Then there was the weight. We were unprotected save by our suits, which, carry our weight as they did, could not prevent every cell from feeling the pull of nearly double their natural load. The suits would massage our muscles and bodies just like an old G-suit trying to keep the blood from pooling in our lower limbs. It would work, for a while.
I felt disoriented, disassociated – as if I was locked in a childhood dream.
“Are you all right Wrik?” Maauro’s mental voice sounded in my head. It was like a breath of fresh air. Suddenly I wasn’t in a madhouse populated with monsters. I focused on her only a few feet away. She was facing partly away from me but I knew that was for appearance. “I am concerned about your vital signs,” she continued.
I consciously slowed my breathing. “I’m ok,” I sent. “Just felt overwhelmed for a second.”
“I am with you,” she offered.
I wish she were facing me so she could see me smile. “Glad you are here. Stay close.”
McCaffer had passed us and hadn’t noticed my stopping. “Sorry, I forget how this affects folks the first time. No matter how many new worlds most people have seen this is usually the strangest. It will get more bizarre from here. Let’s move. The sooner we do this the sooner we are out of this hell.”
“Agreed,” I said, my mouth dry, wondering why I had ever thought this a good idea.
McCaffer gestured. “There’s our ride.”
Ahead, next to a blinking pole, sat an open aircar. The vehicle was roofless and looked like a ground-effect cushion with a raised deck surrounded by a railing that reminded me of nothing so much as the frosting on a cake. Vertical poles and benches were provided for the passengers.
“Touch as little as you can on this side of the airlock,” McCaffer said. “By Ribisan standard our suits are the equivalent of live flame. An unsuited Ribisan won’t come anywhere near the brightness and heat as they perceive it. This car is for diplomatic and commercial use and is made with neutral materials safe for us.” With a sigh, he sat on one of the benches, near an ornate panel of blinking lights that reminded me of a holiday tree. I sat further back. Maauro simply stood, holding on to a pole.
“Don’t overdue the resilience of youth,” I sent to her. “Later, at least try to look tired.”
“Ribisan Central Military HQ,” McCaffer said to the panel.
“Acknowledged,” came a soft and surprisingly feminine voice. “Commandant Rallicallie is expecting your visit.”
The frosting aircar lifted smoothly and slid silently on. Ribisans and their vehicles seemed to recognize the vehicle and give it a wide berth. I watched the life of the city as we slid through it; the disassociated feeling hovered at the edge of my mind. I saw much and comprehended little. Some of what I saw looked ordinary as a terrestrial street, other things refused to resolve into any pattern, merely being shapes and lights.
To my surprise I saw Ribisans floating out of buildings, rather than taking stairs, elevators or long poles. In the great pressure of the atmosphere and despite the gravity, they seemed able to float downward by spreading their limbs, revealing webbing between.
Gradually as my eyes became more accustomed, things began to make more sense. I recognized office towers and shopping complexes. If I didn’t look too hard they could almost be normal. Maybe the beings flocking around, drifting up and down in the buildings, were just people, going to and from work, visiting friends. In some sense weren’t people all the same and yet couldn’t a man and woman of the same species be the ultimate strangers? I shook off the beginnings of another fugue…concentrating on the here and now.
About ten minutes later a tower, with a grim and guarded military look to it, bulked in front of us. The frosted aircar wound its way toward it. A guard post stood in the outer wall. Ribisans in armor and what looked like uniforms with sidearms examined the car and passed us through. When we slid to a halt, a solitary soldier stood waiting for us. As we exited the car, it spoke in a modulated artificial voice, “Greetings. You are expected. Commandant Rallicallie awaits you in his office.” With that he turned and we perforce followed. We passed through rooms of comscreens and past Ribisan military personnel. Everyone drew back from our armored suits save for our guide. We passed through some sort of scanner before reaching an elevator bank. I held my breath as Maauro went through, but either it did not penetrate her suit or she had hacked it.
We walked onto a wall-less elevator and it rose through the multiple levels of the tower. The increased gravity from the elevators rise added to our misery briefly. Inside, it was even darker then the streets and I longed for the yellow clearness of my headlamps, but had to be content with the suit’s displays.
“We’ll be met in a conference room equipped to deal with both our kinds,” McCaffer huffed. “Again, touch nothing you don’t have to.” The elevator slid to a stop and we followed our silent guide down a tall hallway. The conference room he led us to was brightly lit by Ribisan standards. Our escort walked in and stood against a far wall, gesturing at some square cubes set in the floor. We settled on them with relief. This time Maauro joined us.
A door whooshed open, admitting a large Ribisan, with clothing more ornate than any other I had seen; lights and metal twinkled on it.
“I am Commandant Rallicallie,” the newcomer said.
“Greetings, Commandant,” McCaffer said. “It was kind of you to see us on such short notice.”
“The notice was short,” Rallicallie agreed. “However the matter of an assault on a Confederate officer is a serious matter, deserving of our attention.”
“Yes,” he said, “the officer is with me here, Lt. Jedaya Fels of the Confederate vessel, Pisces.
Evidently Maauro was not going to rate an introduction or notice, which suited us fine. I stood and offered a regulation salute. The Ribisan evidently recognized the gesture and replied with something roughly similar.
“On behalf of the Confederate Navy, Military District 2030, Department 30, greeting from CSS Pisces,” I said formally. “Our vessel has already off-loaded all diplomatic dispatches but we would be happy to transport any messages to Confed authorities that you, or your civilian government, wish to entrust to us.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant, there are no matters currently that we need to entrust to you, but when you file your departure papers we will check again with the Pillar’s office to make sure nothing has recently arisen.”
“I would meanwhile like to turn to the other matters that have brought me to you. I assume Mr. McCaffer forwarded a précis of my orders?”
“Yes, we received them from your civilian authorities shortly after you landed.”
“I have been conducting a series of investigations in the 02 section of Tir-a-Mar. A number of Confed civilian personnel who were stationed at Tir-a-Mar seem to have left, but not returned to the Confederacy. As these people possessed military-level biogenetic skills, Confed is concerned about their whereabouts.”
“Those territories are under the jurisdiction of Mr. Mysol’s administration. Why would that lead you into our territory?” The Ribisan did not shift. Other than electronic voice that sounded in my ears, it might have been a mere piece of bizarre statuary. It simply stood on the other side of what seemed a desk. The grape like cluster that was its head at least gave me something to rest my eyes on it, but it was not a face. There were no eyes to read anything in.
Play dumb if you like, I thought. “Shortly after I arrived an elevator I and others were on was sabotaged.”
“Yes. Just before you arrived my investigative personnel sent me a preliminary report on the matter. I suffer distress in telling you that our efforts have led to little. It appears that the small firm that did the work on that elevator was a front. The facility has closed and the personnel have dispersed, as yet we have not succeeded in locating or identifying any of them.”
“That is most unfortunate,” I
replied. “And rather surprising. You seem to have a large and efficient military organization here. How is it that people can disappear in even so large a city as this?”
“Lieutenant Fels, Tir-a-Mar is not a closed environment as is the 02 section, we are a very different form of life from your own. The city itself is large, 85% of it is in our hydrogen section, but beyond that many of our people live off of the city. There are many small installations or floating islands. We are not as vulnerable in our environments as you are in yours. It is not unusual for our people to live alone and in what you would consider wilderness. We derive much of our nourishment directly from the atmosphere and we are solitary beings in ways I do not think you could appreciate.
“Meaning,” McCaffer added, “that it would be easy for the people who worked on the elevator to simply slip out of Tir-a-Ma—”
“—Almost literally with the wind,” Rallicallie finished with an unexpectedly poetic turn of phrase.
“What then do you make of all this?” I asked, largely for lack of anything better. My channel to Maauro remained quiet. Either she was happy with my approach or simply had no better idea.
“You have criminals among the oxygen-breathers, the most efficient of which have created their own shadow empire.”
“The Guild,” I nodded, and then realized the gesture might mean nothing to Rallicallie.
“Just so. We are no more immune to criminality than any other species and the equivalent exists among us. As like clings to like, these organizations have reached tentacles to each other and cooperate now. We believe that this operation is one such.
“Do you have enemies, Lieutenant? Enemies among the Guild, or who would have the resources to employ them?”
“The Guild are more the traditional enemies of the System Patrol than the Navy,” I said, “although we destroy their raiders, along with any other pirates we encounter. However, I’m not important enough to rate any enmity by Guild or anyone who would use them.”
“Nonetheless,” the Commandant insisted, “it seems that reasons for this attack most likely arose out of the O2 section of Tir-a-Mar, where even now Captain Croyzer is pursuing the Guild most diligently. The attack took place in the 02 section, where all the possible targets were beings like you. While the mechanism of the attack came from here, you should seek the motivations on your own side of the airlock. What reason would any Ribisan have to become involved in this matter save for being paid?”
“I believe,” I said slowly, “that matters are more complicated than that. I believe the attack was directed at my mission of ascertaining what happened to the science personnel who were here and what it is they were working on in your joint venture with UDEXCO.”
“I understand that Mr. Mysol’s office has already advised you that these 02-breathers you seek left Tir-a-Mar over a year ago on matters of their own.”
Was it significant that he said Tir-a-Mar and not Cimer? I decided to press further. “It would be of use to know the details of the nature of the project that they were involved in.”
“I cannot divulge such information. It is classified far above the level of a junior officer.”
“I am the senior Confed officer on—”
“I know what you are and what you are not,” Rallicallie interrupted. “We are an associate member of the Confederacy but our military is not integrated with yours, though we recognize each other’s ranks as a courtesy; a courtesy which you are abusing by questioning an officer so senior to yourself.”
Impasse. Legally he was right and no reason or need to answer to me. My questioning could lead to a diplomatic incident. I wondered what Candace Deveraux would make of that.
“You are within your rights, Commandant,” I said. Then I opted for a shot in the dark. “But it won’t end here. We both know that something terribly dangerous is going on here. Something has set your people, or some faction of them, against the O2-breathers and perhaps your own authority. It began two years ago when a fantastic amount of money and influence was used to start some project that did something unprecedented, bring our type of beings into one of your worlds, and it hasn’t stopped despite the information I have been fed.”
The Ribisan shifted. Annoyance? Alarm? Who could tell with a being so different?
“If your suggestion of factional…issues on our side of the airlock is correct, it was most unwise of you to expose yourself to such elements by venturing into our city.”
“Threats, Commandant?”
McCaffer stirred next to me. “Certainly not! The Commandant—”
“Has no trouble with his voice,” I cut in. He subsided when I glared at him.
“As you point out, I am a junior officer with a small scoutship, but I am not wandering the dark alone. I am attached to Commodore Moko’s 34th independent flotilla operating in this sector of the frontier. I do not have to return to my home base for orders. I can rendezvous with the flotilla and return with the Commodore, who is senior enough to treat equally with you, if you prefer.”
“It would be ill-timed,” Rallicallie said, “for a flotilla to visit Cimer just now. We too have our naval exercises and one is underway now. It would be inconvenient, possibly hazardous, for so many warships to be in close orbit of Cimer.”
“Are you,” I pressed recklessly, “as the senior military member of a planetary constabulary of an associate member of the Confederacy, advising the Confederation Navy that a visit of state would be unwelcome?”
“Not unwelcome, merely inconsiderate of our own arrangements.”
“My crew did not report any Ribisan naval contacts,” I said. Other than the ones that blew Maauro’s capsule out of the air, I thought.
“Nor would you. My people have fought from inside of gas giant worlds for well over a thousand years. Rely on it that there are significant elements of the Ribisan navy as well as other planetary assets present. No matter, it is our desire to cooperate with Confed, even if their demands seem both excessive and undiplomatic. You seek information from us that you should have sought from UDEXCO. To the extent that they are unable or unwilling to enlighten you I can do no further. If you wish, I will post a memo to our Pillar that you are dissatisfied with this and lodge a protest. He will take it up with your diplomatic authorities through the proper channels. I regret that in that matter I can help you no further.
“Meanwhile we have not abandoned our attempts to hunt down the saboteurs who endangered you. I hope you will accept my assurance as the base commandant I consider that a serious matter to be pursued rigorously lest it damage our good relations with Confed.
“Please also accept that my concern for your continued safety is also genuine. As Ribisans have been undeniably involved, I wish you safely back in your own section as soon as possible and will make every effort to assure your safety within the areas of my authority.”
“Wrik,” Maauro finally sent. “I judge it prudent to end the interview. My belief is that the Commandant, while no friend, believes it is in his government’s, or his faction’s, interests, that you remain alive and that there be no incident that he can be blamed for. Let us diplomatically withdraw. We still have a call to pay on the Pillar.”
“I hear your words, Commandant,” I said, “and I am grateful for them. It does seem that my investigations on this side of the airlock will either be fruitless or better left in your hands.”
There was no recognizable sign of relief save perhaps in the quickness of the response. “Wisely spoken. I shall see to all matters personally.”
“Excellent. Confed thanks you.”
“Do you still wish to see the Pillar?” Rallicallie asked.
“Yes, perhaps particularly now it seems important that all the necessary courtesies be observed, given that there has been strain, necessary but regretted, in dealing with some matters. He is the planetary head of state and it could be interpreted that I have been remiss i
n my duties by not appearing there earlier.”
“If you believe you must, then clearly you will. You are a most determined young being.” There was clear lack of enthusiasm coming across. “I will assign my adjutant and a detail to escort you to the Pillar and then back to the 02 section. I can only imagine the anticipation with which you look forward to the vastly lower gravity of your own section.”
Low blow, I thought to myself as I carefully rose. The Ribisan and I exchanged salutes and this time I was conscious of the drag of gravity on my arm despite the servos. McCaffer exchanged a few goodbyes with the Commandant then the adjutant led us from the room. Outside two armed and armored Ribisans fell in with us, our escort. The adjutant took us to our frosted aircar and to my surprise joined us as well. He took the controls while the other guards moved as far to the back of the spacious air car. Their armor protected them from accidental contact with us, but it seemed they wanted as much room as they could get.
We rolled toward an ornate tower of green metal and glass, which lacked the grimness of the naval tower. We passed many more transports colorfully festooned with streamers and lights much as their occupants were. Our party seemed drabber by the minute. When we pulled to a stop this time, one guard secured our vehicle and the adjutant and the other led us in. McCaffer and I breathed heavily despite the servos in our suits. Gravity is a harsh mistress.
“This is the office of the Pillar,” the Adjutant said. “Your visit will be a short one and if you would be guided by my advice; show more respect and caution here then you did with our Commandant, who was remarkably restrained in his dealings with you.”
“Understood,” I replied.
Mobs of Ribisans in the brighter colors, streamers and fashions of Civvy Street, noted our arrival mostly by fading away. Again we passed through security, a process expedited by our escort, no scanners this time. At the foot of a powered circular ramp, we were met by four guards wearing uniforms of far lighter color, than our guards.
Against That Time Page 17