I felt sore, tired, and scared. This also was “normal.” I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at that.
I wondered if the New Council captain, Venner, had known Henoit. I wondered why she came here with An Serat. Pretty obvious he used them to get Farseer back. Serat and the H’digh seemed close. Murdoch said he’d found Serat on a H’digh colony planet when he was looking for me and Calypso II.
Why was Venner still here? Stone seemed to be trying to keep a calm facade, but we all knew how false that was. If the New Council stayed here, ConFleet would eventually return and attack them. The station would be caught in the cross fire. Why hadn’t An Serat taken Farseer and run, making a jump point to wherever he wanted to go? If that was indeed possible. He obviously hadn’t given Venner and the New Council their own jump drive, otherwise Venner wouldn’t be waiting around in a tactically suicidal situation.
I stopped at a public comm station and tried to look for Invidi and H’digh biosignals on the station-wide sensor net, but the interface informed me that I was not authorized to access that system. I groaned. Just tell me where An Serat is, will you?
Thirty
At the main Security office in Alpha the desk sergeant, Rick Banna, pointed upstairs when he saw me. A small, beak-nosed human with close-cropped gray hair and narrow eyes, Banna came with the first EarthFleet troops when Jocasta was only one and a half rings.
Now, his attention remained on the soundless complaints of a pair of Garokians gesticulating in front of him. I waited until the Garokians’ hands paused and then told him about the constable in Gamma ring who needed assistance.
The briefing room upstairs was crammed with maybe thirty people. Dull green Security uniforms, light blue EarthFleet uniforms, a smattering of dark blue ConFleet uniforms like my own. I slipped in the half-open door and leaned against the back wall, invisible behind two sturdy olive-clad backs.
Lieutenant Sasaki’s voice. “... remember, we have to stretch our resources in the best way we can. So be creative.”
I squinted between the constables and saw Murdoch take Sasaki’s place at the front of the room. A holographic map of the station glowed behind him, an immense tracery of differently colored threads, yellow for throughways, green for corridors, blue for vertical access including lifts and maintenance shafts. Red blips indicated the presence of Security staff. I noticed a number of them clustered at various locations within the lower levels of the spokes, but none in the center.
“Right, I’m going to recap and then we’ll be off.” Murdoch’s slow, measured tones held the room’s attention. “First, the Q’Chn.”
A few voices murmured something.
“I know,” continued Murdoch. “Saying it too loud makes me uncomfortable, too. But they’re not legends anymore, they’re real. And they’re here. So let’s get used to it and treat them like any other threat.”
“Preferably from a long way off,” said a voice, and people chuckled. The laughter skated along the edges of tension without defusing it.
“Yeah, if we can,” Murdoch said. “Basically, we leave ’em alone unless they attack us. You heard what Sergeant Kwon and Constable Singh said—the Q’Chn they have up there aren’t behaving like our history files tell us. They’re smaller, they react different, they seem to be taking orders from the New Council.” He nodded at someone in the crowd. “When I interviewed a couple of Vengeful ’s crew in sickbay, they confirmed this—the Q’Chn are behaving less like killing machines and more like sentient beings.”
“Sir, is it true they can talk?” said a voice from the middle.
Murdoch shook his head. “We don’t know. The Vengeful reports say they can receive orders. We’ve only got one report of them speaking and that, with respect to Constable Pui, is impossible to substantiate. He might have just seen them gathering together. So don’t go trying to invite one of them down for a cuppa to discuss its problems.”
From the roar of laughter, that was a Security-wide “in” joke.
“So we’re leaving them alone,” Murdoch raised his voice slightly and the laughter subsided. “But we gotta be prepared for the shit to hit. We’re nearly finished evacuating the spokes and when that’s done, Sergeant Desai’s squad is going to work with Engineering and get the spokes sealed off and the uplifts restricted. And keep it restricted, people. No letting some small-time crap-seller back in to pick up its ancient grandma’s valuable heirloom.”
More knowledgeable laughter. I suspected something like that might have happened last time we sealed off the spokes.
“And within the rings, I want to be able to seal off sections if we can. Which means moving luggage and people if they’re in the way.”
“Buildings, too?” asked a voice.
“If they’re in a restricted area, yes,” said Murdoch. His gaze was level and serious. “Raze the bloody things so the containment walls can activate. We need to be able to restrict access. I’m not having one of the bastards flying around like last time.”
That wasn’t strictly true. The single Q’Chn we’d had on Jocasta before the end of the Seouras blockade had attacked and killed three humans in Delta ring, but it hadn’t flown—it had merely used its “wings” to glide from a second-story conduit ledge to the deck, slicing a couple of victims on the way.
“Sir, can’t they melt their way through bulkheads?” A young voice, trying to control its quaver.
“We don’t know,” said Murdoch. “Someone said that’s only possible in vacuum. Like when they attack a ship. It’s something I’m not keen to find out. But at least we can contain them for long enough to evacuate.”
I knew, he knew, the whole room knew, it wasn’t enough. We couldn’t evacuate the entire station in time, even if we had access to emergency transport and somewhere to go. Jocasta was too overcrowded.
“Parallel to that, normal patrols and every extra pair of feet we have should be out in the rings, making sure all residents know their escape routes and are ready. It’s important people are informed and that they get their closest routes cleaned up themselves. ”
Murdoch paused, looked at the faces in front of him, then waved his hand back at the holo. “We can’t cover all this ourselves. Don’t even try. Make sure residents know if they don’t confirm their escape routes themselves, nobody’s going to do it for them. If they’re busy clearing the corridors and access doors, they’re going to be too busy to panic. I don’t need to tell you we must avoid that.”
“And if the Q’Chn do attack, sir?” A deeper voice.
Murdoch looked carefully around the room again. His gaze passed without seeing me.
“Depends if it’s an isolated incident or not. If one of them gets down in the rings, your main priority is to get people out of the area. Ordinary plasma or radiation-based weapons are ineffective against the Q’Chn.” He said the name deliberately, as though by using it he could dampen some of the menace. “The only time, and I repeat, the only time you fire anything at one of these things is to divert it from an attack on civilians.”
Silence. Security was here to protect the people of the station. But they hadn’t expected to have to place their lives between the residents and killer aliens.
“Sergeant Roads and myself are working on more effective diversionary measures. We’ll let you know as soon as we have preparations in place. Any questions?”
Nobody said anything.
“Dismissed. Get out there and do it.”
The room cleared rapidly. I waited until the last few people shuffled out the door, then joined Murdoch and Sasaki, who were looking at the holo with their backs to the rest of the room.
“What’s your diversionary measure?” I said.
Murdoch spun around. His face creased into an unguarded smile. “You’re okay.”
His evident pleasure made me feel more than okay. I grinned back. “Pretty much.”
“Nice to have you back,” said Sasaki. “Again,” she added with a smile.
Murdoch’s eyes narrowed an
d he looked at me more closely. “What happened?” He touched my cheek and I tilted my head away, embarrassed in front of Sasaki in case Henoit’s presence made me react to the touch, but there was nothing.
“I had coolant poisoning. Eleanor says the antidote or whatever has to start working before she can clean it up.” I’d glimpsed my face in a polished door surface on the way here and it looked as bruised as the rest of me—as though I’d been under five- or six-g acceleration.
“Shit,” he said, seemingly more irritated than concerned. “You really don’t know when to take it easy, do you?”
“This is hardly the time for head of...” My voice trailed away as I realized what I’d been about to say.
“Right. You’re not head of station now, so you don’t have to rush out and put yourself in danger. Sit tight for a while.”
“And wait for the Q’Chn to find me?” I looked at him, uncertain what his problem was. “Nobody’s safe while they’re here. You just said so yourself.”
“You’re no help if you’re...”
Sasaki cleared her throat gently. “Ahem. Chief, do you want me to tell Roads to go ahead?”
Murdoch seemed to take a mental step back. “Yeah, you do that, Helen. I’ll be down in ten.”
Sasaki raised an eyebrow at me and walked out.
Murdoch and I watched each other warily.
“So what’s your diversion?” I said, and tried a half smile with it.
He turned abruptly to the holo, drawing his finger through a blue column and into a white-outlined cube. “Here.”
“Storage bay on Level Eight?”
“Sigma 41, to be exact.”
It sounded familiar, but I couldn’t remember from where. “What’s it got to do with the Q’Chn?”
“That’s where Veatch let Trillith store the rest of its fuel cache.”
Big containers of highly flammable and explosive gases. The Sigma bays were reinforced in case we had an accident with dangerous substances, but if Murdoch intended using the fuel to make some sort of flamethrower, he’d have to modify it for use in the rings and therefore lose its power…
“I thought we could use the fire control system to spread flammable mist instead of retardant. Then you set a small bomb to go off among the fuel pods and boom.” He said it lightly but his eyes were hard.
I winced. “You’ll blow containment on that level, possibly the ones above and below. If the angle is wrong, we risk debris hitting the rings.”
“We can evacuate beforehand and have bots ready to deflect any debris. As long as the hull’s self-repair functions are active, should be okay. That’s why we couldn’t try something like this last time, remember?” He scratched his head angrily. “The only thing that’ll work against the Q’Chn is something so primitive, or so advanced, that they’re not ready for it.”
Trillith would be furious if Security somehow used its fuel to combat the Q’Chn, even if it had come by the cargo illegally in the first place.
Then I remembered the significance of Sigma 41 and nearly laughed aloud. It was the storage bay where we found Keveth’s body, after it was killed by the Q’Chn that terrorized the station at the end of the Seouras blockade. Keveth was another K’Cher, whom Trillith had betrayed and left to die. And now Murdoch would use Trillith’s property to destroy more Q’Chn in the same place.
“Good spot for it.”
He grinned. “Thought you’d remember.”
“How many of them are here?”
He shook his head. “We’re not sure. Kwon saw two of them when he escorted Stone up there for his little talk with their captain. And there was another one in Spoke Two at the same time, so that’s three definite. There must be more on Vengeful because most of their fighters stayed there.”
“So how are you going to get these three we’ve got on the station in the storage bay?”
“We’re still working on that. But we have an edge.”
“Which is?”
“We’re not telling everyone, but we’ve been monitoring most of the communication between the New Council ship and the other Q’Chn out there. When I say communication ‘between,’ I mean orders going from the New Council to the Q’Chn. Seems the New Council captain has to repeat a lot of orders. The Q’Chn don’t want to listen. And she lied to them about a couple of things.”
“Such as?” “Such as there being no members of the Four on Jo-casta.”
“You know how the Q’Chn hate the K’Cher. Venner probably doesn’t want them all to head this way and leave the point unprotected. It would leave the space clear for ConFleet to get ships through.”
“Mmm. Anyway, we think this monitoring works both ways—the New Council can probably pick up our comm signals as well.”
“And they haven’t realized we can read them?”
“Dunno. Engineering reckons not. They’re being pretty free with their information if that’s the case.”
“We’d better not be free with ours, then.”
“That’s why I’ve put restrictions on information to be sent via comm link,” he said patiently.
I thought of the Q’Chn fighters clustered around Vengeful and the scrum of fighters, shuttles, and escape pods around the jump point. “Bill, how many of Vengeful ’s crew got away?”
“We monitored the jump point opening at least ten times,” he said somberly.
Not many. “An Barik’s ship?”
“The Bubble said they picked up an Invidi engine signature, but they don’t know if it got away or was destroyed in that area.”
“Bill, where’s An Serat? I saw him when I landed Farseer. ”
“I don’t know and I don’t care.” He met my eyes. “He’s in the center, as far as I know. That bloody ship is still there, too. Halley, I’ve got my hands full keeping people safe here. Leave the jump drive to the Invidi. At least for the moment,” he amended. “We need you as an engineer.”
“Why?”
“Opsys problems all over. No pattern to the disturbances, but we had major breakdowns a couple of hours ago in Gamma transport and Delta comm systems. Main Engineering reckons it’s a core problem, but the New Council won’t let anyone up there. Stone’s supposed to be explaining to them how it could be the airlocks on their dock that fail next. Dunno if they’ll listen to him, though.”
“Maybe they’ll listen to me.”
“I reckon you should stay away from them. It was you who messed up their try at getting Calypso last time. You’re not going to be their favorite person.”
Good point. And he was also right that if the opsys problems got out of control, we were in big trouble.
“I’ll contact Gamet and see what it is,” I said.
His shoulders relaxed and he ran his hand over his head, as though relieved. “Thanks. I’m going to work on our diversion.”
“Don’t you think the New Council have too much at stake to start making enemies among the Nine and unaligned worlds like us? I mean, if they terrorize us, the rest of the galaxy’s going to hear about it.”
“I dunno why they’re here at all. Doesn’t make sense. Why risk exposing themselves at Central to make a jump here, to a system still patrolled by ConFleet?”
“An Serat must have jumped for them.”
“Because he needed Q’Chn muscle to get this ship?” He frowned. “If it’s that damn important...”
“Remember what I said about the off-network jumping?”
“You think Serat jumped the New Council here from somewhere off the network?”
“No, they came out of the Central jump point. And I don’t think Serat can do it on any old ship with jump drive. He needs Farseer. ”
He frowned even worse. “That’s a pretty big conclusion to jump to.”
“An Barik gave me a clue.”
He blew out in exasperation. “So Serat gets together with the New Council again, in order to get Farseer back, because for whatever reason—Invidi politics—Barik’s got here first with ConFleet and beaten him t
o it. So why hasn’t Serat got into the New Council freighter with Farseer and pissed off again? Why’s he hanging around waiting for ConFleet to come back?”
He walked over to the wall controls and deactivated the holomap. The complex tracery of colors disappeared, leaving the room drab and pale.
“You’re right about it being a big risk for the New Council,” I said. “I imagine Serat’s offered them something they can’t refuse.”
“A jump drive?”
“What else? Or rather, a ship calibrated so that one of the Nine can use the drive.”
“Maybe he’s not giving it to them, and they’re refusing to leave until he does?” Murdoch said.
“He could go off by himself in Farseer. No reason for him to wait for the New Council. More likely they’re waiting for him—they won’t be able to jump out of here without Serat.”
“Unless they force one of the Bendarl to jump what’s left of Vengeful for them,” Murdoch said distastefully.
“If the Q’Chn left anyone alive.” As the words left my mouth a sickening image of what might have happened on Vengeful made me turn away, so he wouldn’t see the fear on my face.
I thought of An Barik’s warning of Farseer being unstable. Or Serat being unstable. Might the knowledge of danger be keeping Serat himself from using Farseer ?
“Bill, it’s possible that using Farseer could destabilize jump points. An Barik seemed to be warning me not to use it.”
“We used it okay.” He paused in the act of putting a handcom and other small pieces of equipment on his belt.
“Yes, but only once. If using Farseer is dangerous, we should try and stop Serat leaving here with it.”
He finished his preparations. “It’s not our responsibility. The other Invidi...”
“Aren’t here,” I interrupted. “They can’t stop Serat. We can.”
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