them the guardians.
    Kriss didn’t like the job he was doing, but he had a grudging respect for those who chose it as their occupation. It took a certain mental twist to elect of your own free will to be the person who jumps in front of a pulse blast meant for someone else. Particularly given that it was rarely someone you
liked
who got the honor.
    His eyes flicked over them slowly, noting the location of each sidearm despite the clothing intended to hide it.
    They looked disciplined, serious, but nothing he couldn’t handle if were told to assassinate the ambassador. That was an order that would not be forthcoming, but it felt good to know he could be reasonably confident of success in such a case.
    Kriss stopped, eyes freezing on the last of their number.
    Her weapon, and she was a female he was reasonably certain, was out in the open along with a blade like the one he wore. Her uniform was different than her fellows, but it matched that of a handful of others scattered around the deck. He didn’t know it, whatever it was hadn’t been part of the intelligence dump they’d recovered from the Terran ship.
    Her eyes were locked on him, however, and he felt a chill as he recognized that she was sizing
him
up exactly the way he was doing to her.
    This one is trouble.
    That was for later, however, for now they had to endure the coming ceremony and the rambling of those who talked for a living.
    Kriss almost wished for a nice assassination attempt.
    Almost.
    *****
    Sorilla did her best to tune out the droning of the diplomats, she’d skim everything later if it turned out to be useful. Most of it was just noise as far as she was concerned, so she hacked the ship’s cameras and used them to watch the Lucian instead.
    If he was here, she’d wager a year’s pay that he wasn’t here for any sort of diplomatic protection. You didn’t send special forces as a protection detail, that wasn’t what they were good at.
    So, is he doing the same thing I am, or do they have something else in mind?
    That had just become a new mission priority for her, figuring out what the Alliance’s play was. If they were looking to sow a few conflicts of their own, well that was one thing. She thought it unlikely, however, since the human race was a little too united at the moment. For them to even come close they’d have to get back to Earth, maybe stir up trouble with China or India, possibly get some home grown terrorist cells in place.
    All that was impossible at the moment, however, simply due to lack of contact. So, barring some form of mind control, she was reasonably certain that they wouldn’t be turning any of the crew of the Mexico against humanity.
    That leaves an attack