The Lost (The Maauro Chronicles Book 3)

by Edward McKeown

  “You would be well-advised not to push your luck, young human. Your hand is not that strong.”

  I shook my head. “I’m offering solutions, not problems. Your people here know the course and speed Bexlaw’s ship took when it hit the warp point. Maybe they know the coordinates or where that point leads as well.”

  “Say it was the former,” Arzarafel said. “How does this profit my side?”

  “Provide us with that information and we’ll provide you with a digitally secure and confirmed message for Confed authorities that we left here on that course. If we don’t come back, your hands are clean.”

  “And if you do come back? Perhaps bearing news of the Death Angel’s kin having met a bad end?”

  “Then you will have had time to prepare whatever idiot set this plan in motion for his eventual sacrifice to Rainhell,” I said, tired of the pretense. “She believes you’re behind it now and assumes her grandson is lost. Your situation will be no worse save, that I will have sold you a lot of time. Not something you can purchase elsewhere, your alternatives being rebellion, or civil war in the near future.”

  Arzarafel sat, pondering for what felt like an eternity, then spoke. “We do not know where Bexlaw went. He was given access to a time capsule found on our moon by a mining interest. It was clearly human made and from the New Hope but its contents were encoded. We did not break the code but, to be frank, there was little effort made. The artifact lay here in storage. The local authorities, out of mere spite, did not inform humans of the find, but the information made its way to the fool who put us all in this jeopardy. He then concocted this nightmare, intending to send Bexlaw and Rainhell’s grandson into the void in the hope that disaster would, as it likely has, overcome them.

  “He stupidly did not anticipate that Bexlaw would break the code, likely it was a simple book code for a common human book, something that we, culturally, would have trouble doing. Bexlaw took off before he could be stopped and refused to answer any requests for information by radio. We did not wish to involve the Confed Navy, so a small ISM cutter trailed them. It could not overtake Bexlaw, but did capture a course and speed to a hitherto unknown jump point.

  “You’re a star-pilot. You know that following a jump without true coordinates is rank guesswork.”

  “We’ll take it,” I said.

  “And meet our other conditions?” Arzarafel pressed.

  “Yes, step one of which is putting me in touch with Maauro, before she initiates action on her own.”

  Arzarafel touched a button on the table in front of him and a virtual screen popped up. He stabbed at it with his tentacle tips. “I am calling your ship now, asking for Maauro by name. Remain silent until I bid you to speak, you are off screen.”

  I nodded.

  The screen lit and on it was Maauro’s beautiful face, only her eyes were black from lid to lid and her mouth was full of serrated metal teeth. This was icy rage in Maauro and deliberate. She knew the effect it had on biologicals.

  Arzarafel flinched visibly from the screen, then recovered. “Greetings, Maauro. I am Arzarafel. If any of what I have heard of you is true, then you’re doubtless tearing through the network seeking my location. Do not exert yourself. What you seek is here, in my custody, in good health and will be returned to you shortly, if you agree to our terms.”

  “You would indeed be wise to return Wrik to me unharmed,” she said, her voice flat and mechanical. “Others have experienced my vengeance before, though none now live who can testify to its completeness.”

  “So you say. For my part I find it troubling to deal with a machine. How do I know that you are self-aware enough for me to negotiate with? Your motivations are difficult for me to assess.”

  This time I winced.

  “Your cavalier attitude toward me,” Maauro grated, “tells me that you do not appreciate the threat that I pose to this colony and that you might lack motivation both to return what is mine and honor any agreement with me. I have been here days already and have not been idle. Let me give you a taste of what you should hope to avoid.”

  The room plunged into blackness. It could only have been thirty seconds but it seemed to drag on and on. Then the lights came back on and the connection reestablished itself.

  Maauro glared at Arzarafel. “You will find that power failure was planet-wide on all but your most well-protected military systems. In the days that I have been here I have had abundant time to infiltrate your indifferently protected power grids, and through them, most other systems. In only a little more time I will defeat the defenses on your military systems as well. Your power plants, financial systems, even the terraforming equipment is infiltrated and permeated with virus by me.

  “Shall I cause the space panels that shade the poles to fold and admit sunlight to the ice? Or explode a nuclear power plant?”

  “No,” Arzarafel gasped in horror.

  “You will doubtless think to rescue yourselves with anti-virus protections and other network barriers. My intruder software is beyond your science to stop. Perhaps with a decade of non-stop work, your best programmers and computers might rid your systems of me. Your colony will be long-drowned by then.”

  “There is no need,” Arzarafel said his tentacles waving in a placating gesture. “We have agreed with your Captain to stand down, to return him to your ship and to provide you with information critical to your mission!”

  Arzarafel gestured frantically to me and I stepped into range of the pickup hoping my battered state would not provoke any further demonstrations.

  Instantly her eyes turned their usual pacific green and the teeth were replaced with normal human ones a moment later. Her expression surveying my battered countenance was not happy. “Wrik, are you all right?”

  “Yes. Is Olivia ok?”

  “Minor injuries, but she is safe here at the ship.”

  “Arzarafel represents…a greater power. He’s taken charge of the situation and is empowered to deal. He’s made sure I am safe and treated well. I’ve promised that if we get all the information they have on Bexlaw, fuel and supplies and are allowed to go, that there will be no retaliation.”

  She looked at Arzarafel. “I will honor Wrik’s agreement. I am a logical being and do not pursue quarrels where there is no need, any more than I shrink from such pursuit when necessary. But do not take me lightly again.”

  “No, no,” Arzarafel said, “of course not. We will return your friend immediately.”

  “You personally will do so,” Maauro directed, “as you now know what will follow either failure or treachery.”

  “And our systems?” Arzarafel demanded.

  “The viruses are dormant and can only be triggered by me. They will expire within a local solar year if I do not.”

  “What guarantee are we offered?”

  “I have no desire to be regarded as a criminal by the Confederacy, who would likely regard my destruction of a colony that is nominally theirs as excessive. I do not fear Confed law. I need only wait for a hundred years or so for these governments to fail and pass if I need to, but while my network is alive and intact I have a reason to regard the law. However, I will not tolerate further damage to my network.”

  “We are leaving now,” Arzarafel assured her. Only now was the true nature of the force he had provoked becoming clear to him. He clearly wanted me back in its hands as soon as possible.

  “I will await you at the base of the ship,” Maauro said. She then turned to me and with a gentle smile added. “See you soon, Wrik.”

  Arzarafel broke the connections and shouted orders to his staff. Veru were running everywhere in seconds. Two of the large males moved forward as if to take hold of me.

  “Do not touch him, you fools!” Arzarafel demanded in Standard. “See to his comfort. Protect him with your lives until we get him back to his ship.”

  The guards, well-trai
ned, turned from suspicious to solicitous in the same instant.

  “Hurry, hurry,” Arzarafel called to the hopping Veru. “Bring the aircar. Now!”

  We were ushered out front of the massive warehouse we had been in, to a large, comfortable aircar with two escorting utility vehicles. In seconds we took off into a lowering, cloudy sky. The car accelerated to a cruising speed I estimated at just subsonic.

  Now that we were moving, Arzarafel seemed to relax. He reached into the limousine’s bar and poured us both large drinks. I accepted my much improved beverage with gratitude.

  “There is food here that is safe for a human, though I cannot answer for the flavor,” he said.

  “I’ll wait until I am home,” I said.

  “Doubtless wise,” he said. Then with a surprisingly human-like sigh. “Do not become old and stupid, young Trigardt. I was curious about your Maauro, seeing in her a mere mechanism such as we create. I decided to probe her and nearly brought on disaster. Who knows what damage was wrought or lives lost by the power loss? She spoke the truth and disrupted every power source on the planet. She spared only aircraft in flight or the casualties would number into the thousands.

  “I allowed my personal curiosity to provoke me into pushing a negotiation when I had already succeeded in my objective. Very stupid.”

  I enjoyed my drink and the softness of the cushions, but couldn’t control a grunt of pain as I sat back.

  “It might be as well if you did not emphasize your pains from the recent unpleasantness that transpired before I took charge,” the Veru said.

  “I think I can be induced to minimize my pains,” I said.

  “Perhaps we can supply some additional inducements,” he reached into a compartment on his side and produced a small pouch. He dropped it in my hand, seeming no more interested in touching my hand, than I was the ropy and repulsive tentacle.

  I opened the package to find a fortune in sunstones, moondrops and other exotic gems winking up at me from a bed of black velvet. I hadn’t intended to ask for a bribe but saw no reason to turn one down. “My aches are already receding on account of your generosity.”

  “Oh there is no generosity, my young friend. All that has been tendered to you will be extracted from the hide of the fool that set this in motion, with interest added. I promise you that much.”

  Ahead I could see the spaceport coming into view and the seaport behind it. Lights glowed despite the hour on account of the weather.

  “It’s good,” I said suddenly, “to have a contact on the other side. One empowered to make sensible bargains to keep open lines of communication.”

  “Yes,” Arzarafel replied. “It is an effective ward against disaster. Try not to die on this adventure, young man. You may be a useful acquaintance in times to come.”

  “Hard times to come,” I said.

  “Yes, I fear it is so. What we have treated here is a symptom, not the disease itself. Whatever one’s allegiances are in these matters, we will all be sorely tested before much longer. I hope, by my own efforts, to put if off far enough in the future so I may die in a time of peace. And to leave what follows to the younger, hotter souls who are always so willing to pay for change with lives, especially if those lives are not their own.”

  “It would be good to know that if I got a message from you,” I said as Stardust grew in our window, “that I could trust the source.”

  “Yes,” the old Veru said quickly. “Yes, authentications. Quickly. We do not have much time.”

  “A message from me will have the name Emma Ferlan with it,” I said. Few people knew the vanished Guildmaster’s name or would associate it with me.

  “And a message from me will come under the name, Adan. She was, if you recall, the captain of The Queen of the Night, the ship Fenaday used to destroy one of our ports.”

  The limo settled on the permacrete of the field, with only a slight jar, well short of Stardust’s gantry and rolled forward on its wheels. The utility vehicles continued to circle above us. Stardust stood, embraced by the usual utility lines, but I could still see the communications laser poking out of its aperture. Halfway up one of the hatches was open and unless I missed my bet, Olivia was in there with her sniper rifle.

  Maauro stood in the open near one of the fins. The wind was kicking up and her long hair trailed out behind her. A fine sheet of rain began to fall but she ignored it as we rolled up.

  The driver got out and opened the doors. Both I and Arzarafel stepped out into the chilly rain. I was glad for my ship jacket. The old Veru looked a bit shrunken and clutched his coat closer to him with two of his tentacle arms, waving the other at Maauro in greeting. “Here is your companion, returned to you safe and sound.”

  “Safe, yes,” she said, coming forward to lay a hand on my arm. “His soundness I will judge for myself.”

  I knew she was scanning me finding bruising that went to the bone. “All’s well. Arzarafel put a stop to the interrogation as soon as he arrived.”

  “Wise Arzarafel,” Maauro said, but the look was not friendly.

  For his part the old Veru stood looking at Maauro in dawning wonder. The incongruities of her appearance, fairly obvious to a human, were doubtless lost on him, but her animation and self-awareness were not.

  “I misjudged you very badly,” he said. “Our intelligence on you was ludicrously off the mark. The Confederacy never made such a machine as you. Not in a thousand years could it be done.”

  “I will not disagree with the obvious, that I am not of Confederation make. For the present I and my network serve the Confederacy, to some degree, and those patrons who seek to find the lost. Whether those lost are loved ones, friends, or something else, so long as we find merit in their quest. This does not make us enemies, save that you impede us, or attack my network.”

  “Those attempts will not be repeated,” Arzarafel said. “We have offered our amends to Trigardt and he has accepted them. The subordinate who brought this about will be disciplined severely for bringing us into a conflict we did not want.”

  “I would know the identity of this person,” Maauro said. “His account with me remains open.”

  “I cannot share that,” Arzarafel said, shading his face from a gust of wet wind.

  Maauro seemed to contemplate that for a few seconds. I gave a tiny shake of my head and she nodded.

  “May I ask how far you are from launching?” Arzarafel asked.

  “We are fully supplied and prepared. With Wrik aboard and clearance from Space Control we can launch in twenty-nine minutes.”

  “Then please do so. You have already been given unconditional exit priority. Once you are in orbit, we will send you the Bexlaw data in return for the digital confirmation Trigardt agreed to, absolving us from whatever happens if you follow it.”

  “Agreed,” Maauro returned. “No ship is to approach us or trail us to the warp point. You could not destroy Stardust quickly enough to prevent me from sending the trigger code.”

  “There will be no vessel near you after you leave orbit,” Arzarafel assured. He turned to me. “Go now, Trigardt. I will remember the name you gave and you remember the one I gave you. It may serve our principals well that this pipeline continue to exist.”

  I nodded.

  Arzarafel again looked at Maauro. “As for you, unique and unprecedented being. You are enough to make an old Veru believe in miracles. I have seen much and traveled far in a long life. Now I have met a living machine. It is clear to me that the universe is a vast unknown and my own understanding of it shallow and incomplete.

  “I regret that we met in conflict. Perhaps other future meetings will be more gentle.”

  Maauro raised an eyebrow. “From what I can see of that future it seems unlikely. Still there are many possibilities. For your intercession on Wrik’s behalf, you have my thanks.”

  Arzarafel backed away a
nd retreated to his car as the rain came down harder. The limo pulled away. From the corner of my eye I saw the hatch above, where I believed Olivia laired, close.

  Maauro, still holding my arm gently, led me to the gantry way to the lower hatch. I felt the chill in my aches and bruises. The water simply sluiced off her; she didn’t bother to even wipe it off her face. “You need food and rest.”

  “After we lift off.”

  “They will not annoy us further.”

  “Trust me, Maauro, my appetite will be much better when we kick free of this miserable, water-soaked rock.”

  “Do you wish to take her up?” she asked.

  “No. I am too tired and shaky. You do it. I’ll ride shotgun.”

  Maauro sealed the hatch. I looked at the spiral staircase that lead upward while the Stardust was in vertical mode. She shook her head and belted me into a personnel lift that went up the wall that was our floor when the AG field was on. I let her secure the straps then we went up, Maauro keeping pace on the staircase, only pausing when the stairs snapped out of the way to let my lift through. When we got to the control level, Dusko and Olivia were there. Olivia was grinning. She looked almost as banged up as I was.

  “Back alive, Trigardt?” Dusko said. “You certainly have the luck.”

  I grimaced. “Yeah. Luck enough to not get killed in the trouble I wasn’t lucky enough to avoid.

  “You okay?” I asked of Olivia.

  “Hah,” she said. “I got worse than this my first week in basic. Looks like you still have all your parts in working order.”

  “Yeah. We’re getting out of here.”

  “Great news,” Dusko said. “What friendly port are we bound to next?”

  “The Voit-Veru don’t know where Bexlaw jumped to exactly. He went into an unknown warp point, but we have his course and speed. Not enough for an exact coordinate match, but it should be one, or at the most two, exits to deal with.”