“Run!” She screamed, pushing Ve’Yan ahead of her.
They ran. Khet Nhan stood by the door, waiting for Marcus to hurry past, Justin’s arm hoisted roughly over his shoulder. As they came out into the corridor, littered with fallen Ntja, he watched as Nhan brought his staff around, the tip reshaping itself into a glittering, slender spike that he sent sliding through the control panel of the big blast doors.
Marcus’s mind flashed back to the effortless control he had had over the city’s systems only moments ago. Within the control center, Ntja were moving toward them, raising their big weapons to burn them down. The Thien’ha’s attack on the door’s controls seemed to have had no effect, and he imagined that he could see the dark, squinting eyes of the alien warriors coming to kill him, standing there like a swaying statue, unable to move. When the door flashed down just as he had imagined, he jerked away in surprise.
Nhan did not seem to be surprised, however, and pulled him, Justin in tow, down the zig-zagging corridors to the nearest lift tubes.
The corridor was littered with dead Ntja. Some had been the victims of the big blast from Taurani’s wild shot. Others had died to the blades and blasters of his allies.
Behind them, within the control center, the only place he had felt truly at home since he arrived in Penumbra, the shouts and cries of countless enemies echoed dully from behind the blast door.
As they fled down the corridor, he found himself wondering what sorts of images the psychoactive artworks were reflecting now.
Chapter 19
She felt as if the pounding of blood in her ears would drown out every other sound in the world. They were crouched in a service conduit at the very bottom of the Red Tower, in the defunct engineering spaces of the old ship. Ntja soldiers had pursued them back through the Tower, destroying several ancient lift tubes in the process. But through her own efforts and the work of the two Thien’ha, they had lost their last pursuers some time ago.
Until the damned Skorahn unlocked the security systems for Taurani and the traitor Iphini Bha. Then there would be no hiding; no matter where they ran.
“I still think we need to be further from the Tower.” Justin was looking ragged, his clothing stained with sweat and his dark skin slick. “Even if they can’t get the security feeds working, the first thing they’re going to do is a sweep of their own damned building.”
“It’s not their damned building.” Marcus Wells sat, his back against a metal bulkhead, his breath heaving. “None of this is theirs.” He struck the wall behind him with an elbow, his mouth twisted in bitter anger.
Khet Nhan and his acolyte stood quietly nearby, watching their back trail for trouble.
“I can’t believe she did it.” Marcus was staring at the pipes and cabling lining the far wall, but seeing nothing. His eyes slid up to hers, the pain in them clear. “Why would she help him?”
Angara stared down at the Human she had put on the administrator’s throne. There was no way she could have foreseen the way things would turn out when she forced the two Humans onto her ship back on Earth, but the guilt that pressed down upon her at his expression hurt no less for all that.
“Her planet was nearly destroyed by Humans when she was only a child—” She looked away. She had worked with both Marcus and Justin for too long now to speak of the old prejudices and fears with any seriousness. She knew no one had told the two Humans about the ancient past. If it had been anyone’s responsibility, it would have been hers, and she just could not bring herself to start that conversation, no matter how many times she tried.
Justin stood up, staring at her. Whatever it was growing between them twisted painfully, and she found she could not meet his eyes. “I’ve had enough of the cryptic ‘it’s because you’re Human’ shit you’ve all been piling onto us since before you got us onto that damned ship of yours.” The words were hot, and she looked up to see Khet Nhan staring at her as if waiting for some momentous revelation.
Damned Thien’ha. She had always hated that about them; that blank stare they all seemed to gain when they thought they were about to watch something interesting happen.
She shook her head and forced her eyes to lock with the dark skinned Human’s. “There is more history than you can possibly know at work here, Justin. I promise you, I will tell you everything. But we need to get away from here before we can worry about any of that.”
“You have a ship.” Sihn Ve’Yan said in her low voice. “We need to get there, and get out of the city before the Kerie gains full control of the Relic Core.”
The fact that Taurani was having such a hard time finding them and directing his damned thugs in their pursuit had confused Angara all through the flight toward the Concourse. Marcus had been able to exercise control over nearly all of the city’s systems almost immediately upon arriving. The Ntja, however, seemed to be constantly running into slamming doors that refused to open for them, suppression fields that shut down their weapons, and areas of corridor that were suddenly plunged into darkness with no warning at all.
Marcus had been distracted the entire time, and she found herself wondering if he might not, through the abnormally deep bond with the Skorahn, be manipulating their environment despite being separated from the medallion. He had denied it, and the despondent cast to his features seemed to radiate helplessness even now. But she could not completely shake the feeling that things were going better for them than they had any right to expect.
“There’s no way we’ll be able to get to the Yud’ahm Na’uka without having to fight through an army of Ntja.” She frowned. “And we are hardly in possession of a force that would make such a fight survivable, never mind viable.”
“Perhaps if we could draw the guards away?” Khet Nhan had settled the small rod of his nano-staff back onto his belt, and his small hands were curled around each other in a calm, thoughtful pose. “Truly, Ambassador Taurani cannot have an endless supply of these creatures at his disposal? You would have known if there had been so many.”
Marcus looked sheepish, pushing himself up along the wall back to a standing position. “They could have been sneaking them into the city forever. There are tens of thousands of sentients living in Penumbra. Taurani could easily hide hundreds of those ugly pug nosed bastards among them and we would never know about it.” His mouth twisted bitterly. “And if Iphini was helping him, God alone knows how many they might have. They don’t have to worry about the defenses now. They’ll be able to land as many marines as they need as soon as the fleet arrives.”
“Nevertheless,” the little mystic’s voice was calm. He raised a single finger, gently pressing his point home. “If we can somehow direct the attention of those currently in pursuit away from the docking bay long enough for us to make it to your ship, we will have a greater chance of escape than if we face them all directly.”
She shook her head. There was so much they didn’t know. “Even if I can get the Na’uka out of the bay, we’ll be working against the city’s defenses. We can’t assume Taurani won’t get those guns working by the time we engineer a distraction, make our way around the city, prep my ship, and take off.” Her voice dropped. The truth of their situation was painful to contemplate.
“And even so, we cannot stay here, we will be found or starve. We must venture forth and hope for the best. Even a blind Ntja will stumble upon us eventually.” The big red eyes blinked, and Angara could not look away. “I see no reason we should not try our best with what the universe has provided. We gain nothing by surrender.”
Ve’Yan’s face looked pinched as she turned away. Angara had to admit, the little master seemed to be taking a far more direct hand in events than any Thien’ha she had ever met. They were famous for watching unpleasantness unfold. To the best of her knowledge, they never took part.
“I think I might be able to arrange something.” Justin cleared his throat.
Angara waited for him to continue, but he seemed unwilling. “Justin, if you have something to offer, I can�
��t think of a better time.”
He coughed again, looked quickly at Marcus, and then spoke in hurried tones as if afraid of being interrupted. “My consortia are still functional. I should be able to summon up some assistance, maybe create a scene to pull the guards away from the main docking bay long enough for us to get to the ship?”
Marcus smiled wanly and shook his head. “What, are you afraid I’ll be mad that you were having better luck than me?” He reached out and patted his friend on the shoulder. “You were always better with people than I was.” He tilted his head to the mystics, and then Angara herself. “No reason that shouldn’t still be true even when those people are small and furry, green, or purple.”
“You think they’ll be able to stage something big enough to matter?” Angara did not want to rest their plans on shifting ground. And if the motley group of fools and grifters with which Justin had been associating were unable to put something big enough together, she did not relish the thought of being caught by a platoon of Ntja halfway to the ship.
The dark-skinned man nodded. “I think so. I’ll need to sneak off and talk to them in person, though.”
“We don’t want to take any chance that Taurani discovers our preparations.” Angara nodded. “Maybe we should split up. We’ll make some noise moving off in the opposite direction, you gather what assistance you can, and we will meet back at my ship.”
Justin’s smile was just a touch wild, and she felt more nervous than she wanted to admit. His voice was firm, however, as he moved toward the entrance to the small alcove, patting Marcus on the shoulder as he passed. “Set your implants for two hours, Earth time?”
She saw the wisdom in that. The city’s systems, should Taurani succeed in wrestling them back under his control, would not see the pattern of Earth time as anything significant with such a small sampling, until they were safely away. If they managed to get safely away. She closed her eyes and activated her implants for a two Earth-hour countdown.
“Done. Do you want to take either of the Thien’ha with you?” She looked from the small Goagoi and his Diakk acolyte. Neither of them seemed eager to leave with the Human.
“I think I can make better time if I’m alone,” Justin said from the door. “K’hzan’s accusations didn’t really get much traction. Most people still see me as just another mercenary Mnymian.” He winked one of his milk-pale eyes. “I should be fine on my own.”
She nodded. She felt the unnerving impulse to say something more without having the first clue what it might be. She paused, hoping something would come to her, or the feeling would go away. In the end, she just nodded again, and said, “Good luck.”
He smiled as if he could see right into her brain and flipped her a casual salute. “You too. You guys have the hard job. I’m just running.”
And he was gone.
She had to take a moment to think, trying to ignore the small symbols floating high in her peripheral vision, counting down the time they all had before their last chance expired.
“Perhaps if we were to head to the near reservoir?” Ve’Yan murmured the suggestion, no more shocking for the softness of her words. The girl had not taken an active part in their efforts from the beginning, from what Angara could see. “If we make some noise in that direction, any pursuit will be heading the wrong way when the Human’s distraction, whatever it might be, occurs.”
The Goagoi nodded at his young assistant. “They will be trying to convince the populace that we are mad. If they were truly trying to protect the city from such ruthless terrorists, they would have to station some of their force to protect the water.” His small teeth gleamed in a cruel smile. “They probably will not send their best, however, knowing that we are not really terrorists, and so are not likely to attack there.”
The prospect of slaughtering some of Taurani’s second-string thugs did not appeal to Angara, but it would make creating the proper level of havoc easier.
“We should be able to make it there, do some damage, and return to the docking bay with just enough time to spare if Justin is able to come through on his end.” They were all standing, and looked to her for instructions now. “We should make our way through the service ducts and into the Concourse—”
“Wait!” Marcus held up a hand. “I thought we were trying to avoid crowds!”
She closed her eyes with a forbearing sigh. Before she could speak, however, Nhan stepped forward.
“There is a series of arteries carved into the topmost layer of the Relic Core, just beneath the lowest level of the Concourse. It will be one of the last places the Ambassador is able to secure control. We can take one of the small service trams toward the Gulf and arrive at the reservoir with none of his people the wiser.”
Angara opened her eyes to glare at the little furry menace. “How do you know so much about Penumbra, Master Nhan?”
His answering smile was maddening. “We are Thien’ha, Mistress Ksaka. There is little we do not learn.”
Ve’Yan’s mirroring smile almost caused a brawl, but Angara wrestled her impulse back under control and shook her head, waving them to the door. “Well, then, by all means. Why don’t the two of you lead the way. Marcus and I will see to it that we’re not followed.”
They moved toward a set of rickety-looking iron stairs leading into the last levels of the Red Tower, and to a gravitic interface that would deposit them into the lowest levels of the Concourse. She had never ridden in a service tram before, but she had heard stories.
They were said to make lift tubes appear sedate by comparison.
*****
Marcus slogged along the narrow corridor, his feet on autopilot, his mind dull with shock. It was almost laughable, if he thought about it: shock was nearly a perennial condition for him since he had emerged from that damned casino in what seemed like another lifetime.
The walls of the passageway were a dull bronze color that reminded him of the door Iphini Bha had shown him in the ancient starship they called Sanctum. He was walking through what they called the Relic Core, he knew. And yet, even finally having skimmed beneath the surface of that mystery was not enough to bring him out of his gray despair.
“This should bring us to one of the observation points above the reservoir.” Angara spoke low, dropping the words over her shoulder as they moved down the dimly-lit passage. “We should have a few moments before the Core can drop a field down on the area.” He cocked his head to one side as one of the mini shoulder turrets emerged from her heavy coat, small lights gleaming along its barrel.
“Although I have a small capacity for ranged havoc, my reach is not great.” Khet Nhan spoke up from the front of the column. “And Ve’Yan will be of no assistance. Should we not seek some way to fall upon them in close proximity, so as to maximize our full potential for havoc?”
Angara pushed a frustrated breath through her nose. “Let’s get to the observation point first and see what Taurani’s stationed here. If there are too many of them to take out from a distance, we’ll get closer.”
“We don’t have all day.” Marcus could almost hear the ticking of the timer slashing away the minutes before Justin’s distraction would force their hand. “I’m not sure what we gain by getting embroiled in a running battle here.”
“I mean to spill blood, Human.” Ve’Yan spat the comment at him without turning around. “If we are abandoning our principals here, I will reap my share of the deaths that will result. We have plenty of time.”
Marcus shook his head, but at the back of the line no one could see him. Sihn Ve’Yan was a mystery to him, noticeable despite the flood of mysteries in which he was currently drowning. He was still trying to understand anything that identified as a monk to his nanite implants and yet fought like those two, and seemed more than willing to continue fighting. This wasn’t their war, and in quiet moments over the last few hours he had wondered why they were still standing with him.
On the other hand, he had no doubt that he and Justin, and probably Angara, woul
d all be dead at Ambassador Taurani’s gray hands if it had not been for the Thien’ha.
Ahead of them a strange, shimmering light threw ribbons of luminescence onto the ceiling of the corridor. The temperature of the air seemed to drop with each step, and the nature of the sounds he was hearing changed subtly, becoming heavier and more distant at the same time.
The corridor opened up before them into an oval-shaped room with a wide opening along one wall. The reflected light was shining through the breach and filling the small chamber with bright, wavering streamers. The four of them moved to the opening. The bottom sill came up to Marcus’s hip, so even the Goagoi could look out comfortably.
Marcus had made a conscious decision not to anticipate anything particular when Angara was throwing the word ‘reservoir’ around. Images had come into his mind anyway, of course, and much to his surprise, in many ways, they had proven closer to the truth than his past experiences in Penumbra had led him to expect.
The reservoir chamber was an immense underground lake, the far shores hidden in murky darkness. His mind balked at any attempt to guess how much water must have been down there, but he knew that the lake could have swallowed many, many football fields without a trace. The ceiling did not arch dramatically overhead, but was a low, brooding, bronze presence dappled with reflected light dancing and swirling as an array of telltales twinkled in recesses overhead.
The mundane expectations, however, ended with a glowing blue funnel almost hidden in the darkness off to his right, where a constant flood of water gushed down into the reservoir, sending slow, heavy waves lapping out into the darkness. He recognized the color of the funnel from his dinner with Iphini Bha. Here was the resting place of the Diamond Road that drew moisture from the planet below to support the city.
“Is that all the water there is?” Nhan muttered the question as if he didn’t want to break into the silence of the moment. It seemed like a lot of water to Marcus, but the little mystic apparently did not agree.
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