Still nothing — worse, as though she was sleepwalking, like a person in a drugged haze. Was there any way to damage an Ancient ship so that it couldn’t connect? If he couldn’t get through — He shoved that thought aside, and tried again. Wake up! There’s a fire coming! Let us get you out of here —
The forward screens showed a rain of ash and embers, though the damp grass was still slower to catch. Off to starboard, outside the area they had been able to wet down, a stand of grass was already burning strongly, sending up a thick column of smoke. There was nothing but fire astern, crawling ever closer.
The air in the control room smelled of smoke or maybe it was just the ash still clinging to his jacket. He swallowed hard, grit between his teeth. Avenger. Let me get you out of here. Wake up, baby, let me in —
And there it was, at last, the sudden presence. John caught his breath, steering it so that it flowed smoothly from his console out through the other systems, screens flickering with data, controls easing out of rigid locks.
Engines?
Ready. A jubilant voice, though whether it was was the ship or Orsolya he neither knew nor cared.
Let’s go.
He felt the engines fire, the inertial fields establish themselves, an instant transformation from a collection of parts to a near-living whole. Vectors opened before him, an embarrassment of choices; he brushed away all but the most direct route to orbit. There, he said, thought, and the ship answered, rising gracefully away from the fires and the smoke, shedding gravity as though she had no mass at all. In the main screen, the fire dwindled behind them until it was a red thread against the night, and then was gone altogether. They were leaving the stratosphere, rising up over the curve of the planet, and there were the jumpers ahead of them. John settled the ship into orbit with them, balancing the ship’s mass against the planet’s pull, and the speakers crackled.
“Pride of the Genii.” It was Teyla’s voice. “We are glad to see you made it.”
“We’re good,” John said, and looked over his shoulder to grin at Fredek. “We’re just fine now.”
~#~
Ladon Radim kept his expression still with an effort, facing Colonel Carter through the medium of the view screen, and he was pleased that his voice remained steady. “We’re delighted to hear that your first reports have been confirmed.”
“We’ve been in further contact through our jumper crews,” Carter said, “and we can report that the Pride of the Genii is now in orbit around Baidu. I believe they plan to complete some further repairs, but should be ready to return to you very soon. Unfortunately, I have some bad news as well. Your captain asked Colonel Sheppard to pass on word of four deaths, all due to the illness caused by the compound released into the Pride’s water.”
Ladon heard Ambrus whisper a curse. It had never been likely that they would get away without deaths, but even so, the flat statement was like a blow to the heart. “I am very sorry indeed to hear that. Do you have the names?”
Carter looked down at something out of range of the camera. “Yes. Senior Technician Ennen Aldos, Technician Kitze Udulo, Pilot Egal Hen, and Gunner Heter Biales.”
Ladon glanced over his shoulder to be sure that Ambrus had written them down, and Ambrus gave him a reassuring nod. He wondered if they had family among the people waiting in the Plaza — surely not, please not, the pregnant girl, waiting there with her own father because she was too young even by Genii reckoning to come to the capital alone. And ironically also not the girl who had egged her financé into attacking him; her father’s name was not among the dead. “Thank you. We’ll inform the families. Do you have any word of when we might expect direct communication with the Pride?”
“I don’t,” Carter said. “I believe they’re working on repairs to the communications system as well.”
And how would the communications system be damaged by a virus? Ladon swallowed that question. He knew what had happened, if he permitted himself to acknowledge it: there had to have been sabotage abroad the Pride, along with the Teosian attack, and that meant he needed to set his own investigation into motion. “Colonel Carter, we appreciate your help in finding our missing ship. If you receive any further information, I hope you’ll let us know immediately.”
“Of course.” The corners of Carter’s mouth twitched, as though she had sensed the thing he hadn’t said. But he was not going to acknowledge a debt between them, not just now, and he went on smoothly.
“And of course we will be waiting eagerly to hear from the Pride ourselves.”
“Of course,” Carter said again. “I pleased to have brought you mostly good news, Chief. Atlantis out.”
And that was a neat rebuke for his failure to admit to the debt. Ladon leaned back in his chair, looked at the technicians who has managed the conversation. “We’ll be making an official announcement very shortly. Until then, none of this is to be mentioned.”
“No, Chief,” the senior technician said, and the juniors echoed him.
Ladon nodded, not quite believing them, and pushed himself to his feet. “Ambrus.”
“Chief.”
The aide fell into step beside him, but Ladon waited until the door had closed behind them to speak again. “See that those technicians don’t go anywhere or contact anyone for the next hour. Then — who of the council is immediately available?”
“General Karsci,” Ambrus answered promptly. “Balas. Vendel. Dolos and Tivador are available, but not immediately.”
“Karsci and Vendel,” Ladon said. “And Elek and Dahlia. I want them in the main conference room as soon as possible.”
“I’ll see to it, Chief.” Ambrus turned away.
It took nearly a quarter of that hour for the council members to arrive, and it took most of Ladon’s willpower not to send for the latecomers a second time. But finally they had assembled, and Ladon looked around the table hoping he’d guessed right. He could count on Dahlia and Elek, of course, and Vendel had been reliable in the past. Karsci had been an ally from before Cowen’s fall: Ladon could only hope that the general was satisfied with his promotions, and hadn’t begun making moves to step up in rank.
“Gentlemen,” he said, and felt their attention snap to him. Of course they had to be just as uneasy about this meeting as he was, and he gave them what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “I have some good news. The Pride has been located.”
There was a brief outcry, words of relief and congratulations, and Dahlia said, “Where?”
“A world called Baidu. It has an orbital Stargate. The Lantean jumpers located it there.”
“Ah.” She leaned back in her chair, visibly running through her mental catalogue of systems.
“Do we know what went wrong, Chief?” Elek asked.
“There seem to have been two separate events,” Ladon said. “At least, as far as we have been able to determine, they’re separate. First, while the Pride was on Teos, a compound was introduced into the ship’s water supply. It responded to our gene therapy and disabled both the enhanced and the artificial ATA genes, causing fever and gastrointestinal distress in the process. Four of the crew died as a result, and the Pride was left with only three crew members possessing a functioning ATA gene. At the same time, the ship’s communications systems — and possibly other systems — were damaged by someone or several someones in the crew. That’s why we’ve had no contact from the Pride since she left Teos.”
“That fits,” Dahlia said. “If the communications system was sabotaged, that would explain why we had only the last fragmentary transmission — it’s possible that the saboteur didn’t realize that the automated system was operating, and had to shut it down after they damaged the main systems.”
“Four dead,” Vendel said. “That’s not quite a fifth of the crew. Do we have names? Have they been released?”
“We have names,” Ladon answered, and nodded to Ambrus, who slid a sheet of paper down the length of the table. “I’m holding off on the release of any of this news because I wan
t to get a jump on the saboteurs first.”
There was another murmur, more ambiguous this time, and Ladon saw Elek and Ambrus exchange glances.
“Two different sets of saboteurs?” Karsci raised his eyebrows. “Ladon, that’s stretching things. Why not just one?”
“The Lanteans received word on Teos that the Teosians were responsible for the poison,” Ladon said.
“Do we believe them?” Karsci’s eyebrows arched even higher.
“They have no reason to lie,” Dahlia pointed out.
“They may not,” Karsci said, “but our saboteur might — why not poison our relationship with a powerful ally?”
“It seems like overkill,” Dahlia said, and Vendel nodded.
“That would mean that this saboteur not only poisoned the crew but sabotaged the ship’s systems,” Ladon said. “Two very different processes, each of which alone could have been entirely effective. It’s certainly possible, but at the moment it seems unlikely. However, that’s one of the things I want investigated — and I want the investigation to start before any of this is common knowledge.”
“I’ll put my people on it right away,” Elek said.
“Will you want the civil police involved as well?” Vendel asked, and Ladon nodded.
“Please. But, both of you — go easy for now. We don’t yet know who’s involved, and who is just terribly afraid for their families.”
Karsci snorted. “And if I believed that — where’s General Balas?”
“Not here, and for exactly the reason you think.” Ladon matched his smile tooth for tooth. “I am counting on you to secure the capital, and to be ready to secure Balas if it does turn out that he’s involved.”
“You can count on me, Chief,” Karsci said. He pushed himself to his feet, and the rest of the council copied him.
Ladon reached out to clasp his hand — and if you fail me, I’ll kill you — and then joined hands with the others in turn. “I’ll be speaking to the families in the Plaza, and then making the announcement generally.”
“Very good, Chief,” Vendel said, and the council filed out, Dahlia at the rear as usual. She paused at the door, and Ladon nodded for Ambrus to let the door close between her and the others.
“Well? I can’t keep this secret much longer.”
“No, of course not.” Dahlia paused. “It’s just… The more I think about it, the more I think I may have been wrong to say that there couldn’t be a single saboteur. The Teosians — as far as I know, they’re not nearly as advanced as we are in the biology of genetics. It would surprise me if they were able to create a compound that disabled our ATA enhancements so completely.”
“But one of us could,” Ladon said.
She nodded. “You would not have to work hard to figure it out, either. We have shared our genetic work fairly widely. Let me look into that, please.”
“You’ll be better at it than security personnel,” Ladon answered frankly. “Keep me informed.”
“Absolutely,” she said, and slipped from the room.
~#~
This time, Ladon accepted the escort that Ambrus assembled, though he gestured for them to stay back as he approached the group still waiting across from the Government House stairs. He could see that they had pulled more tightly together, were still talking in voices that rose above a hushed mutter: some hint of the news must have spread, as it always did, and he closed his hand more tightly over the card that held the names of the dead.
“Everyone.” He pitched his voice to reach the back of the group but not much further, pulling them in closer. “I have news. The Pride has been found.”
As he had expected, there were shouts in response, cheers alternating with the cries of people who had already guessed what he had not yet said, and he lifted his hands to forestall them.
“Unfortunately, there have been four deaths. I am sorry to bring this to you so abruptly, but I don’t want anyone lingering in uncertainty if I can help it.” He took a breath, recited the names with only a single glance at the card: they were locked in his memory now, along with the men he’d lost under Cowen. “Senior Technician Ennen Aldos, Technician Kitze Udulo, Pilot Egal Hen, and Gunner Heter Biales.”
A woman cried out, stifled her sobs as another woman embraced her, patting her back with a look of guilty relief. The pregnant woman drew a great breath, and wept, too, but she was smiling through it. Only the oldest woman sat stoic, watching him as though she sat in judgment, and he spoke to her as much as to the others.
“I am profoundly sorry that there have been any deaths at all, on what was supposed to be a celebratory journey. I can only assure you that we are already investigating how it happened, and promise that any guilty parties will be punished.”
“How —?” That was the sobbing woman, gulping back her tears. “How did he — they — how did they die?”
Ladon didn’t hesitate, though he wasn’t sure this was the ideal time for even part of the truth. “There was an illness aboard, which attacked people who had had the gene therapy. We believe that this was a deliberate infection, and are working now to confirm that and to punish the people responsible.” He paused. “I know that is no consolation, nor is it meant to be. But it is at least a promise that we will never allow this to happen again. The crew of the Pride were and are our best, our first step into a greater destiny for our people. The loss of any one of them is a tragedy for the state as well.” He let his gaze sweep over the group, wondering if that was any consolation at all, if anything he could say would ease the pain. They were silent now, except for the women weeping, one for sorrow, one for relief and joy. “We expect the Pride to begin her return journey shortly. In the meantime — in the meantime, come inside, sit, rest. You are welcome to food from the commissary, and anything my staff can provide you. Come.”
He waved them toward the steps, and braced himself to offer his arm to the woman who had lost — a husband? A son? He was ashamed not to know. “Ma’am.”
She sniffled, wiping her nose on the edge of her sleeve. It must have been a husband, surely, she was too young for it to have been a son — or a brother, of course, and he said, “I’m so very sorry for your loss.”
She attempted a watery smile, and he saw the Science Service badges at the neck of her jacket. “It was what he wanted — ever since the Lanteans came, he wanted to fly, and this — they gave him the gene, and he loved it. Loved the Pride. He’d been on her to fight Queen Death, of course, but that was before the therapy — and that was when I was sure I was going to lose him, not now. Not when everything was settled.”
“It isn’t fair,” Ladon said. “And I am sorry.” He eased her up the stairs, taking her weight when she missed the edge of a step and nearly stumbled.
“He wanted it so badly,” she said again. “I heard about the therapy, and told him so he could be in the first cohort of applicants.” She sniffed hard. “I don’t know whether I wish I hadn’t told him or not!”
“He had it for a while,” Ladon said. “I wish it had been longer.”
She sniffed again, but nodded. “So — you always want forever.”
“Yes.” Ladon saw one of Dahlia’s assistants coming toward him, hands outstretched.
“Nina! I’m so sorry —“
Ladon let her take the widow away, the echo of her grief a stone in his heart. She was right, no one should have died on a ceremonial trip, not after they had survived the battle with Queen Death. Someone would pay for this, in full measure.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
THE PRIDE OF THE GENII hung safely in orbit, the jumpers flying escort to either side, Baidu and its dangers left far below. Bartolan regarded the image in the screen, the darkened curve of the planet, the first hint of sunlight just peeping over the rim of the world. At this altitude, it was impossible to see the fire they had left behind — strange, given the terror it had evoked, that it had simply vanished, and he reached for his controls, then, grimacing, used the manual controls to direct the sensors
at the ground below. Yes, there it was after all, once he’d increased the magnification, a golden line like a burning thread writhing across the darkened ground. It looked nothing like the inferno they had fled, and he shook his head, dismissing the image.
“All right,” Sheppard said. “We’re locked in. She’ll hold this orbit until you tell her otherwise.”
Bartolan couldn’t help a smile at the affection in the Lantean’s voice. Hadn’t they all felt that, serving the Pride? A lovely ship, a willing ship… He put that thought aside. “Thank you, Colonel. We’re in your debt.”
“Glad to help.” To one side, where Sheppard must have thought no one could see, one hand ran along the edge of the console in a caress. “We couldn’t leave Avenger to the fire.”
Avenger? Yes, that had been the ship’s name, though Bartolan thought she was becoming more used to the Pride every day.
“What’s the next move, captain?”
“It’s time for us to go home,” Bartolan said. “And for that — I need a crew with the ATA gene.”
The officers assembled in the conference room, Sheppard and the Satedan crowding in with the rest. There was still no word from Atlantis about an antidote, they said, but their scientists were still working on it.
“I don’t know that an antidote is necessary,” Innyes said cautiously. “We have clean water, we’ve identified the compound, thanks to the Lanteans, and are screening for it. I should be able to reestablish the artificial gene in at least the most essential crew.”
Bartolan was startled by the relief that washed over him. It would be so good to be back in proper touch with the ship, able to read her moods instead of having to rely on the instruments. He said, “The last time you tried it, we were off the ship, and there were still relapses.”
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