‘So you expect us to stay?’ the Technor said. ‘You really think we will work for you?’
Behind her, Ram stirred, ready to answer any slight to her name.
‘My dear sir,’ she said quickly. ‘If you don’t want to work for us, that is perfectly fine. We will drop you off at any planet of your choice — except for Firstworld, as she is still restricted, and we have no ships going to Moigar at the moment.’
The sparse man stared at her and she saw the truth come home to roost in his mind. ‘There is nowhere to go,’ he said finally. ‘What do you want of the Institute?’
‘We want you to finish training your students. The Realm has need of them and will hire every graduate. We will send you other candidates, and we will bring you problems to solve.’
‘What about money?’ a tall woman shouted.
Kambisha lifted an eyebrow. ‘What money?’
‘Grants!’ the woman said impatiently. ‘Research grants.’
‘Ah,’ Kambisha said. ‘That money. You have a research plan. You present it to the proper authorities — we will discuss these later when I had a chance to study your organization chart, but I suppose it will be a body of department heads and senior students — and when they are comfortable with it, you send everything to Ms. Gunild with an application for a grant. She will put the money into a special account for your use and that’s it. You will report quarterly with detailed expenses, progress, and recommendations. Do keep in mind to report a project that came to naught is not a shame, unless you keep dragging it on for years just because you don’t want to lose the grant. That will result in both criminal and civil charges, and could be costly.’ She smiled. ‘Our lines are short, that also means there is no one to hide behind.’
This got her some laughs. The tall woman nodded. ‘That sounds satisfactory,’ she said and sat down.
‘I suggest you take it easy for the next few days,’ Kambisha said. ‘Walk around; talk to people, ask questions.’ She stood up. ‘I do have a first problem for you. I graduated in multispacial mathemagics; is that subject on your curriculum?’
‘Yes!’ a corpulent man with a mass of gray ringlets said. ‘Though few master it. You truly studied it?’
‘I did,’ Kambisha said. ‘Who are you, sir?’
‘I am Scienteer Ranlarn, Head of Mathemagics.’
‘Then you’re the man I came for,’ Kambisha said. ‘But first tell me the term scienteer; it is new to me.’
Ranlan’s bushy eyebrows rose. ‘Really? A scienteer is a theoretical techneer. We look for the nature of a thing, after which my esteemed colleague Techneer Hawi will produce a prototype.’
‘Thank you,’ Kambisha said. ‘Now let me pose you my problem, sir.’ She told of the unknown boy in the drifting transporter vessel.
‘And you think this sabotage was done by mathemagics?’ Ranlarn said.
‘Maybe. The transporter had no reason to emerge into space. I want to know if it is possible to tamper with a teleporting ship through the Intermedium.’
‘We can’t do that,’ Ranlarn said bluntly. ‘Not with our whole body. The power needed would only be available to a god.’
‘And the heritor?’
Ranlarn hesitated. ‘I am not conversant with the heritor’s capabilities. Given his position as the son of the gods, it might be within his reach.’
‘Thank you,’ Kambisha said. ‘That confirms my own thoughts. I have no more questions.’ She smiled at them and turned, suddenly bone weary.
Ram took her arm and together they walked away.
‘Let’s join Ky and Ody,’ she said. ‘They must have my report.’
CHAPTER 21 – ENTRALLEN
‘Terrible thing, that,’ Kyrus said, and he meant it. ‘Marooned on a hostile world, waiting for supplies that never came, probably cursing the people who abandoned you. Gunild, what do you have on Entrallen 2?’
‘Gravity one point zero eight standard, air normal, average temperature fifty below norm; in winter lows of minus ninety have been recorded. It’s a research station, in part to measure the adaptability of the colonists to ice world temperatures.’
‘They didn’t adapt well enough,’ Kyrus said. ‘You did mention children?’
‘In the Uphill Hold, the voice said.’ His sister shook her head. ‘I should’ve gone looking perhaps, but I had those other people to get home.’ She yawned mightily.
‘Why don’t you go to bed?’ Kyrus said. ‘And tell that tame Marine of yours that standing at the door glowering at you is getting old fast. We don’t mind him joining our table, you know.’
Kambisha blinked. ‘Yeah, he’s earned it, I think.’
She left them, and her brother grinned as he saw her grabbing Ram’s arm in passing.
‘She ain’t subtle,’ he said. ‘Bells and flashing signs are nothing to it.’
‘I noticed,’ Odysson said. ‘You’re going to check up on those children?’
‘Just to make sure,’ Kyrus said. ‘If they’re all dead, we can send out a burial detail later. But I should find the bodies first.’
He checked the power of the handportal on his hip. ‘Gunild, warn my crew we’re off for a spot of snow.’
‘Barbarian place,’ S-Az said as they came out in exactly the same location A-Di had occupied earlier that day. ‘Temperature is a hefty minus seventy-six; my readings tell me you better wear your woolen undies, Admiral.’
‘You’re probably right.’ Kyrus looked round the expectant faces. ‘No Marines; Holyn and Jathra should be enough.’ He patted the handportal on his belt. ‘If there is trouble, we’ll be right back.’
They went first to the main building. Inside, their comm. picked up the same message Kambisha had mentioned. ‘Entrallen 5 Station. This is a recording...’
Kyrus listened closely, but it told him nothing new. They searched the rooms and found a hand-written logbook.
‘Freak colds of below the one hundred mark,’ he read aloud, turning to the last pages. ‘If that’s what hit them...’
‘It must be,’ Jathra said, ‘to kill the brain in his cellar. I don’t think this place was well prepared anyhow. To depend on power crystals instead of a mana pump!’
Kyrus put the log into the saddlebag of his broom and they quickly rode over to inspect the other buildings—a lab, some private dwellings, storehouses and work places, all empty and frozen.
‘Nothing,’ Kyrus said. ‘Now, where would that Uphill place be?’
‘Uphill,’ Holyn said.
‘No!’ Kyrus said. ‘Amazing! And up which hill, oh wise master?’
Holyn grinned. ‘That one, great admiral.’ He pointed to a low, snow-covered hill not far from the base. ‘The others are much farther away. There’s a ledge up there.’
‘You speak sense, Master Holyn,’ Kyrus said loftily. ‘Let’s see if there is something else as well.’
They flew up over the icy landscape of swirling snow.
‘A cave,’ Jathra said as they approached the ledge.
‘If it’s a bear’s abode, he must be rich,’ Kyrus said as they landed. ‘The cave has a front door.’
‘And a corpse,’ Holyn added. Huddled against the wall the rock was a stiff body, mummified like those others and frozen.
‘If that’s the guy of the recording...’ Kyrus shivered and looked away as he tried the door handle. Silently, the door opened. He activated his belt light and stepped inside.
They followed a short corridor and came to a second door. “Infirmary”, a sign read. Below it, a single light burned green.
‘Sickbay,’ Holyn said. ‘Why here?’
The door opened, and they entered quickly.
‘I think they’re using the planet’s heat,’ Jathra said. ‘There must be a magma chamber below us.’
‘There was only one green light,’ Kyrus said. ‘That’s not encouraging.’
He looked around the room, a common, square, white-tiled room, with a desk and a chair, and a lot of pipes running along the wall. A half
-open door led into a second room. Here were six beds, each with a closed steel case like a coffin with a window and a lot of dials and lights. All were red but one.
‘Gods have mercy,’ Kyrus said. ‘That’s what I feared.’
The techneer went to the small panel at the foot of the stasis case and studied the buttons. ‘This one is alive. All right, here goes.’ Her fingers touched buttons and levers, and a wobbly buzzer sounded.
Then the lid of the case opened.
Holyn had switched off his shield and hurried to the side of the case. ‘Easy does it,’ he said, helping a prone figure to a sitting position.
Kyrus downed his own shield and joined Holyn. Then he blinked, staring in perplexity. The girl, fourteen or fifteen years old, was as Thali as any of the engineers he knew on Firstworld. She had the same olive complexion, the same straight hair and the prominent cheekbones Engineers Ulaataq and Imooga had.
‘Where am I?’ Then her face twisted. ‘Oh Spirits of the Ice, no!’ She clasped Kyrus’ arm. ‘They’re dead! Your mind betrays it! They’re all dead!’ Her hand slapped his chest. ‘Why! Why didn’t you come sooner?’ Again, her face changed into understanding. ‘I see now. It was that long ago? Then it wasn’t your fault.’
‘No,’ Kyrus said. ‘Come; I’ll lift you out of that thing. We’ll port to our ship and leave. This place has been dead a long time.’
‘I want to see them first,’ the girl said.
‘Not the children,’ Holyn said firmly. ‘You do not want to see those.’
The girl looked at him, her eyes big, and then she nodded. ‘The others?’
‘You know the principle of mummification?’ Holyn said on his most scientific tone.
‘Yes,’ the girl said. ‘I know extreme cold can do that. Did it happen to them?’
The healer nodded. ‘One rests outside this hold. He came to see you all a last time and then died. This must have been long ago; weeks or months after it all happened.’
They walked to the outer door, the girl barefooted and dressed in no more than a short hospital smock. Then Holyn took the girl’s arm and shielded them both.
Outside, the girl stopped and looked around. ‘It is such a beautiful world,’ she said, her voice coming over Holyn’s comm. ‘But harsh; very harsh.’
Then Kyrus heard her gasp. ‘It... I cannot even recognize him. Are they all... like this?’
‘I’m afraid so,’ Holyn said.
They got their brooms, and the girl sat down in front of Holyn. Slowly, they returned to the main building.
The girl listened to the recording, and then, without speaking, went with them to the room with the other dead.
She stood there a long time, a solitary figure, fragile in her thin smock. Finally she nodded. ‘They are one with the ice. We can go now.’
As they walked back to the main room and the door, the sound of yapping came from outside.
‘What’s that?’ Kyrus said. ‘Wolves?’ He opened the door.
‘Don’t!’ the girl cried, but then white shapes slipped in, howling like the wind in a chimney. ‘Ice spirits! They try to take the living as well as the dead.’
The spirits attacked. Immediately it was as if they were in the middle of a thick fog.
‘They can’t get through our screens,’ Kyrus said, holding on to the girl. Then he saw the outside of his shield turn a flowery white, as frostwork on a windowpane, blinding him effectively. Soon they were encapsulated in a layer of ice.
‘Holyn? Jathra?’ he called.
No answer.
‘We’re moving,’ the girl said. ‘They... they’re taking us to their palace on the plain.’
‘What creatures are they?’ Kyrus said. He had his broom in his hands, but he wasn’t sure it would help them escape, and he hated trying anything blindly.
‘We don’t know. Spirits of the ice, we call them. They rarely came to the colony; Father thought they couldn’t stand the higher temperature. We left our dead for them, out there where the White Plain begins. That’s where they live. They took them.’
‘Do they take the living?’
‘Once,’ the girl said. ‘One of my cousins. He... never came back.’
‘Hm,’ Kyrus said. ‘We’ll see about that.’ Darn; he wasn’t scared, of course, but this was no fun. If only he could see. He could port them out; back to the ship. But that would be... cheating, somehow. They weren’t in danger yet, and he wanted to know what was going to happen.
‘I’m Kyrus; what’s your name?’
‘Yashuunyah,’ she said.
It sounded like those long Thali names. ‘You mentioned a palace?’
‘Yes, a palace of ice, out there on the plain. That’s where the spirits live.’ The girl was silent for a moment. ‘I remember we lived in an ice palace too, when I was very small. But I don’t know if it’s true.’
‘The Thali on our planet live in ice palaces. I’ve never been there; they don’t want visitors, but I know it is true. That could mean your people came from Firstworld, long ago. I...’
Suddenly something shook them, and they were falling. The girl screamed, clutching Kyrus’ arm.
‘Broom!’ he said, and their descent was halted. Light as a feather, they touched ground. He called for fire, and immediately his shield was encased in flames, melting the frost.
‘Don’t do that, mortal!’ a heavy voice boomed. ‘You can dismiss your shield; the circumstances are favorable for your frail bodies.’
It was a god; it couldn’t be anything else. Kyrus had met several of Firstworld’s deities, and they all had that overwhelming conceit.
‘Here goes,’ he said with a glance at the girl. His shield winked out, and he took a deep breath of fresh, but definitely chilly air.
‘Good,’ the voice said. ‘At least you know how to obey.’
‘Work together, rather,’ Kyrus said. ‘Gods and humans are partners, after all. I am Kyrus of Kalbakar; might I know who summoned me here?’
‘You are pert, aren’t you?’ the voice said. ‘I am unused to that. Well then, I am best known as the Tha-a-Zeek, Great Grandfather of Snow. This is my domain. Now stand and let me study the implications of your presence.’
Kyrus winked at the girl who looked scared but composed. Then he stared around. A palace of ice. White, gleaming walls, eternally pristine as freshly fallen snow, incredibly delicate-looking sculptures of fantastic animals, a sound as the tinkling of millions of snowflakes falling...
‘Yes,’ the Divine said. ‘You were chosen well. An opposite halfgod’s son—ingenious. And the girl, remnant of a failed attempt. A pity it didn’t work out, but they were unsuitable after all.’ A mighty sigh shook the hall. ‘Now what to do?’
‘Maybe you could enlighten me, great Tha-a-Zeek. You had a purpose; it didn’t go well, but what was it?’
The god harrumphed. ‘Look at your world. The other has a flourishing people living and honoring her, while mine... Mine all died long ago. To ease my loneliness, the heritor brought a colony of the opposite goddess’ people here, to be mine own followers. Then they, too, died. Why?’
‘You never thought to ask them, god?’ Kyrus said. ‘I’m sure they would have told you.’
The girl lifted her hands. ‘Great Grandfather,’ she said hesitantly. ‘Your world is beautiful, but too cold for life.’
‘Too cold?’ the god said in a loud voice. ‘My glorious cold?’
‘Glorious, maybe,’ Kyrus said. ‘But a human’s physique is not made to withstand the temperatures you sent your followers. Their instruments told of a frost well below a hundred degrees standard. That is instant death to any warm-blooded creature. If you want anyone to come and honor you, the lowest temperatures should be minus fifty, and that only rarely.’
‘My palace will melt,’ the god said.
‘You can differentiate, I suppose?’ Kyrus said. ‘Keep your icy plains as cold as you want them, but adapt the coastal regions to the needs of humans.’
‘I... Yes, I could
do that,’ the god said. ‘Would that help? But they’re all dead. Only this female. Wait, wait!’
Two ice spirits appeared and hurried away, to return with a still, pale body. ‘This one was brought to me some time ago, but he knew nothing. So I kept him on ice, in case I needed him. You can have him.’
The body shimmered, and all colors returned. It was a boy, no older than fourteen; a Thali with a lean, thin body, fully naked. He stirred and blinked at us.
‘Ishanuuri,’ the girl said softly.
‘Yes,’ the boy said. ‘Who are... God!’
‘I am here. No more questions. You are male, she is female. Go back to your dwellings and make me more followers.’
Kyrus saw the expression on their faces and suddenly he guffawed. ‘No, it doesn’t work that way, dear god. They are not animals you can breed in a cage. Would a god beget little godlets if his elders commanded him?’
‘What! No! Of course not. You mean... But they’re not gods.’
‘No, but they are intelligent beings, capable of reasoning, of loving, of being hurt. You wouldn’t want to be worshiped by animals? Besides, they are too young. And even if they weren’t, no two people could repopulate a healthy village.’
‘Then how?’ the god shouted. ‘If they can’t do it, they are useless. I will destroy them.’
‘No!’ Kyrus said, greatly daring. ‘This thing needs time, god. The original idea to get a group of colonists from our world is still good. If you arrange for more hospitable weather around their settlements, I could get you colonists. Not only Thali, other peoples too. But, my lord god, you must communicate with them. Discuss their needs and wishes, and help them prosper. That, with all due respect, is to my humble opinion a major task of any divine—care for their followers. They will repay you with prayers and temples, and great devotion.’
‘Like your gods care,’ the god said sourly.
‘Yes. There was a bit of trouble, but my Disciple father and the Trade Magnate convinced them to join hands and make their followers happy.’
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