by Dan Worth
‘Yes,’ Chen replied. ‘As I mentioned in my report, I sent warnings to Southern Fleet Command to the effect that they should prevent any ship from Cox’s armada from docking, especially that Shaper vessel that they’re towing.’
‘You also made it clear to me in your emergency coded broadcast. Admiral Chen, your warnings were disregarded. Our SOC sources within Southern Fleet Command have revealed that an order to proceed with the dry-docking of the Shaper vessel in Spica came from Admiral Morgan seven days ago. On the basis of that it is safe to assume that everything you have told me is correct.’
‘Oh dear God,’ said Katherine. ‘If that thing…’
‘War Marshal, I must be allowed to brief Admiral Haines,’ said Chen. ‘The potential consequences of this action are appalling. At any one time there are thousands of personnel and hundreds of ships in the vicinity of Southern Fleet Command. We could be facing a disastrous situation.’
‘Yes you must. Admiral Chen you must return to Earth immediately. The Commonwealth government is in meltdown amid these allegations made against the administration. Many of the cabinet have either been arrested or are under suspicion and Parliament is barely functioning as an effective body amid the political in-fighting. Legislation has virtually ground to a halt. In the event of a crisis I’m not sure that there’s anyone capable of responding in a timely and decisive fashion. Haines has already discussed with me the possibility of ignoring the chain of command and declaring martial law in the event of an attack. Professor, Doctor, it would be of immense help to us all if you could resume your work on the data wafers. We have moved one of our asteroid bases to the Bivian Sphere in order to make use of its facilities and I’m sure your work will be of great use to us if we can restore the missing files that accompany the simulation that you found.’
‘Thank you War Marshal,’ said Rekkid. ‘Perhaps you’ll refrain from disturbing us this time, given that the situation is now rather more pressing than before?’
‘Perhaps I’ll also overlook the fact that you absconded with classified materials? However, I believe I am in your debt for your diligent work, nonetheless. Meanwhile, I will convene with my superiors and our civilian government and brief them of the situation. Hopefully we’ll be able to get some intelligence from your Hidden Hand friends about the situation in Spica.’
‘I have already ordered my comms officer to begin distributing the necessary coded orders to our contacts sir,’ Chen replied. ‘Here seemed as good a place as any to transmit from, given our relatively remote location. We’ll be routing deliveries through the Labyrinth trading outpost. The Hidden Hand have many friends there.’
‘Good,’ said Mentith. ‘Now do you have anything to add?’ he said, turning to the cat, which had remained silent throughout the exchange.
‘Yes,’ said the ship’s cat. ‘I would very much like to examine the computer model that Professor Cor uncovered for myself. Perhaps if I apply my considerable computing power to it, I might uncover more of its secrets, particularly if I can correlate its data against current star maps of our galaxy.’
‘Go ahead,’ said Rekkid, proffering his computer. ‘Just as long as you keep it safe.’
‘I assure you that I will,’ said the ship’s cat. ‘My mind can be rendered more secure than your own. I can even protect things from myself if need be.’
‘Well that’s re-assuring, I suppose’ Rekkid replied as he placed the appliance in front of the cat. Casually, it held up one paw to the machine and extruded its digits to a series of worm-like questing tendrils which sought out the tiny ports on the side of the device. A second passed then the cat retracted its paw, the toes already returning to their original shape.
‘Done,’ said the ship’s cat. ‘I will begin analysing the data.’
The creature yawned lazily and then looked thoughtful for a moment. ‘Interesting,’ it said.
‘What is?’ said Rekkid.
‘I have sorted the catalogue of star systems. Out of the hundred billion or so listed systems present in the main body of the galaxy at that time there are a number that are still in existence today; this one for example, as well as several billion others. Of these however, two are highlighted as being of special significance. The first is the system known today as Maranos, whose stellar sequence was - as we know - tampered with, and is the home of the wormhole portal discovered by yourselves. The second is the Progenitor home system. There is a detailed map of the bodies in the system as well as an impressive Dyson sphere but documentary evidence is not forthcoming. There are links to missing files and some manner of encryption/decryption mechanism, but nothing else. The system is one listed in our stellar cartography archives, though it merely has a serial number, and lies in the outer edges of the galactic core, approximately twenty five thousand light years due west of the Maelstrom.’
‘No doubt those files lie somewhere within the pile of data wafers we found,’ said Katherine.’
‘That would be my own hypothesis, yes,’ said the ship’s cat. ‘I must say, I am rather curious to establish why this system was so significant and yet why the information about it appears to be so closely guarded. It seems somewhat paradoxical that they should tell us the location of their home-world, but tell us nothing more about it.’ Its ears twitched as if irritated.
‘All the more reason for us to get back to work as soon as possible,’ said Katherine. ‘Once we’ve extracted the data from those things we can start sifting it for useful titbits such as this.’
‘Anything you uncover could be useful,’ said Mentith. ‘Somebody wanted us to find this data, of that I am certain. I want to be begin assimilating this new information about the war that the Progenitors lost against the Shapers into your combat simulations,’ he said the ship’s cat. ‘Run scenarios based upon it and then try and analyse the tactics and methods that the Shapers used.’
‘Of course War Marshal,’ said the cat. ‘I will of course attempt to fight the next war and avoid fighting the last.’
‘Very good. Now, we must get underway at once. Admiral, you should return to the Churchill and depart without further delay. I will of course take time to digest the information you have provided me en route back to the Black Rock. Good work Admiral Chen. It seems that our Captain Isaacs proved to be far more useful than we anticipated.’
‘I have one question,’ said Katherine.
‘Of course,’ said Mentith.
‘Did you know that something was going on in Hadar when you sent us there?’
‘Admiral Haines had suspicions that some form of skull-duggery was taking place, yes. He was being kept out of the loop on what was going on down there and the scuttlebutt among the fleet had thrown up a number of lurid stories that pointed to some unknown alien technology that was not being responsibly dealt with. However, the true nature of Cox’s operation was not known to us. Haines merely resented the obfuscation and what he suspected was Cox’s professional rivalry taking precedence over his duty to his men, but I had a bad feeling about the whole thing and I knew that you two would be able to get to the bottom of it. You have my thanks for a job well done, and for risking yourselves in the process.’
‘If you had known though...’ she pressed.
‘Then I would have sent a fleet of warships to destroy that thing and damn the diplomatic consequences!’
‘Good,’ she replied. ‘I think I’d have done the same.’
‘I’m sure you would,’ Mentith replied.
Good grief, she thought, was she actually starting to like Mentith? It wasn’t often she agreed with the old Arkari and given that he was a military leader from an alien civilisation and she a human academic she wasn’t surprised that they didn’t often see eye to eye - their backgrounds and personalities could hardly be more different. But he seemed to be being a little more honest and open with them now. The fact that he had thanked them was unprecedented. His uneasy manner around her and Rekkid from the start had been no secret. Mentith seemed to regard them as a
necessary evil and only grudgingly acknowledged their value, especially since her colleague appeared to take sadistic delight in winding up the old warhorse. Had they now earned a measure of his respect?
‘I’ll take my leave of you, if I may,’ said Chen. ‘Professor, Doctor, yet again we seem to have met under less than ideal circumstances. I wish you luck with your studies and I have no doubt that our paths will cross in the future.’
‘Preferably with no-one trying to kill us this time,’ said Katherine.
Chen gave a brief, wry chuckle. ‘Let’s hope so, until then.’ She saluted Mentith and then left, the sound of her boots receding down the corridor outside.
‘Now,’ said Mentith. ‘It should take us another week, by your reckoning, to reach the Dyson sphere. In the meantime we have quarters prepared for you and you have free run of any areas within the ship that the ship will permit you to enter. Ship, perhaps if you’d like to show our guests where they will be staying?’
‘Naturally,’ said the ship’s cat. ‘Follow me, please.’
The ship’s cat trotted ahead of them, tail aloft, as it led them through the quiet interior of the ship. Uniformed Arkari crew members passed them infrequently, most of whom gave the cat a nod of acknowledgment. The sheer amount of space aboard the Shining Glory, in comparison to the cramped, bustling interiors of Commonwealth warships, was staggering. Broad corridors of curving, white, seamless composite threaded their way between spacious compartments where a scattering of crew were to be seen working and studying. There was also provision for those off duty; entertainment and private study facilities were dotted throughout the ship as well as a number of communal areas. In addition, a sizeable park containing flora from Keros ran for several hundred metres down a dorsal compartment of the ship, the nano-composite ceiling turned into a giant view-screen that allowed the stars to be seen through it.
The cat took them to a suite that overlooked one end of the park through a large oval window set into one wall of the main lounge area. Their belongings had already been transferred from the Churchill and sat in a neat pile in the centre of the room which was, for the moment, devoid of furniture.
‘I hope you enjoy your stay with us,’ said the cat. ‘If there’s anything else you need.’
‘We’ll shout at the wall, yes I know,’ said Rekkid.
‘Quite so,’ the cat replied, amused. ‘We’ll be getting underway shortly, please feel free to explore. I’ll keep you out of off-limit areas.’
‘We know,’ said Katherine. ‘Do you have to watch us all the time?’
‘I don’t and I shan’t. Privacy is sacrosanct after all, however should you mistakenly attempt to enter somewhere where your presence is not permitted my systems will be alerted and bar your way. No offence intended.’
‘None taken.’
‘If that is all, I shall leave you be,’ said the creature and padded from the room.
Rekkid walked over to a wall panel and pressed his fingers against it. Instantly the floor extruded itself into a set of seats and tables as well as a broad desk.
‘Hmm, just a moment,’ said Rekkid and adjusted the settings. The seats were replaced with a long sofa as the material reshaped itself. The height of the desk adjusted slightly and Rekkid moved it in front of the window. ‘There, that’s better. More like home,’ he said with satisfaction.
Katherine sat down on one end of the sofa, noting that the hard flooring material had formed itself into comfortable upholstery.
‘But of course this is home, isn’t it?’ she said to Rekkid.
‘Hmm, I suppose. I’ve spent so long away it doesn’t really feel like it, to be honest. It’s too bloody quiet for a start.’
‘How long has it been now, since you came to live in the Commonwealth?’
Rekkid sighed thoughtfully and sat alongside her.
‘Let me think… You know I first came to Earth as part of the cultural exchange program following first contact. That was in what, 2215?’
‘Long before my time Rekkid, but yes, that sounds about right.’
‘I was wet behind the ears after my first year of teaching, but my thesis had caught the eye of a few notables in our academic community so they sent me along with Miniack Gren from the Keros Etymology Institute. We stayed on Earth for six months at Cambridge, and I suppose I fell in love with the place then. I had enough time to travel around during the rather relaxed schedule and I think it was… it was that humanity seemed far more vibrant than anything I had seen back home. I saw more variety in terms of cultures and people on that single planet than I had in all my years of living among my own people. Humans seemed… more alive I suppose. No doubt we were like that once, a very long time ago, but after so many millennia our diverse cultures got kind of blended together into one monoculture. We’ve become rather bland and staid if you ask me. We are complacent in what we imagine to be perfection.’
‘You mean you find your own people boring?’
‘In a word: yes. It came to me, I remember, I was standing in the nave of Notre Dame, a few weeks after I first arrived. In terms of actual dates that place was young by our standards, eight hundred years old or so, not even as old as an Arkari lifespan, but even so I felt the weight of history pressing down on me. So much had happened in that place, so many lives had passed beneath that vaulted ceiling and so much had changed in the world outside since it was built. That place had been built by hand by people whose view of the world had extended little further than the next town and a series of curious superstitions about the workings of the universe and yet their ancestors were now taking their first steps out into the galaxy. I think I knew then that if I wanted to be at the heart of things - where the real progress and the really interesting research and thinking would take place - that I should move to Earth. Fortunately I was lucky enough to be invited.’
Rekkid got up, walked to the wall and brushed his hand over the surface. A series of inlaid controls appeared under his fingers. His pressed them methodically and the wall transformed itself into a large screen, displaying the view over the bows of the ship. The Churchill could be seen turning away from the Arkari vessel and preparing to jump.
‘So after all this time amongst us humans do you feel more human or Arkari?’
‘Hmm, well humans tend to notice the Arkari in me, which admittedly is pretty obvious just by looking at me. Arkari on the other hand tend to notice the human traits I’ve picked up. We have a certain… reserve I think you’d call it, a certain formality in dealing with others that I think I’ve lost over the years. So yes I have ‘gone native’ I suppose, though Earth, and England in particular, have become my home. How about you, do you miss it, do you miss Earth?’
‘Sometimes, yes. I suppose it’s the little things really. The English landscape, the taste of certain foods I can’t get elsewhere, or if I can they don’t taste quite right, the colour of the sunlight, the smell of grass in summer. You know, when I was a little girl, growing up in Manchester I used to think that it was boring. I used to dream of running off to the new colonies and living with the aliens that I occasionally saw on the streets at home. But yes I do get a little homesick at times, now I do spend so much time out here. I mean, I haven’t been back since before the war, since I left for Maranos, and I haven’t seen my family for even longer than that, barely been in touch even. I’ve just been so busy that I never realised where the time went. I suppose what with everything that’s going on back home I ought to check in with them. I don’t know how long it might be until I can see them again in person.’
‘Yes, I think that would be a good idea if you get the chance,’ Rekkid replied, the hint of a frown crossing his alien features. ‘I’m afraid I think that’s a big ‘if’ though.’
The Churchill was preparing to leave. As they watched, it angled itself towards a faint yellow star and jumped, the distortion effect created by the vessel’s drives twisting the stars out of all recognition before they snapped back into place. Chen was on her way back
to the Solar System.
Chapter 31
Isaacs rolled over in the hotel bed. Still half asleep, he sensed the absence of Anna, though the sound of running water from the small bathroom gave away her location. She had switched on the screen in the corner of the room and pulled back the curtains to reveal the curved interior landscape of Venice High Orbital. Obviously she was trying to rouse him from sleep in a less than subtle manner after their night’s reconnaissance of the spaceport bars during which he had tried a little too hard to blend in. The numb, fuzzy feeling of a not quite full-blown hangover made his process of waking up akin to climbing out of a metaphorical pit, and he scrunched up his eyes against the glare from the plasma light tube outside. Groggily, he propped himself on the pillows and peered at the screen.
The Hidden Hand had been in the Spica system for a fortnight now, moving between the various space ports and stations, spending a few days in each and trying to worm their way into the local community of pilots and traders that frequented the system. Local gossip would be a good way of getting a feel for what was going on, or so they had hoped. Cal and Anna were operating under false I.Ds both for themselves and the ship they were using, Anna’s yacht, the Jilted Lover. So far, their efforts had drawn a blank. Almost everyone knew that something was going on at Southern Fleet Command due to the unusual amount of military traffic in the system outside of the usual designated volumes off limits to civilians. Since the large armada of warships had arrived a week ago and docked at Command Headquarters, ships were being stopped and boarded far more than was usual and port security had been stepped up system wide. It was becoming difficult for some traders, those who dealt in the more esoteric items, to operate within Spica. Many were either leaving the system or keeping a low profile until what they hoped was a temporary crackdown was relaxed. Either way, there was plenty of grumbling amid the freelancer community, but no-one knew precisely what the underlying reason was or what was going on in the inner system. No-one had gotten close enough to take a surreptitious look, as the military had even suspended flights by the usual civilian cargo contractors that they made use of, instead using their own cargo transports to haul goods from Spica’s principle ports into the inner system. However, during the past few days a number of military vessels had arrived from elsewhere, mostly high speed passenger vessels with armed escorts that could only mean the arrival of high ranking officers or government officials. It all made Isaacs very uneasy.
