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

by Michael Formichelli

  “Is that an order?” There was something in his tone she didn’t like. Part of her knew he was just being protective, but she didn’t need that right now. What she needed was his silence.

  “We agreed I would not be like Nyangari men behind closed doors.”

  “Good, I’m glad you remember.” That came out worse than she intended.

  His nose-petals vibrated in a blur. “But you are stressing my patience. If you will not allow me to be what I should be in our relationship—”

  She thrust her face forward, kissing him on his three lips. “Sanul is waiting downstairs. I gotta go. Have a good day, baby.”

  “Doubtful.”

  “What?” She turned back towards him.

  “I’m having a problem—no, never mind. Go. Have a good day.”

  She gave him an odd look, but was eager to get out the door so she made herself grab her jacket off the floor and charged out of the room. She knew she wasn’t being fair, but she couldn’t bring herself to have that conversation or any like it right now, not when she was scared for both of them. Once she was out the door she got herself to Sanul and the waiting air car as fast as she could. It wasn’t that being at work was better, it was worse, but at least she didn’t have to face wounded Nyangari feelings on top of her fears.

  He slid the car door open for her at her approach. She bent down and slid onto the faux-leather seat, her mind still whirling in her own thoughts about Shkur. She looked up to greet him, and her eye caught sight of something beside her. She almost screamed when she turned her head and saw Giselle.

  “Sorry, boss. She insisted,” Sanul said in morose tones. The door slid shut.

  “What are you doing here? Is everything okay?” She frowned with concern.

  “Sorry, Cygni, I wanted to talk to you, and you haven’t been easy to find at the office.” Giselle’s tone was apologetic.

  “I’ve been worried about, ah—“ she interrupted herself so she didn’t need to admit her fears of Sinuthros. “Sanul, we can take off now.”

  “Yes, boss.”

  “Never mind what I’ve been worried about, I’ll deal with it,” she said as the air-car lifted off.

  “Are you sure? Cygni, if there’s something I can do to help I’ll do it.” Giselle gave her a pointed look.

  She licked her lips. “No, it’s okay. It’s something I have to deal with on my own.”

  “Cygni, what are friends for—“

  “Giselle, please.”

  “Okay.” Giselle folded her hands in her lap. “I need you to come with me to the lab.”

  “Is everything okay?” Her concern deepened.

  “There’s something you need to see, and now is the best time.”

  “Rega’s gone?”

  Giselle nodded. “We won’t be interrupted this time. I think this will help you a lot.”

  “Okay.” Cygni nodded, turning her attention to the buildings passing by outside of the air-car’s cabin.

  “Look, I can tell you’re tense about something. I know you don’t want to talk about it now, but remember, I’m here for you. Okay?” Giselle said putting a hand on her arm.

  Cygni looked into her dark eyes for a moment. She didn’t want to burden her friends with this, she’d already endangered Sanul by having him help, but she was feeling a bit on her own in all of this. She thought that maybe she should bring Giselle into it; she was affected by Sinuthros, too. Cygni wasn’t sure, though.

  “Okay,” she said at length. “Thank you, Giselle.”

  “Hey boss, the same goes for me, too,” Sanul said from the driver’s seat.

  “Okay, thank you both.” She smiled to reassure them, then went back to looking out the window.

  Once they arrived at Revenant Tower she told Sanul to go up to the office and followed Giselle in a separate lift. When they arrived the lab was alight with panels and readouts hovering around the central crescent of the terminal as well as the tables around it.

  “I’m sorry to intrude on your morning ride today. This really couldn’t wait. We probably won’t get another chance like this one,” Giselle said.

  “A chance for what?”

  Look here.” Giselle pointed to a floating image of some globular material arranged around a rigid structure.

  “What is that?” Giselle asked.

  “An ancient code, a biological one, actually. It forms the programming basis for this.” She waved her hand and the image shifted to what appeared to be a dark gray metallic object. It had long spines radiating out from a jagged central structure vaguely resembling a “Q” of the Solan alphabet.

  Cygni stared at it for a while, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. “I give up. What is this? Some kind of nanomachine? It doesn’t look quite right if it is.”

  “It’s one of the two main things the doctor has been working on. I hacked his private database last night, after he went to bed, and found this.”

  “The two main things?” She turned her recorder on.

  “The first you know, is Fast Mercury—unlocking the Cephalon Spheres. This thing not many people know about.”

  “What is it?”

  Giselle shook her head. “I wish I knew more. I didn’t get a chance to review all of his notes on it before I got locked out. He has some kind of AI guardian in that database. What I do know is that the canisters your employee, Mister Mondu, is picking up and delivering from the Palace are loaded with this.”

  Cygni rubbed her chin. “But you can’t tell me what it does?”

  “I used to be a biophysicist specializing in cybernetic based systems. I don’t know much about nanotechnology outside of that.”

  She looked around the room. “Then why are you here working on old rock things.”

  “I told you before, they’re ancient circuit boards created by an alien species we know next to nothing about, not even why they’re not around anymore. I was hired because the circuits, which are etched into these quantum-bonded crystalline structures, interact with and respond to biological systems. Doctor Rega has me working on the interface for new devices which are meant to manipulate this ancient technology. I’ve had to learn a whole lot of new things outside my field on this job. This is some bizarre stuff. Maybe you can use it in your reporting.” Giselle turned to face her. “You’re kind of a hero to me, but also I’m worried about what’s going on here. I think you’re the best chance I have to make a positive difference.”

  “I am happy to help you make a difference.” She knew that Giselle was now hooked on helping her—and she did have to admit to herself a growing affection for the blond woman was there as well.

  “Really? Cygni, you are truly the best.” Giselle leaned in and gave her a tight hug. “I can help you out a lot more than just sneaking you information from Rega’s lab. I have some techniques to get information people don’t want to reveal, and I’ve had some of the necessary cybernetics installed, too.”

  “Training and cybernetics? For what? Why would a biophysicist have that?”

  Giselle shook her head. “I—it makes me nervous to admit it, but I freelance sometimes.”

  “Freelance?”

  “Yeah, on the black market. I’m not from a family of means, as I’m sure you can guess. I had to pay for my secondary education somehow, and I was drowning in debt when I graduated college.” She paused, looking down at the floor before continuing. “I tried a few ways to make money at first. It was tough finding a position at a barony without connections. For a while I had to do some unsavory things, but then I found out baronies were paying a large amount of ConSovs to freelancers willing to take the risks associated with corporate espionage. I joined up with a group of them, got the cybernetic implants I needed, and after learning the trade I struck out on my own.”

  “Are you with Cosmos to spy for someone?” Cygni was surprised, though she knew about the freelance spies in the corporate world. The Herald used them sometimes, but she never met one before.

  “I shouldn’t admi
t it, but I trust you. Yes, I am.” Giselle nodded. “And my guess is that you’re here doing one of your reports, too. Right?”

  “Yeah,” she nodded.

  “Maybe we can help each other. It’d be amazing if we could work together on this. Like I said, I love your work.”

  Cygni began to object, but a feeling washed over her. To be able to share the danger with someone would be a relief. It seemed Giselle was a professional, and having that level of help on top of her personal feelings was too good a deal to pass up. She thrust her hand out and shook Giselle’s. “Partners.”

  “And friends.” Giselle smiled.

  “And friends.” Cygni smiled.

  “I’m so glad I’m not alone in this anymore. It’s terrifying here sometimes.” Giselle sounded genuinely relieved, just as she was.

  Cygni nodded. “I know what you mean.”

  Giselle gestured at the image of the nanomachine. “Why would Rega need so much of this? What does it do? This is what I’m really working on. Maybe you can help me figure it all out.”

  “Maybe, yeah. It could relate to what I’m looking into.” She paused, almost compelled to tell Giselle about the VoQuana and Revenant, but stopped herself. As glad as she was to have a partner, she still felt that she needed a little time before she was ready to reveal what she knew. A thought struck her. She was considering Sanul for help before, maybe it would be a good idea to make this arrangement a trio. “I’ve got an idea, but I don’t want to say what it is right now. Can you come upstairs for lunch?”

  “Of course,” Giselle’s eyes lit up.

  She smiled and gave her a hug. “Thank you, Giselle.”

  “It’s my pleasure to be a help. This is so amazing, getting to work with you. Thank you. We should probably get going before Rega comes back.”

  Cygni nodded and they headed upstairs. She felt a new spring in her step, and her confidence soared with the knowledge that she had a partner she could count on.

  Once she was alone in her office, she scrolled down the list of media requests hovering over her desk. Her fear aside, the last five days had been fairly boring since Baron Revenant departed for the Helix Nebula. Word got out about his new plans for a transport network as predicted, and she was now getting requests for interviews and more information. She was on the other side of those requests for much of her adult life and knew how to handle them. They weren’t ready to launch their full-scale media campaign yet, and wouldn’t be until Doctor Rega finished his work on Fast Mercury. She gave out minimal information, promised more, and left them hanging.

  This is going to drive me crazy, she thought to herself. The most she had done to further her private investigation was to check her messages for anything from either Boadicea or Pawqlan. There hadn’t been any, and now it seemed Giselle was her main source of information. If she could crack this nanomachine thing and connect it to the canisters, and thus to Fast Mercury, it might lead to one of the big connections she was seeking—though she couldn’t figure out what the VoQuana might have to do with what the doctor was doing.

  She pulled up her inbox and checked again for the third time that morning for messages—nothing.

  “Well, this is silly,” she said. She was Cygni Lau-Aragón, fearless investigative reporter—or she was until this case.

  No, she thought, I still am. She took a deep, shuddering breath. She shouldn’t let her fear win, that was the path to being an unknown, a nobody, a cog in the wheels, and half a dozen other things she swore she’d never be. It might even kill her in this case. Waiting got her nowhere, and she had enough of fearing of that damned VoQuana.

  “Screw it.” She contacted Pawqlan through her implant. She was going to press forward, no matter the cost. The alternative was to lose who she was.

  The transmission beeped several times in her ear before the translucent image of a broad-shouldered, male Galaenean with mottled skin matching the blue, and black shades of his jumpsuit appeared on the other side of her desk. He stared at her with silver eyes, and the beak of his mouth snapping aggressively in the air below his single, large cheekbone.

  “Pawqlan?” she asked.

  “By the Matre, Cygni. You act like you don’t known Galaeneans shift sexes.” Pawqlan rolled his eyes.

  “It’s not like I spend a lot of time around your species.”

  “We’re only twenty-percent of the Confederate population, why would you?”

  She frowned. “Don’t get snide with me. Cut me some damned slack already. It’s been a rough few days.”

  “Poor hatchling.”

  “Oh shut up.”

  “Fine, good-bye.”

  “No, wait! Wait, I’m ah—” she couldn’t bring herself to apologize. “—I was wondering if you had a chance to check up on that alleged daughter of Baroness Altair’s.”

  “Is that why you’re bothering me? Mister Iai mentioned you requested that.”

  She swallowed, afraid she was going to have to do something she didn’t want to do. “Well, you are the best at what you do.” She almost choked on the words, but she needed to find that daughter. She kept popping up through the whole investigation, and Cygni needed something to go right.

  Pawqlan’s eyes gleamed. “You admit it!”

  “Sure.” She rolled hers.

  “But you don’t really, do you? You never would. I’m busy with real reporting, not pretending to be a corporate executive. Why don’t you have one of your new office cronies look it up for you.”

  “Because none of them have the society contacts that you do. This isn’t just some bastard child I’m looking for. If this girl exists it’s going to be a huge secret in the Barony. Do you understand? This is someone powerful people are actually trying to hide from the Confederation at large.”

  That seemed to get Pawqlan’s attention. He tapped the cheekbone above his beak with a finger. “I see.”

  It made her want to gouge his eyes out, but now that Pawqlan was finally taking the bait it was time to get him to swim into the trap.

  “I need to interview this girl, but not because I’m trying to uncover some kind of society scandal. How about you do that?”

  “Eh?” He cocked his head to the side.

  “I mean once you find her, you expose the cover up in your gossip column. You’ll be instantly famous across the Confederation as the one who uncovered the long-lost daughter of Baroness Altair.” Who will probably kill you after, but there’s no need to tell you that, she thought.

  “I get exclusive rights to claim the discovery?”

  “I’m interested in what she knows, not who she is. I interview her and she’s all yours. I’m never mentioned as being involved.”

  “Done!”

  She breathed a sigh of relief. At least now Pawqlan would work on it. She should’ve called sooner, but silly her, she figured he would actually think finding a baroness’ secret daughter important without her prompting.

  “How long do you think you’ll take?” she asked.

  “No, Cygni. I’m not going to tell you that. You know I can’t even begin to. Wait for my call.”

  “You will contact me?”

  “Maybe.” Pawqlan chirped—a Galaenean laugh—and broke the connection.

  Now all she had to do was make sure Pawqlan actually did what he promised to do. Sinking back into the smart-foam chair, she got back to work fielding media requests and let it absorb her total attention. The more she researched the organizations sending the requests and the baronies that owned them, the more she began to wonder why Baron Revenant had her in this position. Why had he hired her, really? Her talents were in investigative research, not at being a spokesperson. Maybe it was her fame? Using a known personality made sense. People were used to trusting her, but to have her doing this busy work—her office door chimed.

  Relieved at the interruption, she opened it with her implant. Sanul walked in cradling a steaming hot cup of coffee in his hands. He tapped the porcelain with his four thumbs.

 
“Is that for me?” she asked. A glance at her UI’s chronometer surprised her. Hours had passed, and it was time for lunch already.

  “Yes, of course.” He placed it on the desk in front of her. The motion sent the fresh, roasted-bean fragrance up to her nose.

  “Oh that’s good. You didn’t make this in Rega’s coffee maker, did you?” The doctor’s machine was already notorious in the office for making absolutely crap coffee. Ila warned her to avoid it.

  “Would I serve my boss such a horrible thing?” Sanul spread his fingers and thumbs out on his chest just center of the white comet over his breast pocket.

  “Of course not.” She picked up the ceramic cup of dark fluid, swirled it beneath her nose for a second enjoyment of the full-bodied smell, then took a sip. The taste made her toes tingle. “Oh my, that’s good.”

  “I’m glad you like it,” he looked over his shoulder, then whispered, “Can we talk?”

  She shut the door. “Okay, we’re alone. What’s up?”

  Sanul glanced up at the ceiling. “Ila and I have noticed that you haven’t been yourself the last few days.”

  “I’ve been stressed.”

  “We know. As the Solan saying goes, ‘The spring is out of your season.’”

  “The spring is out of my step,” she corrected.

  “Oh, yes, that. What I mean is,” he shifted his weight back and forth. The thin, rubbery lobes of his ears flicked backwards at the base of his crystal horns. “Ila and I were wondering if you might want to skip work this afternoon—together, I mean.”

  She shifted in her chair, frowning. “Like, go out and do something as a group?”

  “Yes.” He rubbed his hands together in front of his waist.

  She looked him over. His svelte frame looked tense, his fur raised, and he was half-hunched over his arms.

  “And Ila said niu would join us?”

  “Well, no, not exactly. Ila just said that niu thought you could use a break, being Solan and not used to work like Isinari are,” he said. “But I thought we could go out together.”

  There was an awkward silence. Was he asking her out? He knew she was with Shkur.

  “Do you mean this as a romantic date?”