Mourner

by Irene Radford

  “I cannot believe that Terra still exists. Our people have been told for a long, long, time that our ancestral home was burned up by their sun many thousands of years ago.”

  “That is what the Dragons told you so you would never try to escape from slavery and return there.” Patricius looked around and gestured toward a low stool on wheels. “May I sit while we talk?”

  “Yes, yes, of course. You must tell me of your Terr . . . Earth. Earth, rhymes with mirth. I can grow to like that name.”

  “First, I must ask you why the Dragons fear this?” He held up a simple line drawing, the kind of glyph that could be painted quickly or carved into stone easily. The same glyph Ianus had seen on the tram cars in the hub of the station.

  “The Dragons do not have a name for this symbol. I know only that it represents a planet that is hostile to their kind.”

  “Hostile? In that the inhabitants did not succumb to their demands and ploys?”

  Ianus had to chuckle at the thought of any army of sentient beings subduing the Dragons. Oh there was a magnificent tale in that idea. If Mag could not intimidate others into granting him ownership of whatever he wanted, then he . . . obliterated them.

  At least that was what Ianus thought would happen. He’d never encountered a situation like that. Had Mag? Or did the Dragon just believe he could do it?

  Something to ponder in the dark reaches of a sleepless night.

  “No, not the inhabitants of the defiant planet. When the Dragons visited that place, seeking to claim it and exploit its resources, the planet itself rebelled. After only a short time there—a seemingly stable and calm place—quakes, floods, monstrous storms, drought, and fire made the place uninhabitable, even for Dragons. Especially the floods and pelting rain.”

  “Ah.” Patricius looked up, excitement animating his face. “We call the place Harmony because it welcomed the first Maril—who are a mutated form of humanity—and then humans who came to settle there. They consider the planet sentient and sacred.”

  “To the Dragons it is hell.” A moment of silence dragged on a bit too long.

  “Tell me of your Terra—your Earth.”

  “We humans have no more telepaths because the Dragons kidnapped them all.”

  A huge sadness engulfed Ianus. The few of his kind who serviced the Dragon space vessels were all that was left of human telepaths, fewer than one hundred spread across a dozen ships. They were as dead a race as the language they spoke among themselves.

  Except . . . he’d sensed another. One other.

  “Where have you been, and where is Martha?” Sissy demanded the moment Mary crossed her threshold. Irritation warred with relief and lingering worry.

  “We . . . we were stopped by Admiral Marella,” Mary said, hanging her head and not meeting Sissy’s gaze.

  “Pammy? What did she want with you?”

  “She . . . she wanted to know what we know about Laud Gregor gone missing.”

  Sissy stilled. She had to think about that. Why didn’t the spymaster for the CSS know? She presumed that Jake had told her and set her to investigate.

  “We think she planned to steal him, but someone beat her to it. And . . . and that he’s still here, on the station,” Mary said on a rush. “Where do we start looking? This station is huge.”

  “But you and the rest of my girls have explored every inch of it. Think, Mary. It’s what you do best. Where would you hide a dead body if you needed to preserve it for some reason, but did not want it found?”

  Mary looked off into the distance, her gaze diffuse.

  “Somewhere cold. A wing that has not warmed for habitation. Probably normal to heavy grav to keep it from floating about. Behind a locked door so no one could see it.”

  “That leaves out the maintenance tubes,” Sissy said. “Transparent rad-proof bio-plastic for external examination.”

  “Few of the empty wings have had room dividers put in place, so there are no closets.”

  “We must consult Jake,” Sissy said. “After I visit Marsh and Ashel. I’ve allowed too many delays to keep me from seeing them. Did I tell you that Jake hired that school teacher among the refugees as their Nanny?”

  “Nanny? What’s that?”

  “Someone who cares for and educates young children before they go to school.”

  “How can people not care for their own young?” Mary stepped back, mouth agape in horror.

  On Harmony everyone, even the very wealthy and Nobles cared for their own children before sending them off to boarding school. Familial bonds were important in guaranteeing loyalty later.

  Only Temple Caste kept their children in common, with members of their own caste caring for them.

  Then Sissy looked squarely at her eldest acolyte. “Where is Martha?”

  Mary looked back toward the main entrance and the corridor.

  “Where is she? And don’t lie to me. I can tell when you lie, your face gets flushed and you perspire.”

  “Um . . . I think she went to Medbay.”

  Not a lie. But not the whole truth, either.

  “Is she ill?” Sissy didn’t think so. Up until the moment she had gone to see Jake in Medbay, all her girls had seemed healthy, with no sign of injury or distress.

  “She went to see someone.”

  “Someone? Jake?” He was the only person Sissy knew in the medical facility.

  “I guess.” Half a lie. Not telling the whole truth, but “guessing” at a possibility.

  “Call Dr. Mariah and have her return Martha to us immediately.”

  “She said her errand couldn’t wait.” Mary finally looked up and captured Sissy’s gaze, pleading with her to drop the issue.

  “Then you and I will join her. There is nothing so important in all of Harmony that the HPs can’t know about it.”

  “Wanna make a bet?” Mary whispered, borrowing a phrase from Jake.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Jake, can you go private?” A small voice came through Jake’s link.

  He touched the implant in his jaw, new since taking over this place. “Go, Mara,” he replied, sotto voce. His TMJ vibrated slightly. Somehow the implant picked up those minute quivers and translated them to speak through the minute processors in the device attached to his wrist. At the same time the link transferred Mara’s words to his ear, or his brain, or whatever. He didn’t understand it all, just accepted it.

  Well, he didn’t like it. The tech boys were still trying to figure out why it only worked for two minutes, then started transmitting gibberish in one long loud burst before leaving his teeth aching with cold.

  “The flyboys have picked up a bio mass in the tube between the empty wing and the Dragon lair.”

  A sick feeling knotted his gut. “Is it Maril?” He almost hoped it was, teaching the arrogant birds a hard lesson not to poke their beaks into places they had no business going. The assumption that they had the right to know everything that happened on the station, related to the topic or not, had broken up peace negotiations more than once.

  “Unknown,” Mara reported.

  “Can the maintenance bots get it out?”

  “No, the rail is shorted out. Someone is going to have to go in there and drag it back to a hatch in the empty wing.”

  “Light grav?” That position would make retrieval much easier.

  “Heavy.”

  Damn!

  “We could just leave it . . . Let it rot a bit and then the Dragons would gladly take it off our hands as a snack.” Mara didn’t sound happy about the alternative.

  “No. Whoever it is, deserves better than that. Every being deserves more respect than that at death.”

  “Agreed.” A sigh of relief blew across Jake’s eardrum almost like a physical wind.

  The ghost in the corner grew more solid within its perpetual misty resolution. The image of Laud Gregor took a step forward with avid interest. Normally it just drifted from place to place. This new assertiveness might mean that the bio mass in the tube be
longed to him.

  “We got anyone in the brig who needs to be taught a lesson?” Jake asked, hopefully. His teeth began to ache. Time to wrap this up.

  “There are a few brawlers in lockup. Repeat offenders.”

  “Give them full breathing gear and insulated knee pads in case the rail circuit breaker resets itself. Tell them that if they get that bio mass out in one piece and clean up whatever shorted out the rail, they’ve served their sentence, and remind them that similar chores will be their responsibility if they ever throw another punch. Jake out.”

  Satisfied, he lay back against his pillows and closed his eyes against the pain of the subdued lights. He wished all his problems could be so easily delegated.

  “Oh, and General?” Mara came back on line. “Captain Kalek of the Star Runner has asked our security people to be on the lookout for a rogue Spacer named Norton.”

  “Norton? Isn’t that the shuttle pilot who was rude to Laudae Sissy?”

  “Apparently so. Kalek interrogated him on board Star Runner. He escaped. Probably with help. No record of a shuttle leaving the ship. He might have hidden on board, with help, then escaped again into the station.”

  “Do it. He probably has information that will lead us to the head of the conspiracy to hide the body.”

  “Done, sir.”

  The ghost pressed closer. Jake felt the cool astral breeze it generated. He had to ignore it and give the constant pain a chance to recede on its own. Otherwise he’d obey the mental pressure from Laud Gregor’s shade to jump up and investigate that bio mass and the missing Spacer on his own.

  He wished Sissy would come back. But her problems weren’t so easily solved. If the bio mass in the tube was Laud Gregor, then she’d have to go away again, back to Harmony. Out of his reach forever.

  A shadow darkened the light against his closed eyelids. “Who?” he asked, resigned that he’d never get enough rest to recover from this damned concussion.

  “General, Ianus has requested your presence.” Male voice, not authoritative. Not nurse or doctor. Aide.

  “What now?” Jake demanded without moving. If he could postpone rolling over for one more moment, he might be able to control the pain stabbing his temples and twisting his neck cords into tighter knots.

  “You must ask him. I am authorized to help you get out of bed and walk there. If necessary. If you don’t mind.”

  “I do mind. But I’m just sick enough to welcome some assistance. As long as no one else sees you doing more than directing me with a hand beneath my elbow. I will not appear weak . . .”

  “You won’t appear at all unless I help you out of bed.”

  “There is that. I hate this.”

  “Would you mind quite so much if Laudae Sissy were the one helping you?”

  “No. Not so much. Could you call her?” Jake flashed him a pleading grin.

  “I have been asked not to . . .”

  “No need to call me. I’m here, Jake.”

  Like a miracle of soothing cool and soft illumination, she stood in the doorway backlit by the brighter light of the corridor.

  “While I help you get to this strange person, perhaps your aide can help me find an errant acolyte.” She turned her sunshine smile on the orderly. He bowed himself out, hands flat together in religious respect.

  “Is he from Harmony?” Jake asked, laying back and resting his eyes again. “I didn’t notice a caste mark.”

  “Without a caste mark, impossible to tell. He could have had it removed, as Mara did. Why?” She placed one hand on his brow and gripped his elbow with the other.

  “The way he bowed reminded me—Owwwwe, dammit, it hurts when I move too fast.” He found himself sitting up and feet reaching toward the floor.

  “When it hurts that much, it is best to get it over with,” she said, humor shining through her words.

  “Like ripping off a bandage. I know. Just give me a minute until the room stops spinning.”

  “From the rumors spreading like a virus, I’m guessing that this young Ianus doesn’t have that much time.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of. Shoes?”

  “There are only these disposable things.” She held up a pair of matte finished synthetic booties.

  “They will do.”

  In short order he and Sissy had donned protective suits and traversed to the X of caution tape with the sensor rapidly blinking an angry red. He held up his link. The light reluctantly shifted to a slow green pulse. “Quickly before it gets mad and reports our intrusion.” He pushed Sissy forward and followed her just as the light switched back to red, the all-seeing eye of doom.

  The concussion was making his imagination run down strange paths, as well as wince at the clatter of the machines he knew was only a soft murmur and hiss.

  “General Jake,” Ianus said, panting for breath the heartbeat Jake and Sissy came within line of sight of the hospital bed containing his slight, frail form.

  If anything, the boy appeared paler than before.

  Sissy gasped at the sight of him. Or perhaps at the mousey adolescent girl standing beside the bed. Martha held Ianus’ hand as she lifted her chin defiantly.

  “He needs me,” she said.

  Heat flushed Jake’s body from the base of his spine to the top of his head, leaving his gut cold, and the top of his head numb. “Is she the unknown telepath you asked about?” Jake asked Ianus, aloud so Sissy could hear them.

  “Yes.”

  “She can’t be!” Sissy demanded. At sight of Jake clenching his eyes shut, she lowered her tone. “There is no such thing as a telepath. It is . . . it is against all our teachings. Mind speech is reserved for the gods. We are not gods.” She backed up two steps, shaking her head. If she denied this blasphemy long enough and loud enough it would disappear.

  “Laudae, it’s true,” Martha said, reaching a pleading hand toward Sissy.

  Something soft and wiggly tickled the inside of Sissy’s brain. She pressed two fingers against each of her temples, trying desperately to banish the alien thought that followed the squiggle. It’s true, Sissy. I can read minds. But I’m not as good at it as Ianus. He says I need practice.

  “I won’t lose you as my acolyte! Not after losing Jilly. Not ever. You girls are my family. But the others of our caste will demand . . . demand . . .”

  “Exile to the desert or the asylum,” Jake finished the thought for her. He staggered to the wall and leaned against it, head back, jaw tight, and fists clenched.

  Sissy stared at him, mouth agape. He’d put into words thoughts she didn’t dare let form.

  Her outrage and fear warred with her need to wrap him up in a soft blanket and take him back to his bed.

  “I don’t believe reading minds is a crime,” she said, carefully measuring each word. “But, Martha, you are in danger if you read the mind of a Noble and discover something that needs to stay hidden for said Noble to remain in power.”

  “If outsiders and higherups had noticed your caste marks when you were a child, you’d have been exiled or imprisoned, Sissy,” Jake said roughly. All his energy must be going into remaining upright. “If they’d found you before Laud Gregor decided that since you carry all seven caste marks, you should be High Priestess representing all of Harmony and not just the Temple caste.”

  No more would she cringe and hide. Thanks to Laud Gregor, and Jake, she wore her multiple caste marks as badges of honor.

  “You changed the rules once before,” Martha whispered. She still had not released the boy’s hand. He was so slight and frail he couldn’t be much older than Martha or Mary. And yet age and wisdom wrinkles around his eyes and mouth suggested he’d lived through more, and understood pain better than most. “You are as good at changing the rules into something more useful and just as Temple and Noble are at creating rules that are good only for them.”

  “You can make changes, Sissy,” Jake said. “Every High Priest in your history changed the rules of the Covenant with Harmony as they saw fit. They pe
rverted the message of the castes helping each other in an orderly and compassionate way. They denied the sanctity of marriage, of even monogamy for Temple because one HP lusted after young girls. Why can’t you change the rules on this?”

  Sissy stood taller, finally understanding all the lessons Jake and her girls, and Laudae Penelope and Mister Guilliam had taught her since her ordination. She didn’t have anything to hide.

  “I do not recall anything in the Covenant Stones addressing this issue. Therefore any rules against telepathy can be reversed or . . . ?”

  “Nullified,” Jake supplied the right word as he had done for months as Sissy grew into her roll of HPs.

  “Nullified. We will address that issue later. I can change rules, but I can’t change prejudice and attitude overnight. Right now, we have to find Laud Gregor’s body and put him to rest properly so that Harmony can continue,” she said firming her chin.

  “We may have found it,” Martha said quietly.

  “Where?”

  “With the Dragons,” Ianus finally spoke. The words seemed to exhaust him.

  Martha took over where he left off. “Ianus told the other telepaths that Mag had found a dead human and wanted . . .” She gulped several times. “And wanted to let it ripen until it made a decent snack.”

  Sissy absorbed that bit of information with horror. But she clenched her fists to contain outward expression of her emotions. Someone had to put a stop to the predatory nature of those Dragons. If not Jake, then she would find a way herself.

  “It’s Lord Garrin, one of the diplomats from Harmony,” Josh whispered to Pamela’s link through the comms in his breathing mask.

  “I know who Lord Garrin is!” she snapped back. Damn. This made things complicated. More complicated.

  “Electrocuted himself when he vomited and then touched the live rail,” Josh continued.