Confluence 2: Remanence

by Jennifer Foehner Wells

  Ei’Pio surged into her head with potent curiosity. Jane’s mind reverberated on an unfamiliar frequency with this new contact. She left her mind open, easily allowing Ei’Pio in. “What are you? You aren’t sectilian!”

  “I am terran. We call ourselves human.”

  The Speroancora slipped around to the light side of Pliga. Black oceans and white fluffy clouds came into view through a dim gray sky. They fell into a high orbit some distance behind the Oblignatus in the same orbital plane, far above the few artificial satellites.

  Jane could sense Ei’Pio’s bewilderment. The kuboderan was frenetically checking their identification beacon, making mental connections.

  “Terran?” Optimism seemed to well up within Ei’Pio as she uttered this word, but then crashed again into despondency. “No. No. It isn’t supposed to be this way. They’ve dropped relay stations all over the galaxy. They’ll know you’re here by now. You should go. It’s not safe.”

  “We’ve found the solution to the plague. It’s perfectly safe now,” Jane said.

  “No, you haven’t. You haven’t got an inkling.”

  “The humans are different. Look closer, Ei’Pio. Look at me,” Brai intoned.

  Ei’Pio seemed to be mollified for a moment as she peered into Brai’s thoughts.

  “Is she insane?” Ron whispered.

  Jane carefully disconnected from Ei’Pio. She spoke aloud. “All I can tell for sure is that she’s traumatized and terrified.”

  Jane reconnected with Ei’Pio. “We know that squillae were weaponized against the Sectilius. We fixed that problem. We can give you a crew, a purpose. We can take you home.”

  There was a long silence as Ei’Pio continued to explore Ei’Brai, mind to mind.

  “Should I hail the Pligan government, Qua’dux?” Ryliuk asked.

  Jane started to answer Ryliuk, but Ei’Pio ripped her attention away from Brai to accuse Jane. “You have sectilians aboard! You have a mind master! You’re not all terran!”

  “Two more ships just jumped in at the edge of the system,” Alan exclaimed.

  Brai was nonplussed, frozen into inaction. “There are two sectilian ships, moving under their own power, heading our way? How can this be possible?”

  Ei’Pio scanned the Speroancora, searching for something.

  “There are no identification beacons on these ships,” Ryliuk said.

  Jaross turned to look at her. “They’re moving quickly, Qua’dux.”

  Jane’s heart began to pound in her ears. “What is happening, Ei’Pio?”

  “You don’t have a chance,” Ei’Pio said frantically. “Your escutcheon is damaged. Jump away, now!”

  “Maybe you should do what she says, Doc,” Alan whispered.

  Jane gritted her teeth. “I have to know what’s going on.”

  Ron looked up from his station. “One of the ships is the same size as us, class four. The other is much bigger.”

  “Fuck!” Alan yelled. “It’s class six. The same kind of ship that destroyed the first three.”

  A science vessel and a warship. What were they doing here? What did they want? And why was Ei’Pio so scared? Was she afraid of them? Or had she been broken by some other event?

  Jane sat up straighter. “The jump engine is still spooling. Prepare for another jump, just in case we have to run. Ron, you may be needed at the weapons station.” She pushed herself closer to Ei’Pio. “Please, Ei’Pio. Tell us what we are facing.”

  But all Ei’Pio would say, her mental voice anguished, was, “An impossible choice.”

  51

  Jane’s mouth was dry.

  She was in so far over her head.

  Brai was mostly silent, diligently working to get as much intel on their visitors as possible.

  The two new ships glided into a parallel orbit on either side of them and paced their velocity. She’d always thought the Speroancora was massive. But this new ship, the larger class-six ship, was a leviathan.

  Shaped something like a sperm whale, it was, at minimum, twice the length of the Speroancora and probably quadruple its bulk. She had to cycle through several exterior-mounted cameras to get a good look at it, because it was too close and too large to get a full view from any single camera.

  She kept her voice calm and authoritative. “Is there any way to trace the ballistics residue we found on the first ship to this one?”

  “I’m working on that now, Qua’dux,” Jaross said, her fingers dancing over the keys of her console.

  The two ships moved even closer, hemming them in. Proximity sensors went off. Jane instructed Brai to alter course slightly to a higher altitude. They slipped from between, putting a safer distance between them. It didn’t last more than seconds. The two ships immediately matched their original relative positions.

  “This is a standard intimidation tactic,” Ron said evenly from his new spot at the weapons console.

  “It’s working,” Alan said dryly.

  Yes, it was.

  The two new ships remained silent. As did the Oblignatus.

  Jane gritted her teeth so hard her jaw ached. “Are there any identifying marks on either ship that will give us a clue as to who’s inside?”

  “Yes,” Ryliuk said.

  But before he could say more, Brai interrupted. “The larger ship is called the Portacollus.” There was a note of trepidation in his mental voice, and perhaps a shade of familiarity.

  The name of the ship translated to “Bring the Mountain.” An apt description.

  Ryliuk cleared his throat. “Its kuboderan is named Kai’Memna.”

  Jane asked Brai privately, “Do you know this kuboderan?”

  “Only peripherally,” Brai answered. “He is known as a bully throughout the fleet. The smaller ship is the Colocallida, and its Gubernaviti is Ei’Uba, a known associate of Kai’Memna. A sycophant. They’ve worked together on several missions.”

  So the Sectilius had allowed a relationship of sorts to develop between the two. Interesting.

  “The second ship is—” Ryliuk said.

  “The Colocallida,” Jane finished for him. “She Who Lives In Cleverness.”

  “Yes,” Ryliuk said, narrowing his eyes at her.

  Brai broke in before she could say more. “They are speaking privately with Ei’Pio.”

  Jane felt a strong urge to interrupt any discussion they might be having about the Speroancora.

  “Open a hailing channel with the Portacollus, Ryliuk.”

  “Channel is open, Qua’dux.”

  They passed to the dark side of the planet. Dim light reflected off of one of Pliga’s moons, revealing Pliga’s far side to be made up of a thick crust of irregular white ice with black ocean all around the edges.

  “Scaluuti, Kai’Memna. To what do we owe the pleasure of your company?” Jane spoke crisply and made no attempt to disguise her accent. Ei’Pio had been thrown off by learning she was human. That was the only advantage she had while she figured out what the hell was going on here.

  Jane felt a foreign mind searching.

  She knew this feeling well—the vibration of an attempt at forging an anipraxic connection. Though this was on a different frequency than either Brai or Ei’Pio had used, the sensation was similar to what she’d first felt with Brai. She grabbed onto it with ferocity. The presence flooded her mind, but she was ready for it. She kept him where she wanted him—kept him from seeing too much. She felt far more cautious now than she had been only thirty minutes before with Ei’Pio.

  “Kai’Memna,” she said, mind to mind, doing her best to sound unperturbed.

  “Who are you?” a voice even deeper than Brai’s rumbled in her head. It sounded rich and arrogant and deadly. Then it pitched even lower. “What are you?”

  “I am Qua’dux Jane Holloway of the Speroancora. I am terran.”

  Kai’Memna pushed on her barriers, trying to see more. She held firm, though it cost her. In pain.

  “How did you come to command this ship?”
r />   Jane considered. Instinct dictated she try to seem as powerful as possible. She was tempted to say she had taken the ship, to imply strength and ruthlessness, but she was afraid that gambit would antagonize the kuboderan or that he would be able to detect the lie. There was an undercurrent here that she couldn’t quite grasp. It was far better to be terse and stay as close to the truth as possible. “I have formed a partnership with a kuboderan, Ei’Brai.”

  “Have you, now?” Switching on a dime, Kai’Memna sought confirmation from Brai, who was protectively watching the conversation.

  “This is the truth of it,” Brai said imperiously.

  This seemed to pique Kai’Memna’s curiosity, and he more fully moved his focus to Brai. It was a relief when his mental grip let go, even if it was only momentary. “And your terran pet was unaffected by the squillae plague?” Kai’Memna’s tone was wheedling and syrupy sweet.

  Jane didn’t like it, or him. Her hands curled into fists. “My team eradicated the squillae threat before it became an issue,” Jane said calmly, though deep inside she was starting to seethe.

  “Oh? None of your terran crew were lost? Intriguing.” He sounded almost disappointed.

  “Not a single one,” Jane said flatly.

  Kai’Memna returned to interrogating Brai. “But your terran master still keeps you in sectilian shackles, does she not, little kuba?”

  That provoked Brai’s ire. “No. In fact, she doesn’t,” he growled. “I am free of the yoke.”

  Kai’Memna’s thoughts expressed disbelief without words. Then he coughed out a semblance of a laugh. “Why would you serve a terran if you are free? Surely you do not believe the absurd mythos surrounding these people.”

  Jane was so absorbed in this conversation, the images that flowed lightning fast from Kai’Memna’s mind flickering in her head, that she barely registered the physical environment her body was still in until Alan came up beside her and put a hand over hers. She flinched and turned to look at him.

  Alan’s eyes bored into hers. He whispered, “There are living sectilians on both of those ships, but not on the Oblignatus.”

  She nodded and he returned to his station.

  Jane breathed deeply. She’d missed part of the exchange between Kai’Memna and Brai, but there was a lull in the conversation, so she decided to speak. “There are sectilian survivors aboard the Portacollus,” she stated.

  “Indeed there are.” Kai’Memna swelled with self-importance. “They serve me.”

  Jane’s heart rose into her throat. Then she saw exactly what he meant and it was worse than she could have imagined. Kai’Memna revealed the reality he had created aboard the Portacollus. Most of the sectilians had been killed by the squillae plague, but those who remained were slaves obeying his every order. He’d gotten his revenge on these men and women by flipping the balance of power. He weakened them with the plague and then controlled them with his mind whenever they put up any resistance.

  Jane thought she had the whole of it now, but she played dumb. “You turned this tragedy to your benefit, Kai’Memna.”

  “Tragedy? Tragedy? It was a triumph.” He was pleased with himself.

  Jane’s stomach churned.

  “Oh, you are a quick one,” he said as he caught an inkling of her revulsion. “It took one weak mind. After centuries of serving my sectilian masters, I found one with the expertise I needed. I used him. The rest was easy. The blueprint for my success was packaged neatly within the historical record of the Sectilius, too ironic not to use. You may have heard of a sectilian named Machinutorus Tarn Elocus Hator who invented the squillae, a ship called the Percedus, and their ill-fated experiments on a Swarm pod at Seta Nu Four?”

  Jaross gasped and stood, turning to look at Ryliuk with abject horror. Ryliuk also rose, his ears pulled back so starkly his face looked more angular and drawn than she’d ever seen it. Every sectilian and atellan was having the same appalled reaction.

  Jane didn’t know this story, but she tapped into the memory playing out in Jaross’s mind and saw the significance immediately. This was a story taught to sectilian children to remind them that squillae could never be used against another species. They could only be used to support life, never as a weapon against any living thing. Kai’Memna had violated that precept egregiously.

  He continued, “Breaking the yoke after that first terrible transgression was a simple matter. And I was free.”

  “You perpetrated genocide,” Jane said, her voice trembling with anger. She shouldn’t have let it. It was stupid to let that slip.

  Kai’Memna didn’t seem to mind. He was enjoying telling his tale. “Merely a blip in population dynamics. This is how evolution works, my dear little terran. The superior survive and thrive by exploiting weaker species. As one of the favored children of the Cunabula, you surely understand this.”

  Jane didn’t reply. He was pressing harder now, pushing deeper into her mind, though she worked hard to keep her barriers in place. Her thoughts slowed to a trickle and pressure built up, making her head feel like it could split in two.

  “There is another species evolution favored. Do you know it?” It felt like he was shouting inside her head. “Surely you must. Haven’t the Swarm found Terra yet?”

  “I know about the Swarm,” Jane said defiantly.

  “Oh, she knows about them, she says. I can see that. I know about them too, Quasador Dux Jane Holloway.” He paused theatrically. “Actually, here’s a tidbit of information you might find curious: I know them.”

  “You know them?” Jane asked, her voice smaller than she’d intended it to be. Something in his tone was tripping a deep-seated reservoir of fear. She fought to keep it at bay. She didn’t want him to see it.

  “I do. As a matter of fact, I’ve just returned from parleying with the ravenous beasts. No manners, but of course we all know they aren’t civilized.”

  The pain in her head was excruciating. She was barely keeping him closed out. Now she had an inkling of what he was after and Brai was attempting help to shore her up, but it wasn’t enough. Kai’Memna was burrowing deeper and deeper into her head, one memory at a time.

  She unclipped her harness and stood unsteadily. She couldn’t form words aloud without breaking her concentration.

  She could not break her concentration.

  “You communicated with members of the Swarm? I thought that was impossible?” Jane asked and staggered a single step toward Ryliuk.

  Brai struggled to help Jane push Kai’Memna back, but Kai’Memna was very effective at blocking his attempts. She swayed.

  Alan leapt up to support her, so she didn’t fall. “Jane. End this. We need to get the fuck out of here.”

  Kai’Memna answered smugly, pretending they weren’t in the middle of a battle of wills. “I did indeed. No one had ever tried with any real effort before, believing them to be nothing but mammoth mindless insects—which they are, of course, don’t get me wrong. I don’t believe any Sentient has ever asked a kuboderan to make the attempt. So shortsighted.”

  Jane didn’t doubt it. The sectilian cultural mindset sometimes had blind spots. Humans were no different.

  Jane grabbed hold of Ryliuk, who stood staring at her, perplexed, his eyes wide with fear as he listened to Kai’Memna’s diatribe.

  “What did you tell them, Kai’Memna?” she asked.

  Jane pleaded with Ryliuk with her eyes. He didn’t understand. He was listening to the ongoing anipraxic conversation, like everyone else, but he didn’t know, couldn’t see what was happening inside her head. She trembled, her fingers tightening around Ryliuk’s beefy arm.

  “I told them the location of every single Sentient world in existence. And soon, I’ll tell them the location of your world as well.”

  Brai was also handicapped with the effort, but he managed to send a thought to Ryliuk. “I beg you, Ryliuk, help me keep her safe.”

  Ryliuk’s eyes flared and he locked onto Jane’s mind with a ferocious grip, instantly buttressing h
er mental walls. It took Kai’Memna by surprise. Jane felt immediate relief from the pressure on her mind.

  But it was a mistake.

  “What is this?” Kai’Memna roared. His rage was unhinged and violent.

  Jane could taste blood dripping down from her nose. Her upper lip was wet with it.

  Kai’Memna released his grip on Jane and turned his attention to Ryliuk. “A mind master! Here? How many of my kind have you conditioned, you stinking cesspool of air-breathing meat?”

  Ryliuk fell to his knees. His fingers fluttered around his neck and chest. He looked like he was choking.

  Jane fell with him. “Stop it! What are you doing to him?”

  “Punishing him!” Kai’Memna bellowed.

  Brai spoke urgently. “He’s attacking Ryliuk’s autonomic nervous system—preventing him from breathing, possibly arresting his heart.”

  Ron pushed Ryliuk flat to the floor and began CPR. Schlewan went for a stretcher.

  Alan grabbed Jane’s shoulder. “He’s force-choking him, Jane. It’s time to go!”

  Jaross hunched over her station. “The two ships have moved in even closer, less than one vastuumet.”

  “Brai, prepare to jump on my mark, to the next coordinates in the sequence.” She wanted to give him some random number, far, far from here, but she didn’t think she could stay conscious through a long jump.

  Brai went to work swiftly. “Preparing jump sequence, Qua’dux.”

  Kai’Memna abruptly released Ryliuk, leaving him gasping and choking on the floor like a fish out of water. He would live.

  “Oh, no, little kuba. You aren’t going anywhere. We are going to have words.”

  Jane stumbled to the command chair. Everything began to feel very far away. Something was wrong. The bridge seemed to heave and reel around her. She sat there blinking, trying to get her bearings.

  Faintly she heard Alan roar, “Oh, this is a clusterfuck!”

  Then she realized what it was. Brai was receding under Kai’Memna’s onslaught.

  “So your terran Qua’dux has given you your freedom, has she? You don’t know what freedom is. Haven’t the decades of solitary confinement without recourse shown you that? You didn’t break free on your own. She deigned to remove your chains, but has she removed your cage? Have you felt the rush of real current? Have you tasted the actual flesh of fish?”