Lilith was about to shout at her again when Ingrit stepped up and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Lily, she’s right. Let’s go and call Kat. She might be able to help.”
The Necropolis, Ashkele Free Port, Hallasa System, Frontier Zone, Xee Protectorate, 1049.03|09|06:25:91
Using every bit of its stealth capabilities, the JUDI snuck into Ashkele’s star system, crept past the Hriss mercenary ships, and then slipped around the Sisterhood Battle Group. Plunging down into the far side of the planet itself, Captain bel Lissa flew the ship as close to the surface as she dared.
The titanic, unstable buildings made this a dangerous endeavor, and more than once, they were forced to dodge a collapsing structure, or divert the little merchanter around a hazard that they couldn’t overfly. It only took them an hour to arrive in the vicinity of their target, but by that time, everyone’s nerves were frayed, and they all made a point of congratulating the woman on her piloting skills when they finally landed.
Because of the potential threat of passive spybots, the JUDI had touched down five kilometers away from the great plaza. This, Skylaar, Josette and Sarah all agreed, was well beyond the logical radius of a standard surveillance drop pattern.
Just the same, when the little party left the ship, everyone activated the camouflage modes on their cloaks. To the ships watching overhead, nothing would register. The group was optically invisible, and the special materials that made up both the capes, and their bodysuits, also guaranteed that their infrared and bioplasmic signatures were equally undetectable.
As an added precaution, no one talked either, and psiever traffic, even though it might have been an aid, had been expressly forbidden by Skylaar. Although the transmission frequency of these devices was on the extreme low end of the spectrum, she didn’t want to risk any chance of detection. Communications therefore, was limited to hand signs. Unlike the simple language that most troopers knew, the Agency’s signs could convey even the most complex concepts to someone who knew them well enough.
Fortunately, none of them needed to express anything particularly intricate. The task before them was a simple one; to keep an eye out for ‘bots, move quietly and watch their footsteps. Skylaar and Josette led the way, and both were armed with passive sensors, tuned to detect the ultra-low power signature of a ‘sleeping’ ‘bot. They found two of them right away, and everyone fell in behind them as they worked around the slumbering machines.
Hours of careful travel went by like this before Skylaar signaled that they had finally passed through the ring of spy-devices. Then she waved Maya forwards.
“I wanted you to see this,” the Nemesian said in finger-speak. She pointed to a gap in the ruins, and the huge space beyond it. It was the great plaza. Not an image of it, or anything from her dreams, but the real thing.
The giant, twisting cone of the Tree tower was at its center, rising up, and soaring into the sky. It seemed much larger and more imposing to Maya than it had been in her visions, and she had to crane her neck to see its summit. Below it, like silent attendants in some strange, mystical ritual, were the lesser buildings, and inside of them she knew were the tunnels that would lead to the Tree itself. Except for the low moaning of the wind, the great expanse before her was utterly silent and this managed to convey the incredible age of the place, and also, its utter alienness.
Maya was not intimidated though. She had given up being overawed by the bizarre nature of the entire adventure, and simply accepted what she was seeing as merely another manifestation of the incredible. What really mattered to her was seeing their business through to its end.
Having seen enough, she nodded silently to Skylaar, and worked her way back to her original position. Then they resumed their march, keeping to the shadows until they reached the huge triangular entrance of the nearest dome. Reasonably certain that it was finally safe to do so, they afforded themselves the luxury of psiever communications, and low whispers.
They went inside. Thirty meters later, while they were making their way down the tunnel, they encountered the unexpected.
Skylaar and Josette were still on point, with Maya right behind them, and Sarah, Jeena and Jon taking up the rear. Ahead of them, a tiny bot that the Nemesian had released, was passively scanning the passage for any electronic or biological threats. Without any warning that it was about to malfunction, it stopped abruptly in mid-air, wobbled, and then clattered to the floor of the tunnel, becoming completely inert.
Everyone stopped in mid-stride, and their hands went to their weapons. Then Maya realized that she could no longer feel her symbiote. It too, had switched itself off. And when she tried to notify Sarah by psiever, she discovered that she couldn’t send the thought. This wasn’t functioning either.
“Sarah,” she whispered. “My psiever—its offline—and my symbiote—its—gone!“
“Mine as well,” the woman responded. Unlike Maya, she seemed to accept this new development with a detached calm.
Everyone checked their equipment. Even though everything had been fitted with fresh batteries, the needleguns showed zero charge, and the GSG-20 grenades that they had hoped to use as components for Skylaar’s booby traps, were also non-functional. Nothing that relied on electronics, or Seevaan technology, appeared to be working.
Skylaar quickly discovered the cause. Moving past them, she went back down the passage, holding the ‘bot in the palm of her hand. After several meters, the little robot came back to life and floated up into the air as if nothing whatsoever had happened to it. And when she inspected them, her needlegun and explosives were also perfectly serviceable.
“We seem to have encountered some kind of dampening field,” she announced. “My guess is that it encircles the plaza and protects the Tree in some manner. Luckily, it is not destructive in nature.”
“Oh, how frightfully inconvenient,” Josette remarked dryly. “Apparently this was something that the Pa’lla did not know about, or forgot to mention. If I were Angelique, I would demand an immediate refund.”
Maya didn’t laugh at her sarcasm. “So, we’re left with what?”
“Plenty,” Jeena volunteered cheerfully. “We still have our blades, and we might be able to rig Skylaar’s traps using mechanical triggers.”
Skylaar withdrew a GSG-20 from the pouch she had been carrying, and carefully considered it.
“Yes,” she finally agreed. “I could rig the triggering mechanism to operate manually and use trip wires. Also keep in mind, Maya, that Angelique will encounter the same problems if she comes down here after us. That evens up our odds a bit.”
To Maya the term ‘a bit’ was a massive understatement. Even though Angelique would now be deprived of any blasters or needleguns, she would still have the decisive advantage when it came to the number of blades at her side. With this, all of her training with Skylaar and at the K’aut’sha School suddenly assumed a terrifying new importance. The fight that she had feared, if it happened, would be positively medieval in nature.
“Oh cheer up, Maya,” Josette urged. “This will be just like a good old game of Bat-Bat, but with real swords.” This time everyone, with the pointed exclusion of Maya, laughed right along with her.
She was too worried to see the humor in this. They would need their tools and weapons back online in time to meet the Conversâzi threat, and she fervently hoped that the mysterious dampening field wouldn’t extend over the entire circumference of the plaza.
Unfortunately, it did.
USSNS Pallas Athena, Battle Group Golden, Topaz Fleet, In Orbit, Ashkele, Hallasa System, Frontier Zone, Xee Protectorate, 1049.03|09|06:55:27
Katrinn hadn’t expected to hear from Lilith as soon as she did. When the Com relayed the message to her command chair, she answered it right away. Seeing her, she could tell that Lilith was barely managing to contain her anger.
“Lily? Have you got Grammy? What’s wrong?”
“No,” Lilith said through gritted teeth. “We found her at the hotel all right, but then she an
d her friends slipped away on us. They’re on their way to some kind of ‘tour’ of the Necropolis, and the hotel said that she had rented a ground vehicle. I tried to get the Xee to round them up, but they wouldn’t cooperate. Grammy actually paid them a bribe! Can you believe that?”
Katrinn’s eyebrows raised in astonishment at Grammy’s duplicity. “A bribe, huh? That old woman is sure full of suprises.”
“Yes,” Lilith frowned. “She is. Kat, I want you to locate her and send down a special detachment to pick her up once they’re clear of the Free City.”
“I don’t know, Lily,” Katrinn replied doubtfully. “If the Xee found out—“
“Goddess blast the Xee and their greed!” Lilith snapped. “This is Grammy we’re talking about, and those ruins are dangerous. The detachment can grab them and be gone before the Xee even figure out that we did it. Please Kat! She’s only going to get herself hurt out there.”
“Okay,” Katrinn agreed. “Let me check with the Artemis. She’s been tasked with the overwatch of the Free City. I’m sure that Captain bel Jerra can spare a sensor to pinpoint their vehicle. Once she has them, I’ll have her send the team. Give me a minute or two, will you?”
Putting Lilith on hold, she contacted the commander of their sister ship. Captain Suzzyn bel Jerra answered. “Commander?” the woman asked. “What can I do for you?”
“Captain, I need you to locate a crawler that is just leaving the Free City. It should have three passengers aboard. Once you have it, send a squad down and take everyone into custody. Bring them back here--and tell the troopers to be gentle about it. One of them is my relative.”
If Captain bel Jerra was puzzled by this request, she didn’t show it. “Certainly, ma’am. It just so happens that we’re tracking three vehicles right now. All of them seem to be headed in the same general direction.”
“Three?”
“Yes ma’am,” Bel Jerra replied. “Two left the City about an hour ago and are already in the ruins, heading west. The third one just entered the empty zone, also headed west. That vehicle should reach the Necropolis in another ten minutes. There are three passengers aboard it. I’m sending you an image now.”
A new holo appeared. It showed the rental vehicle, as seen from space, and even at that odd angle, Katrinn recognized Grammy immediately. And almost as if she knew that she was being spied on, Grammy looked skywards, smiled, and waved.
Given her strange abilities, she probably did know, Katrinn reflected. Not that this would change the equation one way or the other. Grammy was coming home whether she wanted to or not.
“That’s them in the third crawler,” she said decisively. “Get the squad moving!”
Angelique bel Thana, who had been quietly working at her own station, suddenly interposed herself. “Belay that order, Captain. Let them go.”
The confused officer looked from her to Katrinn, who was equally perplexed. “Ma’am?”
“Stand by Artemis,” Katrinn instructed. “We’ll get back with you once we decide how we’re going to handle this. Keep tracking them.”
Bringing Lilith back into the conversation, Katrinn turned her seat and addressed Bel Thana. “May I ask you exactly why we need to stand down, General? This situation has absolutely nothing to do with our operation.”
Bel Thana stood and regarded them coolly. “A contrari, Commander. It has everything to do with it. You simply weren’t told because you didn’t need to know. As you may already be aware, one of the other passengers in that crawler is an RSE employee, Corporal n’Deena.”
Katrinn and Lilith waited for her explanation.
“What you do not know,” Angelique continued, “is that she has been working undercover for us, as a part of this operation. You are also apparently not aware that your ‘Grammy’ was once a senior agent in the OAE, and was also enlisted to serve our interests.”
“We need them to reach their destination without any interference. Let me assure you, and the Vice Admiral here, that your in-law will come to no harm, and as soon as we can, we will make certain to extract everyone. We already have a team in one of the other vehicles and they have instructions to step in when the time is right.”
Katrinn knew total shessdrek when she heard it. That Kaly was an RSE employee was undebatable. But according to Lilith and Grammy herself, the girl was hopelessly burned out and wanted nothing more to do with the Agency, or soldiering for that matter. As for Grammy, although she was fully aware that the woman had once served in the military like a lot of ‘Zommies’ had, she had never heard her speak—even once—about any association with the OAE.
Grammy was no spy. Clearly, Angelique was liberally seasoning the truth with lies.
The problem was, that she couldn’t contradict her, or countermand her orders. They would have to let things play themselves out the way Bel Thana wanted them to, or Rixa would have her head. “Okay, General. We’ll stand down. For now.”
Hearing this exchange, Lilith’s features colored with anger, but she didn’t inject any protests. Instead, she cut the conversation short. “So be it. We’ll wait to hear from you, Kat.”
But the instant that the connection was severed however, all pretense of acquiescence vanished completely. “Ingrit,” she announced. “It’s obvious that Kat can’t help. Her hands are tied. So apparently, it’s up to us. We‘re renting a crawler and going after them.”
“What about that General?” Ingrit asked warningly. “She won’t like that.”
“Ingrit,” Lilith said curtly. “Until today, I’ve never disobeyed an order, but I think it’s high time that I gave it a whirl. As far as I’m concerned, the RSE and General ‘I-think-I’m-so-goddess-damned-high-and-mighty-Bel-Thana’ can go stuff themselves out of an airlock. We’re going after Grammy.”
***
When Celina blundered her way into a giant pothole, there was a jarring impact, and right away she knew that she had done something terribly wrong. A second later, crimson warning lights on the dashboard of her crawler began flashing imperatively.
There was a problem with the ‘Transfer Case’—whatever that was. According to the readout, which was helpfully displayed in Xee, Standard, Hriss and several other languages, internal lubrication temperature was soaring, and total failure of the component was imminent. The crisis, she was informed, was due to a catastrophic puncture and leakage of lubrication fluid.
It was also entirely her fault. She had never been much of a driver, and the Necropolis was proving to be something that would have challenged even the most seasoned of hands. Jagged and unforgiving pieces of masonry were everywhere, in every size, and more than once, her all-wheel drive machine had fallen afoul of the uneven terrain. Now, the crawler was having its revenge on her at last.
Only a few meters later, a sickening grinding noise started up and she pushed the protesting machine forwards, knowing that it was hopeless. There was no question now about making it to her destination. According to her maps, and her dreams, it was still a long ways away, and the crawler clearly wouldn’t deliver her there. The best bet that she had rested on finding somewhere reasonably open and flat, and calling some kind of service to come out and fix the mess that she’d created.
Thankfully, there was a sticker pasted on the dash, with the com code for the garage that the rental agency used, and she hoped desperately that her call would be able to get out. The huge, signal-blocking buildings to either side of her were going to be a problem, but she really didn’t have any other options.
As it stood, she was in no position to repair the machine herself. She wasn’t a mechanic any more than she was a seasoned explorer, and at the moment it looked like she needed both. Cursing her own stupidity, and inexperience, she located a place to stop and promptly shut the crawler down. It was time to apologize.
“Clio?” she asked. Although she had had the service tech remove her AI’s ability to keep her captive, she had ordered the rest of her companion re-booted.
“Yes, Celi?”
“Clio,” she sighed, “You were right. I admit it. I shouldn’t have come out here—not all by myself at least. Can you call the road service for me?”
“Yes, Celi,” her AI answered. “I’m calling them right now. Will you consider turning back once they get here?”
Celina almost agreed, but the burning imperative lurking in the back of her mind prevented this. She simply had to go on, no matter what.
“No,” she finally told her, “I can’t. Once the service gets here though, I’ll see if I can hire the driver to take us the rest of the way. They have to have people that know their way around here.”
“You know how I feel about that,” Clio replied. “You really should consider going back.”
Celina did not respond, and the AI didn’t press her. They both knew that it was pointless. Instead, the musician said, “Clio, while we wait, we might as well get in some composition time. Shall we work on the secondary melodies for the realie some more? I have a few ideas I wanted to try.”
She was already digging out her portable keyboard, and for her part, Clio welcomed the distraction. It was better than arguing with her mistress, or being shut down again.
A kilometer away, Kaly n’ Deena was perched atop one of the towers, surveying the landscape through her riflescope. Grammy had made them stop for a break, and she had climbed up to a position that afforded her the best chance of spotting anything dangerous. According to her friends, the Necropolis, especially near the Free City, was the hunting ground for all sorts of nasty beings, ranging from single individuals who were just plain klaxxy, to full-on T’lakskalan slaver bands. She wasn’t about to let any of them get the jump on her group, and Tatiana would do all the talking for her if someone actually tried.
Alternating between the EM, IR and bioplasmic bands on her scope, she ranged across the shattered landscape, searching for any sign of life. Just when she was fairly certain that there was nothing but dead rocks populating the area, she spotted something. It was faint at first, and she brought up the scopes magnification.
Sisterhood of Suns: Daughters of Eve Page 70
