GALLANT (The Innerworld Affairs Series, Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

around, so we had to take off with you still on board."
    "And just how long ago was that?" Cherry asked warily.
    When Gallant didn't answer right away, Dot did. "About twenty-four hours. The paralyzer was set—"
    "A whole day? Holy stars!" Cherry walked quickly back and forth in the confined area, her hands gesturing wildly as she spoke. "This is even worse than I thought. You've got to understand. Aster's having her first baby and she'll be frantic with worry about me. A message from you about protective custody is only going to make her more nervous."
    She stopped her pacing and took a deep breath. Nothing she'd been told so far changed the fact that she had been kidnapped and couldn't get home without Captain Voyager's assistance. "Let me see if I've got this straight. You need my conscious participation to get the information you want, which I assume means I have to agree to let Mar-Dot touch my mind. Right?"
    Gallant nodded slowly.
    "Fine. You take me back to Innerworld and I'll let them have a free tour through my feeble Terran brain."
    "Not good enough. You could refuse again once I got you there and, in the meantime, I would have lost Frezlo also. He's the only lead I have left now. I'm not at liberty to give you details of my mission but it is of universal importance. I had been on the Weebort's trail for months before I found him in Innerworld. The information he had was vital. Unfortunately, Frezlo was on to him also."
    Cherry had more or less figured that much out. "You and that Frezlo creature are both agents for hire?"
    Gallant nodded slowly. "Working on opposite sides at the moment, however. And, I might add, with distinctly different methods of operation."
    "So why didn't you stop Frezlo before he escaped?"
    "Any attempt I might have made to intervene would have increased the chances of others being hurt. Frezlo has no conscience when it comes to eliminating anything or anyone in his way. Besides, I knew I could pick up his ion trail if I just got off-planet fast enough."
    "His what?"
    "Ion trail—charged particles emitted by the drive unit of his ship."
    "Oh. Like a car's exhaust system. But I'd still like to know how you got me on board without anyone stopping you." Gallant hesitated long enough for her to grow suspicious again.
    "I hid you in a trunk," he said with a warning glance at Mar-Dot.
    Cherry had a strong feeling that he was lying but she let it pass. She also came to the conclusion that they were at a standoff and he was not going to budge an inch. However, she was more or less convinced that, between him and Frezlo, Voyager was the lesser of the two evils. "Okay. If you'll promise to take me right back to Innerworld afterward, I'll cooperate with Mar-Dot."
    "Granted," he said, then nodding at his navigator, stepped out of the way.
    Dot held a manicured hand out to Cherry and led her to the Captain's chair. "Please try to relax," she said after Cherry was seated. "I will try not to invade your privacy any more than absolutely necessary. I need you to help me by concentrating on the moment when the Weebort spoke to you." Gently she pressed the first two fingers of each of her hands against Cherry's temples. "Now, close your eyes and picture the Weebort in front of you. His mouth opens and he says..."
    Cherry recalled the narrow forked tongue flicking in and out like that of a snake but she was still quite certain she had heard no words.
    Without removing her fingers, Dot said, "Computer, record and translate the following sounds from the Weebort language." Dot did her best to imitate the garbled noises stored in Cherry's memory but without a forked tongue, the pronunciation could not be duplicated precisely. After she analyzed the problem, Dot said, "Apparently, there was too much external noise for her universal translator to pick up the Weebort's speech, so she was never given a translation. Thus, she has no memory of such."
    She tried again and this time the computer offered an interpretation