“I do not anticipate the situation will be improving in the near future, Marcus.” She took a deep breath. They were only rumors, but with everything else that had happened, her heart told her they were true. “A fleet has been dispatched by the Council. They are coming here to remove you.”
That brought him up short. His head whipped up. “What?”
Iphini Bha sank into one of the seats by the long table. Her eyes were lowered, staring at the floor, her shoulders slumped. She held her ancient stylus loosely in limp fingers.
Angara looked back at Marcus. “It must be Taurani, but it no longer matters. If they have truly dispatched a fleet, they must feel that combining the symbolism of Penumbra with a Human administrator poses too much of a threat to their authority.” She tried to give him a smile, but it would not come. “You are a victim of your success, Marcus. If you had just stayed quietly in this office until we could replace you, they would probably have not felt the need.”
Marcus shook his head. “I don’t understand. What do they hope to accomplish? Are they going to attack us? Are they going to destroy the city?”
Iphini shook her head, her eyes still locked on the floor. “They could never approach the city with its defenses active. But no one will follow you with a Council fleet hanging over their heads, Marcus Wells. By their very presence, they will freeze your initiatives.” She looked up, and her eyes seemed strange, flat and dead. “Your work here is done.”
“What about all of those ancient treaties and agreements that kept them at bay?” His words dripped sarcasm, but with an edge of desperation as well. He was shaking his head, looking from her to Bha and back again. “Don’t they have to honor their own pacts?”
“No Human had ever set foot within the halls of Penumbra, Marcus.” She needed him to understand before he did something drastic and endangered them all. “Having a Human sitting on the command throne of the city was obviously too much.”
The door buzzed and opened, and Justin Shaw swept in. He was still wearing his Mnymian disguise, his fashionable clothing impeccable. “They’ve sent a damn fleet after us?”
She should have known that if her network had picked up the whispers, Justin would not be far behind.
She nodded. “I believe a fairly large armada will arrive within the next few days, with the intention of ‘protecting’ subjects of the Council from the Human who has seized control here.” She shrugged. “It is a time-honored script they have used in the past. In some ways, we may have provided them with just the excuse they needed to come in and end Penumbran independence.”
“What kind of fleet is it?” He looked at Iphini, then back to Angara. “I thought the Council was some kind of civilian coalition government. They have their own fleet?”
She nodded. “Their silk glove is very fine, but the Council has ruled with the iron fist that hid within for over ages. Do you think they forced K’hzan Modath from his position as king of the Variyar with parliamentary tricks and harsh words?”
Justin looked blankly at her for a moment, and then turned to Marcus. “What are you going to do? Are you okay?”
Marcus smiled bleakly. “What am I going to do? What the hell can I do?” He shook his head and turned to Angara, his smile faltering. “What the hell can we do?”
She knew this moment was coming. She had mentioned it before, but she had seen how the Human processed information under stress. “The city has more than ample defenses to deal with a standard-sized fleet incursion. There have been efforts in the past to force compliance and annexation, and Penumbra has always responded with sufficient force to quell the attempts.”
“She defends herself.” Iphini Bha said. She was now staring at Marcus’s chest, and Angara agreed, pointing to the Skorahn.
“So long as the amulet is possessed by a bonded administrator, the systems of the Relic Core will engage any enemy foolish enough to approach us.” She swallowed, not wanting to voice her true fears. But there was nothing else to say, and Marcus needed to know how dire she feared their situation truly was. “I do not think Taurani would have moved against us if he did not believe he had sufficient force to carry out his will.”
Marcus and Justin looked at each other. Fear showed clearly on the administrator’s face, while his Human friend, despite the milky lenses, looked more like he was trying to puzzle out the answer to a particularly difficult riddle.
“You think they’re going to attack?” Marcus seemed incredulous, but she could see what he was trying to say.
“I do not.” She nodded toward the quiet Iwa’Bantu deputy. “I agree with Iphini. The presence of a large Council fleet will create an environment of fear and oppression that will only serve to advance Taurani’s efforts in the city.”
Justin seemed to agree. “So, they’ll be here mainly to back up the Ambassador’s play. Most folks won’t want to draw their attention, and while everyone’s running for cover, Taurani will make his move with the forces he already has in the city.” His mouth twisted. “Whatever that’s going to be.”
“I want to see the defenses.” Marcus rose, moving around the desk. “You said they’ve been used in the past. How long ago, though? Do we know they even still work?”
Iphini Bha looked offended. “Penumbra takes care of itself. The automatic repair and maintenance of the city’s physical plant should be accepted as a given no matter how long ago the systems had been used.” She looked bitter, and Angara wondered exactly what was going through the girl’s mind. “It’s saved your life on more than one occasion.”
That did not seem to assuage Marcus’s concerns, however. “I want to see them with my own eyes. I want Angara to help me understand how they work, and what we can expect from them.”
“I need to find Warder Oo’Juto.” She looked away from Marcus, not wanting to watch her words hit home. “If we can convince the Aijian to take command before the fleet arrives, we may be able to persuade them to return to Council space. This new threat might convince him to submit.”
Justin looked skeptical, and Marcus shook his head. “If they’re ready to make their move, and they’re convinced the time is right to the point that they’ve planned a strong military response, I doubt they’re going to back down even if the dolphin’s floating over the throne when they show up.”
He looked to Iphini for support, and she shrugged. “I cannot know the Ambassador’s intentions. I do not believe they mean to destroy the city, however.”
Marcus moved toward the door. “Doesn’t matter.” The door flashed open at his approach and he turned to address them. “I want to look at these defenses, and have them explained to me. If I have to find them by myself, it’s probably going to take a while.”
Iphini Bha looked up with those strange, hollow eyes. “I know nothing about the workings of the weapon systems. You will need to bring one of the security officers, so they may as well lead you as well.”
Marcus looked behind him and surveyed the office, pointing out a large Leemuk leaning over another officer’s shoulder. “Agha-pa can take me. He must know all about that sort of thing, right?”
The chief of security looked up at hearing his name, his wide, grotesque dentition making it look as if he was grinning at some private joke, his tiny moist eyes questioning.
“Very well.” She moved out past him.
“I don’t think you should be leaving the control center, Marcus.” Angara put her hand up. “But if you insist, I want you to have more security if you’re going to be moving around the city.” She folded her arms over her chest. “Taurani is going to make another move soon, and when he realizes that his attempt at your apartments did not succeed, he will be working even harder.” She desperately wanted him to understand his current danger.
His smile was grim and wan, but at least he could summon one. “Nonsense. It’s the middle of the night. But I won’t say no to some extra company. Justin?”
The dark skinned man nodded grimly, and it seemed to her as if Marcus’s answer
ing smile was a little wider.
“And knowing the Thien’ha, they’ll probably show up at some point as well. After their work tonight, might be I trust them more than half of the sentients you’ve got on your staff.”
She had heard about the Thien’ha and their battle at Marcus’s rooms. It was very strange behavior for their kind, but things were coming to a head, and she was going to have to trust someone eventually. Truly, if Angara could not be there for the administrator, there were few beings she would rather stand in for her than a roused Thien’ha. They seldom took a direct hand in events, but when backed into a corner, their response was usually definitive.
“No!” Iphini’s objection caught them all off guard, and Angara whirled to stare at her questioningly. The girl shrank back, almost as if she had surprised herself. She shook her head almost convulsively, raising one hand as if to ward them all off. “Fine. Deal with the Thien’ha if you feel you must. I do not trust them.”
There were many who did not trust the strange mystics. The silent, mysterious observers had watched too many horrific moments in galactic history without raising a finger to assist the victims for most sentients’ taste. Angara assumed there must have been some on Iphini’s homeworld when the Humans had attacked.
Still, her reaction struck a false note that stuck with Angara for a long time after Marcus, Justin, and the Leemuk officer left to tour the defensive batteries of the city.
*****
“We may as well begin with the defenses of the Red Tower.” Agha-pa’s voice was rough and raspy as he waddled ahead of Marcus away from the control center toward the old ship’s prow. “The city’s system basically ties all of the point defense weaponry of the towers together into a single network. Enough of the original ships that make up the city were either military in origin or had rudimentary defenses, that it presents a formidable array of weaponry to attackers, no matter what their orientation.”
Marcus nodded as he skip-stepped to keep up. “What about an attack from beneath? There weren’t as many towers oriented toward the planet.” In truth, he had been in awe of the massive city as they approached, and barely remembered what it looked like. But he was fairly sure there were fewer towers along Penumbra’s underside.
The Leemuk shrugged, an interesting phenomenon to view from behind, as the creature had no neck to speak of. “There are energy sinks scattered throughout the more sparsely-occupied sections of the Relic Core’s surface. We have records of them performing the roles of both close-in defenses and offensive emitter arrays in times of attack.”
“Records, because the city hasn’t been attacked in living memory?” Marcus was still trying to come to grips with the scale of time they were dealing with. It seemed like everything he heard about had happened thousands of years ago, except that no one here measured time in Earth years, of course, and so he had a hard time keeping track of the relative scope of galactic history.
“That is correct.” Agha-pa stopped beside a lift tube. “We can head to the top of the Tower. There are several batteries that cover this quadrant of the city’s skyline spread across what was once the dorsal surface of the old Variyar warship, but most are concentrated toward the bow, which is now the top of the Tower, of course.”
Marcus truly believed he would never get used to traveling within the lift tubes of Penumbra, even if the aliens let him live here for the rest of his life. The disorienting rush of air, the blur of the tube’s walls rushing by, and the flattening of any sounds within all combined to make him feel as if he was getting pushed through some sewer pipe at high speeds.
The tube deposited them in a small chamber that seemed stark even by the standards of the Red Tower. Something about the room made him feel that it had been abandoned for longer than he wanted to think. The three of them moved out into the small room, the air of abandonment clearly affecting each of them. Agha-pa reached out to unlock the door before them when it popped with an audible click at Marcus’s approach. The Leemuk turned to look at him, the two moist eyes questioning. Then his gaze fell to the glowing medallion, and the little eyes widened as wide as they were able within their tight, glistening sockets.
“Thank you.” The security chief muttered, turning back to the door. A noise in the shadows behind them brought him whirling about, cursing that in the rush and confusion he had still not acquired a weapon. Justin’s hand plunged into a deep pocket in his tunic, scanning the shadows for threats. Marcus reached out behind him for Agha-pa, thinking that the security chief had to have some kind of weapon about him, when he saw the two figures emerging from the shadows.
Visions of Copic Fa’Orin’s dead body, his son draped across his still form, flashed through his mind. He thought he caught the distinct stench of Ntja on the stale air of the abandoned chamber. He crouched down, his hands low as he turned, every intention of taking one of the big bastards with him before he died.
He was not ashamed of his audible sigh of relief as he recognized the short figure in the white robes stepping into the light, a taller figure in black striding along beside it. The little master pushed back his hood to reveal his grinning muzzle and gleaming red eyes. Marcus noticed that his apprentice did not push her own cowl back, but stared at him balefully from within its shadows. He took a suspicious sniff of the air and sensed only the stale, recycled atmosphere of the Tower’s empty service regions.
Marcus smiled, some of the tension draining from his back and shoulders as he saw them. “Thank God.” It was strange, deriving this much comfort from two beings who had been enigmatic strangers to him only hours before, but he could not deny it. The smile turned wry as he realized that, until that night, he hadn’t even known their names. Khet Nhan, the little master, had come to Penumbra in search of some vague truth he refused to explain, while the novice, Sihn Ve’Yan, had followed her former master out of a sense of obligation that he sensed, from their limited contact, she was now regretting.
He looked for the fascinating staff weapon Nhan had wielded against the Ntja, and his eyes narrowed as he realized the little creature’s hands were empty. “Where’s the …” He waved his hands about, trying to convey the blurring, transforming shape of the weapon. “Where’s your staff … thing …?”
Khet Nhan’s smile widened and he rubbed his paw-hands together in childlike glee, and then tapped at something hanging from his belt. It was a metal rod, made from the same material as the staff, hanging from an elaborately woven sheath.
“Never fear, Marcus Wells.” The master’s voice was much deeper than Marcus had at first expected, given the furry little creatures diminutive stature. “The nano-staff is never far from my hands.”
Agha-pa stared at the rod in wonder, but shook it off and turned back to the door. “We should continue, before word of our objective reaches unfriendly ears.”
Khet Nhan nodded and gestured for them to continue. Marcus and the big Leemuk moved through the door. Justin stared at the smaller alien, his white eyes wide, and the Thien’ha nodded amiably as he passed on through the door, followed by the surly apprentice.
The standard, rosy-tinged lighting of the Red Tower gave way to dim shadow as they moved forward. The narrow corridor was a challenge for the Leemuk, who had to sidle sideways whenever a bundle of pipes or cables narrowed the passage. An uncomfortable crawling sensation began to work its way up Marcus’s back as they moved deeper into the shadows, with the bulk of the Leemuk ahead of him and the soft sounds of the mystics following up behind. He found himself wishing that Justin had entered at his side.
Eventually, the corridor opened out into a large work area, with a series of viewing field recesses lining a far wall. Each was dark, deactivated, but paired with a work station below it. Several lights blinked in what he assumed was some kind of standby pattern at each station.
But as Marcus approached, they each winked to life, the viewing fields filling with roiling clouds and then settling to show images from the outer hull of the Tower. He saw low, sleek shapes nestled
into armored recesses, several visible within each field. As he focused on a work station he saw the colors of the various lights and telltales winking from a confusing pattern of colors and shapes into a steadily gleaming row of green indicators. His feelings of growing claustrophobia lurched into the foreground of his thoughts as he realized that somehow, the room was reading his mind, transforming itself into a legible pattern.
Agha-pa’s little eyes drew together in what must have been a confused expression as the stations reconfigured themselves. He couldn’t be certain, but he felt that Khet Nhan and Sihn Ve’yan were looking at him strangely as well.
“How do we get them to work?” Marcus wondered out loud, his eyes locked on the nearest viewing field with an anticipatory smile.
As he watched, one of the sleek shapes in the image rose out of its covert and began to pivot back and forth, snouts extending out of the metal as if the thing was searching for some hostile prey. He wanted to laugh, as he felt in control of something for the first time in days.
He narrowed his eyes, focused his thoughts, and the rest of the shapes rose as well, all of them pirouetting around, scanning the skies above the Tower. He could see other towers around them, none reaching quite the height of the Red Tower. From up here they more resembled the ships they had been in antiquity rather than the repurposed structures of their current lives. As he focused on one of the distant shapes, the vision field obliged by bringing it leaping into closer view.
He saw gleaming metallic domes dotting the bow of the new tower. As he concentrated, small rings flashed into being around each protrusion, with data streaming beside each. Somehow, through the uncomfortable buzzing just beneath his ear, he knew they were energy projectors, capable of spitting out a hail of nearly-solid light to break up incoming ordnance in their slice of the sky.
He turned back from the viewing field. “So, what happens where the towers weren’t first warships, or lacked defenses?”
Legacy of Shadow Page 28
