Jo worried for Haget. Everybody thought his decision stupid. The Deified probably did, too. But he exercised no opinion. He never spoke. He just watched. It was easy to forget he was there.
Eight months. The Horigawa Traveler visited a hundred systems, finding no sign of a Lost Child or phantom, catching only an occasional whiff of a methane breather long gone.
The venture was not a waste. It established with certainty a sinister rot spreading throughout that end of Canon space. Which scared Jo.
They had stumbled onto something big.
Haget assembled Jo, Vadja, and the Chief. “This search was a mistake. You’ve rubbed it in, never saying a word, making me wallow in it, good little soldiers carrying out every order. Waiting for me to run out of ways to save face. All right. I’m out. I fucked up. I made a dumb decision and compounded it by not backing down.” He gutted himself.
“Let’s get back in stride. Any suggestions?”
Vadja said, “Back to M. Shrilica, sir. Between the phantom’s visit and ours, only two ships stopped there. One was VII Gemina. Data from the abandoned in-system station suggests the phantom did approach station close enough to have docked briefly.”
“So?”
“Six days later Canon’s only agent there, tolerated because he was an honorary, was killed in a freak accident. Following his death there was a twenty percent rise in shuttle traffic between Tregesser Xylag and station. That increase was noted by the old station but not by the new. No personnel transfers are noted officially, but new names begin appearing in official reports and old ones are not seen again.”
Haget maintained his composure. He dared not ask how long Vadja had possessed that information. Vadja would tell him. It would go on record.
“Lieutenant. Is that the place to start?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Smokey. Head for M. Shrilica.”
The Traveler broke off the Web.
Seeker’s thought was a bellow. The methane breathers are here!
The Traveler lurched. Its screen activated without a murmur of command. The ship rotated violently, facing back the way it had come. Its weapons belched CT projectiles. A long black needle of a ship, a type like none Jo had ever seen, became a garden of flame.
Though that ship had been in ambush, it never got off a shot.
Bruised, abraded, bleeding from mouth and nose, Jo picked herself up and blessed WarAvocat for having stuck them with that miserable damned spying Deified.
AnyKaat said, “There are five more ships near station.”
Haget snarled, “Let’s go get them.”
— 84 —
The siege of the gas giant was frustrating. Outsiders kept arriving and making themselves obnoxious.
The situation grew less irksome after the sixth month.
XII Fulminata arrived and assumed picket duty, eating reinforcements as fast as they appeared.
— 85 —
Hanaver Strate burned with frustration. He was going to spend his entire second term as Dictat in repair dock. It had taken Starbase only five months to recreate XII Fulminata. Meantime, VII Gemina languished, always facing an endless series of repairs.
Guardships came and went, mostly to learn what was happening. V Gallica. VIII Furia. X Gemina. Most recently, XII Victrix. III Parthica and XXVI Ulpia had come in in tandem after a twelve-year campaign beyond the Mauvain Rim. Both were on the Web now, carrying news and warnings to Starbase Dengaida.
And VII Gemina languished. And the only amusement for an otherwise unemployed WarAvocat was running a miniscule fleet of chartered, armed Horigawas.
The data supplied by Haget’s team had been electrifying. The Deified had authorized commissioning five Horigawa privateers. The Horigawas had been seduced by the prospect of claiming prize ships.
Where the hell had Haget gotten to since?
A three-ship section of the Barbican had been converted to support the privateers — and only days after WarAvocat loosed them, their prey had vanished from the Web. Everywhere. Though they left ample evidence that they had been around.
Amazing. All this had been going on for centuries. But even a Guardship could overlook something it was not seeking.
Nor had the mess gone unnoticed. IV Trajana had gotten onto it — but no one would listen.
A grim picture. A big one.
He was confident that he had seen but a shadow of a shadow so far.
What the hell had become of Haget?
— 86 —
“Let’s get the bastards!” Haget said. And the Deified spoke for the first time.
“Negative, Colonel. There are five of them. Get onto the Web. You know the destination of the Voyager that visited the system. Follow it up.”
Jo let loose a breath she had not known she was holding. An ambush. Maybe special for them. Why? That ship they’d just killed... that had not been built for anything but fighting. No Traveler was designed for combat. In Canon battle was the province of Guardships.
The Traveler clambered onto the Web. Seeker was pleased. They were back on the trail of his Lost Child.
Jo was sure they were off to scare up another dead end.
— 87 —
Lupo left the update feeling melancholy. Times were quiet. Tregesser Prime, Tregesser Horata, and the Pylon had been tamed. Likewise the Valerena Others and the Directorate, despite the Worgemuth and Maserang murders. The killer’s testimony had exonerated Valerena.
Five Valerena Others survived. The most reliable was ensconced atop the Pylon. Valerena herself spent all her time aboard “her” Guardship.
Blessed had taken over his mother’s castle and seemed content to bide his time. He amused himself with absurd theme parties and expanding the alien zoo he had begun collecting. He was scraping them out of every DownTown in the Presidency. He had gathered another four Ku, to Lupo’s certain knowledge.
Putting together his team. Maybe riding the wave of the future. There were few competent, imaginative, innovative, uncommitted humans around.
The renovation of VI Adjutrix was going well. Valerena had the damned thing eating out of her hand.
Week after week, month after month. Routine.
Which left time for the old game of Guardship watching.
Something big was taking shape. Starbase traffic was heavy. To his dismay, XII Fulminata had been seen coming out. VII Gemina’s survival he could accept. But XII Fulminata had been destroyed. He had tapes.
At least three Guardships were operating beyond the Atlantean Rim, for the first time in millennia, in the direction whence Simon had drawn support. Unsettling.
There were reports of armed Travelers roaming the Web in VII Gemina’s name. An unprecedented tactic. That word had killed the shadow side of commerce. It spoke of ships destroyed and stations savaged by Guardship soldiers.
What were they after?
Two stepped in. “An armed Traveler broke off the Web a while ago. It’s ordered us to turn over the cumulative ship’s logs for the Voyager Marion Tregesser. It invoked the name of VII Gemina as its right. It also wants Blessed, Cable Shike, and Nyo Bofoku.”
Lupo let the shock subside. “Why?”
“Call Blessed and ask him.”
Turtle shared a barrackslike room with five Ku who had survived the Dire Radiant and the ages since. Such a pathetic few. But there were more out there, and word was spreading.
He did not know if he would become the thing Blessed wanted. He told himself he was going through the motions to protect Midnight and Amber Soul. But, oh, the aching temptation.
As if Amber Soul needed protection from anyone but herself.
It was one incident after another, never her fault because she initiated nothing, always her fault because misunderstanding could be avoided if she would unbend and adapt.
Something dramatic and grim had happened within her. Even he could not reach her anymore.
Turtle led his Ku in ritualized exercises as old as the warrior ghifu. An ensign of the Dire Rad
iant graced one wall. Someone had drawn it in colored chalks. Turtle had not bothered to have the wall cleaned.
Midnight scurried in. “Turtle! You’ve got to come! It’s Amber Soul!”
“What has she done now?”
“She’s gone into a trance. She just stands there sending, ‘He’s here. The Old One is here.’ The walls and ceiling have gotten all creepy. I think she’s going to have an attack.”
“I’ll be right back,” Turtle told his companions.
Tina looked troubled. “What’s the matter?” Blessed asked.
“There’s a call. Lupo Provik. I don’t like the way he looks. If it was anybody else, I’d say he was scared shitless.”
“What does he want?”
“You.”
“I can take a hint.” He punched the baroque comm that had belonged to his mother. “Lupo. What can I do for you?”
“Tell me what you’ve been up to. We’ve got an armed Traveler in, acting for VII Gemina. It wants the logs for Marion Tregesser. And it wants you, Shike, and Nyo Bofoku. All couched in the usual lyrical ‘Do it or your ass is dead’ Guardship style.”
Blessed said, “Shit!” He looked at Tina, then at Cable, whom she had summoned. They had gone colorless. “Lupo, not on comm. Stall. You want to come out here or you want me to come there?”
“Here. That’ll put you closer to the shuttle. Don’t forget Bofoku and Shike.”
Blessed said, “Shit!” again.
Cable said, “I couldn’t have missed anything.”
“It couldn’t have been much. It took them eight months. Tina, get Nyo. Guys, I want to hear brains at work.”
“We can throw ourselves on our swords,” Cable said.
“It may come to that.”
“I wasn’t joking.”
Sixteen kilometers off station Jo said, “This’s the busiest we’ve hit.”
Vadja said, “Home station for House Tregesser. One of the big ten Houses. One of the contrariest. They’ve never accepted a Canon presence.”
Seeker stepped into Jo’s head. The Lost Child. She is here. I sense her pain.
Vadja exploded, “There’s a Guardship here! There’s something wrong with it.”
“Where?” Haget asked.
Jo told Haget what she had heard from Seeker.
The Deified, reviewing pirated data faster than Vadja, located the Guardship. “VI Adjutrix. Has been exploring the Web beyond the Rims for several centuries. Behavior here suggests regression to preadolescence. In past instances, this has resulted from failure in the Core closures, inviting infection. Take me to VI Adjutrix. I will enter the system and assume control.”
Haget looked bewildered.
Jo said, “We have a mission here, Colonel.”
“Where is this Guardship?”
The Deified said, “Having realized it was irresponsible and a hazard, it inserted itself into a slow cometary orbit. It is above the orbit of the innermost gas giant at an elevation of ten degrees, bearing three one three relative. At optimum acceleration it will take...”
Jo closed the Deified out. He had decided to rewrite the mission orders. “Colonel, we have the Lost Child confirmed as on-planet. The Ku and artifact are likely to be there. We don’t want to give anyone time to disappear.”
Haget fidgeted. The Deified said, “Drop the Lieutenant off.”
“By myself?”
Haget calculated. “Take Seeker and three soldiers. And AnyKaat.”
“Thanks.” Haget missed her sarcasm. She beckoned Seeker and AnyKaat, selected the three reluctant volunteers. In the passageway, she said, “You’re right, AnyKaat. He’s a total dipshit.”
Jo and the soldiers left the Traveler in full battle dress with complete combat kit. She figured the intimidation factor would be all she had going.
Two told Lupo, “They’re sending a team of six to make arrests. I assigned them a House shuttle. They’ve added those creatures of Blessed’s to their list.”
“Only six? Confident, aren’t they. Blessed better have a hell of a story.”
“It gets better. The Traveler is headed for VI Adjutrix.”
Valerena went into a state of nerves the moment she heard about the Traveler. Now it was headed her way. She was near panic.
Tawn was no better. He was sure he would lose her, was sure this meant his end as a corporeal being.
Valerena told him, “We can go hide Outside. They’ll never find us there.”
A minute later VI Adjutrix began moving inward, accelerating as only a Guardship could.
Lupo was aghast.
Blessed was maybe three-quarters through his story and already Provik was ready to shriek in exasperation. Blessed held in his hands the secrets of Starbase and had kept them to himself. Valerena had a Guardship that, with the Ku’s knowledge, could have penetrated Starbase.
Imagine that. The invincible fortress in Tregesser hands.
The opportunity of four millennia squandered. Unless he could snatch it back from these VII Gemina predators.
Two came in looking grimmer than ever. “Hot news from beyond the sky, Lupo. Valerena blew the Traveler away and headed for the Web.”
The news nets got it before it could be squelched. Jo heard it aboard the shuttle. She ignored the material about the Guardship’s past misdeeds. One thought rang in her mind: Rogue!
She told the others, “When we hit ground, we form a square. AnyKaat, you and Seeker stay in the middle.”
“Degas is gone,” AnyKaat breathed. “And Era. Like that. It doesn’t seem real. Is it real, Jo?”
Jo comforted her the best she could. “Only for a while. You’re all on record at Starbase.”
“It wouldn’t be the same. It would be like having his ghost.”
Jo knew that. She had been through it. “There’s a way around that, too. If you want it bad enough.”
“Here’s an idea,” Blessed said. “We open a window and see how far we can walk on air.”
Lupo muttered, “That might be appropriate. But we have our obligations to the House.”
— 88 —
Once on the Web Valerena began to gain confidence. It was not as bad as it looked. Lupo would see that. He would have everything into an information pattern that would put the House in the clear. Guardships had gone rogue before. And the fleet would not come looking where she was headed. If it did, well, her Guardship knew the Outside Web better than they did.
She would find her father’s allies, flaunt her prize, get moving on the next phase of the struggle.
First she must score a diplomatic coup to please and placate Lupo. Then she would dig her Voyager out of its rider bay and head for home, to mend fences. Yes. And tell Tawn not to let any creepy-crawlies close while she was away. If they stole his secrets, they might cut House Tregesser out.
She must not lose sight of the fact that they were not human. And that they had their own agenda.
As breakaway neared, Valerena’s excitement grew almost sexually intense. Would she be remembered not only as first to take a Guardship but also as the one who had caused their downfall?
She, Tawn, and all her Others but the one in the Pylon gathered. The most trustworthy of the workers caught aboard were allowed to join them, to witness something never before seen by people not of the Guardship fleet.
The viewscreens went white.
Before they cleared Tawn said, “They’re here, Valerena.”
A viewscreen cleared, revealed a monstrous shape of gleaming metal. Characters scrambled across the screen, proclaimed xii fulminata.
Lupo had destroyed XII Fulminata!
They would come within meters of colliding.
Another screen showed a gas giant with schematic orbits labeled xxviii fretensis and iv trajana. In seconds VI Adjutrix would pass XII Fulminata and be caught in a pocket from which there could be no escape.
“Hellspinners,” she muttered.
As VI Adjutrix swept down the flank of XII Fulminata, too close for the latter to
raise screen, the Hellspinners went mad, devouring that side of XII Fulminata two-thirds of the way to its Core, doing it so suddenly and unexpectedly XII Fulminata could do no damage in reply.
There was no way to avoid diving into the pocket. Momentum could not be defeated. “We have to turn and get out of here,” Valerena cried.
XII Fulminata did not like that idea. Already that Guardship was launching secondaries and rotating its good face toward VI Adjutrix’s fire.
VI Adjutrix launched, too.
Another first. The chance to see a battle to the death between Guardships.
To hell with that noise!
The displays had gone crazy. She could not take in a hundredth of the information. But the tactical situation became obvious quickly. XII Fulminata meant to hold VI Adjutrix till the other Guardships arrived. VI Adjutrix would keep probing the hurt already dealt XII Fulminata in hopes of a quick kill or at least of forcing XII Fulminata out of position long enough to dash to the Web.
Time flowed glacially, yet swiftly, according to where Valerena concentrated her attention. Came the moment when she knew XII Fulminata’s cries had been heard by XXVIII Fretensis and IV Trajana. Came the moment when their indignant replies returned and it was certain they were accelerating toward the action as violently as their frames could stand. And XII Fulminata would not give a millimeter, though its destruction was assured if it did not.
Tawn came out of his fugue momentarily. “I’ve done the hard part. I’ve beaten XII Fulminata. The other two have nothing left. I can take them, too.”
They were all insane. Tawn wanted to fight. Tawn wanted whatever laurels there were from a triumph over three Guardships.
Damn!
“Why are they coming if they can’t win?”
“They have to. And what they know isn’t what they believe. My love, I must leave you for a while. I must preside over the execution of Fulminata.” He smiled. “I never liked Fulminata.”