Judgment at Proteus (63 page)

“How about I just concentrate on the present?” I suggested. “Such as my former teammates here. Are you grooming them to be a future army? Or are you picking up where
Usantra
Wandek left off?”

Riijkhan snorted. “Slander not the dead, but
Usantra
Wandek’s plan was wasted effort,” he said. “Why spend time creating future slaves when a touch of Modhran coral can create the same slaves today?”

“I don’t mean Wandek’s supposed plan,” I corrected. “I mean his
real
plan.”

Riijkhan took a step closer to me. “You know nothing about
Usantra
Wandek’s plans.”

“On the contrary,” I said, noting his reaction with interest. Were Wandek and, by extension, Proteus Station just two more unpleasant subjects that he didn’t want to hear about? Or was this something he didn’t want me talking about for some other reason entirely? “You see, I made the effort to find out why he picked Terese German,” I went on. “Once I did that, everything else just fell together.” I gestured to one of the Shonkla-raa behind Riijkhan. “Did you know Wandek was planning to betray you?”

The Filly stirred, and I saw his blaze darken. “You will not speak—”

He broke off at Riijkhan’s upstretched hand. “Explain,” Riijkhan ordered.

“Terese German is actually Terese von Archenholz,” I said. “She’s the daughter—well, the unhappy, estranged daughter, anyway; they don’t see much of each other these days—of Martin von Archenholz, founder and head of Hands Across the Stars. That’s an organization in Zurich that brings in non-Human medical experts to treat diseases we don’t yet have a handle on, particularly children’s diseases. Wandek’s idea was to clear up Terese’s genetic ailments in hopes of leveraging that success to a presumably grateful Daddy and get him to push for a permanent Filiaelian medical presence on Earth. Once he had that, Wandek would have a free hand to cure lots of children and turn them into future telepaths.” I cocked my head. “And into Junior Shonkla-raa.”

Riijkhan’s eyes flicked to Bayta, then back to me. “Impossible.”

“Not at all,” I assured him. “Your throats were originally designed that way so you could sing better. Humans already have all the necessary vocal apparatus—no obvious modifications would be needed. And a Human Shonkla-raa is something none of you would ever anticipate. With Wandek pulling our telepathic strings, we’d be the perfect weapons to throw down your leaders so he could set himself up in their place.”

Riijkhan took another step forward. “You lie,” he said. “
Usantra
Wandek would never commit treason.”

“But the interesting part,” I said, ignoring his protest, “is how
you
were also very keen on letting Earth off the hook in the coming conquest. Does that mean you were already secretly working with him?”

Riijkhan drew himself up. “I cannot rebel against the Shonkla-raa leader,” he intoned. “I
am
the Shonkla-raa leader.”

“Really,” I said. I’d actually suspected that for some time now. “Ascended to the throne on
Usantra
Wandek’s death, did you? I guess our activities on Proteus weren’t a total loss, at least for you.” I gestured to the Humans standing behind him. “Especially since it left Wandek’s Human telepathy techniques free for you to take full advantage of.”

Riijkhan gazed hard at me, and I could sense his uncertainty. Maybe he’d only recently been declared leader and still wasn’t comfortable with the title. Maybe he’d declared it unilaterally.

Or maybe he suspected I was goading him for a reason. “
Usantra
Wandek’s experiments are not at play here,” he said. “It was Dr. Aronobal’s idea. She had noted—”

“The
late
Dr. Aronobal, you mean?” I interrupted. “I’m assuming she died with the rest of your Proteus contingent when
Logra
Emikai took the place down. I hope my old friend
Isantra
Kordiss gave a good showing of himself before he died.”

Riijkhan’s blaze darkened. “You speak too much, Compton,” he warned quietly. This time, he took two steps forward, coming to a halt beside Morse.

“I’m sorry you have such trouble with the truth,” I said.

“The
truth
is that Emikai was lucky,” Riijkhan growled. “The other truth is that you and your schemes are pathetically weak.”

“Actually, the truth is—well, we’ll get back to that,” I said. “You were talking about Dr. Aronobal and her clever ideas.”

Again, Riijkhan seemed to measure me. “She noted your interest in the super-express train’s air filtration system,” he said. “She realized that while a Spider air system would eventually filter out all particulate matter, for a time that matter would remain suspended in the air.”

Beside me, Bayta caught her breath. “You made an
aerosol spray
of Modhran coral?”

“Of Modhran polyps,” Riijkhan corrected, his eyes again flicking to her before coming back to me. “From original Modhran coral, naturally, without the disagreeable effects inherent in the Melding variety. With careful positioning and timing of the sprays, we were able to take control of each group of Humans as they neared the Veerstu station.”

I grimaced. So that was how he’d bypassed the team’s tricked-out skin. That approach hadn’t even occurred to me. “Which is why there weren’t any walkers hanging around the platform when we got to Veerstu,” I said. “You made sure to clear them all out each time a team came through so that they couldn’t tip off the rest of the mind about what had happened.”

“What about the other passengers in those cars?” McMicking asked.

Riijkhan looked him up and down. “You’re McMicking,” he said. “Compton’s chief enforcement officer. Perhaps later I’ll measure you against single combat.”

“I’ll look forward to it,” McMicking said. “What about the other passengers?”

“Not all of those in the cars were affected,” Riijkhan said. “Those who had inhaled enough polyps to become true Modhran Eyes exited the train with us at Veerstu.”

“And?”

Riijkhan cocked his head and looked at Morse. There was a silent order, I gathered, to Morse’s Modhran colony— “They were killed,” Morse said, a bitter edge in his slurred voice. “The Shonkla-raa made me kill them.”

I felt my throat tighten. Even knowing it was coming, the revelation was still like a kick in the gut. Beside me, Bayta stirred, but didn’t speak. “You’re not to blame,” I told the Modhri. “The guilt is with those who gave the order.”

“Compton, I—” Once again, Morse stopped in midsentence.

“You know, that’s really annoying,” I told Riijkhan, forcing calmness into my voice. I was trying to make him mad. I couldn’t afford to get mad myself. “You need to let your slaves speak every once in a while.”

“There are few occasions when I wish to hear them,” Riijkhan said evenly. “As to the rest—” He pointed at the earphone in Morse’s ear. “Transmission devices don’t work inside the Tube, so there the command tone must be delivered directly. Here, and in all places where we’ll someday rule, the tone can be delivered from a distance.”

“Though as you say, that won’t work aboard the Quadrails,” I said. “I’m guessing you’re going to get pretty tired of singing those same damn notes for days or weeks on end.”

Riijkhan snorted. “Foolish Human. Do you think we don’t know the truth? We will gut the Tube, just as you threatened to do, and sweep away the Spiders and trains into the vacuum of space. Then we will once again ride the Starpath in all its power and splendor.”

He lifted his focus to the mesa rising behind us. “Magnificent, aren’t they?” he murmured. “Three warships from the days of our empire. And these are only the beginning.” He looked back at me. “Soon we shall have a fleet—a hundred fleets—and will bring down our hand to crush all the inferior races of the galaxy.”

“That’s going to be a bit awkward for you,” I suggested mildly, “given that it’s these inferior races who’ll be crewing your fleets for you.” I nodded to his four companions. “You don’t really think a party of five can run a ship that size, do you?”

“You really don’t understand, do you?” Riijkhan asked, openly gloating now. “We’ve known about these ships for a long time. Ever since you spoke of them at Terra Station, in fact. While you wasted precious time schooling your pilots in the Shonkla-raa language, we gathered our forces here.”

“Yes, I can see that,” I said mockingly as I looked around the tents and the empty desert beyond. “You’d better hope I did a good job teaching my inferior-race team how to fly your ships.”

“We will need very little of your help,” Riijkhan assured me. “I was told by
Isantra
Kordiss that you laid a challenge before
Usantra
Wandek before you fled
Kuzyatru
Station: that the next time he came for you, he should bring all the Shonkla-raa.”

“Well, throwing yourselves at me piecemeal sure isn’t doing a hell of a lot,” I pointed out. “So, what, is this it?”

“This is it,” Riijkhan said, eyeing me speculatively. “Is that the news you’re waiting for?”

I frowned. It was indeed what I was waiting for. Only he wasn’t supposed to know that. Had one of my hole cards suddenly become a deuce?

But it was too late to stop now. “All of you except the ones who died at Proteus, of course,” I said. “Did I mention, by the way, that that wasn’t just luck, or even just
Logra
Emikai’s skill? The fact is, we had a spy in your organization.
Isantra
Kordiss himself was reporting to us.”

Riijkhan’s blaze went a deep chocolate brown. “Slander not the dead,” he snarled. He pushed past Morse and strode toward me, his hands stiffening into Shonkla-raa knives.

Finally. “And if you find
that
truth unsettling,” I continued, raising my voice, “wait until you hear how the original Shonkla-raa actually came to be.”

And across at the end of the aircar, Sam and Carl abruptly came to life and started along the side of the aircar directly toward Riijkhan and me.

Or rather, toward me. I was the one, after all, whom the Chahwyn Elder had ordered them to kill if I started to speak of the forbidden subject.

But Riijkhan didn’t know that. As far as he knew, the defenders were heading toward
him
, probably with murder on their minds.

And his reaction was exactly what I’d hoped it would be. Spinning to face his approaching attackers, he opened his mouth and whistled the command tone.

The defenders froze in place, and I felt Bayta stiffen beside me as she also came under their spell. Riijkhan started to turn back toward me, his tone still ringing through the air, a baleful look in his eye.

And then, Sam started moving again.

He moved slowly, like someone wading against a spring-thaw river current. But he was moving nevertheless. Riijkhan spun back around toward the Spiders, his blaze paling, as Carl stirred and also resumed his advance. A moment of stunned disbelief later, the other four Shonkla-raa opened up with command tones of their own, adding their voices to Riijkhan’s and raising the volume to a head-splitting level.

And with all eyes on the defenders, I dropped into a crouch and reached under the edge of the aircar for one of the flashless stun grenades McMicking and I had concealed under the vehicle’s entire rim before we’d started the last leg of our trip. In a single motion I rose back to my feet, squeezed the trigger, and hurled it high above the army of Humans standing silently behind Riijkhan. Then, squeezing my eyes tightly closed in case this one wasn’t as flashless as the ones Hardin’s techs had demonstrated back on Earth, I pressed my palms hard against my ears.

With a thunderclap that eclipsed even the Shonkla-raa control tone, the grenade detonated, temporarily deafening everyone within a thirty-meter radius.

And as Minnario had proved back on Proteus Station, if a walker’s Modhran colony couldn’t hear the command tone, the Shonkla-raa power was broken. Riijkhan was fighting to regain his balance from the grenade’s effect when Hardin’s team, themselves not exactly steady on their feet, staggered into a charge.

They did their best, and with another thirty seconds they might have pulled it off. But Riijkhan hadn’t been lying about not being alone. The echoes of the stun blast were still caroming off the Ten Mesas when the doors of both big tents were flung open and a horde of Shonkla-raa came charging out, a hundred strong at least, slamming into the rear of the unsteady Human charge and throwing the men and women aside like combat dummies.

And with the Shonkla-raa finally out in the open, it was time to play my final card.

My comm had been taken along with my gun belt. But Morse still had his. As Riijkhan grabbed Morse’s Beretta and wrenched it from his hand, I ducked past the Shonkla-raa’s side and snatched Morse’s comm from its holder. “
Dies irae!
” I shouted into it, dodging back as Riijkhan slashed his hand toward me. I made it back to Bayta and pulled her down into a crouch beside the aircar. “
Dies irae!
” I shouted again.

Nothing happened.

I raised the comm again, my eyes flicking away from the melee around me long enough to confirm that all of the comm’s settings were correct. “
Dies irae!
” I tried one more time. “Fayr—
now
!”

But there was still nothing. And with a sinking feeling, I realized that my Belldic sharpshooters weren’t going to be saving the day.

It was too late anyway. The last of the Humans were down, lying motionless or twitching in the desert dust, and with the command tone once again filling the air Sam and Carl had also ground again to a halt, their metal legs stiff and glistening in the afternoon sun.

Riijkhan turned toward me, Morse’s gun still gripped in his hand. Swallowing, I rose back to my feet. There were times, I reflected distantly, when making the enemy mad maybe wasn’t such a good idea. “All right,” I said. “What now?”

Riijkhan didn’t reply, and for a heart-thudding moment I thought he was going to shoot me right there and then. But as we stood facing each other, the downed men and women began rising slowly to their feet. They stood motionless, pain and frustration simmering in their faces.