Reunion (27 page)

“My people also caught it. As you say, it’s hard to miss when you’re camped on top of it.” She nodded knowingly. “So you were that close to our camp? We couldn’t linger long enough to run the kind of detailed analysis I wanted. There were indications of possible AAnn military activity in our general vicinity, and we had to leave faster than I would have liked. Like you, all we could do was trace and track the signal.” She took a deep breath. “As to the rest of it, your supposition is partly correct: I came here looking for the transmitter. This artifact is the real bonus.” She proceeded to concede the additional explanation he desired.

“Larnaca Nutrition does produce and market vitamin and other health supplements, and very profitably, too. But it’s primarily a cover for far less traditional study, besides being my personal research arm. Like any influential commercial trading house or corporation, it’s always on the lookout to purchase potentially lucrative scientific information. The hope is to acquire such knowledge before Commonwealth or Church scientists can get to it and do something asinine, like declare it freely available for the public good.”

“Your company was engaged in unsanctioned xenology,” he alleged.

She smiled thinly. “I prefer to think of it as extending the boundaries of human knowledge without wasting taxpayer credits. One of the company’s agents procured some obscure intelligence about a diplomatically inaccessible, godforsaken desert orb the AAnn called Pyrassis. Buried among the stock generalities was a lot of rumor and very little fact. What there was of the latter was . . . intriguing. So was the challenge that investigating it further presented. It has nothing to do with the Meliorares, may every one of their misbegotten souls rot in an appropriate hell, and everything to do with making money. Beyond their historical value, which to institutes of higher learning, museums, and the like is considerable, ancient alien artifacts are often filled with exploitable curios.” She indicated their surroundings.

“One this size is of incalculable commercial value. My people have been working on the Pyrassis project for over a year now, a project that they’ve had to keep secret from the authorities and our industrial competitors as well as the AAnn. Everything was going as well or better than anticipated. Then
you
show up. Of all people. You had to go pushing and shoving your trespassing way into a private, fortified storage facility and set off its security. That would have been bad enough, but no—you had to trace it to me. You’ve ruined everything.” Frustration and anger spilled out of her in equal measure.

“I knew if Challis didn’t dispose of you that day years ago that sooner or later you were going to cause me grief. Even so, I had managed to forget about you. What a fine forced recalling you’ve contrived!”

“If you’d stop trying to kill me,” he informed her calmly, “you might find that we have things to talk about. To my knowledge, no one else who hasn’t been mindwiped shares what you and I have in common.”

“I don’t
want
to have anything in common with you, Philip Lynx! I don’t want to share anything with you. I don’t want to have things to talk about. I want you to
die
!”

He felt for her. “You’re expressing your hate for yourself, Mahnahmi. For what the Meliorares and Conda Challis made of you.”

“Oh, now you’re a therapist. I suppose that’s a profession that would fit you, given your own peculiar abilities. Know that my thoughts, my mind, are not fodder for your infantile speculations, Flinx. I may be younger than you in years, but in other ways, I’m more mature, more developed.”

“Yes, I can see that by how wisely and maturely you’re acting.” He gestured with the pistol. Behind him, the Qwarm Briony was starting to moan. “What
is
this place? Is it exactly what you were looking for? Besides the transmitter, I mean.”

“We didn’t know what we were looking for. There were no specifics. Only that there might be something in this system that was alien, and old. We thought that if we were going to find anything, it would be on Pyrassis. Instead, it’s out here orbiting the outermost planet in the system, hiding close to a methane dwarf. Thoroughly cloaked against detection, too. If not for the signal that was sent out, that came from an alien transmitter, we never would have found it. Once we traced the signal’s target, the rest was easy.” She nodded at him. “As it obviously was for you, too. Where’s the rest of your crew? On your ship?”

“Yes,” he admitted readily. “On my ship.” He did not add that it consisted entirely of mechanicals and a few recently acquired decorative plants.

“Liar.” Her smile transmuted into a smirk. “I told you that in some ways I was more mature than you. My abilities are also erratic, but when they’re functioning, like they are now, they speak to me of things you can’t even dream about.” Her tone turned momentarily wistful. “Sometimes I wish I couldn’t dream. Mine usually are not very pleasant, and a lot of the time I wake up screaming. Conda Challis, and other . . . things.” She sniffed derisively. “I can sense people coming toward us even as you try to convince me they’re all back on your ship. I didn’t notice you signal out. What did you do—make prearrangements for them to come looking for you if you didn’t report back in by a certain time?”

Bewildered, Flinx tried to make sense of what she was saying. He fought to concentrate, struggled to detect whatever it was that had sparked her imputation. Crew? His crew could not be coming after him because there wasn’t any beyond AIs and vegetable matter. He didn’t think the latter could pilot a shuttlecraft. Even if existence had turned upside down and the flora decorating the
Teacher
suddenly acquired that ability, he doubted their fragile roots would allow them to march rapidly into the depths of the artifact.

Then something tickled that portion of his gengineered mind that was home to his unnamed, impenetrable talent, and he knew what she was talking about. She was not quite as adept, not quite as developed, as she would have led him to believe.

“You’re right,” he acknowledged. “There are people coming this way.”

She was nodding knowingly to herself. “You see, Flinx. You can’t delude your own sister. What you feel, I feel. What you sense, I sense.”

“Not exactly,” he murmured, even as he worked to isolate each approaching individual with an eye toward estimating their numbers. “There
are
people coming this way—but they aren’t human.”

Chapter 17

The Imperial Pyrassisian task force closed on the moon of the tenth planet swiftly and without giving the limited-range sensors on board the
Crotase
adequate time to react. The fact that the Imperial Pyrassisian task force consisted of a single vessel, the
Sstakoun,
did not make its surprise or conquest any less complete. Though modest of dimension and slight of armament, the
Sstakoun
was a warship. However well-equipped she was for her class, the
Crotase,
registered to the company yclept Larnaca Nutrition, was not. As soon as the AAnn vessel was recognized, those on board the Commonwealth craft prepared to shift her outsystem the minimal number of planetary diameters necessary to safely activate her KK-drive.

These preparations were detected and reported to the captain of the
Sstakoun,
who promptly brought it to the attention of her operations superior Voocim, who immediately ordered that the Commonwealth vessel be disabled. Accordingly, a single small device was fired that in less than a minute did minimal damage to the other vessel’s KK-drive projection dish. Minimal damage was enough. Unable to generate the mathematically perfect pattern of a posigravity field, the
Crotase
was now unable to flee through anything other than space-normal. It could still escape the Pyrassisian system, however. At the speed of which it was now capable, in a few hundred years or so it might reach the nearest Commonwealth world. As this option was unanimously found by those on board to be singularly unattractive, they straightaway surrendered their vessel to the AAnn.

Having effortlessly incapacitated one intruder, the
Sstakoun
might well have done the same to the second ship in the vicinity—if not for the fact that the
Teacher
drifted unseen and undetected behind its highly advanced military masking screens. Nor was there any reason for those aboard the
Sstakoun
to suspect, much less infer, the presence of a second Commonwealth vessel. In the absence of further instructions from its master, the
Teacher
maintained power to its sophisticated deflectors, kept its silence, ignored the drama being played out nearby, and held its position just outside the roiling brown atmosphere of the alien satellite-artifact.

Had they initiated a more thorough scan of the immediate spatial vicinity, the AAnn might have detected the slight gravitational anomaly that ordinarily gave away the presence of a shrouded vessel, but they were too busy dealing with the one intruder that had not been able to conceal itself.

Captain Tradssij was speculating. “To intrude on Imperial sspace thesse particular humanss musst be either very confident or very foolissh. I would not think them foolissh.”

The commander gestured second-degree astonishment mixed with third-degree outrage. “What are they doing here? Can they have come ssolely in hopess of discovering thiss extraordinary artifact?”

All eyes turned to the heretofore silent elder couple crouched at the far end of the sandy-floored conferencing chamber. Tenukac LLBYYLL kicked free of the sterile, lightly scented, buff-toned granules on which he had been resting.

“My mate and I cannot sspeak to the military importance of the Pyrassisian ssysstem.” Among the assembly, an officer or two guffawed, their soft hisses of amusement drawing the obligatory glares of disapproval from Voocim and Tradssij. “
Nssussa,
we are convinced that world iss not ssignificant enough to tempt humanss into transsgressing Imperial sspace.” Several emphatic gestures of affirmation punctuated the xenologist’s pithy observation.

“Converssely, thiss artifact, which iss of colossal dimenssionss and unknown origin, holdss the promisse of disscoveriess of ssufficient importance to entice the bold and the daring. Humanss too are known to possess such qualitiess, though they are ussually utilized in the sservice of base aimss. My mate and I are convinced that even as we sspeak to the matter, a team or two of individualss from the Commonwealth vessel are pressently engaged in exploration of the artifact’ss interior.”

Voocim indicated understanding. “That iss my feeling alsso. However, now that we have dissabled their sship, we can deal with matterss of exploration and adminisstration at our leissure.” She swung a dancing hand Dysseen’s way. “Iss the boarding party assembled?” When the officer indicated in the affirmative, the commander rose. Warm particles trickled from her tail where it emerged from the soothing sand, as it did those of her staff.

“We will have the ansswerss to our quesstionss very ssoon. Thiss iss a great day for the Empire!” A loud, ascending hiss filled the room as the other officers joined her in saluting their achievement. At one swoop they had captured an intruding, spying vessel
and
made a scientific discovery of potentially enormous importance—and profit.

The two senior scientists would receive their due, of course, but no one doubted that every officer, subofficer, and general crew member would share in the approbation that was to come. Ancestors would be almighty honored, chapters of family would be elated, and the Commonwealth would be, at the very least, embarrassed. There was little more to do save assume formal possession of the challenged vessel and take into custody any humanx exploration party currently roaming the artifact.

The human crew of the
Crotase
was a surly lot. Voocim was not surprised: Anticipating discovery and jubilation, they now found themselves prisoners of the AAnn. Sidearms were collected, the ship’s navigation-and-guidance system was secured, and individuals were assembled in the dining area under the watchful eye of armed troopers. Slitted eyes met round ones, and no love passed between them.

The intruders would have to face interrogation, but not here. Ample time for that back on Pyrassis, as official word of the unprecedented seizure was passed along to Sectorcav. Until then, there were more pressing matters to attend to. Voocim confronted the double line of disconsolate mammals, cleared her throat with an appropriate hiss, and ventured to test her somewhat rusty knowledge of Terranglo.

“I am Voocim DDHJ, commander of His Imperial Majessty’s garrisson on Pyrassis. As ssuch, I am ressponssible for the ssecurity of thiss entire ssysstem, whosse integrity you have blatantly violated. Unless thiss is a remarkably undersstaffed craft, I surmisse that a number of your colleaguess are at pressent engaged in invesstigating the alien artifact that liess here with uss tail to tooth. We are quite familiar with crewing detailss for all the sstandard classess of Commonwealth vesselss, sso pleasse do not inssult my intelligence by claiming that all of you are pressently here aboard.” She scanned the distastefully flexible faces that struggled to avoid hers.

“Who iss the ssenior officer, official, or dessignated repressentative extant, pleasse?”

A human of average size and pallid skin stepped forward. At least, Voocim reflected as she made an effort to control her insides at the proximity of the creature, the typical ruff of fur was absent from its skull, giving that exposed portion of its anatomy a more tolerable and almost AAnn-like appearance.

“I’m Mikola Bucevit. I’m in charge until the ship’s owner returns.”

Ah, so the owner was part of the crew! Voocim was delighted at the implied opportunity for ransom. Such undiplomatic maneuvers would not be officially countenanced by the Imperial government, of course, but upon payment of suitable fees to appropriate cadres, they would not be countermanded, either. Events continued to unfold in an auspicious manner. Silently, she made obeisance to a benign fate.

“As you musst ssurmisse, we musst ssecure the remainder of your crew. No one will be harmed, and you will all be treated in accordance with the relevant Imperial protocolss dealing with the treatment of unauthorized intruderss. Eventually, if you cooperate, you sshould all be ssuccessfully repatriated to your resspective worldss.” She started to gesture collaterally, then remembered that humans only rarely used their limbs in conversation. “Firsst, you will provide uss with the coordinatess utilized by your colleaguess to enter the artifact.”

“Why don’t you figure ’em out yourself, snake-eyes?” The angry member of the engineering staff who had spoken shuffled his feet while hovering behind Bucevit.

Voocim rendered a nonchalant gesture. A trooper took a step forward, raised his weapon, and fired once. The few subsequent angry mutterings that rose from the pod of captured humans faded rapidly. Voocim let the ensuing silence linger for a symbolic moment longer.

“Anyone elsse care to put forth ssimilarly disscourteouss ssuggesstionss? I attend with ssecond-degree avidity. No? Then,
rasshisst,
perhapss we can proceed in a civilized and orthodox manner.”

The necessary coordinates acquired, Voocim took personal charge of the landing party. Dysseen remained on the human vessel to see to the preliminary debriefing of its remnant crew and to the changeover of its AI systems so that they would respond to AAnn control. Captain Tradssij returned to the
Sstakoun.

With her, Voocim had two dozen heavily armed and fully equipped troopers under the supervision of Officer Yilhazz, a no-nonsense field officer. In addition, a pair of appropriately equipped techs drawn from the
Sstakoun
’s engineering team had been assigned to assist the two xenologists in documenting the initial exploration and evaluation of the artifact.

It was thus a well-prepared party that soon thereafter stepped out of their shuttlecraft into the artifact’s lock. Marching past the silent, empty human shuttle, they were, like their predecessors, automatically and successfully cycled through by its ancient yet receptive instrumentation. A few moments later every member of the expedition was breathing the atmosphere of ancient corridors. At the first intersection, Voocim called a halt. The AAnn waited while their techs labored to divine the right path to follow.

Meanwhile, the xenologists hardly knew which way to turn. Everywhere they looked, there was something new, different, and of potentially startling import. The commander noted their antics with detached amusement. The elderly couple was going to be famous in domains of expertise that were closed to her. That did not mean she was uninterested in their work. The more she beamed about this unprecedented discovery, the more knowledgeable a demeanor she could present when the matter was raised for discussion. Among those affianced to her own specialty, this would enhance her opportunities for advancement. Promotion to baron, she mused, and inevitably to lord would follow. Eventually, she envisioned herself becoming a participant in and an advisor to the Imperial Court itself. That which had for most of her life seemed beyond reach was now abruptly, providentially, at hand. All she had to do was let the scientists carry out their work and not interfere with that which had already been accomplished.

Had she known how few humans remained within the artifact, her spirits would have soared even higher.

The intruders could not escape, she knew. There was only one way out, via the shuttlecraft docked in the lock. Even so, she was taking no chances. As soon as the last of the troopers had disembarked and was safely inside the body of the artifact, the
Sstakoun’s
shuttle fired its engines to position itself directly alongside the Commonwealth craft. Thus, even if the humans who remained on the alien relic somehow succeeded in escaping, avoiding, or overpowering the AAnn who were about to go in after them, there was no way they could get back to their own starship. If they attempted to re-board the shuttle they had left behind, those on board the
Sstakoun
’s landing vessel waited to confront them with heavy weapons.

Furthermore, two armed techs from the
Sstakoun
’s crew were now on board the empty Commonwealth vessel. If any human renegades somehow succeeded in shooting or sneaking their way back onto their shuttle, they would find boarding an impossibility. The soft-skinned fugitives were trapped; albeit for an indeterminate time, but trapped they were.

The unpretentious, one-person transport vehicle tucked off in a far corner of the lock had been well hidden by its single passenger. Even if the insignificant, limited-range craft had been noticed, it would hardly have registered on the commander’s consciousness. She was looking to detail a group, not an individual.

It took longer than Voocim would have liked, but the techs finally ferreted out the location of humaniform life-forms deeper within the artifact. She was surprised and pleased to see that their quarry had not penetrated nearly as far into the mammoth relic as she had feared. Either the humans had been remiss in their exploration or were simply making a thorough job of it. The newly arrived AAnn would be able to catch up to them sooner than anticipated. She was so pleased she could hardly contain herself. Only the energetic reflex movements of her tail made public her gratification. With the two techs in the lead and the senior scientists chafing at the enforced deferment of real work, the party started into the interior of the artifact.

“What do you mean, ‘they aren’t human’?” Mahnahmi regarded her brother, her adversary, with a wary eye.

“You’re able to feel their approach, but you’re not as sensitive as I am. They’re definitely alien, most probably AAnn, and from the tenor of their emotions I sense that they’re on the hunt—for us, I would imagine.” Flinx glanced back the way he had come. Pip’s head was up, and the flying snake, empathizing wordlessly with her companion, was now on full alert.

Mahnahmi did not need time to reflect on the import of her sibling’s assessment. “If there are AAnn inside the artifact and they’re coming toward us, then leaving is going to be bothersome. My guess would be that they’re tracking us with the aid of standard life-form sensors.” As Flinx nodded in agreement, she pulled a small communicator from her duty belt. “Then using this won’t make us any worse off.” She made no attempt to conceal her conversation from him.

“Bucevit, this is Owner speaking. Report your status. No nuances, please. I have some idea of what is going on.”