Shifter Planet Read online

  Aidan shrugged cheerfully. “You never know, Rhodi lad. There might be a pretty female or two wanting to test the virility of their long-lost cousins. Can’t leave them to those city dandies. They’ll give Harp a bad name.”

  “If the Earthers send a landing party—”

  “You mean when.”

  “When they send a landing party,” he agreed, “it will be a scientific mission. I suspect brains will count more than beauty among its members.”

  “Nothing says you can’t have both. They might just surprise you.”

  Rhodry frowned. He wasn’t looking for any surprises, whether they came wrapped in pretty packages or not. The Earthers brought danger to Harp…danger not only to its people, but to its very survival.

  Chapter Three

  The Flagship James T., in geosynchronous orbit over Harp

  Amanda barely noticed the brief interlude of weightlessness as the shuttle slid through the big, open doors of the launch bay and into the black of space. Maneuvering thrusters kicked in with a jolt and gravity was restored. She’d been born in space, had grown up on one ship or another, moving every few years until finally her mother had been named chief medical officer for Admiral Nakata’s expeditionary fleet. They’d taken up residence on the admiral’s flagship, the James T., and there they’d stayed for just over ten years now.

  She’d begun dropping down to explore planets long before that, however. When she was eight years old, she’d persuaded one of her mother’s medical residents to take her along with his landing team. She’d been a lowly gofer on that trip, and the team’s assignment had been no more dangerous than attending a major scientific conference on a highly developed and well-settled world. But she’d been as excited as if they’d been setting out to explore the raw unknown. Planetary life had been unknown, at least to her.

  Since that first time, she’d begged landing berths at every opportunity, graduating from gofer to whatever else they needed as she got older, even when it was only a strong back to haul equipment. Her mother had indulged her obsession, considering it nothing more than a childish whim, an idiosyncrasy Amanda had inherited from her planet-bound father and one she would soon outgrow.

  Despite Elise Sumner’s best efforts to coax her daughter down a different path, however, Amanda had been interested in only one thing, and that was the job she now held, the coveted position of landing team specialist. She didn’t want to explore space. She wanted to explore planets. And someday she fully expected to find the right one and stay there forever.

  The shuttle pivoted smoothly on its axis, giving the passengers a perfect view of Harp. A gray-green ocean spread out just below them, a wide stain across the visible surface, broken by streaks of mineral color where it touched the bluish-white shadow of a massive glacier. The ocean slipped behind them as the shuttle crossed over the planet’s frozen pole, its ice cap rendered effectively permanent by an axial tilt that left it nearly sunless year-round. In contrast, the sunward latitudes were a vast desert, dry and burned to a sere beige by constant exposure to the system’s volatile red dwarf.

  As intriguing as they were, it wasn’t the poles that interested her. What drew her attention, and that of every other person onboard the shuttle, was the emerald green band in between the two extremes, a vast forest where human colonists had survived to build a home nearly five hundred years ago. Trees, lush with fresh growth, towered over a temperate zone that, according to fleet sensors, was teeming with life. That green swath spoke to something deep in her soul, some genetic memory of the Earth she’d never seen, something buried in her DNA long before humans had taken to space all those centuries ago. It conjured images of water running fresh from a spring, cold and biting, of warm soil beneath bare feet, and cool shade on a summer’s day.

  “They call it ‘the Green,’” said a voice to her left.

  Amanda glanced next to her at one of the scientists who’d been with the First Contact team.

  “The forest,” he clarified. “It’s not very original, but certainly apt, don’t you think?”

  She nodded. “It’s beautiful. Did you get a chance to explore?”

  The scientist shook his head. “Not yet. The locals say it’s too dangerous to go beyond the city limits without an escort. We’re trying to set something up with them to take a team out there.”

  “Can anyone join?” Amanda asked.

  “Sure. Check with Wolfrum. He’s running a list.”

  The three-toned note that they’d all been waiting for sounded at that moment, a warning for everyone to get settled and strapped in. The ride down to the planet would be fast and furious. She leaned back and closed her eyes as they built up speed, feeling the ache in every muscle of her still-sore chest as she was pushed back against the thick crash padding. Heat shields snicked shut over the windows just before they hit atmosphere, blanking out the sight of the planet and its forest.

  And she heard something begin to sing.

  Amanda’s eyes flashed open. The singing continued. She glanced around the compartment—no one else seemed to be hearing anything unusual. The crew members closest to her leaned back in their seats, eyes closed, mimicking pretty much everyone else onboard. She frowned and concentrated on the sound, trying to isolate it from the general noise of the shuttle’s descent. Her first thought was that the flight crew were indulging in a little musical interlude, but the overhead speakers were silent as usual. She scanned the compartment once again, thinking someone’s personal recorder was malfunctioning. That wasn’t right. The sound wasn’t coming from inside the shuttle at all. In fact, it wasn’t coming from outside the shuttle either.

  It was inside her own head.

  A quick spike of adrenaline had her heart tripping, and she forced herself to assess the situation rationally. She’d visited many different worlds over the years, from planets to moons to deep-space stations. The possibility of some sort of telepathic communication wasn’t exactly a shock. The only real surprise was that she seemed to be the only person onboard who was hearing it, and that it had manifested before they’d even made planetfall. And now that she thought about it, there’d been no mention of any telepathic phenomenon in the First Contact team’s report, either.

  Her curiosity growing, she listened more closely to the singing which only she seemed to be hearing. It was a lovely sound, multilayered and harmonious. And it seemed to maintain a constant decibel level, which pretty much ruled out human origin. The human voice lifted in song could be a beautiful thing, but it tended to ebb and flow with words and rhythm and eventually stop altogether. More simply, humans needed to breathe. No one could hold a note forever.

  This was considerably steadier than any singing she’d ever heard, like a constant flow of sound from a computer, only more musical. She’d heard something similar on Delby Seven, but the screaming corals of that planet were far more likely to induce nightmares than this pleasant perception of welcome. Because that was definitely what she was hearing—a warm, almost joyful sound, as if… Well, as if the planet was welcoming her home.

  And that made no sense at all. The logical, scientific part of her brain dismissed the whole thing as some weird physiological response to their rapid descent, perhaps a function of the atmosphere itself, or maybe Angelito had hit her harder than she’d thought back in the gym.

  This defied logic. Despite everything her brain was telling her, there was some deeper part of her that responded to that song, as if she really was coming home.

  The shuttle slowed, going in for a powered landing. Apparently the shields had held, and the engines were still with them. Amanda smiled absently, her thoughts focused almost completely on the voices in her head. They were no longer singing so much as whispering, a thousand voices at once and all saying the same thing, though she didn’t know what it was.

  The ground hovered below them as the pilot performed a perfect vertical landing. The engines died, and she unbuckled and stood with everyone else, the weird voices pushed to the back of he
r mind as she waited for the hatches to open, for that first breath of unfiltered air which would tell her so much about this new planet.

  Vacuum seals hissed, and warm, humid air rushed in, and, oh gods, it was wonderful. Dirt and flowers and trees…bitter, sharp and sweet all at once. And the voices! They were so loud now that Amanda was having trouble hearing the people around her. She forced herself to remain calm and steady, when what she wanted was to push her way through the crowd of excited scientists, and rush out to experience the forest for herself. To find the source of the voices in her head and finally understand what they were saying.

  One of the crew finished deploying the ramp, and Commander Guy Wolfrum appeared in the door almost immediately, blocking the hatchway with his considerable bulk. Wolfrum had led the small First Contact team earlier. He was head of the entire science section and as such outranked everyone on the shuttle, civilians included.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said loudly, drawing everyone’s attention. “I trust you’ve all read the initial First Contact briefing by now.” There were nods all around, accompanied by scowls at the unexpected delay. Of course, they’d all read the damn briefing. They were professionals.

  “Just to remind you,” Wolfrum continued unfazed. “The local language is trade common, for the most part. There’s been some degradation over the years, and there’s a sprinkling of Earth native tongues, nothing most of you on this shuttle haven’t encountered before.” He paused and raked a stern glance over the anxious team. “Now, listen up, people, and listen well. The so-called magnetic anomaly that brought down the probe is a natural resonance produced by a certain species of trees here on Harp. Because of this resonance, the on-planet government has imposed an absolute embargo on any kind of powered weaponry, and Admiral Nakata has agreed. This includes personal lasers no matter how small or for what purpose. I cannot emphasize this enough. Use of any such device has the potential to produce catastrophic results. Pulsed weapons and/or devices will explode if used on the planet’s surface. Anyone found harboring such, assuming he or she is alive to suffer the consequences, will be ordered off-planet and face severe discipline, including possible reduction in rank. This is deadly serious, people.”

  He paused briefly, glaring around the shuttle compartment to make his point. “Be advised, there is no need for weapons as long as you remain within the city itself. However, if you plan to explore beyond the city’s perimeter—something I strongly discourage without a local guide—you may carry edged weapons only. In fact you are encouraged to do so, as many of the native species are distinctly hostile.

  “Please check your belongings before leaving the shuttle, and deposit any embargoed items in the bin here on your way out.” He pulled a disposal bin out from the shuttle wall.

  “Other than that…” He smiled. “Enjoy your visit to Harp.”

  All around Amanda the various scientists were patting pockets and checking backpacks. Not for weapons, she imagined, since they had all read the briefing and it had specifically mentioned the weapons embargo. They were checking for laser instruments, which were so commonplace on the ship that they might easily have been packed automatically.

  With no such concerns, she moved quickly to the ramp and out of the shuttle, then stopped to stare in wonder. She’d seen some great forests in her life—the blue hibideons of Zara 12, the unexpected beauty of the rain forest on Charos. She’d never seen anything like this. Trees soared all around and as far as the eye could see. To her left and behind her was dense forest, the trees so closely packed together in some places that even in daylight one would have to walk carefully.

  Ahead of her and to the right, the ground sloped gently upward, with the forest thinning just enough to accommodate a small city. Even here, trees lined the streets and seemed to fill every available space. She couldn’t see much else from this distance, only flashes of tan stucco, and the occasional gleam off a bright blue solar array on a rooftop. She could also make out the slight thinning of greenery that marked a road climbing up to where a single bare cliff of jagged rock stood out from among the trees high above the city. And nestled up against the gray rock was a stone building that looked as if it had been carved out of the cliff itself. It had the look of a government center, grand in size and design, although she’d certainly seen more ostentatious buildings in her travels.

  “Lieutenant Sumner!”

  Stifling a groan of dismay, she plastered an expression of mild interest on her face and turned to find Commander Wolfrum waving her over. “Commander.”

  “Come with me,” he said and started off through the crowd, offering no explanation.

  Amanda gritted her teeth. She had no choice but to follow as he made his way toward the edge of the landing field, gathering a few other scientists on his way. Amanda hung back, already thinking of ploys she could use to get away from him, when she finally glanced up and got a clear look at where Wolfrum was leading them.

  Her reluctance vanished.

  The three men were locals. Even if it hadn’t been obvious from their clothing, she would have known, because there was no way men that gorgeous could have existed anywhere in Nakata’s fleet without her knowing about it. Wow. Two blond, one dark, all tall and broad-shouldered, each with his long hair tied back. Two of them were younger and clearly bodyguards for the third, whom Wolfrum was even now introducing to the others.

  “And finally, your highness, this is Lieutenant Amanda Sumner.”

  She snapped to attention automatically.

  “Lieutenant,” Wolfrum said, “it is my honor to introduce Cristobal Fionn Martyn, Ardrigh of the planet Harp.”

  Ard-ree, she repeated to herself as she stepped forward. Wasn’t that Irish Gaelic for king or something, some old-Earth title? That would make sense since half of the colonists had hailed out of Ireland, and the other half from Spain.

  She held out her hand to the Ardrigh, as she’d seen the others do—shaking hands was apparently the accepted custom on Harp. Customs varied from planet to planet. She was only glad that the form here didn’t include curtseying, which was a pain in the ass and looked stupid when she was in uniform.

  As she held out her hand, she wondered why Wolfrum had included her in this little ceremony. Certainly there were higher ranking officers and more distinguished scientists in their group. And, besides, the trees were calling to her, urging her to join them in the cool shadows beneath their branches. Her eyes widened in sudden realization. That was it! It was the trees who were singing to her.

  “A pleasure, Lieutenant. Welcome to Harp.”

  Amanda jerked her attention back to the Ardrigh and managed a polite, if slightly distracted, smile as she shook his hand briefly. She noted in passing that his palm and fingers were rough and calloused, not at all the hand of a pampered royal.

  “An honor, your highness,” she said. In her experience, it never hurt to say she was honored to meet just about anybody. Although, at this point she was having trouble focusing on much of anything. Gods, couldn’t anyone else HEAR that?

  The Ardrigh smiled as he released her hand, and there was a definite twinkle in his eye that made her wonder if he knew exactly what she was thinking. Damn. Maybe that’s what those voices she was hearing were all about. Maybe they were all telepaths here. She hated when that happened.

  She lingered a polite few minutes while the Ardrigh spoke with Commander Wolfrum and the other scientists, just waiting for a chance to slip away unnoticed. One of the guards eyed her rather intently as if he knew what she was doing—the darker one with the black hair and a brooding expression. She smiled in a friendly way and tried to look innocent. He didn’t smile back, which was unfortunate, because he probably had a killer smile to go along with that killer body. And also because he probably did know what she was planning, and would stop her if she tried.

  She waited until his attention was drawn elsewhere by someone’s question, then slipped away, quickly losing herself in the crowd. She paused once, to glance o
ver her shoulder, then stepped off the hard-packed dirt and in among the tightly clustered trees. The forest swallowed her almost completely. If she turned just so, she could still catch glimpses through the trees of the shuttle and its crowd of people, could still catch the burned metal smell and crackling sound of the cooling engines.

  All of that disappeared as she moved deeper into the forest. It was as if the trees were gathering around her now that she was finally here, as if they were swaying ever closer in their curiosity, as eager to study her as she was them. She had no sense of danger. She felt no fear. She was mindful of Wolfrum’s warning about leaving the city limits, but she was armed with a knife and was confident in her own abilities to protect herself. That’s what being a planetary specialist was all about. It was more than just her degrees in xenobiology and chemistry. It was the ability to survive the challenges of uncharted territory. It was the real reason that she loved her job.

  She took a moment to breathe in the air, closing her eyes and tasting the scents and flavors of this new world. The voices in her head had quieted, as if now that she was here, they were willing to give her the time she needed to adjust.

  Finally, she opened her eyes and walked over to the largest tree she could find, a giant that was nearly twenty-five feet around, towering so far overhead and with growth so thick that she couldn’t lean back far enough to see beyond the first few branches. Curious, she reached out a hand and touched the tree lightly, pressing harder as the sensations multiplied beneath her fingertips.

  It was warm and rough, with deep creases of age in the bark that were so wide in places she could have slipped her entire hand inside. There was life flowing just below its surface, an awareness that washed over her as she flattened both hands against the crinkled surface. It started with a trickle and quickly became a flood, spreading outward from this single tree to encompass the entire forest, spanning the width of the planet, overwhelming her with details of not just the trees, but the lives of every creature that dwelt among them, from the tiniest vole to the huge, dagger-toothed predators at the far edge of the ice cap, bombarding her with…too much!