by M. R. Forbes
He picked one of them up, checked the energy level, and carried it from the room.
"Good hunting, Major," Spaceman Ewing said as he headed toward one of the transport beams.
"Thanks," Gabriel replied.
He reached the beam a minute later, taking a deep breath as he prepared himself to enter it. He still found the technology a little frightening, probably because he didn't understand how it worked. He stepped in, lowering his hands for a moment and then coming to a stop at the bottom of the fortress, on the same level as the cloning factory. If the replicator was a similar thing, only for inanimate objects, then this was probably where it would be found. If he happened across anyone else, he would be sure to ask them.
As he moved into the dim corridors alone, he began to wonder if, like Colonel Choi, he was overtired enough to be doing something stupid.
TWENTY
THE FEAR OF THE unknown began to wear off as Gabriel navigated through the Dread ship, spending most of his time alone until he finally made his way out into the open space where the clone factory was found. He smiled, impressed with himself for finding his way to it, and from a different entrance. Then he scanned the area beyond the factory. There were three more corridors branching off from it, heading further into the fortress. He was sure he was going to follow one of them, but which one?
He decided on the middle and started crossing the open area beside the cloning facility to reach it. He had only gone a few steps when he noticed movement in the corner of his eye. He paused, turning to see what it was, growing curious when he saw Tea'va moving from an adjoining hallway toward the factory.
He was going to head over to meet him, but decided against it, choosing to observe instead. Tea'va took long strides to the facility's entrance, his head remaining straight, his posture much more rigid and proud than Gabriel was used to. The bek'hai didn't look around, and didn't seem to notice him standing there.
What would he be doing, going into the factory by himself when he was supposed to be healing? And why had he told Theodore he would need to rest if he didn't?
Gabriel took a few steps toward the factory before stopping. What was he going to do? Confront the Dread warrior? He had seen Tea'va fight. If he were doing something subversive and was caught in the act, he could kill Gabriel with little effort.
He decided not to follow. Whatever it was, he could have Zoelle look into it later. Not that he could necessarily trust anything she said about it, but if one or both of them was playing games with their new human companions, it was only fair that the humans played them back. Either way, he didn't like secrets, and he could feel his trust in the bek'hai beginning to wane.
He pushed the thought aside, returning to his original plan. He crossed the open space to the center corridor, heading through it without hesitation. He began traveling down another long, glowing black hallway, his rifle resting on his shoulder.
As he walked, he found his mind wandering, thinking about Miranda. They had always been friends, but lately, he was starting to feel so much more for her. An attachment that hadn't been there before. Something had changed between them, and he liked it.
He also felt guilty about it. But how long was he supposed to mourn? How long was he supposed to be alone? Jessica would have wanted him to be happy, and she had been friends with Miranda, too. Wasn't it a good match?
He reached an intersection in the corridor, still distracted by his thoughts.
He almost walked right into a plasma bolt.
It hit the wall beside him, only centimeters from his face, so close he felt the burn of it as it was absorbed by the lek'shah plating. He caught himself, stumbling back the way he had come, getting under cover around the corner and dropping his rifle into his arms.
What the hell?
Another bolt sizzled past, smacking the wall again. Close. Too close. He looked back the way he had come. He had gotten too distracted, and hadn't been paying attention. He knew he had stayed in this corridor the whole time, but he could see there were other intersections branching off from it.
He retreated, running from the threat. He didn't know who was shooting at him yet, or why. If it was a pur'dahm, he was sure he was going to die.
He fired back as he went, his bolts wild. Someone turned the corner behind him. A mother. Two more followed. They traded fire with him, and he ducked around another corner.
He hadn't expected them to be this close to the cloning facility. Why hadn't Graham's team sniffed these out? He growled under his breath as the plasma bolts flowed past, slapping harmlessly into the walls. He couldn't make it back down the hallway. He needed to reach a functional space where there might be a static comm link and call in for help.
He started running again, down the adjacent corridor, trying to keep track of his movements in his head as he fled. Left, left, right, straight three intersections, left, right. He kept going, the mothers staying behind him, keeping up the chase. He was faster than them, allowing him to stay ahead of their attacks, but he couldn't keep going forever.
He had been right. He was stupid for coming down here alone.
He finally reached the end of the hallway, running out into another large, open space, similar to the one where the cloning facility rested. His eyes shifted nervously as he sought another avenue to run down or for a place to hide.
He froze as a strange smell reached into his nostrils, making his nose feel as though it were burning. Next, he noticed a dark pile near the far end of the space, and that the ground was littered with rough, black rocks.
What was this place?
He ran out of time to think about it. He heard the mothers coming. He had to get away from them.
He hurried into the space, reaching one of the rocks and crouching down behind it. The mothers appeared a moment later, entering the massive chamber before coming to a stop.
Gabriel stood, aiming his rifle, ready to shoot them.
They dropped their weapons. They weren't even looking at him.
He followed their gaze to the back of the space, where an inky darkness replaced the dim glow of the luminescent moss. He felt a chill run down his arms when he thought he saw something move. He ducked back behind the rock, something in him telling him to be very afraid.
It moved from the darkness like an extension of it, though the corners of the scales that covered its body seemed to catch a small portion of the light and throw it back, bending it at an odd angle as it did. It was fast, terrifyingly fast as it slithered across the open space, ignoring every obstacle in a direct line toward the mothers.
They cried out as it approached them, raising their rifles and firing. Gabriel watched the plasma bolts smack harmlessly against the creature's scaly carapace. Then he watched as a short arm reached from the front of the creature, grabbing one of the mothers and squeezing. He felt sick as he watched her compress beneath the thing's claws, and he ducked back to his hiding place.
How had he managed to go from bad to worse?
And why did the Dread have a literal monster moving freely inside of a starship?
The remaining mothers managed to get moving. One of them made it back out of the room, far enough into the adjoining corridor that the large creature wouldn't be able to reach her. The second wasn't as lucky, and she cried out as it stabbed her with its claw, running her through, lifting her from the ground and tossing the carcass aside.
Gabriel looked around, trying to find a way out as the creature slowed and came to a stop, blocking the way he had come. He got a look at its face now, bony and angled, ridged and rough and covered in smaller scales. It looked vaguely familiar to him, but much more threatening. It opened its mouth, revealing a row of long teeth. A low groan sounded from it. Its nostrils flared, and a large tongue flicked out.
It knew he was there, and it was looking for him.
He swallowed hard, his heart racing. There was no way past it, no way to outrun it. He could only hope that it wouldn't be able to find him. He tried to duck even lowe
r, but couldn't without shifting too much and risking being seen or heard.
The creature began to slither forward, slowly moving in his general direction, its head bobbing as it tried to get a bead on him. Gabriel cradled his rifle, trying to decide if he should shoot at it. He had seen the plasma strike harmlessly against the scales.
He froze for a second time as he realized what he was looking at.
Reza had said that a large portion of the Dread technology had an organic component. The walls, the wiring, everything. His father had even made a joke that there had to be a farm somewhere in the ship to provide replacement parts.
Except it wasn't a joke. He had accidentally stumbled onto the farm, and now he was about to be killed by one of the cows.
How did the Dread manage to keep this thing under control?
He held his breath as the monster came closer, still hoping it wouldn't notice him and would go away. The burning smell was stronger now, and his nose felt like it was on fire. He wanted to rub it, to hold it, to do something, but couldn't. His eyes began to water.
Without warning, the creature darted forward, rising up on its serpentine rear, pressing forward and looming over him. He brought the rifle up, as useless as it would be, his finger moving to the trigger.
"Kel'esh! Dokur huruhm bek."
A gravelly voice echoed across the large space, reverberating and repeating itself. Something approached Gabriel from behind, even as the monster in front of him suddenly became still.
He felt sharp fingers on his shoulder a moment later. He turned, coming face-to-face with what almost looked like a miniaturized version of the creature, blended with something else entirely. It was dark and demonic looking, reptilian and raw, and at the same time intelligent. Its eyes regarded him with curiosity, interest, and humor.
"You do not belong in here, Heil'bek," it said in rough English.
It knew who he was? How?
"I am lek'hai It'kek," it said. "A keeper of the legri'shah." It pointed at the creature.
"You're a bek'hai," Gabriel said, making the connection. "Not a human clone."
"A keeper is a clone, but not human," It'kek agreed. "Only the original bek'hai can commune with our forebears. Our visage is outlawed among our people. Our place in society secret and sacred."
"Why didn't you let it attack me?"
"We are keepers, not killers, and while the drumhr know better than to enter our place, you humans do not."
"But you let it attack the mothers?"
"They are lor'hai. Replaceable. You are not."
"That may be true, but we're supposed to be enemies."
"Are we? Your kind had something our kind required. The Domo'dahm chose to take it, instead of asking. You have done me no wrong. You are not my enemy unless you choose to be." It let out a soft hiss that Gabriel took for a laugh or a sigh. "You are within your rights to do so."
"You saved my life. I guess we're even?"
The keeper hissed again. "You remind me of your mother, Heil'bek."
Gabriel had calmed some once he knew he wasn't going to die. His heart began to thump again. "How do you know my mother?"
"We can smell her in you. We knew her. All of the keepers did. The Domo'dahm's pet human. His keepsake. She was like you. She was curious. She came to us. We spoke. She touched many within the bek'hai, with her words of kindness and compassion for all things. We weren't always like the drumhr, Heil'bek. We weren't always like the pur'dahm. Only in the beginning. And perhaps, in the end."
"There's a clone on this ship, Zoelle. Do you know her?"
"We see and hear everything that happens within the domo'shah."
"Is she really my mother?"
"We don't know. She has never come to us."
He couldn't hold that against her if she had only just remembered who she was, as she claimed.
"If I bring her to you, would you know the difference between her and a clone?"
"Yes. We would know."
"Thank you for helping me. I was looking for the assemblers when the mothers attacked me. Do you know how to get there?"
"We will show you our way, Heil'bek. Once you have left this chamber, do not return to it. Now that you know to stay away, we will not stop the legri'shah from attacking you again."
"What if I need to talk to you?"
"We will show you where to come. Where it is safe. Do not come this way."
"I understand. What I don't get is why you are helping me?"
"For your mother. For peace. As we said, this war is not our war. We do not agree with the Domo'dahm."
"Why didn't you stop him?"
"We are powerless to stop him. We are only keepers."
"But you control the legri'shah. The key to their survival."
"The legri'shah are prisoners on the domo'shah. As are the keepers. As are the lor'hai. As are the humans. The Domo'dahm takes many prisoners. The benefit of the few to the distress of the many. Remember that, Heil'bek. That is the truth of the bek'hai. Most of the bek'hai."
It'kek turned and began walking. Gabriel was nervous about turning his back on the legri'shah, but it hadn't moved at all since the keeper had yelled at it. He backed away from the creature, trailing behind It'kek. He would have never expected what he had found down here. It wasn't only a piece of the secret behind the Dread's technology. It was a truth he was sure most didn't know about.
"It'kek," he said as they neared another corridor that had been hidden in the darkness at the rear of the chamber. "If the domo'shah is made of legri'shah scales, if all of the Dread technology is made from these things, there must have been a lot of them on your home world before it was destroyed."
"Millions, Heil'bek," It'kek replied. "Until the hunters nearly made them extinct. Only then did the bek'hai learn to care for the legri'shah. Only once we realized how much we needed them to survive."
TWENTY-ONE
THE KEEPER BROUGHT GABRIEL to a transport beam hidden in one of the access tunnels, normally used only to travel to the assemblers for the tools and supplies they needed to do their work in the belly of the fortress. Once there, It'kek gave him detailed directions to navigate the area, as well as a suggestion on where to find Reza and Zoelle. Gabriel tried to get the keeper to come with him, to smell the clone and determine if she was telling the truth, but he refused to leave the legri'shah after its interaction with him had made it upset.
Gabriel would have laughed at that statement if It'kek hadn't said it with such serious reverence.
The transport beam brought Gabriel to the assemblers, which were almost what he and Colonel Choi had originally believed them to be. Machines that were able to create nearly anything from nothing by reconstituting them from their original atomic structure using base resources culled from other matter. The facility itself was composed of row after row of storage tanks which contained the fuel for the assemblers, which ranged in size from a few meters to large enough to produce an entire mechanized armor.
Looking at the technology, it was clear the Dread weren't limited by how quickly they could produce the things they needed. Instead, they were limited in specific raw materials to convert. He imagined there was another facility for that process somewhere nearby, but it wasn't obvious from his current position.
It didn't take him long to find Zoelle and Reza, once he was certain he was in the right place. He found the scientist and the clone where It'kek had suggested, in the control space where the molecular breakdown of new materials to copy was recorded. They were alone in the room, standing on opposite sides of a flat counter where a blue light was shining down on the rifle Reza had modified to create the darkspace shield. Reza looked somewhat bored with the process, but Zoelle was following it with intense interest, studying the updated design.
They both looked up when he walked in. Reza smiled when he saw Gabriel. Zoelle gained a look of concern.
"Gabriel? What happened to you?" she asked.
He hadn't thought about how he must look after being s
hot at and almost crushed by a legri'shah. "I was looking for you, but I took a wrong turn somewhere and wound up on the farm."
"Farm?" Zoelle said, before understanding set in. "You ran into a legri'shah den?"
"It was an accident. A keeper kept it from eating me."
"Legri'shah don't eat meat," Zoelle said. "It would have killed you for invading its territory. You're lucky there was a keeper nearby."
"Why didn't you tell us the Dread have those things on board?"
"Would it make a difference?"
Gabriel paused. "No, probably not. It'kek told me that there used to be millions of them on the bek'hai home world."
"Yes. Many of them were slaughtered during the bek'hai civil wars, the need to produce more and more weaponry overriding all sense. Now, they can keep only a few on each ship. It is the reason the bek'hai can't build more domo'shah, and can only expand so far. It is fortunate for us."
"You should come down to see the keepers with me," Gabriel said. "I was told you used to visit with them quite often."
Zoelle stared at him for a few seconds and then nodded. "I did. I remember now. So many things are still vague to me. So many things I still can't recall. Did your father send you down here?"
"No. I came on my own. Miranda suggested I should try to get to know you better."
"Miranda?"
"Spaceman Locke. She sits near the command dais."
"The woman with the brown hair?"
"That's her."
She smiled. "Your father told me you have an attraction to her."
How did he know? "You could say that. Anyway, don't let me interfere. I just thought I would observe whatever it is you're doing."
"What we're doing," Reza said, "is converting the tech in this rifle to something we can reproduce. Zoelle has been giving me a quick education in basic bek'hai technology at the same time. It's fascinating stuff."
"You looked bored before I came in."
"We were taking a break while it builds a prototype."
"Your engineer is a genius, Gabriel," Zoelle said. "His approach to the problem is unlike anything I've seen before. Now I understand how you were able to get onto the ship and absorb the attack from the main plasma cannon. You should be very proud of yourself, Reza."
