The Evolutionary Void (63 page)

“And he wanted you and Ozzie to team up?” Oscar queried.

“Yes. Um, he was also worried about the Ilanthe-thing and what it is now.
Even the Silfen are concerned about that, as much as they are about anything.”

“Nobody knows much about Ilanthe,” Oscar said. “So let’s concentrate on
what we can achieve.” He opened a secure link to Paula.

“Take her to Ozzie,” Paula said as soon as he’d finished explaining.

“Really?”

“Bradley is right. The Dreamer and Ozzie together would make a formidable
combination.”

“All right, then.”

“And … Araminta really met Bradley?”

“Yeah, so she says. Something, huh?”

“Indeed.”

“So where’s Ozzie these days?”

“The Spike.”

“No shit, Paula. That’s seven thousand light-years away.”

“I know. But face it, what else have we got? We’re that desperate now.”

“Okay.” The
Elvin’s Payback
had finished its
initial acceleration. It was curving into a wide elliptical orbit above Viotia.
Oscar grinned at Araminta-two. “Ozzie’s in the Spike. It’ll take five days to
get there.”

“Then let’s go.”

“Great.” He gave a relieved smile.

“A word of caution,” Paula said, which brought Oscar back down fast.

“Yeah?”

“I believe someone called Aaron has possibly taken Inigo to the Spike for
exactly the same reason you’re going, to link up with Ozzie.”

“Oh, crap.” He glanced around to see the team members all giving him a
vaguely accusatory stare. “Inigo? They found Inigo?”

“Yes. Which I’m hoping is good. If you can bring together the First and
Second Dreamers along with Ozzie, that may really give us the kind of edge
we’re going to need to—”

“Take out the Void? Blow up the Pilgrimage fleet? Eliminate Ilanthe?”

“I’d settle for any one of those right now.”

“So who is this Aaron character, and who is he working for?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know. But logically he belongs to a faction inimical
to Pilgrimage. And be careful. He can be very trigger-happy, and he’s known to
be somewhat aggressive with it. Your team should be able to protect Araminta
from him if he turns hostile.”

“Okay. What about you, Paula? What are you doing?”

“Working on a couple of leads, as always.”

Feeling slightly let down by her reply, Oscar ordered the smartcore to go
FTL and take them to the Spike. Then he and the others started questioning
Araminta-two in earnest.

“What will you do now?” the SI asked Troblum as the
Mellanie’s
Redemption
tracked Oscar’s starship going FTL. It suddenly vanished from
his exovision. None of the sensors could track it when it was stealthed.

“I don’t know,” he said unsteadily. The conversation between Oscar and
Paula that the SI had intercepted had left him badly shaken. Both Dreamers and
Ozzie coming together to solve the problem was cause for some tentative hope.
“I can’t make a difference.”

“You know more about the Sol barrier than any other individual. They
might need that.”

“I don’t know.” It was too big, too much, and getting horribly personal
again. But it was a huge unexpected relief to solve the Araminta puzzle. She
hadn’t betrayed anyone; she was doing what she could.
And …
Araminta, Inigo, Oscar, and Ozzie together. That’s going to be history
.

Catriona came over and sat on his lap. She was wearing a thin lacy top
and tight jeans. The feel of her resting there, human scent and musky perfume,
her perfect form centimeters from his eyes. It was comforting somehow.

“We should go,” she told him softly.

“Yes.” Even that made him feel good.

Sensors showed Paula the
Elvin’s Payback
flashing into hyperspace and activating its stealth. She could track it of
course, though few other ships in the galaxy could.

After a minute, the ship hanging in suspension a hundred thousand
kilometers above Viotia also pushed back fully into hyperspace and followed
Oscar at ultradrive speed. Its stealth wasn’t as good as that of the ANA ship,
but its drive seemed more than capable, and the real giveaway was the mass,
which was identical to that of the
Mellanie’s Redemption
,
which Paula had last seen departing Sholapur at their hyperdrive speed.

“And then there was one,” Paula muttered.

The remaining stealthed ship started to move. Its drive signature was one
the
Alexis Denken
was also familiar with from
Sholapur, as was the much superior stealth effect. Paula ordered the smartcore
to follow the other three starships to the Spike, then opened a secure link to
the
High Angel
.

“Hello, Paula,” Qatux said.

“So you can’t break through the Sol barrier?”

“No. Our trip here was largely symbolic, a statement of Raiel support for
the rest of the Commonwealth.”

“I don’t expect empty political gestures from you.”

“If there is any way we can influence the Living Dream from their
Pilgrimage, we are obliged to enact it.”

“They’ve just launched.”

“I know. Paula, if you would like to come with us when this galaxy falls,
I will be happy to take you.”

“I know the purpose of the
High Angel
is
supposed to be to save life from this galaxy, but something is happening,
Qatux, something my instinct tells me is crucial. So I’m going to need a favor.
A very big favor.”

The lake measured over ten kilometers across, its shoreline made up of
attractive sweeping coves. Two-thirds of the surrounding land was smothered by
a thick wild forest, with vegetation scrambling down over the stones that lined
the rippling water. The remaining third was an alien city whose globes and
spikes dominated the skyline. Deserted for millennia, its iron structures were
a similar construction to those of Octoron’s little human township. But this
metropolis was put together on a much grander scale, perhaps a little too
imposing. Humans living in the chamber had never attempted to settle there.

Ozzie’s old capsule skimmed above the thin towers and dropped down toward
the huge semicircular harbor bay on the other side. There were several small
islands dotted across the water. They were heading for the largest, which had a
wide sandy beach guarded by rocky prominences on either side. Behind the beach
itself the land was a cluster of long dunes before the ground started to slope
up into the island’s central mountain. A simple whitewashed stone house stood
alone, poised between the dunes and the forested slope. It was surrounded on
three sides by a veranda that had a leafy canopy of thick vines draped over an
ancient, sagging wooden frame. Tall sash windows had wooden shutters on the
outside, giving the place the appearance of a farmhouse in rural Provence.

The capsule touched down in front of the solitary building. Aaron scanned
it briefly. Another human was lurking behind the wide slatted doors that opened
from the lounge to the veranda decking. She had biononics, but they weren’t
weapons-configured. There were some additional enrichments that he didn’t
recognize, but their low power usage argued against their posing any kind of
threat. The house itself had a few technological items: a culinary unit, a
medical capsule, two very sophisticated replicators, a fleet of old-fashioned
maidbots, and five smartcores larger than he’d encountered before. In short,
the perfect retreat for someone like Ozzie.

“Okay, we can go out,” Aaron said.

Ozzie gave him a long look. “You sure?”

“Yes.”

“Well, okay, but be careful of the mutant squids in the lake.”

“I appreciate that this intrusion is unwelcome; we’ll be gone as soon as
we can.” Though Aaron couldn’t be sure of that. Ideas were starting to form in
the back of his mind in anticipation of Inigo regaining consciousness. He gave
the sleeping messiah a quick look. It wouldn’t be long before he was awake.

“And remember never to leave the house at night,” Ozzie said with an
innocent tone that nonetheless mocked.

“Why?”

“Vampires.”

Aaron bit back on his response. He wasn’t quite sure how much of Ozzie’s
attitude was driven by irritation at having his hermit life violated. If it was
genuine, things might get unpleasant. Aaron hoped not.

Ozzie walked out of the capsule, leaving Aaron to deal with the two
unconscious people sprawled on the curving leather couch at the back of the
passenger section. “Greatly done,” he muttered, and picked Inigo up, fumbling
him into a traditional fireman’s lift. For a long moment he was tempted to
shoot another sedative (or ten) into Corrie-Lyn, but Inigo wouldn’t be happy
about that. Having two bolshie living legends with overblown egos pissed with
him would be a definite disadvantage.

Aaron carried Inigo over the dunes and up the gray wooden steps to the
veranda. He dumped the inert body onto a sunlounger and went back for
Corrie-Lyn.

Ozzie was nowhere to be seen by the time he got back to the veranda. A
quick low-level field scan showed him upstairs in the house’s biggest bedroom
with the woman. Aaron abruptly canceled the scan, trying to quash his feeling
of dismay at Ozzie’s attitude and behavior. He hadn’t expected quite this much
irrational stubbornness.

Inigo groaned and stirred. His biononics assisted a quick rise to full
awareness. He sat up and looked around the shaded veranda, then took a moment
to stare at the vista of the ancient alien city facing him across the bay.

“We made it, then?”

“We made it.”

Inigo gazed over at Corrie-Lyn on the next sunlounger. “How is she?”

“Stable. She should wake up in half an hour or so. Your biononics give
you an advantage.”

Inigo nodded slowly. “You kept your word. Thank you.”

“I know she hates me, but truly, I’m not one of the bad guys. I just have
a job to do.”

“Indeed.” Inigo started flexing his limbs, grimacing at the
chemical-induced stiffness. “What do you do for fun?”

“I don’t.”

Inigo gave the city another look. “That looks deserted.”

“It is. Ozzie has fully embraced his whole living recluse legend.”

“Great Lady, you actually found him?”

“Yes.”

Inigo peered around, unable to contain his excitement. “So where is he?”

Aaron held up a finger for silence. On cue a woman’s rhythmic groans
could be heard from the open bedroom window.

“Ah,” Inigo muttered. “What’s he like?”

“Not pleased to see me and especially not you.”

“Yeah. We never did hit it off.” He stood up cautiously and went over to
Corrie-Lyn. His field scan ran a fast check. “So what’s the plan?”

“I’ll tell you when Ozzie comes down.”

“Whatever.” Inigo wandered into the house and found the kitchen. After a
burst of enthusiastic compliments at discovering the culinary unit sitting amid
all the historic cooking appliances, he started issuing it a complicated list.
Several maidbots followed him back out to the veranda, carrying contemporary
dishes: meal for two.

Corrie-Lyn finally shook off the sedative amid a flurry of cursing and
groans. After a moment hugging a relieved Inigo, she shot Aaron a vicious
glare. “Bastard.”

“We’re alive. The Chikoya can’t locate us. And I’ve found Ozzie.”

“So where is he?”

“I’m sure he’ll join us soon.”

“He’s not happy about this,” Inigo explained.

“Tell him to get in line.” But she relented when Inigo led her over to
the table where the maidbots had laid out the meal. “Oh, wow, real food.” She
hesitated.

“It’s genuine,” Inigo reassured her.

She grinned her gratitude and started wolfing down the keanfish starter,
dipping the tassels into a plum and rador sauce. Aaron went into the kitchen
and ordered his own meal from the culinary unit, eating it alone on the
scrubbed pine table.

An hour later Ozzie still hadn’t come down. It was pushing the screw-you
point a little far, Aaron decided. Inigo and Corrie-Lyn were chatting happily
on the veranda, holding hands at the table like a couple on a first date as
they finished their second bottle of wine. All the scene lacked was candles and
twilight. The chamber’s light hadn’t varied since they’d arrived.

Aaron went upstairs and knocked politely on the bedroom door. There was
no answer. Ozzie was being deliberately difficult, which was understandable but
unacceptable. He went into the room. It was dark inside, with the big wooden
shutters closed and the slats down. Ozzie and the woman were cuddled up on the
bed. The woman was sleeping. Colorful patterns on her space-black body glowed
in phosphorescent hues, shifting slowly in time with her breathing. Aaron
hesitated at that. They reminded him of OCtattoos, a technology from so long
ago that he didn’t even understand where the memory had come from.

Ozzie raised his head and peered at Aaron. “What, dude?”

“Quicker we start, the quicker it’s over.”

“This is the middle of the night, you moron.”