by Диана Дуэйн
"Not at all," Kharls said. "When you have my job for long enough, you learn not to waste your time with platitudes or beliefs about human nature. Human beings in the specific, rather than the general are my study. Trends and large movements. yes, those, too, but separately. Lumping them all together, expecting human people to behave in a human way is always a mistake. We're much too, well, too personally Brownian a species to behave as expected. Great trends may move us. Great threats or inducements cause large groups of people to move one way or another, but there is always room for any particular particle to jiggle, and it tends to do so exactly in the way opposite from what one might reasonably expect. She jiggled, that's all."
Gabriel filed that away for later analysis, but said nothing in response.
Kharls sighed. "This will be my last visit for a while. I am moving on in a day or so."
"I suppose I should thank you," Gabriel said.
"For what?" Kharls said. "You must now spend ten years in confinement. Lives are longer than they used to be, but ten years is a long while for so young a man. Tools rust, talents go to hell." Kharls looked at him sharply. "I expect you not to let that happen."
And he was gone, just that suddenly, while Gabriel still was in the process of opening his mouth to say something cutting.
Too late. The door of the cell was shut. Gabriel looked at it and said silently, I'll get you for that some day.
Late that night something woke Gabriel up, a sense that he was being looked at. This happened often enough, especially now that a mere glance at his door by a passerby could cause Gabriel to come alert, but this time he genuinely was being looked at.
Blue eyes. Big blue eyes, almost luminous even in this near darkness.
Will you come with me? Enda asked.
Gabriel sat up in the bed, half confused by sleep. How'dyou get in here? Where's the guard? Gabriel, be still and come on!
They made their way swiftly out of the cell and through the dimmed corridors of the security area. Not a soul was to be seen. The one duty officer who routinely manned the desk down at the corridor's end was not there.
Gabriel came out at the end of the corridor, and someone slipped near him from around a corner and threw a cloak over him, the kind of thing an Orlamu based on the station might wear.
"Come on," said Delde Sota's voice as she fell into step beside him. "Window of opportunity only so wide. Put these on." She pushed a pair of shaded glasses into his hands, something like a vacationer might wear on a sunny Bluefall day. "Will help to hide your eyes."
They do attract attention. Enda smiled at him apologetically as he donned the shades.
Ten minutes later they were on the public transport that led down to the main lifts serving the docking spars. The transport was full of a group of people coming back from a party, laughing and joking. No one had time to spare a glance for a fraal, a mechalus, and a sleepy Orlamu, all clinging together like the punchline from some offcolor joke.
The three of them got off the lift and headed down spar five. As they passed a port, Gabriel could see four ships berthed together there. Sunshine, Lalique, Longshot, and another ship he didn't know. To his astonishment, Enda pushed him past the lock serving Sunshine's tube and into the next one along, the one for the larger sleek ship he didn't know, the one as large as Lalique.
"But Enda—!"
"Grawl is handling Sunshine at the moment," she hissed. "Hurry!"
She pushed him into the new ship, shut the outer door and the inner door behind them, slapped the control to disconnect the tube, and headed forward to the pilot's cabin.
"Go, Helm!" she called.
"Grapples away," Helm said down comms, "starfall in one minute. Last one away gets to cook when we come out."
"Enda!" Gabriel raced after her, ditched the cloak and glasses in passing, and slid into the pilot's seat across from her. They were in a cabin that had to be three times the size of Sunshine's. "How did we.? Helm ?"
"Someone died and left it to you," Helm answered. "Who?"
"Bald guy with a funny staff. Just an opinion, of course. Can't swear to it. I didn't see anything. Can we get out of here before he changes his mind?"
"Where are we going?"
"Away out where you can look for all these other strange places you've been told about," Enda said, "and where we can use up all those staples you bought!" She tsked softly. "I really am going to have to find a way to get some more exercise. I shall put on weight, otherwise."
We will certainly have some dealings outside ofthe judicial process, Kharls had said.
The ships arrowed away from the docking spars, and Gabriel looked over his shoulder at the great bulk of Lighthouse. The side turned toward Algemron shone brilliantly. The battle scars from the battle had been thoroughly cleaned, though a few rents in the hull were still being repaired. The vast ship's darker half sparkled with dozens of lights, any one of which could have come from the viewport of the Concord Administrator's office. Perhaps.
You son of a bitch! Gabriel thought as loudly as he could.
Four vessels soared away briefly on system drive, then made starfall.
And all the starfalls were black.
Aboard the Lighthouse, a man in the act of packing his few belongings stood up straight, suddenly possessed of a roaring headache.
I've brought this on myself, he thought.
The Concord Administrator stood there with his head throbbing. The pain was probably only a harbinger of things to come. The events of the past weeks were going to take a good while to settle, and he expected a fair amount of recrimination from his superiors over exactly how his plans had worked out. It was the cross he routinely bore that they usually did not understand what he had been doing, even when he explained it in mind-shattering detail.
Results, though. those they understood. eventually. They would be weeks digesting the ones that had resulted from the events at Algemron. It would give him time to marshal his thoughts and recuperate a little. It never took him long, for completing any piece of work always lent him energy. Then he would start the next plan of action, which would also have to be explained to the people above him in the hierarchy, and which despite the explanation, they also would not understand.
He was used to that, though. Such situations often provided their own refreshments—such as beings who were not his superiors but did understand.
He paused, went out to the window, and looked out into the darkness. There was a greater darkness coming, one with its own terrible agenda and possessing power much greater than had recently been seen. Humanity and its cousins would need all the help they could find in the fight against that encroaching darkness.
If there was anything he was sure of, it was that bureaucracy and governments and armies and mighty weapons were not the force that would finally win that fight. Individuals would do it, people who walked their own road, lifting their single weapons against the night and refusing to be cowed by the darkness around them. They were his kindred spirits, the ones who understood the old saying, "The lifting of the single sword will keep the whole world in peace." He would help them as he could, knowing that their swords and his were lifted in the same cause. Eventually they or their successors would triumph. Months or lifetimes. it did not matter to him. Together they would get the job done, though some of them walked strange roads to do so.
In the meantime, Lorand Kharls smiled to himself, enjoying the headache, for he knew where it came from. Then he picked up his tri-staff and headed off toward his next job.
Glossary
Aegis – A G2 yellow star. The metropolitan center of the Verge.
AI – Artificial Intelligence. Sentient computer programming whose sophistication varies from model to model.
alaith – A tropical tree native to Bluefall. Aleerin – see mechalus. Algemron – A G5 yellow star.
Alitar – Fourth planet of the Algemron system, and home to the Imperial State of Algemron. Angolas – A large asteroid of the Algemron system.
AU – Astronomical Unit. 150 million km
Austrin-Ontis Unlimited – A corporate stellar nation that is the strongest arms dealer in the Stellar Ring. Most Austrins view themselves as strong individualists with a deep sense of altruism.
Beranin – Once the largest and most beautiful city of Alitar, Beronin was nearly destroyed by the Galvinites in 2461. It has since been rebuilt as a fortress city.
Bluefall – Capital planet of the Aegis system. Ruled by the Regency government.
Builder – A segment of fraal society that believes in integration with other species and cultures.
Calderon – The innermost world of the Algemron system.
caulia – A red vegetable from the Stellar Ring noted for its rich flavor.
cerametal – An extremely strong alloy made from laminated ceramics and lightweight metals.
charge weapon – A firearm in which an electric firing pin ignites a chemical explosive into a white-hot plasma propellant, thus expelling a cerametallic slug at extremely high velocity.
Churgalt Insurgency – A force of rebels on Galvin who claim that the Federal State of Algemron is in league with unknown aliens.
Churgalt region – A densely forested area of Galvin's equatorial regions. CM armor – cerametal armor. Concord – see Galactic Concord.
Concord Survey Service – A division of Star Force dedicated to scouting, surveying, and first contacts. Conker – A derogatory term for citizens of the Galactic Concord.
Connor, Gabriel – A former Concord marine lieutenant, now freelance explorer and infotrader.
Corpse – A derogatory term for a VoidCorp Employee.
Corrivale – An F2 yellow-white star.
Coulomb – A red dwarf star near the edge of the Verge.
CSS – see Concord Survey Service.
Dalius – A small gas giant and the fifth world of the Algemron system.
Danwell – The only hospitable world of the Eldala system; homeworld of the edanweir.
Dareyev, Elinke – Captain of Star Force vessel Schmetterling.
David, Lemke – A Star Force second lieutenant navigator, usually called "Lem." Now deceased. Delonghi, Aleen – A member of Concord Intelligence.
DeVrona, Mara – A Concord Administrator currently assigned to the Algemron system. drivecore – The central engine core of a stardrive.
drivesat – A communications satellite that drops into drivespace in order to transmit and receive messages.
driveship – Any spaceship that is equipped with a stardrive.
drivespace – The dimension into which starships enter through use of the stardrive. In this dimension, gravity works on a quantum level, thus enabling movement of a ship from one point in space to another in only 121 hours.
durasteel – Steel that has been strengthened at the molecular level. edanwe (pl. edanweir) – A sentient species native to Danwell. Eldala – A newly discovered system past Mantebron.
Enda – A fraal.
Erhardt Field – The main spaceport and airport of Galvin. Located about 20 kilometers from the city center in the Verdant Mountains.
e-suit – An environment suit intended to keep the wearer safe from vacuum, extreme temperatures, and radiation.
External – A term used to describe anything that originates beyond known space. Falada – A Concord Star Force Heavy Cruiser.
flechette gun – Any firearm that utilizes bundles of tiny, razor-sharp aerofoils as projectiles.
Fort Drum – The capital city of the Federal State of Algemron on Galvin.
fraal – A non-Terran sentient species. Fraal are very slender, large-eyed humanoids.
Galactic Concord – The thirteenth stellar nation, formed by the Treaty of Concord. Concord law and administration rule in the Verge.
Galactic Standard – The lingua franca of known space.
Galvin – Home planet of the Federal State of Algemron.
gillie – A small gamefish native to Bluefall noted for its seventeen gill-slits.
gravity induction – A process whereby a cyclotron accelerates particles to near-light speeds, thereby creating gravitons between the particle and the surrounding mass. This process can be adjusted and redirected, thus allowing the force of gravity to be overcome. Most starships use a gravity induction engine for in-system travel.
Grawl – A weren poetess.
Grid – An interstellar computer network.
Grith – A moon of Hydrocus and the only habitable world in the Corrivale system. gurnet – A quadripedal species native to Kurg favored for its meat. Gyrofresia ondothalis fraalii – see "Ondothwait" Halo – A small gas giant of the Algemron system.
Hammer's Star – A yellow G5 star. Site of the outermost Concord outpost in the Verge.
Hatire Community – A theocratic stellar nation founded on the founded on the general anti-technology religion of the same name.
Hatire faith – A religion that preaches ascendance through union with the spirit of the Cosimir, a Precursor deity that the Hatire adopted as their own. Most Hatire hold attitudes antagonistic to technology and abhor all forms of man-machine integration.
Havryn – A gas giant of Algemron and largest planet in the system. High Mojave – The only inhabited world of the Mantebron system. Also the site of the best-preserved Glassmaker ruins.
holocomm – holographic communication.
halodisplay – The display of a holocomm that can be viewed in either one, two, or three dimensions, Ilmater – A lifeless world of Algemron. Inseer – A citizen of Insight.
Insight – A subsidiary of VoidCorp that broke away to form a separate stellar nation. Citizenry is dominated by freethinking Grid pilots who believe that humanity can reach its destiny only in Gridspace.
Iphus – A planet in the Corrivale system.
Iphus Collective – A mining facility run by StarMech Collective on Iphus.
JustWadeIn – A software program developed by Insight that allows the user to learn space combat at ever-increasing levels of difficulty.
Kendai – A planet of the edge of the Stellar Ring that houses the drivespace relay that connects communications between the stellar nations and the Verge.
Kharls, Lorand – A Concord Administrator.
kraath – A hostile external species of unknown origin.
Lalique – Angela Valiz's driveship.
lanth cell – The standard lanthanide battery used to power most small electronic equipment and firearms. lighthouse – A huge space station, capable of 50 light-year starfalls, that roams the Verge. Lightning Nebula – An unexplored region of space beyond Hammer's Star. Longshot – Helm Ragnarsson's weapon-laden driveship.
Long Silence – That period of time when the Stellar Nations lost contact with the Verge because of the Second Galactic War.
Mantebron – One of the outermost star systems of the Verge, mass weapon – A weapon that fires a ripple of intense gravity waves, striking its target like a massive physical blow.
mass reactor – The primary power source of a stardrive. The reactor collects, stores, and processes dark matter, thus producing massive amounts of energy.
mechalus – The most common term used for an Aleerin, a sentient humanoid symbiote species that has achieved a union between biological life and cybernetic enhancements.
mindwalker – Any being proficient with psionic powers.
Monitor Mandate – The mandate of 2497 that granted both Alitar and Galvin full independence from the Thuldan Empire and Austrin-Ontis Unlimited.
neurocircuitry – Cybernetic implants intended to fuse electronic or mechanical systems with a living biological entity.
Norrik. Garth – Deputy Chief of Field Operations for the Federal State of Algemron's Intelligence
Directorate.
ondothwait – A plant. Scientific name: Gyrofresia ondothalis fraalii.
orbweaver – A sentient organism, whose body is made of living crystal and glass, believed to have been created by the Glassmakers. Though highly intellig
ent and curious, no orbweaver encountered thus far has ever displayed any inherent sense of self.
Orion League – A heterogenous stellar nation founded on principles of freedom and equal rights for all sentients.
Palshizon – A planet of Algemron on which the Concord keeps a permanent installation in order to enforce the Monitor Mandate.
Pariah Station – The Concord installation orbitting Palshizon whose job it is to enforce the Monitor Mandate.
Phorcys – A planet of the Thalaassa system.
phymech – An automated emergency medical system with a fairly sophisticated AI system. Most phymechs come with fairly specialized medical supplies—skinfilms, bandages, antiseptics, painkillers, etc.
plasma weapon – A weapon that converts an electro-chemical mixture into white-hot plasma and then utilizes a magnetic accelerator to throw a blast of the plasma at the target. The super-heated plasma explodes upon striking its target.
prassith – A genetically enhanced sweet root first introduced in the Stellar Ring by the Orlamu. Ragnarsson, Helm – A human mutant.
rail cannon – An electromagnetic accelerator that fires projectiles at extremely high velocities. Rand – Lorand Kharls's assistant.
Red Rain – A bioweapon that converts any kind of organic matter into a lethal mycotoxin. Reliance – A world of Algemron. rhin – A weren lap-harp.
rlin noch'i – The common garb of the mechalus. Consists of a multi-pocketed smartsuit and soft boots. RS201 67LEK – A VoidCorp intelligence officer.
sabot weapon – A firearm that uses electromagnetic pulses to accelerate a discarding-rocket slug at hypersonic speeds.
Schmetterling – A Concord Star Force Heavy Cruiser.
Sealed Knot, the – A mechalus symbol favored by medical practitioners of that species. seeker – The formal term given to initiates of the Orlamu faith.
sesheyan – A bipedal sentient species possessing long, bulbous heads, large ears, and eight light-sensitive eyes. Most sesheyans are about 1.7 meters tall and have two leathery wings that span between 2.5 – 4 meters. Sheya, the sesheyan homeworld, has been subjugated by VoidCorp. However,
a substantial population of "free sesheyans" live on Grith. Silence, the – see the Long Silence.