Together they all trooped through the lifts and tram to E9.
Sissy walked around and around each of the seven huge drums, listening to them, feeling their vibrations. Soaking in their Discord and their need to regain Harmony.
The dogs followed her, ears cocked, noses working.
“There is no way to get into the mechanisms that I can find,” Jake said, following her closely, with the girls right behind him. “But, I think if we can get those rods humming in concert with the drum casing, we should be able to adjust them and get the station back on track. I’ve got my people in Control monitoring everything. They’ll tell us when we’ve done it right.”
“I’ll know when we’ve done it right.”
“I just can’t figure out how Adrial had the strength to do this—or had the knowledge of what to do.” He shook his head, staring at the rods sticking out at odd angles.
“She had the strength and intuition of several extra personalities, all warped and combined,” Sissy replied. “The visions . . .”
“Every one of those personalities became part of her need to leave no trace of her passing, even in the memories of those who helped her.” Jake looked as if he needed to cry. Or hit something. Hard.
Putting all of his strength into this chore before them, accomplishing the impossible, should help smooth his temper. Doing it in concert with her and the girls would help balance his mind and spirit even more.
“She was so fascinated by music that some of it must have crept into her subconscious,” Sissy said.
“She found the music but not the Harmony,” Jake confirmed. “A different tune for each race.”
“Suzie, Sharan, climb up with Jake and keep a careful eye on the rods. You should see a slight change of color, or a scratch, or something when he pulls them out to the former length. Sarah and Bella, please take the descant. Mary and Martha, find the alto harmony. I’ll take the primary hymn. A different race set the rods. The music will resonate to a different planet and Goddess.”
Sissy drew a deep breath, grounding her perceptions in the station as a whole.
“Jake, I’ll need one of your Badger Metal blades.” She held out her hand, knowing he’d comply.
When the cool ceramic metal alloy lay flat across her palm, she hummed a note. Instantly the matrix in the tool shivered in response.
Jake stared at his knife in wonder. Then he laughed long and hard.
“What’s so funny?”
“I finally get it. I know why we couldn’t reverse engineer Badger Metal. It’s not the combination of elements or heat and pressure. It’s sonics! As the alloy knits together, it’s blasted with predetermined sounds. The music of the universe is woven into the alloy.”
“The music of the universe is woven into all of us. Just different tunes. I wonder if each race needs a different set of . . . sonics . . . for Badger Metal to truly protect them in space?” Sissy mused.
“Each race has different sensitivities to the radiation of space, as they have different nutritional needs based on their home world evolution. They need different harmonies in the Badger Metal hull plating to properly protect them. That’s why the Squids began dying. They switched to human Badger Metal. The Maril changed their sensitivities when they tinkered with their DNA!”
Sissy rapped the humming blade against the drum’s exterior, caught the clanging note, held it, then pushed it upward into a soaring hymn of praise for the wonder of the space station that became a crossroad for trade and diplomacy. For the neutral location that granted her a chance to be with Jake.
Her girls joined in, bringing the music into a grander harmony.
Jake’s boots banging against the metal disrupted the music. But she added that tentative discord into the mix and found a place for it in the new universe of the propulsion engine and the music and the thrumming of the Badger Metal in her hand, in Jake’s insignia stars, and the other weapons he carried.
Sissy felt the mechanism respond, needing to join in her song. Jake’s shout of triumph as he wiggled the first rod into a new position became one more piece of the scattered universe seeking a home within the puzzle of life.
Over and over she sang the hymn, adding chords and syncopation as Jake moved each rod into place, correcting the wrong, enhancing the right.
Her body and mind swayed with fatigue. The girls took her hands, holding tightly to her and to the music.
A ghostly refrained echoed and enhanced their hymn.
Together they found solace and continuance in the joining. They sang and sang until there were no more songs to sing, no more chords to complete.
A subtle note of triumph and thanks swelled to encompass the air and the entire station. All the power plants moved into Harmony with the corrected propulsion engines.
Jake jumped down from the last drum, wrapped her in his arms, and kissed her with his entire soul. “We belong together, my Sissy. We’ll find a way.”
“Harmony will guide us. Just as I trust Her to guide Mac and Adrial to a new life together.”
EPILOGUE
Jake stood back and watched the subdued throng of passengers waiting for clearance to enter their Harmony-bound transport. No one dared board until the VIPs arrived and took their august places.
The ghost of Laud Gregor kept silent vigil beside him.
“You going to attend your own funeral, My Laud?” Jake asked sotto voce.
Gregor shrugged, complacent in death as he hadn’t been in life. “If you’re waiting for me to apprehend Adrial, you have a long wait coming. I have no idea if they survived.”
His sensors and patrols had found no bodies floating in space.
They must have survived. Jake wasn’t about to give up hope that the strange pair of aliens had found refuge in time. Mac knew how to hide from every sensor ever invented. Adrial had learned more than a few tricks from him and had likely taught him a few of her own.
Jake’s green class A uniform itched and nearly choked him. In all of human history, no one had ever designed a comfortable class A. Repeatedly he touched the cool black crystal stars on his upright collar. A tingle of anticipation ran through his fingertips each time, followed by an faint chime of melodic bells at the lowest level of hearing
That was the Badger Metal woven into the crystal matrix. That was the music of the universe finding a home.
In all the concessions both Harmony and the CSS had made, the formulas for Badger Metal to plate spaceship hulls and black crystals to improve cross galaxy communication were not among them. They were Harmony’s primary bargaining chip. They had already begun working on variations tailored to each race.
Jake wanted them to keep the monopoly. For Sissy’s sake. For his own.
In this restless hour while waiting to send High Priest Gregor home for burial, Jake felt as if he belonged as much to Harmony as he did the CSS.
The thought of Badger Metal blades available to one and all scared him.
The more people who had the formulas, the more easily the Maril could steal them. The avian aliens might want to talk now, but they were still officially at war with both the CSS and Harmony. He and his people had endured too much pain, loss, and hardship during the war to immediately forgive or welcome them.
To trust them.
A rustle of movement around the lift alerted him. A cortege of Harmonite Military officers stepped off the rotating platforms, followed by a green-draped casket on a lift cart.
Everyone stilled and bowed.
Jake had to do the same. He couldn’t help himself. Gregor had been shortsighted, ruthless, arrogant, and selfish. But he’d remained true to his convictions in running the Temple and the government.
The ghost raised his eyebrows in surprise at Jake’s show of respect.
“You’re dead. You can’t hurt Sissy anymore,” Jake replied to the unvoiced question.
Gregor smirked.
“Just try it and I’ll get every psychic and priest in the galaxy to exorcise you, and send you back w
here you belong.”
That didn’t faze the ghost in the least.
Then Sissy appeared on the lift, framed by the mechanism’s archway. Her black regalia, complete with obscuring veil, shimmered in the shadows.
She stepped free, followed by her six acolytes in their corresponding gray brocaded robes. The brighter light of the reception area banished some of the mystery she projected but not her quiet authority.
“As awesome as ever,” Jake told the ghost.
Gregor nodded.
Sissy turned her head, finding Jake with her gaze. She held out a delicate hand.
Drawn to her like a magnet, he covered the distance between them in a few long strides. His hand slipped around hers, belonging there.
Gregor looked back and forth between Jake and the body being loaded into a special compartment aboard the ship. He took half a step to follow himself, then jerked back to hover behind Jake’s shoulder.
Great. Jake wasn’t going to banish this ghost as easily as he’d hoped.
“I won’t stay away from you any longer than I have to,” Sissy said loud enough for anyone who cared to hear.
“I await your return, impatiently. This place won’t be the same without you. I won’t be whole without you.” Jake bowed over their clasped hands, raised them and kissed her palm.
Sissy tilted her head back so the bead strands fell away from her face. “I have to do this, Jake.”
“Harmony needs you. I just hope She can spare you to return very quickly.”
Impulsively she threw her arms around him in a tight hug.
Jake rested his cheek against the heavy padding of her headdress, wishing he could touch more of her.
A soft chiming behind him announced the ship was ready to receive passengers.
He had to let her go. He already ached all over with loneliness and missing her.
“Have you got your inhaler handy?” he asked.
“Yes.” She put enough distance between them to fish the gadget out of her sleeve. Still, she kept one hand on his chest, as reluctant to separate as he.
“Mary and Martha, do you have backup inhalers?” He let his left hand linger on Sissy’s back, rubbing the silky fabric compulsively.
“Yes, Jake,” all six acolytes replied in unison. Each of the girls held up identical inhalers. The dosage meter on the ends showed them all full.
“Then I guess there is nothing to keep you . . . to keep . . .” He couldn’t say the rest. Couldn’t let her go so easily. Desperate, he pulled her close again. He closed his eyes, fighting the lump in his throat.
Someone cleared his throat sternly from behind Sissy.
Lord Lukan and Lady Jancee stood there, frowning in disapproval. Garrin turned his back so he didn’t have to watch the blasphemy of their High Priestess holding an out-of-caste alien so intimately.
Jake tried to put some distance between himself and Sissy.
“The Jake I fell in love with would not conform so readily,” she whispered, clinging as tightly as ever.
With a cockeyed grin, Jake lowered his head and kissed her soundly. Instantly her mouth softened beneath his.
She tasted so sweet, so warm and welcoming, as lovely as he’d dreamed.
He pressed the kiss deeper, molding his body to hers, cherishing the feel of her pressed against him. Even through way too many layers of clothing.
The sound of many hands clapping roused Jake from his enthrallment. The sound swelled, accompanied by many whoops of joy that echoed about the stark loading bay.
“You’ve made your point,” Lukan said. “You two intend to fight tradition to the very end. And it seems you have the support of too many of my people for me to block you.”
Jake eased away from the temptation of Sissy’s mouth. His gaze never left hers.
Out of the corner of his eye, he watched credit chits exchange hands. He wondered briefly what the odds on the bets had been.
Then he decided he didn’t care.
“I’m leaving my son as my deputy while I’m on Harmony,” Lukan continued. “He will look after my wife in the final weeks of her pregnancy. Should she go into labor before my return, I expect only properly authorized and lauded physicians and nurses to attend her.”
Jake nodded.
“But I’m sending his sister to balance his actions and attitudes as soon as I can. She will have final say in all decisions dealing with the CSS.”
Garrin and Jancee glared at the ambassador but said nothing.
“It’s time to go, Laudae,” Lukan said sternly.
“A moment more.”
He tsked in exasperation. “The empire awaits you. Our government is at a standstill—no one works, no one does anything but await your pleasure.”
With one last squeeze of Jake’s hands, Sissy stepped back and dropped her face so that the strands of glass beads and crystals fell into place. Then she glided toward the air lock, graceful, calm, in charge.
Jake waited a long time after the bay had cleared of passengers and well-wishers.
Gregor waited beside him.
Jake watched the monitors until the ship had backed away from the dock. He watched as it slid farther and farther away from the station. He watched as it sped toward the jump point.
He watched long after it had disappeared into hyperspace with a blur of motion.
He watched while Gregor paced wide circles around him.
At last, when he knew in his heart that Sissy could not return to him that day, he stepped aboard the lift and rose through level after level until he reached the tram.
He let the vehicle take him to another wing, a single wing, not close enough to any others to be part of a cluster. Recently, workers had prepared the light-G levels for a new diplomatic wing. Then they had hastily deserted the place.
Jake took the lift down to the first docking bay. Alone, as instructed, though he knew his marines waited quietly and fully armed in the maintenance tubes. Backing him up should anything go wrong.
He prayed they weren’t as trigger-happy as he wanted to be. How could they trust the new ambassadors? All of the CSS personnel had lost someone in the war. The need for vengeance was strong among them.
A new ship with odd markings mimicking red and black feathers was just matching hatch to dock. A flexible arm locked the two together. The same air lock that Adrial and Mac had disappeared through.
The bulkhead cycled open, and three Maril emerged, gliding gracefully across the metal deck. Ruby red feathers crowned their heads in flamboyant upright crests. Long surcoats matched their feathers. Stark black uniforms clothed the rest of their lithe bodies.
The one in the middle chirped something.
Jake cocked his head, puzzled. Then he passed them a small device Mara had put together with the Squid translator. He pointed to a matching one and inserted it into his ear. The Maril mimicked the action, finding a subtly delineated ear hidden among red feathers.
Instantly the chirps clarified into stilted words.
“We come in peace.”
Jake put his wariness behind him, available but not obvious.
Sissy had taught him there had to be a better way than war. She fought against traditions that held society so tightly it could not grow. He pushed aside his need for the war that had lasted hundreds of years.
“I welcome you in peace,” he replied and bowed deeply.
Copyright & Credits
Enigma
Confederated Star Systems, Book 2
C.F. Bentley
Book View Café: October 20, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-61138-552-6
Copyright © 2015 C.F. Bentley
First published: DAW 2009
Cover illustration © 2015 by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
Production Team:
Cover Design: Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
Proofreader: Sherwood Smith
Formatter: Vonda N. McIntyre
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. All resemblance to persons l
iving or dead is strictly coincidental.
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About the Author
C.F. Bentley has been writing stories ever since she figured out what a pencil was for. A member of an endangered species—a native Oregonian who lives in Oregon—she and her husband make their home in Welches, Oregon, where deer, bears, coyotes, hawks, owls, and woodpeckers feed regularly on their back deck.
A museum-trained historian, Charlotte Frost has spent many hours prowling pioneer cemeteries deepening her connections to the past. Raised in a military family she grew up all over the US and learned early on that books are friends that don’t get left behind with a move. Her interests and reading range from ancient history, to spiritual meditations, to space stations, and a whole lot in between.
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