Inherit the Stars (8 page)

“Do all Ascali read emotions as well as you, and at
the worst times?” He slammed the cabinet shut. “It's not just her wounds bothering me, Cheseia.”

“Then we should certainly go to Navon and the other Thedes. You could easily key in a change of course.”

Sar shook his head. “Anybody following us will trace our beacon signal, and then all we've worked for—it'd be destroyed. Navon will have to wait.”

“You certainly do this to be spending more time with her.” Cheseia turned and left.

Snatching a thogen bottle, Sar stalked back into the airlock chamber. Cheseia hefted the Aldaakian over her shoulder and headed toward the cryopod chamber, her eyes flat.

Sar blocked her path. “Kiv's too headstrong, too young. Too foolish to evade the Inheritors for long. We'll make her a better deal for the gem, and then we take the Juxj Star to Navon. Maybe I'll drop Kiv near Tejuit, well out of Inheritor Space.”

“How did a human manage to send such a signal?” the Aldaakian blurted, then fell silent.

Sar faced the Aldaakian. “You want that Aldaakian cryopod for this trip, tell us your name. Your mission.”

“You're not Inheritors?” The Aldaakian's accent lent her vowels a deeper sound.

Sar grimaced. “Hell, no. Now talk.”

“I'm Captain Seul Jaah of the battle cruiser
Aldaar
, under orders from Commander Vuul. The ship I boarded was sending a Sarrhdtuu signal. I was deployed to investigate.”

“Why was
Aldaar
in this system?” Sar asked.

“We were on patrol until a Vim signal emanated from a structure on the planet.” Her words held a note of awe.

His frustration with Cheseia gave way to a strange
chill. Sar disbelieved the Inheritor's Vim religion, but since Kivita had found the Juxj Star and he'd touched her . . . No, Sar refused to think she could be a Savant. Dunaar would've killed instead of hired her.

“What's special about that?” Sar paced around the airlock chamber.

Seul looked at him as if he were a dullard. “Now the Vim will come and aid us. We are ready to rejoin them against the Sarrhdtuu and these maddened Inheritors. You must turn over whomever took that gem to me. My people need to prepare for the Vim's answer!”

Sar shared a frown with Cheseia. “The Inheritors are my enemy, too. But Kiv comes with us.”

“Enemies? You killed some of my Troopers—”

“You attacked us first, remember?” Sar said.

While Seul glowered at him, Sar's mind churned. How had Kiv activated this so-called signal? He knew the prophets considered the Aldaakians heretics, but this was new to him. Could he convince the Aldaakians to join the Thedes against the Inheritors? He knew which planets to strike, which shipping lanes to cripple. The Aldaakians had battle fleets, legions of soldiers. Kivita might just be the catalyst he'd been searching for. It'd be hell convincing her.

“I have answered your questions,” Seul said. “You'll need to unbind me so my cryoports will be in the correct placement to take full advantage of cryostasis.”

“Maybe. Situate her, Cheseia, while I doctor Kiv.” Sar walked into the bridge.

Kivita still moaned in the seat harness. Sar knelt and pressed two thogen powder capsules through her lips. The highly addictive painkiller would make her sleep
for hours. He undid the harness and lifted her over his left shoulder.

In the cryopod chamber, Cheseia pointed a beam rifle at Seul and watched her enter the Aldaakian cryopod. Sockets extended from within the oval pod and inserted themselves into Seul's cryoports. She hadn't lied; Seul had to lie straight while all the sockets completed their insertions. Before the transparent hatch closed, Sar barred it with his hand.

“I don't have the resources to keep you under cryostasis forever, so mind yourself and your behavior. Might turn you back over to your kind soon as we can. We have a proposition you might like, about the Juxj Star.”

Seul nodded, her stare blank. He let the hatch close, then laid Kivita in his usual cryopod.

“Where is
Frevyx
truly taking us?” Cheseia asked. “The Inheritors will surely be expecting Kivita's return.”

Sar configured the pod's stasis time. “The Ecrol system.” He put the pouch with the gem into the cryopod with Kivita.

Cheseia set the rifle aside. “In the Terresin Expanse? We must certainly rendezvous with Navon instead. And why is she truly in your pod?”

Sar met her eyes. “We have only three pods, and Ascali metabolism is higher than a human's. I have to share it with her. Will you stop being so damn jealous?”

“I will when you stop looking at her with truly joyed eyes.” Cheseia lay down in the octagonal cryopod.

On his right, Seul had already closed her eyes. Aldaakians fell into cryostasis faster than any other race because of their cryoports. He wondered if they even had time to dream.

Sar frowned and slid in beside Kivita. She snored lightly, like old times. After the cryopod hatch cover snapped shut,
Frevyx
's lights shut off and the gravity reduced to zero-G. Groaning, Kivita clutched the Juxj Star in both hands. She must have pulled it from the pouch in her sleep.

“Just what the hell did you do down there, Kiv?” he whispered.

She pursed her lips, and her breath blew over his face as his eyes closed.

Dunaar stood before the bridge viewport on
Arcuri's Glory
. In the distance,
Terredyn Narbas
flew into the Aldaakian cruiser's hangar. The infidels were making this easier than he'd hoped.

“All K-gun batteries are aimed and ready, Rector,” Stiego said. The other bridge staff sat in silence, sweat running down their faces. Red emergency lamps soaked everything in crimson shades.

“Release the wreckage we brought,” Dunaar said.

The forward cargo bay opened. With a burst of thruster jets, the remnants of three Inheritor craft spilled into space. Warped bulkheads and stiff, frozen corpses glided past the viewport.

“Rector, we have the Aldaakians' radio frequency.” Stiego's right eye ticked as the bodies continued to float by.

Dunaar used his deeper oratory voice. “Aldaakian vessel, this is Rector Dunaar Thev of the Inheritors. How dare you attack this trio of ships! And now you capture a trawler that is under contract to me? Surrender in the name of the Vim, or suffer dire consequences.”

The speaker on the console crackled.

Dunaar rapped the bulkhead with his Scepter. “Answer, or be fired upon—”

“I am Commander Vuul, captain of
Aldaar
,” a cold voice broke in. “You are in violation of the Tannocci-Terresin Treaty. We have fired on no human ships. The unmanned trawler is outfitted with a Sarrhdtuu beacon. You have no claim here.”

“I have the claim given to me by the holy Vim themselves.” Dunaar lifted his index finger, and a security officer fired the starboard K-gun battery. Three kinetically charged sabot rounds hurtled toward the Aldaakian ship.

“One minute to target,” the security officer said.

“Rector, we have
Frevyx
's jump coordinates. Sar Redryll has headed into the Terresin Expanse itself.” Stiego's holo monocle displayed a readout six inches from his face.

“Either that heathen Aldaakian commander is lying, or Kivita was taken by Redryll,” Dunaar said.

“Thirty seconds,” the security officer said.

Aldaar
's black hull shimmered for a moment. A blur passed over the stars behind it; then the craft vanished. The three sabot rounds coursed through space on an eternal trajectory.

“Track that jump!” Stiego shouted as he ran toward the nav officer's console.

“They will have trailed
Frevyx
.” Dunaar paced the bridge. If Bredine had been correct, Kivita had indeed found the Juxj Star.

The console beeped, and the security officer spoke up. “Rector, the Sarrhdtuu wish an audience.”

Dunaar hesitated. He had not expected them so soon. “I will communicate with them in my quarters.”

After leaving the bridge, Dunaar activated the holo
terminal in his chambers. Peasants couldn't view such advanced technology. Only the prophets and their chosen could bask in the Vim's former greatness and not be blinded.

Above the terminal, an image flickered and coalesced into a three-dimensional figure of Zhhl. Dunaar straightened his glittering outer robe.

“Prophet of Meh Sat, this frequency irritates my body.” The Sarrhdtuu's voice sounded grainy through the speaker.

“My followers cannot be allowed to hear our conversation. I assure you, our plan is still intact.”

The image went awry with static. “Kivita Vondir touched the jewels taken from Xeh's Crown. She has touched the Juxj Star, for we know the vault on the planet below is now empty. We must have her.”

Dunaar frowned. “My scanners have picked up a strong signal. A Vim—”

“It is known, Prophet of Meh Sat. Kivita Vondir is our payment for any war with the Aldaakians. They will also desire her now.” Zhhl's sibilant voice thickened.

“The Aldaakians have
Terredyn Narbas
.” Dunaar gripped the Scepter in both hands. “It is more likely the Thedes have Kivita now; Sar Redryll's ship has left the system. You shall have her once we find them.”

“The Thede ship has been predicted to arrive near an ally.”

“Oh?” Dunaar tried to keep his voice indifferent. “Then it would seem you already have Kivita Vondir in your grasp.” He gripped the Scepter harder. Zhhl wasn't telling him everything it knew.

“This ally has agreed to bring her to the Tejuit system, Prophet of Meh Sat,” Zhhl said.

Dunaar grinned with all his teeth. “That is the very
system I have chosen to gather my fleets. The Aldaakians will have no idea what bears down upon them. You will have your own fleet there?”

Zhhl didn't reply, as the holographic image disappeared with squealing pops.

What was that jelly-filled monstrosity keeping to itself? Had he overlooked something about Kivita?

Dunaar informed Captain Stiego of their destination, then entered the chamber where former prophets resided. The sleeping faces all seemed to beseech him for another chance at rulership. He keyed in one pod's revival-code sequence. Only the current Rector could converse with the sainted frozen.

Cryofrost fell away and the pod opened. Inside, the wrinkled form of Rector Broujel stirred as a tube squirted pseudoadrine into his crusted mouth. A musty aroma of sweat and stale air drifted from the pod.

“I have need of your council, Rector Broujel.” Dunaar waited while the old man righted himself and opened his eyes.

“By the Vim . . . such a dream.” Broujel's weak voice had an old, feudal accent. “Who? . . .”

“I am the current Rector, Dunaar Thev. I have awakened you for a question.”

Broujel's cough shook his frail liver-spotted body. The man must have been near death when frozen. Dunaar would live to see the Vim on his own two feet, not frozen in stasis like this.

“Ah . . . I remember you, Thev. You asked me about the . . . the moons near Tejuit Seven—”

“What do you know of Savants?” Dunaar said. “Ones who could transmit data over great distances?”

Broujel scowled and coughed. “The Omni-Savants?
Those were reined in and outlawed. All traces . . . eradicated.”

Dunaar leaned forward. “What makes these Omni-Savants so special?”

“Special?” Broujel entered a coughing fit. Dunaar winced as the older man's lungs rattled. “They are an abomination! An Omni absorbs datacore knowledge and can transmit it to others . . . even through space. Their electrical brain pulses act as radio signals. Why, in my time, we executed at least three. I imprisoned all other Savants, one of them my own daughter . . . bred through the . . . Oath of Propagation . . .”

As he leaned back, a shiver of fear sliced through Dunaar's heart. If Bredine was correct, then letting Kivita fall into Thede hands constituted a great strategic blunder.

“The Sarrhdtuu are searching for one,” Dunaar said. “A human woman. They want her as payment, in exchange for their aid against—”

“It is sacrilege to barter Savants, Thev! All your ancestors have struggled for . . .” Broujel coughed and spat up mucus. “You're making the same mistake Rector Cyanev did with that wretched Susuron queen, Terredyn Narbas. Her banner, a sword with a flaring star, blighted several Inheritor worlds before she kissed the executioner's blade. . . .”

While Broujel coughed, Dunaar tried to breathe. Terredyn Narbas . . . it was the name of Kivita's ship, and that symbol was on its outer hull . . . her talent . . .

Before the Thedes discovered such things, he needed to act with extreme haste. Zhhl must already know. . . . But were they not the Vim's allies? Sweat ran down Dunaar's face, stinging his eyes and lips.

“Why is this not in the records? As Rector, I should
know everything!” Dunaar raised the Scepter and loomed over Broujel.

“I told you . . . all traces were . . . destroyed. Only the prophets can be allowed to spread knowledge. Savants can be controlled, contained. Omni-Savants . . . cannot. The Narbas line would have destroyed us, had the queen lived. Why ask me this? What has happened?” Broujel tried to leave the cryopod, coughing anew.

“I thank you for your wisdom, Rector Broujel. May the Vim illuminate our paths.” Dunaar slammed the pod shut and mashed the stasis button. Inside, Broujel banged against the transparent hatch with weakening strikes. The old man finally drifted into cryostasis, lips curled in frustration.

Zhhl wanting Kivita was even more suspicious—but Dunaar needed Sarrhdtuu firepower to tip the balance in his favor. Just one of their battleships could annihilate an entire fleet.

As Dunaar hurried into his private chamber, Zhara avoided his scowl. He motioned in two Proselytes from the corridor. “Watch this Ascali wench at all times. Do not let her out your sight.”

•   •   •

The blue sun blinded Kivita, though the one-hundred-foot-tall viewport was tinted to full power. The star's brilliance bathed its orbiting planets with life-giving energy as well as refueling her ship. In the surrounding void, thousands of similar systems shone back at her.

“Khaasis.” The star name she'd almost said on Vstrunn.

Something warm touched her left shoulder.

Kivita inhaled as the blue star and gigantic viewport became a huge chamber filled with rows of cryopods. She
stood, dressed in a yellow insulated suit, on a catwalk above them. The sterile scent of bleach solvent stung her nose. Kivita tried to count the pods, but the rows extended into distant cryofog.

The warmth moved up her shoulder and lay across her neck.

Crushed debris floated around Kivita over a reddish-brown nebula. The wreckage extended for miles in all directions. Thrusters, bulkheads, rigid bodies. Her faceplate frosted over as her air ran out.

“No,” she murmured. The warmth traveled up her neck and rested on her cheek.

Kivita tried to turn away as a white-tiled room surrounded her. The hum and whir of machinery droned in her ears. In transparent tubes around her, humanoid creatures floated in yellow-green ichor. Kivita neared one tube. The occupant looked human, but fine hair covered its body, like that of an Ascali.

Shivering, she groaned as her temples throbbed.

“Don't pay heed to those Inheritor prophets, Kiv,” her father said as they stood outside
Terredyn Narbas
. “You'll find something special out there someday. Just gotta keep looking for it.” The yellow sun rose over Haldon Prime, warming Kivita's face. Rhyer Vondir towered over her, attired in his brown flight fatigues. His kind smile didn't dispel an eerie notion in her mind: Kivita had grown into a woman now; she almost told him so.

Moaning, she scooted toward the source of warmth. It touched her knees, her breasts.

She turned to tell her father about this gem she'd found, but he was gone. Now the Vim derelict from Xeh's Crown filled her vision instead. Globs of dried green jelly littered the decks, and rows of stone columns housed Vim
datacores. Hundred-foot-high viewports showed the trinary super–red giants outside in hellish shades. A band of Kith watched her.

“Sar!” she cried, hoping he'd be there to help her again.

Stinging liquid filled her mouth and she coughed. The warmth contracted around her; then someone cursed into her hair. Kivita forced her eyes open.

Sar's green-brown orbs stared right back, inches from her face.

A cryopod hatch opened above them as he retracted his arm from around her. The source of warmth now revealed, Kivita recoiled, her skin tingling. The Juxj Star lay between them. It glowed once and dulled.

“What in the . . . ?” Kivita wiped pseudoadrine from her lips. Sar rose beside her, still in his gray bodyglove.

“Easy, sweetness. You almost crushed me trying to snuggle close.” He yawned and stretched his arms.

Kivita sat up and snatched the Juxj Star. “You were groping me like a spacer who's been in orbit too long.” Not looking at him, she lurched from the cryopod. Her cheeks burned so much, she feared they'd ignite.

Cheseia exited the cryopod on her left, stretching her supple form. The Ascali's near nudity made her cheeks hotter, and Kivita checked her own body. Blue medical tape covered the cut on her left leg, and the burns on her back only stung now.

“Move aside.” Cheseia took up the beam rifle and aimed it at the third cryopod.

On Kivita's right, a hatch opened and frost crystals puffed into the air. An Aldaakian female wearing a tight uniform exited and regarded them all with caution. She
stretched, then ran in place. Her defined, muscular litheness didn't jiggle as she exercised.

Sar pushed past Kivita and stood on the floor.
Frevyx
's gravity had already activated, but the heating system had yet to raise the temperature fast enough. Though Kivita shivered, the Aldaakian seemed unaffected as she balanced on one foot and stretched again.

“Seems like you've got a harem here, Sar. Why couldn't you have shared her pod?” She gestured at Cheseia. “And what the hell is this one doing here?” She pointed at the Aldaakian.

Sar glowered at Kivita, then looked at the Aldaakian. “I'm setting you off where we're headed. Remember, Seul—I have an offer to make you.”

“Seul?” Kivita snorted. “So you're on first-name terms with one who tried to kill us?”

Seul stopped stretching and looked straight at Kivita. “Too many Aldaakians have died to retrieve that gem. It's the right color. The shade of blood.”

Cheseia hefted the rifle. “I will guard Seul. Surely a check on our location might be advisable, rather than this measly arguing?”

Sar muttered under his breath, then smirked at Kivita. “Better play nice, sweetness. Don't have too many clothes on board that will fit you. Can't let you go out like that.” He exited the chamber.

“Damn him.” Kivita shoved the Juxj Star into her pouch. Why had Sar let her keep it? “So, where are we supposed to be? You seem to be on the uptake more than the rest of us, Cheseia.”