The Heart of Valour by Tanya Huff Page A

Kerr?”
    Since Taykan in the di phase would have sex with anything that fell into their uniquely broad definition of compatible, it didn’t take a genius to figure out why he was there. “No, thank you, Jonin. Not interested.”
    “It’s not that, Gunnery Sergeant. Although…” He looked momentarily intrigued, remembered she’d already said no, and started again. “If I may ask you a question?”
    She should have known; di’Taykans never looked
conflicted
about sex. “Go ahead.”
    “As I understand it, you outrank Staff Sergeant Beyhn? And the other DIs?”
    That wasn’t among the questions she’d expected. “Glad to see you were paying attention when they were teaching you the command structure of the Corps, Recruit.”
    “No, it’s not that, it’s…” His hair drooped. “If it happened that there was a problem with Staff Sergeant Beyhn, would I go to you?”
    “Is there a problem?”
    He looked conflicted a moment longer, then said simply, “I don’t know.”
    About to tell him to come back when he did know, Torin reconsidered. Whatever the problem he suspected, it had visibly upset him and while he wasn’t specifically her responsibility, in a general way they all were—where
they
meant not just these two platoons of recruits but the NCOs she outranked as well. “Can you tell me what kind of a problem it may or may not be?”
    “I apologize, but I can’t. It’s personal.”
    His eyes were so pale, so many of the light receptors closed, she’d be amazed if he could see her at all. “Personal about you or…”
    “Jonin!”
    He snapped to attention at the sound of the staff sergeant’s voice and just for a second, Torin could have sworn he looked terrified. Staff Sergeant Beyhn’s sudden arrival had wound him so tight he practically twanged when he moved. “Sir, yes, sir!”
    “Gunnery Sergeant Kerr is not interested in your 120
kayti.
Ask her again when—make that if—you survive Crucible.”
    “Sir, yes, sir!”
    “Now get back into the common room. Staff Sergeant Dhupam is about to review ways to take out a drone.”
    The recruits were encouraged to do as much damage to the systems on Crucible as they could. This always turned out to be more difficult than they expected.
    Jonin didn’t look at her again before he moved, but he half turned as he passed the sergeant and Torin, watching closely, saw his nostrils flare. The di’Taykan had an extremely sensitive sense of smell and the pheromones they produced were the secret of their success in interspecies intimacy. Since most other species found constant sexual arousal to be at the very least distracting, di’Taykan wore pheromone maskers when in mixed groups.
    Was Jonin trying to tell her that Staff Sergeant Beyhn’s masker was malfunctioning? If it was, it was happening at a level Torin couldn’t detect. As the sergeant moved closer, she felt no desire to do her old DI up against the bulkhead—and was, in point of fact, profoundly relieved by the total absence of those feelings.
    “So, I hear your major decided to come dirtside with 71. I don’t suppose you influenced his decision in any way?”
    “Me, influence an officer’s decision? Never happen.” When Beyhn snorted, she grinned. “And in this case it didn’t happen; the major just preferred to spend twenty days cold instead of overheated.”
    “I’m happy he’s happy, and I’d have to say I’m fairly happy about it myself. Sergeant Jiir, now, he’s unhappy. You know how Krai hate the cold.”
    “I expect he’ll have enough to do to keep warm.”
    “You’ve gone over the scenario?”
    “I have.”
    “Good. It never hurts to have backup.”
    “Speaking of backup…”
    “You’re not getting the codes,” he told her flatly. “Not you or your major. You’re observers only, and I know you; given half a chance you’ll think you’ve come up with a better way to do things, so I’m not putting the power to make changes into your hands. Now…” His