She opened the door and stepped outside. Dense trees surrounded a small clearing with a brook running at one corner of the space. Weird shadows played in the light from the open doorway and the moonlight. She pulled a tartan shawl closer around her as the wind picked up and swept through the clearing, as she crossed her way to the tree stump, and eased herself down on it. Under the stars, she thought she could try and make some sense of what she'd seen.
There was something coming. A cold evil of some kind. Not the new humans which she’d been told had entered their space and defeated the Owls, but something, sinister. She was getting too old for this. Sinister? She’d be making things up to scare the children at bedtime stories next.
But it was. She shivered, despite the thick wool weave of her shawl. Something indescribable, because nothing had ever been experienced like it. All the years she’d been scrying, she’d never been truly frightened before.
And what of the woman, more a girl, she’d seen? She was new, but somehow there was a connection, a sense of a story known but untold.
There was also Queen Jane, who'd she’d seen before, but now knew her name. There was something odd about her, like something missing, while at the same time being something more. And less.
Maybe she'd understand if she ever met either of the women, not that it was likely.
She signed and stood up. It wasn’t going to be clear tonight. She’d try again later.
But perhaps it was time to make the journey into the town to get word to the McLauchlan Himself. Things were stirring in the ether, in the wind, in the universe.
Of course, she could just fire up the electronics and send an email, however, this needed the impact of a storytelling which only a meeting could bring. And anyway, she could do with some company.
Easing herself up, she returned to the hut and readied for sleep. A cup of tea first, and she’d try and get a good night’s rest.
Something stirred in the trees, and a rushing of wings swept past the window. She didn’t need omens to tell her she needed to be wary and keep her mind keen.
The night closed in around the hut, around her form under the covers, and around her soul.
Eight
Snark snapped awake as sirens tore through his slumber. The concussion from several explosions rocked the ship as fire and sparks rained across the window of the bridge. The blackness of space was glowing, a false dawn in the emptiness. The planet below glinted ice and fire. The ship’s klaxon was sounding, and Snark cut it off.
His paws moved quickly over the controls. Shields up, weapons ready. What? Life support was fine, no signs of damage. Sensors showed the station glowing with multiple explosion sites. He checked locations and damage to the station. Several of the main living areas had hull breaches, bodies and debris floated in space between docked ships, and out past the station perimeters. Several ships were already pulling away from the station.
"What’s happening?" Anna burst onto the bridge and stood next to where Snark was perched. "It’s not us is it?"
Snark nodded to the station vid, where several fires were burning, and debris was spewing from multiple jagged breaches. Anna’s hands covered her mouth in surprise and shock.
"Seasprite to Station control," said Snark into an open channel.
No reply. Of course they had their hands full. No, the station command centre had scored a direct hit. What was going on? This was unheard of. A paltry if scumbag station in an off the beaten track system? Who would even think it was worth attacking?
His first thought was survivors and damage control. They would need every resource possible to fight fires and clear debris.
Snark paused as his own survival instincts cut in. First things first. Clear out and save his own skin. Oh, and Anna’s too of course.
His paws flew over the controls as he readied the ship. No time to get more familiar with them, he’d just have to make do with the practice he’d had while waiting for the repairs to finish. The station docking clamps were locked and unmoving. Stupid! He would either have to manually release, or just pull away and hope the airlock held.
"What are you doing?" Anna pulled at his paws. "We can’t just leave!"
"What and stay here? Whoever pulled this off means business!"
"But what about…"
She waved her hands in the direction of the chaos. Sympathetic explosions rocked them again and they flinched away from the screen.
"Shouldn’t we help?" she finished.
Snark snarled and bared his teeth. His claws pinged open and his tail switched furiously back and forth. If he had fur, it would be standing on end, but he still looked a formidable sight.
"We can come back to help." He spat. "There’s nothing we can do for them at the moment. We need to clear the station before it’s too late."
Anna pulled back from him and stood in shock, alternately staring at the screen showing the station, and out of the window, now showing the nearby station disintegrating.
Snark engaged the forward thrusters, and increased them until Seasprite tore itself away from the docking port. They narrowly missed careening into a small freighter which turned away just in time. The front airlock held, and the ship slowly put space between itself and the stricken station. Ships were fleeing in all directions, several collisions averted at the last minute, and then a cargo vessel and a drug runner mistimed their exit lanes, and space lit up with a fireball as they connected at speed.
Behind them the docking port disintegrated. One minute it was there and the next, gone. Pieces of the station were breaking away from others as the integral structure failed. Ships still attached moved as if in some weirdly choreographed ballet to an insane rhythm, smooth but deadly.
Anna took several deep breaths, as Snark manoeuvred the ship to a relatively safe distance, keeping a careful watch for stray craft and debris.
"This is madness!" hissed Snark. Anna nodded dumbly. "Who would want to do this?"
He looked across at Anna’s pale face and mellowed slightly.
"We’re safe here. We can go back when things are a bit, clearer."
Anna bit her lip. She seemed about to speak and then her mouth clamped down in a thin line. She moved across to the coms position, and cycled through the vid feeds from cams all around the ship. View after view of fleeing ships, and a widening debris field where the station had been, surreally lit by a kaleidoscope of fires and shadows. The fires quickly went out.
"There!"
She highlighted a shape at a distance beyond the station debris field. As the details of the ship scrolled across the screen which popped up, she drew in a sharp breath, and breathed out slowly as she went back to her seat. She glanced over at Snark.
"We need to leave," she said. "Now."
Snark had been scanning the information as well. His fuzz stood on end, and his tail thrashed harder. Pirates he understood, they had a simple and straightforward purpose in life. But he’d never come near to understanding the Brotherhood. Religious nuts didn’t sit well with him. Religion and spirituality itself was fine, but extremism left him cold. The Brotherhood were a secretive bunch, but often carried out unpleasant tasks for people, for a price. Religious mercenaries. Or Assassins. In fact, the Brotherhood gave both a bad name.
He didn’t need prompting, they’d finished provisioning, and were ready to leave anyway. But how to get away without attracting attention? Perhaps there was no need in the general rush to escape from what was left of the station.
Time to test out his new ship's capabilities. He put the ship onto a course to take it out of the orbit of the planet, and away in an opposite trajectory to the last position of the Brotherhood ship. As they moved away, he noticed nothing changing. The Brotherhood ship stayed in orbit, and no other ships had changed direction. They seemed unobserved. And they were moving fast. Not as fast as Jane's ship, but much faster than the locals. Everyone else was heading for jump points. Snark wasn’t. He figured getting lost in the system was better than being easily
findable, and they could approach a jump point from a non-standard direction a lot safer than being predictable.
After a while, and having seen no signs of pursuit, he felt confident they'd left without any hangers-on. He slowed to a cruise.
Snark suddenly felt as if he needed a lie down. A long one. Either that or a stiff drink of Whisky like the Scots. Or both. Preferably both. After, he needed to know where they were supposed to be going.
Nine
They’d moved to the lounge area of the yacht. It was time to talk. Snark felt both foolish and stupid. He’d listened to her lies, or half-truths, or whatever they were, and like a fool he’d gone along with her. He needed answers as he was now in danger. Not knowing from what was alarming. He felt he’d lost control. Everything was topsy-turvy, and although he liked novel things, he did like his routine.
Anna sipped a drink and sighed. She looked at Snark, so strange resembling a cat, but not a cat, with three arms and apposable thumbs. A talking, sentient, weird looking cat. He’d done his best to help, while still getting what he’d wanted, but she’d also let him down.
"OK. I bent the truth a little. Alright, rather a lot."
Snark also sighed. He didn’t know what to believe anymore.
"I am who I said I am. And we did leave when I said we did, to continue the Seeking interrupted by whatever the great disaster was which made all of humanity flee. We did see the need to leave quickly the new home system, as the different human factions started to quarrel over available space. Space wasn't one of our requirements. We needed a direction, and we found it quickly. Or I did."
She paused and leaned across to Snark.
"That was the truth too, or part of it. I do see differently, out of time. Sometimes the future, sometimes the past, but never clearly enough. But once we arrived in Gaia, I saw the Destiny Stone. And I knew, just knew, it was a true Seeing, absolutely true, I’m sure of it. In this part of the galaxy."
Snark didn’t comment, but sat half curled on the lounge chair.
"It’s just that while we’ve been here, we’ve attracted attention. Asked questions of the wrong people or ah, beings. And just as Jane was conquering the Owls, we attracted the attention of Bhatet."
Snark’s ears pricked up immediately at the mention of the name. He knew the name. Everyone who lived in space for three sectors knew the name. Anna went on as if she hadn’t noticed him flinch.
"Humans are suddenly recognisable and almost celebrities now, so we stand out. And word got around to Bhatet. We were in trouble."
This was something Snark could understand. Bhatet was a ruthless warlord in an area of sector nine, and had control over a number of systems, planets and stations. Even the Owls had left him alone. He didn’t need or want representation on the sector nine council, and ran things to suit himself. All-encompassing power was his mantra and mainstay. And this came from wealth, amongst other things.
"He heard about the Destiny Stone. He thinks it will give him power. And he’ll do anything to get it."
Snark spoke.
"Including hiring the Brotherhood?"
"I think so. Though why he wants to take such an indirect route I’m not sure. And then we caught the purple plant plague." She hesitated for a moment. "It went through us all very quickly. So many died so quickly, until we got quantities of the drug, but they still died. And we were ambushed by pirates, when we had no one to properly crew the ship, and operate the weapons. They took everything, killed those they could find who were addicted, dumped the bodies in space, and left us. We were lucky they didn’t want to spend time trying to get at the three of us left in the security room." She smiled. "I honestly don’t know why they didn’t take the ship. And then you came."
"Could have been me goosing them with a missile." Snark grinned. "But I honestly don’t know why they didn't just blow you away and be done with you. Are you sure they knew anyone was still alive when they left?"
"No. But maybe it was you coming, and they decided they needed to escape, in case you were strong enough to take them?"
Snark considered what he’d been told. He still smelled fish. Pirates who didn’t want this ship? Bhatet and the Brotherhood he could understand, but this Stone thingy. Seeings and Seekings. And she wasn’t as helpless as she seemed. She was obviously able to operate some of the ship’s functions. Why did she need him? And her seeming immunity from the plague. He shook his head, so his ears flapped rapidly from side to side. It didn’t help clear his head. It was all too much for him. He should take her to Jane and leave this all behind.
But he could also smell a paradox. Something to sniff out. And perhaps great riches. They would let him have an audience then.
Curiosity or caution?
In or Out?
Ten
The remains of Farside Gamma station was far behind them, and Snark was feeling a bit safer. No signs of pursuit. He’d set a course for the Scot's Homeworld. In the absence of any other option, it seemed a sensible one to him. Other than a few members of his own species, the only other beings he knew of who did Seeings of any kind, were the Scots. They were also closer, even if still weeks away at this ship's cruising speed.
Anna would be able to mix with her own species, and change her credits into gals. He could start a new trading enterprise to keep them going, and get some more supplies.
He still had many questions and no real answers, as Anna seemed reluctant to tell much more of her story, and what she was really up to. The Destiny Stone? It seemed something too fanciful to take such risks for. And yet Bhatet was interested, which meant a lot of very nasty and unreasonable beings involved as well. He still couldn’t work out why Farside Gamma station had been destroyed in that way. A show of strength? Why not just follow them? Why show their hand in such a spectacular, cruel and destructive way? It didn’t make sense for the Brotherhood, but perhaps it was more along the lines of Bhatet’s way of doing business.
And then? Going to the Scots system gave them a breathing space, as Anna wasn’t forthcoming with any kind of actual destination to search for the Stone. And he wasn’t a hundred percent committed, just yet anyway. He would see what happened next. Meanwhile, he still had a living to earn. One of his cargo items was alcohol, not the top quality kind, but good enough for the Scots to still trade, so at least he would come with something to offer. And having extra cargo space now, he could pick up more on the way. They could take some time to get a plan together. A proper plan with some routine would be good, not all this flying around for the sake of it. He loved something new to sniff out, but he hated the unexpected. He knew his own contradictions well, and the trading life had always been enough for him. After all, he couldn’t go back. Not unless…
"Deep in thought, Snark?"
Snark started as Anna interrupted his stream of consciousness. His ears pricked up, and his eyes widened in surprise. He settled back down into the Captain’s chair as he realised it was just her. Who else could it be? You never knew.
"Just trying to work out our next steps."
"Tell me more about these Scots." Anna’s eyes sparkled, as she sat in the coms chair. "I didn’t know there were other humans in the Galaxy."
"No one did really."
Snark made himself more comfortable and curled his tail around his body while his front half remained upright.
"The Scots came here a long time ago. No one really knows when. They’ve kept themselves to themselves and don’t like anyone visiting their system, let alone their planet. Even the Owls left them alone. The Owls were frightened of them, is what I think." He purred to himself. "I’m not surprised. They lived in their mountains for a long time, and there is a story they killed and ate an owl Admiral." He purred again. "They don’t like strangers, but they do accept some friendly traders. Like me." He grinned. "And I bring them what they need. Alcohol mainly. Although they do produce their own, called Whiskey, which is very good, but an acquired taste. They do trade for things they don’t produce but need. And the
y have a particular sweet tasting vermin on their planet, which makes a rather good casserole."
Anna laughed, although she couldn’t think of anything worse. Rat stew was bad enough. She knew the history of the Scots. Their story and that of the Russians were entwined, as they had traded on the old Earth, right at the beginning. Both nations had a love of alcohol, although different kinds. Originally, they had inhabited the cold regions of the Earth, and had needed alcohol to sustain them in freezing winters. She herself was distantly related to the current Queen of Britain through Queen Victoria. She knew they were formidable fighters, if factionally based in clans, although modern Scots had never really kept up the traditions. These might have though.
She was looking forward to something a little more appetising than rat stew or vermin casserole. And she was lonely. She had Snark, but it wasn’t the same as Eddie and Zema. She missed them, and the others. They had formed a tight knit community, the last of the last. The mission had kept them together, almost as one. She still couldn’t believe they were gone. She'd waited to grieve, but nothing had come. She felt like ice, all head and no heart. Was it all worth it? It had to be. She had to make it so.
Snark could sense her sadness, and, what was that, loss? Being Lost? While most of the time she didn’t show her emotions, she sometimes let her guard down, and the human face was such a rich canvas for unspoken language. His tail twitched. He supposed in human terms she was beautiful, but really, mop heads! They all looked alike to him.
Eleven
Warspite requested an AI connection with Jane, the moment Seasprite jumped into the last system before Hunter Prime, and was now in real time coms distance. The two of them sat at a conventional conference table, opposite each other.
Snark's Quest Page 4