Helix Wars (6 page)

She crossed to Kranda, who wondered what the hell an Engineering Corps high-up was doing here. The storm was a minor inconvenience in the scheme of things, hardly something that should have merited such attention.

The woman stopped before Kranda and Farini. “Sen-Kranda’vahkan, I am Major Lan’malan. If we could have a few words, alone?” She indicated the cliff-top spur where earlier Kranda had stared out over the ocean.

The major told her aides to remain where they were and led Kranda across to the cliff-top.

She went over her last few decisions, wondering if she might have done something wrong, made some catastrophic error of judgement...

“Don’t worry, Sen-Kranda,” said Major Lan’malan, sensing her unease, “I am not here to reprimand you. Quite the opposite, in fact. The quality of your work has been brought to our notice – even before you underwent
hayanor
. Now that you have undergone the transition... I am here to offer you promotion.”

“Promotion?” Kranda stared at the major. “You came all the way here in an interworld vessel to offer me promotion?”

The major smiled. “Don’t allow yourself such delusions of grandeur, Sen-Kranda. My ship was on its way to the neighbouring world.” She indicated the ocean. “Yankari-Darani retired last term, and left an absence in the ranks, and as there is work to do on Helix 4721... we could think of no one better to whom we might offer the post.” The major hesitated. “You will accept, of course?”

Kranda was taken aback. “Of course. Yes. By all means.” She laughed. “This is all a little sudden... When do I start?”

The major laughed. “Your human friends have a saying, do they not? Something along the lines of, there is no time like now? Well, if you would care to pilot your flier aboard the
Fighting Coyti
...”

Kranda gestured. “But the project here...?”

“You have an able sergeant, I take it? Allow her to take command. You will be appointed Yankari...” Yankari, Kranda thought, a rank above Sen!

“I will brief you as we fly,” Major Lan’malan said.

2

“Y
OU WILL BE
a member of my team working on a project which will last a year,” the major said, “and you will report directly to me.”

They were speeding over the ocean which, until mere minutes ago, had been Kranda’s principal concern. It was an odd feeling to know that the problem of the surging ocean far below need not now bother her in the slightest. She was being taken away from such mundane matters as sub-basal depressurisations...

But what might she be working on, as part of the major’s team?

They stood in the major’s palatial suite aboard the
Fighting Coyti
, drinks in hand, looking down through a viewport at the raging sea. “And what might that project be, Major?” she asked.

Lan’malan smiled. She indicated the landmass ahead, a world four beyond their homeworld. Like the world they were leaving, this one was uninhabited.

As they crossed the coastline, Kranda stared out over a very different terrain to the one at their backs. Rolling, forested hills extended to the far horizon, the arboreal vegetation deep green with occasional, very odd outgrowths, spear-like plants which grew to a height of three hundred metres and terminated in a crown of lethal-looking spikes.

“Welcome to Helix 4721,” the major said.

Kranda smiled to herself. Odd to think that Mahkana, too, had been designated with a number before the Builders brought her people to the Helix, over eight thousand years ago.

“And the problem?”

“Oh, Yankari-Kranda, there is no problem, as such.”

“In that case... routine maintenance?”

The major inclined her head. “Routine maintenance,” she said. “You will head a team with jurisdiction over the dozen subterranean access points.” She handed Kranda a softscreen. “Their positions are detailed in the notes, which I’d like you to assimilate before you meet your team. It is midday at the latitude which is our destination. I will show you around the base-site, and later I’ll introduce you to your team.”

The major glanced at her. “You look a little... disappointed, Yankari-Kranda?”

Kranda smiled. “Not at all, Major. I’m honoured to be part of your team.”

Lan’malan smiled. “All of us aboard this ship have had to start somewhere, Yankari-Kranda. I began as a lowly clerk, would you believe? I was in charge, for ten years, of softscreen data-storage – and you cannot imagine how dull a job that was. It wasn’t until I reached thirty that I was promoted to field duties, and even then they were menial.”

The major was right – she had no reason to be disappointed. She might be on nothing but routine inspection duty now, but she had been promoted and she was working aboard a premier interworld vessel under a highly respected Engineering Corps Major. She would put her head down, work hard, and in time would come the better postings.

She considered what Lan’malan had said. “May I ask when the access points were last inspected, Major?”

“To my knowledge, ten years ago, Yankari-Kranda. Ah,” she went on. “We are approaching the base-site.”

Ten years, Kranda said to herself as the ship decelerated with a loud diminuendo of main drives. The average inspection cycle of subterranean access points was twenty-five years, so why now?

The
Fighting Coyti
came down in a jungle clearing as wide as a city plaza. The comparison was apt, given that the clearing was surrounded by what looked like a makeshift city of bubble domes and inflated access tunnels. As Kranda stared out, she realised that there must be hundreds – make that thousands – of people down there, going about their business with little regard for the landing of the leviathan amongst them. The arrival of an interworld ship in any city on Mahkana would have been cause of much curiosity, and crowds would have gathered to watch it land. Here it went unremarked, just another arrival amid hundreds. Kranda saw fleets of fliers and flitters coming and going, and ground-effect vehicles beetling along makeshift tracks heading into the jungle.

If this was an uninhabited world, undergoing routine maintenance, then why the overkill of personnel? She had worked on other maintenance projects which had employed just tens of Engineering staff.

And that was another thing, she thought. The crowds out there didn’t belong just to the Engineering Corps. As the interworld ship settled, she made out the uniforms of at least half a dozen different Mahkan scientific teams. Climatologists, geologists, biologists... among others she didn’t recognise.

“Come on,” the major said. “I’ll give you that guided tour I promised.”

They left the major’s suite and made their way through the ship. Personnel passed them, saluting the major and glancing curiously at Kranda.

The air of this world was thick, humid, and the heat hit them like a warm, wet cloth. The major smiled at Kranda’s reaction. “It does take some getting used to,” she said. “Don’t exert yourself. Take big, deep breaths.”

The midday sunlight beat down mercilessly. Kranda felt like sitting down and drinking pints of ice-cold water. Instead the major was leading her down a corrugated plastic road rolled out across the clearing. The road branched off, leading to various domes and dwellings.

“Admin and supplies,” the major said. “There’s the recreation block, sleeping quarters for when you’re back in town, canteen, emergency hospital. There’s a city plan somewhere among the softscreen’s files. It’ll all become a little less confusing when you’ve been here a while.”

The major indicated a red plastic walkway which led to a diaphanous dome. “And most importantly, the bar....” She glanced at her chronometer. “Your team’s due in any time now. You can get to know them over a drink.”

The dome was split-level, its upper deck looking out over the spectacular jungle. Lan’malan led the way to the second level and they found a table near the curving inner membrane.

They ordered refreshing qeer-wine – “As good as you’ll get anywhere on Mahkana,” the major said – and strips of pickled vegetable, a speciality of Kranda’s home canton.

Kranda looked out over the makeshift city and the hectic activity. “I’m impressed,” she said, taking a long drink. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it. And you say it’s all in aid of routine inspection?”

The major gave her an appraising glance. “And what else might it be in aid of?”

“I don’t know. I’m mystified. An inspection of subterranean access points happens every twenty-five years. But you said they were last inspected ten years ago.”

“That’s what the records show.” The major snapped a vegetable stick between big teeth.

“And... if you don’t mind my saying... the personal attention of a major, the conducted tour... it’s all highly unusual.”

Lan’malan smiled. “I can answer the last quite candidly. I like to get to know the people I appoint, the members of my team. It’s all very well reading personality reports compiled by others, accessing psych profiles of my team members – but there’s nothing like one-to-one contact to really get to know people. Does that answer your question?”

Kranda smiled. “I think it does,” she said.

“As for your earlier observations, I agree.” The major waved beyond the walls of the dome. “All this is... highly unusual, Yankari-Kranda. This does seem to me to be overkill.” She leaned forward. “But would you believe that I’m as much in the dark about it as you are?”

Kranda opened her mouth, intending to say that she found that hard to believe, but stopped herself. That would be tantamount to accusing the major of lying... And though it was hard to believe that someone so high up might be in the dark, something in her manner convinced Kranda that she was telling the truth.

Kranda sipped her ice-cold wine. “But you must have your suspicions?” she said.

“I have, and I approached my superiors with them last week.”

“And?”

“And they were tight-lipped, to say the least.” Lan’malan gestured with a vegetable stick, before popping it between her teeth and crunching. “They gave nothing away.”

“And those suspicions?”

“When I first arrived here, I thought something major had occurred, some catastrophic cross-disciplinary breakdown – the malfunction of an entire world, right up from its engineering base to its eco-system. But when I looked closely... I realised that everything was functioning as it should be. It was a perfectly working world. So, why the presence of specialists in every scientific discipline here? Care to guess?”

Kranda thought about it. “Okay, how about this: expansion? We’ve come to some kind of agreement with the humans and we’re expanding onto this world. It’s not that far from our respective homeworld, and...”

She trailed off when she caught sight of the major’s expression. Lan’malan shook her head. “We don’t need to expand, Yankari-Kranda. Mahkana is hardly bursting at the seams.”

“So...”

Major Lan’malan was smiling, showing her big lower incisors. “I have a hunch, Yankari-Kranda. No more. I might be wrong...” She sipped her wine, reflecting, and then said, “What might account for all this sudden activity, centred on one world? Why the inspection, across all the disciplines?” She paused – and at that second, Kranda’s wrist-com chimed.

She frowned at the interruption. She accessed the call, intending to tell whoever it was that they should call back later. She assumed it would be one of her old team, Farini or one of the other women, with some procedural question or other.

She was surprised, and a little shocked, to see the face of her hive-mother’s valet, Khell, staring up out of the tiny screen.

Kranda looked at the major. “Would you excuse me a moment?”

The major gestured, and Kranda rose and moved around the dome to a quiet area. “What is it?” she asked, panicked. “Is –”

“Marran is well,” Khell reassured her. “But she must see you.”

“Immediately?” Kranda was taken aback. “What’s wrong?” Illness in the family, or an accident?

“Your
Sophan
,” the valet whispered.

“
Sophan
,” Kranda echoed. “What has happened?”

“You need to return, right away. Marran has more information.”

Kranda nodded. “Tell Marran that I will set off immediately.”

She cut the connection and returned to where the major was patiently waiting.

“Is everything well?” Lan’malan said. “You look as if you’ve seen your grand-hive-mother’s ghost.”

“I must return to Mahkan,” she said, only then fully realising what this meant. “On a matter of
Sophan
.”

Major Lan’malan listened solicitously as Kranda explained, then nodded her understanding. “It is a matter of
Sophan
, Yankari-Kranda, and that surpasses all else. Nothing stands in the way of honour.” She smiled. “My theory as to what is happening here will have to wait.”

Kranda felt ambivalent about that. She knew she had to leave, but at the same time she so much wanted to stay. She said, “You will hold this post open for me?”

The major smiled. “Of course,” she said.