“They come for revenge,” the old man said in a sad voice. “They come for you, Klane.”
Klane’s features hardened, and he thrust a hand into his secret place, withdrawing his black junction-stone.
“I made one air-car malfunction,” Klane said. “I can do it to four.”
“No. These are larger vehicles. Your TK will prove ineffectual against them. They wish to study you. But I can never allow that. It is too late to transfer. Yes, I’ve been a fool to wait this long.”
Women and children dropped their possessions and scattered in all directions. Several warriors ran toward the air-cars, challenging the demons. The other warriors bolted.
“We have no more time,” Klane said.
“This is a disaster,” the seeker said. “I should have transferred when I had the chance. But I wasn’t ready. It was my fault and I may have doomed humanity because of it.”
Klane hardly heard the old man. He psyched himself up for the effort of his life.
“I’m sorry, Klane,” the seeker said from behind him, putting a hand on his shoulder.
Klane heard something odd there. He turned, and took the full brunt of a club against his forehead. He toppled backward, striking the ground with the back of his head. Someone pried at his fingers.
The junction-stone! Klane tightened his fingers, but the stone was gone. Groggily, he turned over as the front of his head thudded. With watery eyes, he saw the seeker walking toward the descending sky vehicles.
“Here!” the seeker shouted, holding aloft Klane’s junction-stone. “I’m the one you want.”
As if the demons heard the old man’s words, dark clots blew out of the sky vehicles. The clots moved fast, expanding as they descended toward the seeker.
Klane tried to push up, but his arms failed him and he thudded back onto the ground.
One of the clots struck the seeker, and sticky strands wrapped around him. The demons had netted the old man, and he fell onto the sand.
Milky beams shot out of the sky vehicles, hitting several courageous warriors. They too toppled, with greasy smoke billowing from them. Afterward, blood poured from the death wounds.
“No,” Klane whispered. “No.”
A sky vehicle sank toward the bound seeker. Doors opened in the bottom of the floating vehicle. A claw reached down, clutching the old man and hauling him up into the great vehicle.
In horror, Klane watched the seeker disappear into the demons’ air-car. The bay doors closed, sealing the old man in the evil machine. The four sky vehicles lifted and headed back in the direction they had come.
He gave himself to the demons, Klane realized. They came for me, and they took him because he carried my junction-stone.
Tears leaked from Klane’s eyes. The demons had stolen his only friend in the world.
16
Cyrus wore a blue slick-suit in the tele-chamber. He was beside the cylinder with its blue solution. The shift crew was at their stations, and one nurse held the induction helmet while the other waited with the breathing mask.
The last two weeks had been difficult. Day and night, he’d kept up his mind shield. Three times, he’d felt Jasper attempt to break into his thoughts.
The first week he’d spent with the marines. The last week Jasper had confined him to his room. During the two weeks, Jasper had shifted three times, bringing them 6.3 light years closer to New Eden. They were 1.95 light years away now, practically knocking on the door in shifting terms, though years away in normal space.
Cyrus fit the induction helmet over his head. The inside was soft, with wireless connections linking him to AI Socrates and the outer tele-ring circling Discovery. The helmet was one of the most important parts of the shifting equipment.
Once it was properly secured, Cyrus accepted the breathing mask. The blue solution in the cylinder acted like a conductor and aided his linkage with the tele-ring.
The mask pressed against the skin of his face. Goggles slid over his eyes. Gingerly, Cyrus climbed up a short ladder and slid his right leg into the lengthwise cylinder. The gelatinous substance within was warm.
Taking a deep breath, Cyrus slid into the cylinder. It was difficult to peer through the blue solution. It was like looking through murky water. Even Wexx standing so near took on an indistinct, fuzzy shape.
He closed his eyes, and there came a buzz of noise. Disorientation struck and nausea flooded Cyrus. The nausea passed and his senses expanded exponentially. He felt the Teleship’s engines thrumming with life. The fusion power would soon be under his control.
Within the cylinder, Cyrus Gant grew rigid and he scrunched his brows tightly. Linked with AI Socrates and the tele-ring orbiting and spinning around Discovery, he reached out with his telekinetic ability.
It was an awesome feeling, godlike and surreal. The stars were motes of brilliance, heat that he could sense on his skin. New Eden… yes, the star blazed with nuclear energies. It poured out radiation and light. They seemed to come in waves or ripples as if a giant planet had been tossed into the sun like a pebble in a lake.
Cyrus concentrated with his heightened power. He took the fabric of existence, and he twisted, ripping out a portal, linking two locations into one. Cyrus grinned, sunning in the sensation, delighting in the use of his power as a young man might enjoy sprinting for a goal in fist ball. He exulted in doing, in feeling, in expending…
He felt a tickle of something alien. It brushed his mind. He “heard” murmuring, wondering, and then something reached for him and squeezed his thoughts.
“What—?” Cyrus had time for the single word. Then he was battling for his mind. With AI Socrates’s augmented power, he reached farther than it would have been humanly possible for him to do. It seemed as if these others, these aliens, attempted to spring a trap on his mind.
Cyrus blocked. He fended off the alien minds and began to shear away each link one after another. He sensed bafflement, surprise, and then rage. The entity or entities surged with strength against him. Cyrus imagined himself employing knife-fighting tactics, weaves, dodges, and he sheared off another link.
Discovery passed through the null portal and appeared eight tenths of a light year closer to New Eden.
The difference in location loosened the last alien links.
Cyrus withdrew his mind like a turtle into its shell. He pulled back from the tele-ring and from AI Socrates. He blocked everything non-him, and felt panic surge in his breast. Then his eyes flew open and he found himself floating in the blue solution. In that instant, Cyrus realized this is what had happened to Roxie and Venice. They must have sensed the same horror he’d felt and started immediately fighting.
Why is Jasper immune to the panic?
Cyrus!
Cyrus blocked against Jasper, shutting the voice from speaking in his head. He was weary, expended from shifting, but he would never allow the telepath into his mind again.
Composing himself, calming the panic, Cyrus pushed from the bottom of the cylinder and surfaced. He plucked off the induction helmet and tore the mask from his face, breathing the cool, canned air of Discovery. He squeezed his eyes shut several times as he took off the goggles. Then he saw First Sergeant Sergetov with two other marines standing near with stunner-rods poised.
“What’s wrong?” Cyrus asked in a rough voice.
Wexx aimed her sunglasses at him. She shifted her head and glanced at her medical panel. “He appears normal again,” she said.
“Is it a trick?” the first sergeant asked her.
“Hey, don’t you remember that we’re friends?” Cyrus asked the NCO.
The first sergeant watched him with cold eyes.
“Did I say something wrong?” Cyrus asked.
“I think he’s conditioned against you,” Wexx said.
Cyrus glanced at Wexx and then back at his friend. Was Jasper in league with the aliens? Had the man turned traitor against humanity? It was clear then what he had to do: kill Jasper or incapacitate him. The question was how.<
br />
The tele-chamber hatch opened and who should walk in but Jasper. “You’re coming with me for debriefing,” he told Cyrus. “Until then, you’re not to say a word to anyone.”
“Word,” Cyrus said.
“Do that again,” Jasper said, “and the marine will give you a touch of the stunner. Would you like that?”
Here was his chance: the debriefing. He needed to play along so Jasper dropped his guard. So Cyrus shook his head.
“Then hop down from there and come with me,” Jasper said. “I’m interested to hear your impressions.”
First Sergeant Mikhail Sergetov and one other marine stood by the hatch in the officer’s lounge. They wore protective coveralls with stunner-rods in their fists. Apparently, the lounge had become Jasper’s unofficial headquarters.
Cyrus slumped in a chair, exhausted but ready. Discovery was under one G deceleration and thus had pseudogravity.
Jasper sat at the end of the table near the hatch and the protecting marines. He leaned back in his chair with his feet propped up on the conference table. “I know you’re tired,” Jasper said. “And you’re going to sleep very deeply soon. But there are a few things I want to talk about with you first.”
Cyrus didn’t feel as tired as that, but leaned forward and put his arms on the table and his head on his arms. He shut his eyes as if he was going to go to sleep.
Jasper used one of his heels to knock against the table. “I told you sleep time was later. You’re going to answer some questions now.”
Cyrus opened his eyes, but kept his head on his arms.
“What are your impressions?” Jasper asked.
I don’t get this. The telepath turned traitor and he’s asking me for impressions. What am I missing here?
“My impressions about shifting?” Cyrus asked.
“There’s no need to be coy. These two aren’t going to remember anything about our talk. They’re here to forestall any foolishness on your part.”
“Do you control everyone here?”
“Let’s stick to the issue,” Jasper said.
“What? You don’t like me talking about control so they can hear it, huh?”
“You’re not as tired as you’re trying to appear.”
“You think so?”
Jasper took his feet off the table and sat up. “I’m talking about the aliens. What are your impressions of them?”
“Argon had it right. We should high tail it home and report this. Have the aliens taken over your mind? Is that what’s going on?”
“Me? You’re still in charge of your thoughts and you think they could take control of me? Don’t be absurd.”
“What are they?”
“That’s what I’m asking you. What were your impressions about them?”
Cyrus frowned. “Okay. There was more than one of them.”
“And?”
“They tried to trap me.”
Jasper nodded.
“I sheared away their holds, but I had to do it several times. That’s why I think there was more than one of them.”
“You used your regular block to do that?”
Cyrus nodded.
“I know you’re suspicious about me,” Jasper said. “But I want you to know I’ve been studying these aliens and they’ve been trying to study us. When she learned about them, Venice went crazy with fear. You were right about that. Roxie… I’m not sure what happened inside her head. I tried to help them both.”
“Why do you want to go to New Eden? You and I are free of the inhibitors. We got what we came for. Why risk more by going to these psi-able aliens?”
“There are several reasons,” Jasper said. “One of them is simple curiosity. I want to see what they are. There’s something about their minds that is very familiar.”
“Are you crazy? Are you saying these aliens have been to Earth?”
“Yes, I think they have,” Jasper said.
“When?”
“That’s something else I’d like to learn.”
“Why are you willing to put yourself in danger?” Cyrus asked.
“That’s the third reason. Look, what are the odds of two alien Teleships coming together in a star system? This system is two hundred and thirty light years from Sol. I think these aliens know about us, but we don’t know anything about them. It’s foolish to just cut and run. We have to use this opportunity to see who they are.”
“What if they capture our ship?”
Jasper shook his head. “We have a Teleship. If their ship is too powerful, we flee.”
“Why are they at New Eden?”
“Probably for the same reason we’re headed there,” Jasper said. “They want the two Earth-like planets. How many Earth-like planets are there? We haven’t spotted any others. The aliens must be a colonizing party just like we are.”
“You didn’t say that before,” Cyrus said. “Before, you said they put false pictures up for telescopes to see. Now you’re changing your story and saying it’s a mere ship?”
A brief look of concern crossed Jasper’s features. “No, I was wrong about my first idea. Now I think it’s a ship.”
“I don’t think so,” Cyrus said.
“You don’t think so.” Jasper smirked, putting lines around his mouth. “What makes you an authority?”
“Probabilities,” Cyrus said. “I doubt we both just happened to arrive at the same time to do the same thing. Now you said something interesting or far-fetched a moment ago. You think they’ve been to Sol before. Does that mean you think they’re cyborgs?”
“I think the odds are high, yes,” Jasper said.
“That means we should quit screwing around. The cyborgs are horror on two legs. But then I’ve been stupid believing you care anything about getting vital information back to Sol. Premier Lang will execute you for treason for what you’ve done. Why did you have to take over the ship?”
Jasper watched him.
“The only reason I can think is that you’re in league with these aliens,” Cyrus said.
“Why would I be?” Jasper asked.
“I have no idea. Maybe they messed with your mind. You don’t think they did, but they did and you’re as buffaloed as these two marines. That would be the easiest way for these aliens to capture us, to have fixed you to fix the rest of us. And that would make sense why you didn’t warn me about them then.”
Jasper’s nostrils flared. “You have no idea what’s really going on. But just so you don’t panic the others with your wild rumors, I’m putting you in the brig with Argon.”
Cyrus glanced up at the ceiling. If the marines had been outside the hatch, he would charge Jasper and try to break his neck. With them watching him so closely and with their stunner-rods ready, he didn’t stand a chance. He had to keep waiting.
He stood up, and asked, “What did the aliens offer you anyway?”
“You have it backward,” Jasper said. “It’s me who offered the aliens enticements. I’m the one who’s going to capture them. That’s what this is all about.”
“Oh. Why didn’t you say so? Let me help you.”
“Certainly,” Jasper said. “Drop your block and let me look in your mind so I know I can trust you.”
“Sure,” Cyrus said. “First, give me a gun so I know you really trust me.”
“I hold all the cards. You need to convince me, not the other way around.”
It was hard, but this time Cyrus kept his mouth shut.
Jasper turned to the marines. “Take him to the brig and lock him with Chief Monitor Argon.”
PART III:
ARRIVAL
1
Captain Nagasaki sat in his command chair in the bridge module.
His seat was higher than the three other chairs for navigation, weaponry, and shift. Screens surrounded each officer, including Nagasaki. The tight quarters were little bigger than the central compartment of a main battle tank on Earth. There was a hatch above Nagasaki and to the sides of navigation and shift. A soft blue c
olor bathed the chamber.
“System AS 412 is 1.15 light years away,” Tanaka, the navigation officer, said.
Nagasaki studied his main screen. The type G main sequence star was bigger than Sol and more luminous, but it was still tiny at this distance.
All these months and there it was. Nagasaki stared at the star, wondering what the system held.
“We will begin scanning for radiation and other high technology signals,” Nagasaki said.
The three officers didn’t groan, sigh, or even glance at each other. Nagasaki had made them go through the same ritual the last seven shifts.
“Should we launch probes?” Lieutenant Tanaka asked.
“Negative,” Nagasaki said.
Lieutenant Tanaka had been with him on Argonaut. The man was stocky with a shaved scalp and swirling tattoos on his head.
“We could launch the probes and shift elsewhere,” Tanaka suggested.
“We’re over one light year away,” Nagasaki said. “Just how fast do you think our probes are? By the time they reach AS 412, we’ll be home.”
Tanaka ruefully shook his head. “I should know better. I keep thinking of Argonaut.”
Nagasaki wanted to forget that time and the awful approach to Epsilon Eridani. There had been a mutiny on that voyage, one he’d put down hard.
For the hundredth time, maybe the thousandth, he studied AS 412. An asteroid belt ringed the system at the orbital distance Neptune did in Sol. A ringed gas giant held a Saturn-like orbit. An even bigger gas giant was at a Jupiter-distant orbit. Then there came the Earth-like planets, two of them at a Mars and Earth orbit respectively. Finally, there was a small Mercury-like planet near the system’s sun.
Nagasaki studied the Mars-distant planet. Given the larger star, that would be the better planet for humans. It would seem that’s where cyborgs could thrive. How would cyborgs make more cyborgs? They would need biological parts, humans in other words. Did the cyborgs keep a human preserve on the planet, harvesting them when needed? Is that why the cyborgs hadn’t been back to Earth for more people?
“There are no signs of high technology,” Tanaka said.
Alien Honor (A Fenris Novel) Page 12
