“Why the change?”
“A promise I made to Wrik. I would rather not explain further.”
“And so we come back to Wrik again. It bothers me that you know him better in some ways than I do.”
“I do not know how to respond, Jaelle. I intended none of this. My relationship with Wrik is something…difficult for me to understand or explain. He was the first being to see me as a…
“Go ahead and say it, Maauro… as a living person.”
“I feared you might deny that I am alive. You did so once before.”
“Don’t ever fear that, Kit-sister. Even if I am mad at you, I know you are alive – a real person.”
“Are you angry with me?”
“I owe you my life, Kit-sister. I’d never have made it out of that Kandalorian jungle without you.”
“Evasion.”
“You save Wrik’s life too—”
“And endangered both your lives as much as I ever protected them. You continue to evade. Are you angry with me?”
“Yes. You. Wrik. The universe generally, and myself for being this way.”
We were silent for what seemed like a long while to me.
“Maauro.”
“Yes.”
“It’s good to have another female to talk to sometimes.”
“I am glad to fulfill that function…glad you see me that way.”
“Good night, Maauro.”
“Sleep well, Jaelle.”
“Watch over Wrik for me.”
“With my life if need be.” I feel her slip away from me into sleep, exhausted by so much use of the link. She will wake ravenous. I wonder if I could deepen the rapport and follow her into her dreams. But I fear to do harm both to her brain and our part of the network, which endures strains that do not occur anywhere else. I also suspect that there is no place for me in her dreams.
I continue to sit, staring out the window. I do not need rest as such, but find it a little discomforting that my brain is active at its highest setting, contemplating much of what was said and yet feeling the meaning of it has eluded me.
Chapter Sixteen
I passed from sleep to wakefulness so quickly it startled me. Usually I greeted the day with a growling indifference bordering on hostility. Today I sat up almost bemused at how refreshed and healthy I felt. The aches and pains of all the injuries and strains of the last few days seemed absent. I realized that under the covers I was naked, as I usually slept. Odd, I didn’t remember undressing. In fact, I didn’t remember anything other than standing up from a table with Maauro.
I turned to the right and there she was, watching me and seated on the floor as her weight could tax some of the chairs unless she locked her legs in position. She smiled and rose smoothly, if not gracefully. “Wrik, are you feeling better?”
“Yeah,” I said sheepishly. “Sorry about conking out on you. High-G is more fatiguing then I realized. God, what a few good hours’ sleep does for you.”
“It has actually been more than a few hours. I must apologize for not consulting you, but you were not in a condition for discussion. You have been asleep for more than thirty-six hours. It is the morning of the day after our venture to the Ribisan side.”
“What!” I said. “Out for a day and half?”
“Your physical condition concerned me. I have affected such repairs and restoration on you as I could. I judged that any effect it had on the mission was inconsequential, weighed against your health.”
I was torn a little between being touched over her concern, and annoyed that she had acted without consulting me, but there was little point in arguing with Maauro. If she felt she needed to act, she would. She was probably right anyway.
“What happened while I was out?”
“I will brief you while we eat,” Maauro walked out and returned with two trays putting one on the bed next to me and settling on the floor beside the bed.
The smell of food made me acutely aware of how long it had been since meals. Knowing Maauro, she’d injected me with vitamins and sugar solutions, but it did little to distract me for a large pile of eggs and sausage. Maauro kept me company for form’s sake, knowing that I did not like to eat alone and quite capable of enjoying food in her own fashion. A few minutes silence followed as I attacked breakfast. When I’d knocked the edge off my hunger and looked at her, she took up her report again.
“Jaelle is safe at her hotel. She has been in communication with the Guild about her cargo and has been exploring the area around her hotel to no great effect. I have asked her not to begin inquiries about the project or its personnel until some logical reason arises for her to express an interest. Meanwhile, she is finding out what she can about how the Guild functions here.
“I wish I could see her.”
“I know she wishes that too.”
“Are you in touch with her?” I asked
“Only periodically, I am finding the link with her to be both more informational, in that I perceive more through her than through you, or Dusko, but on her end it requires much more energy. She would have wiped up breakfast even faster than you are doing.”
“Is it dangerous to her?”
“Not so long as she keeps her calorie intake high and rests. I am rationing her contact with me to necessary exchanges and maintaining the lowest level active link I can.”
“Is it the same with Dusko?”
“No, but he professes to find the link disorienting and somewhat painful. There too I am keeping contacts minimal, though in his case I think it is more his resentment at having to share access to his mind. For a creature for whom dissembling is such a prime part of his psychological makeup, the inability to mislead and misdirect might actually cause pain.”
“Nice way of saying he finds it painful not to be able to lie.”
“Dusko handled the removal of cargo from the Stardust. He continues to passively scan for any sign of Ribisan or other traffic that may be suspicious, but he has seen nothing, not even other Guild vessels. I checked with the AI on Pisces, which has superior scanners and can use them actively. It has registered some energy traces comparable with spacecraft, or very large aviation platforms, periodically near Tir-a-Mar. These have faded.”
“Meaning?” I asked.
“The Ribisans have naval and space assets here; as the Commandant warned. They were near Tir-a-Mar but to avoid Pisces they have gone deeper or further away, relying on the thick, stormy atmosphere to conceal them. They are guarding something, but do not wish to be seen to do so.”
“Be nice to know what they are guarding and from who? This is too much firepower to deal with our two ships, even if they knew we were operating together.”
“Clearly,” Maauro said. “The aerospace fighters that attacked me are not based here, most likely they were carrier-based. Even a small carrier would hold about fifteen such and require escorts. That force is guarding something and it may be guarding it from other Ribisan interests. There was clear tension between the Pillar and the Commandant’s forces.”
“What was it that the Ribisan you killed said?”
Maauro opened her mouth. “The lost must be returned to the holy,” came out, but it was in the dead Ribisan’s own artificial voice. I had to fight a shudder at the sound of it.
“Hard to make anything out of that,” I said around a mouthful of eggs and after a sip of coffee. “There’s a religious connection there, which seems to imply the Pillar, but most Ribisans are notably religious, far more consistently than one finds among humans anyway.”
“I lack data, but there seems to be a relationship between space-services and secularism,” Maauro said. “One wonders if the military is on some different side than the religious leaders?”
“Who can say? Usually in a theocracy, the military serves the conservative religious order, but the Ribisan’s have so
mething like a parliamentary style of government.”
“That may not matter so much as you suppose,” Maauro said.
I finished the toast. “All we seem to have returned with from High-G is more suppositions and theories…and a sore back.”
“The latter is presently from lying down so long,” she said in mock reproof. “Go shower and then stretch out.”
“Ok. Pass me my robe would you?”
Maauro did so. “Your caution at displaying your naked form to me is both quaint and slightly amusing. Who do you think undressed you for bed?”
“More stuff on the list we do not tell Jaelle.”
“A list that continues to grow,” she replied.
I pondered that last as I slipped into my robe and headed to the shower. There was some uncomfortable truth to that. And had I detected an edge in her voice when she’d said it?
“What about McCaffer, Mysol and all the rest?” I called out to change the subject as I slipped into the shower.
“McCaffer took the last two days off, recovering from accompanying us. He filed reports with Mysol and Fenster of no significance to us. Captain Croyzer continues her pursuit of the Guild on our station. I will need to warn Jaelle of her investigations should they get any closer to the main Guild operations. Overall, when we are not stirring things up, nothing moves on this chessboard.”
I let warm water sluice down over me, just enjoying being healthy again. “Guess we will have to start moving again.”
“Probably best to wait until after you are dry,” she replied.
I poked my head out of the bathroom and grinned. “Worried about rust?”
She looked back solemnly at me. “Rust never sleeps.”
Chapter Seventeen
“Maauro,” Jaelle sends. “Are you there?”
“Yes, I am here.”
“Stupid of me, where else could you be but in your own head?”
“Are you all right?”
“Yes, I just got a call from Hartain. He wants to see me about some local work, as he put it. I’m heading over shortly.”
“Excellent. You must be very careful. I will be in the lightest possible monitoring mode until you are actually in his presence.”
“Yeah, good. This link takes as much energy as a marathon. Even I was frightened at the size of the dinner I ate last night. I was nearly as bad this morning. If I come out of this with a big ass, Kit-sister, I will sink my fangs into yours.”
“My ass is armored at the same level as the rest of me, so not good for your dentition, but I see no reason for you to be concerned at the rate you are expending energy. Now Elder-sister, may I make a suggestion?”
“Yes,”
“Shut up until you get there.”
Jaelle’s laugh floated through my mind. Then she fades. I informed Wrik of her movements, watching as worry creased its habitual line on his young face.
“Let us go to the Engineering meeting Fenster set up,” I add. “We must inspect that section to keep up the pretext of recertifying the station.”
Wrik groans. “At least one day, maybe two, of crawling through ducting and inspecting reactors. Well at least you should be able to sneak in a quick refill while we are there.”
“I was planning on it. Rely on it that I will keep tabs on Jaelle.”
We reach the Engineering section about the same time Jaelle reaches the Guild headquarters in its run down industrial section. We are closer to Jaelle than we have been for a while, separated vertically by two kilometers. I didn’t mention it to Wrik – there was no need to add to his frustrations.
Nor did I need to focus much attention on Wrik’s interactions with the Engineers. He is a starship pilot, hence a practical systems engineer to start with. While he takes the tour, I slip off and hook into a major power conduit, refreshing my systems, with no loss of contact with Wrik despite the shielding. I supply him mentally with the occasional salient details for inspection, but switch most of my attention to Jaelle as soon as her channel opens in my mind.
She is back in the Guild headquarters hurrying past worried-looking Guilders as she heads to the back rooms where Hartain has his haunt. The female Dua-Denlenn who seems to be his preferred bodyguard scans Jaelle and confiscates her weapons, but she is let into the Guildmaster’s presence alone.
“Dusko here,” the sour mental tang of the Dua-Denlenn is immediately apparent, though he calls in as if over the radio.
“I am here too, Jaelle. I will not speak again unless it is urgent.”
“Thanks, I don’t need my head spinning any worse than it is.”
“Greetings, Guildmaster, profit to you.” Jaelle says.
The portly Morok is behind his ornate desk. “And to you Young One, but no need for formality, please sit and make yourself comfortable. I took the liberty of ordering Plomik tea for you.”
“He wants something from you,” Dusko says. “He’s treating you as an equal.”
“A delicacy,” Jaelle says aloud. “How did you know?”
“I am an importer, after all. I have always been fond of Nekoans, interesting clients and sophisticated.”
“Thank you.”
The tea comes and idle discussions follow as both do their elaborate sidling up to the point of the discussion.
“I have a proposal that may interest you, as you have expressed a desire to establish a more permanent tie to my operation.”
Jaelle nods cautiously. “As the humans say, I am all ears.” There is a strange sensation for me as she wriggles hers.
Hartain laughs in genuine amusement. Jaelle’s ability to charm lifeforms of all types is one of the reasons for her success in trade.
“A few years ago,” Hartain begins, “a great deal of money changed hands and there was an influx of Confed biogenetic scientists, a major project began with new labs and resources. Supposedly, this project failed and most of the personnel involved left or were reassigned. We have recently acquired information that, while the Ribisans made a lot of noise about the failures of their biogenetic project here, they have been secretly continuing them. There’s another floating city, well more of a floating laboratory, further down in the gas giant.”
Jaelle shrugs. “On a Ribisan world? I’d imagine there might be several.”
“Don’t interrupt him,” Dusko hisses in her brain. I judge it good advice.
I feel Jaelle’s face stretch into a smile, sans teeth.
The Guildmaster’s dour expression fades. “Ah, the impatience of youth. Yes, there are other smaller installations, but none getting regular supplies for oxygen-breathers, none getting equipment for high AG fields. We have been unable to breach their security and get any operatives down to those installations.
“However large the floating city might seem, it is easy for the authorities to control and monitor. We make progress slowly and carefully, creating our own access ways and passages.”
Jaelle nods to encourage the garrulous Guildmaster.
“Good,” Dusko says. “Keep him talking. He has no local he can confide in. The desire to talk, to impress a prospect is strong with him.”
“I imagine the local law gets familiar with your personnel.” Jaelle says.
“Exactly,” he says, stabbing a finger upward. “You understand. So it may be impossible to get direct access, but we can see and hear. We see the supplies, the machinery, all things Ribisans do not need.”
“Massage his ego,” Dusko adds.
“Very clever,” Jaelle says.
“This could be where you come in,” Hartain muses. “You are an unknown. We were able to slot your arrival in place of an intraplanet haul. No one knows you are here, no one knows who you are. Yes, this presents a unique opportunity.”
I feel Jaelle’s body tense in eagerness.
“Be cautious,” Dusko demands. “Ask abo
ut profit to you. Ask about danger.”
“I would be glad to be of assistance to you,” Jaelle purrs. “If, of course, there is sufficient benefit to me, commensurate with the risk.”
He nods, “Of course. Listen, a Confed warship is above us. It’s small in itself but it means Confed law. The Lieutenant involved is a particularly noxious sort, forcing his way in everywhere on the pretext of a safety inspection of the human habitations on this world.”
“Are you sure it’s a pretext?”
“It must be. Rumor has it that he is asking about the personnel that were involved in the same biogenetic experiments we are talking about.”
“One wonders if he even knows why he is here.” Jaelle adds.
“One does,” Hartain nods. “He may well be only a pawn for larger forces moving the pieces from beyond the board.”
Too true, Jaelle sighs mentally.
“Concentrate,” Dusko orders.
“If I,” Jaelle says, “an exotic alien of a species humans are known to find sexually attractive, express an interest in him, he might let slip useful information. We might even gain sufficient access to confirm your suspicions.”
“We might,” Hartain replied with a toothy Morok smile. “It might take some effort; he seems to have taken up with a slender, dark-haired human mutant. She’s his constant companion.”
Jaelle’s tail swishes. I feel her smile, with teeth this time. “Oh, I imagine I can win that contest easily enough.”
“Is it just me or is getting hot in here?” Dusko’s mental laugh sounds.
“It could become abruptly hotter,” I sent back, “if I order the ship’s computer to raise the temperature where you are by two hundred degrees.”
Dusko subsides. He is never entirely sure about the seriousness of my threats. This uncertainty is useful.
The Guildmaster laughs. “I’m sure you can. She has fewer…assets than you do. Indeed, her secondary sexual characteristics are meager. It would be like screwing an adolescent male, I imagine.”
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