The Dying Light
Page 31
There had to be another way...
Roche was about to ask the Box what it was readying her for, when another voice spoke softly into her mind.
Maii’s voice was little more than a whisper, and through the drone’s eyes she looked completely unconscious. But as Roche stared at her, she saw the index finger on the girl’s left hand move. She was pointing!
Roche tried to extrapolate the layout of the room, given what the others had looked like. Maii was pointing out the door. Out the door and to the cell opposite—presumably to where the other two prisoners were held.
“You have five seconds, Roche,” called the Kesh guard. “Then she dies. Five.”
“Four.”
The sound of footsteps in the control room she had just left echoed up the corridor.
The door slammed shut.
YES.
“Three.”
She inched as far as she dared around the corridor and clutched her rifle to her chest.
“Two.”
The lights went out. Her suit and implants switched automatically to infrared. Then the floor fell out from underneath her—and kept falling.
She clutched for balance, but her suit had already adjusted. The Box must have hit the artificial gravity generators somehow. When some sense of weight returned, it was at half- strength—enough to enable her to run around the corner and to the second cell.
The door was shut; she fired the rifle at it. Gunshots came likewise from the cell containing Maii, followed by the sound of someone hissing in pain. She couldn’t afford to be distracted. All she could do was hope that Maii hadn’t been hurt.
The cell door juddered open a crack, and she used the suit’s strength to lever it the rest of the way. Inside—
She hesitated for a split second.
—inside were two bodies. One belonged to Cane. He was naked and encased entirely in a slab of what looked like clear amber which was in turn bolted to a mobile platform. Wires and tubes were threaded through the transparent material, but there was clearly no way he could talk or move. Metal straps around the amber block further ensured his imprisonment.
His eyes were shut, but somehow Roche knew that he was awake, and possibly even aware of her presence.
The other body belonged to something far from Pristine. It looked vaguely Olmahoi, but unlike any she had ever seen. Its black skin was shiny and abraded, its limbs thin, almost vestigial, its body was hunched, its face featureless and pinched. The only vital element to the entire creature was its epsense organ—a thick tentacle sprouting from the back of its skull. But where most Olmahoi epsense organs were rarely as thick as a normal wrist, this one was thighlike in width—fat and almost a meter and a half long, throbbing with vitality, almost as if it were sucking the life out of the creature attached to it. Roche could see where needles and other instruments penetrated its flesh, supplying nutrients or performing other mysterious tasks.
The creature lay on a bed like Maii’s. It was bound, but not firmly. It seemed to Roche that it didn’t need to be. She doubted it could even have walked, let alone run away.
There was a monitor behind it. On it flashed a single word:
: BEWARE
CLEAR, transmitted Haid from behind her.
Distracted, she turned.
UNHARMED.
She grunted as someone pushed past her.
“Sorry, Morgan,” said the Box via the drone. “But I must get through.”
Roche faced the drone across the body of the Olmahoi creature. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I am administering Xarodine,” explained the Box as the drone injected something into the base of the Olmahoi’s skull. “There were doses in Maii’s cell, naturally.”
The creature twitched, and the word on the screen changed to:
: CRUEL
“Why, Box?”
“Xarodine is an epsense-inhibitor.”
“I know that, but—”
“Give me a moment, Morgan.”
A muffled explosion from farther up the hallway reminded her of Shak’ni and the rest of the guards.
“I don’t have a moment, Box.”
She rushed out of the cell. Haid was already there. The sound of pounding came from both ends of the corridor.
WE’RE TRAPPED.
“Any suggestions, Myer?” she called into Maii’s cell, “Myer?” Maii was still on the table, although her bonds had been removed. The guards and their weapons lay scattered across the floor. But the pilot was gone.
“He was here a moment ago,” Haid said, dispensing with his implants. “He must have snuck out while I was busy with Maii.”
“Damn him!”
“Do we go after him?”
Roche sighed. “We haven’t got time. Besides, we don’t even know which way he’s gone.” She made a mental note to be sure that Myer paid for this at a later date. “Our only chance is to bust out before they’re ready. Take them off-guard. One of us will have to carry Maii; maybe we can use the guards’ armor to protect her.”
“What about Cane?”
She cursed Myer again. “He’ll have to wait. He looks safe enough as he is.” She went back into Maii’s cell and bent to strip one of the dead guards.
Roche laid a gloved hand on Maii’s arm.
: ONE
Another explosion sounded up the corridor just as the word changed to:
: COMES
Then Roche was embraced by the young reave’s excited mind.
More calmly the girl said:
There was a pause before she replied:
Roche checked the charges on her rifle; enough for a while yet. The sounds from the ends of the corridor died down, and she assumed the reave had already begun to work.
Then Maii said:
A chill went through Roche.
ach. It will be within firing range in twenty minutes. Its senior officer has issued a message.>
The recording came through her implants:
AGGRESSORS IN THE VICINITY OF GALINE FOUR: DESIST IMMEDIATELY OR FACE THE CONSEQUENCES. WE WILL NOT HESITATE TO USE LETHAL FORCE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
That was why the guards had stopped pounding at the doors: they knew they’d won. All they had to do now was wait her out.
She paused. The words burned in her throat.
said the Box.
It was brief: “Come out, Roche, or we will destroy you.”
ARE WE REALLY GOING TO SURRENDER? asked Haid.
She went into the cell and squatted next to Maii.
The reave’s expression was closed.
The Kesh officer’s voice told her himself: “You, Morgan Roche, and your party will submit to the authority of interim peacemaker Field Officer Shak’ni. All hostilities directed against Galine Four and Linegar Rufo will cease. The Ana Vereine will dock with Galine Four and allow Lieutenant Haden B’shan to assume control. All internal systems—including that of Uri Kajic—will become the property of the N’Kor Republic. The Surin reave will be sedated and undergo further Xarodine therapy. The AI you refer to as ‘the Box,’ serial number JW11110101110, will be ejected from the ship immediately. Any transmissions from said AI will be regarded as a violation of this agreement and as such will incur a penalty: the immediate execution of one of your party, starting with the Surin girl. Further transmissions will result in similar penalties. Do we understand each other?”
Roche didn’t answer immediately. She stared at the knotted scar tissue where Maii’s eyes had once been. She felt very tired.
<—a nuclear strike from a hundred meters,> she finished for the AI. She smiled, despite herself.
She stood and walked down the corridor, the way she had come. There she found Mavalhin cowering against the door. He started when he saw her, and wouldn’t meet her eyes. She didn’t care.
* * *
Outside the station, an airlock opened on the side of the Ana Vereine. A small black valise shot out of it and tumbled in the vague direction of Hintubet. The sun’s reddish glow was exacerbated by the hastening collapse of the Gauntlet, but it was still barely bright enough to paint a dull sheen on the battered case.
Roche watched through the Ana Vereine’s sensors as a Kesh singleship scooped the valise up with a pair of remote manipulators and took it aboard the Sebettu. So distracted was she by the view that the Kesh guard escorting her had to prod her roughly in the bare shoulder with a rifle butt to get her moving faster.
She winced and rubbed the new bruise he had given her. Her capture had been inglorious enough without being made to strip off her armor in front of everyone. Dressed only in her sweaty undersuit and handcuffs, she felt completely naked. That Haid, Disisto, and Mavalhin had been treated similarly didn’t make her feel any better. Maii lay back in her cell, her mind suppressed once more by the suffocating effects of the drug Xarodine. The only comfort Roche could take was that Galine Four’s internal gravity generators were still not working properly. The self-destruction of one of the Box’s drones right in the very heart of the station had done too much damage, and ambient gravity remained at about half normal.
“Where are you taking us?” she asked.
“The only time you’ll speak, Roche,” said Shak’ni from behind her, “is to give us information.”
INTERROGATION, HUH? Haid broadcast.
“You will cease any other forms of communication, too,” Shak’ni added. “You may only continue to receive information from your ship provided it is non-encrypted.”
The procession of guards and captives wound their way to freight elevators, then down into the heart of the station. At least that was something, Roche thought to herself. If they’d been taken to the destroyer, things would’ve become difficult indeed.
She watched through the Ana Vereine’s sensors as the Sebettu approached. In design it was little different from other Kesh craft—an odd combination of streamlined and prickly, as though an ordinary spaceship had been half- melted and stretched—but its size was impressive. A dozen Galine Fours would have fit easily into its holds. Its entire surface was pockmarked by retractable weapon emplacements, instrument clusters, and fighter launch bays. The intrasystem engines that brought it to an imposing halt beside the station radiated as much energy as a small sun.
She hoped Byrne had managed to get the outriggers away from the area. The spines were their only hope of survival. Although not capable of slow-jumping out of the Gauntlet, they did at least possess resources that would allow the outriggers to survive in the middle of nowhere.
When Roche realized what she was thinking, it occurred to her how ridiculous it was. The system was due to be totally destroyed in less than a day. Although the collapse of the boundary was initially slow, it would proceed exponentially. The double-jovian system had already succumbed; she had watched it dissolve into the invisible barrier like ice into fire just before the attack had begun. The region of space occupied by Galine Four would be gone in twelve hours. If the outriggers weren’t gone by then, no amount of supplies would save them.
All evidence of what had occurred here would be gone forever, she thought. It was the perfect situation in which to conduct a little genocide
The freight elevator opened opposite a window showing the hanging gardens at the heart of the station. The vibrant green contrasted sharply with the gloom of her situation, but she tried to take hope anyway. All was not yet lost. Not quite.
The guards led her to Rufo’s sanctum sanctorum. Its elegance and purity were unchanged, but she admired it less for the corruption she knew it hid. Rufo himself looked old and bitter despite his victory. His speech was rapid and sometimes hard to understand; he paced constantly, and he seemed unable to maintain eye contact with anyone but Haden B’shan; all of which, Roche noticed, he was apparently unaware.
A chair slid out of the floor beside her and she was forced into it. The others were treated likewise, despite Mavalhin’s protests. Disisto’s expression was tight-lipped, but he said nothing, seemingly confident that things would be sorted out with his boss soon enough. Haid sat straight in his chair and watched everything closely.
“So, Commander Roche.” Rufo spok
e with the disdain of a reproachful parent, stepping up to Morgan with his hands behind his back. “We meet again. Perhaps you will be more accommodating this time.”
“Perhaps you might show me the same courtesy,” Roche shot back.
Rufo shrugged, his eyes averted to the floor. “I suppose there were lies on both sides,” he acknowledged.
“Who was it that said that there are lies, and then there are damned lies?”
Rufo smiled humorlessly. “I believe the earliest recorded mention of that saying is some two hundred and fifty thousand years ago. The Human condition hasn’t changed much in that time, has it?”
“Obviously.”
“There will always be optimists whose dreams of a moral society are about as realistic, and as foolish, as those who believe in fate.”
“Look, Rufo,” said Roche, “we really don’t have time for this kind of banter. Why not just get on with it?”
He stopped pacing for a moment, but still his eyes wouldn’t meet hers. “Very well,” he said. “I want to know everything you know about Adoni Cane. And remember, Field Officer Shak’ni has his instructions, so please, no lies.”
Roche had already decided to tell him everything she knew. It wouldn’t hurt; he probably knew more than she did, anyway. So she started at the beginning—at Cane’s examination on Sciacca’s World—and brought him up to date. He nodded constantly, but didn’t say anything himself until she had finished.
“And you are satisfied with the explanation that he is a product of the Sol Apotheosis Movement—a Wunderkind, as they were called?”
“Not entirely,” she said. “There are inconsistencies.”
“Of course there are. We have images of these Wunderkind. They were quite remarkable.” A window opened above the desk; in it appeared a figure that looked as if it had been inflated with liquid helium. Its skin was bluish over limbs that bulged alarmingly. The scale next to it showed that it stood almost three meters high. “Do you agree?”
Startled, she didn’t know what to say. If Rufo had that image, then presumably COE Intelligence had it too. Why hadn’t the Box or her ex-superiors in COE Intelligence failed to notice the disparity between it and the near-perfect Pristine reality of Adoni Cane?