Aurora

by Mark W. Tiedemann

  "But there's nothing here!' Kru shouted.

  Mia looked at her. 'What was there supposed to be?'

  'This is Nova Levis. This is where they make all the sickness. This is where the reanim6s came from."

  Mia nodded. From what she had seen at the first cyborg village, added to what she was learning here, the reanim6s were failures, examples grown wrong. Somewhere along the lab wall was another access out of which these failures were tossed- Mia supposed they were expected to die of exposure. Many no doubt had- The lake probably contained the rotting corpses of hundreds of them, rotting and releasing who knew what kind of biophage into the ecology--exotic viruses, bionans, synthetic constructs.

  But some had survived and had teamed to rescue those who came after. The consequences of that process were problematic since, evidently, all the reanim6s were sterile. If no more were made here, no new ones would be born.

  Unless the environment itself were reworking the colonists.

  Mia shook her head. Too big for the moment, too much to consider.

  She activated the hyperwave console.

  ,,You want to stop the tab?' Mia asked, studying the readouts. "Give me time and I'll see if we can just move it."

  One of the cyborgs made a sound- Kru danced across the deck to look at another board that had lit up.

  "Someone's coming," she said

  Mia, frowning, joined Kru. The board showed the grid of the internal communications system. Piece by piece, it was coming back on-line.

  "They are, aren't they?' Mia asked sarcastically, and returned to the hyperwave console.

  Where's the emergency broadband signal ... ?

  There. She tested the circuit, then opened a link to whatever planetary satellite array might still exist. She found nothing local except the transponders of the blockade fleet.

  That will have to do, she thought, and adjusted the frequency to match

  She touched a contact.

  'Attention. This is Lt. Commander Mia Daventri, Internal Security Terran Expeditionary Task Force. Attention. This is Lt. Commander Mia Daventri, Internal Security Terran Expeditionary Task Force. Please respond."

  She repeated the phrase four more times before she received a reply.

  "Watch Officer Grenn of the E.ES. SuttermilL Please verify identity.,,

  Mia felt herself grin as she read off her I.D. code and security clearance.

  "You are listed as missing, Lt Commander."

  "I'm back. Please lock on these coordinates. We have a situation. I need to speak to Fleet Admiral Bhek. Pass this-2'

  "Hold, please." Silence. Then: "What the-~'

  "Watch Officer Grenn, please respond."

  "I'm patching you through to Commander Starls, Lt Commander. We now have a situation."

  Mia waited nearly a minute before a different voice came on the line.

  '-This is Commander Starls. Please identify yourself."

  Mia ran through the litany of codes again.

  "You've been missing, Lt. Commander Daventri. Do you have an explanation?'

  "I was assaulted and sent to the surface of Nova Levis. Please note the link I am using. I'm sending the automatic transponder code to you now."

  A few seconds later, Commander Starls said, 'That is a Solarian ship, decommissioned twenty-eight years ago. Where did you find it?''

  "It has become an on-ground research facility. I believe this is the cause of all the trouble."

  'That's a bold claim. Can you back it up?'

  'The ship needs to be examined, but I think it contains everything we need to "

  'The seals are being opened," Kru shouted

  "Commander, I'm about to be discovered- What I want to do is lift this ship off."

  "Ifs functional`

  "I cant tell, I'm not a pilot. But my guess is, yes. It's been kept ready. If I give you the codes for all the controls, can you operate it remotely

  "Of course."

  Mia tapped quickly. 'Then I am sending it all to you now.

  Masid watched Parapoyos laboriously enter a long string of access codes into several consoles. The lower sections of the ship were open and a good part of the starboard upper section, but all the control areas had been sealed- Certainly the doors could have been blasted througl-4 but who knew what that might bring about? At the very least, Parapoyos would have installed an auto-destruct, set to go off at any unauthorized breach

  Masid became aware of Filoo watching him. The man looked nervous now. Masid surveyed the rest and found a few others who showed the same edginess.

  The big access doors lurched on their tracks noisily, and dragged themselves open. Beyond spread the bridge, all the consoles coming quickly to life after long steep.

  Parapoyos entered with obvious pride. "It was always intended that operations should be mobile. In the event, this ship was prepared to be used as our headquarters. I would have preferred to wait till a more politically unstable time, but things are pretty bad in general, so it may not be terribly premature."

  Filoo ran a hand over his mouth~ looking around.

  Masid drifted casualty over to a hulking display board Watching the room, he slipped the weapon from its pouch and pressed the charge stud, then held it behind his back, close to the casement

  'We can manage things here," Parapoyos continued, "until a better location can be found, and--2'

  An alarm sounded, filling the bridge with a raw vibration. Masid clenched the weapon, his chest seizing. Parapoyos went to a console and worked for a time.

  The alarm died. In the abrupt silence, someone coughed.

  "Well, well," Parapoyos said- "We may be leaving much sooner than I thought" He turned and glared at the assembly. "Our supply corridor has been unmasked- Blockade ships are moving in to intercept. Now, how could that happen?'

  Masid gauged the distance at about ten meters. He would. have one shot. He doubted now he could close the gap without being grabbed- He looked down at the box in his hand-the firing stud glowed a bright green now, indicating a full charge and swallowed

  He began to bring the weapon to bear.

  A deafening groan filled the air and the deck tilted. People sprawled across the floor, grabbing each other or consoles. Parapoyos fell back against aboard and held on. Masid barely kept his feet.

  'Traitor"

  Masid looked around. Filoo, on his knees, was pointing directly at him, his face contorted by rage and fear.

  UT-Mitoeyr

  Masid aimed at him and pressed the stud. A brilliant boh leapt from the suddenly hot box. The energy splattered against Filoo.

  The deck tilted again.

  In space, above Nova Levis, several ships changed course to converge on a convoy of nearly twenty ships which had been invisible to their sensors till just then. None of the captains knew why they could now see these ships, only that they could, and that it was their duty to intercept them.

  The sudden rush, however, pushed anxious people to limits they could not contain. Shots were fired. At the end of ten minutes' fighting, eight of the twenty ships had been holed, six of them tried to flee back out of the system, and the rest surrendered, while far beyond the perimeter of the blockade, more convoys were detected

  Masid pulled himself up to a sitting position. Across the bridge, he saw Parapoyos and his lieutenants working at consoles, evidently trying to regain control. Filoo's body slid back and forth over the wildly tilting deck. The noise continued, a see-saw grinding as if the ship were trying to break free of restraints.

  Abruptly, Parapoyos staggered toward another hatch and exited.

  Masid crawled after him.

  He climbed into a passageway that circled back into the depths of the ship.

  "Hey!"

  Masid turned- One of Parapoyos's bodyguards leaned through the hatch, blaster in hand.

  The ship jerked, and the bodyguard fell back. He held on to the edge of the hatch, though- Masid slid along the bulkhead to the hatch- He grabbed hold of a stanchion set in the
wall. When the ship shifted again, the guard shot back into the passage. Masid caught him across the shins and he slammed against the opposite wall. Masid let go of the stanchion and dropped, feet first, into the guards chest

  He grabbed the blaster and lurched after Parapoyos.

  Something had gone wrong. Masid puzzled why Parapoyos had been in such a hurry to get here after grounding. Perhaps this was the only place Parapoyos was likely to feel safe. If so, then right now he must be terrified. The horrific sound throughout the fabric of the ship was like a tremendous beast roaring and straining against restraint Masid doubted this was Parapoyos's doing.

  And his comment about unmasked ships?

  Masid staggered, trying to anticipate the pitch and roll of the decks, and ran when he could.

  Suddenly, the ship angled sharply in a new direction, and Masid fell headlong down the corridor.

  Mia held onto the edge of the console. She looked around- Kru cowered beneath another board, but the cyborgs were managing to keep their feet under them. Mia entered interrogatories in spurts, trying to stay with the board and see what might be holding the ship down. She had seen nothing about locks, but

  She remembered the schematic. Of course, idiot! The rest of the lab has been built around it!

  If that was the problem, there was nothing to do but ride it out. Eventually, the ship would break free. But somewhere there had to be controls for the artificial gravity, internal stabilizers, something to stop all this

  "What in hell are you doing?'

  Mia turned- A man stood in the hatchway leading to the forward sections. He looked vaguely familiar-short, stocky, hairless, and extremely angry.

  'This is my property" he bellowed, entering the chamber with a blaster in hand- "Get away from there]"

  Before she could move, though one of the cyborgs came behind him, seized both arms, and jerked them straight out. The man screamed in pain and the blaster fell.

  Another cyborg retrieved the weapon and brought it to Kru, who stared at it blankly. After a few moments, the cyborg brought it to Mia, who took it readily.

  "I'm Lt. Commander Daventri, Terran Expeditionary Force. Now who the hell are you?'

  'Tell it to let me go7

  She recognized him then. 'Ambassador Chassik?'

  He groaned

  "I thought---!~

  "It's Parapoyos!" Kra shouted

  The cyborgs suddenly converged on him.

  "Wait," Mia yelled- `112is man is--!'

  "Ifs Parapoyos"

  Mia tried to push through the group of cyborgs. One, thought lifted her up and set her back. He stared at her for several seconds, then shook his head.

  "Get away from me7' Chassik cried- "I am not-let me go7

  Blaster shots cracked the air. The cyborgs began to scatter.

  Chassik dropped to the deck. Behind him, another man stood in the hatch- Mia met his eyes briefly.

  "Expeditionary?' he asked

  yes!

  "Intelligence," he said- Wasid Vorian."

  The name sounded familiar. 'Agent In Place," she recalled from a report several days old

  'This is Ambassador Chassik," Mia said

  "He's also Kynig Parapoyos," Masid said

  "So that means he's under arrest?'

  He grinned.

  The ship rotted.

  Mia sprawled against a bulkhead- Chassik/Parapoyos clawed at the smooth deck and Vorian had disappeared from the hatch

  The cyborgs converged on the ambassador again.

  Mia raised the blaster.

  A cyborg took it from her and knelt before her.

  "He is our maker," he said, voice low and raspy, barely understandable over the background grinding. "He is ours now, to answer. He must answer."

  The cyborg flung the blaster aside and rejoined the others as they lifted Chassik/Parapoyos and carried him back the way they had brought Mia and Ktu.

  'Wait! How can you-?'

  The ship heaved

  The invasion took less than three days. Few of the people wanted to fight The pockets of aimed resistance gave up quickly, and then came the clean-up.

  Mia spent a few days in an infirmary, having the rest of her infections killed and beginning her treatments for the fungal infection. Dr. Shasma had been correct-they hurt. But she found she could function in between sessions. She was relieved to learn that she, in fact, did not have mnemonic plague. At least, not exactly the specific nanovirus Kru had identified as Burundi's Fever turned out to be related, but it had mutated into a form that made her dizzy and disoriented, but attacked no memories.

  Reen and his network had been arrested within hours of Mia's recovery. They had been funneling contraband almost from the beginning, but, Mia found out, that operation had been little more than a strawman to keep attention away from the corrupted Al that was masking the convoys entering and leaving the system. If anyone was to be caught, it would be Reen's people and their relatively small amounts of black market goods.

  Going over the manifests from the operation, Mia found a name she recognized- She went down to the detention facilities and found a cubicle.

  "Rana?'

  The woman looked up, startled, then smiled- "Mia Daventri?'

  "I saw your name," Mia said

  "My God, 1-" She laughed- "I never expected. .

  "What?'

  Tears sparkled in Rana's eyes. "I never expected to live through this."

  Mia came in and sat down. "How did you get here?'

  "Classic screw-up. I finally got my visa to go to Aurora, to study at the Calvin. Hofton you remember him? Ariel's aide?-got me slotted into a diplomatic pouch berth on the same ship carrying Ambassador Chassik." She shrugged, and wiped her eyes. "Earther luck." She laughed again. "I heard a rumor that Chassik is Kynig Parapoyos."

  'Was." Mia told her about the ship and the cyborgs. 'Were still searching, but I don't think we're going to find him."

  'What was he doing here?'

  "They're going through the databases. It's going to take a long time, but basically they had designed a biophage that would salt a new environment with time capsule plagues. They had the vaccines and treatments. Each new settlement would be poisoned, and then they'd wait to reap the profits from treatment."

  "But..." She shook her head. "Sounds complicated.

  "It was complicated to figure out, I'm sure, but they had plenty of data already to work with. Something similar had happened on several colonies, including the Spacer Worlds. All they wanted to do was to make the process controllable and spread it."

  Rana was quiet for a time. Then: 'And you? How are you?'

  Mia shrugged "That's not such a long story."

  The inquest took very little time. The evidence was ample and clear and, besides, Derec had admitted to everything.

  "You had no authorization to order that hyperwave link terminated. You acted precipitously and with reckless disregard. You could have caused a catastrophe."

  But I didn't, he thought as he walked down the hall to his apartment within the courts complex. And you pretty well knew it wouldn't.

  Ariel waited inside, with Dr. Penj.

  "Well?' Ariel asked

  '-They'd love me to be off Aurora at the earliest possible instant. But they'll let me wait till your mission is assembled.

  Penj grunted- 'They have no idea what they're giving up."

  'I think they do," Derec said. 'They believed the trouble on Earth was largely my fault. It wasn't no one person is that capable--but I was a contributing factor. I'm a source of chaos and contention. Any benefit they might derive from my presence here would, in their minds, be offset by the drawbacks." He shrugged. "This way, they can get some of the benefit without being reminded of their own drawbacks."

  "I wish I could go with you," Penj said.

  'Why not?' Ariet asked- "It's not that onerous a trip."

  Penj looked at her narrowly. 'Tempting, but no. I want to watch the coming palace coup close up."

  "I'l
l have everything I need and be ready to leave in about four days." She looked at Derec. "What about Bogard?'

  Derec felt himself stiffen. "I don't know. They wont tell me where he is. I'm pretty sure Bogard is ... history."