Forging Zero (73 page)

Then
Joe realized what Bagkhal had said, and felt himself pale.  “You mean Na’leen’s
still here?”

Too
late, Joe realized a recruit should have no knowledge of a Representative’s
affairs.  It was the same as an amoeba knowing the comings and goings of an
eagle.  Apparently, Bagkhal realized that, too, because the prince cocked his
head at him and was silent for too long.  “How do you know of Representative
Na’leen, Zero?”  His words were much too casual.

Joe
swallowed hard, pinned by that predatory stare.  “He…wanted to…interview
me…about Kihgl.”

The
Dhasha continued to give him a long, piercing look.  “And why would you know
anything about Commander Kihgl?”

“Ummm,”
Joe managed.

Bagkhal
got off his mat and took a step forward, head lowered, so that their eyes were
almost on level.  “I chose this regiment because I heard what Knaaren did to my
old friend.  I got here as fast as I could.  Knaaren was shipped to Levren
without his talons or scales.  I removed them myself.  You understand what that
means, for a Dhasha?”

Joe
could guess.  He swallowed, hard.

“Why,”
Bagkhal rumbled, lowering his head further, until his lips were almost touching
Joe’s abdomen and their eyes were level, “would Representative Na’leen wish to
interview
you
about Kihgl?”  The intensity of the ka-par was back.

Joe cringed. 
“He gave me his kasja.  Before he…died.”

Bagkhal
twitched.  It seemed like an eternity that Bagkhal just stared at him.  Then,
very slowly, Bagkhal said, “You’re the reason he’s dead.”  There was no malice
to his words, but Joe’s guts twisted in fear anyway.

Bagkhal
examined him a moment longer, then twisted to glance up the stairs at the exit
of the room.  A moment later, he once again pinned Joe with his gaze.  “Na’leen
approached you.  When?”

Though
he knew his very life danced on his next words, Joe found it impossible to
lie.  “The night after the Tribunal’s inspection,” he said

Bagkhal’s
gaze sharpened.  “What did he want?”

Trying
not to tremble, Joe said, “He wanted to know if Kihgl said anything to me about
the Fourfold Prophecy.”

“
Did
he?” Bagkhal barked.

Though
his every instinct screamed at him to lie, Joe whispered, “Yes.”

Bagkhal
gave him a long, piercing look, then swiveled and stalked across the room.  He
paced for several minutes, with no sound except the grinding-tinkle of his
claws sinking into the floor, breaking chunks of stone loose in his passage.

Finally,
Bagkhal swung back to face Joe and said, “It was not your testimony that
condemned him.  Your name was never even mentioned in the Peacemakers’ logs.  How
much did you tell Na’leen?”

Joe
swallowed, remembering Battlemaster Aneeir’s warning about Dhasha talons
ripping through biosuits.  “I told him that Kihgl said that nobody tells the
Fourfold Prophecy more than once.”

Bagkhal
froze, giving him an acute look.  “That’s all?”

Joe
nodded.

“Was he
satisfied with that?”

Remembering
the cold way the Representative had dismissed him, Joe shook his head.

Sharply,
Bagkhal snapped, “Was there
more
Kihgl told you, boy?”

“He
said…” Joe swallowed, so scared he was shaking. 

“
Tell
me!” Bagkhal barked.

“That
it was my life or his oorei,” Joe whimpered.  Something about the Dhasha prince
did not allow for evasion or half-truths.

“And he
chose for you to live.  Why?”

“He
said he had hope the Trith was right,” Joe whispered.  “Something about the
fall of Congress.”

Bagkhal
gave him a long, piercing look.  “Well, at least you’re not a total furg.”  He
let out a huge sigh and lowered his head disgustedly between his front legs. 
“Damn.”

“What
does that mean?” Joe asked, hating the way his voice cracked.

Bagkhal
snorted.  “It means nothing.  The Trith make everyone else dance to their whims
like puppets on a string.  They never give the whole prophecy, and their words
are self-fulfilling.”  He gave Joe another long, hard look.  “Have you told
anyone else what you just told me?”

“Not
exactly.”

“Not
exactly
?”
Bagkhal roared.

“I
think Nebil knows,” Joe cried.  “He asked me in private one day if Kihgl had
talked to me about the Trith.” 

“
When?!
”
Bagkhal demanded.  “How recently? 
Where
?!”

“Back
on the ship,” Joe whimpered.

Bagkhal
seemed to hesitate.  “What ship?”

“Coming
from Earth,” Joe managed.  “Please, I’m sorry.”

“The
troop
ship,”
Bagkhal clarified.  “
Before
you met Na’leen.”

“Yes,”
Joe managed, the Dhasha’s harshness returning him to the instinctual terror
that Knaaren had etched into his being.

Bagkhal
seemed to relax entirely.  He gave Joe a long look, then softly said, “Calm
down, Human.  I’m not going to hurt you.”  He almost sounded…apologetic.

Joe let
out a sob of relief and clung to the table, his legs going weak.  He could only
nod in gratitude.

“Sit
down,” the Dhasha prince commanded him gently.  He padded to the far wall and
sat down, facing him.  “I’ll keep my distance.  Tell me the rest.”

Joe
gratefully sank into the chair.  “It was a stupid mark on my arm.  One of my
groundmates got bored and started drawing on me with markers.  It looked a lot
like the image the Trith had given Kihgl.”

“
Looked
like or
was
?”

Joe
swallowed hard, remembering.  “Was,” he admitted softly.

Bagkhal
grunted.  “What else?”

There
wasn’t much to tell.  Joe shakily recounted everything he knew. “…When we got
to Kophat, Kihgl took me out to the practice flats to kill me.  But he decided
not to.  Gave me his kasja, to show Nebil his decision.  Nebil made me wear it,
instead.”

“And
where is the kasja now?” Bagkhal demanded.

“Nebil
has it,” Joe said.  “Tril made me take it off.”

“As he
should have,” Bagkhal growled.  “You didn’t earn it.”

“Nebil
made me,” Joe babbled, sweating inside the biosuit.  “I didn’t want to, but he
wanted me to—”

“Recognize
Kihgl’s sacrifice,” Bagkhal interrupted.  “I understand.”  He snorted deeply
and turned to stare at the far wall, seemingly lost in thought.  Eventually, he
turned back to Joe and said, “You realize it is my duty to kill you, right,
Zero?”

Joe
swallowed convulsively.  “Why?”

“Because,”
Bagkhal growled, “apparently the Trith are interested in you.  If they’ve tied
you to the fall of Congress, that’s bad.  A Trith cannot lie—because of what
they are, it destroys them.”  He sighed and idly began raking up bits of gravel
with his talons.  “They
don’t
, however, have to tell the whole
prophecy.  Which allows them to
make
the future, because idiots like
Na’leen get involved, led around by their snouts like a harnessed Takki.”

Joe
lowered his head, the slick heat of his sweat warming his skin under the
biosuit.

“Don’t
worry,” Bagkhal said.  “Kihgl went a little insane after the Trith’s visit and
I decided to do some research of my own.  After all, who can tell a Dhasha
prince what to do?”

Not
very many,
Joe thought.  He still felt like
pissing himself, just from the alien’s proximity, all the way across the room.

“As it
turns out,” Bagkhal continued with a grunt, “the future is not a stagnant
image, as everyone assumes.  It’s all probabilities.  Computers could guess the
future to extreme degrees of accuracy, if we ever made one powerful enough. 
Yet each sentient creature our Creator put in this playground we call Life maintains
its free will.  He can
choose
.  Even a damned Takki has free will.  They
just
choose
not to use it.”  Muttering, he continued gouging stone from
the floor.  “But the future is just that—
probabilities
.  It can
change
. 
That the Trith have tied you to the fall of Congress merely means that the
probability
is that you will have a hand in it.  Which means it’s coming in your lifetime.”

Eventually,
Bagkhal stopped and got back to his feet.  “The Trith are going to visit you,
Joe.  When they do, punch them in the face for me.”  He made an irritated
snort.  “Until then, go schedule that meeting with Na’leen on my behalf.  His
continued presence is annoying.”

Joe
flinched.  “I don’t know if I should do that…” 
What will he do when he
finds out how Na’leen tried to claim me?

“Your
very first day and you tell me to get somebody else?”  Prince Bagkhal demanded,
irritation thick in his voice.

“I’ll
do it,” Joe said quickly.

Bagkhal
grunted.  “While you’re there,” he continued, “tell him I know why he’s been
making friends on the Training Committee.  Now go.  All this talk of Trith and Huouyt
is making me angry.”

Indeed,
drops of neon orange spittle were spattering the ebony floor.

All the
way to the Representative’s tower, Joe wondered what Bagkhal would do to him if
he found out about Kihgl and Yuil’s rebels.  The great Dhasha had claimed to
have been a friend of Kihgl, yet something told Joe that Bagkhal would
slaughter him, Yuil, and every other rebel in an instant, the moment he found
out what Joe had been doing in his off-time.  The thought was enough to make
his palms sweaty on his walk to Representative Na’leen’s tower.

At the
base of Na’leen’s edifice, a lone Huouyt stood guarding a single elevator.  At
Joe’s approach, he didn’t even appear to show any interest at all.

“I have
a message for Representative Na’leen,” Joe said, once he got within talking
range.

The Huouyt
looked him up and down.  “From who?”  The disdain in the alien’s words was
enough to make Joe bristle.

“Prince
Bagkhal,” Joe said.

The
Huouyt showed no reaction whatsoever.  The downy white cilia covering his body
remained as stagnant as death.  For a long moment, the Huouyt said nothing. 
Then, “Climb on.”  He backed into the elevator and allowed Joe to enter.

Joe stepped
onto the platform and the Huouyt pressed the button.  For what must have been
close to thirty minutes, Joe rode from the base of the tower to the top-floor
penthouse overlooking the city, enduring the Huouyt’s flat, fishy stare the
entire way.  Two more Huouyt met them at the top, and they escorted Joe from
the top of the elevator to the blessedly fresh air inside the first set of heavy
doors.  The masses of treasure had been removed, the remnants tastefully used
to decorate the outer chamber.  Only the golden statue of the Representative
remained in place.

Then
invisible hands grabbed Joe by the back of the shirt and dragged him through
the lavish passageways, back to the room with the pool.

“Speak,”
Representative Na’leen said once Joe had been shown to his chambers by the
rough hands of Jreet.  He was in his water-bath again, the wormy red appendage
blossoming under the surface.

“Prince
Bagkhal would like to meet with you,” Joe said. 

“Would
he,” Representative Na’leen said, sounding completely unconcerned.  “How
interesting.  Tell him I’m busy.”  He plucked another gelatinous disc from his
dish and dropped it into the wriggling worms in his head.  “Take him away,
please.”

Immediately,
invisible Jreet hands grabbed him again and started to drag him from the pool. 
The exchange had lasted no more than fifteen seconds.

“He
knows why you’ve been making friends on the Training Committee!” Joe cried,
terrified that his very first task in Bagkhal’s service would end in total
failure.

“It’s a politician’s job to make
friends.”  As the Jreet hesitated, the Huouyt sat up from his bath and stared
at Joe with its huge, eerie, electric-blue eyes.  The wormy appendages in his
forehead immediately began retracting back into his head.  “Tell him that. 
Also tell him that a member of the Tribunal does not caper to the whims of a
mere Secondary Overseer and his Human pet.”

Joe
stared. 
Bagkhal’s an Overseer?

“Why is he still here?” Na’leen
demanded.  “Get rid of him.”

Joe bit his lip.  Bagkhal was not
going to like his message.  As the Jreet began to tug him away, the Huouyt
said, “Wait.  You are the recruit they call Zero, aren’t you?”

Grimacing, Joe nodded.

“Have you remembered anything
about Kihgl’s prophecy yet, boy?”

Joe swallowed, hard.  “No sir.  I
told you what he told me.”

The Huouyt gave him a flat stare. 
“On second thought, tell your Prince I will meet with him.”  The Representative
stood, his metallic clothing dripping into the vat beneath him.  “I hear Bagkhal
is as much of a loyalist as they come.  He personally executed the last traitor
he found in his ranks.  Him, and all of his friends.”  He flipped a wet,
paddle-shaped tentacle at Joe.  “But I’m busy for the next week or two.  I’ll
have one of my assistants meet him with the date and time sometime tomorrow.”