"Your eyes aren't damaged, Raoko; she isn't human or Thyrna-Shae. She is Taelantae, from Cedeforthy."
Torenth quickly recovered his composure. He had no idea what a Taelantae was, but intended to find out. He tended to forget that the admiral was a telepath. Among other things, he thought. I hope she isn't. "It is a pleasure to meet you all. Please excuse my rudeness, Ms. Tebrey."
"It's Mrs. Tebrey, actually," she said pointedly.
He blushed again and cleared his throat. "If all of you will follow me," he said quickly. He turned away. "I was surprised by your message, Admiral. Do you think this is a sign that unification is possible, after all?"
"I hope so," Mandor replied. "I honestly don't know what they want, Captain. I would also prefer to not talk about it here."
"Of course, Admiral," Torenth said. "I didn't mean to pry."
Mandor and Torenth had been friends for over a decade. They had served together early in the Nurgg War, long before Mandor had become an admiral. Torenth was truly embarrassed by his reaction to Ana. He had thought himself past such youthful indiscretions.
Torenth led them down the boarding tube into the pinnace. It wasn't a large ship, but it was comfortable and fast. Once they were settled into the acceleration couches, Torenth contacted the pilot and told him they were ready to launch.
Chapter Sixteen
Ana used her recently acquired datalink to call up an air screen to watch as the pinnace pulled away from the station. All of the technology in the Concord still filled her with a sense of wonder. She had been frightened by everything when she first left Cedeforthy with Hrothgar, but that seemed like another life now. It was odd to think that it had only been five months.
The hardest thing for Ana to deal with had not been the technology but the change in what a day was. The Arcturus had used Earth-standard twenty-four-hour timekeeping; Dawn's day was a little longer than the day on Cedeforthy. Even after the many months, her biological clock still woke her up at odd hours, and she would lie awake wondering what was wrong until she realized it was simply sunrise in her home city of Bellejor, light-years away.
In the display, the station looked like a giant metal spindle. She imagined it as spinning a thread from the invisible skein of gravity. Gravity was another thing she'd always taken for granted, without really thinking much about it. Dawn had a higher gravity than Cedeforthy, but the doctors had given her something that made her adjust quickly.
The station hung against the darkness, the seemingly endless rows of windows reflecting the brilliant light of GL 570's large orange star. Smaller ships, shuttles and orbital cutters, moved in and out of the hangers or attached themselves to the docking collars of one of the external rings. Large ships like the Arcadia stayed parked near the station in orbit.
She could see the Arcadia now as they began their approach. It was huge, a kilometer and a half long. The thick armor plates and bristling weapons made her feel safer. This was a ship that could fight.
Ana suddenly felt very lonely. She missed her husband desperately. They had only been together for a few months before he left for the Federation. She ached in ways that were only partially physical. Ana had never been in love with anyone before him. She had never been so intimately in tune with anyone before him, either. Hrothgar made her feel beautiful just by the way he would look at her.
She was afraid that she would never see him again, and that was intolerable.
Dr. Simon Akvita was bewildered.
It had been thirty days since the Centaur had transited into hyperspace, and his celebrity patient, Hrothgar Tebrey, was recovering quickly. Tebrey's actions on Serendipity, first rescuing the prisoners in the Empire camp, then assisting in digging people out of the rubble, and finally heroically going into the tunnels after the missing marines, had made him the talk of the crew. The medical staff actually had to turn away well-wishers.
According to his file, Tebrey had always responded well to medical nano-surgery, but even he seemed surprised by how quickly his hands, internal organs, and spinal nerves had re-grown. Akvita suspected that the medical nanotech packages had actually slowed his regeneration.
"How are you today?" Dr. Akvita asked.
"Doing well, Doc," Tebrey replied. He was sitting up in bed eating. He'd been doing a lot of that since regaining the use of his arms. "I'm looking forward to therapy later today."
Akvita chuckled. "You may be the only patient I'd believe when they said that."
Physical therapy was grueling and painful. Tebrey's musculature had atrophied a bit, despite the best efforts of the medical team. The commander was working hard to get his near-perfect physique back.
Akvita was more than slightly envious.
The doctor was in decent shape, but he would never have been able to match the muscles of his patient. Tebrey's muscle density was at the height of human maximum efficiency. Akvita suspected that one of Tebrey's ancestors had been genetically modified. Tebrey's homeworld, Valhalla, had been the center of the old Empire, and they had definitely experimented with eugenics back in the day. It was possible the traits had been passed down through the generations and inherited by him.
"How is your companion doing?" Akvita asked.
"Hunter is doing well, Doctor." If Tebrey was aware of the doctor's thoughts, he was too polite to say anything. "Getting out to the gym helped him a lot with his anxiety."
Akvita nodded. "Commander," he said, hesitant, "there are some strange anomalies in your genetic code."
"So I've been made aware," Tebrey replied dryly. It was getting to be a joke with him. Every time a doctor treated him, they said the same thing.
"Do you have any idea what they represent?"
"Not really, Doctor. I've been told that it may be an effect of the entropic field the Thetas produce. The alien entities like the thing in the tunnel under Serendipity," Tebrey added in response to the doctor's blank look.
"Oh, that is an odd thought. What makes you think that?"
"The Sentient Concord medical officer aboard the Arcturus," replied Tebrey.
"What were you doing associating with them?"
Tebrey was surprised at the venom in the doctor's tone. "They rescued me from a primitive world I was stranded on a few months ago. What have you got against the Concord, Doctor?"
"I've heard things," Akvita said. "That's all. I've just heard disquieting rumors about the aliens they associate with."
"Well, Doctor," Tebrey said reasonably, "I can tell you that I didn't see any aliens when I was aboard their ship or on their homeworld. The Concord seemed like a nice enough place. What aliens would they be associating with, anyway?"
"Homndruu," the doctor spat.
"Got a personal grudge, Doctor?"
Akvita looked embarrassed. "Sorry. I'm from New Kalieph at Gamma Ceti. I grew up under the constant threat of Homndruu invasion. I've seen some of the Homndruu 'experiments' firsthand." Akvita shuddered. "I guess I'm just biased."
"I'd say that's reasonable, Doctor, but you have to understand that there are different factions of Homndruu, just like humans," Tebrey said. The Homndruu were centauroid, otter-like creatures who were close to the size of a heavy draft horse, but otherwise much like humans. "You can't judge all Homndruu on the actions of a single faction."
Akvita snorted. "You fought in the Nurgg War?"
Tebrey twitched with remembered pain. "Yes."
"Make friends with a Nurgg, and I'll consider making friends with a Homndruu."
"Thank you for coming to Rhyr on such short notice, Admiral," Ambassador Valkoinen said as Mandor and his people were shown into her office. "I hope your accommodations here at the embassy are suitable. Is there anything I can have made available for you?"
"The accommodations are fine," Mandor said. "I'd like to get right to work. I presume you notified the chancellor of our arrival?"
"I did as you requested, Admiral." Inkeri gestured for them to sit. "There has not been a response. As you know, it is impossible to hur
ry the Rhyrhans. They never make hasty decisions."
"Thank you," Mandor said politely. "May I introduce my companions to you: Dr. Pierre Bauval, a xenobiologist, and Dr. Amber Mason, an anthropologist." He waited for the ambassador to acknowledge each of them. "This charming young lady is Ana Tebrey, a Taelantae from Cedeforthy, where much of my recent work has been derived from. She is a Theta survivor and closely associated with our projects. Have you had any luck with my research request?"
Inkeri studied Ana curiously. She only had the roughest idea of what the Thetas were. She'd read the files on them, of course, but she thankfully had never personally witnessed the destruction they caused. She'd met many Thyrna-Shae in the course of her work, but had never heard of the Taelantae. She wondered if they were related.
"Not really," she said in answer to his question. Inkeri settled into the chair behind her desk. "You know how the Rhyrhans can be when they don't want to answer a question. All I have been able to find out is that the Council of the Eldest is linked with the Rhyrhan religion somehow."
The Rhyrhans had but one faith, and that faith bore many striking similarities to the human religion of Buddhism. Religious scholars often used the Rhyrhan religion as an example of the principles of universal axioms of faith. The Rhyrhans had a Zen-like acceptance of whatever befell them and believed strongly in reincarnation. When questioned, the Rhyrhans always just smiled and said that they had no religion, simply a profound understanding of the true nature of things.
It had driven many a peaceful human scholar to consider acts of violence against them. Not that it would have been wise, considering the physical differences.
"What can you tell me of the political situation here?" asked Mandor.
Inkeri chuckled. "Earth Federation Ambassador Nichols filed an official protest with the Rhyrhan government when you came roaring into orbit in the Arcadia. He said it violated the terms of neutrality as agreed between the Federation and the Combine. He actually tried to order the Rhyrhans not to allow you to land."
"I bet that went over well," Mandor said.
"About as well as you'd expect. They pointed out to him that the Combine had no such treaty; they had simply forbidden Federation warships from entering their space, but had never had a problem with Concord. I think the Federation may have done us a great service, actually. It could help our unification efforts."
"I hope so," Mandor said sincerely. "The Rhyrhan Combine would be a strong addition to the Concord. To tell you the truth, were I in control of the Federation, I'd not want to antagonize the Rhyrhans or the Slith – especially the Slith. They can be frighteningly dangerous in warfare."
"I remember," Inkeri said with a wry expression. Before she had become the ambassador to Rhyr, she had served as a liaison aboard a Combine ship during the uneasy alliance at the beginning of the Nurgg War. She'd seen first-hand just how efficient the Rhyrhans and the Slith could be. No, she thought, not just efficient. The Rhyrhans had flair and style. The Nurgg hadn't known how to counter the swarms of antimatter-armed fighters the Combine had sent against them. Rhyrhans considered it high art to blow up an enemy ship in as spectacular a way as possible. They had competed with each other for the honor, and believing as they did in reincarnation, they had been utterly fearless in battle. The Slith hadn't cared about anything except the death of Nurgg, no matter the cost.
That competition had made her time on the Rhyrhan destroyer S'kareth very... interesting.
"I was also very surprised by your report of no Theta activity in Combine space," Mandor said. "I would have thought the Rhyrhans would be having similar problems. We know that the Federation and the Empire are. There are even a few reports of such problems in Homndruu space."
"I don't know what to say, Admiral. It is possible that the Rhyrhans are hushing up any incidents as they occur. We simply don't have the same kinds of intelligence operations here that we would on human-controlled worlds."
Mandor nodded. He'd known the answer before he asked, but it didn't make him feel any better. He didn't think they were covering attacks up. He knew it was somehow important that the Rhyrhans didn't having the same problems with Thetas as everyone else, but he didn't know why.
It was frustrating.
If he had known then what the Council of the Eldest was going to tell him, he'd have had his answer. Not that it was going to make him feel any better.
Chapter Seventeen
Two huge Rhyrhan soldiers in ornate but fully functional powered battle armor stood as honor guards before the intricately carved portal of the Chamber of the Ancients. They held themselves in alert stillness; not even their tails twitched – a major accomplishment for a Rhyrhan. Black alloy antimatter rifles were braced against their beryllium-steel armored shoulders, making Mandor feel even more nervous.
He eased his nerves by imagining them wearing large, furry Prussian hats like the old guardians of the royal family in Britain. That bit of humor made him smile and helped him overcome the tension that knotted his muscles and threatened to snap his spine.
His escort stepped forward, saluted the two guards, and then announced Mandor's arrival in High Rhyrhan. Mandor understood the language but had trouble following the subtleties of the inflected sibilants. He couldn't speak it; he didn't have the correct mouth for it. He was fluent in Low Rhyrhan, and hoped that it would be good enough for the Council.
He didn't wish to appear disrespectful.
That would be very bad, he thought humorlessly. He had no doubt that the two guards would cut him down in an instant if so ordered.
His new friends – and he smiled to himself at the thought; he didn't have many friends – were back at the embassy awaiting word of what was transpiring. He would have liked to have them along with him, but they hadn't been invited. Not this time.
The higher gravity of Rhyr, one-point-six standard, was wearing on him. He'd already walked several kilometers with his escort, and his very bones ached. Luckily, Dawn had a higher gravity than Earth-normal, so the difference wasn't as extreme as it might have been. At least the area around the Council chambers was climate-controlled. He might not have made it here with the normal heat and humidity of a summer in the capitol.
The portal split open in a complicated pattern and retreated into the walls. His escort bowed and gestured, and Mandor was left alone to face the Council of the Eldest. He sighed deeply and stepped into the room.
As the door swirled shut behind him, Mandor looked around the chamber that no human had ever before seen. It was a large circular room with massive carved pillars holding up a domed and frescoed ceiling. The fresco seemed to be some scene from Rhyrhan history, but he didn’t know their folklore well enough to be sure. He had expected the room to be dark and mysterious, befitting the mood of the whole affair, but it was well-lit with modern lighting panels.
It was also quite empty.
Mandor turned in a slow circle. The Rhyrhans liked a practical joke as much as anyone did, but this was taking it too far. "Hello?" he called hesitantly.
"Hello," a voice rumbled from nearby.
He turned quickly to find a powerfully built Rhyrhan standing not two meters from him. It was disconcerting. He was certain that no one had been there a moment before. He must have been behind a pillar, Mandor thought.
"Hello," the Rhyrhan said again. "I am Develos. I will speak first for the Council of the Eldest." Mandor was momentarily taken aback; the Rhyrhan was speaking perfectly accented Polish, a language Mandor hadn't heard since his youth but one he still thought in when stressed.
Then suddenly Mandor understood what was happening: the Rhyrhan was using telepathy. "You're good," he said. "Most people can't get something like that past my mind shields. Pardon me if it seems impertinent, but I thought I was to speak with the Council, not an intermediary."
"I am of the Council, and they are with us," the Rhyrhan said.
"We're alone here," said Mandor, gesturing at the empty chamber.
"They are with us,"
the Rhyrhan said again.
"Right…" Mandor sighed and tried to clear his mind. "So what did the Council wish to speak to me about?"
For just a moment, Mandor thought he sensed the presence of others around him -- many others. Then it was gone. A psionic shield? Are they blocking themselves from my sight? he wondered. Why bother?
"Your species stands upon the brink of damnation," Develos said. "It is facing the greatest danger it has ever faced. There are forces moving against you, the likes of which you cannot comprehend."
"Damnation is an odd word. I suppose you mean the impending war with the Earth Federation."
"Yours is a disturbingly warlike race."
"Don't tell me this is going to be a lecture about humanity's tendency to get into wars. We aren't at fault in what is happening between us and the Federation. They started it."
"Don't be flippant, Mandor Shadovsky." The room seemed to darken as an almost physical wave of anger rolled off the Rhyrhan. "We're not talking about the Federation, as you know full well.
"I'm sorry, but if you wanted diplomacy," Mandor said angrily, "you should have talked to the ambassador. I have better things to do than deal with enigmatic riddles. If not the Federation, then who? The Nurgg? They won't be a threat much longer. The combined fleet should arrive in their system in a matter of weeks."
The soft barking laughter of Rhyrhans echoed from all around him, and once again Mandor had the fleeting impression that he was surrounded in the chamber.
"It is about the beings that you call Thetas that we wished to speak with you," a new voice said.
Mandor turned to his right and saw an old Rhyrhan female standing there. He didn't know how they were doing it, but it was obvious to him that the presences he felt were other Rhyrhans somehow cloaking their forms and their minds. It was interesting that they managed to do it without the normal emptiness of a psionic field dampener. He wondered if they would be willing to share the technology. Probably not.
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