Xenotech Rising: A Novel of the Galactic Free Trade Association (Xenotech Support Book 1)

by Dave Schroeder

  When I saw we were even with the terrace for Ad Astra’s sixth floor private restaurant, I took Poly’s hand and the two of us stood up and jumped across the two foot gap. We rolled as we landed and banged into a few chairs and tables but our pupa silk shirts kept us from any significant damage. The restaurant patrons got out of our way in a hurry. When we got to our feet we could see Cornell and Princeton, back on the hovercar, insisting that the pilot should return and get us. Given the damaged rotor, the pilot made it clear that wouldn’t be an option. We watched in frustration as the hovercar, with Terrhi in it, sputtered its way south. Then we looked down. Twenty-one Dauushans on grajja could cause a lot of property damage. The pink behemoths were still smashing viewing platforms, crashing into store fronts and knocking over light poles. I hoped no one had been hurt.

  It had only been a minutes since the attack started. Poly and I had a perfect view of what happened next. How do you stop a rampaging Dauushan? With something even bigger. The Tōdons were behind the Dauushans in the parade order and the giant black turtle-like aliens were three times their size. I expected the Tōdons to use their bulk to push the Dauushans around and subdue them, but that wasn’t how it played out. The largest Tōdon approached Tomáso, grabbed him by the loose skin on his back, and split open what we’d all thought was its shell, revealing six massive, membranous black wings. Accompanied by a vibration so low it was felt more than heard, Poly and I watched the Tōdon lift Tomáso into the air and carry him off to the east. Other Tōdons split their carapaces, spread their wings, and transported the remaining drug-addled Dauushans. Who knew Tōdons were more like beetles than turtles? I looked farther along the parade route and saw that four smaller Tōdons had picked up the younger Dauushans playing banthas and removed them as well. Jar Jar Binks’ limbs were scattered but his animatronic head sat in the middle of Peachtree Street moaning “Meesa, yousa, wesa… Oww oww owwee.”

  “What the hell was all that?” said Poly.

  “That was someone trying to blame a galactic-level act of terrorism on the Earth First Isolationists.”

  “If not for the Tōdons it could have been a lot worse.”

  “It’s still pretty bad,” I said.

  “Yes,” said Poly. “They’ve got Terrhi.”

  “And we’re going to get her back.”

  Chapter 24

  “Worst rescue ever.” ― JM Paquette

  “Spike!”

  Poly and I said his name simultaneously while we were waiting for the restaurant’s elevator to arrive. It took far too long for the car to show up and take us to ground level. Poly and I were ready to rappel down the side of the building before it finally arrived.

  When the elevator’s doors opened at street level we ran to the shattered remains of the Dauushan consulate’s viewing platform and found Spike still sleeping where we’d left him. The few first responders in the area were wisely giving the pink striped cat a wide berth. Poly stayed with him while I jogged down the block and bought three bottles of water from a shell-shocked street vendor. I hustled back and cautiously emptied a bottle over Spike’s head. He’d been snoring and now started spluttering like, well, a wet cat. Poly and I took three steps back to give him room and let him get his bearings.

  Spike shook his head back and forth as if he wanted to stop the squirrels chittering inside his skull. Then he turned from side to side, looking for something, or someone. He swayed a bit then steadied, staring at me quizzically. I translated his expression as “Where’s Terrhi?”

  “She’s been kidnapped,” I said. I didn’t know how much he understood but told him anyway. “Six men in a hovercar dosed her and all the adult Dauushans with grajja and carried her off heading south.”

  Spike nodded solemnly. How smart was he? I didn’t know.

  “They tried to take us, too,” said Poly, “but we jumped out. We couldn’t bring Terrhi.”

  Spike looked up, looked at Poly and looked at me. I could almost hear his unspoken thought. “Humans.”

  “Sorry, Spike,” I said. “There was nothing we could do.” Poly dried off Spike with a length of pink bunting.

  Spike rubbed his head against my leg. He was really worried. I scritched him reassuringly and shared more details.

  “Tomáso got carried off, too,” I said. Spike tilted his head and shrugged his shoulders, which looked like cat for “How?”

  “They were crazy with grajja,” said Poly. “The Tōdons carried them east.”

  Spike rocked his head from side to side. Was he trying to dispel the grajja-induced fuzziness? I had no idea how much of our exchange he comprehended, but he wasn’t happy. We were spared more Q&A with Spike by the sound of a siren. A Georgia Capitol Police cruiser pulled up in front of the viewing platform. Lieutenant Lee stuck his head out of the window and said “Get in the car.” Poly and Spike and I picked our way through debris to get to the vehicle. The three of us were crowded into the back behind the bars. It was comforting to be close.

  “Word came in over the radio from an officer who saw what happened,” said Lieutenant Lee. “The Tōdons dropped Tomáso and the other members of the Dauushan delegation into Stone Mountain Lake. Once they hit the water they sobered up quickly. We’ll be using flatbeds to bring them back to the consulate, but Tomáso wouldn’t wait. He talked the head of the Tōdonese consulate into flying him back now so he could go after Terrhi faster.”

  “We can make our way through the wreckage out here, but Tomáso will need to come in through the back,” said Poly. Her fists were clenched in controlled rage.

  “He’ll probably be dropped off in the central courtyard,” I said, trying hard to keep myself together.

  “I’ll drive around,” said Lieutenant Lee. His voice sounded as tight as mine. He turned on his light bar and gave a short blast from his siren. I was glad we were getting a ride in a police car because members of the media were already flocking to the area to capture the carnage. The entertainment reporters who had been covering the parade must be switching hats to cover more serious news. Maybe later, once we had Terrhi back, I’d watch the coverage for amusement value—but right now I just knew I wanted out of here and didn’t want to be interviewed.

  Parade watchers and camera crews slowly got out of the way of our vehicle. The lieutenant maneuvered the cruiser farther south on Peachtree until he was opposite an archway leading into Ad Astra’s courtyard. Half a dozen ornamental steel post barricades topped with sculpted brass fleur-de-lis blocked vehicular access. Lieutenant Lee gave a command to his phone and barricades slowly descended until they were level with the sidewalk. A section of the curb angled out to form a ramp and the wrought iron pedestrian gate opened. I knew about this stuff because I’d helped design most of the security at the complex, but it was still fascinating to see it in operation. I took pride in the way the fleur-de-lis I’d engineered to hold security cameras and sensors neatly folded themselves up to fit into the cylindrical holes. I have a tendency to focus on unimportant details when I’m really worried.

  Poly was holding my hand tightly. From her grip I knew she felt every bit as distracted. My other hand was resting on Spike’s head. I could sense the cat’s tension from his low growl. It resonated up from his throat to the bones in his skull to my palm. Lieutenant Lee drove his police car up to the rear entrance of the Dauushan consulate and Tomáso and Terri’s home. We all climbed out of the cruiser slowly, except for Spike who bounded over to the consulate door and rubbed his collar against a spot a few feet up from the bottom. The door rolled open and the big striped cat moved his head in a way that clearly said “Let’s go in.” Poly and I were about to enter when Lieutenant Lee pointed to a large black dot in the sky to the east. Poly held up her phone and asked it to magnify. I stood behind her and looked over her shoulder. The dot resolved into a giant black beetle carrying a pink elephant, or more precisely, a Tōdon carrying a Dauushan.

  “Tomáso is almost here,” I told Spike.

  “We’ll get Terrhi back,” said Po
ly, adding her own note of comfort for the cat. Then she turned to the lieutenant. “Have you been able to track the hovercar?”

  “No, it just seemed to disappear from visual sensors,” said Lieutenant Lee. “It was there, heading south, then it just vanished. It was flying too low for radar to pick it up.”

  “Or maybe they put a cover on it made from Blend Into The Scenery fabric?”

  “What?” said Poly and Lieutenant Lee.

  “Hang on. I only want to explain it once,” I said, “and Tomáso is landing.” The black dot barely visible to the naked eye rapidly turned into a black and pink dot and in less than three minutes Tomáso was on the ground. He paused, I assumed to thank his Tōdon rescuer, then joined us. I wasn’t great at reading Dauushan facial expressions but all nine of his trunks were rigid with what looked like barely controlled rage. He headed inside the consulate with no wasted motion. We followed him into his study. I was surprised that I was surprised to find Shepherd waiting for us.

  Poly, Lieutenant Lee and I climbed the stairs to the upper level of the study with Spike to join the enigmatic Pâkk. That put all of us on the same eye level.

  “Status report!” rumbled Tomáso, his urgent basso sending subsonic vibrations through the room. The Dauushan was literally steaming mad as water evaporated from his broad, anger-heated hide. He paced back and forth impatiently and made the rest of us glad we were up a level higher.

  Lieutenant Lee responded. “We lost the hovercar in the confusion. It was there, then it wasn’t.”

  Tomáso snorted an imperative Dauushan expletive.

  “I think I know how they worked that,” I said. It was a challenge to stay calm and focused, but panic wouldn’t help Terrhi. I told them about the four bolts of special light-bending morphabric stolen from Morphicouture the previous day and how enough of it could be used to make a hovercar seem to disappear.

  “They obviously disabled the unit’s transponder and stayed too low for radar,” said the lieutenant.

  “The men on the hovercar were tossing hundreds of these over the side,” said Poly, holding up one of the Earth First Isolationist cards.

  “Earth First Isolationists,” said Tomáso, taking the card in one of his trunks. He was trying to reign in his emotions but looked like a steam engine building up too much pressure. “You think it’s misdirection?”

  “The Isolationists couldn’t have pulled something like this off,” I said. “Like I told you last night, they don’t have the resources. Someone’s trying to pin the blame on them.”

  “And slow down our investigation by doing so,” said the lieutenant. “We’re going to need to move fast to rescue Terrhi. Any minute now Homeplanet Security, the FBI, the State Department and the main Dauushan embassy in New York are going to land on us in force and muddle things up.”

  “Not the Dauushan embassy,” said Tomáso. “I can see to that.”

  Tomáso must be further up in the Dauushan hierarchy than I’d thought if he could get their ambassador to back off.

  Shepherd spoke for the first time. “I may be able to delay the other organizations you’ve mentioned for a day or two.”

  “How the hell can you do that?” said Poly, taking the words out of my mouth. Lieutenant Lee just stood there with his jaw opened. Who the hell was Shepherd?

  “I can’t stop them from showing up and posturing for the cameras,” said the Pâkk. “That has to happen. But if we come up with a workable plan I can buy us twenty-four hours to execute it.”

  “And why are you letting us stay involved?” I said. Poly and I put our arms around each other to show we were in this together. “We’re Terrhi’s friends, but we’re not law enforcement.”

  “You tell me why, Jack,” said Tomáso. I thought about it. Poly thought faster.

  “Because you think you know who has Terrhi,” said Poly, “and Jack’s your best way to get to her.”

  “VIGorish Labs,” I said.

  “Anthony Zwilniki,” said Lieutenant Lee.

  “Preventing a Dauushan-Terran war,” said Shepherd.

  I could see how the abduction of a ten year old Dauushan girl would be a major diplomatic incident, but a war? What did Shepherd know that I didn’t? A lot, I expect. Poly grabbed my arm and turned me to face her. She looked like she’d just put some pieces together.

  “Remember how I’d said I’d seen Tomáso when I was fourteen? At a reception for my mother at the royal palace?”

  I nodded, the wheels in my head turning furiously. Like the Terran elephants they resembled in size, Dauushans are a matriarchal culture.

  “I never met the Queen. I was too shy and my mother didn’t push it. But now I remember that Tomáso was more than just a random guest at the reception.”

  Where was she going with this? Then she hit me over the head with a club, or maybe a scepter.

  “He was the Royal Consort.”

  “But that would mean…” I said, visions of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Mars novels spinning through my head.

  “Terrhi is a Princess of Dauush,” said Poly.

  “The Princess of Dauush,” proclaimed Tomáso.

  Lieutenant Lee closed his jaw. It had fallen open again. This was above his pay grade. Mine, too.

  “Why did they capture Jack and me along with Terrhi?” asked Poly.

  “You tell me why,” said Tomáso. Poly’s eyes tightened and I could almost hear her thinking it through.

  “He needs Jack to help with some kind of Orishen technology, probably military,” she said. “And I’m a hostage for his good behavior.”

  “A high probability,” said Tomáso.

  “I wasn’t really part of Tony Zed’s master plan, then,” she said. “Just a fortuitous bit of extra leverage on Jack.” Poly’s jaw tightened. She was the rescuing, not the rescued type.

  “That’s how I see it,” said Tomáso. “Terrhi was the primary target.”

  “But why kidnap a little girl?” said Poly. “Even a royal little girl?”

  Shepherd spoke up. We all turned to face him. “There are several possibilities. First…”

  “Ransom,” said Lieutenant Lee.

  “The most obvious and least likely reason,” said Shepherd.

  “Because if Tony Zed is behind this he doesn’t need the money,” I said.

  Poly put her hand to her chin and rubbed it thoughtfully. “Or at least we don’t think he does.”

  Shepherd continued, looking displeased over being interrupted. “Second, the kidnapper wants the government of Dauush to do something for him.”

  Poly, Lieutenant Lee and I turned to Tomáso. The consul shrugged, which is impressive when you’re an eight-ton hexapod. “I can’t think of anything specific that Dauush might offer Zwilniki. We’ve got largest 3D printing capacity in the galaxy and some of the best fabrication engineers in GaFTA, but I don’t see why that would be a reason for Zed to kidnap my daughter.” You could hear the anger and frustration in the low frequency hum like a bagpipe drone in Tomáso’s voice.

  “Third,” said Shepherd, bringing our attention back to him, “the kidnapper may want the government of Dauush not to do something.”

  Thinking about Shepherd’s options and their implications made my head hurt. I was ready for some direct action to rescue Terrhi.

  “I know what I need to do.”

  Poly looked at me with rising concern in her eyes.

  “I’m going to call Anthony Zwilniki and ask if he wants me to report for work early.”

  Four voices started to protest, but Spike rubbed his head against my hip and looked up at me with mournful eyes. He wanted Terrhi back fast, too.

  “Enough!” I said, raising my volume to be heard through the cacophony. “If we think Terrhi is being held at VIGorish Labs then that’s where I need to go, if only to do reconnaissance from the inside.”

  “It’s too dangerous for a civilian,” said Lieutenant Lee.

  “I’m our best chance, Lieutenant.”

  “Call me Martin.” I
nodded and smiled. “You’d be walking into the lion’s den,” he continued. His use of a biblical allusion gave me a clue to his character. I hope I lived long enough to get to know him better. I didn’t have that many friends.

  “Zwilniki will likely know that you know he’s behind Terrhi’s kidnapping,” said Poly.

  “True enough, but it sounds like he needs me, so he’s not going to kill me out of hand.” Man is not a rational creature but a rationalizing one, I told myself as I attempted to come up with more reasons why I might be able to pull off this rescue and still keep my skin whole. Poly took my arm and held it tightly.

  “I’m coming with you.”

  I impressed myself by not having my immediate reaction be some atavistic cave man response like “Over my dead body.” First, I didn’t want to be reminded of that all too likely possibility. Second, Poly was my partner—she could make up her own mind about what she wanted to do. And third, I was already thinking of half a dozen things she could do to help on the outside while I was on the inside. Several of them would probably help keep me alive.

  “That would be great,” I said. “You can use the Blend Into The Scenery suit.”

  “So you won’t be seeing much of me in the near future?” said Poly. Her eyes sparkled. I was glad she could still joke about the situation. I didn’t laugh but I smiled, grimly. A little bit of tension went out of my shoulders.

  I was concerned that we would not only have to deal with whatever Tony Zed had planned for me but also might face ten thousand trained mercenaries in pink jump suits. I had an idea about how to neutralize them and shared it with the group. They acknowledged that my suggestion had merit. I’d make a phone call to set the wheels in motion. Poly shared an idea of her own. I grinned and gave it a big thumbs up. Everyone else liked it, too. She would work with Tomáso, and Spike, to handle the relevant details. I like having a brilliant partner.

  “How are you planning to stay in contact with us when you’re inside VIGorish Labs?” asked Martin.