He paled slightly. “They were all killed,” he said resignedly. “Cut to pieces. They didn’t stand a chance.”
“How long did it take?”
“I don’t know. Ten minutes; maybe less.”
“Why didn’t you help them?”
“I couldn’t.”
“Why couldn’t you, Myer?”
“I just couldn’t. It was ...” He hesitated. “There weren’t enough of us, Morgan. There was nothing we could do.”
Roche nodded. This was, so far, little different from what Disisto had told her. “But why didn’t the trap catch you, Myer?”
He shrugged. “We were more careful, I guess.”
“How were you careful?”
“We—” he began, then looked away and fell silent.
“You knew the traps were there, didn’t you?” Roche asked after a few seconds.
His eyes met hers again. “We saw them not long after we reached Aro.”
“So why didn’t you warn the outriggers?”
“What do you want me to say, Morgan?” He was angry now. “That I was just following orders? Is that what you want to hear?”
“What I want doesn’t come into it. What I’d like is for you to just tell me the way it was.”
“Look,” he said, attempting again to sit up. “We just assumed the outriggers would see the traps too. We didn’t think there was any need to expose ourselves. If we did, then we risked endangering the station and everyone on board. We couldn’t afford to take any risks, so we didn’t. And I guess it worked, because the traps didn’t spring us, and neither did the outriggers.”
“So it was your decision not to act?” asked Haid.
“No, of course not,” Myer said, shaking his head irritably. “We had orders. It was my decision to follow them.”
“But what exactly were your orders?”
“I’ve already told you: to keep our heads down, no matter what happened.”
Roche glanced at Haid, then back at Mavalhin. “Aro was the obvious place to look for survivors. You would’ve seen them if they’d been there. What did Rufo tell you to do in such a situation?”
Mavalhin shrugged. “I can repeat it as often as you like; it’s not going to change anything.”
“Myer, if you’re telling the truth, then it changes everything.”
He looked puzzled. “How? You were already at odds with the chief.”
“Yes, but now it’s not personal; it’s not just me getting my friends back and settling a score. Now it’s about stopping the man who ordered you to do nothing as dozens of innocent people were slaughtered simply because they tried to help. It’s about justice.”
Mavalhin snorted. “How can you be so self-righteous? What about your ‘friend’ Adoni Cane? One of his associates is responsible for killing nearly everyone in this system—and yet you seem only concerned with what I did, or what Rufo ordered.”
“That’s not true,” said Roche. “This whole thing stinks. I just—”
“Box!” She started at the sound of the voice. “Is that really you?”
“But—”
With that she exited the medical facility and headed for the privacy of the bridge. She could tell that Haid was curious as to what was going on, but a proper explanation would have to wait—at least until she knew what was going on....
She nodded; that made a cold kind of sense.
Roche was surprised by the feeling of relief she felt at being in contact with the AI again. Kajic wouldn’t be far behind. For now, that was better than having definite answers.
Roche nodded; her thoughts exactly.
Realization suddenly hit.
She nodded thoughtfully to herself.
Roche worked it through step by step.
* * *
When she had finished talking to the Box, she rejoined Haid and helped him secure the ship. Together they prized Mavalhin into a suit, ignoring his protests at the rough treatment of his tender shoulder. Disisto, although now back in the ship, remained in his suit also; thus confined, the two were easier to control. At a simple command from Roche or Haid the suits could be frozen; both were programmed to seize up automatically if they approached within two meters of anyone without permission.
“What happens to us now?” asked Disisto while Roche and Haid double-checked the courier’s flight systems from the bridge.
“We take you back to Galine Four,” Roche replied without looking up. She didn’t need to see Mavalhin’s scowl to know it was there.
“And if I don’t want to go?” he asked. “You don’t have a choice, Myer,” she said. “Unless, of course, you’d like to stay out here after everyone’s left?”
“Listen, Morgan, the reason I helped you in the first place was so I didn’t have to go back.”
“Well, let’s just see what happens, okay?” said Roche tiredly. “If you help us like you did before, then perhaps we can drop you off somewhere else afterwards.”
“Assuming there is an afterwards,” he muttered.
“Enough, already!” Roche snapped. Then, more calmly to Haid she said: “Ameidio, get Auditor Byrne on the line.” Roche had better things to do than argue with her two captives. “We need to discuss tactics.”
She heard Disisto chuckle to himself. “That’s some fighting force you’ve got, Morgan,” he said.
“I’ve done better with less,” she retorted.
“Why not forget your friends for now? Maii will be released later, I’m sure.”
“Unharmed?” said Roche.
“As long as she doesn’t cause any trouble, yes.”
“And Cane?”
“I don’t know what will happen to him,” Disisto admitted. “But don’t you think you might be safer without him around anyway?”
Roche spun around in her seat to face Disisto. “How about we make a deal: I’ll stop trying to turn you against Rufo if you stop trying to use Cane against me.”
A thin grin touched Disisto’s lips. “Hit a nerve, have I?”
“Cane’s saved my life on more than one occasion. That deserves something, doesn’t it?”
“Maybe it does. But do you blame me, then, for being suspicious?”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about—”
“Morgan,” interrupted Haid. “Auditor Byrne says she can have a quorum together in ten minutes.”
Roche turned to check the ship’s systems, fuming. “Ask her if they’ll gather out here. I’d like to join them.”
“What about these two?”
“We’ll freeze them and put them on a tether. A little sensory deprivation will do them a world of good.” Then, more to herself than anyone else, she added: “Wouldn’t do me any harm to not have to listen to them for a while, either.”
“Hey, lighten up, Morgan—”
“Shut up, Myer.” She froze their suits with a mental command. “I’m not in the mood.”
She went over to help Haid clamber into his own suit.
“I’ve got a feeling I’m going to be in this for a while,” he said as she checked the seals down his left side.
“Bet on it.”
“At least we’re even, now.” His new hand, buried in his powered suit’s glove, curled upward into a clenched fist. “Fancy an arm wrestle?”
“Pass. But feel free to try Myer. He’d be stupid enough to take you on.”
She patted the last seal closed, then stepped back.
“Morgan.” Haid hesitated. “I don’t want to pry, but that was the Box you were talking to before, right?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“But how? We’re not registering any incoming signals.”
She stared at him for a moment. “It said it’s relaying to avoid detection. Maybe it’s masking the signals on our instruments too.”
“That’s kind of paranoid, don’t you think?”
“Maybe we should be glad it is.”
The ion bridge was in full flower as they left Daybreak to join the gathering quorum. Fifteen outriggers had gathered in a half-sphere around the patch of Mok Roche had chosen at random. She recognized some of them by sight alone: Yarrow’s midnight-black, Idil’s pinkish-orange, Lud’s diagonal black stripes, and one with a green triangle, from the previous quorum, whose name she didn’t know.
She and Haid took positions in front of the outriggers, towing Disisto and Mavalhin behind them. When they were stationary, Roche unfroze the two captives so they could see what was going on, and perhaps even contribute.
“This has been something of an unusual day for us, Morgan Roche.” Auditor Byrne’s teardrop all-suit floated not far from her at the rough center of the gathering. “We would normally only meet once or twice a standard year. Two quorums and one Plenary in less than a day is quite extraordinary.”
“It’s the situation which is extraordinary,” said Roche. “But again, I thank you for your cooperation.”
“As I said, by helping you we help ourselves,” the Auditor told her. She made no reference to Alik, the outrigger who had attacked Roche, but the knowledge of what she had done hung heavily upon the meeting. “Now, how exactly can we go about it?”
Roche took a deep breath. “You know that I have two friends held captive by Linegar Rufo in Galine Four. I intend to liberate them by any means possible. While doing so, I hope to obtain the information that has been gathered since Galine Four’s arrival in this system; this information should prove helpful in our investigation of the clone warriors.
“In return for your help in these matters, we will give you safe passage from this system. It may mean dismantling the spines to squeeze them into the holds, but we’ll do it. If I get out of here alive, so will you.”
“A fair exchange,” said Auditor Byrne. “But given the situation, I wouldn’t have accepted anything l
ess.”
“There is one other thing,” said Roche. “Rufo ordered the inaction of his observers around Aro, and as such is in part responsible for the destruction of Wide Berth’s clan. I don’t necessarily condone vengeance, but I will assist you in bringing him to justice, should you choose to do so.”
Private lasers darted between the gathered outriggers.
“Thank you, Morgan,” said Byrne. “But it is us whom Rufo has wronged, and if he is to answer for this, then it must be to us alone. It is necessary for the grief-healing of the clan.”
“Roche, that isn’t fair!” Disisto exclaimed. “At least grant Linegar the right of reply before you—”
“I warned you, Disisto. Ameidio, shut him out.” Disisto’s visor went black; his transmissions ceased in mid-outrage.
“How about you, Myer? Got a problem with this?”
Mavalhin looked at Roche steadily for a few seconds. “Not at all, Morgan. This is your show.”
“Okay,” she said, turning from the pilot. “Byrne, before we go into details, I need to ask you something. Idil said that she had taken over the all-suit of an older clan member when she died. Do you have any other such empty suits around?”
“We have six empty suits at this time, plus another fifteen recovered from Wide Berth. All are tethered to their respective spines. Why?”
“The Box can teleoperate them along with some of the Ana Vereine’s ancillary vessels and any others we can lay our hands on. They’ll only be decoys, but the more points we can attack from, the better.”
“Consider them at your disposal,” said Byrne.
“Excellent,” said Roche. “And if there are any of you reluctant to fight, you are welcome to stay on board the Ana Vereine during the attack—just as long as we have use of your suit to add to our decoys.”
“Without our suits, we are nothing,” said one of the outriggers, a statement that provoked a general susurrus of agreement.
“I understand that,” Roche put in quickly. “But at least this way you might still survive even if your all-suit was damaged. We can arrange some sort of sealed environment in the ship, if you like—even teleop facilities so you can still fly your suit. And should the worst occur, then I’m sure a replacement could be built to specifications at a later date.”
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