~ * ~
SIXTY-FIVE
The woman set the pace faster than Coop would have liked. Had he set the pace, he would have lingered and examined the walls, noting that the lights lining the edge of the ceiling were gray with unbonded nanobits. He would have asked someone, maybe Dix, how that was even possible. The nanobits were black; how had they turned gray?
But he didn’t. He walked rapidly to keep up with her, just like the rest of his team did.
She didn’t like the team. He could tell that from the start. She didn’t greet them, didn’t talk to them, didn’t seem at all curious about them. That edge of panic she’d had since he had told her he was going to the surface remained.
The corridors looked familiar and unfamiliar. He’d been in a thousand corridors just like this, in various sector bases. The newer sector bases had smooth corridor walls like this, or the newer corridors had them, before someone went in and reprogrammed the nanobits to make some kind of art. The reprogrammings were limited in time, so that various artists had a chance to work. He never knew what he would see going through a corridor, from representational art to calligraphy to school projects by very young children.
What had been here when he left was long gone, no longer even remembered.
If she was right.
They rounded a corner and the light changed. Natural light filtered in with the lighting created by nanobits. The team wasn’t far from the opening.
They rounded one more corner, and there were four vehicles parked side by side.
His breath caught and he looked at the woman. She looked relieved to see them.
“Tell her to wait for us,” he said to the lieutenant.
He studied the vehicles. Flat, open, with bench seats and controls that looked primitive. He walked to the nearest, ran his hand along the edge, and shook his head slightly.
What had happened here? He had left a thriving community filled with scientists, engineers, and intellectuals, a community that used the cutting edge of the Fleet’s technology to build these caverns as well as the repair room, to keep the anacapa running and to create a city above.
He had returned to a place with technology that looked ancient and unwieldy, to people who did not speak his language and who thought energy spikes that blew holes in the ground were some kind natural phenomenon that they superstitiously called death holes.
“Coop?” Dix came up beside him. “She wants us to go up in these things?”
“I haven’t asked,” Coop said, “but since they’re the only vehicles here, I’d think the answer is yes.”
He walked around them and headed to the opening of the caves. The ladder remained, carved into the walls, just like he remembered. But the opening was twice as high as he remembered. That climb would tire all of them.
The woman spoke.
“She says you don’t want to do that,” the lieutenant said. “She did it a few weeks ago, and it exhausted her.”
Coop turned and looked at the woman. She had her arms crossed. “Did these vehicles fail?”
“There was a groundquake when we arrived.” The lieutenant didn’t even translate his comment. She had known this. “It destroyed their vehicles. She’s the one who climbed out for help.”
Coop watched the woman as Al-Nasir translated for her. She climbed out for help, even though her people looked fit. She didn’t command others to do the hard tasks. She did them herself.
She might not have a military force, but she acted like a leader.
He walked over to her, the lieutenant trailing him.
“Please,” he said in her language. Then he had to use his. “Sit beside me as we go to the surface.”
She didn’t take her gaze off his face as Al-Nasir translated for her. “Why?” she asked.
He wasn’t sure why. If he were to give a reason, he would say that he didn’t want her to go first to warn people on the surface, but that wasn’t the reason. Whether she was right about the five thousand years or not, something was very wrong at this place, and she had nothing to do with the wrongness.
He wanted her beside him because, even though they didn’t speak the same language, they had the same attitude toward the people under their command. It was a small bond, but it was the only one he had at the moment, and he valued it.
He didn’t say that. Instead, he said, “So you can explain what I’m seeing.”
She sighed and looked at the vehicles. Then she said, “I’m driving.”
“Perhaps she’d better show the rest of us how to drive these things,” Dix said softly to Coop.
He nodded. “We’re going to send a team up first,” he said to the woman. “Would you show Rossetti how to pilot this?”
The woman beckoned Al-Nasir, then walked with Rossetti to the vehicle closest to the opening. Both women leaned over the controls. The woman spoke as her hands illustrated her instructions.
“I got it,” Rossetti said to Coop. “It’s pretty straightforward.”
“You hope,” he said.
“You hope,” she said.
“Make sure there’s no one waiting for us up there,” he said. “If there is, and there are too many of them, come right back down.”
“Got it,” she said. She picked a team of three, and they climbed into the vehicle. Then she got in and started it. It immediately rose an inch above the ground. She did something that Coop couldn’t see and it wobbled precariously, then righted itself and floated slowly upward.
“Teams of four,” Coop said to the others. “Dix, you’re in the next vehicle.”
“Yes, sir,” Dix said.
“Perkins, you’re with me and our guests,” Coop said.
She nodded.
Everyone else got into the various vehicles. Dix’s vehicle slowly followed Rossetti’s. Then the next vehicle.
The woman climbed into the last vehicle, her hands moving with an expertise that none of his people showed. He shouldn’t have trusted her to do this, but he did. Even though he knew she could upend the entire vehicle and hurt both him and Perkins, or maybe even kill them.
Theirs was the only vehicle that floated up smoothly without a single wobble. The cave’s opening narrowed toward the top, but there was still plenty of room to go out.
The other vehicles had landed around the opening. Several of his people had gathered around two other people, preventing them from moving, maybe even detaining them.
The ground didn’t look the same; he remembered dozens of buildings here, vehicles, people. Now there was only one outbuilding, the opening, and a broad expanse of dirt.
“Can you ask her to take it high enough so that I can see the city?” Coop asked.
The lieutenant complied.
The woman let the vehicle rise even higher.
Along the mountainsides, he saw buildings, more than he could have imagined. The city had sprawled outward. He looked into the valley and saw some buildings, but not nearly as many as he expected.
But the ground itself was familiar. He knew the peaks on those mountains, recognized the orangish red color of the sky. The air smelled right—a mixture of dryness and something a little sweeter than any other place he had ever been.
His heart ached.
This was—or had been—Venice City. He was on Wyr. He recognized the mountains, the valley, this little bit of the planet itself.
But the city, the city was terrifyingly unfamiliar.
No city grew like that in a few years.
“What happened to the valley?” he asked through the lieutenant.
“Death holes,” the woman said. “I’m told it wasn’t safe to live in the old city any longer.”
Death holes. For centuries. The anacapa had been malfunctioning for centuries.
He was shaking. This was what he wanted—some kind of confirmation that the Venice City of his memory had become something else.
Years had clearly passed, but he had no way to know if there were eight hundred years or five thousand.
Although no military force awaited them. And, he realized, the woman had no reason to lie.
“You want me to go higher?” she asked through the lieutenant.
“No,” he said in her language. “Thank you.”
She moved the vehicle toward a landing spot and slowly brought it down.
He glanced at his team. Rossetti was standing on the edge of the landing area, staring at the city beyond. Dix was beside her. Four of his men had detained two heavyset men who were dressed in brown uniforms.
“Those two men,” Coop said to the woman, “are they yours?”
“No,” she said with force. “They’re our guides. The Vaycehnese government insists that they accompany us at all times.”
“Locals,” he said.
“Yes,” she said. “They know the history of Vaycehn. You can probably ask them all the questions you want.”
He studied them. They looked confused and terrified. They clearly hadn’t expected a force to come out of the caves.
Talking to them would be easy. But he wasn’t ready for easy.
Besides, they could lie to him.
He needed someone not connected to the woman and her friends.
“Later,” he said. “Is the old city habitable?”
“Yes,” the woman said.
“Then I’d like to get close. I’d like to see it.”
She gave him a sideways look, filled with something—sadness? Compassion? He didn’t know, and he wasn’t going to analyze it.
“We can take the cart,” she said, and without giving him a moment to answer, let it rise.
He felt dizzy for a half second as he realized what she could do. She could take him and Perkins into the city, without the rest of his team.
But she didn’t. She hovered there while he instructed everyone except the four guarding the guides to get into their vehicles and follow her.
They did, and then she led the way, driving the vehicle above a mountain road as if she had done this every single day of her life.
~ * ~
SIXTY-SIX
As we rise out of the cave, I say to Al-Nasir, “See if you can reach anyone from our group.”
I’m hoping he can’t. Right now, they should be on our ships, heading toward the Business. Our communicators are for land only, and have limited range. We shouldn’t be able to reach anyone if they’re off-planet.
He nods. I glance over my shoulder at the captain and his lieutenant. The captain’s expression is fixed, but he can’t control the slight frown forming between his eyes. He recognizes Wyr.
I recognize the guides, surrounded by the captain’s people, and I curse. The two men are our two most regular guides. They know all of us. They were probably wondering why most of the group left, and why they insisted on having four hovercarts waiting below ground. And I’ll wager that none of my people took time to explain beyond “Boss wants it.”
When the first hovercart rose out of the cave, those guides had to know why I wanted it. They were probably shocked at seeing a military group, but these two guides know their stuff. And as they tried to flee, I’m sure they contacted someone. Police, the guide office, the regular government—I have no idea.
But someone in authority on Vaycehn now knows that we’ve brought military to the edge of the city, somehow.
The captain really isn’t noticing any of this. He’s asking me questions about the city, about death holes. I’m keeping my eye on Al-Nasir, whose gaze is focused far off.
So far, so good. I can tell just by his expression that he hasn’t contacted anyone.
I’m not sure what we’re going to do next. That’s the captain’s decision, although at some point I have to tell him that the city government knows about us. I’m hoping he’ll just look around and then go back below ground.
I try to lead him in that direction when I ask him if he wants to go higher.
Of course, he doesn’t. He wants to get as close to the old city as he can.
I’m going to stay in control of this cart and keep the right height. If I see locals heading this way, I’m turning us around, no matter what the captain says.
We float several meters above the ground. The air is hot, particularly after a day spent inside the room. Some kind of insect buzzes to my right. The city sprawls below us and around us. It’s familiar to me now, but to him, it must look like some crazy quilt made of the remnants of a place he once knew.
If it’s that familiar at all.
“Where are you?” Al-Nasir says, putting a hand to his ear. I glance over at him.
His gaze meets mine. He looks terrified.
“Who are you talking to?” I ask.
“Mikk,” he says.
I curse. Behind me, I can hear the lieutenant attempting to translate. I don’t give a damn. Instead, I set the cart to hover right here, over just a road and bare patch of ground, and I tune in. I hear Mikk’s voice saying, “… locked down. I’m not sure what we can do.”
“Mikk,” I say. “How many are with you?”
“Four,” he says. “Boss, we’re in deep trouble here. I can see the spaceport from here, and there are a lot of official vehicles. Several passed us as we came over the rise. We’re trapped.”
I curse. “Can you get out of the area?”
“I think so,” Mikk says. “No one seems to have noticed us yet.”
“Keep it that way. Come to the caves. I’ll see what I can do. Let me know if there’s trouble.”
“Oh, there’s trouble,” Mikk says. “I’ll let you know if it gets worse.”
He signs off.
I whip the hovercart around and head back to the cave opening.
“What’s going on?” the captain asks. The lieutenant translates, but it’s not necessary. It’s pretty clear what he asked even before he asked it.
“Just like I told you,” I say. “We’re in trouble now. The guides let the authorities know about your little invasion force and now the rest of my team can’t get off-planet.”
“They had two hours,” the lieutenant says before she translates for the captain.
“Yes, they did,” I snap. “And clearly that wasn’t enough time.”
“What will happen to them?” she asks.
“Arrest, a trial for treason within the Empire, probably. And then the Empire will know about you, your ship, the underground room, and the fact that there are now what—five hundred?—people somewhere in the area who not only know how to operate stealth tech, but can repair and build it.” I curse again.
She translates. We reach the top of the rise. Al-Nasir is holding onto the front of the cart for balance, which means my driving is a little shaky, not that I care.
We land near the other hovercarts.
I turn in my seat and lean toward the captain. To his credit, he doesn’t lean back, and most people do when I get angry at them.
And he knows I’m angry.
“You can get out here,” I say. “If you want to be suicidal enough to go into that city, be my guest. But you’re going without me and Fahd. If you want to learn the history of the area without going in, talk to the damn guides. They’re trained in Vaycehnese history. They’ll be able to tell you more than I can.”
The lieutenant simultaneously translates, but neither of them move to get out of the vehicle.
“Get out,” I say.
“What are you going to do?” he asks through her.
“I have no idea,” I say. “I’m hoping they make it up here. Then I’m going to see if we have enough time to get a skip down from the Business—that’s my ship in orbit—to load up the group before the authorities get here. Otherwise, we’re all in trouble. Unless you want to have an old-fashioned shootout like the Fleet of legend, protecting the underdog.”
I say that sarcastically, but I’m half hoping he’ll say yes. It’s our only hope. We need their military might to protect my people long enough for one of my ships to get down here.
His frown grows. “Why can’t they just come wi
th us to the ship?”
I roll my eyes. These people really don’t know the trouble they’ve caused, do they? And somehow I’m elected to tell them.
“Because it will kill them. They don’t have the genetic marker. They can’t go into a stealth-tech field without dying.”
He stares at me as the lieutenant translates.
And then he smiles just a little and shakes his head.
“No,” he says in my language. “No.”
Then he talks rapidly, and I don’t understand a word until the lieutenant translates.
“It’s fine,” she says for him. “Anyone can go in and out of what you call a stealth-tech field—”
“Not anymore,” I say before she finishes her translation. “Something has gone horribly wrong.”
“No,” she says. “If what you say about stealth tech is true, then no one we meet in our travels could go in our ships or onto our bases. We could not interact with the populations we meet, and that’s not true at all. What you call stealth tech is only deadly when it malfunctions. The genetic marker that you discovered only functions in that circumstance. It allows us to repair our own field—and to survive in it, should something go wrong.”
I pause, struggling to understand. “You think my people will survive going into your ship?”
“We’re fixing the… drive now,” she says, using a word I don’t know and don’t understand. “Ours is repaired. You watched us work on the one in the room. As Captain Cooper said, it is an easy fix. It should be done when we get back.”
“Should be,” I say. “If not, five of my people will die.”
He speaks. She translates: “They could die anyway. If the authorities shoot first trying to capture them. I take it you do not know what these Vaycehnese will do now that we’re here.”
“That’s right,” I say.
“Waiting for your skip, which might not make it to the planet, is not an option. We will help you.”
“You will attack people you’ve just met?” I ask him.
His gaze meets mine. “We will rescue people who have done nothing more than help us.”
I study him. He seems determined.
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