Keltan's Gambit: Chronicles of the Orion Spur Book 2

by Michael Formichelli

  “Cygni, you’re back early. Did something happen to the cruise?”

  “I’ll tell you why when we meet. Can you come out?”

  “Now?” Boa sounded incredulous.

  “The cafe?” she said referring to their favorite Earth-style meeting spot, O’Keife’s. It was within walking distance of both her apartment and the Gaian biodome.

  “I can’t. My brother is home, and our mother wants us around. There’s something—look, we just have a lot of guests, and it’s not—”

  “Biren is around?” She felt a jolt go through her system.

  “Yeah, um, I would have told you he was coming but you were on that cruise—”

  “That’s part of what I need to talk to you about. Are you sure you can’t slip away?” She chewed her bottom lip. The prospect of not being able to accomplish anything before going to work for Baron Revenant chilled her veins. Her whole reason for taking the Cosmos Corp job was to get inside information and access to the barons, but she had to wonder how much freedom she would really have.

  “Sorry, Cygni. I can’t.” Boa was quiet for a moment. “You could come over here, if you’re willing.”

  She took a deep breath. It had been years since she saw Biren, and hoped it would be years more before she was forced to again, but she needed information.

  “I’m willing. I have to talk to you.”

  “All right. Message me when you arrive, and I’ll meet you at the door,” Boa said.

  That was odd. The biodome was usually open to the public, and she had never had to meet her friend outside on the street before.

  “Okay, I’ll see you soon.”

  “Goddess bless.” Boa disconnected.

  What the hell is going on? She got to her feet and headed outside, wondering if Boa’s strange behavior was a result of a new story brewing, or if it was connected to the Abyssian’s visit to the biodome. It probably is, she decided after hailing a taxi with her implant. With a connection to the Gaians, Baroness Altair, and the VoQuana, she would be foolish to assume whatever was happening at the biodome wasn’t related. And now I have to deal with Biren, too. It was almost too much.

  The taxi dropped her off in front of the twenty-hectare wide dome. The super-structure looked like a bubble trapped in the web of a spider that spun poly-steel triangles instead of silk. Beneath the windows she saw steam rising from among the trees of a dense jungle. The biodomes were reconstructions of what Earth’s environment was once like. They were little pieces of the lost world that gave birth to humanity scattered throughout the Confederation, and served as a religious focus for those who worshiped nature as divine—the Gaianists. A hologram of their symbol, a vibrant and blue Earth, hovered over the doors leading inside.

  I’m here, she messaged to Boadicea’s cell-com.

  [I’LL BE RIGHT THERE] scrolled across her vision.

  She turned, watching the people walk about on the streets. The dome was located in the heart of the Solan ghetto, but was attracting a number of non-human supplicants in recent decades. The Isinari were converting in the greatest numbers supposedly out of gratitude for their liberation from the VoQuana after the Quae-Sol War. Cygni shook her head, trying to avoid thinking about the one she saw on the Queen Gaia. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be a slave to such vile creatures.

  The hiss of the doors drew her attention, but she froze when she saw who it was emerging. Biren Euphrati froze just past the doorway, his chocolate-brown eyes blinked in disbelief beneath his mop of black, shoulder-length dreadlocks. She felt her knees go weak as she traced the arching lines of the tattoos across the broad bridge of his nose and over his high cheekbones. Her lips tingled with a memory she would rather not recall, and it took effort to stop herself from slipping into that long-ago time when she used to call him her “Savage Biri.” A broad, toothy smile broke out on his face, and he started moving towards her. The breeze whipped his dark-gray v-neck against the lean cut muscles beneath and she heard herself sigh.

  Dammit, woman, get a hold of yourself.

  “Cygni? Is that you?”

  She dry-swallowed, trying to think of an appropriate response.

  “By the goddess, it is!” His moccasin-clad feet were moving quickly now, bringing him within arm’s reach. The top of her head only reached his chin. “How are you?”

  “I—” Her tongue couldn’t quite work out what to do, but her hand was not so encumbered. It whipped up and smacked him across the face. The sound rang in her ears.

  “All right,” he said. The blow turned his head to the side. He righted it and looked down into her eyes. “It’s good to see you, too.”

  She smacked him again with the other hand. Her palms tingled.

  “Are you going to hit me all day or do you want to use words?”

  She had to slow her breathing down before she could do that, but somehow she managed. “Hello, Biren.”

  “That’s more civil at least.” He sighed.

  “I wish I could say it was good to see you.”

  “Me too.”

  She stared at him, her mind unable to come up with anything else to say. She felt like an idiot, like she had the night she realized he’d left her.

  “You’re looking well,” he said.

  “Thank you.” She had to admit he was too—better than he had the last time she saw him. There were a couple of lines in his dark skin that hadn’t been there before, and they made him look more mature, more attractive. She hated him for it and hated herself for hating him, too. She wanted to believe she was better than this, but seeing him laid the truth bare before her.

  “Okay, if you’re going to be like this I guess I should be on my way.” His thick brows came together when he frowned.

  Damn, he looks good. Her cybernetic olfactory sensors were detecting unusual levels of pheromones in the air between them. She knew his scent was the result of the genetic modifications, but her body didn’t care. All it knew was that something was attracting her to him, and it was getting in the way of rational thought.

  Biren sighed and started to move around her. To her great surprise she caught his arm in her hand. The feel of rock-hard muscle beneath his shirt sent a shudder through her.

  “Biren, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be like this. It’s—”

  “Entirely understandable. I shouldn’t have left you like that, but I had a job to complete.”

  “And that’s why you abandoned me in that hotel room on Minlea?” There was more acid in her words than she intended.

  “Yeah, that’s it. Look, I’d love to explain but—”

  “Oh shit,” Boa said, striding from the dome doors dressed in a leather skirt of flexible, overlapping flaps and a halter-top made of blue and green silicate beads. “What the hell are you doing to Cygni?” She stormed up to them, her sandal-clad feet smacking the pavement with every step.

  “Nothing! Really!” Biren took a step back.

  The shells in Boa’s raven dreadlocks jingled when she shook her head. Her eyes, dark like her brother’s, were ablaze. Although she was shorter than Cygni, her brother shrank before her like he feared for his life. Cygni had only seen her this way on the day their friendship began—the day Biren left her.

  Boa interposed herself between them. “Don’t you have something to do?”

  Biren’s whole body sagged. “Yes, I do. Good-bye, Cygni. It really was nice to see you.”

  She waved, sheepishly, not wanting to risk a sharp comment from her friend. She watched him move off down the street until he vanished into the urban canyons.

  “Are you all right?” Boa turned, looking her over as though searching for wounds.

  “Fine, really.”

  “Your voice is shaky.”

  She took a deep breath. Her heart was racing. “I’m all right.”

  “I’m sorry about that. I didn’t realize he was ahead of me.”

  “It’s okay, Boa.” She took a deep breath. “Can we go inside?”

  Her friend g
lanced back at the biodome doors. “Can we talk here?”

  She blinked. “What’s going on?”

  Boa grimaced. “Cygni, come on.”

  “This is the first time I can remember you holding me at arm’s distance. Is everything all right? Did something happen while I was away?”

  Boadicea shook her head. “Things are—Cygni, I can’t tell you. It’s ‘dome business, and, well, you’re a reporter.”

  She sighed. “Yeah, but I’m also your friend. Don’t you think there are things I can keep secret?”

  “It’s not that. That’s unfair of you to say.”

  Cygni shook her head. “Is it? We’ve been friends for years.”

  “So you should trust me and not pry.”

  “Now who’s being unfair?” She crossed her arms.

  The two of them stared at each other.

  “You said you had something to talk about?” Boa bounced on her heels.

  “Just, um, a few questions that only you could answer.” That wasn’t entirely true. Biren might answer them if she asked, but she wasn’t into masochism.

  “Ask away.”

  “Can’t we go somewhere more private?” She looked back at the dome doors.

  “Cygni, things are happening, and I have to go back in soon.”

  “Okay, okay. I learned a lot on that cruise. For one, Baron Revenant has some kind of new, instantaneous travel system. That’s why I’m back so early.”

  Boa looked interested. “Go on.”

  “Also, I heard something I thought you could help me with. There was this mention of Baroness Altair’s daughter, but she doesn’t officially have one. Have you heard of her?”

  If she hadn’t been watching so carefully, if she hadn’t known her friend so well, she would’ve missed the sign—a small twitch in the muscles around Boa’s eyes. Cygni knew the answer then, and knew the next thing out of Boa’s mouth was going to be a lie.

  “Why would I have? You know I don’t get involved with barons and that stuff.”

  “I thought you might know. This daughter is supposed to have some connection to the Gaians. I thought maybe, if it was this biodome—you know?”

  “Well, if she does exist, she isn’t connected to this biodome. I’d know her.” Boadicea looked off to the side.

  “As the Mother-Priestess’ daughter, I guess you would.” Cygni gave her a pointed stare.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Boa took a step back.

  “It means what I said. Come on, I know you. You hate the barons. You wouldn’t rest until you knew if there was a secret connection between the Biodome and the Barony.”

  Her friend looked tired. It worried Cygni to see her like that all of a sudden. There was definitely something going on, and now she was sure it was connected to her investigation. The trouble was she did know Boa well, and her friend would never betray her mother’s confidence or her religion even if the person asking was her best friend. If she was going to learn more she would have to get the information from another source no matter how distasteful or difficult that might be to her. She really didn’t want to have to ask Biren. He would tell her, but she would have to use all of her wiles to get it out of him, and the thought of that turned her stomach.

  “I’m sorry, Cygni. I’m on edge. Things have been tense since you left on that cruise. Please don’t ask anything more.” Boa bit her lip.

  “One more thing, okay? I hate to ask this but I have to. You know me. One more thing and I’m done, all right?”

  Boa sighed and nodded.

  “Is there a connection between the Kosfantari Biodome and Baron Mitsugawa? Was there one, I mean?” She watched her friend’s eyes dart back and forth between her own.

  “Cygni—” Boa looked away. “Promise me you won’t report on it.”

  She felt a pain in her stomach. “I can’t promise that. It could be the key to what I’m working on.”

  “I can’t tell you. I just can’t. Okay?” Boa looked on the verge of tears.

  She nodded and opened her arms. Her friend stepped into her embrace.

  “All right, I’m sorry.” She was sorry, because she would have to find another way to the information. It was going to be ten times harder now that she had to work for Baron Revenant at the same time.

  “Thank you for understanding. Just, leave it alone. For me, all right?” Boa looked up at her.

  Rather than answer, she pulled her in for another hug—and slipped one of her spy-grains between the beads of Boa’s halter-top.

  The torpedo-shaped, yellow taxicab descended to the crowded street swaying back and forth in the turbulent air surrounding Revenant Tower. Office workers in business suits moved out of the way with barely a break in stride. Here, in the Business District, nothing stopped commerce.

  Although referred to in the singular, Revenant Tower was a tight compound of seven, claw-like structures arising from a spiny base, and curling towards each other at their kilometer-high apexes. Between the seven claws, at the point where they came together, pulsed a space-time distortion that played havoc with the air currents around the structure. Cygni was grateful for the minimal wind at street level. Knowing what she did about what was going on had her heart pounding enough as it was without the danger of a crash adding to it. She couldn’t imagine trying to get an air-car past the upper levels of the complex, which she suspected was the point of the elaborate defense.

  Her cerebral implant paid the cab as she passed through its raised, wing-like door and put her feet on the fastcrete pavement. Ahead of her a nest of obsidian spines twisted into a Gothic arch three meters high. A set of glossy-black doors displaying the silver comet of Cosmos Corporation was flanked by two life-size, black marble statues of muscular, nude Solan men. Each clutched two and one-half meter-long metal rods as though they were the guards of some ancient fairytale castle. She ran her eyes over both identical idols, smiling at the strangeness of their presence until she approached and noticed their pin-hole eyes following her. Then it clicked. They weren’t actually statues but artificial guards.

  What the hell is up with the nudity? Everyone knew about Baron Revenant’s personal bodyguard, Qismat. It was an artificial, but the baron managed to flout the law and get it made with striped skin and hair. It was also the only artificial to go about in public in the nude—or so she thought until she saw these two.

  She paused a meter from the doors. They didn’t open, so she took advantage of their reflective surface and adjusted the waist-length beige jacket she bought for this job. It occurred to her last night that this was her first job at a high-powered Barony company, and she didn’t really own anything that would fit in. The jacket cost her a quarter of her monthly income, so she couldn’t purchase more clothing. She wished she could have afforded new shoes to go with it, but she would make do with what she had. Beneath the overpriced garment she changed the color of her smart-fabric jumpsuit to pistachio-green to better go with the look of the ensemble. If Revenant had a problem with her not wearing company colors he would probably say so, but looking good was worth the risk of his displeasure.

  “Well, are you going to let me in?” She said after making sure her dark hair was in place over her shoulders.

  The doors slid into the walls with a whisper of air. An arched corridor with dim points of light on either side of a white carpet stretched out into the darkness before her. She supposed she would have to put up with Baron Revenant’s well-known flair for the dramatic as an employee, but on her first day this kind of theatrical presentation was going too far. She was already nervous that Sinuthros was waiting for her when she got upstairs, ready to repeat what he did to Baron Keltan. The thought was almost enough to make her turn around, but she reminded herself that this job was an unprecedented opportunity to get better information and make contacts for her story, and there was no way Baron Revenant was aware that she knew about his involvement with the VoQuana.

  The closing doors eclipsed the sunlight coming in behind her, leavin
g only a dim pool of artificial illumination to see her through the darkness. After about thirty steps she arrived at a cylindrical lift, thankful that its gray interior was well lit. Carpeted in red, it smelled of cleaning solvents like a proper office lift should. The car moved at a rate that made her ears pop, but since the computer refused to link to her cerebral implant she had no idea of her destination. She figured she must be high up in one of the towers by the time it stopped. The doors opened to a curved reflecting pool with a black marble bottom stretching out to a poly-glass wall twenty meters away. The city-skyline beyond the glass was replicated and inverted on the surface of the water so that the buildings’ images fanned out at her feet.

  Wow, that’s impressive, and there’s no VoQuana visible here, she thought. She looked down at her shoes, and realized there was no dry place to put her feet beyond the lip of the lift’s doorway. With a shrug she removed her footwear, holding both shoes in one hand, and slipped a toe into the water. It felt pleasant, so she stepped into the ankle-deep liquid and the skyline rippled before her.

  “Welcome Miss Aragón.” Baron Revenant’s voice was followed by the sound of splashing footsteps too numerous to belong to just one person.

  She moved towards the polyglass and saw the baron down the arc of the chamber. Dressed in a three-piece black suit with a white blazer, the sight of him sent a tingle to her toes. She felt herself smile without meaning to and felt the nerves knot up in her stomach. She didn’t usually get nervous around celebrities or power, but there was something to be said about the combination of the two along with Baron Revenant’s good looks that had an effect on her. Fortunately for her professionalism, the gangling man following him took the edge off her reaction.

  Wearing a dark-brown jumper and an army-green vest more appropriate for a low-class neighborhood than the corporate tower of the most powerful man in the Orion Spur, the man’s most prominent feature was a sharply curved Roman nose nestled between widely-spaced brown eyes. Although shaved on the sides, the top of his black hair was a greasy mass of clumps that looked like he’d bitten a power line and then gelled it to keep the style. She fought not to crinkle her nose at the sight of him. Why the baron would allow someone like this in his presence mystified her.