by Chris Reher
The doctor led Tov Pald down a stairway into the shielded lab. For a moment, the rebel’s shadow loomed over him like some horrific storybook monster, made all the more frightening by the stalking gait of his oversized feet. He had finally removed his respirator but that did not make him any less frightening to the Human. Knowing of what the rebel was capable only added to his sudden aversion to being alone with him down here.
Tague shrugged that eerie feeling off his shoulders as he entered the secured lab. Tov Pald had no reason to want to harm him or his staff. Their work on what may well be the most efficient and cheap power source to be developed outside the Commonwealth made him a valuable asset. Anything with such power surely also made for a vastly superior weapon.
No one currently worked in the brightly-lit space although several workstations faced the transparent wall of a clean room. In there a massive engineering marvel had grown in size and complexity over these past few weeks. A sealed door led outside through a narrow tunnel and a larger corridor opened to more lab space.
Tague rushed into the glassed-in room to insert the prongs protruding from each disk into the bottom of a cylinder. Tov Pald watched from outside as the indicators on the vertical pipes came to life, soon indicating a full charge. “No leaks,” Tague reported, relieved. Obtaining the particles was costly and each of these counted, even if they employed traders already travelling through sub-space to simply scoop them up.
A rapid ticking sound alerted him to a discrepancy in one of the cylinders. He adjusted the containment field but the sound only increased in frequency. “This is odd,” he said, momentarily forgetting the rebel waiting for him. “A variance. This one resonates counter to the others. Interesting.”
“So what can you report to the Brothers?” Tov Pald wanted to know. He looked at the lab’s monitors which clearly told him nothing.
Tague emerged from the safe room to join him by the work station. “Nothing you see here. We’re able to use these transducers quite effectively. These particles can, indeed, be converted into vast quantities of electromagnetic radiation with very little loss. The main expense, of course, is simply procuring the raw material to begin with.”
“I know all that.”
Reylan Tague smiled, unable to contain himself. He had to share this with someone, even if that someone was a Caspian mercenary with a limited grasp of physics. How he wished for a colleague to revel in this new discovery. Of course, the shortage of available colleagues was currently part of his problem. He picked up a thin sheet that resembled the data sleeves all of them used and motioned for Tov Pald to follow him out of the containment lab and into a short corridor.
“Look.” He stopped beside a door locked with a crude bolt but did not open it. Instead, he activated a screen that looked like it had only recently been affixed to the wall. A camera switched on and Tov Pald saw the interior of a small, mostly empty lab. Panels of pale green material similar to what he had seen in the main area covered the walls, hinting at heavy shielding against whatever the physicist found interesting. The floor on which they stood was also padded with it.
What seemed most out of place here was the folding cot along one wall and the presence of a young Feydan pacing about the space. She appeared to be talking to himself, complete with gestures and animated facial expressions.
“Who’s that? Who is she talking to?” Tov Pald asked. Evidently, the woman was one of the lab’s own staff, still in her protective coveralls.
Tague activated a speaker system near the screen. “Jael, how are things in there?”
The woman looked up and then rushed toward the camera, causing Tov Pald to take an involuntary step backward. “Rey! You’ve got to let me out. This is pointless. I need to leave.”
“Because of your friend in there?”
“Yes, it can’t be in here. You don’t understand.” The Feydan glanced to her left and bit her lower lip. “I… Please just let me out.”
“Just try to relax a bit, Jael,” Tague said. “We’ll figure this out. You know I can’t let you go just yet, don’t you?”
“Come on, Doc. That wasn’t my fault. We had no way to know it would react like this. I don’t think it meant any harm.”
“What is she shouting about?” Tov Pald said.
“I’m sure it didn’t, Jael. Just try to keep calm. We’ll know more soon. I’m working around the clock on this.” Tague checked the data storage sheet in his hands before bending to slip it under the locked door. “This’ll keep you both busy for a while. I’ll see what else I can find later. How’s that?” He closed the com system before the Feydan had time to reply. Something that might have been fists slammed against the door from the inside.
“Doctor…” Tov Pald said.
“She’s a bit agitated. I don’t want to sedate her although I might have to slip something into her meal if she doesn’t calm down. She was with us when we first isolated and captured the sub-space particles discovered by the Delphians. Something happened to her. She was exposed.” Tague nearly shivered with delight. “I have every reason to believe that she’s been… inhabited by something sentient.”
Tov Pald stared at him for a moment and then threw back his head to bellow harsh laughter. “Doctor, you’ve been out on this rock for far too long. You told us what we’re collecting are just fragments. Now they’re a whole new and invisible species and you have one in there talking to that Feydan?”
“No, not invisible. Not really. It communicates telepathically. It somehow affected that woman’s brain. I am hoping to find out how. She was quite reasonable at first but then something upset her and she killed our assistant. Accidentally, I’m sure.” He hesitated a moment. “Of course, research into this phenomenon will take time and funds. And more particles. For some reason, they have a far shorter half-life than expected. It’s possibly even a self-destructive mechanism.”
Tov Pald scowled at him, close to losing his patience. “So now your sub-space spooks are suicidal? Perhaps you should build them a nicer habitat.” He turned to walk back into the main lab. “I am damn sure the Brothers have no interest in your little zoo here. You said you can develop a decent source of power with this. One we can weaponize. If you lose a few people along the way, so be it. Don’t waste our funds on this nonsense.”
“You don’t understand, Pald.”
The Caspian turned, looking not at all pleased to be addressed so casually. “What exactly am I not understanding?”
The doctor was undaunted by the man’s sneer. “Once that being had a grip on Jael, it tapped into our data system. Got past our security like a neutrino through lead. I don’t think it even slowed for a second. Jael tried to stop it from getting into our mainframe. When she couldn’t we moved to isolate her. That’s when she killed our colleague, Sanjay. She just touched him!”
Tov Pald regarded him thoughtfully. “It breached your system? We set that up ourselves. It’s not something you can just hack into.”
“Well, she did. Or, rather, it did.” Tague gestured at the containment cylinders in the lab. “I think it needs a living host to survive in real-space. Imagine what that sort of ability could accomplish if one of your own agents were to be… inhabited by one of these beings. Yes, sure, you can use these to make weapons or power your ships. But if they are, indeed, sentient and able to cooperate, all of that is trivial. Imagine the possibilities! We’d have access to any Air Command system.”
Tov Pald reached under his overcoat to scratch his finely-furred chest as he considered this, still gazing at the inscrutable machinery inside the lab. Tague hid a smile when he could almost see the figures coming together in this man’s calculations. “Maybe one in ten trips actually comes up with one of these things. Some of the crews we sent ended up dead. One ship never even emerged again, as far as we know. Word is getting out. We have to pay more for each delivery.”
“That’s why you’re using pirates and smugglers instead of your own crews.”
“How much more do you
need?”
Tague chewed his lip. “We can’t properly develop this overnight. I’ll need test subjects that we can dispose of and of course more samples. More funds as well. This will require new security measures. I could also use an exobiologist, hopefully someone educated in neurology.”
The Caspian’s yellow eyes shifted to the physicist. “You’re asking for much. What about Suncion?” he said, meaning the town that had sprung up around this cluster of research labs. “Recruit some people to help you with your little project. I’m sure you can think up some story to have them join.”
Tague nodded. “That would do. I kept the crew of the last water delivery. Two halfbreeds out of Pelion and a Magran. They, ah, didn’t make it and I’d appreciate if you could, ah, dispose of them for me.”
Tov Pald showed his sharp teeth. “Throw them in the swamp. Do not let me catch you experimenting with Caspians.”
“No, of course not,” Tague said quickly. He had, in fact, considered just that. Despite their fearsome predator exterior, Caspians possessed vast mental capacities. But he was not about to risk the ire of this rebel whose loose trigger finger was legendary even out here. “This Feydan will do for now. The room you saw is shielded as tightly as the collectors. I’ve found a frequency that interferes with its ability to penetrate our electronic systems. But I’ve been, well I suppose feeding it data to help it understand our world.”
“Feeding it what?”
“Languages, technology, ethnology and a history of our struggle against the Commonwealth, among other things. It’s absorbing information at an astonishing rate. Unfortunately, it doesn’t pass that knowledge on to Jael. The Feydan seems to exist as little more than a connection to our physical world. I hope to eventually be able to communicate with it directly.” Tague pointed up at a blank monitor. “So far, it’s shown no interest in using even written words to reach others.”
“Be sure it doesn’t get access to anything it shouldn’t.”
“Of course not,” the doctor assured him, hoping that Tov Pald would dig no further. Clearly, the moment Jael was allowed to leave the lab area, the creature inside her head would have access to anything it wanted. “This lab is isolated. Once we have perfected this, I hope to transfer this entity into an agent with higher clearance. We continue to refine our processes but so far the success rate is not good. But what was done once can be done again. Imagine how much someone like that will be worth to the Brothers.”
Tov Pald nodded thoughtfully. “I’ll see what I can do to get you more to work with. Find out why people are dropping dead when they get exposed. I don’t want more casualties out there. We need to keep this quiet.”
“We’re working on just that. It’s quite possibly due to the loss incurred during tunneling. The entities are simply not complete by the time they are captured. I’ve been able to keep some of the other fusions alive, although their cognitive functions were damaged to some degree, unlike Jael’s. They’re over here if you’d care to—”
Tov Pald waved his hand in a dismissive gesture and turned away. “I’m not interested in your failures.”
Tague walked ahead of Tov Pald into the upper lab. “Tell me more about those Centauri you saw going down on Rishabel. Did your people detect any sort of energy discharge? Gamma radiation? Radon? Visible light?”
“Nothing. It was over in seconds. Messy. The Vanguards’ neural taps send a distress signal the moment their brains stop ticking. My crew didn’t stick around. No idea how much more Air Command scum is wandering around that station these days.”
“Were both of them Vanguard?”
“Just the female. The other was with the smugglers, I guess.”
“Hmm.” Tague scratched his chin, finding several days’ of growth there. When was the last time he had shaved? “Are you sure they’re dead? Jael here didn’t look all that well for a while after this happened.”
“No, I’m not sure,” Tov Pald said. “I wasn’t there. You think they might have been exposed?”
“If they were exposed and survived they’d be very useful to me here. If they’re dead, my Union counterparts will be suspecting something very unusual by now. We may not have a lot of time to take full advantage of this discovery.”
“Alive or dead, they could be anywhere by now,” Tov Pald said. “I’ll have our people on Rishabel check it out. Meanwhile, the Brothers are going to be very interested in your discovery here. Make this thing work, and quickly, if you want to keep them happy.” He checked his data sleeve. “It’ll be dark in a few days, Targon time, and I’m going to come back for the hunt.”
Tague winced. As much as he was glad for the extra armed mercenaries here when the suns set and Csonne’s wildlife dared to encroach upon Suncion, the brutal murder of those beasts filled him with disgust. Caspians like Tov Pald, Humans and some Feydans prided themselves on their ability to face down the moor’s ferocious reptiles armed with little more than knives.
“Be sure to have a few success stories by then. The Brothers won’t tolerate anything less. You can figure out what that means.”
Chapter Eight
“Is that an Aikhoran yast?” Khoe asked. “It’s so huge!”
“It is,” Seth said, touched by her excitement and even more amused by the way Caelyn was hiding his.
The Delphian peered from under his hood at the lumbering beast being led down the narrow street, every bit as entertained as Khoe by the variety of people and species that converged in this Magran harbor town. Although she had studied the more common species of Trans-Targon found in Seth’s data bank, actually seeing them at such close range left her in awe. Caelyn, too, had seen some of these only from a distance, if at all.
He stepped carefully around a pile of something left behind by the animal. “Why are we down this way,” he said after a glance at his mapper. “The air field is to the east.”
“Which is why we’re over here,” Seth said. “Smells like Air Command.”
“Oh? Air Command on Magra Torley? And how do they smell?”
“To Khoe, like someone tied to the base station cruising around back there over Magra Alaric. She’s been tracking some of their com signals since we left the tower.” He tapped his data sleeve. “She’s been able link through this.”
They stood aside as a congregation of locals surged past them, dressed in somber robes that hid all but their eyes, on their way to whatever required such procession. Seth watched them move through the alley and out of sight. “Whoever they have poking around here will be suspecting rebels under every one of those cloaks. Very convenient. For us, anyway.”
“They’re just civilians,” Caelyn pointed out.
“Armed like bandits, like everyone else is here. That sort of hardware will have our friends running in circles. Why do you think Torley is so popular among my supposed confederates?”
“I thought Air Command isn’t welcome on this continent,” Khoe said, staring up at a towering metal structure from which small cable cars slid, soon disappearing beyond the rooftops into the direction of the shore. “Can we ride one of those? Those look like fun.”
Seth looked up, thinking that the framework for the gondolas looked even more rickety than the last time he had seen it. “Expect agents in plain clothes,” he said.
He led the way through a gate and into a cobbled courtyard walled off from the street. A portly Human sat on the ground before a grill upon which several shallow pans sizzled and steamed. From an open doorway behind him drifted the sound of a flute of some sort. The man kept time with the tongs he used to stir his concoctions.
“Kada!” He waved them closer when he finally noticed them.
“Kerrick.” Seth smiled when they approached.
“That’s my second daughter playing like angels singing in the mists of Mount Avelar.” He closed his eyes while they listened to a few more plaintive notes. “Have you ever heard such sweetness?”
“Not in recent memory,” Seth said with a wink at Khoe. She was no do
ubt thinking of the long argument they fought to a draw aboard the Dutchman when she decided to study music. Clearly, they would never agree on that particular subject.
Caelyn peered at the grill. “Dinner?” he asked, although it was still morning on this side of the planet.
The Human squinted at the stranger. “You’re keeping interesting company, Kada.”
“New navigator,” Seth explained. “I’m branching out. Doing some deep space runs. I hear that’s profitable these days.”
“I’d say.” Kerrick pointed at his dishes. “You wouldn’t like the taste of this, Delphian.” Like a magician before his audience, he waved his tongs like a wand and then picked up a pan with dark red liquid. When he flung the content into a bowl of water it solidified at once into small pearlescent beads. He picked out a few large specimens and scooped the remainder back into his pan. “See those? On Feron, that’s currency. Here, all it takes are a few tocla beetle carapaces and my secret recipe.”
“Impressive,” Caelyn said to the forger. Do any of your friends do an honest day’s work? he added for Seth.
He’s more honest than most, Seth replied. See anything around here? he sent to Khoe, not wanting to risk their host’s good will by checking his perimeter scanner himself.
“Nothing. Some children in that house. Two women. Nothing interesting on his com channels, either. No one’s listening.”
“Got my plane?” Seth said to Kerrick.
“All ready to go. It’s now registered to a Pelion outfit called Skykoro. Deloused down to the last circuit and detailed in a pretty shade of red. Coolant’s topped up. You were covered in bugs. Thank you very much for bringing Air Command down on us. Why are they chasing you this time?” He fumbled through his caftan to fish a device from one of his numerous pockets.