Keris had little interest in conversation. She shifted position and forced his hands behind him. Producing a rope, she began tying his wrists tightly. He cried out, but she did not slacken her grip. As she worked, she began planning her next move.
The ideal solution would be to retrieve Boxx and fly the Chandara and her hu-man prisoner back to the ship in the captured avionic. Unfortunately, she did not know how to pilot the thing, and she certainly did not trust the hu-man enough to allow him anywhere near the controls. That meant that they would have to make their way back on foot. They might be able to return and retrieve the flying craft later, assuming Shann or Rael was still alive, or they could persuade one of the drach to pilot it.
She tied off the bindings to her satisfaction and then pushed her captive roughly forward. “Move.”
“Keris, what are you doing?” The voice came from the avionic’s tail section. Her head whipped around to see Lyall, flanked by Alondo, Shann, and Rael. Her mouth opened, closed, and then opened again. “Lyall?”
The tall, sandy-haired Kelanni stood with his hands on his hips. “Would you mind letting this hu-man go?”
“Why?” she demanded. “Who is he?”
“His name is Lafontaine,” Lyall said. “And he’s here to meet us.”
<><><><><>
Chapter 10
Emile Lafontaine sat on the ground, massaging his wrists. He pulled a blue kerchief from a hidden pocket and mopped his brow in spite of the cold.
“Merde. I’m getting too old for this.”
“Keris apologises for accosting you. Don’t you, Keris?” Lyall regarded the tall, dark-haired woman dangerously.
Keris returned his stare. The words stuck in her throat. “I’m... sorry.”
The hu-man ceased wiping his forehead and stared into the middle distance. “Keris... Keris... That name rings a bell... yes, of course. The ‘Heroine of Gort’. Or the ‘Foul Green-Skinned Traitor’. Depends who you talk to.” He glanced up at Keris as if remembering belatedly that she was still standing over him. “No offence.” Keris felt as if she had completely lost control of the situation. One moment everything was proceeding according to plan; the next...
The hu-man got to his feet awkwardly. “They say you saw off fifty men with your bare hands. I suppose I should be grateful that I came away with my skin intact.”
“That is not true,” Keris protested.
Alondo smiled. “Seems as if you’ve become a legend, Keris. Guess you’ll just have to live with it.”
Keris ignored him and cupped a hand to her mouth. “Boxx,” she called. Moments later, the Chandara came trotting up beside her. Lafontaine raised an eyebrow but said nothing. She turned back to Lyall. “May I ask what you’re doing, meeting up with a hu-man?”
“I’m pleased to see you too, Keris,” he replied. “This hu-man says he wants to help us.”
“Is that what he told you?” Keris asked.
“Yes.”
“And you believed him?”
Lyall turned to the hu-man. “You’ll have to forgive Keris. Her experience as Keltar has taught her to be suspicious of everyone.”
Lafontaine waved a dismissive hand. “I quite understand. Humans and Kelanni have a history of mistrust—largely due to the actions of my people when we arrived here. However, you should know that not all of us agree with the Captain. In fact, his support has dwindled down the years; he now has no more than two dozen hard-core followers. However, I’m afraid that he is still bent on the destruction of your people.”
“He wants our lodestone, doesn’t he?” Shann said.
“That’s right.” Lafontaine regarded each of them in turn. “Look, I asked you to meet me here because there is something nearby that I wanted to show you. Would you come with me?”
This is a trap—has to be, Keris thought. Before she could react, however, the elderly hu-man set off across the sandstone table and the others turned to follow. There was nothing she could do except go after them and see where this led. She took a moment to extract the flying cloak from her pack and fix the neck clasps; then she hurried after them, Boxx trotting faithfully at her side.
Lafontaine raised his voice so that all could hear. His hands moved excitedly as he walked. “When you look up at the night sky on Kelanni-Skell you can see thousands of stars, with tens of thousands of worlds revolving around them. And beyond that—beyond what the naked eye can discern—there are millions upon millions more. Now in all of that, how many places do you think lodestone can be found?” There was no reply; no one knew how to answer him. He turned and pointed towards the ground. “Here. As far as we know, this is the only place.”
The hu-man led off once more. “Your lodestone has great power—a power that the Kelanni are only beginning to glimpse. I’m not just talking about the Accumulator Device—the weapon that my people have constructed on this island. I’m talking about the power to propel you to the stars.
“My people use a different power—one based on the creation of the universe itself. We call it QDE or Quintessence Dark Energy. But it is unstable, particularly on long voyages. Everyone who goes forth into space knows that there is a risk that he or she could die in a pointless explosion. Your lodestone would take away that risk. It would provide a means of unlimited acceleration, of safe and stable space flight. That is something of immense value to my people—so much so that there are humans who would exterminate even an entire race to get their hands on it.
“When our ships arrived on your planet, Wang, the Captain, saw your people as primitives. The level of technology on Kelanni-Skell was two hundred years behind ours; on Kelanni-Drann, it was more like a seven hundred. Wang decided that the simplest solution would be to force your people into submission so that they would supply us with whatever quantity of lodestone we demanded. That led to the war sixteen standard years ago—the war we lost. The war cost the lives of many of our people, much of our equipment, and the total destruction of all but one of our ships.
“Wang did not give up. He devised a long-term plan to achieve his goal of power over the stone. It involved co-opting the religion and society of the less-developed side of the planet so that he could acquire enough lodestone to build the Accumulator Device and quell any organised resistance.
“People, however, were starting to question the Captain’s way of doing things. For some, the desire to get home was proving greater than their desire for wealth. Others were becoming disturbed at the morality of what we were doing. As we gathered anthropological data and, more especially, as we began to have dealings with your people, it became clear that yours was a far richer and more sophisticated culture than the Captain led us to believe. Centuries earlier on my planet, my ancestors thoughtlessly destroyed so-called primitive societies of fellow humans for profit—the Maya, the Inca, the North American Indian. Now we have moved out into space; yet despite all of our accumulated knowledge, we sadly do not appear to have learned from our mistakes.”
Shann frowned. “I don’t understand. If so many of your people were opposed to what was happening, why was it that they allowed the Kelanni of my world to be oppressed by the Prophet for so long?”
“There is a twofold answer to that.” Lafontaine presented two bony fingers, ticking them off one by one. “The first has to do with...
‘spacer culture’, I suppose you would call it. Space is a dangerous place, made more so by the QDE drive that humans rely on. Emergencies can arise suddenly and unexpectedly. Orders have to be obeyed immediately and without question or lives may be lost. So a tradition has grown up among space-faring crews of total obedience to the captain. All crewmembers take an oath to that effect. To many, their oath is important as their life. They would sooner die than disobey their captain. Even if he has become a monster.”
“What about you?” Alondo asked.
The old hu-man smiled, and his face creased like pale leather. “I am not ‘crew’. I’m a scientist—an engineer. Unfortunately, almost all of those still loyal
to Wang are crew. They are fanatically loyal to him. Don’t trust them.”
“You said there was another reason why your people did not try to stop the Prophet,” Lyall prompted.
“You’re right, I did... Ah, we are nearly there.” They had reached the edge of the sandstone platform.
The terrain fell away, revealing the sides of a steep gorge. Set into the reddish rock was a series of roughly hewn steps that led downwards until they rounded a bend in the valley wall and passed out of sight. Keris held out a restraining arm, holding the others back, and inspected the path before them. Satisfied for the moment, she drew her staff and started down the steps. “Follow me. Shann, take the rearguard.”
“Such precautions are unnecessary, I assure you,” Lafontaine called after her. “You are quite safe.” Keris ignored him and continued to descend. The elderly hu-man shrugged and followed after her.
As they rounded the bend, Keris saw that the steps led to a wide ledge, carved in sandstone, on which a wooden hut stood. The hut appeared totally incongruous, perched halfway up the side of the valley, and she could not imagine its purpose—unless this hu-man was a kind of hermit. That would certainly explain his odd behaviour.
As they approached the ledge, she heard a collective gasp from the others. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that everyone was staring over the edge. She followed their gaze and could not suppress a sharp intake of breath. Taking up the entire floor of the canyon was a huge edifice, like nothing she had ever seen before.
Shaped like a triangular pyramid, its sides were constructed of six immense gold-coloured tubes, connecting gold spheres at each of its vertices. Lights shone from openings or windows in the globes. From each of the four vertices, four smaller tubes met at the centre of the open pyramid, where an azure sphere shimmered with latent energy. In beauty and grandeur it rivalled even the magnificent sights she had seen in her vision of ancient Kynedyr.
“What is it?” Alondo breathed.
Lafontaine grinned from ear to ear. “This is the Osiris. From the mythology of ancient Egypt on my world.” The others were staring at him blankly. “It’s a bit of a joke, really,” he continued. “According to the myth, Osiris was cut up into a zillion bits by his enemy Set, and his wife, Isis, then had to piece him back together. That’s a bit like what we’ve had to do with this ship.”
Alondo’s eyes were glued to the shining vision of blue and gold beneath them. “You’re saying it’s a ship of some kind?”
“It’s one of the three ships we arrived here on—the only one that wasn’t wrecked completely. It’s taken us sixteen years to get it fully operational again.”
“You mean... it’s ready to fly?” Alondo asked.
“Yes, only... ” As Lafontaine’s voice trailed off, the others tore their gaze away from the huge pyramid-shaped craft and looked straight at him. “... Only the Captain and his supporters don’t know that.”
Alondo’s face was eager. “Can we go down and take a look inside?”
“I’m sorry, no,” Lafontaine said.
“He doesn’t trust us,” Keris pointed out.
“No, no, that’s not it at all,” the bald hu-man protested. “Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to show the ship to you. It’s just that... ” He went to the edge and squatted down. The five Kelanni and one Chandara gathered around him. He pointed a thin digit at a small squat metal shape sitting next to the fantastic hu-man construction. “You see the smaller vessel? It’s the orbital shuttle that the Captain uses to travel to the other side of your world and to transport refined lodestone from there.”
“The Prophet? He’s down there on the ship?” Shann exclaimed.
“I don’t know. Possibly.” Lafontaine replied. “In any case, he has his informants. Most of them are known to us. So far, we’ve managed, with some difficulty, to keep your presence here a secret. The two avionic pilots you shot down are on an ‘extended mission’ as far as he is concerned—which I suppose is true in a grisly sort of way. Still, the sight of a group of Kelanni touring the ship could hardly fail to be noticed. It would get back to Wang, and he would be alerted to your presence on the island. The risk is far too great. I’m sorry.” Alondo looked like a child who had just had his favourite toy confiscated.
Keris’s voice was flat. “Then why are you showing us this?”
“Because I need your help,” Lafontaine said. “And you need mine.”
~
The odd-looking group distributed themselves about the one-room cabin. Keris seated herself on a bench that lined one wall, occupying the position closest to the door. Boxx came over and lay down at her feet.
The bald hu-man stood in the middle of the room and addressed the gathering. “I said that there was another reason why people here did not try to put a stop to what the Captain was doing. The lodestone that he secured from your side of the planet was originally supposed to be used to power the Osiris, using a new Diametric Drive. It was only after he had used the power of our technology to have himself declared as Prophet, that it became clear that he intended to use the stone to build the Accumulator Device—the weapon—instead.
“He ordered the engineers on the crew to start building it. I decided that the only thing to do was to try and repair at least one of the QDE units so that we would have a way off your planet. What developed over the next few years was an uneasy alliance between two groups—one determined to gain power over the lodestone at any cost, the other bent on trying to secure a way home.
“Several months ago, the ship became operational. We have managed to keep that fact a secret. However, we cannot lift off without Wang’s people discovering what we are up to. It takes a minimum of two hours to power up the Drive, and if we tried to leave, they would prevent it. What we need is to create some kind of emergency that would occupy Wang’s crew long enough for us to get the QDE drive operational and take off.”
Lyall closed his eyes and shook his head. “Let me get this straight. You want to strand your own people here on our world?”
“No, not at all. We will leave the smaller ship—the shuttle—here on the surface. When we are in orbit we will give them the option of joining us—minus their gammas, of course—or staying here. My guess is that they will come running with their tails between their legs.” Lafontaine viewed the Kelanni present and his eyes widened as he realised his faux pas, but no one seemed to care.
“I appreciate your telling us of your plans,” Lyall said, “but none of that helps us. Even if the Prophet decides to leave our world, there’d be nothing to stop him using the lodestone weapon to destroy us first.”
As the hu-man opened his mouth to reply, a loud rap sounded on the wooden door of the cabin. Keris sprang to her feet and her hand moved to her staff. Lafontaine glided across the floor with surprising speed, getting ahead of her. He placed his hand on the latch, but rather than open the door, he merely listened. There was silence, followed by a series of three more knocks. Lafontaine opened the door swiftly and a figure slipped in.
Keris had never seen a hu-man female before and she found it difficult to tear her eyes away. The woman was as short as Lafontaine but a lot younger. As she passed Keris, she smiled briefly beneath a mass of shoulder-length yellow hair.
Lafontaine returned to his position in the centre of the room; the blonde woman took up a position beside him. “There is someone who specifically wanted to meet you,” he said. “This is Susan Gilmer. She’s our resident spy within Wang’s ranks.”
<><><><><>
Chapter 11
The pale slate-eyed hu-man female eyed the gathering with the same intense curiosity with which they were observing her. “I have not encountered Kelanni since I was a little girl. You seemed... taller then.” She turned her attention to Boxx, who had resumed its place, lying at Keris’s feet. “Is this... a Chandara?”
Keris’s eyes narrowed. “Its name is Boxx.”
“Really?” Susan Gilmer gave a quirky smile. “I’ve never seen one be
fore. I’ve heard some odd things about them, though. How come it’s travelling with you?”
Before Keris could prepare a defensive reply, Boxx raised its head. “I Travel With Keris. For All Kelanni.”
Susan’s eyes widened. “It speaks.” She turned to Lafontaine. “Is there a second species of intelligent life on this world?”
“Actually, the Chandara were the first,” Rael said.
“My Time Is Short,” Boxx added.
“What does it mean by that?” Susan asked.
“Nothing,” Keris replied quickly. “Nothing of importance.”
The blonde woman sighed. “I would love to know more. Sadly, there’s no time. The Captain has moved up the timetable. The first of the ADs—the Accumulator Devices—is to be shipped out tomorrow.”
Lafontaine blew through his teeth.
“What does that mean?” Lyall asked.
“It means that I was fortunate to find you when I did,” the old human replied.
“Why were you looking for us?” Alondo asked.
“Because I know why you are here and what you are planning to do. The Captain has informants in Kieroth and elsewhere. Fortunately, they route their information through Susan, so Wang knows only what she reports to him. We knew that you left by ship several days ago and were on your way here.
“Yesterday, Susan told me that a pair of avionic pilots reported sighting a native sailing ship in Qiberon Bay. Then they vanished. It could only be you. So I secretly started scouring the island using watchers. Not long after, I ran across these young people.” He indicated Shann and Rael, who regarded each other self-consciously. “Then another watcher discovered Lyall here and Alondo.”
Susan Gilmer broke in: “Can I ask you something? Do you know of a human named McCann?”
Alarm bells jangled at the back of Keris’s mind. She spoke up before anyone else could respond. “Yes. We discovered that he was... monitoring us through the use of forbidden devices.”
The Lodestone Trilogy (Limited Edition) (The Lodestone Series) Page 80
