“Oh, come now. Don’t spoil it, son.” He came three steps nearer. “You’ve brought her to me, Yon.”
Tira had opened the hatch, but hesitated, listening to the exchange.
“Get going,” Chaney said over his shoulder. “Now.”
She stepped into the aircar, but could not take her attention away from the guards.
“You can abandon these false heroics, Yon. You don’t need to convince me, and it hardly matters what Demoiselle Bouriere thinks now. You’ve performed admirably.” Admiral Sclerida beamed. “I knew you would show yourself my son, after all.”
“Go!” bellowed Chaney, whirling to shove Tira into the aircar. “GO!” Tira did as he ordered, her mind still reeling with shock. Chaney turned back to his father, gun wavering.
Tira felt the aircar lift at a sharp angle, then had to wrestle with the controls to keep it stable as it rose into the morning. Someone’s shot out the buffers, she thought. One of the Logistics guards must have fired on her. That had to be it. What else would cause the aircar to yaw the way it did?
Clinging to the skid beneath the aircar, Chaney watched the figure of his father shrink to a spot as the Sprinter climbed out of the defenses.
Chapter 8
Ereley knew the way to Horizon Park and he gave the driver concise instructions on the quickest way to reach the huge reserve. Like the others with him, he had donned a short vest with the spectrum painted on it, and wore an armband that said Rainbow Dawn.
Jessine sat very still, waiting to see what would happen. She was still numbed by Kitchley’s death, and at the hands of a fellow Daphnean. More than anything she felt terribly tired.
As the aircar finally pulled away from the city, the Daphneans grew more relaxed, a few were almost jubilant. Sankley, who seemed to be second in command, began one of the traditional chants of the Daphneans, a steady, repetitious drone that the others joined, occasionally breaking out in high cawing sounds.
“You will admit it was a bold ploy, Madame,” said Ereley as he took the empty place beside Jessine.
“What? Killing Kitchley?” She turned to him without fear. “He was helping you.”
“Not he,” said Ereley, contemptuous. “He was helping you. That was his only intent, to save you, human; he wouldn’t have cared if all of us died in the process.”
“He was my friend,” said Jessine with feeling.
“He was your toady, you mean,” said Ereley. “You liked him because he served you. If he had not done that, you wouldn’t have paid any attention to him at all. You would have treated him like just another alien functionary.”
Jessine did not answer at first, for she had to admit there was some truth in the accusation. “I knew him because he was the Appointments Clerk,” she said at last, very carefully. “I didn’t have to like him for doing his job well. I liked him because he was a likeable man.”
“Daphnean,” corrected Ereley sharply. “He wasn’t a human, he was Daphnean. We are all Daphnean here. Except you. You are the alien now.” He could not conceal his satisfaction. When he smiled he gloated. “You will do what suits us best, for a change.”
“What is it that suits you best?” she echoed, mistrusting even the sound of it.
The chanting was quite loud now, and it was difficult for Ereley to be heard over the sound. “We took a chance, capturing you, a very big chance. And it will be worth it, or you will be tossed aside as you have tossed so many of us aside.”
“Are you going to overthrow the Pact?” She spoke more in disbelief than accusation. “Why should you? Daphne is part of the Pact.”
“Is it? Is it really?” Ereley scoffed. “A strange way you have of showing our membership, Madame. You permit the Haiken Maru and other conglomerates to ship us off to planets where it doesn’t suit you to work. You pay us wages that would be laughable if they were not tragic, and you say that because you permit a few of us to serve your purposes at higher ranks that you have included us in the Pact. We aren’t even allowed to live on Earth without permits—given or sold by a human’s whim!” He slammed down his hands on the back of the seat in front of him. The occupant swung around but never stopped chanting.
“But you are,” said Jessine, belatedly beginning to fear the Daphnean. “You are all welcome in—” She stopped and went on more carefully. “My husband said that there were officials who took bribes to ignore the kinds of abuses you describe. But that isn’t the way the Pact is supposed to work.”
“Does that change anything, saying that we aren’t supposed to be a source of cheap labor for humans?” Ereley gestured angrily. “You send us your advisors, with their guns and their soldiers, and you tell me that this is not the work of deliberate oppression?”
“That doesn’t happen very often,” said Jessine.
“What do you call often, Madame?” He indicated the other Daphneans in the aircar. “Ask them about relatives taken away at the whim of an advisor, about land seized and children pressed into service. Each one has endured something of the sort.” He patted his armband. “This will make a change. The Rainbow will set us all to rights.”
“And you are its leader?” she asked.
“I am the leader on this planet, but there are others, many others. We have already made progress in the Harmony Cluster. Governor Windsor supported equality. Governor Merikur supported Windsor—and now continues his campaign for equality. The Rainbow Dawn can—and will, if necessary—provide him with an army to enforce that equality.” His eyes were bright, glazed with zeal.
“And my part?” asked Jessine.
“Your part will be to marry Governor Merikur. With your support, he can take the Secretariat. The Pact will continue, but will change, begin to grow again, as it has not for centuries.”
“And if I choose not to support him?”
“Madame, I’d prefer not to discuss that possibility. After all, you are a sensible woman. Surely you understand that the Pact cannot survive much longer if it continues to abuse more than ninety percent of its population.”
“Perhaps.”
The driver of the aircar stopped chanting long enough to call out, “There is a fix being taken on us. Someone is tracking where we go.”
“Who?” Ereley demanded, motioning to the others to chant more softly.
“I don’t know. But the warning light came on just now. Someone wants to know where we are.” The driver pointed to the light on the front panel. “What do you want me to do?
“Keep a watch on it, and set our scanners to trace it back to its origin. I want to know if the tracker is moving or stationary.” He cursed roundly in Daphnean, then abruptly became nonchalant. “It isn’t that important, after all. If they know where we are, so much the better. It will help them realize how serious we are. We know how strong our position is. And it’s stronger than any of you Senatorials think.”
“How do you mean that?” asked Jessine, still unable to believe him.
“We have access to Kitchley’s estate at Horizon Park, of course, and that means we can fight off attacks with a small force. I’ll say this for Kitchley—he made a fortress of his estate. I doubt the Secretarial Palace was as well-armed as Kitchley’s retreat. Well, it has to be now, doesn’t it?” His amusement was emphatic and he stared at Jessine, challenging her to correct him or become angry.
“They will find you, Ereley. And when they do, no matter who is in power, they will take me back.” Jessine masked the fear welling in her. She would not give them the pleasure of knowing how badly they frightened her. As she moved in her seat she felt her locket move under her shirt.
They were nearing the first boundaries of Horizon Park now, and two skirmisher aircars came up, demanding to know who was in the aircar and where it was bound. “If you are not authorized, turn back or we will be forced to shoot you down,” said the nearer skirmisher.
“Under Clerk Ereley, for Appointments Clerk Kitchley, to Kitchley’s estate, the Orchid,” he said, motioning the others to silence while the
identification process was completed. “Escorting Madame Bouriere.” He glared at her, daring her to contradict him.
“Voiceprint checks,” said the skirmisher. “But we regret we do not have full release from Appointments Clerk Kitchley. The first signal was sent, but not the second.”
Ereley stared out at the skirmishers. “What do you mean?” he asked.
The other Daphneans were instantly somber, and the driver looked anxiously from one skirmisher to the other.
“There must be a second release, which has not yet arrived.” The skirmisher said. “We must request you land and wait until clearance is given.”
“But,” said Ereley, trying not to sound desperate, “we have Madame Bouriere with us. We are under orders to take her to the Orchid. We must have clearance at once.”
The skirmishers swung back and forth across the aircar s bow. “You must remain where you are. We repeat. You must remain where you are. This is an official warning.”
Ereley swore, then signaled to the others. “We have one chance. We have to take both of them down at once or we won’t make it,” he said.
The other Daphneans were upset and suddenly worried. Sankley spoke for all of them, saying, “We can’t let this happen.”
“Then shoot first and shoot straight,” said Ereley, his features showing more pleasure than apprehension. He brought up his gun and aimed it through the window at the nearer skirmisher. “On the count of two. Everyone fire.”
The Daphneans followed his orders quickly. Each one sighted on the power pods of the skirmishers.
“One,” said Ereley. “Two.”
The guns hammered and the skirmishers broke apart in twin explosions, raining flaming cinders on the barren stretch of land that bordered the woodlands of Horizon Park.
“You couldn’t stop them recording your identification,” said Jessine. “They know who you are and where you are going.”
“It doesn’t matter now,” said Ereley as he signaled the driver to go on. “With any luck, the clerk who gets the message will be one of us and he’ll lose the identification, at least for a while.” He saw the startled expression she could not conceal. “You didn’t think about that, did you? We’re not the only ones in the Rainbow. There are thousands of us, thousands.”
“What good will that do?” asked Jessine.
“We are ready. And when Anson Merikur orders it, we will rise. There is no service anywhere in the Pact where we have not found a niche. Governor Windsor will bring us equality, and we’ll fight for him to achieve that.” He had the look of a man who wanted the fight more than the equality.
“And the Cernians, the ones who tried to kidnap me, are they part of your Rainbow Dawn, too?” she asked.
Ereley made a sharp gesture. “No! No. They were, most likely working for the Haiken Maru. The Cernian Confederation is as bad as the Pact. They’ve hired—or sold!—out to the Haiken Maru. They sell and enslave members of all species, including their own . . . When Governor Windsor is High Secretary, abuses of that sort will stop.”
Jessine shrugged deliberately. “I don’t think that will be as simple as he thinks,” she said in a tone filled with doubt and subtle contempt.
“Be quiet. You understand nothing.” Ereley turned away from her and stared out the window as the aircar sped toward the Orchid.
Given a respite, Jessine looked down at the striations of specialized plantings in Horizon Park. Each region was specially planted and maintained, botanically and zoologically, with species from several planets set next to each other, protected by invisible barriers of electronic signals that kept each group of animals in its designated sector by generating a high, painful sound in the animals’ skulls.
A fretwork of monorail tubes looked like a very simple spider web as the Daphnean aircar passed high overhead. Looking down, Jessine suspected that the monorail carried no sightseers today.
“Take her lower,” Ereley ordered the driver. “We don’t want to be spotted by scanners.”
“You will be,” said Jessine.
“Perhaps,” Ereley allowed. “But they’re looking for overflights, not for something coming in for a landing. I know, it’s worked before.”
Jessine did not reply, but sat quietly, watching the exotic scenery below and trying to think what she would do next.
There was a pride of Cernian blue lions drinking at a lake. Their huge heads appeared more enormous because of the standing ruff of thick, azure hair around their necks. Double tusks curled at the corners of their mouths; the Cernian lion had as much in common with a warthog as it did the big cats of Africa. Jessine watched them, momentarily distracted from her plight, admiring their grace.
Ereley noticed her gaze. “There are sand wolves down there, they tell me.” He rubbed his long hands together. “In the Dellos section. Isn’t the Orchid in the Dellos section?”
“I don’t know,” Jessine lied. “I’ve never been to the Orchid.” The last part was true.
“Dellos sand wolves. They’re known to be the most ferocious hunting animals in the Pact. I’ve seen them, on Dellos. No one wants to deal with them there. That’s probably why they sent you so many for Horizon Park.” He made the dry Daphnean equivalent of a chuckle. “A thank you for all your kindness to them.”
Jessine looked at Ereley. “You’re warning me about escaping. Shall we consider the warning given?”
“Oh, it bothers you to think about those creatures?” Ereley asked with false concern.
“It bothers me that you regard them with such relish.” She looked out over the Park, her attention fixed on the distant, hassocklike ferns from Peom. That environment contained some of the most beautiful plants and some of the most ferocious animals of any of the sectors of Horizon Park. Like the Peomers themselves, the animals were not large, but what they lacked in size they made up for in speed and rapacity. The Secretarial Retreat was in the Peom sector of the Park.
“Ah, I see the Orchid,” said Ereley with genuine satisfaction. “And we are going to land in the outer court, between the double walls and the main compound itself.”
The driver looked doubtful, but did his best to set his course as ordered.
“When we’re out, drop the car into the other side of the estate. The others ought to be here,” Ereley instructed the driver as they landed.
The ladders were lowered and the Daphneans made their way down them. Ereley and Jessine were last, and he ordered her to precede him.
It was windy as she started down the ladder, and not from the downdraft of the aircar alone. Now that she was out in the air, Jessine noticed that the trees some distance away were bending and tossing. That was not a good sign, for storms could cause serious disruptions at Horizon Park.
As they reached the ground, a large group of Daphneans rushed up to greet Ereley to congratulate him on his prize.
“How many are here already?” asked Ereley, holding his gun on Jessine.
“About three hundred,” said one who was clearly a second in command. “We’re expecting more in the next hour.” He motioned toward the massive doors of the fortress. “We had a little resistance when we arrived, but that’s over with.”
“Good.” Ereley signaled to Jessine. “Come with us, Madame. We have prepared a room for you.”
“How kind,” said Jessine acidly, but she did as she was ordered. As she walked toward the door she saw four men—human soldiers—in Treasury uniforms laying side by side, a Peomer standing guard over them. There were fresh scars on the wall of the house and blackening at two of the windows where fires had been put out.
“It will be our headquarters until Governor Windsor arrives,” said Ereley with pride. “We’ll be unassailable.”
“Do you think so?” said Jessine as she stepped onto the drawbridge. She noticed that there were two rainbow banners hanging in the inner courtyard.
The courtyard was crowded, most of the regular Orchid staff doing their best to be unnoticed.
They were predominantly D
aphneans and Peomers, but there were Hillimots and a few humans as well. In addition there were the Daphneans of Rainbow Dawn, most of them relaxing in the first glow of victory. And in one corner, there were more than a dozen bodies laid out.
As they started to move, a section of the inner wall smashed to bits.
Ereley reacted immediately, swinging his gun into firing position, crouching as he jumped off the rim of the fountain. Another massive shell exploded on the second floor of the Orchid, spewing glastic and masonry onto the courtyard below.
“We’re under attack,” declared the second-in-command in complete disbelief.
“Get into positions!” ordered Ereley, already starting to move toward the massive gate to close it.
A third explosion smashed the fountain, and Ereley, struck by a flying stone flower, fell forward.
Now there were screams and shouts, and the second-in-command rushed to Ereley’s side, bending over him. “He’s alive!” he shouted as the next explosion rocked the courtyard.
Overhead three gunboats appeared out of the southwest, the lowest of them bristling with laser cannon and grenade launchers. They kept enough distance between themselves and the fortress to be at the limit of Kanovsky range.
There was panic in the courtyard now as all the staff tried to bolt for safety. The members of Rainbow Dawn attempted to stem the flight, though they were too disorganized to do much more than contribute to the rampant confusion around them.
Another shot ruined what was left of the fountain, and the water shot straight up into the air and fell onto the elaborate pattern of paving stones in the inner court.
Jessine had rushed to the shelter of the guard post at the gate after the first shot.
The second-in-command started shouting orders. He was drowned out in a new explosion, this one collapsing the massive carved lintel over the out gate and destroying the mechanism to raise the drawbridge. Five bodies were blasted out of the gun station nearest the fountain, turning over in the air, delicate as birds until they landed
Jessine hunched lower in the guard station and clapped her hands to her ears against the hideous noise. From the guard station, she could see a dreadnought coming toward the Orchid, its massive weapons trained on the estate. It fired a first shot at the outer wall, to establish range. The huge bricks collapsed into dust.
Crown of Empire Page 8
