Selena

by V Guy

  “I don’t want to sound like a fool. Social and growth dynamics for isolated communities around a place of employment are smothered in indeterminate variables. I’m better known for established investments.”

  Two porters entered his quarters to gather his luggage. Hess scowled at the distraction, furrowing his brow as he concentrated on the data.

  “The shuttle is alongside,” said Grant. “We need to be moving. The opening session is in two hours, and you might prefer to be settled before addressing the attendees.”

  Hess frowned as he considered the presentation. “This will be ugly. Get the mantis moved to the craft, preferably unseen. We’ll need some corridors cleared for our passage through the station.”

  “Your oracle is packed and ready to go.”

  “She isn’t going.” Hess turned to Grant. “Something is up.”

  “Sir?”

  “I can barely hear her.” He rose, leaving his materials for someone else to port. “Everyone else in my head is deafening by comparison, and I can’t afford to raise the volume solely for her. I wouldn’t be able to think clearly.”

  He and the aide moved through Stellar Clipper to Selena’s quarters, then entered to see her waiting. Two bags sat beside her, ready to follow her to the resort Solar Wind.

  “You’re staying,” said Hess. “Have you detected anything?”

  Selena had shed most of the eagerness she once possessed, but the opportunity to be someplace different reawakened the emotion within her. “Master?” she asked in confusion. “I’ve sensed nothing that should cause concern.”

  “What about the ‘something’ that affects you?”

  She frowned as she pondered the question. “Nothing immediate, Master. The dragnet is closing, but that isn’t unusual. It has been for some time.”

  Hess sought her presence within his mind, but it remained faint. “What about the next few days?”

  “Master, I would imagine a plot to attack you at a four-day conference would’ve been planned well in advance. I’ll know if anything changes.”

  He looked at her luggage a last time then turned to leave. “Grant, get Larson and Stiles to stay on point as her contacts.”

  “We could just take her,” said Grant. “It would eliminate the possibility of delay.”

  “No.” Hess had felt insulted, rejected, and a little insecure because of Selena’s detachment; there was a nagging ache in his gut that said he was responsible. As much as he trusted Grant, the man would never know his feelings. “The oracle can warn me from anywhere, and she’s well protected while on board. Stellar Clipper is the best place.”

  ***

  Li stalked the afternoon corridors of Solar Wind, working the grind of eliminating executives from the long list of Selena’s potential owners. Thirty executives had been struck from the list during the previous five Evaline weekends; James had eliminated fifteen during the same periods; fourteen had already been cleared during the conference. The two men were obligated to be efficient, because their window of opportunity daily shrank. They could only use the evenings and nights away from Evaline, and only the conference days could be spent canvassing the station to avoid making contact in the rooms, causing a stir, and spooking their target.

  Five hours were available on the first day, three were usable on the second, and only one was possible on the third. The fourth day was dismissed, because the conference days overlapped too extensively with Evaline’s. Malik needed to be present to confirm a connection; his interviews would permit this only on the Evaline weekend, after the conference was over.

  The commando was careful. Cloaked and quiet, he left his most recent target’s room, evaluating the lists of resort and conference attendees to find the next stop. Executive suites were quite common for a resort of this caliber, and he stopped before the double doors of the next target and watched. After confirming an empty corridor, he broke the lock with a quick pick and sent a cloaked sniffer into the rooms to evaluate the scents. It was the least intrusive approach—several encounters had been avoided because of them, and Malik was too large for easy passage through most of the station’s doors.

  The little bot ran a programmed course, pulling the slightest of aromas from the air and quantifying them. It was passing into a second room when it ceased transmitting.

  Li studied the data from the bot, pondered the problem, then stealthily entered the suite to retrieve the disabled machine. He was halfway through the receiving area when a will other than his caused him to straighten, disable his cloak, and stride forward. A monster appeared before him and struck him hard in the chest.

  He reappeared in a blur on Pathfinder, unconscious and wounded. Malik stood nearby, having abruptly pulled him from the station, and immediately hustled him to the infirmary.

  “Recall James!” he said into his comm. “Evelyn, I need you in the infirmary. Jenna, take the ship close to the station’s number three cargo hatch. Stay alert for traffic.”

  Evelyn had been nearby and arrived quickly, cursing when she saw Li. His front body armor had been crushed into his chest, and blood leaked from the outfit’s seams. “What happened?”

  “I sensed his danger, an intrusion in his mind, sought him out, then this,” said Malik, motioning as he gathered tools to remove the armor. “We need this clear to allow the student sim a chance to do its job.”

  “Can you feel it now?”

  He shook his head. Amal and Leala soon arrived, having heard Malik’s distress.

  “Where do you need us?” asked Leala.

  “Observe, then obey.” He started the extraction of the worst armor intrusions, then noted Furaha’s arrival. “Get some tools and be ready. This is an emergency, and your assistance is required. Learn quickly.”

  Evelyn was deep in concentration as she worked but glared in alarm at Malik when Jenna declared the ship to be in position. “Where are you going?” she asked, her face tightening. “We’ve got to help Li!”

  Malik hesitated then dropped his tools. “I’ve got to deal with his attacker and make a confirmation. Get them on this.”

  Darkness covered his exit from the entry passage. A brief drift took him to the number three cargo airlock, integration into the controls gained him entry, and another breach of security gave him access to the interior. He mapped his path in advance, choosing the least traveled passages, diverting people from his path when necessary, moving concealed until stopping at the suite’s entrance.

  He listened. A low undertone of potential danger buzzed in his head, soft above the background.

  Malik clandestinely entered the suite, advancing until his wings cleared the portal. The low, mental buzz rose and struck.

  He braced himself and fought back, pressing the invasive presence from his mind and smoothing the mental handholds it grasped. The source of that pressure emerged swiftly from the far room on six armored, spindly legs. It drove straight for him, leading with two serrated, bludgeon-like graspers.

  Malik thrust forward as well, cutting to his left, catching the monster’s right claw with his right forefoot and propelling it into the entry foyer while he advanced into a more spacious welcome area.

  The creature spun more quickly, unburdened by wings. The cry in Malik’s mind rose, and the insect-like attacker charged. This second advance was more calculated, and it spread both claws outward to corral him, circling to block his exit even as he shifted to find an opening. Malik threw a chair; it was shredded. An end table was cast and shattered. The monster rushed forward.

  Malik caught both claws and the two wrestled, wrecking the remaining furniture.

  It was strong. He was strong. It spit a stream of saliva at him. Malik sensed the hazard, the lights dimmed, and the wad of liquid stopped four centimeters from his head. The creature may have been surprised but recovered enough to spit again. Malik used a tractor effect to cast both spittles aside then briskly expanded the restraining field to thrust the creature against the opposite bulkhead. The flooring steamed and hi
ssed where the liquid landed.

  The monster studied him carefully then released a different mental call. Malik heard and recognized it; he remotely wiped all entry permissions from the suite doors. His opponent detected the change, rose to its claws, and stalked forward. There was no anger, only iron determination. Claws probed forward. Malik waited until one of the probing limbs was extended too far; and he grabbed it, pulled it forward, and leaped onto the creature’s back. No amount of tearing or biting could penetrate the tough carapace, and he was soon thrown off.

  The monster charged while Malik recovered, swinging lethal blows with every step. Malik parried the first, blocked the next, diverted a stream of corrosive spittle, then rolled to the left to avoid an impaling blow. The wings left him less nimble, and the creature was soon upon him.

  Fists pounded at the door.

  Malik wrestled unsuccessfully with the attacker’s mental mechanics but knew the minds at the entrance quite well; the unwitting enemies dropped unconscious to the corridor floor. His physical reflexes prevented death by the monster’s appendages, yet his position was precarious. His wing hooks caught the creature’s descending claws, his forward legs stopped the second set of impaling limbs, and his head lunged upward to chomp on the monster’s neck. They held this stalemate until Malik did something he had never done; he produced an expanded, shielded breach between his teeth. This created a gap in the creature’s neck, and the decapitated head fell to the deck. His opponent continued to struggle regardless, and Malik produced another tractor-effect blast to cast it away. The room darkened. Emergency lights lit.

  The mental burdened remained. More noise sounded at the entrance. More minds were sent into unconsciousness.

  This creature was neither animal nor machine, and Malik struggled with the appropriate mental approach while resisting its control. He leaped for it, weaving, parrying, and darting past the forward claws to again land on its back. The creature struggled as before and dislodged him, but only after one of the forward limbs had been torn from its socket. Confusion touched the monstrosity. Malik gathered himself and leaped again. He was again dislodged but held another severed limb as a prize. The creature retreated into the rear room, raising a louder mental cry.

  Perhaps it realized the portal restricted Malik, maybe otherwise, but it passionately fought removal even as he tried to extract it. A slew of minds showed at the hatch. Malik understood the creature’s tactics; he disabled the reinforcements with the gift of rest. He then reached through the substrate.

  One of the creature’s legs appeared beside him, pulled through transition. The monster faltered. Another one was pulled, and it fell forward. After another four pulls, the creature was helpless. Malik staggered from the effort. He lastly reached in, grabbed the creature’s main body, and dragged it into the front room by the stub of its neck.

  More minds appeared at the door. The main lights returned to full brightness.

  Putting people to sleep was as continuous a task as Malik’s efforts to breach the creature’s flanks. His latter effort was unsuccessful, and he instead raised his mental response to silence his foe. More minds appeared at the door, more people slept, and the strong bastion of the creature’s mind began to yield. One particular section appeared to be a conduit of the creature’s strength, and he centered his focus upon it. A pull through the substrate brought the offending organ to his grasp. The fire of a breach incinerated it.

  The bulk of the mental pressure collapsed. Malik found the secondary source of the creature’s mental power, pulled it free, then drained all the residual power vested within. The pressure ended. The creature’s mind remained active. Eight additional minds at the exit fell to slumber; they would be the last.

  Malik pondered the dismantled creature before him. From the room’s lingering scents, he determined that this was the paladin’s suite. The monster was most certainly the paladin’s protector, and Malik calculated from the likely mental linkage that an alarm would have been sent. He let his mind expand, ignoring the calm, bored, uninterested, joyful, or engaged minds of the resort’s occupants, and instead focused on the people behaving out of fear. He dismissed the confused companions of those beyond the outer door and narrowed his focus on a fleeing shuttle.

  I’ve found you, he thought victoriously.

  The mess before him was a treasure trove of evidence; the eight legs were pushed first toward Pathfinder’s cargo hold, then the head and the body, until finally the important telepathic organ was transitioned. Another stretch of his mind verified the shuttle’s vector.

  The curious people observing the pile of sleepers joined them on the deck. Malik pushed the remains of the bot to his ship, stepped clear of the insensate forms, then navigated a careful path to cargo hatch three. An exit, a jump, and a landing later, and he was in the ship’s forward passage.

  James was full of questions when the lighting was restored. More came when he saw Malik’s bloodied body.

  Malik ignored him, pacing directly to the bridge to direct Pathfinder. He waited in silence, listening, until a smile formed on his face. He pointed. “Selena is on Stellar Clipper. Tag that ship.”

  “We’re not going after her?”

  He shook his head. “That plan was for another day. There’s a bigger issue. The man had a monster on the station that almost killed Li and could have killed me. There may be more.”

  “You can’t sense it?”

  Malik scowled. “I know there were others, I realize they can be difficult to detect, and they can control people. If I could sense one on board, it could sense me in return, and all of you would be in danger, because it might sense you as well. Forty people were at that suite’s doors to stop me; rest assured, they were there involuntary.”

  ***

  Baron Hess huddled, trembling in his seat, surrounded by his aides and security. Their exit had been expedited from the conference room’s anteroom from whence he was supposed to emerge and speak. Now he was fleeing in a shuttle toward his ship. He had seen through the mantis’s eyes during the fight and was certain it was Malik in his suite. When the mantis went quiet, he knew it lost. Hess began to doubt his oracle. This disturbed him, but more disturbing was the fact Malik had outfought a creature designed to kill anything.

  “Get a security man on our payroll to check the suite. I need to know what happened. My personal items also need to be secured.”

  “They might be traced,” said Grant, frowning. “Everything from our entry to our names was encrypted, and it wasn’t known we were in that particular room. Our names were attached to a different suite. If we took our personal items, it might connect you to them, and you’ve already seen how close Malik can get.”

  Hess tried to calm his racing heart. “At least get them to tell us what happened to the mantis. I need to know why it failed. Also, have the personal items secured in a vault; I’ll have them stolen later.”

  The shuttle docked with Stellar Clipper, and the news arrived of no trace of the mantis. Hess stormed into Selena’s quarters, sweat on his brow and crimson in his features. She saw his expression and quickly rose.

  “You told me there wasn’t a danger.”

  Selena paused, a picture of composure. “There wasn’t, Master.”

  He gritted his teeth. “Then why was I attacked?”

  “You weren’t, or I would’ve sensed it.”

  Hess valiantly tried to control his temper, and her seeming lack of concern worsened the struggle. “Malik was in my suite. Malik destroyed the Mantis. Malik stole the remains.”

  She paused as she considered a response. “But he didn’t attack you.”

  “Then why was the creature there?” he said, his lips curling to a snarl. “For the fun of it?”

  “He didn’t come for me either,” said Selena, looking away as she pondered the matter. “Because I would’ve felt that. Master, I believe he was closing the net. I don’t think he knew either of us were here.”

  “Closing the net,” muttered Hess i
n an angry, low voice. “What if it closes and Malik finds you dead? How would that creature then feel?”

  Selena was pensive and still with calm. “I don’t know, Master. He hasn’t been aiming for you, but such a discovery might give him cause to reconsider. Imagine the consequences?”

  53: Friends and Family

  Day 873: Catricel, Pathfinder

  Pathfinder cleared a Silas Friday overcast, broke the atmosphere, and sprang toward the gravity restriction. Once the ship arrived, it dropped into the substrate and made a beeline for Bedele. A short skate took it to the channel entry for Marion. Fifteen minutes later, at the other end of the channel, it emerged to again submerge. The next surfacing was at Malice, and it took the channel toward Petra. Malik ran that eight-hour, quiet channel in under an hour, appeared at the target system, and made another submersion to Tarabach. The busy channel to Catricel was caught and run, the twelve-hour trip completed in less than three. A quick skate brought them to the planet, and morning was rising over the military base when the ship was landing.

  “Another beautiful day on Catricel,” said James, yawning as he settled into the decoy’s station. He, Li, and Jenna had helped cover the bridge during the night. “The palace? This isn’t where we normally park.”

  “We’re retrieving a third of Britton’s collection,” said Malik “It’d be best if we weren’t making repeated transports across the base. Someone might get bored and look our direction.”

  James scowled. “Or the satellites might see us.”

  “Not likely. I tasked them to look elsewhere several weeks ago, and they haven’t been reset. Some of them have been retrieved for use elsewhere.”

  “Probes?”

  “Out of power,” said Malik. “Although it might be useful to retrieve one or two for future use.”

  “Ships?”

  “One orbits the planet, but it’s looking up. Other than that, there are only the warning beacons to consider.”