Spheres of Influence-eARC (32 page)

Chapter 41.

“How is Simon?”

DuQuesne grimaced; after the battle, he’d found Simon unconscious in the third turret. “Alive. He’ll heal, we just need to get him home so he can have some proper care and support or it will take his medical nanos
ages
. What he did was insane, except like the rest of us he didn’t have much choice.”

“What was wrong with him?” Ariane was, somewhat to his surprise (and considerable gratification), mostly keeping a professional tone to her questions.
She must have gone through a lot, but there’s something a little…changed about her. I hope in a good way.

“Honestly? I haven’t got one goddamn clue as to why he didn’t collapse long before we finished. That idea of his was damned brilliant—and went through I have
no
idea how many vals’ worth of Orphan’s equipment in that time—but I don’t think he understood just how deadly it was going to be in that turret. Even with the best designs in the universe—and Orphan’s got some of the best, believe you me—the overpressure, heat, light…he might as well have been detonating shock grenades next to himself. And he somehow took on
Vantak
by himself.”

“Wait, what?
Vantak
? He was
here?
” Wu Kung laughed. “I am glad! A poetic symmetry!”

Orphan came into the control room, hearing the last lines. “Most certainly,” Orphan said. “You took his ship, he decided to take mine if he could.”

“Next time, Wu, remember that the Blessed have
wings
. Sure, he couldn’t directly match our speed, but apparently he was able to guide himself in the right direction and catch us as we went by.”

Ariane transferred her gaze to Sethrik, who was seated before an auxiliary panel of
Zounin-Ginjou
. “Are we recharged?”

The Leader of the Blessed did not answer immediately; he seemed sunk in gloom, and DuQuesne remembered that for the first hour after rescue he had practically curled up in a corner, unresponsive. After a moment, however, Sethrik managed a small bob of assent. “I…yes, Captain Austin. We have transferred virtually all power from the remains of
Thilomon
to
Zounin-Ginjou
. The Blessed survivors have also been locked into specific areas of the vessel.”

“Are we able to return home now?”

Orphan’s bow was more emphatic. “Beyond any doubt.
Thilomon
had participated relatively little in the battle directly, and thus retained a quite considerable charge. We have in fact nearly fully recharged
Zounin-Ginjou
.” He strode to the main console and seated himself. “Now we shall cast off and complete the final stage.” Sethrik’s hands twitched, and his wingcases tightened as he turned away.

“What final stage?”

Orphan’s head tilted, even as she heard the cables linking
Zounin-Ginjou
and
Thilomon
beginning to release. “The destruction of
Thilomon
, of course. All the other ships have been completely destroyed, and there are no survivors. These are the last, and—”

“Absolutely
not
.”

DuQuesne wasn’t surprised. The idea of shooting an unarmed, depowered sitting duck of a target containing a few hundred people stuck in his craw too—and he had no doubt Simon would never agree to it if he was conscious. Orphan had already done that—in the mop-up of the battle—and it had taken a lot of his self-control to keep from saying anything, even though it
was
Orphan’s ship and Orphan’s choice. Wu Kung looked conflicted.

To his surprise, though, it was Sethrik who rose slowly to face Ariane. “You agreed with—or did not contradict—my order to destroy the other vessels, Captain. I thought you understood.” His voice was unsteady, and DuQuesne guessed that the conflict within the Blessed Leader was even greater than he had thought.
How hard must it be to have a sort of near-hive mind, and the unity the Minds give you, and then
turn
on that unity?

But Sethrik continued. “You had told me that you felt you had failed, that this was your fault. Are you going to now continue the mistakes that you have made?”

Ariane folded her arms over her chest. “I did say that. And it was true, then. We were still in a battle, you had to stop the others from fleeing, and there wasn’t anything I could have done about it one way or the other. But this…I’m sorry. I can’t just stand here and allow hundreds of people to be killed just for the sake of political convenience and safety. We have to at least
try
to find another solution.”

She turned to DuQuesne. “Marc, why can’t we just leave them here? They won’t starve or suffocate, not drifting here in the Arena, but without power they’re going nowhere. There’s no one to tell.”

He shook his head, even as Orphan’s hands flicked outward. “You’re forgetting, Ariane; this is one of the major routes—most direct routes—from the Blessed’s homeworld to Nexus Arena. There’s probably Blessed vessels coming through here every couple of days. If
Thilomon
and her escorts don’t show up on time, they’ll just send out a party to search the area. They won’t get much out of the rest of the wreckage, but you can bet your bottom dollar they’d find
Thilomon
if we left it here.”

Ariane’s jaw tightened, then she sighed. “Yes, I guess they would. But there
has
to be an alternative.”

“Why does there
have
to be one, Captain Austin?” Sethrik asked quietly. “Often the universe does not give us choices.”

DuQuesne’s mind agreed with Sethrik…but not his gut. And he knew which one he had to go with. “Because that’s not the way she works. Maybe when the guns are shooting and you’re under that kind of pressure, yeah, maybe then you have to make the choice of the greater evil versus the lesser one. But when you’ve got time, you haven’t got the excuse of desperation. That’s when you find a new choice…or
make
one.”

Sethrik and Orphan clearly did not entirely agree, but they did look thoughtful.

For several minutes no one said anything. Then Ariane looked out the viewport and pointed. “Well, we were—partly still are—connected to her. Can’t we tow her somewhere far enough that they
won’t
find her?”

“Alas, Captain Austin, to do that in this region—which as you might expect is mapped fairly extensively by the Blessed—would require us to travel a very long distance through Arenaspace. Not only would that potentially lead to us getting lost, but also it would take a considerable time and portion of our energy reserves, and to leave we would have to come back to the known Sky Gates…and with Blessed traffic there would be an excellent chance we would find ourselves once more in a battle before escaping.”

Wu Kung spoke up. “Couldn’t we just drag
Thilomon
along with us through the Sky Gates somehow? No, wait…we’d just end up bringing them to Nexus Arena, and we don’t want that, do we?”

“It would not work in any case, Sun Wu Kung,” Orphan said. “Remember that the use of the Sky Gates is through the Sandrisson Drive, which must be specifically configured for the vessel, which must have active Sandrisson coils surrounding it. To jump with
Thilomon
in tow would most likely simply sever our connection with
Thilomon
and might have other less…entertaining effects.”

Another silence.

“How many survivors are there, exactly?” asked Ariane.

“Three hundred eleven,” Sethrik answered promptly. “Wu Kung…was surprisingly nonlethal. I appreciate the effort you went to in sparing their lives, and I must express my gratitude to you, Captain Austin, that you are attempting to find some solution which will not throw their lives away again.”

“Could you fit that many in your cargo bays, Orphan?”

Orphan went rigid for a moment. “I…in theory…yes, I suppose.
Zounin-Ginjou
is intended to carry a great deal of cargo on occasion. But you cannot be seriously thinking of bringing over three hundred Blessed and trying to keep them imprisoned?”

DuQuesne saw that Ariane was still wrestling with the next step, but he had a sudden inspiration. “Not imprison. Transfer. You’ve been around a
long
time, Orphan. You’ve got to have found other Spheres on occasion, ones that aren’t active—no native race. Maybe even marked ’em down for colonization if you ever got more members of the Liberated.”

Orphan bobbed a slow agreement. “I…believe I see your course, Doctor. If we can securely carry them aboard
Zounin-Ginjou
for a few days, we could transfer them to a location I know, and the Blessed do not, and leave them there. Without a ship, it could take them years, even centuries, to find a way off. It would be…a life sentence of exile, but need not be murder.”

“Would you be willing to take that risk?” Ariane asked. “I realized while we were thinking that I can’t give orders at all here. This is your ship, not mine. I’m sorry.”

Orphan laughed. “Apology accepted, Captain Austin. And in truth…” He looked at Sethrik, then out at the wreck of
Thilomon
. “…in truth, Captain, Sethrik, I can still well remember my days as one of the Blessed. Those are my people as well, Sethrik. I think you now understand fully what drove me to where I am.”

“I do,” Sethrik said quietly.

“Then you understand my hostility is towards the Minds, and towards the Blessed when they act against myself and my friends. Not towards our people as individuals.” He turned back to Ariane, and DuQuesne could see her smile of gratitude as Orphan said, “So yes, Captain Austin, I am very willing to take that risk, if we can find a reasonable manner of bringing them aboard without unleashing them upon
Zounin-Ginjou
.”

“Do they have a radio? Something I could use to speak with them?”

Sethrik tilted his head, then gave a brisk wing-snap; the effort to rescue his former crew seemed to be bringing him back to himself. “I believe they should.” He went to another panel, made some adjustments. “That should be attuned properly now.”

“Hold on.” She thought. “Orphan, if you have a destination in mind, how long would it take from now until drop-off to get them there?”

“Hmm.” Orphan bent over his console. “Taking into account the need to recharge at one of my…reserves, I would say five and a half days. Perhaps slightly less. I assume that you would all remain with me to assist.”

“Yes, of course.” She looked over to Marc. “How much space would they need, at a minimum?”

“For most of a week? Well, I get the impression they can probably handle close quarters together better than a random set of humans. Give ’em two square meters apiece, that’s six hundred twenty-two square meters. Double it for space to move around in, sanitary facilities, so on, say twelve hundred fifty square meters.” He glanced at Orphan. “What’s the dimensions of your largest cargo bay?”

“One hundred twelve by forty-two by twenty-three meters,” Orphan answered promptly. “More than enough space. But it is not terribly secure.”

“I wasn’t thinking of just using the bay,” Marc said, grinning. “Look. Sethrik, you know the layout of
Thilomon
. Is there a place we could gather everyone together that would have enough space, and maybe sanitary facilities that’d work for a week for that many people?”

Sethrik stared at him, and then suddenly gave a buzzing laugh as he understood. “You mean to carve out that part of
Thilomon
as a sort of cargo container and prison. Yes, I believe so. The troop quarters in the central section—they will be somewhat crowded in there, but if you take a three floor section…yes, that would fit in the cargo bay and provide everything they need. If you are careful, you could even give them a low-power connection to keep vital systems working.”

“Power engineering’s my speciality. I’m sure we could.” He grinned at Ariane. “I think we’ve got your solution—if they’ll go for it.”

“Then let’s find out.” Ariane nodded to Orphan to activate the transmitter. “
Thilomon
, this is Captain Ariane Austin of Humanity. Please respond.”

A few moments later the screen lit with a dim but recognizable image of an injured Blessed. “This is Acting-Guidemaster Hancray. Speak.”

“Hancray? Good, I’m glad Wu Kung’s entrance didn’t kill you,” she said, smiling. Then her face went grimly serious, and DuQuesne saw how she drew herself up.
By God, I think she’s finally getting it.
“Guidemaster Hancray, I trust you understand your position. Your entire fleet has been wiped out, nothing but wreckage to be found. My bodyguard, whom you thought killed, has been much more merciful with you; a large proportion of your crew are still alive.

“Given the circumstances, I have every reason to wish no word of this to ever reach the Minds. They will realize their brilliant strategem failed utterly, but will learn nothing at all beyond that. The simplest way to assure that this happens is to finish what we began: wipe you out. I also trust you realize that even damaged as she is,
Zounin-Ginjou
can effectively
vaporize
your ship.”

“I do. What is your counterproposal? You would not bother to call had you nothing else to offer.” Despite his direct manner, DuQuesne could read his body language. Hancray was afraid.
Junior officer, helmsman or something, suddenly in command of a derelict vessel. He watched it all come apart and almost got killed, and now he’s facing Ariane all by himself.

“I would very much rather
not
kill you,” she said. “So here’s the proposal. All of you will retreat to the troop quarters in the central section of
Thilomon
. That section—three levels of it—will be removed and brought into
Zounin-Ginjou
. We will then transport you to an Upper Sphere location where you can survive and leave you there.”

“Death or permanent exile, then.”

“In her position,” DuQuesne interjected, “what would
you
be offering? I think she’s being damn generous with you.”

Hancray was silent a moment. “I…must confer with my people.”

“I’m giving you exactly five minutes. The longer we wait, the more danger I’m exposing us to. Confer quickly.”

Orphan looked at her as she cut the transmission. “And if they delay…?”