The Omcri Matrix

by Deborah Chester

  “What’s inside those buildings?” asked Haufren.

  “The bunkers?” She looked at him, confused by a warring mixture of resentment, gratitude, and dependency. The droxyhyazine he rationed out to her was a leash which she hated. She still could not deal with the fact that this hard, ruthless man was the hero of her youth. “They hold ticket dispensers, refreshment counters, and gift shops. Also rental booths for diglet rakes—”

  Haufren held up an impatient hand. “No. I mean, what kind of communication center do they have?”

  “Standard short-range. To Beros or to Lilliput. Not much farther. Of course for emergencies they can boost their signal from—”

  “I need interplanetary range,” he said with exasperation, leaning his head back against the pillar. His stubbled face was gray and drawn with hunger, and sand sparkled across one cheek in a golden arc.

  “We can deal with that when we get to Duval.”

  “I think not. Duval is too much of a risk.” He frowned. “I dislike unknown factors.”

  “And I tell you Duval can be trusted!” The arrival of a wide-bodied transport nearly drowned out her words as it came chuffing up to the pier. She raised her voice. “He is the best squadman ever to serve with me. I have trusted him at my back since my first command—” She stopped, unwilling to make a point of Duval’s kinship.

  “Trusted him so much you didn’t bring him along to guard the Kublai?”

  The unexpected barb cut viciously. Costa dropped her eyes from the derision in his and struggled to hold her voice steady as she answered. “You do not understand. There were personal reasons for taking out an unknown squad—”

  “Yes!” He grasped her wrist and gave her arm a light shake. “Omcri reasons.”

  “No! I made my decision before!”

  “Did you, Costa?” His blue eyes bored into hers. “Are you sure?”

  She pulled her arm free, refusing to look at him lest he see the unprofessional tears stinging her eyes. “This…this does not pertain,” she said at last. “We need food. We need a safe place to rest. We need allies. Duval is on Lilliput.”

  “Forget Duval. And forget safety. We need a communications center with long-range capabilities. I don’t like the idea of going out there on that island. It might prove to be too difficult to get off of in a hurry.”

  She frowned, realizing this argument could go on forever. For a moment she stared out across the breakers at the curve of Lilliput’s headland. Her friends were within sight; she had no intention of giving up on this.

  Suddenly her eyes cooled to a narrow green. “Do you plan to call for help from your own kind?” Without waiting for his answer, she continued: “There is a communications center on Lilliput. It’s probably not sophisticated enough to reach Ranger Headquarters in the Settle Belt, but if you have any skills in that area you could perhaps alter some of the circuits on the main boards.”

  He grasped her by the shoulders. “Why didn’t you mention this before?”

  She had no answer for that so she said instead, “I am not lying to you. I just don’t know if it will serve your purpose.”

  “We’ll find out. Now how do you propose to get out to that rock?”

  “By stealing a skimmer.”

  He sighed. “And you have commanded squads? Don’t you ever think, Lieutenant? How are you going to do this? Wait until it is dark and everyone has gone home? We don’t have time for that. Or are you going to shoot your way through all those innocent people and give away your exact bearings and destination to your pursuers?”

  She bit her lip, trying hard not to betray her fury. He was right, but he need not make her feel like flin. “What is your suggestion?”

  “Zethians,” he said, looking past her at the tourists now filing aboard the transport. He nearly smiled. “Well, well.” He straightened up to look intently at the crowd.

  “What?” asked Costa in exasperation. Not understanding him at all, she turned with a frown to scan the crowd until she picked out the pair. The adult was tall and overweight, heavily furred with a gray pelt. The child was small and round and golden.

  She shot Haufren a puzzled glance. “So? What have they to do with our getting to Lilliput?”

  Intent on the crowd, Haufren ignored her. The Zethian child balked as its parent tried to lead it aboard the large transport chuffing steadily at the pier. An argument broke out, with the adult tugging and the child dragging back. The wind blew spray high in the air, drenching all who stood on the pier. The child screamed and broke free, dashing hysterically through the crowd, eluding all hands reaching out to snare it. Bored ticketeers suddenly snapped to attention, and a loudspeaker blared. Seconds later, sonic bars slammed shut across the gates.

  Costa flung herself back into hiding with a curse as the child veered and streaked toward them.

  “May the five plagues smight its growth! It’s leading them straight to us.”

  “Catch it,” said Haufren. “We’ll use it to get aboard.”

  “Negative!” She stared at him, appalled. “My ID grid is flagged by now. They’ll know at once—”

  “Not with all the furor over this little nib,” said Haufren, grunting as he tackled the small fury hurtling past them. He handed it over to Costa, leaving her to struggle with flailing arms and unsheathed claws as the child spat and bit. Haufren stood up and lifted an arm at the pursuers.

  “Gengin, unda mot!” snarled the child, kicking at her.

  “Sulla,” retorted Costa, hanging on grimly. She repeated the reprimand with more emphasis as startled brown eyes lifted to hers. Her own eyes, angry and golden, glared down into that round face. “You shame your parent. You shame your race,” she said sternly, hoping the child was educated in the Unise language and behavior code. “You have disrupted order.”

  The child quivered against her as a wave slopped up against the pillar. It sheathed its claws, and soft stubby hands suddenly gripped hers as two ticketeers and the adult Zethian came running up.

  “Not parent,” whispered the child in its rough, burred voice. “Tutor. Water I hate. Lilliput I do not wish to see!”

  “Lilliput is fascinating,” she said as Haufren genially accepted the thanks of the others. “And the ocean is equally so.”

  The child flattened its ears. “It is wet. Kith!”

  “Thanks to you I give,” said the adult Zethian, approaching her. “Great shame the nib has caused. Apologies we do tender.”

  She nodded, trying to listen to what Haufren was telling the guide.

  “…behind schedule!” snapped someone, and the Zethian held out an exasperated hand.

  “Come, Tith! Revoked shall be our tickets if more disturbance you cause.”

  Tith pressed his short, plump body closer to Costa. She caught the swift gleam in Haufren’s eyes, and obediently bent over the child.

  “Tith!” she said briskly, masking her alarm at Haufren’s tactics. “If you have the escort of a patroller, would you still fear the water?”

  “Do not fear. Hate!” came the answer muffled against her leg.

  The Zethian snarled silently and lifted his furred hands. “Oh, great Basa, how stubborn is this child! My apologies, good sirs. If kind enough you would be to negotiate a refund, we—”

  “Nonsense,” said Haufren. “The child must be taught to overcome this phobia.”

  “Most peculiar it is of him. Never has he manifested such behavior before,” said the Zethian with a blink. “But of no avail is it to continue this disturbance. We shall—”

  “Tith,” said Costa, placing a gentle hand between the small round ears. “What will happen if you do not go to Lilliput today?”

  The child shuddered. “Lessons.”

  “No one should have to do lessons on Playworld!” said Haufren, showing his teeth in a broad smile.

  Costa glared at him for overplaying his part.

  Tith looked up at her. “Lessons on Lilliput, too,” he said bitterly.

  “Of course this is so,�
� said the tutor. “It is good a conscientious employee to be. I—”

  “Please, sir,” said the guide impatiently. “We are behind schedule. It’s unfair to delay the other passengers.”

  “Go with me,” whispered Tith to Costa, and she nodded despite the scream of her instincts.

  “Come along,” she said, keeping a hand on the back curve of his skull. Together they started out along the beach toward the pier. The others followed. She glanced at the guide and noticed his measuring glance at her torn and ill-fitting tunic. “I am on a private expedition,” she said nervously and cocked her head at Haufren. Guides were only one grade lower than patrollers. He might easily recognize her from former duty or even, Moii help them, a training video. “You are lucky we happened along today,” she continued, afraid that if she did not distract him with chatter he might begin to think too much. “The Zethians can be difficult, and if a complaint were lodged over this—”

  “I know,” he said bitterly. “My hide is already Ishut meat over this delay. The return passengers will be doubled, and with the wind up this morning, the pilot will give me the two curses for threatening his safety rating. It must be nice, Lieutenant, to pull private duty.”

  Her laugh held little amusement. “In the jungle? Not so nice.”

  “No.” His brows pulled slightly together, and he glanced back at Haufren in his torn and bloodstained uniform. “Some kind of executive survival course, I suppose.”

  Costa shrugged, not daring to come up with more lies. They walked out along the pier to the transport already loaded with the rest of the passengers belted in along the padded benches. Everyone gawked, and there were several gasps and nudges at the sight of Costa with her strifer worn in plain view on her hip. More than one adult glared at Tith. His grasp tightened on Costa’s hand, but the other children were too excited and eager to pay much attention to anything except the prospect of reaching the enchanted island. The noise made Costa’s sensitive ears ring, and nearly drowned out the courteous voice of the attendant drone as it requested them to find their assigned seats.

  “Tith,” said Haufren warmly, ducking beneath the low ceiling of the craft. “You’re a fine young nib. Shilorr.” He patted the child on the shoulder, and Tith blinked at him as though in startlement.

  “Yes, Tith, come along! Quite enough trouble you have caused.” The tutor seized Tith and jerked him away from Costa.

  Tith looked up at Haufren. “Sir—”

  “Come along, Tith!” The tutor dragged him away.

  “Seats please,” chimed the drone as the engines whined to impatient life.

  The guide, who was still standing on the pier outside, poked in his head through the open hatch. “You can disembark now, Lieutenant.”

  Alarm speared Costa. She stared at him, ready for the words of arrest, and moved her hand toward her strifer as Haufren stiffened beside her.

  “Zethian honor is satisfied. I think they would probably prefer not to be reminded further of this incident.” The guide grinned. “But thanks anyway.”

  Costa opened her mouth, confused by relief and the sudden scent of warmed refreshments from the minuscule galley.

  “Let’s go anyway,” said Haufren while she struggled to create a reason to stay aboard. “I’m bored with the jungle.”

  The guide frowned. “The seats are all filled. You’d better wait for the next transport. And the tickets—”

  “I’m sorry,” said Costa rapidly as the whine of the engines increased. “No time. I know it will make flin of your records, but can’t we straighten this out later?” As she spoke, she made a rapid hand signal to indicate Haufren’s worth as a customer.

  “Ten seconds to hatch closing,” intoned the speaker above her head.

  The guide drew back and said something over his shoulder to one of the ticketeers. “Sure. Just log it in on his account when you step ashore. But the seats—”

  “Acknowledged.” She lifted her fourth finger at him in a swift exchange and turned gratefully as the hatch whirred shut. “This way,” she said, grabbing Haufren by the arm and pulling him back to the cramped cubbyhole where drones were stored between trips across. “It’ll be a rough ride.”

  The transport took off over the bouncing waves with a jolt that set her down more quickly than she had intended. Haufren crouched beside her, grimly hanging onto a bulkhead while screams of delight ricocheted around the cabin interior.

  “Will that drone serve us food?” he asked.

  Costa carefully tried not to look at the gaily colored packages being distributed along with steaming cups of flavored nutra-gel. “I can’t get close to it,” she said while her stomach growled its way into a painful knot. “It might scan my ID at any moment, and then—”

  With a grunt, he stood up and made his way unsteadily through the cabin to grab several packages off the drone’s tray and came back while the attendant was chiming in confusion. He dropped them in her lap and crouched beside her with a swift quirk of his lips.

  “Now isn’t this better than stealing something and getting yourself shot at? Always work with a situation when possible, Lieutenant.”

  She tore open a package with her teeth and bit eagerly into the synthesized fiber bar to divert herself from more violent action. “You are too smug. If luck had not brought along that child, you—”

  “I don’t believe in luck,” he said, chewing as greedily as she. “Opportunities come along, and if we’re smart we grab them.”

  Costa stared at him. “You made that child run toward us. You…are you an esper?”

  “What a parochial term. Let’s just say I have many talents,” he replied, turning brusque again. “Zethians are notoriously susceptible to suggestion, especially the children who are less trained to protect themselves.”

  “I see.” Costa fell silent and bit into another bar. Under the circumstances it did not seem wise to bring up Playworld’s mandates against telepathy. Exercise of it was a felony, but she had to admit it had been useful…this time. “And the tutor did not suspect you? I saw him give you an odd look.”

  “So did everyone else,” said Haufren dryly. “We do seem to stand out in the crowd.”

  “It is impolite to be curious.”

  With a grunt, he broke the last fiber bar between them and bit into his half with a grimace. “Demos, these things are awful!”

  “Food is food. Does he suspect you?”

  “Possibly.” Haufren’s blue eyes flicked to hers then away. “The risk factor was acceptable.” A severe jolt nearly threw him across her. He righted himself with a curse. “Our pilot is a fool.”

  “Currents are treacherous here,” she said with a shrug of indifference, enjoying his discomfiture.

  “We aren’t in the water.”

  “No, but we’re about thirty centimeters above the waves. Do you get seasick?”

  He sent her a scornful look and said nothing more until they docked. They were the first ones off when the hatch whirred automatically open, and Haufren led the way down the pier while the rest of the passengers were still being herded into an orderly disembarkment. Costa glanced back briefly at Tith’s short round face staring mournfully after them.

  Haufren touched her arm. “Come on. Survival and sentiment do not mix.”

  “You could have damaged that child!” she said, glaring at him.

  “But I did not. Come,” he repeated with more impatience. “Where is the communications center?”

  At the end of the pier, Haufren had to slow down due to the thronging crowd of brightly dressed people all disembarking from a fleet of constantly arriving transports. He threaded a way through, with Costa still following, and did not stop to let her take charge until they were safely through the gates.

  “Thank you,” she said with irritation as she stepped onto the wide central street of the village. “We’d better go straight to the sieghr.”

  “I am unwilling to argue further about this, Costa.”

  “So am I. Why are you s
o distrustful of someone I can vouch for?” She sent him a bitter look. “You have made me dependent on that drug, so I am unlikely to lead you into a trap.”

  “I wonder. No, listen to me,” he said as affluent-looking people eddied about them with brief glances at their stained and torn clothing. “You still do not understand, or else you are unwilling to face the consequences of being frozen out. You are wanted. Even if your friends do help you, that makes them guilty too. Do you think they want to face equal accusations?”

  She shook her head. “But Duval will listen to me. We need him and Puce. They are both good men. And if we’re to recover the Kublai, we need supplies, equipment, and numbers. You’re very good, Major, but you are not invincible. You can’t do everything alone. Besides, Duval can tell you more about the communications system here.”

  He stared at her for a moment, his face unreadable. “Very well. How far?”

  She shrugged, unable to remember the exact distance. “Beyond the village. Perhaps a kilometer away. It is on the cliffs on the west side. The visitors are not permitted in that area.”

  “Good,” he said with emphasis as a dipcart swerved to miss them by inches. A youth with two laughing girls on his arm was driving. “Lead out.”

  Lilliput Island was one of the most popular attractions on Playworld. The eastern side had been created in miniature by some freak of nature eons ago. The forest grew no taller than two or three meters, the fairy caves were perfect wonderlands for young children who were small enough not to feel claustrophobic in the little caverns, and the animal life was equally tiny. Pipquets, dox, lullids, and grivers tame enough for petting in designated areas charmed everyone. Flowers of riotous color bloomed year round along the sandy garden paths created by the Playworld botanical crew, and the climate was always mild. The beaches alternated in colors of blue, pink, and white sand, and ceeps assigned to patrol the island reported the primary difficulty of their job lay in keeping children from trying to take some of the sand home with them. Everything in the way of souvenirs could be purchased in the shops lining the central street of Lilliput Village.