Union of Souls (Gigaparsec Book 3)

by Scott Rhine

  “What was your rating?” Marta asked.

  “I think we’re at nine,” Reuben said, deliberately rounding down so his enemies would underestimate him. Already, details from the trance were fading, but he remembered the important results.

  Fiona agreed pleasantly. “Hmm. I lost count after six, honestly.”

  “Could we talk about this later?” Reuben asked. “Since I spent all my fancy mental abilities on the trance, I can’t boost for at least a day. This is the first time I don’t have to worry about a ewe leaving me in the middle of lovemaking, so I’d like to take advantage of the moment. As soon as we’re finished, we’ll be leaving for Giragog. Call the Turtle Embassy immediately and find out who’s working Human security at the Convocation—the Lunar Oligarchy faction, not Anodyne. Tell them I need to deliver a message to one of their intelligence operatives”

  Marta bowed. “Blessings on the servant of the people. Long Live the Black Ram.”

  Chapter 30 – Boxing with Words

  Around midnight Mauna Keanu time, the spaceport waiting lounge closed and the partners wandered back to the parlor of the yacht. Menelaus and Troy manned the beam turrets to guard against more assaults. Reuben let Fiona nap while he made one last scan of the ram library to gather evidence. Wearing only a robe, he pushed out a cart with several snack trays to offer his friends. He had deactivated the spy drone.

  “Long live the Black Ram,” Max said, indulging in a snack. “How did the ceremony go?”

  “I have the plan to reach Giragog. It’s not what I was hoping for, but it’s the only way I could find. Set up a videoconference so we can include the others on Solemnity.”

  While Max and Roz handled the technical details in the cockpit, Reuben found the proper star charts and slides.

  The moment they were alone, Daisy whispered, “You pulled us into the mass-mind gestalt.”

  “You and your sisters?”

  “My whole family—all the long-range telepaths.”

  “We’re all connected. I’m sorry. I’ll exercise finer control next time.”

  “What the hell are you?” Daisy asked, a little frightened.

  Reuben grabbed a nacho chip and dipped it into the hot cheese. “A monster of your creation. Bet you’ll be more careful next time you meddle.”

  She made no reply because Max had connected the secure comms to the wall screen.

  “Can Roz listen and fly at the same time?” Reuben asked. “We have a deadline.”

  “Now he’s in a hurry,” Roz said. “Why not? I miss my own bed.”

  Max raised an eyebrow at the request but said nothing.

  Once Echo and Kesh appeared on the wall screen, Reuben began his presentation. “Feel free to ask questions, but I assure you the information I’m providing is accurate. By the end of this meeting, you will all reluctantly agree with my plan, but I warn you in advance that I won’t play fair. We’ll start with motives that will explain why the Bankers have been so extreme in their reactions. Their first overreaction was to the escape of Roz’s mother, Alyssa, from the Prairie system. She couldn’t mention this under the terms of her agreement, but I suspect they were afraid because female Probability Mechanics can see Bankers in their true form.”

  “What?” Roz asked, pausing her preflight ritual.

  “Remember when you smelled something dead in the cockpit? Max, a trained tracker, sensed nothing, which led me to believe the odor was a mental residue. However, Daisy and I sensed nothing. You also felt the ansible watching you.”

  “Okay. Creepy but not conclusive.” Roz continued powering up the bubble field and engines.

  “The only definitive proof would be for you to witness this form with your own eyes. When was the last time you were physically inside an interstellar bank?”

  “I opened an account when I was seventeen. Well, my aunt did most of the paperwork for me. I just recorded my biometric signature and left. There just hasn’t been a reason to go in since.” Roz sounded defensive and nervous.

  Kesh seemed puzzled. Nearly every adult traveler in the Union had to visit a bank at least once a year for loans, major purchases, spending money on other planets, and biometric updates.

  Reuben said, “I think you’ve been subconsciously avoiding tellers ever since the initial trauma. Why did your aunt need to fill out the paperwork?”

  “My stomach was bothering me.”

  The crowd realized where Reuben was going, but Roz couldn’t see the nods in the parlor. “Like it did when someone invisible was trying to sneak aboard our ship?”

  Max intervened. “Do you have evidence the rest of us might recognize?”

  “The diamonds that the tellers and Banker agents wear are artificially made. They’re all attuned to the same mahdra frequency and have a biological component similar to that of gemstones made from cremated Humans.”

  “Gross. Is there a point to all this wild conspiracy nonsense?” Roz asked.

  “I want you to understand why the Bankers put out death warrants on us after we accidentally destroyed the ansible at Salazar Station.”

  “You killed one of them?” Daisy asked in a panic.

  “Pardon?” Max asked.

  “Roz’s stepfather told me a secret, and it seems the people Daisy is linking to in Laurelin Intelligence know it as well,” Reuben said. “The tellers are just the hands and feet, the servitor race. The ansibles somehow are the sentient race. From studying the Black Ram archives, I believe the tuned diamonds function as extra eyes and ears.”

  “Or eggs,” Kesh proposed.

  “Ack. Now I want to take off my wedding ring and wash my hands,” Roz said from the cockpit.

  “Okay. Say we buy this. The folks on Laurelin Station expressed a similar theory.” Max paced the room. “Why did the Bankers recently get personal with the attacks?”

  Reuben sighed. “Because when we jumped through the subbasement to New Hawaii, we didn’t bring the ansible into the shielded area with us.”

  Echo put a hand over her mouth. “Simple living objects mutate and fuse, but nothing with a complex neurological structure can survive immersion.”

  “We scrambled its brains. Worse, we tied it down while we were doing it. To the Bankers, this looks like we deliberately tortured one of their people to death.”

  “We have to explain to their emissaries at the Convocation,” Echo said.

  Reuben interrupted, “There’s no ‘we.’ This device was registered to the Black Ram, and the illegal break-in at the Salizar site had my electronic signature. The vendetta is against me.”

  Kesh replied, “You picked an unfortunate time to give up drinking.” Saurian gallows humor was an acquired taste, but the comment struck Reuben as hilarious.

  “How do we fight the Bankers?” Max asked.

  “Irrelevant. The current mission is to get past the Blue Claws to reach the Convocation in time.”

  Kesh asked, “Have you determined a way to defeat the freighter in our path?”

  “The Bankers made sure we would be met with overwhelming force. My only options result in the loss of those I hold dear or a delay beyond the end of the Convocation. Despite my personal desires for revenge, I yield to the team’s goal of saving countless lives on Jeeve’s world as well as Niisham. My conclusion is that we can only win by refusing to fight.”

  Echo bowed her head. “The Black Ram is wise.”

  Menelaus objected. “We could take that freighter.”

  “Not when our shuttle has no power for the first two hours after a jump.”

  The men in the room glanced at one another with a collective, unspoken, “Oops.”

  “The only effective method of avoidance I could determine was for us to begin our next jump from somewhere other than the nexus, preferably unobserved.”

  “I concur,” said Echo. “You logic and priorities are most sound.”

  “Since we are jumping from a hidden location, it should be as close to our present location as possible to minimize fuel consumpt
ion and exposure to enemies.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Before it died, my shuttle’s ansible overheard Roz discussing our planned route through Hoosway to Giragog.”

  Echo closed her eyes briefly. “My worst fears are realized.”

  “Do you agree that if my analysis is correct, similar overpowering force will await us at every conventional exit to subspace in the Hoosway and Giragog systems?”

  “Yes. We must exit in an unconventional location, hidden from the eyes of observers. Using your previous argument, the target location should be as close to our destination as possible.”

  Reuben strolled over to the wall screen and leaned against a jamb near Echo’s face. “Now for the hard part. I’ve been over the protection plans for this Convocation from top to bottom. The Turtles are providing orbital cover so no bombardments happen from orbit like happened at the New Hawaii Convocation Massacre. I couldn’t find any way past their proposed security screens. Marta assures me there is no way to land on Giragog once the conference starts. Which means?”

  “If we’re to address the Convocation on our many issues,” Echo replied reluctantly, “we must arrive before it commences.”

  “The conclusion of any clever criminal.”

  “That’s impossible,” Menelaus said.

  “No. If we cut off the two-weeks travel on each end and jump directly between the two points Echo has agreed we should use, we will achieve it in the time she says is essential. Depending on how long the computations take, we might even arrive a few days early.”

  Echo narrowed her eyes in anger. “That jump is twelve parsecs, two more than we determined safe.”

  Max shook his head. “Three parsecs less than what we survived before. Roz thinks the odds are reasonable. Either way, Reuben has you in a box. You’ve agreed with every premise. The straight jump is the only way. All in favor?”

  Reuben voted his own share plus Fiona’s proxy in favor of the shortcut. The men agreed soon after. After consulting with Laurelin command, Daisy nodded.

  Echo was the last holdout. “Reuben, I do not like being herded.”

  “And I should? The whole ‘greater good’ argument sucks when it’s you. You’re outvoted. As the minority dissent, do you have a condition to place on our moving forward?”

  Roz shouted from the cockpit, “Strap in. Tower has cleared us. We launch in one minute.”

  The passengers strapped into seats in the salon. Dressed in a silken robe, Fiona wandered out of the bedroom and into the copilot’s seat, pausing only to kiss Reuben on the way by.

  Menelaus gawked at the blatant display of barely dressed affection.

  The wall screen flickered at the moment of take off, but nothing else disturbed the debate. When she could be heard over the roar of the engines, Echo answered, “I can only approve the risk when I hear the infiltration plan to get from space to the committee chambers.”

  Reuben grinned. “You’ll agree that once on the planet’s surface, my people can sneak us almost anywhere.”

  “Granted, but incoming Goat or Magi vessels will be strictly monitored by both the Saurians and Bankers. The Bats will likewise be opposed to our announced plans. How do you plan to travel from our secret arrival location to the surface?”

  “The Humans will ferry us.”

  Fiona closed the blast door to the cockpit. “Sorry, folks. Since we’ve already voted, I’m eliminating the distraction.”

  Daisy frowned. “The folks in the Laurelin central office claim the Anodyne diplomatic ship, Einstein, won’t be anywhere near any of Giragog’s moons during the days we need them.”

  “One Lunar Oligarchy vessel will be.”

  Max’s head snapped to glare at Reuben. “Don’t even suggest it.”

  “Hey, we closed the door so Roz never has to know about you calling in the favor.” That was Fiona’s concession to decency.

  “No.”

  “Seven years of lost lives, perhaps the entire population of Niisham lost—all for your pride. All you have to do is ask, and all of our missions succeed. How does the box feel to you, old friend? You know what happens when I call for a vote.”

  Max made an obscene gesture. “Do they give you rams Satan lessons? Is that why the last guy wore a red suit?”

  Suppressing a smirk, Echo said, “Dear one, why is it right for me to ignore my qualms but not for you?”

  “He doesn’t want Roz to get hurt,” Reuben explained. “The ranking intelligence officer who would approve the transport would be Max’s ex-lover, Lisa Troutwine. I have the encryption keys and link address, but the voice making the request has to be Max’s. She owes him a favor.”

  “What if she reneges?”

  “Then I blackmail her,” Reuben answered. “She tortured an emissary to death to stop a message from getting to the Turtle Ambassador, Beloved Sanderjee.”

  Max shook his head. “You do not want to tangle with this witch.”

  “The lives of the many override your personal discomfort,” Kesh said. “If we vote, Roz will have to hear.”

  Unclipping, Max said, “Roz will have to hear anyway. I don’t lie to my wives. Give me a few hours to ease her into it, though.” On his way by Reuben, he said, “I’m looking forward to the next time we spar.”

  ****

  The yacht docked in its usual place against the giant sphere of Solemnity. Echo told everyone to prepare for departure once they reached the far side of New Hawaii’s nearest moon. She would be computing their course until the last moment. Meanwhile, Menelaus, Daisy, and Troy would take shifts inside the defensive turrets. Reuben was responsible for verifying stasis-chamber redundant power. Max would give anti-nausea medication and vitamins because of the length of time they were about to spend in stasis.

  Roz took her marriage license to the orbital bank in order to officially change her last name on her account. Ostensibly, the act was a symbolic gesture of faith in her husband after the news about Lisa Troutwine. On another level, Roz proposed the outing as a scientific experiment to disprove Reuben’s crazy rambling. Kesh went along as bodyguard.

  When Roz returned, she was pale and wanted to leave port immediately. She showered for nearly an hour and then availed herself of a bottle of wine confiscated from the Black Ram’s cellar.

  At dinner, Reuben asked her how the experiment went. She replied with one word, “Tentacles.”

  Kesh elaborated for her. “She described the ansible as a pot of thrashing tentacles like a giant squid. The arms wrapped around all the tellers like leashes. When the head of the branch opened his mouth to talk, his tongue was actually—”

  “Stop it!” Roz said, downing the rest of her glass and pouring another.

  “I see a similar connective effect between the dendrites of the mass-mind when I’m in the trance,” Reuben said. “It’s perfectly normal.”

  “I had to face that evil in the flesh. I don’t want to hear about it again.”

  Echo placed a hand on Roz’s. “Civilized life comes in many forms, dear one. We cannot discriminate because of our prejudices.”

  Roz glared at her partner. “It was completely civil as it told me I would never be permitted to reproduce. It informed me that my spawn would be hunted to the ends of the galaxy to eliminate the threat I posed, but I could live in peace if I allowed them to lobotomize and sterilize me like they did my mother. Max would have to wear a pet collar like Herb did.” She looked queasy.

  Max put an arm around her and led her to the lift.

  Reuben said, “As soon as Fifi’s done with her piloting shift, I’ll look for a solution to this mess in the mass-mind.” If he could spend a little more time under, he could stop the tidal wave that was coming.

  “You can’t,” Max said. “Not yet. You should have at least a month between each trace.”

  “The sooner I confront this, the sooner I can fix the mistakes my ancestors made.”

  Roz turned to face him. “You’re just one man—a good one who needs to last. This is a m
arathon, not a sprint. We can cope with this together.”

  Chapter 31 – Favor for Medusa

  Echo recomputed the route and the potential side effects several times until they had only forty hours to spare.

  Any time Reuben didn’t spend preparing the ship for the jump, he researched everything he could on the Bankers. With his music library blaring, he waded through thousands of accusations and rumors but very little fact. Most interesting was the Human military research colony known as Nightmare where ansibles didn’t function. The only concrete information from any resource turned out to be the astronomical observations of Nivaar’s sun and spectral analysis of the planet’s atmosphere. Their star was so small and dim that the planet orbited unnaturally close. Even so, the inhabitants developed senses other than vision to probe their environment. Their single sun had so little mass that the ships could only leave the system, sending out emissaries that took over a century to return. The Bankers had developed ansibles to control their empire.

  Because the crew of Solemnity expected to have limited free time after their arrival, Reuben held the briefing to discuss Giragog shortly before they were placed in stasis. He posted several photos of the planet and zoomed in on the blue concrete domes. “This is our goal, the convention center built specifically for the Convocation. Each of the outer domes is dedicated to a separate species. One was left empty for the Pandas or the Phibs in case either is promoted in the next five hundred years. The delegates meet together in the modern tower at the center.” He overlaid the labels for each region, including the Goat service-provider village, fish hatchery, and various crops. “To avoid pre-set bombs or surprises, the administrators won’t decide on where committees meet until the day the Convocation begins. Once we land, we’ll come in through this tunnel to the Goat diplomatic area and use it as our home base until the opening ceremonies. Because of my office, I have every right to attend the event. You’ll all be my guests. If we get separated, tell any Goat you meet that you’re a friend of Uncle Vanya’s, and MI-23 will escort you back to me.”

  Max said, “Isn’t that Russian for the Devil?”