Voyage of the Sanguine Shadow 1: Shadow Galactic (13 page)

D’Arro grimly added, “Same thing could happen for
harboring Gavin.”  He wore a dreadful smile.  “Plus, I don’t think that was any
Union starship.  Didn’t have the right look.”

Zerki exhaled through puffed cheeks.  “Yeah,
you’re probably right.”  She stared off a moment, listening to the sounds of
the rain driving down upon the buggy’s heavy steel roof.  The storm grew
louder, more intense.  “I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“Don’t worry about it?” Takeo asked rhetorically. 
“Captain, you need to send that footage up the chain!  At best, they already
know about it.  At worst, it’s First Contact with a very hostile species.  They
need to be made aware.”

“Your opinion has been noted,” she replied.

“Captain!”

With a furious expression, Zerki barked, “It’s my
call to make!  You don’t like it, feel free to take your leave right here!” 
Clenching her teeth, she muttered, “I’ve already gotten more than I bargained
for.”  Her lips pressed thin, she glared fixedly at him.

Taryn vowed, “If he goes, I go.”

Gavin abruptly halted the buggy, and it slid
slightly forward along the slick byway.

Before he could pitch in, Valerie urged,
“Everybody, calm down, just calm down.  Please!  We’re all a little on edge.” 
She leaned forward.  “And rightly so.  Look, no one knows anything about that
starship, other than what we saw.  It had more firepower than either the Union
or the Empire could bring to a fight.”  Drawing a deep breath, she continued,
“I sensed a crew of hundreds of thousands, maybe half a million, but all their
thoughts were… hollow.  Only way I can think to describe it.  There wasn’t even
background noise.”  She leaned back against the bench.  “Whatever they were,
I’ve never encountered them before.”

“Well, that’s… terrifying,” Zerki replied.

Valerie nodded.  “Probably.”

Takeo composed himself.  “Captain, I respect that
it’s your decision to make.  I have said my piece and will trust you to do what
you feel is right.”

Zerki narrowed her eyes at Valerie.  “You could’ve
kept the details to yourself, you know,” and she sighed.  Her gaze drifted to
Takeo and Gavin, each in turn.  “I’ll send the recording up the chain. 
Besides, I can’t possibly get in any more trouble than I’m already in, thanks
to you.”  She steeply nodded.  “If you please, Mr. Santiago.”

Gavin smiled slightly and urged the buggy onward. 
“Aye, aye, Captain.”

In time, they neared the grand estate’s gated
parking garage.  Two black-clad ghalloom soldiers interposed, and a third
approached from outside their field of vision.  He tapped loudly on the port hatchway
with the tip of his rifle.  Zerki opened the hatch and peered out.  “You can
use the garage to turn around,” he said.  “Then you have to leave.  The
Glorious and Unfeeling Gilrenk, haute-Iff’lar isn’t seeing anyone tonight.”

Zerki regarded him flatly.  “He’s expecting me.”

The ghalloom narrowed his glassy eyes.  “Wait… How
did you get past the gate?”

She crossed her arms.  “I told you he was
expecting me.”

He conferred with his fellow guards and jogged
over to a booth, where he picked up a phone.  A moment later, he nodded and
hung up.  With a conciliatory smile, he returned to the buggy and asked, “Are
you Captain Zerki Ibarra of the
Sanguine Shadow
?”

“I am.”

“Please accept my apologies.”  He bowed deeply. 
“Right through there,” he concluded, indicating a vast garage.  The gates
rolled slowly away on their tracks, and Gavin drove forward.  With the rain
behind them, now under the cover of the grand parking structure, the inside of
the buggy fell deafeningly silent.

Taryn dug at her ears, trying in vain to pop
them.  “Ah, they’re ringing!”

Takeo gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

“Everyone ready?” Zerki asked, and her companions
assured her they were.  They disembarked the swamp buggy and fell in behind
their captain.  She led them up a set of marble stairs to an ornately decorated
and brightly colored glass door.  It slid aside at their approach, and they
crossed Gilrenk’s foyer, where they stepped into his ballroom.  It was quite
chilly inside.

Near the corners of the enormous hall,
coral-relief pillars hoisted an arched ceiling.  Above them, at the center of
the chamber, a vast maritime compass had been painted in rings of cyan and golden
light.  A wide circular frame contained it, and its outer edges glowed softly
of rich blue.  Polished tile was spread beneath their feet, a stone painting of
sunset waves circumscribed about a mosaic of rudder wheels, sails and booms.

Placed inside the ring of pillars, spaced evenly
around the room, leafy glass trees reached for the ceiling.  From softly
luminescent orange crowns at the top of each, water splashed down along flared,
sky blue and glowing trunks.  Outlining the room, curved aquariums served as
walls, interrupted here and there by sets of lavishly decorated glass doors.  A
sweeping set of stairs offered passage to the upper floors, rising up from the
floor at the far end.

From one of the central doors, a blue, magnetically
levitating throne emerged, bearing a haggard, shriveled ghalloom.  It glided
halfway across the room to hover in wait, while dozens of guards marched into
view from the throne’s point of origin.  They split into two groups and took
position on either side, where they promptly stood at attention.

“A pleasure to meet you, Captain Zerki Ibarra,” the
withered ghalloom rasped.  “Please, please come closer.  My eyes aren’t what
they used to be.”

Zerki led her companions across the decorated
floor and bowed her head when she had drawn close.  “Gilrenk, haute-Iff’lar?”

The wizened ghalloom snarled more than smiled.  “For
much longer than I care to be!”  He coughed loudly, a death rattle, and when
the fit had passed, he collected his wits.  “I hear you have six bins full of
good steel, good crystal?”  His question trailed off into a wheeze, and one eye
squinted as he tilted his head.  He cut off her reply with, “Never mind.  My
inspectors will tell me if it’s worth buying.  Of course you think it’s good,
or you wouldn’t be here.”  His face twisted into a fascinated rictus.  “Why
ever did you take the beach ramp?  It was meant for hikers and bicycles, not cars.”

“It seemed the least conspicuous point of entry,”
Zerki replied.

Gilrenk stared at her, studied her long enough for
Zerki to feel uncomfortable.  At last, he said, “That’s not entirely true, but
I won’t pry.  You’re here, and I won’t waste your time.”  He tapped something
on his throne, waited a moment, and hunched forward.  “Your discretion is to be
applauded, but when you leave, please do so through the front gate.”

“Thank you,” said Zerki.

With a tortured nod, Gilrenk decided, “I like
you.  I’ve directed my inspectors to rendezvous with your
Sanguine Shadow
. 
In the meantime, let’s you and I discuss business.  The rest of you are welcome
to look around while we wait for the report.”  He tapped a screen mounted to
his throne, and a brooding cello sonata quietly played, gently filling the
hall.  “It may take some time.”

Zerki approached the wizened ghalloom and stood at
his side.  They reviewed matters of payment, and her companions spread out,
taking in Gilrenk’s marvels.  D’Arro stood before one of the glass trees, and
he reached out, letting the water splash over his fingers.  Wearing a contented
smile, he gazed up at its saffron crown and did not seem to mind when Taryn
approached.  Wearing a curious smile, she too slipped her fingertips into the cascade.

Takeo spent his time surveying the pillars and the
decorated floor, while Gavin and Valerie got lost in the many tanks filled with
exotic sea life.  He brightened when he spotted a living maroon clownfish and
pointed it out.  Eagerly, he shared with her all the trivia he knew about ocean
fish, corals, sea stars and anemones.

Valerie slipped her arm around his elbow and
leaned in close from the side.  She rested her head against his, bringing an
abrupt pause to his dialogue.  “I’m cold,” she whispered, and she shivered a
bit, hugging his arm tightly.

Gavin brightened, nodded, and hugged her as
tightly in return.  “I’d offer my jacket, but I think it’s too small for you.”

She smiled and shook her head, more to dislodge
the hair from her eyes.  “This is fine.”

Glowing from within, he cleared his throat and
quietly said, “Does any of this stuff actually interest you?”

“Kind of,” she admitted, “but I like hearing you
talk.  You have a nice voice.”

Gavin blushed, and his voice cracked slightly as
he said, “Thanks.”  Again, he cleared his throat, more pointedly this time. 
With his free hand, he gestured to the tank before them and said, “That thing
popping up out of its tube is called a feather duster.  It’s actually a kind of
worm, and it uses its fronds to filter feed.”  Each tank was home to at least
one thing he knew a lot about, and he still had plenty left to share when the
inspector’s report came back.

Zerki called them over, and her companions
gathered near the floating throne.  “It looks very good, very usable.  My crew
has been instructed to begin the transfer,” said Gilrenk, and he coughed
raggedly.  A greedy smile settled onto his face, and he twisted sidelong to
regard Zerki.  “I’ll pay you what we agreed upon, plus ten percent… for next
time.”

“Next time?” she asked.

Gilrenk managed to nod.  “And every time you’ve
got salvage to sell.  Your loyalty will be rewarded.  Every time.”  He waved
over one of his guards and whispered into his ear, prompting the guard to hurry
out of the room.  “He’ll be back with your payment, my good captain.”

“Thank you.  That’s very generous.”

“Generous, nothing.”  He straightened somewhat. 
“It’s an investment.”

Zerki nodded and smiled somewhat.  “An investment,
then.”

They waited awhile for the guard to return.  When
he stepped back into the room, he was carrying a ridged, metal briefcase. 
Gilrenk waved him over, and the guard approached, setting the heavy container
down at the foot of the throne.  “I’ll see you again, I expect,” Gilrenk
stated.  “Soon, I hope.”  Zerki hefted the case, and the wizened ghalloom
turned his throne around, gliding back toward the door he had emerged from. 
His many guards formed up in two columns, following slowly in his wake.  “Let
yourselves out,” and he was gone.

“Wow, this thing is heavy,” Zerki muttered as she
lifted the briefcase.

Taryn leaned in and giddily asked, “How much is in
there?”

Zerki shook her head.  With a contained grin, she
whispered, “Enough for everyone to do their Christmas shopping on Varuna.”  She
winked, and without further ado, led her companions back across the frosty
chamber, through the foyer, to the marble stairs that led down into the garage.

They boarded the buggy, and Gavin started the
engine.  Its rumble echoed through the vast parking structure.  He revved it a
couple times, setting off dozens of car alarms in the process.  He laughed to
himself, and Zerki regarded him with a maternal frown.  “Really?”

Still smiling as a chorus of deactivation chirps
rang out, he said, “Sorry.”

Facing forward, Zerki allowed a smile of her own
as she settled in.

Gavin drove along aisles of prized sports cars,
past a half-dozen sky cars, to the front gates.  They rolled aside as he got
close, and he idled the buggy out onto Gilrenk’s private drive, back into the
storm.  Curtains of willow trees parted as the buggy approached, and they fell
back into place as it passed.  Before long, they came to the main coastal
highway and accelerated out onto its pitted and crumbling surface.

·· • ··

Although travel was much swifter on the road than
it had been driving along the coast, it was nearly midnight before they had returned
to Kore.  Gavin drove the buggy to an open spot close to where they had first
met Thamsummu, and after gathering their belongings, he and his companions
disembarked.  The air outside was wet and bitter cold, and few of the locals
were out.  For a moment, Zerki considered staying another night, but D’Arro
glanced to the briefcase and cautioned her against it.  Reluctantly, she
agreed, and wearily, they all boarded the shuttle.

Environmental regulators engaged as Zerki ran
through her preflight checklist, and the air within soon warmed.  They settled
in, and Huya’s automated air traffic control system took over.  It guided them
safely away from Huya, out into the endless starry night.

They docked with the
Sanguine Shadow
directly.   As soon as they stepped onto the observation deck, Zerki and her
companions were greeted exuberantly by a host of hopeful shipmates.  She
assured them that things had gone very well and vowed to call an all-hands
meeting after she got some sleep.

D’Arro, Taryn, Takeo, Gavin and Valerie exchanged
good byes and good nights, and they made their way to their respective
quarters.  Gavin soon stood before his cabin door, but he paused.  Although
drained, nearing exhaustion, he realized he wasn’t quite ready for sleep.  He
shuffled to the observation deck, poured a cup of coffee, and sat down on one
of the couches to gaze out at the stars.

“Can’t sleep?”

Surprised, Gavin turned tired eyes to Valerie.  “Not
yet.  I’m still digesting.  Decompressing.  Mentally.”

“Good idea,” she said with a yawn, and she covered
her mouth, closed her eyes briefly and loosed a faint squeak at the end of it.

“What, mentally decompressing?”

Valerie shook her head, nodding toward his hands. 
“I meant the coffee.”

“Here,” he said with a chuckle, and he handed her
his cup.

She smiled graciously and took it.  “Aw, that was
nice of you!”  She sat down next to him, hunched over her knees as she enjoyed
the warmth it brought to her hands.  Steam rose from its surface, drifting up
along her chin and cheeks.  She closed her eyes and took in the rich scent of
it.  After a moment, she looked to him and asked, “You aren’t going to get some
more for yourself?”