The Lost (The Maauro Chronicles Book 3)

by Edward McKeown

  “How do you know outside?” she demanded.

  “If it was inside,” I say impatiently, “you would either be replaced or neutralized by now. You have enough organizational power to avoid that presently.”

  She sits back crossing her arms over her ample chest. “Your analysis is flawless.”

  “I am a battle computer. Politics is simply war by other means and office politics are not different in any meaningful way.”

  “It doesn’t take Maauro’s powers,” Wrik adds, “to tell that someone isn’t happy with the fact that you brought us in to help Director Rainhell. Which of her significant field of enemies is it?”

  “It’s not quite that limited,” Candace said. “Yes, Rainhell is the focus but there is more moving in all of this.”

  She looks at both of us. “I don’t know where you four disappeared to in the six years between when we met on Kandalor and when you set up shop here. I doubt you’ll tell me, but it’s no secret that these six years have been rough on Earth and our allies in the original Confederacy.

  “With twenty-three species now in the Confederacy it’s not as cohesive as it was. We have separatist movements among various races including our own.”

  I nod. “Your Confederacy has expanded too quickly. Some of the species that entered did so less than willingly: the Voit-Veru, the Solari. Others, such as the Ribisans and Dua-Denlenn never truly integrated. Surely you see that you are entering a period of insurrections and probably civil war.”

  Wrik looks shocked at my analysis, but Candace nods grimly. “The Confederacy was a human construct and we basically ran it. Population, technology and our talent for war-time organization made it so. But that edge has dissipated over the decades and Earth’s influence has waned since the Confed capitol was moved here to Star Cental.”

  “Which, of course,” I add, “is the reason it was done.”

  “The Solari and the Voit-Veru have made common cause,” Candace adds “and they have allies beyond that. Some of the neutrals don’t mind seeing Earth’s power diminish. They think we had too much to say before.

  “The Voit-Veru are the largest government we ever tried to absorb and they have proved pretty indigestible. Given their secret alliance with the old Eugenics masters of Olympia and how Fenaday and Rainhell exposed it and got them invaded, they have grudges. The party that fell from power after the invasion has gradually worked its way back up. Power is still clan-based with them and there was no way to get rid of them without destroying the clan entirely. So it was only a matter of time.

  “The current head of the Interstellar Ministry is a Voit-Veru named Asuju Aporek, of the same clan that lost power when Fenaday and Rainhell attacked Mounus IV to rescue Lisa Fenaday. He is no fan of humans, or of Olympians like Rainhell, blaming them for decades of bad times for the Voit-Veru. He’s been working with every anti-human faction in the Confederacy.”

  “Where is he?” Wrik asks.

  “Ironically, based on Earth itself, in the capitol of Globalis; he spends half his time there and then half here on Star Central. All of it aimed at advancing the anti-human coalition’s interests.”

  “Odd that he is based on Earth,” Wrik adds.

  Candace shrugs. “The ISM HQ used to be there and there are still a lot of operations. Aporek is clever. He doesn’t cast himself as anti-human, or anti-Denlenn, just a reformer interested in more ‘equity.’’ Since it’s an historical fact that humans had a special status under the old Confederacy, there are even liberal humans that back him. Fools,” she said bitterly.

  “You do not object to the human domination of the Confederacy?” I ask.

  “If humans hadn’t organized the war effort against the Conchirri, the galaxy would be one vast burp, Honey. Despite the fact the old Confederacy outnumbered the Conchirri, they were losing until we took over. The Denlenn were too concerned about honor to fight effectively; the Dua-Denlenn have no honor. The Enshari were useless as were the Frokossi. The Moroks and Okarans were good fighters if you could get them going in the right direction, but logistics and war-fighting, that was all us.

  “But gratitude is a temporary coin. And beyond that, I’m a human and power is a zero sum game. I liked things as they were and as they will be again. If in the process of finding Rainhell’s lost grandkid we find enough stuff on Aporek to bring him down.—”

  “What has one to do with the other?” Wrik began.

  “You suspect that Aporek arranged for the information to be sold to professor Bexlaw, precipitating this event,” I answer, “possibly even intervening further to waylay or otherwise discommode the professor’s expedition.”

  Candace nods. “Smart killer-robot, though it’s equally probable that someone below him, trying to curry favor started the chain of events. Whether he approved it or not, the die is presently cast. So I’m glad that you’ve taken Director Rainhell’s commission.”

  “The odds of success are not impressive,” I reply.

  Candace shrugs. “Confed is glad to be able to bank a favor with her. We have had a long relationship.”

  “Isn’t it a bit bizarre to be working with her, when your grandfather recruited her?” Wrik asked

  Candace smiles. “Weirder than hell. The old boy always said she was the most dangerous of God’s creations and to keep her on Confed’s side at all costs. She could have taken his place if she wanted to, probably would have, had she not fallen in love with Mikhail Vaughn. As it is, she wields influence across more worlds than one would suspect. Worst part is how little she’s aged from his old holos of her. Bitch.”

  “Well Maauro holds the record for gracious aging,” Wrik said.

  “Thank you, Wrik.”

  “So what to do we do next?” Wrik asked.

  “We have to get Maauro access to the lifeboat and the bodies. Maybe she can find something that the previous analysis didn’t turn up. That means a journey to Earth. It would be the logical place to start in any event. The professor’s expedition launched from there.”

  “We’d worked that out, but where are those items?”

  “Oh that,” Candace said, with a lazy smile. “That’s easy. They’re in a secured ISM base somewhere on Earth.”

  We called Shasti in the morning to accept her commission. Her operatives met us the next day with all the information that she’d gleaned from her intelligence networks and the equivalent of a blank check. They also took the Dua-Denlenn female we had captured off our hands. Dusko had learned little from her with either threats or bribery, and both Maauro and I had forbade sterner measures. She was likely low-level Guild and had been hired indirectly.

  There was no bargaining with Shasti. Her backer’s assets were essentially unlimited and she accepted Jaelle’s first offer. While the rest of us prepared the Stardust for its trip to Sol System, loading every nook and cranny with the highest-value natural products that would command the greatest prices, Maauro absorbed all the information known on the Lost Colony and the previous searches.

  Maauro was done first. “The information,” she said, while we gathered for a late lunch at the office, “while voluminous, does not support any conclusions or directions. Much of what was gathered is unverifiable and unreliable.

  “We know that the New Hope was a small vessel, abandoned on Iriomoto island, where a nation called Japan had a military base. The stardrive was carried in by an old submarine and the rebels and scientists lifted off on January 19, 2092, local calendar. The base was subsequently destroyed in a nuclear attack.”

  “No point to landing there,” Dusko said, around a mouthful of sandwich.

  “We will land in London. Confed Intel has offices there, it is near Globalis, in what was once Geneva, and it makes sense as a trade destination. We will ostensibly be there on Jaelle’s behest with a load of cargo.”

  “Thin cover,” Wrik says.

  Maauro nodded. “
Lost Planet is not a secret organization and likely Rainhell’s mission here did not escape ISM attention. Candace believes her part in aiding Rainhell may be suspected, but not known. She is quite sure that the ISM does not know who, or what, I am as she has kept that information close. The Guild personnel who came into contact with me are dead, or have no incentive to talk to the ISM. Even if the ISM tried to move against us legally, our business is legitimate. The worst thing that would happen is that my existence and secret citizenship in the Confederacy becomes known. I am prepared for that eventuality. It is inevitable.”

  “So,” Jaelle said. “Earth, here we come.”

  Chapter 5

  Stardust popped back into existence in Sol System. After we shook off the effects of hyperdrive, I pushed the engines to maximum. A nice perk of working for Candace, fuel cost wasn’t an issue.

  The trip took a week. Despite the tensions of the impending separation, the flight was pleasant. Jaelle and I made love, laughed, enjoyed long massages and banked time for the year or better apart. It was the spacer’s way. The ship was its own little universe; it required tranquility, being too small for anything else. In the way of those who traveled space, we’d boxed up any issues until we were planetside again.

  Something had happened between Jaelle and Maauro and it wasn’t something I understood, nor would either of them discuss it with me. Maauro seemed uncertain around Jaelle. Had she not been Maauro, I’d have said that she was afraid of Jaelle. She was exquisitely polite to the Nekoan. As for Jaelle, the resentment she’d expressed was gone, or buried, as if it never existed. In fact, she seemed oddly affectionate toward Maauro, playing with her hair, braiding it as if she were a child.

  I quickly ceased questioning it, merely glad for the peace it brought. I didn’t believe the issues of our little troika were resolved, but for now things were better. It was enough.

  We watched Earth as it grew in the screens, or at least I did. For the others, Earth was simply another world. For me it was the home of my species. So I spent a fair amount of time alone in contemplation of the blue and white world ahead. I wondered if I would feel a sense of home when we finned down among its nine billion people. That feeling had left me when I fled Retief and I had not found it since.

  Earth had survived the Conchirri war, generations ago, without being directly assailed. One Conchirri raid reached the outer system but was defeated there. Yet the blue marble had been scarred by its own children in nuclear wars. The scars had faded over the generations and nothing could be seen from space. I wondered about what Maauro had said about a period of civil wars coming. I hoped it wasn’t true, but it was a slim hope.

  On the seventh day, we entered the London Control Area and headed down. Our cargo would find lucrative markets there, as would the cargo in our second ship, following a week behind. The chartered vessel would bear Jaelle and any cargo she collected back to Star Central and the life she would live without me. Candace was waiting for us in the world below where the mission would really begin.

  We gathered for landing on the bridge, though the ship would be taken down by Gatwick’s landing system. I was too much of a flyer to have my hands more than inches from the controls as my ship headed into a gravity well.

  “What sort of security are we going to put out on landing?” Dusko asked. “You want me to break out the crab-robots?”

  “Just two,” I said. “I’m glad we replaced the ones we lost on the Artifact, but I don’t see anyone moving against us in a secured port. Still, since you’ll be onboard when we’re off, you can keep watch using them and the ship’s security system.”

  “Do I get a stunner?”

  I thought about it. I’d never given Dusko clearance for the arms locker, a last holdover from our previous enmity, and Jaelle and Maauro had left it that way.

  “I’ll reprogram the arms room locker,” I said. “From now on you’ll have the same access that everyone else does.”

  He looked at me and merely nodded. Jaelle and Maauro continued watching the world come up.

  “Atmospheric entry at 0930 ship time,” Maauro said.

  “Lunch in London,” Jaelle said. “I want to see the Winter Garden and the Tower.”

  Down we came toward a vast city with a river cutting through it. We landed perfectly in the most crowded spacefield I had ever seen—ships as far as the eye could see. Our section was devoted to smaller ships. At 150 meters in height, Stardust was far from the largest but was one of the more colorful. When horizontal, her upper half was dark green and her lower half gold. Sitting on her tailfins with their large cylinder-like impellers, we looked like an old style rocket ship. Stardust had been a military courier meant for small and unimproved fields. She was atmospheric and sleek.

  Beyond the spacefield lay cities filled with humanity. I found it a little overwhelming. I’d never seen so many humans in one place before. I couldn’t see the ancient bridge, the huge Ferris Wheel or the dozen other famous sites, but I knew they were there.

  “Look at the city,” I managed, “so huge, so full and so ancient. This area has been inhabited for more than 5,000 years.”

  “Very different from where you grew up I imagine,” Jaelle said.

  I nodded. As usual any reference to my past raised a ghost of pain, this time muted by the excitement of seeing the homeworld of my species.

  A crew of robots, led by a human and a port official, were already on their way to us as a ramp extended to our amidships section. They moved quickly on Old Earth. Our manifest and records had been transmitted before landing, but there were still formalities to be followed and a port official needed to make sure everything matched up.

  “Time for Port Inspection,” I said.

  “I’ll remain in my quarters,” Maauro said.

  “Don’t bother,” I said. “The official will want to see every crewman and check your records are in order. It’s probably a good idea to put your goggles on; we’ll pass you off as light-sensitive.”

  “Pity,” Jaelle said, “you do have pretty eyes, Kit-sister.”

  Maauro smiled, but refrained from entering into any verbal play. She fished a set of dark goggles out of a pouch on her coverall. The dark goggles effectively concealed her overlarge eyes. She would adjust her eyesight to see perfectly out of them.

  I secured my board and drives and met the customs inspector down in the main hold. She was a pleasant-looking woman, brisk and efficient. I had to listen carefully to pierce her accent. Walking around the ship, she inspected our cargo and crew, asking routine, but probing questions. She did seem interested in Maauro, but she was the most unusual member of our crew, with her human mutation story.

  The Customs Officer looked askance at our armaments and the crab-robots in the hold. The mini-tank machines were much smaller and more modern than the trio we’d lost on the Artifact, but no less deadly for all that their weapons were in storage.

  “Three combat robots and a communications laser that has a hundred times the power it needs,” she observed. “What sort of ports do you put into?”

  “Too many that aren’t as nice as Earth, or Star Central,” I said. Jaelle smiled an enigmatic but toothy smile.

  The Customs Officer shrugged. “Alright, you do have the correct permits. You can power up your bots, but no weapons. We don’t even go for stunners around here, so don’t go shooting up the port and keep everything under lock and key. Sign here.”

  I initialed.

  “Cheers,” she said, and with a breezy wave was off.

  Jaelle handled the stevedore crew, who quickly off-loaded our cargo. The high-value items went directly to their new owners. Other materials were cached at warehouses to be called for later.

  Maauro called me from the bridge. “Wrik, I’ve received a message. We have a meeting in two hours.”

  “Ok,” I said, “I’ll get ready.”

  Jaelle walke
d over to me. Behind her, the last robot loader was leaving with a cargo box, followed by its controller. What we had packed up between us had also been unpacked with the cargo. Still, she only leaned in to kiss me. “Be careful around Candace. Never trust her. Stay close to Maauro.”

  “I will,” I replied. “Good luck with gathering a new cargo for Star Central.”

  She smiled. “No problem. Plenty of sexy things to take back from Earth itself. But Wrik, don’t count me gone as yet. I don’t know what Candace plans, but you’ll need help getting to where they’ve hidden the lifeboat and corpses. Call me before you do anything dangerous.”

  “I will.”

  Jaelle smiled and walked out the hatch, into the slowly setting light of Sol.

  Maauro appeared at the hatchway, as if she had waited for Jaelle to exit.

  “A blue van will pull up to our bay in twenty minutes,” she said without preamble. “It will say Leonard’s Commissary on it. We get in the back.”

  “Candace isn’t wasting any time.”

  “I do not believe it is on her side. The van will doubtless spend considerable time making sure it is not followed before we rendezvous with Candace.”

  I grimaced. “Better pee before going.”

  “I understand that is always considered good advice.”

  We went down to the base of the ship. I didn’t take a weapon, unless you counted Maauro, the most dangerous fighting machine ever made. The crab-robots sat quiescent, watching the ship and looking like their namesakes with their splinter-gray camouflage. I could see some Moroks at another freighter looking over curiously, but evidently they had no desire to see the crabs closer. We walked out of their sight around one of the ship’s impellers.

  A blue airvan rolled up slowly and paused next to us. The rear doors opened and with a look around to make sure we weren’t obviously being watched, we scrambled in. The van sped off. We found seats on the hard benches in the back of the windowless van, sandwiched between stacks of precooked meals in trays. We couldn’t see the driver through the small one way window at the back of the cab. The van rolled on, changing directions and then, after it had cleared the secured area of the port, it began to vary heights. As a pilot, I wasn’t much prone to motion-sickness but I was also used to being able to see. It became wearisome after a while.