Keltan's Gambit: Chronicles of the Orion Spur Book 2
Page 30
“You okay?” Giselle whispered in her ear. “I’m feeling a bit off myself all of a sudden.”
Baron Revenant looked her over and frowned. “Are you sick?”
“I’m all right. I am.” She turned around, putting her back to the poly-glass for support—and saw him.
It was like looking at a ghost. His image flickered in and out in her visual field, but he was there. It was the same VoQuana from the Queen Gaia—black hair in a severe tail, big, black eyeballs with rings of blue sparks within them. She was sure it was Sinuthros standing at the furthest point in the circular room where he could still see them. He was staring right at her, his narrow arms folded across the chest of his gray skinsuit.
She sucked in air. Giselle gave her a quizzical look but didn’t say anything. Without a bypass shunt like she had, the poor woman must be totally in the VoQuana’s control.
“Okay,” the baron said.
She had to force herself to ignore Sinuthros, though the knowledge that he was watching her, and probably in her head in some capacity, chilled her to the bone. She comforted herself with the thought that maybe he didn’t know she could see him. If he could read her thoughts he would probably do something to her—or maybe he was just biding his time. Maybe he knew and would come after her later to do to her what he did to Baron Keltan—Stop it! She told herself.
“You messaged that the ad was complete,” Baron Revenant said.
“The draft of it, yes.” She fumbled in her pocket and produced the quartz-glass wafer.
“Thank you.” Baron Revenant took it from her and held it up to the light. “I’m sure it’s excellent work.”
“You’re not going to preview it?”
“Miss Tauthe will.” He handed the athenaeum to her. “This isn’t going to be the main focus of your campaign anyway. This is just a preliminary teaser for the main event to come. After this ad runs for a few standard weeks we’ll start the press conferences. That is when you will really be needed to shine.”
“I won’t fail you, Baron.” She was struggling to control her breathing. There was something about the way in which her implant was feeding her brain the data that was screwing her up.
“I have faith in your abilities, Miss Aragón. I am going to be heading to my family’s retreat in the Helix Nebula for a while, but I will be in touch. My family space station has a quantum-communications array.” He smiled. “You will be able to reach me, and I you.”
She smiled as best she could. She was going to have to shut her visual feed-shunt off or risk being sick in the reflecting pool. With a curse and a last glance at Sinuthros, she told her implant to shut it down. She gasped when a sensation of pressure she hadn’t realized was there released. The smell of oranges faded, and her balance returned.
“I will be planning for next year’s election from the nebula. If you do a good enough job during phase two of the campaign, perhaps I could use you to get Baron Keltan elected.”
She was almost too busy recovering from the shunt for what the baron said to register. When it did, her eyes went wide and the memory of what happened to Baron Keltan at the party surfaced. She didn’t want anything to do with that.
“I don’t know anything about running a campaign.”
“I know, but you are a smart girl. Aren’t you? You didn’t know anything about marketing when I hired you, and yet I’m sure this is a piece of good work. Besides, Miss Tauthe will assist you. She knows a thing or two about strategy.”
Giselle nodded.
“Isn’t she a—“ she paused, realizing she hadn’t actually asked what Giselle did for Doctor Rega.
“She has many talents, some of which I admit are wasted under Doctor Rega. Perhaps not for long, though.” Baron Revenant cocked an eyebrow in amusement.
“I know a little about a lot,” Giselle said with a smile.
Cygni didn’t know how to answer that.
Baron Revenant turned towards her, leaning his face close to hers. She moved to take a step back away along the curving glass, but something stopped her—the feeling of a hand on her back.
Oh goddess it’s him! She stiffened with fear.
“As I’m sure you know from the athenaeum I sent you, phase two will involve some travel. When Doctor Rega is ready, you will accompany him to the list of places I gave you. In addition to dealing with the local media, I am trusting you to help the doctor and Miss Tauthe distribute the canisters he will have with him. That won’t be a problem, will it, Miss Aragón?”
“No, of course not,” she said, trying to keep her voice from trembling.
If the VoQuana was scrambling her brain, would she be aware of it? Would it be as violent as it was with Baron Keltan?
“Good, very good. When will the doctor’s departure date be, Miss Tauthe? I forget.”
“Sometime around 41:2:30 of the Confederate calendar, but one can’t be sure. You know how he is, my baron,” she responded.
“Yes.” He looked out the window at the cityscape.
Cygni just wanted to get out of there. The cold fear consuming her gut was making her sick.
Baron Revenant frowned. “You really don’t look well. Take the rest of the day off. Miss Tauthe, see that she is taken care of.”
“I will.” Giselle nodded.
“Um, thank you, Baron.” She bowed her head and moved quickly to the lift, the water splashing around her feet.
Giselle had a hand on her arm again. Its presence was reassuring but only after she was safely within the lift car with the door closed did she let herself start to hyperventilate.
“Cygni?”
She shook her head, collapsing against the wall. There was a sudden feeling of pressure within her chest and it swelled like an exploding star.
“Cygni?”
The pressure exploded, and she screamed.
“Here,” Giselle said, handing her a glass of water.
“Thanks.” She leaned back into the softness of her office sofa. The cool water on her lips sent a shiver down her back. “I’m sorry about that.”
“What?” Giselle asked.
“The screaming in the elevator. I couldn’t help it. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I feel like I’m losing it.”
“What screaming?” Giselle was smiled at her.
She frowned. “Are you playing with me?”
Giselle put a hand to her ear and said, “What?”
Cygni frowned for a moment, but then broke down and laughed. Giselle laughed with her, plopping herself down on the sofa beside her so the cushions tilted and their shoulders touched.
“Sorry,” Cygni said.
Giselle made a shushing sound with her teeth and swatted at her thigh. “Stop that.”
She shrugged and took another drink from her water.
“What’s bothering you? You’ve taken on Orgnan Khargs, politicians, the scum of society, and you always come off strong and in charge,” Giselle said.
“That’s the ‘web stream.”
“I don’t think so. You can’t fake the confidence I hear in your voice. That doesn’t come from someone who backs off or collapses under pressure.” She brushed a blond lock from her eye and looped it behind her ear.
“This is different.” The image of Sinuthros’ black eyes stared at her from within her mind.
Giselle put a hand on her thigh. Cygni looked at it, the pale fingers stood out against the black of her jumpsuit. It took a moment for the heat of it to penetrate through to her skin. It radiated into the muscle until she could almost feel it in the bone. The feeling surprised her. She looked up and saw the other woman’s dark eyes taking her in like parched mouths. It was an odd feeling, one she never had looking into the eyes of another human being before. She felt transfixed.
“What’s happening?” she whispered, confused by her feelings.
“What’s happening? Nothing, I’m just trying to comfort you. It’s what friends do, right? Do you want me to go?” Giselle broke eye contact and leaned back.
Giselle stood up. “I want to be your friend. Of course, I want that.”
Cygni smiled, feeling relieved.
“I think Doctor Rega is away now. Do you want to see the lab?” Giselle asked.
Cygni smiled. “Yes, that’d be great.
Giselle’s smiled back. “Come with me.”
Her new friend lead the way out of the office and across the field of cubicles. Ila stood up but Cygni waved nium off and did the same with Sanul. This trip was just for them.
“I’m from the planet Kanohaven,” Giselle said once inside the lift. “A little town by a river in the desert, actually. You’d never guess it from my complexion, right?”
Cygni shrugged. “I don’t know anything about that planet. What system is it in?”
“Not a famous one, it’s really not worth mentioning I guess.”
She cocked an eyebrow.
“It’s located on the Cygnus side of Sol,” Giselle added.
“That’s a long way from here.”
She nodded. “Something like four-hundred-sixty parsecs I think. I haven’t been home in years, though. Where are you from?”
“The Avanus system.”
“That’s a lot closer, right?” Giselle said as the lift stopped.
“Yeah, it’s about one-hundred and fifty parsecs from here,” she responded.
“Do you miss it?”
“Not really. I left it for a reason.” She bit her bottom lip.
“Bad memories?” Giselle asked.
“No, not that. The opportunities were up here among the stars.” She shrugged and turned as the doors slid open. Beyond them was a short, black chamber, hardly larger than a walk-in closet. An artificial stood beside a metal door set in the far wall. She was glad this one was wearing a corporate uniform as opposed to Baron Revenant’s usual choice, but was somewhat disturbed by the presence of a gun on its hip.
“Cosmos takes security very seriously,” Giselle said as they stepped into the unwavering gaze of the guard. “Don’t worry. You’re authorized, of course.”
She nodded in response.
Giselle walked past the guard without looking at it. The door slid open a moment before she would have walked into it, but she didn’t break her stride. Cygni hurried to catch up as they entered a narrow corridor lit by bright glow-walls. At its end was another metal door, this one unguarded, and on the other side of that lay a dark room illuminated by a myriad of glowing panels and holographic data streams by a half-moon of computer terminals at its center. Cygni’s eyes switched to “enhanced mode” adding the infra-red spectrum to her visual field which enabled her to make out the rest of the chamber by the ambient heat in the air.
“This must be a scientist’s dream,” she said in whispered tones as she took in the twenty-by-thirty meter chamber. Lab tables loaded with sample containers were seen in every direction she looked. Inside each transparent container she could make out something that looked like stones with strange patterns etched into their surfaces. There must have been hundreds of them, but without the tables set to project to her cerebral computer, no labels would appear when she looked at them.
“What is all of this?” she asked.
“Wait, I’ll show you.” Giselle gestured and the lights came up, putting the colorful stones on display. “These are the samples the doctor took from tens of planets both in and outside of the Confederation. Each comes from an ancient archeological site connected with the Cephalon. It’s how he worked out the device.”
“The device?” She switched on her recording software.
“The one that allows Cosmos Corporation to operate the Cephalon Spheres. Without it all this talk of a new future would be fantasy.” Giselle moved over to one of the containers. “Look, it appears to be nothing more than an old stone with some weird lines in it, right?”
She shrugged.
“It’s actually an ancient circuit board. The Cephalon used some kind of crystal-based technology embedded in these stones—which are special by themselves. We don’t understand how, but each is bonded on a quantum level so they can’t break down.” She chuckled. “To think, these old things will see the universe die in heat-death.”
She shook her head. “How can that be possible? And if that’s the case, how did the doctor get them out of whatever he found them in?”
“They’re modular, like our own circuits. If you know how, you can just pull each unit out of the socket where you found it. As to how they did it? Who knows? We don’t even know how the instantaneous travel works.”
Cygni nodded and moved over to a computer bank.
“What’s this?” she asked pointing at a strange looking stream of data spilling from the ceiling like a waterfall.
Giselle came over. “That? Let me see. Oh, it’s something the doctor is translating. I’m not really sure.”
She nodded, watching the strange blue characters flow past. “What’s it say? Where’s the output?”
Giselle looked around, searching the other streams of data around them. She gestured past the crescent of computer terminals towards the back of the room. “Maybe it’s going to his office.”
Cygni moved to look. In the far wall was another door directly behind where they stood. “Is he here?”
“I didn’t think so.” Giselle shrugged.
Cygni started walking towards the door. Her fingers went to reach for the spy-grains hidden in the hem of her jacket, but stopped. She couldn’t do that to another friend, not like she did to Boa, so she let her hand fall back to her side and kept walking. She pinged the door as she approached, hesitating when she came within a meter of its smooth surface. She wondered if she should chance uploading a hacking program into its system or not.
She heard Giselle move around the computer terminals behind her. “If you’re eager to talk with him, I can make sure he comes to see you when he gets back.”
“It’s not that, really.” She turned her head to look at Giselle from over her shoulder. “I’m just curious to get inside.” She pointed a finger at Doctor Rega’s office door.
Giselle took a step towards her and an odd look appeared on her face.
“Cygni, can I ask you something? When you were investigated the Orgnan Khargs on Minlea IV, did they take you?”
“Take me? Where did that come from?” Giselle’s question caught her off guard and she cocked her head to the side.
“Sorry, I’ve wondered since I saw your piece on it. Did they make you one of their dolls—their toys. Did they enslave you? Briefly, perhaps?” Giselle’s voice was soft, gentle yet probing at the same time.
“No—“ she said out of reflex, but the word caught in her throat. It was a strange and personal question, and she was offended on one level, but on another she knew she needed Giselle to stay affable. “Yes, they did.”
“Did you know their markets? Did they parade you about and put a price on you like you were some kind of pet?” Giselle cocked an eyebrow upward.
Cygni frowned. “Why are you asking this now?”
“I’m sorry. You know I’m a big fan of yours and like I said, I’ve been very curious about this phase of your life. You don’t have to answer if you are too uncomfortable—but I’d really appreciate it if you could.”
Cygni stared at her for a moment. She didn’t want to answer, this was an unpleasant part of her life, but she knew deep down that if she did answer, she’d have Giselle as an ally when it counted. Putting up with a little discomfort about the past would be worth it. Standing in Rega’s lab was proof of that.
“Yes, but then my savage came,” she said.
“Your savage?”
Biren, she thought. That had been in the time before he betrayed her, when they were still lovers, when she still
trusted him.
“Cygni? Are you okay?”
“Yeah—yes, I mean. I am, but I think I’m still rattled from upstairs. I’m sorry.”
“That’s all right. I know today has been hard for you.” Giselle moved closer and offered her hand. “It will be okay.”
Cygni stared at it for a moment, then took it in her own and laced their fingers together. She’d done worse for information before, and it wasn’t like Giselle was asking too much from her.
“Biren is—was my savage. He came and—“ She was interrupted by the metal door leading in from the corridor when it slid open, startling both of them.
“Are you two in here conniving against me?” Doctor Rega ran a hand through his matt of hair, staring at them with hawkish eyes from the doorway.
Giselle stiffened. “I was only showing Cygni around. She’s going to need to be down here sometimes—“
“You need my permission to be here; both of you.” Rega’s eyes narrowed. “This is my lab.”
Cygni exchanged a look with Giselle. She saw a hint of fear in the other woman’s eyes and it inspired her to take a step towards Rega, putting herself between them. She twisted her arm to keep their hands together behind her, refusing to let go.
“I asked to come down here. She was only being nice,” Cygni said.
“How about I break into your house tonight to show my fish around? I’ll only be being nice, is that okay?”
“Your fish?” She frowned at Doctor Rega.
“It’s the only pet I—that’s not the point. The point is, it isn’t okay. You are not allowed down here without me.” He moved forward until he was standing over her, staring down almost touching her nose with his own. “This is my rule. Break it at your peril.”
“I’ve stared down Orgnan Khargs. You don’t scare me.”
Something about what she said seemed to amuse him. The hint of a smile tugged up at the corners of his mouth and his eyes strayed to one of the containers on a nearby table. “If you were smart, you’d be scared.”