"I didn't realize you both were back from Cedeforthy. I'm glad; that saves me the time of talking to each of you separately."
"Let me go announce you," Bauval said.
Mandor waited politely until the scientist came back into the foyer.
"Follow me, please."
Two women were seated in the kitchen at a small breakfast table. Mandor had no trouble telling them apart. Ana stood when he came into the room. He was surprised by her appearance; she was much taller than he had expected. She didn't look Thyrna-Shae, she looked human -- mostly, anyway.
"Admiral Shadovsky, what can I do for you?" She had a thick, unidentifiable accent, some of the vowels clipped in interesting ways. He could only assume it was an accent from Cedeforthy, since it didn't have the guttural sound of the native tongue of the Thyrna-Shae Dominion.
"I'm sorry to have disturbed you at breakfast," Mandor said politely. He studied her as discreetly as possible, but he wasn't getting any surface thoughts from her at all. That was disconcerting. If he wanted any of her thoughts, he would have to get past her mind shields, and they were good, almost too good to be untrained.
"No bother," she said, sitting back down gracefully. "Would you care to join us?"
"Perhaps just a cup of coffee," Mandor replied with a sincere smile. The coffee smelled like the real thing. He sat at the table across from Ana. Bauval poured him a cup before seating himself to Mandor's right. There were cream and sugar on the table. The thoughts of the two scientists were transparent and glaring: they didn't trust him, and they didn't like him being here when Lt. Commander Tebrey wasn't. They were very protective of Ana, almost parental.
Ana herself remained a mystery. Her height and build were all wrong for a Thyrna-Shae, but Mandor could see the pronounced canines and the non-vestigial Darwin's Tubercles that were typical of the race. She had spectacular metallic copper-red hair; that was also a common trait amongst Thyrna-Shae.
"Would you mind telling me why you have invaded my home?" Ana asked sweetly. There was an edge of something sharp and hard under the innocence of her question. She disliked him for some reason. He wasn't sure what it was that annoyed her, but he found the thought interesting. Could she have detected his telepathic prying?
"Not at all," Mandor began, taking a sip of the excellent coffee. He decided to be blunt and see if that stirred anything up. "I am directly responsible for tracking Theta activity in the Concord." Mandor noticed that they all stiffened when he mentioned the Thetas. "Part of my job is to debrief people who have survived encounters with Thetas."
"Have you ever seen one of those things, Admiral?" Ana asked, her voice soft.
"Yes, I have," he replied. "More than once. I understand that your husband has encountered them on a few occasions, himself."
"You'd have to ask him about that."
"Hmm. I would if he were available." Mandor could see that she was pained by the separation. "Perhaps the three of you could help me by telling me your impressions of the encounter you shared."
Mason looked at her breakfast and sighed. "Hell of a thing to spring on someone while they're eating." She glared at him. "I'm not sure where you're getting you information, Admiral, but Pierre and I haven't encountered anything. We weren't with the group at the installation."
"No, you weren't, but you were at the ruined city."
"You think there was something there?"
"I'm sure of it." He didn’t miss the glance they all exchanged.
"What do you think?" Mason asked Bauval and Ana.
"We may as well," Bauval said. Ana nodded her agreement.
They all stood.
"If you would come with us, Admiral, I think we may be better served having this conversation in the next room."
Mandor suppressed his curiosity and followed them through the door, taking his coffee with him. When he entered the room, he had to pause in wonder. Computer equipment filled the room, along with stacks of hard copy notes and drawings of what could only be different kinds of Thetas. Either that, or glimpses of hell, Mandor thought.
"As you can see," Bauval said, "we have interest in the subject ourselves."
"Indeed," said Mandor. "It looks to me to be a little more than an interest." Some of the things in that room appeared new even to him. He studied the drawings. They were well done. He wondered which of them had drawn them.
Bauval smiled. "Tebrey actually got us started on it, before he left. How much do you know about what happened to us on Cedeforthy?"
"I've read the reports and listened to each of your accounts of what happened. Luckily the one at the installation seemed to only be a weakened class-four Theta."
"The Concord marines on Cedeforthy used that classification. Could you tell us what it means?" Mason asked.
"I'm not sure I should." Mandor sighed. He had to earn their trust somehow, now more than ever. "Okay, look, you understand that all of this is classified?" He waited for their grudging acknowledgement. "We classify the entities according to the level of intelligence that they seem to possess. The more intelligent they are, the more dangerous. There also seems to be a connection with what kinds of things that they can do. A class one has barely animal-level intelligence. They are easily driven off or destroyed. It goes up from there; the class-four you encountered was highly intelligent. It appeared to change shape. It tried to mentally seduce its targets. It was very hard to kill. I would speculate that only its weakened state from being in confinement for twelve thousand years made it so easy to kill."
"What's a class-five like?" Mason asked.
"You really don't want to know," Mandor replied grimly. "By the way, all of your work here is classified. It will have to be confiscated. I'm sorry, but we can't allow this sort of thing to fall into the wrong hands."
"What! You can't do that to us!" Mason exclaimed. "We've worked for months on this!"
"And what is to stop us from doing it again?" Bauval asked over Mason's indignant protest. "Or going public, for that matter? I'm sure the media would love to know about how you've suppressed information that is vital to the safety of the people."
Mandor stiffened. "I would hope that it wouldn't come to that. Our machine intelligences monitor the media servers. Information like this could never leak. If we cannot reach an agreement, either for working together or for your silence, then I'm afraid I'd be forced to resort to cruder methods of persuasion."
"What? Torture and imprisonment?"
"Imprisonment or brainwipes, probably both. As I said, that would be a last resort. Remember that you could simply sign non-disclosure agreements and carry on with your lives as normal," Mandor said. "Or – and I'd prefer this option – you could work with us. Help us discover what's going on, and help us to stop it."
Bauval sighed and glanced at the others. "I don't think we really have any choice but to work with you. Tebrey wanted that anyway. We just didn't know whom to trust with the information."
"Now you do," Mandor said succinctly. "I didn't know about any of your work here, and yet I was hoping to recruit you all to my cause when I came today. I wish I had gotten a chance to speak with your husband, Mrs. Tebrey."
"Call me Ana," she said. "I wish you had gotten that chance, as well. Maybe he wouldn't have gone back to the Federation. He wasn't very happy about it."
"No, he wouldn't have been," Mandor replied. He was abruptly distracted by something he saw across the room. He strode over and picked up the sword that sat on a shelf. "Where did you get this? Do you know what this is?"
"A sword?" Mason answered sarcastically. She still wasn't happy about having been threatened with mindwipe. Actually, she was scared to death of it. A mindwipe would be an end to everything that she was, everything that she had ever been. Her memories of her family were all she had left of them. She didn't like to think about what kind of man threatened something like that so casually.
"It looks like a Thyrna-Shae relic blade," said Mandor. "The kind carried by the ceremonial guards of the Do
minion Council. Where did you get it?" His attention was focused on Ana.
"The Emperor of the Lyonan Empire gave it to my husband as a gift when we left. He said it was an heirloom of the Empire. All of the Emperor's personal guards carry blades like that. What is so special about it? Besides it being made of platinum?"
"It is a rare platinum alloy, actually," Mandor said. He was fascinated by the workmanship of the blade. That it was very old was evident. The style was different from anything he had ever seen before, and yet it could be nothing but what it appeared to be. He could feel it humming in his hands. "It acts like a mono-directional psionic amplifier."
"A psionic amplifier?" Bauval asked. "I don't know much about psionics, but that sounds fairly useful. I take it you've seen something like it before?"
"I have one. Although not nearly as old or fine as this. In the right hands, this blade will kill anything it hits," Mandor replied. "Even a nick can kill under some circumstances."
"Anything?" Ana asked. "You mean like..."
"Thetas," Mandor said softly. His voice was thick with remembered pain. "Yes, it can be used to kill Thetas."
Chapter Twelve
"Bruce!" Mandor yelled as he strode into his office.
"Yes, sir?" Bruce had been working late and was surprised by the sudden appearance of his boss; he hadn't expected him back in until morning.
"Is the Arcturus still at GL 661?"
"Yes. They're still conducting their cultural survey and assisting the Lyonan Emperor in developing a more stable economic base. What's going on, sir?"
"I wish I knew." Mandor settled in behind his desk and initiated his air screens. He cleared the waiting messages and opened the Cedeforthy file. "Bruce, I want to speak to the captain of the Arcturus and her crew as soon as possible."
"I'll have Central Communications open a secure channel, sir. It may take a few minutes. I'm not sure what ship time they're on."
"It doesn't matter, just get them on the line." The admiral reviewed the personnel files of the Arcturus' crew while he waited. "Damn it, why me? Why now? I was good in my last life," Mandor muttered.
"That's what you think," Bruce said with humor. "I've got the connection. I'm patching them through now."
Mandor's screen lit up with the face of Captain Saeunn Viknorov; she appeared tired and irritated. "What is the meaning of this, Admiral? We're on fourth shift here."
"I'm sorry to have awakened you, Captain. I wouldn't have if the matter wasn't urgent. Are your senior officers assembled?"
"Yes, they are here as ordered, sir." Her tone made it clear she didn't like taking orders from the Office of Internal Security. No one did. The office had the somewhat unwarranted nickname of the Inquisition. Mandor had never been certain who had started calling it that, but he had his suspicions. He glanced at Bruce.
"Good. This briefing is to be considered classified under Article Six of Concord Military Law." He waited for that to sink in. "This concerns the reports made just after the rescue of the Federation science team from Cedeforthy. It was reported that there was a Theta involved. I would also like to ask a few questions of your chief medical officer. I would like to know why he categorized one of the refugees as a Thyrna-Shae."
"If I may, Captain." A second screen on Mandor's desk displayed the lined countenance of Dr. Zamir Goldstein. "I categorized her as a Thyrna-Shae because she obviously is. What is there to explain?"
"She doesn't look Thyrna-Shae, Doctor."
"No? I thought the sharp teeth and pointed ears were a dead give-away."
"So you based your report entirely on physical appearance?"
"No, I based it on the DNA match, Admiral." The doctor's good humor was beginning to fail him. Mandor could see that he didn't like being questioned about his medical decisions. He didn't want to antagonize the man, but he had to have answers.
"I don't see how it could be a match. Other than a few traits, she doesn't look Thyrna-Shae at all!"
"Is that your medical opinion?"
"Gentlemen, please," the captain interrupted. "Doctor, was it a perfect match?"
"Well, no," he said slowly. He squinted his eyes as he called up the data in his mind comp. "There were sixteen genetic markers that matched previous DNA samples from known Thyrna-Shae. Computer match has it at ninety-eight-point-nine percent. That is well within the range of normal deviation; other samples that have since been taken on Cedeforthy match hers."
"Aren't humans around a ninety-eight percent match with Thyrna-Shae?"
"We've known for some time, Admiral, that the Thyrna-Shae are basically human. They diverged from the human race, at best guess, twenty thousand years ago. However, they are, for all practical purposes, a new species. Our races can’t interbreed. There is even evidence of extensive genetic engineering at some time in their past. They don't even have records of when. Common conjecture is that whatever species removed them from the Earth, probably the Achenar, modified them at that time."
"Are the teeth and ears part of that engineering?" Mandor asked.
"It's unlikely," Goldstein replied. "Those traits appear in standard human populations from time to time, although it is rare. Current thought is that these traits have been exaggerated as a side effect of tinkering with their DNA, but no one knows for sure."
"Was there evidence of 'tinkering' in the sample from Ana Tebrey?"
"I'm not sure. That wasn't something I would normally look for. I'll have the answer for you in a moment."
"Admiral," Viknorov interrupted. "Will you please tell us what this is all about?"
"In a moment, Captain. I'd like an answer from the doctor first."
"No," Dr. Goldstein reported grudgingly. "There is no evidence of genetic alteration. So she isn't Thyrna-Shae. She isn't human, either. I don't know what the hell she is." He rubbed his sleep-swollen eyes as if they were to blame for the error.
"Could she be some form of hybrid?"
"No, that isn't possible. Like I said, our species are too different for cross-fertility."
"Then what is she?"
"Maybe she is what she said she is, Admiral," the captain said.
"What do you mean?"
"She told us that her people had been on Cedeforthy long before the people came from the sky. She reported that her people, the Taelantae, had been fleeing a war when they settled that world. She said the legends were ancient. Maybe what we have here is a representative of what the Thyrna-Shae must have been like not long after they left the Earth."
"Yes," Mandor said, nodding. "That would fit with her physical appearance. She looks more human because she is closer to the original race, unmodified. Hmm. Find out what you can from the others of her kind on the surface. If they are a new race, we may have to offer them acceptance into the Concord separately. We need to tread carefully here."
"Understood, sir. You asked about the Theta?"
"Has there been any other activity there?"
"No, sir. The one Commander Tebrey killed eventually disincorporated. There was nothing else in the installation. I don’t think there are any others."
"That would be nice, but don't bet on it. I want your people to be on full alert. I don't want an incident out there."
"I can assure you, Admiral," Captain Viknorov said with a wry smile, "we don't want that kind of incident, either."
"There is something else I need you to do, Captain. You may not like it."
"I'm sure that I won't, Admiral. What is it?"
"In the ruined installation where you found the refugees, there were containment facilities that apparently held a Theta."
"They were all smashed," the captain replied.
"I want them anyway. Pull everything you can out of that installation."
"Okay."
"It has also come to my attention that there may be another facility like that one," Mandor said. "And that one may still have a live Theta in it."
"What? Here on Cedeforthy?"
"Dr. Bauval told me that they
encountered something in some ruins to the north-west of the capitol. He said that there was a plaza in the center of an ancient megalithic city, with a statue of a dark god of some kind. He said Lt. Commander Tebrey thought there was something under it. It wasn't until later that they connected everything together and figured out it must have been another Theta."
"Right," Captain Viknorov said. "So you want us to clear the area and hit it with an orbital strike?"
"No, I want you to send in the marines and capture it."
Captain Viknorov stared out of the air screen in horror. "You can't be serious!"
"I told you that you wouldn't like it."
She just sat shaking her head slowly.
"Once you have completed your mission, Captain, you will report back here. I want this taken care of immediately."
"I have to protest, Admiral, vehemently."
"Noted, Captain," he replied. "You don't have to like or understand the mission. You just have do it."
"Sir," she acknowledged.
Mandor closed the connection and sat back.
"Sir? What's wrong?" Bruce had never seen his boss so agitated.
"I wish I knew, Bruce," Mandor said. "We've got a chance to actually study one of the aliens. This may be the edge we need to win against them."
"Is that all? You seem more upset than excited."
"There may be a lot more to the Theta activity than we suspected. Ana Tebrey and her associates have uncovered a pattern underneath it all, and it doesn't look good for us."
"Sir?"
"Hrothgar Tebrey sent them a secure message somehow. I don't know how it slipped through our security, but he's been in contact with someone in the upper echelons of the Federation Admiralty. There is reason to believe that there may be one or more Thetas operating within their ranks, but that isn't the worst news."
"How does it get worse than that?"
"Because they know about us, Bruce."
He nodded as the horror of comprehension dawned upon Bruce's face.
"The Thetas know about what we're trying to do here in the Concord."
The Fallen Page 6
