Haze

by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

  Roget studied the capsule, deciding from the lack of wear and its compactness that it was not used heavily. He could sense that they were descending. Descending? To reach a launch site that would send his dropboat into space?

  Roget shrugged. That made about as much sense as anything had on Dubiety.

  When the tube capsule came to a halt and the narrow door slid open, he asked, “How deep are we?”

  “Deep enough.”

  From what his internal sensors registered with the change in air pressure, Roget guessed that they had dropped a good klick, if not more, but that estimation was rough, not an exact calculation because he didn’t know all the variables. He followed Lyvia out into a small foyer whose metallic walls glistened like brushed pewter. Opposite the doors to the tube capsule was a metal framed archway.

  The archway door split open. Each side of the door was almost a meter thick, and he walked swiftly through after Lyvia. Two guards— stationed behind energy screens—watched as Lyvia and Roget stepped through the heavy metal and composite doors. For the first time, Roget did sense energy emissions and scanning. Another closed archway stood behind and between the pair of guards.

  “This is where I leave you.” She smiled. Warmly, Roget realized. “Good luck.”

  “Thank you.” Roget unclipped the belt-tube. “I suppose I should give this back to you.”

  “You can take it with you,” Lyvia said. “It’s another piece of evidence.” She smiled. “Besides, if you ever do come back, you can still use the credits.”

  Roget shook his head. “They’ll want the evidence.”

  “It doesn’t matter. The credits are registered in your name.”

  “If I don’t come back, give them to Aylicia, if you can.”

  “Thank you.” She turned and walked back through the still-open archway from the tube capsule. It closed.

  “Major…” offered one of the guards. “The technicians are waiting.”

  Roget looked back toward the second archway, now open. After a moment, he said, “Thank you,” and stepped through the archway.

  On the other side waited a man in a white singlesuit, standing in another featureless and high-ceilinged foyer. “Major Roget, this way.”

  Roget nodded and followed the other along the wide corridor. In a way, he felt more comfortable—wherever he was—because the installation had the definite feel of a military operation.

  The technician turned into the second doorway on the left, the first one that was open. A series of wide lockers lined one wall, and a bench was set back from them. An open archway led into another chamber, which looked to hold freshers and toilets or the equivalent.

  At the end of the bench was a frame holding a suit similar to the pressure suit Roget had worn on his descent through the orbital shields. The suit was a lighter shade of blue than his had been, almost white. He set his bag down on the end of the bench.

  The technician pointed. “That’s a deep-space pressure suit. Yours was too degraded, and we didn’t bother trying to figure out how to repair it. We modified the neck-ring so that it is compatible with the standard Federation helmet. That was for comm compatibility. We checked the seal against your helmet, and it’s perfect. Your helmet is in the dropboat.” He pointed to a flat bag on the end of the bench nearest the suit. “There’s an emergency suit there with a quick-seal hood, in case you can’t get to a full suit. You might consider taking it. Of course, it’s only got about an hour of oxygen, but that’s usually enough for us to get to people in our operations.”

  “Thank you.” Roget didn’t know what else to say.

  Roget studied the emergency pressure suit, then paused as he noted the red triangle on the waistband of the suit. “What’s this?” He pointed.

  “That’s an emergency beacon. Press and hold for several seconds. Not that I expect you’d want pickup from us.” The technician laughed. “I’ll be outside when you’re ready, and I’ll escort you to the … launch chamber.”

  Within moments, Roget was alone. Launch chamber? Possibly klicks below ground? And he was standing in a locker room that held a good twenty lockers. He reached forward to the nearest locker. It was locked, unsurprisingly.

  Finally, he took off his jacket and folded it, setting it on the bench. Then he began to don the replacement pressure suit—far easier to get into than the one he had used before, yet he had the feeling it might well be more durable. The seals literally melded into a seamless fabric.

  Once he had the suit on, he bent to retrieve his own pack. Then he paused as he saw the flat package on the bench. The tech’s observations were as close to an absolute recommendation as he’d gotten. He picked up the pack and felt it, then scanned it. A Trojan horse?

  He shook his head. Why would they bother? They could have turned the entire dropboat into that. Besides, it was another piece of evidence. Finally, he slipped the flat package into his pack, rearranging items so that the pressure suit was on the bottom and his jacket was on the top.

  Then he closed the pack, slung it over one shoulder, and headed out of the locker room.

  The tech was waiting in the corridor.

  “This way, Major.”

  Roget walked beside the tech toward the end of the corridor and another metal girded archway with a closed set of doors. “Is this the only launch center?”

  “It’s best that I don’t answer that, Major.”

  “Can you tell me what entity operates it? It seems… military.”

  “When you deal with massive force, any organization needs discipline. In that respect, we’re no different.”

  Roget couldn’t argue with that, but before he could frame another question they reached the archway, and the doors opened. He and the tech stepped into a huge domed and circular composite-lined chamber more than two hundred meters across. The apex of the dome was at least two hundred meters above.

  A dropboat rested in a massive cradle in the middle of the chamber. The floor was polished and perfectly level, but the cradle was centered in a circle of amber composite so large that the cradle and boat looked almost lost, yet the gray area outside the circle was far larger. Protruding slightly from the mouth of a tunnel to Roget’s right was a second cradle with another Federation dropboat.

  “You’ll be in the first boat, Major. The second boat is slaved to yours. Don’t make any course or power corrections until Drop four is in formation on you. The slave relay won’t work until it’s in position. But any power or course changes you make will be copied precisely by Drop four. Someone will probably have to do a maglock or a tow on it once you get close to whatever ship they want you to rendezvous with.”

  “The other agent?”

  “He’s… very erratic. We’re going to keep you two apart because he’s stable for the moment. We just want to get you both back in one piece.” The tech walked directly toward the cradle. “His comm is also blocked, except for the links to our control, but he won’t know it until after launch.”

  “And mine?”

  “Yours is open all the way. You’ll see.”

  Roget certainly hoped so.

  As they neared the cradle and the dropboat, Roget saw a portable ladder set at the side, arching over the cradle and leading to the dropboat’s hatch. The tech stopped at the bottom. “Once you’re inside we’ll roll the ladder back. Except for the cradle and the boat, the space inside the circle has to be absolutely clear. Do you have any last questions?”

  “How long will the launch take?”

  “Less than ten minutes once you’ve finished your checklist and are ready. After you finish your checklist, control will contact you, and we’ll orient the cradle. Make certain you’re fully restrained.”

  “I can do that.” Roget smiled.

  “Best of luck, Major.”

  “Thank you.” Roget climbed the ladder, carrying his pack. The hull was a different color in several places although the metal or composite the Dubietans had used melded into the original exterior seamlessly, except fo
r the difference in shading. The hatch was open, and he had no trouble entering the dropboat. He could tell immediately that extensive repairs had been undertaken internally, not because of patches or oil or dirt, but because the entire interior looked almost new. Shaking his head, he stowed his pack in the tiny bunk cubicle behind the pilot’s couch and then inspected the interior.

  Once he finished his interior inspection and settled himself before the controls, Roget donned his pressure helmet, linked to the craft’s systems, then went through the predrop checklist, hoping that it would cover what was needed for whatever kind of launch the Dubietans used.

  He went through the checklist twice. If he could trust the linkage and the reports, all systems were green, and all power reserves were at one hundred. He ran another set of diagnostics, but the secondaries confirmed the primary reports. He knew he hated trusting in what he didn’t understand, but, yet again, he had to put his trust in the Thomists. Do you really have any choice?

  He didn’t, but it seemed, in retrospect, that he’d had few enough in his life.

  Dropboat three, this is Magna Launch Control, communications check. The words were crystal clear. They were also in old American.

  Control, this is three. Loud and clear. Interrogative restrained and ready to launch. Restrained and ready to launch, Magna Control. Stand by for cradle orientation. Standing by.

  No sound penetrated the dropboat, but Roget could feel the cradle and the boat moving smoothly and then coming to a stop, nose up, perhaps thirty degrees.

  Cradle orientation complete and verified. Stand by for launch.

  Ready for launch this time, Control. Roget pushed out of his mind the impossibility of a planetary launch from deep underground and waited.

  Good luck, Major.

  Roget had no idea what to expect, but what happened next was totally unanticipated—blackness through which he could see nothing while he felt pressure, barely two gees, if that, followed by a lifting of the blackness, weightlessness, and by readings on all of his instruments showing that he was in space.

  He didn’t have time to think about the impossibility of what had just happened.

  Where was he? Roget scanned the screens. Dubiety/Haze was well insystem from him, and he could discern a good thirty Federation ships directly in front of him on his present courseline and solar inclination. Thirty? There had only been five when he’d been dropped nine days before. Only nine days? In some respects, it felt far longer.

  He ran another set of checks, but all his systems were green, and he was on an interception course for the center of the Federation formation. Even his closing speed was within the parameters that would allow phase deceleration. His power was still just below 100 percent.

  He checked for the other dropboat, but Drop four was nowhere around.

  “They have to move the cradle,” he murmured, forcing himself to wait… and wait.

  Then, his screens blinked, and abruptly, he could see Drop four at his one seventy at a range of three klicks. Inside the pressure suit, he shivered. The Dubietans had launch-projected two dropboats something like a million klicks and set them within three klicks of each other?

  “Frig…” he murmured. He cleared his throat, then transmitted, WD-Con, this is Drop three, returning. Estimate CPA in one five. Drop four is incapacitated and slaved to three. Four will need maglock or tow.

  Drop three, say again.

  Roget repeated his transmission.

  Stet, Drop three. Stand by for further instructions.

  Roget continued on course toward the Federation fleet, noting that he had been launched directly at the WuDing. He didn’t know of any Federation system that could have achieved that kind of accuracy—let alone have launched a dropboat through a chunk of the planetary mantle. Clearly, they could have literally launched a torp or explosives to materialize inside any of the Federation ships. They hadn’t. That raised again the question of exactly what the Thomists had in mind. From what he’d seen, the Federation didn’t have any technology that matched the best of what he’d seen on Dubiety. He’d questioned more than a few times whether he’d seen what he’d thought he’d seen, but now that he was returning—assuming he wasn’t imagining that as well—it was appearing more and more likely that he had indeed seen what he recalled.

  Drop three, maintain course. Zee one will rendezvous. I say again. Maintain course. Zee one will manage link and dock.

  Stet. Maintaining course this time. Will await instructions from Zee one.

  Within two standard minutes, the EDI screen indicated a ship accelerating away from the fleet on an intercept course. The parameters indicated that the ship was an attack corvette.

  Roget smiled. No one wanted his dropboat anywhere close to the main body of the fleet. That suggested the colonel hadn’t expected anyone to return … or perhaps not the manner of his return.

  Another minute passed, then another.

  Drop three, this is ZeeControl. Interrogative power for decel.

  ZeeCon, power adequate for phased decel. He had to assume that the same would be true for Drop four.

  Three, request ID this time.

  Roget pulsed the transponder. The return link identified the oncoming ship as the ZengYi, one of the newer attack corvettes.

  Several minutes more passed.

  Three, maneuver to link. Maneuver to link. Leave your lock closed for examination and possible decontamination.

  ZeeCon, Drop three. Understand maneuver to link. Will leave lock sealed for decon.

  That’s affirmative, three.

  As he maneuvered the dropboat toward the ZengYi, Roget realized he did have more significant proofs than he’d thought. First… the Dubietans had literally hurled or transposed his dropboat from somewhere beneath the planetary surface … and literally dumped him right in front of the Federation ships. He also had a different pressure suit, not to mention the documentation sent by the Dubietans and the repairs to the drop-boat. He even had city and local maps printed on local paper or the equivalent that should reveal something.

  Yet Director Hillis and the others had seemed to think that no amount of proof would suffice to deter the Federation from attacking or attempting to annex Dubiety in some form.

  Roget feared that they might be right, but he’d have to see.

  28

  21 DONGYU 6744 f. e.

  In the end, Roget only spent three days in Fort Greeley, and another two at the Estes Park nature reserve, expensive as it was, before he returned to the Federation base in Cheyenne. As he’d anticipated, Meira had protested his giving her credits but did eventually accept them for Neomi. As he’d also expected, Wallace was polite and reserved, as he always had been to Roget.

  The remaining nine days of his leave were long, but he really didn’t want to spend credits like water on hotels and resorts. So he read, rested, and tried not to think too deeply about his last mission—and the possibility of more memory flashes—and what might await him on his next assignment.

  He also spent more than a little time talking to Hildegarde, but only to the image on his flash and only when he was somewhere alone, away from Federation buildings, and not likely to be snooped. He had no doubts that all officers’ rooms were fully monitored.

  Finally, after another full day of tests at the FAF medical center, he was back at the FSA building at Cheyenne base, sitting across from the same unnamed colonel who had debriefed him after the St. George mission.

  “Agent-Captain Roget, you’re in good shape, according to medical. There don’t seem to be any lasting physiological effects from the events of your last assignment.”

  “Yes, sir.” Roget still worried about the false memories. The first he’d ascribed to dehydration. And then, especially after Marni’s dying words, the second memory-flash had hit hard. Still, he hadn’t had another episode, and he sincerely hoped he wouldn’t have. For all their probing, doctors hadn’t found any sign of anything wrong with him, thankfully. That didn’t mean everything was re
solved. Roget just knew he’d have to cope … somehow.

  The colonel smiled.

  Roget distrusted the expression, even as he returned the smile.

  “You did some research immediately after you were debriefed. Some rather interesting research. Tell me about it, Agent-Captain.”

  “Yes, sir. I was curious. One of the Danites muttered something about a Joseph Tanner. I’d never heard the name, and I wondered what he’d meant.”

  “You didn’t put that in your report.”

  “I should have, but I didn’t remember that until later. At the time, I was much more concerned about trying to find a way to keep them alive so that they could be questioned. After that, as you may recall, the dehydration left me a bit disoriented. All I could find about Tanner was a historical reference.” That was certainly true, although the colonel obviously knew what Roget had found, but Roget wasn’t about to make that point. “Do you think he might have been one of the founders of the Danites, sir?”

  “That’s rather unlikely. The Danites date back to the original Deseret, before it was conquered by the old Americans.”

  “I didn’t realize that, sir.” Roget tried to sound properly chastened, hoping that would divert the senior officer.

  The colonel looked coolly at Roget. Roget returned the look calmly, but without challenge.

  “And the woman?”

  “I was thinking she might have some connection with Tanner, in some way. She didn’t, not from what I could determine. I do wonder why a biologist would walk away from a university position.”

  “Cults can do peculiar things to people, especially to women.”

  Roget nodded. “I did see that in St. George.” The colonel waited a moment before speaking. “It’s a most unpleasant aspect of those who don’t understand the benefits of the Federation.” Another warning, thought Roget.

  “In view of your situation,” continued the colonel, “your next assignment is particularly appropriate. We’re going to send you outsystem. This has advantages and disadvantages for you. One advantage is that you’ve been approved for promotion to major. Another is that the assignment will broaden your experience base. The disadvantage is that you’ll spend six months to a year in intensive training learning to fly various small orbital craft. Since you’re already a trained atmospheric pilot, it shouldn’t be too difficult a transition, and flight status also includes incentive pay. Another disadvantage is that there is often some time dilation, particularly in fleet-related assignments. You have no close family, and you work better alone. That combination makes you an ideal candidate for several assignments once you finish your additional training.”