Paw-Prints Of The Gods (44 page)

The cat looked up,
gave another sad meow and jumped lightly into the cabin. As it
moved into the light, Ravana gave a shriek of surprised recognition
and fell to her knees.

“Jones!” she cried.
“My little fluff ball! Is it really you?”

The cat mewed, coughed
and as if to answer her question spat out a mangled lump of
circuitry from Arallu Depot’s food molecularisor. Ravana grinned
and hugged her electric pet close. As she shut her eyes against her
tears, she realised her cranium implant had awoken. A familiar
glowing purple image hovered in her mind’s eye: a crude rendering
of a duck-billed platypus, the symbol of her personal link to the
onboard AI of the ship of the same name.

Her cat still in her
arms, Ravana scrambled to her feet and into the cockpit. Her heart
leapt with joy as she caught sight of the purple and white
spacecraft, parked on the edge of the runway beyond the dome. A
quick mental prod activated the image in her mind, which went green
and then expanded into a line of control symbols. In the background
was a web-like image of the
Platypus
itself, an echo of the
strange tendrils that had sprouted through the ship. She hurriedly
scrolled through the controls and opened a voice link to the
AI.

“Ship?” she called
hesitantly. “Are you there?”

The familiar cool
female tones of the AI filled her head almost instantly.

“It is a pleasure to
speak with you again, Ravana. How may I be of assistance?”

Ravana grinned with
relief, hardly able to believe that the end to her trials was near.
Lowering her pet to the floor, she dropped into the driver’s
seat.

“Ship, is father
nearby?” she asked. “I think he’s expecting my call.”

* * *

[Chapter
Twelve
] [
Contents
] [
Chapter Fourteen
]

THE CLANKING OF THE
TRANSPORT exploded into a deafening clatter, drowning out Ravana’s
squeals of excitement as she nursed the vehicle into the hangar of
Arallu Depot. The dusty windscreen framed an unexpectedly large
group of people waiting to greet her, first and foremost of whom
was her beaming father. Grinning like an idiot, Ravana killed the
engine, scooped her cat from the co-pilot’s seat and hurried to the
hatch at the rear. Moments later she was hugging her father tight,
overwhelmed by the fact he was actually there. After all she had
been through it seemed too good to be true.

“You’re safe!” cried
Quirinus. He wrapped his arms around her and pressed her head to
his chest, as if frightened to let go. “I was so worried. You might
have died out there!”

“Several times,” she
murmured. There were tears in her eyes. “I’m so glad you’re here!
It feels like everything on this planet is out to get me.”

“You’re safe now,” he
reassured her. He glanced down to where her cat was doing its
utmost to trip them up. “I see you’ve found that dratted pet of
yours.”

Ravana smiled. For the
first time since stepping outside, she looked to the four figures
fidgeting awkwardly by the door to the depot’s passenger
lounge.

“Is that really Zotz
with you?” she asked. “And what’s Philyra doing here?”

“It’s a long story,”
Quirinus replied wearily. “I’m guessing you have a tale or two of
your own. Where have you been?”

Her reply was
interrupted by a dreadful metallic groan from the transport. They
both retreated in alarm and then jumped as the suspension on the
left-hand side collapsed with a loud bang. The tired, worn-out
vehicle, having performed admirably through six thousand kilometres
of harsh alien terrain, had finally reached the end of the
road.

“Shall we go into the
dome?” suggested Ravana. “It’s been a bit of a rough journey.”

* * *

The news that the
transport had brought food the depot’s abused molecularisor could
only dream of was well-received, particularly when Zotz discovered
the locker full of chocolate cake. They retired to the habitation
cabin near Morrigan’s Bar, where Ravana told her tale over a hearty
meal washed down with copious cups of tea. Her portrayal of Kedesh
was harsh but she felt bitter over the way the woman had abused her
trust.

Fornax greeted Ravana
with a puzzled stare that flickered just once to her facial scar.
Upon hearing the woman was a journalist, Ravana glossed over their
escape from Missi and the giant spiders, for the last thing she
wanted was to become a story on
Weird Universe
. That
everyone bar a doubting Philyra accepted her account of the alien
greys surprised her, though she knew Zotz briefly saw the caged
Nana when they faced Taranis on the
Dandridge Cole
many
months before. To Ravana’s further surprise, when she hesitantly
described her encounters with Athene, it was Fornax who was the
least sceptical of her listeners.

“We did a piece on
watchers for
Weird Universe
,” the journalist revealed.
“There was this crazy old man who said he was a knight of Saint
John, who had all these bizarre stories about alien cat gods who
meddled in history. Most of what we recorded was too off-the-wall
to use. It ended up as a ten-minute filler on our ghost-watch
special.”

“I saw that,” said
Philyra. “There’s no such thing as ghosts. Or aliens.”

“Well, that’s my
story,” declared Ravana. “The rest, as they say, is geography.”

“Don’t you mean
history?” asked Zotz.

“I know what I mean,”
she muttered. She had seen enough desert to last a lifetime.

In the process of
swapping tales, her father confirmed it was the
Platypus
she
had seen circling the excavation site. He and Momus had taken the
ship on a couple of reconnaissance flights; on the second, they had
spotted Kedesh’s transport near the dig, remembered what Jizo told
them and had tried to make contact. Ravana recalled the
password-locked transceiver and frowned, but was more startled by
the revelation that Jizo had been at Arallu Depot. Momus scowled
and put on a sulky face.

“She was here,” said
Quirinus, glaring at his hired pilot. “Last night she gave us the
slip whilst this idiot was again dozing on watch. Their transport
returned to pick her up and they left in a flying wing that’s been
parked here the last couple of days.”

“I wasn’t asleep,”
muttered Momus. “It was me who saw the frigging ship leave.”

“It woke you up, you
mean,” retorted Fornax. “The bitch stole my Pinot.”

“Jones ran off and hid
in their transport,” Zotz told Ravana. The electric cat lay curled
upon his lap. “We followed its camera feed on my wristpad but it
was mostly jumping around too much to see anything. We did spot the
nurse with another woman and a boy.”

“I didn’t know it
could transmit pictures,” Ravana said cautiously, looking at her
pet. Zotz blushed and dropped his gaze. “Have you been messing with
its insides again?”

“Their transport must
have docked with yours whilst you were unconscious,” reasoned
Quirinus. “Jizo was clearly waiting for you to show up. I wonder
why they left you behind? She said something about you being in the
wrong place at the wrong time.”

Ravana frowned. This
aspect of the mystery puzzled her also, especially given the
trouble Jizo and Lilith had taken to keep her locked up next door
to Artorius. Her father had instructed the
Platypus
AI to
keep track of the departing
Atterberg Epiphany
and they knew
the black ship had touched down on the new runway at the
excavation.

“I found a link
between the dig and a so-called prophecy in the
Isa-Sastra
,”
she said hesitantly. “It could be that they thought I knew too
much, so wanted me out of the way. But if so, why abandon me with a
vehicle right next to where our spaceship is parked?”

“More prophecies?”
asked Quirinus, rolling his eyes.

“This time, I don’t
think it’s something invented by Taranis,” Ravana told him.
Earlier, she had shown them all Artorius’ words on the slate. “But
calling it a prophecy sounds too mystical, somehow. It might be
more of a warning.”

“A warning!” exclaimed
Zotz.

“It seems to me they
want us to leave,” Momus said flatly. “There’s too much frigging
secret-agent stuff going on for my liking. The sooner we blast out
of here, the better.”

“Leave?” Fornax
frowned. “What about my story?”

“Forget your story.
What about Artorius?” asked Ravana, her face creased in concern.
“We can’t leave him here. He’s just a little boy.”

“Artorius,” mused
Philyra, looking thoughtful. “I know that name.”

“It’s Taranis’ freaky
cyberclones that scare me,” said Quirinus. “You’ve seen two of them
and Ostara reckons there’s a couple more in Newbrum. You saw the
police flyer at the dig. I’m hoping they already have the situation
in hand.”

“There’s clones in
Newbrum?” Ravana was shocked. “How do you know?”

“Ostara has been doing
some secret-agent stuff of her own,” he told her.

“Frigging lizard men!”
scoffed Momus. “As if Newbrum needs more weirdos.”

“We blasted them into
space,” said Ravana. “Who rescued them?”

Quirinus, Zotz and
Momus realised they had omitted an important piece of their story
and told her about how the ejected engine room had been salvaged by
the crew of the cloud-mining facility at Thunor. When Momus
mentioned that
Sky Cleaver
’s shuttle had been found in orbit
around Woden, Fornax looked thoughtful.

“Some guy at the
spaceport told me it was the Dhusarians’ black ship that brought
the monks to Newbrum,” she said. “It must have met the stolen
shuttle.”

“Then delivered
another two to Falsafah,” murmured Ravana, perturbed. “What about
the rest of the twelve? And Taranis himself?”

Momus shrugged. “There
was a half-eaten stiff at
Sky Cleaver
. Was that him?”

“Did he have a spider
walker instead of legs?” asked Zotz. He grinned as Fornax and
Philyra screwed their faces in disgust. Momus however shook his
head.

“Half-eaten?” Ravana
shuddered. The more she heard about Taranis’ creations, the worse
they became. “That must have been Fenris. He was killed by the
clones.”

“Jizo spoke of Taranis
as if he were still alive,” Quirinus said gently.

“But Lilith said he
was dead,” she retorted sullenly. “And that I killed him.”

For a while, no one
spoke. Zotz took advantage of the lull to find Ostara’s recording
on his wristpad, which in turn reminded Quirinus to send Ostara and
Wak the news that Ravana was safe. As Zotz showed Ravana the shaky
muffled footage of Nyx and the two monks, the fear she felt back at
the Dhusarians’ dome was awakened anew. Taranis had called them his
disciples, created to spread the word of the Dhusarian Church, but
it was a shock to see they had begun their mission on Ascension.
Yet foremost in her mind was Artorius, the mysterious star man
Athene described as being led to his duty like a lamb to the
slaughter, who was once again prisoner of the Dhusarians. There was
little Ravana could do about the cyberclones on Newbrum. Here on
Falsafah, she could not stand idly by.

“I have to try and
rescue Artorius,” she said. “I don’t know what the Dhusarians have
planned for him but I’m sure it’s not good.”

“They have scary
killer robots,” Philyra said cautiously. “We saw a couple of
military androids in crates in the hold. I just thought I’d mention
that.”

“I didn’t intend to
march in there unarmed,” Ravana reassured her, before adding
hopefully, “nor alone.”

“Armed!” exclaimed
Quirinus. “My little girl does not mess with guns!”

Ravana gave him an
apologetic smile. “I only shoot robots and acid slime.”

“And launch lizard men
into frigging space,” muttered Momus.

Zotz looked uneasy.
“I’ll come if you want me to,” he said quietly. The cat in his lap
squirmed under his tight embrace. “You needed my help last
time.”

“Count me in too,”
said Fornax. “I still need a good story to take back with me.”

Ravana looked to her
father with pleading eyes.

“I suppose we should
make sure there’s nothing untoward going on at the dig,” admitted
Quirinus. “This is no place for a little boy to be lost. Let’s see
if that transport of yours has any life left in it before we decide
to try that new runway.”

“You’re all frigging
mad,” muttered Momus.

“But you’ll come with
us?” Quirinus asked.

Momus scratched his
ragged moustache. “Am I getting overtime for this?”

* * *

The lone repair robot
stationed at Arallu Depot, a beetle-like automaton half a metre
long, clung gloomily to the undercarriage of the transport and in a
blaze of sparks added yet another glowing scar to the broken
suspension strut. Two of the vehicle’s huge wheels had been
removed, along with the gearbox, a couple of drive shafts and a
large coil spring that had snapped in two. One look at the robot’s
progress was enough to tell Ravana it would be a while before the
vehicle was capable of going anywhere again. Leaving her father
watching the robot, she clambered into the transport and emerged
minutes later loaded down with the plasma cannon, a couple of
undamaged survival suits and Kedesh’s cricket bat, all of which she
deposited on the floor. Quirinus’ quizzical gaze moved immediately
to the bat.

“It’s the only other
weapon I could find,” she explained. “There was a pistol in the
cockpit locker but Kedesh must have taken that with her.”

Quirinus picked up the
cricket bat, took a practice swing and smiled.

“This takes me back,”
he said. “Genuine willow, too. Odd thing to have aboard.”