by C. Gockel
He walked over to the door warden, blinking as his eyes became accustomed to the relative glare.
"I’m finished," he said to the Ptorix on duty. He wasn’t the same toe rag who’d signed him in. He’d actually met this one. Cheshnor, that was it. "I’ll be going."
"Your wife just arrived, Mister O’Reilly," said Cheshnor in quite passable Standard. "Did you see her?"
Sean stared at the elderly Ptorix while his stomach somersaulted. Allysha here? How? Why? "My wife?"
"Yes. She’s just gone down to the control room with two men. You must have missed her by this much." Cheshnor held a tentacle on each of his top arms a fraction of a centimeter apart.
Sean worked to stop his jaw from dropping. Why was she going to the control room? And who with? If this had anything to do with the canister, if she removed it... An image of van Tongeren rose before his eyes, vengeful and vindictive. Panic gnawed at Sean’s gut. That canister had to stay and she had to remain undamaged. His very life depended on it. Think, Sean, think.
"You say she’s here. Do you know why?"
"Some trouble in the control room. She had a letter of authority." The Ptorix was calm, untroubled; maybe a little curious.
Sean put on a bewildered frown and shook his head. "My wife couldn’t possibly be here. She’s off-planet. Have you checked the authorization? Is it really her?"
Cheshnor’s fingers flexed in agitation, his eyes whirling violet as he checked the registration number. Sean edged away as the elderly Ptorix summoned human security. That should slow her down, at least. She’d talk her way out of it, of course, but best not to be here when they brought her out. She wouldn’t be happy.
Allysha led Saahren and Roland along the corridor. Their shadows hurried along in front of them each time they passed a light, and dropped back and behind as they neared the next one. She strained her ears, listening for any approaching sounds but all she heard was the soft tread of Saahren and Roland close behind her. After a hundred meters or so the corridor opened into a wider space, better lit, with corridors leading away at right angles on both sides. She walked toward the door of the control room, directly ahead.
"Hey," called a human voice. "What d’you think you’re doing?"
She whirled. Two human security guards strode toward them, weapons in hand, from the corridor to their right. They were puffing a little, as though they’d been running.
"I’m Allysha Marten. I was called in to check out something in the control room." She held out the authorization sheet. "Here’s my authority."
The middle-aged guard’s stomach bulged over his belt. He barely glanced at the sheet. "This is a forgery. You’ll have to come with us."
Allysha’s heart lurched. Even as part of her wondered how they knew she brazened it out. "Forgery? Don’t be absurd. How could that be possible?"
"Don’t bother. Cheshnor said you were here and your husband said you couldn’t be. We checked the authorization—it doesn’t exist." He gestured with his pistol. "Come on, all of you. Up that way."
Buckrats. They’d spoken to Sean. He must have returned to the foyer via another corridor. Before Allysha had time to open her mouth, Saahren thrust the heel of one hand upwards in a sharp jab to the guard’s jaw while his other fist crashed into the man’s stomach. Grunting, he leaned forward, the wind knocked out of him. His weapon clattered to the floor. Saahren followed through with an uppercut. The guard slammed backwards and lay still. Roland grabbed the second man but he was younger, fitter and stronger. He escaped without his weapon, pelting away up the corridor with Saahren in pursuit.
Saahren was back in moments. "He’s called for help. We’ll hold them off. Just hurry, Allysha."
Adrenalin singing in her blood, Allysha opened the control room door and stepped inside. She’d been here before, several times but never to work with the climate conditioning systems. The control room was large, clean and neat, obviously well maintained but crowded, divided into different areas to serve different purposes, each partitioned off. Electricals were over to the left, each circuit neatly labeled. Sewage was on the other side, separated from water supply. That was where she’d expect the climate conditioning system pipes to be.
"What are you doing here?"
She spun around. A Ptorix stood beside her, wiping his top tentacles on a towel. He must have been here already, somewhere else in the room. His fur was deep blue, his tunic dark green over a white undershirt and his eyes glowed indigo. The fingers on one lower hand whipped; the other held a canister, bright with new metal.
"I have to remove this." She spoke in Ptorix, and pointed at the canister.
The Ptorix’s eyes faded to a lighter shade. "I’ve heard of you. You’re Professor Marten’s daughter."
"That’s right. Who are you?"
He puffed himself up. "I am the senior maintenance engineer, Heendrax."
"Greetings, Heendrax." Allysha ducked her body a little, arms stiff at her sides, palms forward, fingers undulating. If this Tor was an engineer, she was a grand admiral. Never mind, it wouldn’t hurt to stroke his ego. "There is a fault with that canister. It must be replaced."
"There is no fault. It stays." Heendrax’s eyes swirled purple. He was adamant, not even listening. What had they told him? Certainly not the truth.
"Do you know what’s in it?"
Heendrax jerked and his fingers whipped in frenzied irritation. "Of course."
"What do you think is in it?"
"Disinfectant. As it says."
The body language was wrong. He was lying, she was sure of it. "It contains a virus. A virus that will kill Ptorix."
"Rubbish." His fingers thrashed.
So he knew it wasn’t disinfectant. "This virus kills Ptorix. It destroyed everyone on a planet called Tisyphor." She leaned toward him, calling on every remembered gesture to convince him.
"Nonsense. That’s what the idiot human—" As soon as he’d said the words, the fingers of his lower hands rubbed his speaking mouth and Allysha recognized regret. He’d made a mistake, said too much.
"He told you a lie. Have you heard of Tisyphor? The Khophirate used to mine there for jewels. They said the planet was abandoned but it wasn’t. They all died; all the Ptorix died from a virus." She jabbed a finger at the canister, her eyes fixed on his speaking mouth. "The virus in that container."
Heendrax dropped his towel, put down the canister and started to glide toward her. His eyes were losing the violent purple, fading to blue or even green and his fingers were relaxing, too. Maybe now he’d listen.
"Heendrax, please. You must believe me. If this thing gets out, it’ll kill every Ptorix in Shernish, all of Carnessa. Please."
"It won’t work." Heendrax was quite calm. "It’s unfortunate that you are here but it’s your own fault. It’s time Carnessa returned to the Khophirate."
Allysha frowned. What was he saying? She backed away, toward the partition.
"They told the human a story so he’d bring the canister. But I know the truth."
"Do you? What’s that?"
He laughed, a high-pitched clatter like wind in reeds. "So you don’t know."
Allysha’s brain whirled. What would he think? What would he believe? What would they tell him? Who were they? He said it was time Carnessa returned to the Khophirate… he was clearly anti-human… "You think this virus will kill humans, is that what they told you?"
He lunged toward her. Allysha jerked back. But Heendrax was a Ptorix. He extended one lower arm and shot out the tentacles. They wrapped with horrible strength around her arm and dragged her forward. She kicked out, flailed, struggled to free herself. Heendrax’s free lower arm gripped her other arm. He came closer to her, reeling her in like a hooked fish.
"Please, you must believe me. What they’ve told you isn’t true."
Heendrax wrapped the tentacles of his upper arms around her neck. "I’m sorry, young human. But you can take solace in knowing that many, many of your kind will soon be joining you in whatever pass
es for the caves of the Mother in your society."
His tentacles, soft and strong as carbon fiber, tightened as he spoke, slowly and inexorably.
Allysha gasped for air. Her body convulsed in a last desperate attempt to escape from Heendrax’s grip.
"Yes, the noisy young louts will ingest more than their dinner this evening."
Colored dots danced before her desperate eyes. "Please…"
The last thing she saw was Heendrax’s eyes, calm and red.
33
Allysha stirred and pushed her damp hair back. Her throat hurt but the dots in front of her eyes had gone away. Her hand fell down to cold, hard stone. A smell assailed her nostrils; nasty, vaguely familiar.
"Take it easy."
Allysha fluttered her eyes open. Saahren knelt beside her. The worried frown on his face faded. "Are you okay?"
Her hand went to her throat. She swallowed a couple of times; it hurt, but everything worked. She nodded and he helped her sit up.
Heendrax’s body lay on the floor a meter away, his conical shape flattened, the ever-restless fingers still. A bloodied knife lay next to him. That smell; it was the same one she’d picked up in the control room on Brjyl, only stronger. Her stomach flipped. "Is he dead?"
Saahren nodded. "We had no choice. He wouldn’t let go of you. We tried to stun him, but we didn’t use enough power. He had a knife and managed to slice Roland, would’ve killed him if I hadn’t shot him."
Shot him dead. Bile rose in her throat but she forced it down. Sometimes adventure wasn’t fun, wasn’t a holovid drama. Roland sat on the floor, pale and tense, his arm bandaged in a strip of what Allysha recognized as Saahren’s white shirt.
"We need to get out of here," Saahren said. "Can you walk?"
"I have to, don’t I?"
He held out a hand and she let him draw her to her feet. Her legs supported her weight.
"Saahren." Roland jerked his head at the door.
Running footsteps approached, voices muttered. A fist thudded. A human voice shouted "Open up. You in there, open up."
"I can’t see us talking our way out of this," said Saahren with a glance at Heendrax’s body. "Is there another way out of here?"
"Yes." She pulled out the techpack and checked the tunnels under the control room. A muffled thump and the rasp of metal on metal from the corridor punctuated her efforts.
Saahren blasted the door control. The sounds outside stopped.
"Come on." Allysha picked up the canister. "There’s an emergency exit."
"Is that canister safe?" Saahren said.
She checked the seals, nodded and slipped the container into her coat pocket. "It’s pressurized. Nothing will have leaked."
The racket outside the door resumed and grew louder. Allysha knelt on the floor at the back of the control room and pressed on two flower-shaped depressions in the stone about a meter apart. The limestone slab between them dropped and split, sliding under the stone on each side, exposing a ramp that plunged down into darkness. Allysha led the way, Roland behind her and Saahren last.
"It’s dark." Roland’s voice sounded strained.
"Hang in there," she said. "Press the knob on the left, Saahren. It’ll close the entrance. They’ll realize we’ve gone down here, but I know a few tricks."
She walked on as slowly as she dared. The two men wouldn’t be able to see much at all. The tunnel went left, narrow but level, its wall rough-cut stone. Roland stumbled and swore. The air smelled stale and dusty and a sudden scurry ahead revealed the presence of unknown creatures. This old tunnel led to the grounds outside the fortress. It hadn’t been used for a long time, but she’d been here, all those years ago, playing down here while her father lectured in the halls above. If she remembered correctly they would pass places where they could get to the sea caves. Most people didn’t know about those narrow passageways, short cuts from one tunnel system to another, ancient and unused.
Sounds of pursuit echoed. Hoping they were further away than they sounded, she searched the walls. The opener was hidden in a crevice, low down where a kid or a Ptorix would see it, if they were looking. It had to be here somewhere, not far away.
Footsteps echoed behind them.
There. Level with her waist. She stopped and slid her fingers into the crack. For a moment nothing happened. And then the crack widened, grating stone on stone.
"Hurry, Allysha," Saahren said.
"It’s going as fast as it can."
Saahren fired a shot up the corridor. The hiss-zip echoed, bouncing off the walls. The footsteps stopped.
"You two go first. I’ll follow." She rubbed her elbows. They ached from where she’d fallen.
Saahren and Roland both had to stoop, feeling their way under the arch. The footsteps started again, approaching from where they’d come but tentative.
The men were gone. Pulse pounding, she slipped in behind them and closed the door. It ground closed in slow motion.
"Let me past," she said to Saahren. In this monochrome world his face was a white mask, his eyes concerned.
"I can’t see a thing," he whispered.
"It’s okay. I can. And I know this place." She edged past him and then Roland. Pain had etched lines on the journalist’s face. A dark stain had appeared on the makeshift bandage.
"Are you all right?"
Roland nodded. Allysha didn’t believe him. "Hang onto my belt. Saahren, you hang on to Roland’s. It won’t be long."
She kept the pace slow. She’d said she knew this place but she’d been little more than a child when she was last here. The others shuffled along behind her, the sounds of their feet loud in the tunnel. The journey was worse for them. They wouldn’t be able to see at all. Even for her, there was very little light. Unlike the main passages, this branch was wet with slime, uneven and damp. The cold seeped through Allysha’s wet clothes. More than once, one of the two men slipped on the wet rock. Roland stifled a moan as his injured arm banged against the wall.
At last the tunnel ended in a slime-covered rock face. Allysha groped to find the opener, recessed in a crack filthy with mold that stuck under her fingernails. The door slid open smoothly enough, to a larger space.
The darkness was lighter, at least for Allysha. Saahren and Roland would be as blind as before but they would sense the extra space, the change in the air currents.
"Stay here. I’ll find a light."
If she remembered correctly a motion sensor was placed next to the door, ten meters away. The light came on when she’d barely taken three steps.
Light pierced her eyes. She frowned and blinked as Roland sighed with relief. They were in a natural cave, its stone floor dry and dusty, evened out here and there but not decorated. The ceiling disappeared into the darkness above the light. Dust-covered wooden storage bins and wine racks lined the walls. Nobody had come in here for a long time.
"This is the secondary wine cellar," she explained to Roland and Saahren as they straightened cramped muscles.
The stain on Roland’s bandage had spread. Despite the cold, perspiration had gathered on his upper lip and his face was pale and drawn. Allysha’s eyes met Saahren’s. He was as concerned as she was.
"There’s a spring over here."
A trickle of water tinkled out of the rock into a small pool. An ornately decorated cup, incongruous in this natural setting, stood on the pool’s rim. Saahren filled the vessel and gave it to Roland, who sat on the raised edge and drank gratefully.
She took her techpack out and searched for a data point to work with. A short scan and the device locked on to a port in a room a few meters away through the solid rock. She probed into the security system and her heart sank. "They’ve found out about the lander. They’re looking for it."
"Can you get to Tyne, Roland?" Saahren asked.
Roland nodded and pulled out his comlink. "Keep your sensors on sweep, Tyne. They’re gunning for you. Head for the sky if they get close. But be careful of that Ptorix frigate. We’ll be in touch."
"Understood."
Saahren tried to put an arm around her but she flinched away from him. "How’s your throat?" he said.
Allysha hadn’t really thought about it. "Okay. It hurts to swallow—but at least I still can."
"Where to now?" he said.
"We can follow the tunnels out to the sea cliffs. Tyne can winch us up."
Roland’s face paled even more. "The cliffs? Above the ocean?"
"I didn’t say it would be easy. But it’s a better chance than trying to go up through the university grounds."
"How far?" Saahren said.
"From here, maybe five hundred meters." Hardly the triumphant return to Carnessa that she’d imagined. She hoped her childhood recollections would be enough to get them out.
Saahren helped Roland to his feet. She led them to the far side of the cavern where the light didn’t reach and skirted a massive stalagmite. "It looks like a shadow, but it’s a gap. It’ll be tight, but it widens."
Saahren looked at her and the gap. "I hope so."
He went first, squeezing his tall frame in sideways, scraping between the rocks.
"Come on, Roland." He held out his hand. "If I can, you can."
Roland tried his best to swallow the groan as his arm was crushed against the wall. Allysha felt for him and wished there was some other way. She followed herself, her slight body hardly hampered, although she’d slipped through more easily when she was thirteen.
High, but narrow and smooth, the tunnel was little more than a cleft in the rock where running water had carved a path. A breath of air brushed her face, redolent with the ocean tang of salt and ozone. And just at the limit of hearing, the dull boom of waves pounding the cliffs. Grey light gleamed in the distance.
The mouth at the end of the tunnel opened onto a ledge high above the sea. Allysha peered out, her hair whipped by the wind, and ducked back inside.
"Where’s Tyne?" she asked Roland.
He took out his comlink and called the lander. "He set down on the cliffs a bit further up, out of sight. He says there are people where we were before, waiting."