Ranh

by Ian J Miller

  Gaius and Marcellus then crawled underneath the wires. This was one of the weaknesses of the Cardinal's defence; for various anatomical reasons Ranhyn could not "commando crawl" and since their bodies were quite "thick", the lower wire of the electric fence was two thirds of a meter off the ground. No Ranhyn could pass underneath without electrocution, but for a human this was no problem.

  They now cautiously worked their way through the "forest", with Marcellus in the lead. Before very long, there was a rustling in front of them, and two vicious looking raptors appeared. Marcellus gave them both simple tranquilizing shots, and they fell in a heap to the ground. They would wake up in a few hours, none the worse for wear, as long as something did not eat them in the meantime.

  They continued until they could turn right and remain in the forest, which they did, and continued until they had gone a distance that corresponded to approximately half the way down that side of the building. They then crawled underneath the wire and approached the open area, which was covered by moss and low-lying shrubs.

  'I could make some money by selling the Cardinal some grass seed," Gaius thought to Marcellus.

  'What I don't understand is why Kazyn hasn't,' Marcellus responded.

  They lay down and waited. Tharryt had to reach the controllers to the surveillance equipment and insert a drive that contained commands to continue showing what was there at the time of insertion. He also had to watch the equipment as he did this, to ensure that some bird was not flying across any field of view. This required the Ranhyn responsible for viewing not to notice what was going on, and to achieve this Tharryt had to fire a small tranquilizing dart into him before he did anything else. That would put him slowly to sleep, and while eventually he might realize something was wrong, it was unlikely he would report it, because being asleep on duty would earn him a plucking at the very least. Tharryt would then open a window on the middle floor, the ground floors being blocked by titanium rods to keep out intruders.

  There it was: the open window. Marcellus ran across the space, then stood underneath the window and faced Gaius, who now ran towards Marcellus and leaped. He could never reach the window himself, but Marcellus gave him a lifting thrust that brought Gaius' knees to finish level with the windowsill. Gaius thrust his hands out and firmly grasped the sill and wriggled in. Marcellus quickly followed. Gaius signalled 'So far, so good' to Tharryt, and gave the signal that he wished to be taken to Sender's office.

  They climbed some stairs to the top floor, then marched down the hall. The door to Sender's room was locked, but this proved to be no real obstacle. Gaius and Marcellus entered, while Tharryt was instructed to keep watch. Gaius shuddered a little as he looked around the room. There was a desk with computer equipment at the centre of the room and close to the large expanse of window. That was expected, and Gaius could very easily understand the desire to sometimes swivel in the chair and look out the window for the view was quite stunning. The wall running from the entrance door was covered with shelving, and there was quite a library there. The third wall was covered with trophies or pictures of trophies, and the trophies were of kills, mostly animals, but there were pictures of a number of Ranhynn and three pictures of humans, and each of theses pictures showed the results of severe torture and dismembering, almost certainly before death. The fourth wall had various instruments of torture carefully mounted, and below them were boxes littered across the floor, each containing further instruments of torture. Sender was clearly a sadist, and a tyrant of the first order. That, however, was not relevant to what the mission was about.

  Gaius moved to a window to ensure he could open it. As he stared out, he had to complement Sender on his choice of view. It was magnificent, with forested country running down to a gully in the long distance. It was a huge area of pure nature, and nowhere was there any sign of civilization. This was Sender's private hunting ground, a source of delicacies that were not available to most. It was also ideal for Gaius, in another sense.

  Gaius returned to the desk, then started up the computer, and while this was going on, Marcellus plugged himself in, to recharge batteries. Before long, Gaius employed his newly acquired ability to read Ranhyn to find relevant files. Gaius then unpacked a small parabolic dish and connected it by wire to a small black box. To another portal on the box, he ran a wire to a small device that he plugged into the computer. He then took the dish to the window, which he opened, then he clipped the dish to the window and began orienting it. At last he got a signal, and he carefully adjusted the orientation to get the maximum signal power. He then threw a switch, and the computers on the Actium began downloading everything on Sender's computer network, starting with the files Gaius had highlighted. Even with the Ulsian technology, this would take time.

  In one sense it was very frustrating sitting there doing nothing, but in another sense it was very comforting that so far nobody seemed to have any idea they were there. Now was the time to make preparations for their departure. Gaius took another small robotic device from his pack and by means of his dish, he made electronic contact with it to the Actium. Once that was firmly linked, the device could move within the building or outside under its own motive power, and create all sorts of illusions generated by the Actium. Very specifically, it would generate the illusion of some Ranhynn fleeing in some other direction until they reached the forest that was Sender's hunting ground. Hopefully, this would not be required, but it was a useful emergency diversion. There was one further virtue. Assuming the Cardinal's guard did not discover the bypass to the surveillance system, the surveillance system would record the illusion, and that would give Sender something to think about.

  Marcellus gave a signal to Gaius, the agreed signal showing that in fifteen minutes there would be a change of shift. Time to leave. Gaius nodded, and closed down the computer while Marcellus gathered up the other equipment. They left the room, locked it, and proceeded back to the window through which they entered. At this point Tharryt was ordered close the window after them, then go to the other end of the building and throw the distraction device out the window, leave that window open, and then to go to the surveillance room and withdraw the bypass as late as he dared before the shift changed. They would know when the device was removed, and if he did a good job here, there would be an additional reward. Marcellus then produced a length of rope that Kazyn had provided, and held it while Gaius abseiled down the wall, being careful not to damage the window below. Then Marcellus jumped, leaving Tharryt to close the window. The two ran as fast as they could, slithered under the fence, and crept into the forest.

  There was an immediate ruckus. A Ranhyn walked into the surveillance room, saw the sleeping guard, did not see the bypass equipment, but instead saw three Ranhynn running from the wall from which the device had been thrown. He immediately alerted the guard, there was the sound of a siren, and guards ran rapidly to that end of the building. The guards saw very little, but since they had come from the front, they guessed the intruders must have gone to the back. They ran to the back as fast as they could, and gaped as they saw the three Ranhynn pick up poles and pole vault over the electrified fence and run into the forest. They fired shots at them, but seemingly did no damage, which, as Gaius remarked later, was hardly surprising since they were images. The guards then did what all good guards do: they panicked. Two ran back to turn off the electrified fence, and did not notice the small black box move into the undergrowth of the forest, where, powered by the Actium, it then levitated and flew to Kazyn's vehicle.

  Meanwhile, Tharryt walked out the front door, the bypass in his pocket. The guards who should have been running to turn off the fence stopped him and ordered him to help with the search, but Tharryt had the sense to show them Sender's written orders, which had been compiled by Marcellus, and would be recorded on Sender's computer drive. An excellent forgery of Sender's signature meant that neither guard was prepared to argue. Tharryt then walked calmly to Kazyn's vehicle.

  Gaius and Marcellus similarly had
little trouble. Any searching was in the obviously large area to where the "intruders" had run. The fact that no sign of the poles could be found did not seem to strike the searchers as unusual, mainly because they were too terrified of what would happen to them to think clearly.

  At the vehicle, Marcellus withdrew the capsule, checked that nothing had leaked out, then they drove Tharryt to the nearest village. Gaius gave him a considerable sum of money and told him to go away and follow the orders. The fact they were not proper orders was beside the point. If he were ever asked, all he had to do was to say he picked them up, and he had no idea they were forged.

  They then told Kazyn of the deception.

  "Well, thanks for that," Kazyn muttered. "You realize no Ranhyn has ever pole vaulted before, because their arm are too weak for their bulk. Sender will think it was me."

  "True, their arms are weak, but you could do it," Gaius smiled, "and added to that, since you have returned there has been quite a bit about Earth on their television."

  "Maybe," Kazyn grumbled, "but Sender will still think I am responsible."

  "Does it matter?"

  "Not to you apparently."

  "Given they have already decided to kill you on sight, I fail to see that this makes it any worse," Gaius countered.

  "I suppose there's something in that," Kazyn conceded. "All the same, I have to live here after you're gone."

  "My view on that is simple," Gaius replied. "After this, either you or Sender will be dead. The planet isn't big enough for both of you."

  Chapter 25

  The return involved Kazyn driving them to a section of the forest not far from the spaceport, following which they had to reverse the procedure, but with the added distraction that as the shift was changing the shuttle demanded the right to land. That ensured that besides the shift change, all eyes tended to be upwards, as the shuttle appeared to come in far too fast. Ulsian technology meant that no bad outcome was possible, but it certainly gave those watching something of a fright. Gaius and Marcellus were in the hangar well before the shuttle came in, giving Gaius time to change his clothes. The somewhat dirty ones were left in the shuttle, where a machine would automatically clean them. Gaius and Marcellus then emerged and marched to the main building, where they were asked to declare items in the bag Gaius was carrying.

  "No," Gaius said. "Diplomatic immunity," following which, Marcellus cited the relevant treaty clause and enquired whether this Ranhyn wanted to create a diplomatic incident. He did not wish to, and they walked through the area and through the front doorway, all the time ignoring the stares they got from other Ranhynn present. The incident even made the evening news. Nobody had ever gone through like that before in living memory, although it had to be admitted that no diplomats had been on Ranh for over seventy years, except for that Ulsian delegation that had been intercepted by the Conclave Guard before they even got to the Customs area. Gaius picked up his ears at that.

  After reaching the forecourt, they hailed the equivalent of a taxi, and were driven to their hotel by a particularly loquacious driver. He had never seen a human before, he said.

  "And what do you think of them now?" Marcellus asked.

  "A remarkably patient and docile species, it seems," the driver said, with the Ranhynn equivalent of a grin. "No Ranhyn would put up with the nonsense the Space Curia has dished up to you."

  "You have been following events?"

  "Oh yes, most of Ranh have," the driver said. "It appears humans are what replaced us on the Planet of Creation. There are great discussions going on, as to . . ." He stopped, as if he suddenly realized he might have gone too far.

  "Whether they will replace you here?" Gaius said.

  "Well, yes."

  "The answer is, no," Gaius said, "and we did not on Earth either. Species like yours were destroyed by the consequences of a collision of an asteroid with the planet that exterminated just about everything except the tiny. The damage was so great that the only things that could survive were those that did not require much food, because there was very little to eat. Humans are what eventually evolved from some small mammals that survived."

  "I heard that humans defeated a force that even Ulse had trouble with," the driver said.

  "Yes, and no," Gaius said. "That M'starn force was only thirty-five ships strong, and they were what had survived from a serious mauling by an Ulsian force. They tried repairs, but there is a case that they were fighting more to survive than to defeat Earth. They couldn't do that, anyway, because they lacked ground troops."

  "I guess some of what we hear is not exactly true," the driver admitted.

  "That happens frequently," Gaius agreed. "Tell me, what does everyone think is going on?"

  "We think you have delivered some indigestible ultimatum," the driver said, "otherwise if your initial statements were true, why isn't everyone signing the treaty?"

  "The short answer," Gaius said, "is we want the treaty, Earth wants peace, and Earth wants good relations with Ranh. We don't know why the Space Curia refuses to do the obvious and sign the standard treaty as agreed with Ulse, or if they want some variation, at least present what they want."

  "The short answer," the driver said, "is they are a bunch of fraidies."

  "What would they be afraid of?"

  "I would guess, the Conclave, or at the least, Cardinal Sender." He paused, and continued, "I didn't say this, but . . ."

  "I promise you won't be quoted and identified," Gaius said, "and remember, we don't even know your name."

  "You, or worse, the Cardinal, could find it out because which taxi you got into will be recorded."

  "I will most certainly not say it was a taxi driver," Gaius assured him.

  "Well, I was going to say, Cardinal Sender has a very big reputation as a tyrant who loves to torture whoever he does not like."

  "I knew that already," Gaius said, "but don't worry about my identifying you. However, you can do me a favour."

  "Which is?"

  "When you drive other Ranhynn around, mention you talked to me, and mention we really want a peace treaty with Ranh."

  "I can do that," the driver said, "especially . . ."

  "If you get a good tip," Gaius agreed, "which you will, but you have to get us to the hotel first."

  The driver was highly satisfied, and even more so when he saw the size of the tip when he dropped them off outside the hotel. They went to their rooms, and called for Natasha, but were informed that both Natasha and Katya were out. Gaius tried the emergency thought linkage, but there was no response. In principle, Natasha could reasonably be unconsciously blocking such contact, particularly if the signal were weak, so Gaius requested Marcellus to try for a link to Katya. Again, there was no response.

  'If they are not dead, and Katya would take some killing, either they are out of range, or they are shielded,' Marcellus thought.

  'What's the probability of the first?'

  'Very low. If there were any serious problems, Katya would have warned the Actium, and there has been no such message."

  'Suppose they were captured and imprisoned?'

  'Again, probability extremely low. Katya would not usually let herself be captured.'

  'Out of range?'

  'Possible, but how did she get out of range? As far as we can tell, there is no record of her having done so, nor is there any message to suggest she was in imminent danger.'

  'Maybe she didn't realize until too late.'

  'Quite possible, but Katya would realize immediately. My guess is the most likely option is that they drifted into a shielded area, and then anything could have happened.'

  'Perhaps, but I guess there's nothing we can do about that right now. We wait and give them time to resurface. In the meantime, check for listening devices.'

  Marcellus carried out the search, and found three. These, and a camera, were placed in a sealed bag, which in turn was placed in a canister, which in turn was taken to the bathroom and submerged in a full bath. Tomorrow woul
d be the time to complain about these.

  With two shut doors between them and the bathroom, it was time to examine what they had sent to the Actium. The information had been loaded into their computer in the shuttle, and Marcellus would access it remotely. Strictly speaking, Gaius could do this too through the head implant, but as Marcellus noted modestly, he could search orders of magnitude faster than Gaius could, and Gaius could oversee proceedings and decide that which was deemed relevant. His job was to ask what to look for. The first question was, what was the nature of the majority of the files? That was easy, and they were mainly records of dissidents, who they were, what they were doing, and why Sender considered them of interest.

  'We can examine them later,' Gaius indicated. 'Check the financials, and see what we can come up with, and in particular, is there anything relating to Kazyn's accusation regarding shipbuilding?'

  Marcellus scanned, and brought one column to Gaius' attention. Then, by finding links to other files, there was a clear conclusion: Kazyn was correct in his analysis of shipbuilding. Quite a sizable fleet was under construction or had been constructed at some place that was identified only by a code. Further links found that there were clear instructions that the existence of this ship construction should not be made public, and utmost secrecy was required.

  ''The question then is, why would Sender want to construct such a fleet of ships? Search for anything relating to weapons,' Gaius suggested.

  This search was quickly carried out, and the conclusion was that the ships were designed to carry weapons, but as yet they had none. It was particularly difficult to obtain the most deadly of the Ranhyn weapons: the annihilation bomb. One of these would remove all large animal life on a modest continent, and Sender wanted twelve.

  'Twelve would be sufficient to annihilate all humanity on Earth,' Marcellus noted.

  'Which means stopping this is what our mission is,' Gaius nodded. 'The question now is, how far along the track are they to getting these weapons?'