Her bambino? Jo-Jo looked at her fingers and ears. She wore none of the traditional emblems of legal marriage.
‘Tell me about the survivors. Did you see a young girl alone anywhere? A part-Mio. She’s my daughter,’ Beth implored the woman.
The Baronessa frowned. ‘I don’t know how many are left alive in all. But there are some. The young Principe led them into hiding. That is why I am here. I must find a way to get help to them.’
‘Fedor is right. It’s a crap shoot down there. We only got out because she could fly the ‘zoon,’ added one of the mercenaries.
Jo-Jo took a sharp breath. ‘You’re an Innate?’
The Baronessa gave a faint nod.
‘Rare and intriguing,’ said Beth’s brother. ‘The Baronessa is a very special woman.’
Bethany took a step closer to her brother. ‘Lasper, we were there too—at any rate on Dowl station—when the creatures came. We missed the evacuation and tried to escape on a Sawy but the Saqr followed us to the dock. We had to go EVA on a lug. A Sawy picked us up.’ She shuddered.
‘You say your girl is on this planet, Beth. What of her father?’ asked Lasper.
‘He’d already gone with his ship. Left us there. I would have joined her on the planet but...’ This time she stared straight at her brother. ‘You were right. And I was wrong, Lasper. And I need your help.’
His grey eyes filled with an intense look of satisfaction. He stared at the crimson-skinned young woman. ‘And you, Baronessa?’
‘I went to OLOSS first. They wanted to impound both myself and the biozoon while they investigated the matter. They gave no indication that they would give aid. My... companion indicated that you might be sympathetic to our plight.’
The white-haired mercenary seated next to the Baronessa let out a sudden hoarse laugh. ‘Sympathetic was not the word I used, Lasper.’
‘Indeed, Rast Randall. I would not imagine it.’
‘Rast?’ said Petalu Mau suddenly. He had not sat with Bethany and Jo-Jo but had positioned himself at the wall alongside the soldiers. ‘It’s Petalu.’
The mercenary twisted around in her seat to stare at him. She held out a hand which Mau stretched across to slap.
‘Mau? I didn’t recognise you under all that fat.’ Rast gave a laugh, and then offered Lasper an explanation. ‘We grew up next door to each other on Edo Lesser. Went our separate ways. I went to work for myself, and he... came to work for you.’
He came to work for you. Jo-Jo ransacked his memory. Who was this man? He’d been in enough bars, heard enough rumours, enough crap talked, to work it out. But the Baronessa’s proximity seemed to have numbed his mind.
‘There is always an opening in my ranks for someone like you, Rast Randall,’ said Lasper. ‘You were with us in the war. Did a good job, I heard. Dren speaks highly of you.’
The mercenary with the stark white hair nodded her thanks. “Predate the offer, Carnage. But I don’t like to lock myself into things. You know.’
Carnage? Carnage Farr! Jo-Jo’s balls jerked up inside him and refused to come down: the Commander of the Stain Wars? Even in the direst farouche bars Farr’s name inspired fear talk.
‘Ahem... my name is Thales Berniere.’ All attention shifted to the nervous young man who had finally summoned enough courage to speak. ‘I do not want your help. I have been brought here against my free will and I wish only to leave.’
The Baronessa sent the young Thales an imploring look that caused Jo-Jo an irrational stab of jealousy.
‘Let me guess, Mr Berniere. You are from Scolar, perhaps? A Jainist or Buddhist?’ asked Carnage Farr.
Thales’s shocked look made Rast Randall laugh again.
‘The Baronessa had agreed to take me to Scol station after I—’ Thales began.
‘After you assaulted an OLOSS dignitary and jumped ship,’ finished Rast. ‘You’re lucky to have your skin on.’
‘W-what do you m-mean?’ stammered the scholar.
‘I mean that you should be grateful we hijacked your plans. If Scol security had caught up with you and the set of “instructions” you are carrying, you would have been imprisoned without trial. Maybe executed. I haven’t met a sanctioned bio courier yet. Whatever you’re collecting’s gotta be illegal, no matter what they told you.’
Thales swallowed hard. ‘You’ve been through my room!’
But Jo-Jo’s curiosity wasn’t piqued. His thoughts were racing ahead. Why are we all here—together? What is Carnage Farr planning?
As if sensing Jo-Jo’s paranoia, Orion’s most infamous man stood. He placed his fists, knuckles forward, on the table, displaying the faint scars from old military augmentations. ‘While I am neither a Jainist nor a philosopher of any one doctrine, I am a believer. And this is what I believe. There is a pattern in everything and a reason for it. I have on one side of the table a woman desperate to raise an army, and two mercenaries who will work for her if the price is right.
‘I have on the other side my own sister whose child is lost on the very planet the Baronessa wishes to save, and an entrepreneur—a God-Discoverer—who has unfinished business with a Lostolian academic under the new god’s tutelage—an ‘esque, as it turns out, who had recently visited the Baronessa’s planet.’
Farr clapped his hands: a short, emphatic noise that made everyone jump. ‘You have much in common and you arrive on my doorstep at the same time. A pattern is emerging from seemingly random events. Someone has begun something that has had consequences for you all. And I... I am another part of it.’
Glances intersected all around the table but the Baronessa spoke first. ‘Then you will help us?’
Jo-Jo’s heart pounded just to hear her voice again.
‘Please, Lasper. You can’t ignore this,’ added Beth softly. ‘There is more than territorialism going on here.’
‘I think your sorella is right, Mr Farr. I have in my possession some... some information that would suggest a precious mineral is the reason for the invasion on my planet,’ said the Baronessa.
Farr stiffened as though he’d been unexpectedly shot. ‘How interesting, Baronessa. What mineral would that be?’
‘It is called quixite.’
‘And you say your planet has an abundance of quixite?’
‘I am not sure. There is a single mine, I’m sure, in which the alloy can be found.’
‘Quixite is only ever found in small quantities. Are you sure your information is correct?’
Mira reviewed what she had heard in her mind. ‘Si,’ she said simply.
Farr closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, Jo-Jo noticed that they had changed colour. No longer grey but darker, almost black.
‘I have some things to consider. Randall, take your people back to your biozoon. You are free to move around the city and enjoy the biannual Trade Fest as long as you respond immediately to my next summons for a meeting. Bethany and Mr Rasterovich may use our guest facility as you have no current transport. Petalu Mau, you may return home.’
Mau’s lip quivered in appreciation and Jo-Jo felt relieved for the big man—and for himself.
He and Bethany walked to the door.
‘For the record, too, Farr,’ said Jo-Jo, ‘when we tried to shift here, a ship cut into shiftspace ahead of us. We had to loop out and go again. The H-M on the Savvy saved our skins by being smart. The Captain... he would have got us all dead.’
Carnage Farr nodded. ‘I will investigate it.’
To his right the Baronessa suddenly sagged as if punched. Rast Randall moved to her side and jerked her upright. ‘We’ve been through a rough shift too,’ said the mercenary. “Zoon’s had some injuries. Think maybe the lady needs to rest.’
Jo-Jo sensed the undercurrent between the women.
So did Carnage. The famous warman’s gaze flicked around the group. ‘Later,’ he said. ‘We will continue this later.’
THALES
Gutnee Paraburd lied to me. That thought obsessed Thales. I could have be
en imprisoned. If I hadn’t lost my temper at Sophos Mianos... if the Baronessa hadn’t sent her man back to help me...
He found it impossible to reconcile the notion that his aggression, his loss of composure, had been the thing that had saved his life. Jain taught that self-control was the only way to attain moksha—true realisation of the soul.
Thales nursed his revelation all the way back to the biozoon and into the ribbed space that the Baronessa called the cucina.
The five of them convened around a table over a variety of recomposed meals. The Baronessa sprang up and took a container from the unfolded shelves.
She handed it to Thales. ‘Risotto without meat,’ she said. ‘I hope this is suitable.’
He smiled and thanked her.
She looked weak with fatigue.
‘Sit and eat,’ Rast ordered her.
The Baronessa resumed her seat near the mercenary. She broke off a tiny amount of bread and put some to her lips. ‘It was them,’ she whispered.
Rast shovelled in large mouthfuls of beans. ‘Too late for conscience now, Fedor. We survived. Most of them survived. Coulda been worse.’
Thales didn’t understand the meaning of their exchange and knew it pointless to ask. He’d become caught up, unwittingly, amongst fugitives, and in truth he did feel some sympathy for the plight of the Baronessa’s world. But he had too many of his own concerns.
His shaken faith, for instance; Paraburd’s DNA, the state of his own world, and Rene, of course. What must he do to win her back?
He knew that the people he sat eating with thought him to be naive and senseless. But naivety was a phase soon passed, and senseless he was not—although it seemed useful for now that they thought of him as such. Their tongues would be less guarded if they did. They would take less notice of him.
The God-Discoverer Jo-Jo Rasterovich interested Thales the most. Though obnoxious and uncouth, the man had knowledge of Belle-Monde and the Entity. Tonight, at the Trade Fest, he would seek out his company...
‘Will Lasper Farr support me?’ Mira Fedor asked Randall.
The mercenary scraped a fork moodily across her empty plate. ‘Carnage won’t do anything that doesn’t suit him. Course, there’s one thing in your favour.’ She shot Mira a look. ‘His niece is on Araldis. That might be enough.’
Latourn, the one who had brought Thales from the OLOSS ship, stood up and belched. He had not been with them. ‘I hear we’re goin’ to the Fest, Capo?’
‘Reckon we might be due some downtime, Lat. Not much work around for a team of three.’
Latourn nodded. Then he gave the Baronessa a lingering look. ‘Reckon I’ll go rest up, then, ready for the show. Never know what Luck might bring me.’
Rast and Catchut laughed at that. Leaving their plates and cups piled at random, they followed Latourn from the cucina.
In the silence that followed Thales was surprised to find the Baronessa staring at him.
‘Will you go out this evening, Thales?’ she asked after the others had gone.
He shrugged. ‘Perhaps, Baronessa. It seems there is little else to do.’
‘I am sorry for the way things have happened. And I have had little time to thank you for what you did. I fear Sophos Mianos would have imprisoned me.’
Thales was unsure how much he should tell this woman. She seemed educated enough, but something irrational lurked within her, something stronger than she could control. She lacked the centred calm of the truly sane. ‘Sophos Mianos has a habit of doing such things.’
‘You seem unsuited to the job you have undertaken.’
‘Bio-courier?’
‘Si.’
Embarrassment warmed Thales’s cheeks but he decided to continue. He badly needed to unburden himself a little. ‘M-my circumstances changed. I was wrongfully accused of sedition. My world has become a reactionary, oppressive place.’
The Baronessa nodded thoughtfully. ‘I am distressed to hear that, Msr Berniere. At my Studium we were taught that Scolar was Orion’s ethical and ideological centre—her soul.’
Thales felt the passion rising in his breast, loosing his tongue. ‘It is no longer what it should be. It is like a malaise that has crept unheard and unseen upon us. My colleagues have embraced Pragmatism and, worse, I fear that the Sophos have ceased to encourage honest discourse.’ He thought of The Children of God and Villon. More than that, they have murdered it.
The Baronessa watched him with an intent expression on her face.
He stopped. ‘My apologies—I am speaking of things that mean nothing to you.’
‘No, no,’ she said. ‘Please continue. Although I am not a philosopher I am educated and I have a love of learning. It is... invigorating to listen to a man with such meaningful comprehensions.’
Thales blushed again. He had not been called a man before—not by a woman.
‘I had heard that your culture did not encourage women to be...’ he searched for words that would not be offensive ‘... reflective or informed.’
The Baronessa smiled and her face lost the tiny age lines that should not have been there. ‘You have a most refined manner... may I call you Thales?’
Thales nodded. ‘Of course, and should I continue to address you as Baronessa?’
‘Mira,’ she said. ‘And you are partially correct. The women of higher castes in my culture are educated in a certain way. It is expected that we should have a full comprehension of Latino history and we are encouraged to be familiar with literature and art and with alien genera. I am unusual in that I have acquired learning in aerospace technologies.’
Thales put a mouthful of the recomposed potato to his lips and sucked at it. ‘This is part of your Innate Talent, I suppose?’
Mira’s smile faded and he saw bleakness replace it. ‘In part, I suppose. But much was from my own initiative. Women are not supposed to possess an Innate Talent. It has not been that way before.’
‘It was difficult for you, then—in a patriarchy.’
Her face took on a gaunt appearance. ‘They sought to take my Talent from me.’
‘How so? I am not trained as a biologist but I imagine it would need something akin to gene transference.’
She bowed her head. ‘Si. And afterwards... what would be left?’
They sat in silence then for a while.
‘Would you accompany me this evening? I am uncomfortable with the mercenaries,’ Mira asked.
Thales thought of Rene and felt a pang of guilt. ‘I—er—of course, though you may be safer in their company.’
The Baronessa shivered. ‘I do not think so.’
* * *
Thales escorted Mira from the biozoon a little before the Edo bells heralded star-set. He wore a robe called a fellalo that the Baronessa had found him in one of the myriad of cabin spaces.
She had also changed from her simple shapeless dress into something ornate but equally as shapeless. Thales wondered that Latino men could find attraction in their women under such voluminous garb.
Still, he felt a slight stirring as she placed her arm in his. He was unused to being so long without physical contact with a woman and the Baronessa’s crimson colouring was not unattractive but exotic in a way. Scolar was home to a variety of humanesques, but he had not previously known a race with such vivid skin tones.
The Lamin creature was waiting for them on the docks. ‘Commander Farr has sent me as your guide.’
‘But how did—’
The Lamin clacked its fingernails together as if pinching something. ‘It is customary for us to know our guests’ movements.’
Customary? Thales suppressed a bitter laugh. Words could not disguise hegemony in any place or time. Was this Lasper Farr no better than Sophos Mianos?
The Lamin hustled them into a preprogrammed taxi which transported them up and away from the docks across an arched viaduct. The biozoon became a miniature of itself as they arced high, and then down again towards a complete wall of darkness.
Thales was astou
nded to see the gloom separate into compacted metals thousands of mesurs high. The viaduct connected directly with a tunnel that passed through the metal wall, much like the chute they had navigated through to land. As the taxi slid purposefully onwards, Thales glimpsed tunnels branching off in many directions. Some were lit while others appeared disused; easy to become lost in, he imagined.
After a time the vehicle entered a huge shaft, the diameter of which extended well beyond their line of sight. The Lamin instructed the vehicle to halt alongside a block of a dozen airlifts.
‘Please leave the vehicle and enter the closest available lift,’ it said, flicking its tongue across its lips.
Mira Fedor had spoken few words since leaving the biozoon but Thales could see her escalating curiosity.
‘What are the proportions of this metal wall?’ she asked.
The Lamin appeared to ponder over an answer.
‘The wall, as you call it, is one of Edo’s wings, and it stretches three thousand mesurs high and a thousand mesurs wide.’
‘A wing?’ The Baronessa frowned. ‘Planets do not have wings.’
The Lamin laughed: a moist, wheezing noise. Tiny droplets of spit sprayed from its mouth, causing it great embarrassment. It snapped a handkerchief from the pocket of its sleeveless suit and dabbed at its face. When it was satisfied with the result it continued. ‘Edo is not a planet, Baronessa Fedor. Edo is a Self-Made Object comprised entirely of amalgamated refuse.’
Mira’s mouth opened. ‘But how—’
‘The core is magnetised.’
Thales had a sudden and overwhelming sense of unease, his imagination firing in many directions. ‘Why would anyone make a planet of refuse?’
The Sentients of Orion Page 51
