15
"It comes. The Black Fleet," I heard Rychik say to Tulos. They were speaking in low tones down the corridor, their speech easily slipping in and out of the universal English with one of their own Erautian languages. A dialect of Hanga, I thought, but I couldn't be sure. I was relaxing and doing some stretching exercises in the small hothouse where a few labor mechs were cultivating fruits and vegetables. If it was what I thought it was, the Black Fleet were powered, or would be powered by black hole engines. I pretended not to hear. Having the eavesdropper had trained me to listen well without letting on that I was doing so. It really is an art form. I wondered where this legendary Black Fleet was located. I had guessed that it must be part of the Realm. But was it hiding near Jupiter or was it on its way, sliding toward us from the Libra system? The Coriolis storm raged for three days and finally died down on the fourth day, but weather reports warned of another wave of storms coming later this evening. Genevieve, Tulos and Rychik had made another trip to the gorgon much earlier in the day. One thing I discerned here was that once something like this crash landed, it was a windfall to the denizens of the city, no matter the danger or how trashed something looked. Nothing was wasted on Syzygy.
They had been busy formulating a plan of attack and they were communicating with another team located elsewhere in the city through a comlink in the Red Room. They had set up hologram models of Jupiter and its moons and were focusing on Ganymede and Europa, based on the cursory information coming in from other members of the alliance. The model was becoming more detailed and clarified with each new bit of information factored in. I tried hard to ignore it. After all, I wouldn't be here to see them make the missions. I had packed all my meager things together, getting ready to leave for my ship, hoping that no one had stolen it or taken it apart. Now that I knew how folks around here were in regards to "found" stuff, my hope was teetering on the edge. Genevieve had informed me that if the ship had been taken or stolen, that I was welcome to remain here as a permanent member of her team. I thanked her and hoped the ship was still there.
Eventually, Tulos and Rychik's voices died down into their own language and they left the corridor, heading back to the Red Room for more planning. I sought out Genevieve and found her in the galley fixing dinner.
"Hungry?" She asked without turning around as I walked in.
"Not right now, thanks. Genevieve, I wanted to talk to you."
"What about?" She was slicing off a thick piece of what looked like a cow tongue, but I couldn't be sure, piling these on a slice of bread with pickled peppers and onions.
"Where did you get that? What is it?"
"Tongue of snagar beast. Rychik is an apt hunter. For all the planning and work we'll be doing soon we need super rich protein foods. Tastes good too. So, what can I help you with?" I was quietly fascinated and repulsed by the thought of eating that animal. But it made sense out here. I tore the thought of writhing snagar beast tongues from my mind and got to the point.
"Well. The one that helped me escape, back at The Dagger. I saw him again. In the gorgon ship." She didn't seem surprised by this at all but merely turned and gazed at me. Her brow was raised.
"He may be hunting you," she said. I swallowed hard. She shrugged. Rather coldly, I thought, but life here was brutal. Mine wasn't the only life on the razor's edge.
"I just wonder why he didn't kill me."
"If he's a bone marrow hunter/dealer who has some common sense, he sees no advantage in killing you. Only addicts in the grip of the urge kill. But I'm guessing. It does seem odd. A dead human body was found last night in one of the underground tunnels. Found de-boned. Everyone knows what that means."
"How many of them here prey on humans for our bone marrow?"
"Not many. I don't have numbers. No one does, but it is worrisome. Such dealers and addicts are killed by the aliens allied with us, but this is a species problem that might grow. I know there aren't very many or there wouldn't be any humans left in this city. I've had to kill more than one hunter thinking he or she would take me out for my bones. I'm very good at protecting myself, which is why I'm still around." She sighed. "I have no idea whether you'll be back, Robert. I hope to see you again. We humans need a much larger presence on Mars."
"Despite the obvious danger to humans, you seem quite comfortable here." She smiled that hard smile again.
"That's relative. I can trust Tulos and Rychik because we have all worked together for so long. I have saved their lives many times and they mine. Besides, I have nothing left. If I die out here, it is where I belong. I'm a sentinel. That is my mode in life now." Her eyes took on a desolate look. I wanted to hold her but remembered I had a wife back home and she didn't strike me as the type of woman that wanted anyone protecting or coddling her anyway. I stifled the urge. Seeming to realize that she was showing vulnerability, a flicker of annoyance flashed across her beautiful face and it was gone.
"We trust each other based on a code of honor. If it were not for them, I would be dead."
"If it were not for you and them, I would be dead."
"There. A bond is forged. I think we are riding a wave of luck. There's got to be a reason why both of us are still alive and why we've met. Let's hope we don't fall off. This is a strange and confusing new world, Robert. Not the bold, bright new worlds of the universe just waiting for us to explore, like we were taught in school."
"Yeah. I know."
"We're going to have to fight for Earth one day. A home we've all taken for granted. Even with all the chaos growing in our little part of the Milky Way, I've got to believe there is a larger reason why we survived. We have to save the world," she said quietly.
"We should start with setting up that communication link between Red Room and Earth," I said. She smiled and nodded.
"I'll get right on it."
"The culprit who orchestrated this mess with the solargate was going to save me for his pet snagars to eat," I said pointedly, nodding at her sandwich. "What's that taste like? And don't tell me it tastes like chicken." She grinned and took a heaving bite out of it.
"Tastes like tongue."
. . .
Genevieve took me in one of her old dune riders toward the place I'd started calling Dorwe-Ayer's Rock. She knew exactly which place I was referring to. I was actually excited to see Sworda again, who had gone with me to find Abor. Whether Abor was dead or not I didn't know. He was a loose string still swinging around out there. Would he come back to kill me? Who knows? It wasn't finished.
No, it wasn't finished. I couldn't help but think that somehow a copy of those plans was still floating around out there in the wrong hands. Suddenly, a morbid fear gripped me. But then I looked up toward the horizon to catch sight of the hilly ledge and the fist of rock of Dorwe, where the separatists lived. I saw my friend. His arms were outstretched in a greeting, hailing us from far off. How he knew we were coming I had no idea, but it settled my heart and mind. That we had a fighting chance seemed possible. Saying goodbye to Genevieve, a new friend now as well, I jumped out and greeted him. In a few minutes, I saw the tiny figure of Genevieve's vehicles kicking up dust as she made her way back to Syzygy. He took me through the biosphere into the village and inside his tent and gave me water to drink.
"I had thought you lost, dead or worse my friend!" He said.
"How did you know I was coming?"
"I didn't. Every morning I come out to survey the area toward Syzygy. I asked around for you for days. Finally, I'd heard that you were seen with a human woman and two Erautians. I thought that eventually you would make your way back here."
"You know, Sworda, fortune has smiled on me ever since I left the moon."
"It has, it has. Perhaps since you left Earth." He poured himself a cold cup of water and sat down.
"So, the question. What happened in there?" He asked, casting me an expectant look. I gathered my thoughts and sighed.
"Well, in the ship I didn't find the original plans. But there was a docki
ng tube that led straight into the complex. So I went through that tube and into the kregei. On the bottom floor, or what was a subterranean layer, there was a series of connecting chambers. In one of the largest ones, I found a group of co-conspirators, Abor among them. They were huddled around a platform with holographic images moving above it."
"The maps."
"Yes. They were examining a 3-D schematic of the solargate. That was it, the original. Had to be. It was massive."
"I just think of how frightening things will get if they ever build it. What happened next?"
"Someone saw me skulking around and I was arrested and thrown in some hole. I met the man I had chased all across the solar system. Abor. I think he was shocked to see me there."
"And they didn't kill you on the spot?"
"Oh, some of them wanted to. But he wanted to see me die a horrible death. So he stayed the executioner's hand only for his own hope to make me suffer even worse torment and pain later. He was planning to bring his pet snagars in to eat me alive. It was afterward that one of them there helped me escape. I think he was a spy. But not before I allowed him to. . .take a sample of my bone marrow." My friend then gave me a surprised look, his eyes becoming wide. I showed him the healed wound on my arm where he took the marrow.
"A bargain with, how do you say? The devil. But you had no choice. That is what you would say, is it not?"
"A bargain with the devil? Yes." I asked.
"There are those that trade in such things. A drug to them. It is a. . .subculture here, and it may grow. It makes for uneasy alliances. Something that will become frayed in the future. I do not know where this will lead, but I know it will not be good for your people. Nor will it be good for those of us who abhor such practices, like us separatists." He paused for some time, frowning and gazing at my arm. "It worries me greatly, Robert. Before, though I knew some humans and thought some of them decent creatures, I never thought much on the issue. I did not like the practice, but I was not close to any to care enough. Now I have a friend who is human. It worries me what may be in our future. All of us."
"Me too. This place. It's the last battleground." I said.
"Yes."
"So, Sworda, tell me of what happened to the mech. I heard you shoot it."
"Ah!" He clapped his long, thin hands together in exclamation. He got up and went behind a flap of fabric that separated the main room from the inner rooms and dragged out a mech in pieces. "Here it is!A great find! Who knows what information I may find on its logs if they haven't been completely destroyed? I had thought the thing was going to go the other way and not notice me. But I heard it coming round and soon enough I knew it would sound an alarm. It nearly did once it rounded the corner where I was hiding near the ship. I shot it immediately and ran to hide, thinking that I had put you in terrible danger. Now, its treasures are mine." His eyes brightened. "After all the commotion with the gorgon ship attacking the city, I figured I was too late to find anything of real value. I am sure it is stripped bare by now." Oh, there are things still there to find, my friend. I thought.
"I carried the mech back here and I found gold in its circuits and memory chips!" He was clearly excited. "I am not finished examining it. But before you go, I may be able to give you something to use. First, this piece here. Take it. This is gold, remember. Something precious on your world? It is like that. I should not give it to you at all and if my folk saw me hand this to you they would become enraged. But I think you should have it." He handed me a small, clear tube. In it was what looked like a thin piece of red wire about a hair's breadth and about an inch long. I was hard pressed to understand what it was but gathered there must have been some type of information within it.
"Is it like a chip or a piece of code?" I asked, handling it with utmost care. He grunted the affirmative.
"It is hive-wire. A piece of. . .how do you say. . programming? Programming that is put into certain kinds of mechs. Those with specific functions to perform. This is why it is such an important find. Not all Erautian-built mechs will have this. This wire connects these mechs to a network. We believe that there are a few high-level mechs that are either rooted in secret bases here on this planet or somewhere else nearby that direct and communicate with these lower-tiered mechs. It is hard to get a hold of Realm mechs because they self-destruct if they have this hive wire piece within them. We can build raga-tag mechs, but those are slapped together and not very intelligent. These are something of a different order. It is mine and my brother's hope one day to be able to access these first order mechs, the ones you do not see. If only we could get to them. . ." He sighed. I put it away carefully in a small satchel in my travel pack. A precious little piece of victory.
"I think I have a friend who can tackle this. Thanks, Sworda. It may be more valuable than both of us realize. Oh, I almost forgot. When I went to Syzygy after first leaving here, I encountered a scary looking beast. I think it was a snagar. It tried to kill me. It would have if my atomic rifle hadn't gone off. The odd thing was, this animal could breathe the Martian air and withstand the sub-zero cold." Sworda frowned for a while before speaking and he seemed very surprised.
"They must be coming back." He murmured.
"What do you mean? Where do those things come from? How do they survive?"
"They are actually called Har-beasts. Snagars are related to them genetically but look like natural animals. These things are put together from the genetic strains of different ancient predators from Eraut. They were meant to be a kind of super-beast. They were engineered on the hive ship and made to survive out here. There was no where to put them after the rebellion on the hive ship so they were allowed to roam free once we arrived here. The early ones were engineered to be more powerful and hardy than our native snagars from Eraut. They were huge."
"Well, I don't know what huge means to you, but this one, though intimidating enough, was about as large as a large dog. About this high." He shook his head.
"No. The earliest ones were much bigger than that. They had become a terrible problem some years back and groups of us had to form hunting parties and hunt them down. We'd thought them hunted to extinction. Perhaps there are still a few out there and their numbers are coming back."
"Or perhaps someone is engineering them again and releasing them out in the wild," I said worriedly.
"Could be. I tend to think that they are breeding. On the hive ship, I noticed that when these experimental breeds mated, their young came out smaller and when their offspring matured and mated, their offspring were small as well. And the third generation Har-beasts were usually sterile. I will bring it up in the next council. That is a problem. I am happy that you were able to kill it and escape unscathed."
"Me too. I hope their numbers aren't growing very fast. They are ferocious."
So, we had the Realm, loyalists, the Black Fleet, drug-addled aliens getting high off human body parts and now genetically engineered chimeras from space. Check! A few more things on the pile. I thanked him, he clasped my hands in his and we each bowed to each other.
"Thank you so much, Sworda. I will never forget your kindness and generosity." And really, I wouldn't. My path here had been truly miraculous. I was leaving now and I had so much to tell, so much on my mind. And just how would I be able to relate what I'd found to anyone back home? I had no idea, but I had nearly a month to figure it out. Then I remembered something very important. It came to me in a strange way because it was not only my friend Chip who had mentioned it, but Genevieve had also ascertained it.
I had a powerful, hidden ally back home. But who was it?