“Can this data be proved?” asked one of the Kwaidian Elders.
Atheron stood up again, and smiled deferentially. “If you would allow me to show you the detailed DNA analysis carried out on samples taken from the entity which calls itself Arcan…?”
Six clutched at Grace. “They have got their hands on the samples we took up to the Exolabs to save Arcan when he was ill!”
“We should have thought of that!” Grace’s eyes were worried.
Atheron was pointing out the differences between Arcan’s DNA and that of all the other life-forms found in the system. He went on, “… which proves conclusively that this entity is of extra-planetary origin. Indeed, it can only be of extra-system origin.”
“We agree.” Diva’s father led the Coriolan delegation in an outburst of applause, quickly taken up by the Cesis delegation. The Kwaidians nodded, but refrained from applauding. Only the Xianthan delegation appeared doubtful.
“He is as slippery as ever,” Six said, in deep disgust. “Wouldn’t you know!”
“Of course he is!” Grace was aggrieved. “Look how pleased he is with himself! He thinks he can convince all the rest easily.”
“They are convinced, Grace,” Six pointed out. “Just look at them all; they can hardly wait to ratify their lucrative contract with the Sellites. They were scared stiff they were going to lose all the ore the Sells provide them with.”
“Surely they care about a new life-form? Oh, this can’t be happening.” Grace was upset. “Where could Arcan possibly go if they say he can’t live on Valhai? They can’t do that, can they?”
“Don’t ask me. All I am saying is that they sure don’t look too keen to give Valhai away,” Six shrugged.
Grace gave a slight giggle, and nodded her head in Diva’s direction. “Have you seen Diva? She looks as if she would like to surgically oblige her father to take his words back!”
Six shook his head sadly. “She needs some family counseling,” he said. “She doesn’t seem to have taken his repudiation very kindly.”
“I wonder how he is getting on without her mother. Do you think he is leading a celibate life of abstinence?”
Six nearly choked. “I would bet a puffer eel to a Xianthan crocodile that he has been living it up ever since his wife went off to that mountain retreat of hers. Stands to reason. Why else would he be that big, and that red, and that huffy?”
“Perhaps he is glad she has left, and so we really did him a favour?”
“Yes. Why don’t you put it to him, and ask for a reward?”
“No, no. I wouldn’t like to steal your honours,” Grace said politely.
Six grinned. “I can’t say I have any desire to come face to face with him again. I, for one, have no intention of ending up embalmed in a rexelene block on display for viewing by the general public!”
“I thought only common thieves got that treatment?”
“I am very common!”
“Something we never doubted for a moment!” interrupted Diva, who had come up behind them both, making them jump.
“Don’t DO that!” said Six. “You could have given us both heart stop.”
“Some warrior you are! Don’t they give you ears on Kwaide?”
“Of course they do! What do you think these things on either side of my head are?”
“Those?” said Diva, smiling to give him the full benefit of her polished teeth, “I thought they were vestigial wings – you know, like Cesan bats.”
Six growled and took a step forward. “I’ll give you vestigial—”
Grace put herself physically between them. “Stop!”
“Get out of my way, Grace! I’m only going to knock a few of those dazzling white teeth down her aristocratic throat!”
Grace gave him a push. “Six, shame on you! Can’t you see she is just trying to wind you up?”
Diva attempted to look innocent, but failed spectacularly. “Me?” she said. “I was just making a comment. How am I supposed to know anything about Kwaidian anatomy?” She opened her eyes very wide. “For all I know they might hear through their—”
“Diva!” warned Grace.
Diva glared at Grace for daring to interrupt her. “—legs, like Coriolan crickets, I was about to say.”
Grace was diverted. “Do crickets hear through their legs? How do they do that?”
“Through membrane vibration. Don’t interrupt, Grace.”
“At least we don’t think we’re the best in the system,” Six told Diva.
“Well hardly! How could you? You only have to look at your backward little planet …”
“Compared to what, your royal hautiness?”
“Compared to anything!”
Six glared at her, and opened his mouth to retort, but Grace shushed them both. Atheron had faltered in his speech, distracted by their speaking, and was treating them to one of his pained looks, which made them all burst out laughing.
“Diva, you are abominable!” Grace told her friend. “Can’t you leave Six in peace for a few minutes? We are missing all the speeches.”
They turned their attention back to the proceedings. Six shuffled his feet, but nobody really thought he was repentant. His aversion to orations was no secret. Since Diva’s eyes were still dancing it was fairly obvious that she couldn’t care less either. Grace gave a heavy sigh, which only made Diva giggle more.
Now Arcan was beginning to speak again, the shimmering figure changing colour. “Perhaps you could tell me the origins of Valhai?” he inquired of Atheron.
“The … the …? Why? What does that matter?” The educator was clearly taken aback.
“Well, if you think I was born outside the system, and therefore have no claim to Valhai, it is implicit that you consider Valhai to form part of the system”
“Of course Valhai is part of the system!”
“Not necessarily.”
“What do you mean?”
“I believe that this planet was of extra-system origin, and was captured by the joint gravity of the two suns and the failed star hundreds of millions of years ago. I was born on Valhai, and am still of extra-system origin, as is this planet.”
“That’s telling them!” whispered Six approvingly. “How are you going to wriggle out of that one, Atheron?”
There was a moment’s hasty consultation in the Sellite corner. Then Mandalon himself took the floor.
“The origin of Valhai is unimportant; it now belongs to the system, and therefore all legitimate inhabitants of the system have a right to its exploitation.” A few cheers rose up out of the Sellite ranks. Mandalon acknowledged them with a wave of his hand and then continued speaking. “Since the contract between the Sellites and the system’s leaders is still in force, and this Arcan thing does not belong to this system there can be no doubt about who this planet belongs to.”
“Fools!” said Diva. “They are just asking for trouble!”
The shadowy figure that represented Arcan turned almost black and suddenly began to grow larger and larger until it towered over the rest of those present. “This must be a joke!” His voice seemed to boom in all their heads. The figure continued to increase in size, until Mandalon took two steps back, before coming up against the magmite wall. The man’s face showed a rapid transition from self-congratulatory to horrified.
“They certainly are!” muttered Six, taking Grace by the hand to stop her from breaking files and running over to Arcan. Diva was standing icily still, but her eyes promised action in the short-term future.
The towering figure maintained its menacing presence over Mandalon. “You have made this mistake before,” it said. “I begin to find you very irritating. I will allow you a fair period of time in which to deliberate over this matter, but these machinations must stop. Until such time I will supply you with air, water and food. If there is any question then of my not belonging to Valhai I will no longer operate the space elevator for your provisions, and I will remove all orthogel from any of your installations. You bore
me, and I am no longer prepared to have contact with you until that further meeting. How long do you require for your deliberations?”
Mandalon looked desperately at Atheron, who made some sort of movement with his hands which the onlookers were unable to decipher. The leader of Sell gave a brief nod, and then spoke.
“We will need at least a year to look into all of the details of the case,” he said. “It may take us eighteen months. Are you prepared to grant us that time?”
The orthogel entity darkened again, a faint violet shimmer running through it. “Very well,” it said, “a year to eighteen months … but no longer.” There was a slight pause, and then Arcan spoke again. “I shall require the 256th skyrise for my own use during that time. All except the 49th level.”
Mandalon inclined his head. “Very well. We are all in agreement then?” He looked around the chamber to gauge the reactions of the other participants, and Arcan began to deflate, releasing the pressure which had held Mandalon against the wall, releasing the Sellite, who was trying unsuccessfully to look dignified.
The Sellites were extremely satisfied: they had procured another couple of years with no changes: it was more than they had hoped for. The rest of the participants clearly felt the same way – there was a general hum of assent and inclinations of various heads. Atheron, particularly, seemed to be very pleased with himself. Mandalon brought the meeting to a ceremonious close.
SIX WAS ADAMANT. “If it is going to take years to sort out all this Valhai thing I am going to Kwaide to get my sister right now. I have had a bad feeling about Eight for the last two weeks – I’m worried something may have happened to her.”
“And I am coming with you.” Diva straightened her shoulders and looked eager for confrontation.
Grace hesitated. “But what about Arcan?” she asked.
“He can come too, can’t he?” said Six. “Or is he going to sit around here for the next two years?”
Arcan’s voice sounded in all their heads. “I have to spend time researching the origin of Valhai.” There was a brief pause. “And I might need some help.”
“What! The great Arcan asking for help!” exclaimed Six. “Now how did that come about?”
“I have been able to develop a technique for projecting my voice without surrounding you with an orthogel bubble. This is—” The orthogel entity prepared to go into detailed explanations.
“—I meant,” said Six, “that how can such an omnipotent being as yourself need help from insignificant animals like ourselves?”
“Yes. I find it surprising too,” answered Arcan. “Unfortunately I still need someone to get into the Sellite archives and find the relevant files for me. That is something only one of you can do.”
The three friends looked at each other.
“I’ll stay,” said Grace. “I know all of the archive codes and I know my way around the library system here in Sell.”
Both Six and Diva found it hard to hide their relief. Researching ancient archives was not exactly their idea of a fun way to spend their time.
“If you insist.”
“If you are sure …”
Grace gave them a wide smile. “You would have hated to stay, admit it!” she teased. “No – I am the ideal candidate for this. It will be great to be of help to Arcan. And perhaps I need a little bit of time here. Such a lot of things have happened in the last few months, that I feel as if I haven’t quite assimilated it all yet. Maybe Arcan can float us both over to Kwaide from time to time to find out how you are getting on.”
“I don’t foresee any difficulty with that, Grace,” said Arcan.
“Then it’s settled.” Six looked across the table in the eating area of the 21st floor of the 256th skyrise, their temporary base.
“I shall come too.”
Everybody started at the voice which interrupted them. Cimma had come in unseen and had overheard the last comments.
A fleeting look of utter dismay crossed Six’s face, to be replaced almost instantly by a welcoming smile. “Cimma! I hadn’t realized you were there. Err … Are you sure you would be up to such a strenuous journey?”
“Strenuous?” Cimma echoed with a touch of sarcasm. “Standing inside a bubble of orthogel for ten seconds?”
“Not just that,” Six hastened to add. “We might have to camp out in the rough, march across the mountains … you know …”
“I am sure Arcan can maintain my orthosupport even at that distance, can’t you, Arcan?”
“That would be possible, Cimma. I do not think I would be in any danger from the atmosphere of Kwaide. It is Coriolis which is dangerous to me for any long exposures.”
Cimma gave a pleased look around all the table. “Then?”
Six recognized defeat. “Terrific,” he said lethargically. “Can’t wait.”
Diva kicked him under the table, ignored his resultant squawk of surprise, and stood up. “It will be a great honour to have you accompany us,” she told Grace’s mother. “It will make our trip memorable.”
Six was rubbing his shin. “I’ll say!” he agreed, with feeling. Under Diva’s magnetic glower, he found himself standing up too. “When do we leave?”
Cimma touched the scabbard of her famous Xianthan dagger. “I’m ready now,” she told them. “Just have to say goodbye to your father, Grace.”
Since Grace’s father had been dead for over two years now, and lived in a closed sarcophagus, the general feeling was that that would not take her very long to accomplish.
“No point hanging around then,” said Six. “We will go whenever Arcan is ready to take us.”
Chapter 3
SIX, CIMMA AND DIVA gazed around them. They were back in front of the concrete slabs and wired fencing of the Rexel birth shelter on Kwaide. Diva thought that it was just as gloomy a place as it had been the previous time she had seen it, with Six. If anything, it had an even more abandoned look about it. Cimma looked with disfavor at the unprepossessing building, and then shivered as she became aware of the cold wind.
“This is nothing,” Six told her with some pride. “In the uninhabitable zone the winds can kill you!”
“How nice!” Cimma’s expression indicated just what she thought about that.
Diva led the way to the main gate, and rang the bell. It echoed somewhere inside the dank building and then fell silent. This time it was an imposingly stern woman who came out to speak to them. She examined her visitors through narrowed eyes. “Now why,” she said sharply, “would three outsiders be ringing the bell of the birth shelter?”
“I am no outsider, you old harpy!” shouted Six. “Call yourself a matron? Hah! I want my sister!”
Diva rolled her eyes. “Going for the subtle approach, I see, no-name!” she murmured.
The matron gave a satisfied smile. “So you have come at last,” she said. “Well you are too late.”
“What do you mean, too late?”
“Wasn’t she your twin? Can’t you feel it?” taunted the old woman.
Six fell silent for a second, and his eyes lost their focus. “She is not here,” he said at last. “Where have you taken her?” He made a lunge in the old woman’s direction, and had to be pulled back by Diva.
“Oh, she is here, all right …” The woman gave a cackle. “We kept her here. Now would we let a precious thing like your sister get away?”
“Even four years in this place must have seemed like an eternity,” said Diva.
“Tell me about it!” But Six struggled against Diva’s grip, still trying to get closer to the matron. “What have you done with her, you evil troll?”
“I? I have done nothing. We had orders from Benefice, didn’t we? Had to keep her locked up, didn’t we? Not my fault if she didn’t like the food, was it?”
Six gave a growl deep in his throat.
The matron turned to him and hissed. “You can’t feel her, can you? You don’t know if she is alive or dead. What if I told you she were dead?”
“LIAR!”
Six shook Diva’s arm free, but Cimma was before him. Her Xianthan dagger flashed at the neck of the old woman. “Tell us exactly what happened,” she snarled, “or I will cut your unworthy throat wide open!”
The matron squirmed at the touch of the knife, and tried to spit in Cimma’s face.
“I don’t like you.” Cimma tightened her grasp. “I didn’t like you on first acquaintance and things have gone downhill since then. So keep a civil tongue in your head, you hear?” She shook the woman.
“I have told you what happened. The Elders from Benefice were ‘interested’ in her. They requested ‘special’ measures. She was to be put in the dark room and kept apart from the rest. It’s not my fault if she didn’t eat properly. It isn’t my fault she got sick. It was the Elders and their ‘special’ measures.”
“What did you feed her?” Six´s face was stony.
“Oh, this and that. A little of this, and a little of that.”
“You starved her!”
A thin smile spread across the lips. “We believe in frugality here,” she said.
“You starved her to death!” Six’s voice failed.
Cimma tightened the knife, which nicked the woman’s throat, causing a heavy trickle of blood to fall to the ground.
The woman’s eyes followed the trail of her own blood, and she paled. “All right. All right!” She held up her hands. “If you must know, she isn’t dead. She didn’t die. She got sick, I tell you! Her stomach couldn’t take all the rich food, maybe?” She gave a cackle.
“And you didn’t get her a doctor?”
Ammonite Planets (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #1-3 Page 29