“But Arcan, I don’t think I …” Grace’s heart sank. The last thing she wanted to do for the next years was take charge of large amounts of money and interplanetary billing. But Arcan was right – it had been her idea, and she supposed that she had a certain obligation. She gave a long sigh, and prayed to Almagest that she might only have a nominal role in the whole thing.
“If going to Pictoris first is a priority for you, Arcan, then I suppose we can wait to visit Xiantha,” said Diva. “As long as I get over there reasonably soon, I don’t mind. I didn’t realize that traveling to Pictoris was so important to you.”
The visitor added its prim voice to the mass of opinions, “The orthogel entity and I are the only category 2 species here present; it is natural that our wishes be respected.”
“Says who?” said Six, eyebrows snapping together. “We category 3 species just might have something to say in the matter, you know.”
The machine chirruped. “You can say whatever you like,” it offered. “but that will not affect beings as important as Arcan and myself. How could it?”
Six reached out and grabbed the tiny sphere out of the air, covering it in his hand, where it buzzed agitatedly its distress.
“So how unimportant am I now?” he demanded.
“Six!” Grace was trying not to laugh, but cross at the same time. “Let it go!”
The little machine vibrated angrily within his hand, and Six said, “Why? It will only prosy on about us being inferior species. I think we should keep it in a box for the duration of the journey!”
“Six, put it down!” Diva had both hands on her hips.
“Well, it was saying we were unimportant!”
“Yes, and the visitor saved your life!”
“I’m only keeping the machine comfortable!”
Diva tilted her head to one side, listening to the rather pathetic buzzes which were coming from Six’s palm. “It doesn’t sound very comfortable,” she said sternly.
“No? I just didn’t want it to get cold.” Six opened up his hand again.
The mechanical sphere flew out of his hand and up towards the bulkhead, prudently out of Six’s reach. It was gibbering with rage and static, and refused to talk to any of them for quite ten minutes. This pleased Six, and he said so. “Done us all a favour, there, haven’t I? That seems to have stopped it from being such a rattle!”
“You are incorrigible!” said Diva. “Did you have to do that?”
“Yes. It was being very rude.”
“It was only telling the truth as it saw it.”
“Yeah? Well, it should learn some manners.”
The globe chuntered to itself in a dissatisfied way, and Diva laughed. “I think it thinks you are the one who needs some manners!”
“Excuse me?”
“Well, you are the rudest person I have ever met,” she said.
Six’s jaw dropped. “Me? Coming from you, Diva, that’s pretty rich!”
“What do you mean?” Her eyebrows almost met in the centre.
He shook his head in wonder, but decided not to pursue the subject. “Never mind, let’s go and have a look at this new spaceship of Arcan’s.” Six led the way down to the docking bay and they looked the new space trader over. “Not bad,” he said. “Although I can’t think what Arcan wanted with a spaceship – He is the ultimate spaceship!”
Grace stroked the shiny grey metal admiringly. “She is beautiful, though, isn’t she? What shall we call her?”
“She?” Six repeated, revolted. “Does it have to be female?”
“Ships are always female, and look how naming the Variance brought you luck,” said Diva.
Six made a gagging noise which caused Diva to look at him sharply. Then he saw Diva’s arms go to her hips again, and put up a hand, remembering belatedly that he had decided to let her go ahead with her insistence on naming inanimate ships.
“OK! You can call it … sorry, SHE … anything you like.”
“Big of you!” Diva showed a perfect set of intimidating white teeth.
“Within reason,” Six added hastily. “Are you going to go half way across the galaxy looking like that?”
“What’s wrong with the way I look?” Diva glared back at him.
“Well, du-urr?” Six spread his hands apart. “Green spiky hair? Hardly the look for a Valhai, is it?”
“It’s not my fault the rocket fuel seeped into my bodywrap,” she said, slitty-eyed, “and don’t you dare compare me to a broccoflower again, because if you do I shall slice you up into nice, bite-size chunks, and feed you to the nearest crocodile.”
“Hah!” he said. “Just like the Coriolan meritocracy. Always ready to execute all those who disagree with them in the slightest.”
“We do not!”
“Excuse me? Rexelene blocks, remember? Tattula cats?”
Diva growled deep in her throat. “That was not my fault, no-name. That was because the Sellites ripped out all my genetic material, and my parents were forced to disown me.”
“Sure. They weren’t too keen on me either.”
“You are a proscript. You can’t really blame them for wanting to have you killed and put into the rexelene museum.”
“Can’t I? Watch this space! I’d like to see how you would feel to be set into a transparent block and exhibited to the public!”
“He changed his mind!”
“Oh sure! He only decided it would be more fitting to throw me into a pit with some ravenous man-eating felines! Some change.”
“You are splitting hairs.”
“Not yours, at the moment. You would need a pair of sheep shears to get through your hair right now!”
Diva gave him a push, and he stumbled, nearly knocking into the visitor’s globe again. The video camera flashed out of his way, and turned on its blending capabilities, effectively disappearing from view. It still hadn’t forgiven Six and crackled its opinion of the antics, before falling silent.
Grace, who hadn’t even been listening to the all too predictable exchange between Diva and Six, was looking thoughtful.
“How about the ‘Independence’?” she said.
“Well, how about it?” asked Six.
“I mean, for the name of the ship. We could call her the ‘Independence’ – to celebrate the success of the Kwaide revolution, of course, and also because having that ship will give us three and the visitor the chance to become truly independent of the binary system.”
Six tilted his head to one side. “It’s not bad,” he agreed. “In fact, I quite like it.”
“Then it is settled,” Grace said, smiling with pleasure.
“In that case,” Diva waved her hand rather splendidly around the shiny new space trader. “I hereby name you ‘Independence’. May the heavenly triangle protect you and all who travel in you.”
With that out of the way, they went on a tour of their new temporary home.
THE INSIDE OF the new space trader was immaculate. It was one of the new Mandal class, so called because Mandalon 49 had been killed, together with one of the pilots, in a mysterious accident when they were being tested. It incorporated the electromagnetic plasma engine, and when they went down to the main cargo bay they found that the ship was much bigger than the previous space traders had been. The visitor’s ship sat comfortably in the middle, and Grace saw that there were almost three metres to spare on each side. She remembered how much of a job she had had to squeeze the ship through the cargo bay doors on the Variance and smiled. These modern traders would be much more comfortable.
The Independence even had a laboratory, they found. Diva raised her eyebrows as she caught sight of a canister which looked slightly familiar.
“Is that what I think, Arcan?”
“The orange compound.” Arcan nodded. “I was able to abstract it from one of the shelves in Atheron’s laboratory. I have already begun to study it – with the visitor’s help. We hope to have an antidote within a few more weeks, although it is taking us some time to g
o through all the chemistry tridis from Valhai.”
“Does Atheron know you have some of his famous compound?” asked Grace.
“I don’t think so. I was careful to leave no trace. Hopefully he is unaware of the missing canister.”
“Perhaps we can help you – when we get back from Pictoris, that is.”
The visitor crackled. “It is unlikely that you 3b entities are capable of adding anything useful to our studies.”
Diva glared at it.
Arcan shimmered. “My friends have proved themselves very useful in the past,” he said, with a slight reproach in his voice.
The visitor hastened to rectify any words which might have offended the orthogel entity. “But of course, I am sure that any input you might have would be … interesting.”
“Did you manage to get one of those door things they used to restrain me?” asked Diva. “That seemed to be protected from you as well.”
Arcan shook his ‘head’. “I am unable to approach those artifacts,” he said. “That is another of the things we still have to do on Valhai – when we get back, that is!” He pulsed again, and the colours which ran around the shape changed.
“Are you sure the visitor knows where to take us?” asked Grace.
The small globe whirred crossly. “I have already said that I do.”
“The visitor is able to visualize the planet quite clearly,” said Arcan. “And it is completely safe for all of you. It is rather cold—”
“Again?” groaned Diva.
“—but there is sufficient air for you to breathe quite normally.”
“That’s all very well, but it is 30,000 light years away. It isn’t exactly like stepping out around the corner, you know!”
“I’ll transport you first, and then the trader. What can possibly go wrong?”
Six glared at him. “That’s a silly thing to say.”
“Why? I do not say silly things. I have the brain the size of a large asteroid!”
“For all the good it does you! Even I know better than to say things like that!”
“I do not understand you, Six! Now – if you are all ready, can we finally get on the way to Pictoris?”
The others thought. “Well,” Six conceded unwillingly. “I suppose we could wait a couple of days to go to Xiantha, so it is really up to Grace. If she thinks the administrative details can be put on hold then I suppose it wouldn’t matter if we took a quick detour via Pictoris. If you insist.”
“Thank you Six.” Arcan’s shape scintillated a pleased glow of yellow and red. He looked over at Grace, who gave a small shrug of her shoulders in semi-agreement. “We can go now then.” The orthogel entity was like a little child having been promised its first sweet.
“No, but … Arcan! Wait a minute! We can’t just—” It was too late. The space station above Kwaide was dissolving into a white cloud and everything went blank.
Chapter 2
GRACE COULD FEEL her limbs, so she knew that she still had to be alive, but the rest of her floated in a disembodied and unsatisfactory way in some tumbling area of nothingness. She forced heavy and unresponsive eyes open. Something was very wrong. The atmosphere all around her was of a bluish-purple colour, and swirled so thickly that she could see no further than her hand. And she was in free fall; if there was gravity pulling her downwards there was no planetary surface counteracting it. She must be floating in some huge gas giant, she guessed with a swirl of utter panic.
Her eyes began to burn as the atmosphere bit into the organic tissue, and she hastily shut them again. She held her breath, but already her lungs were refusing to listen to her brain. They were bursting with the effort. She wondered what on Sacras had happened. Where was Arcan? She couldn’t last out much longer here. Her eyes were two burning spots of pain in her face. She mustn’t breathe … mustn’t breathe … must—
Her lungs overrode her instructions, tried to take a breath, and she felt a deep hot pain rack through her as something which was not oxygen raced into her lungs. She gasped, a solid band of metal appeared to take hold around her, and blackness took over, pressing down on her chest as if she had been caught in a vice and toppling her over into unconsciousness. The last thing she remembered was the coldness of metal suddenly appearing beneath her cheek as she spiraled into oblivion.
SHE WOKE UP inside the space trader. Her throat felt sore, and she was too unsteady on her feet to stand up.
“Wha—?” Her mouth tried to form the word, but had lost its definition, opening and closing slackly.
“Grace? It’s all right. We are on the ship – the Independence.” Six’s welcome voice sounded rather rough, but otherwise unscathed. “Relax. Arcan transported us inside the trader as soon as he realized that the atmosphere was poisonous to us.”
“D-Diva?”
“—Is fine. She was the first of us to come round, while you were out for the count. She is getting us something warm to drink.”
Grace struggled into a sitting position, and began to massage her temple. “Ow! Have you got a splitting headache, too?”
“’Fraid so. Seems to be the side effect of whatever the atmosphere of this planet is made of.”
Grace glanced out of the rexelene observation visor, which showed a purple glow, but no visible planet. “I … I … I feel sick,” she managed, before matching actions to words.
Six jumped back hastily. “Diva! Come here quickly! Grace needs you.”
Diva’s footsteps made their way from the galley to the bridge, and then stopped. “Thank you, nomus. What makes you think I will be any better than you at cleaning this up?”
“You’re a girl, aren’t you?” Six spread his hands.
Diva tapped one foot against the floor, ready to dispute the implication, but then realized that Grace was feeling very poorly and decided to leave the argument for another time.
“I never thought I’d see the day!” she muttered, as she grabbed a cloth and began to clean up after Grace.
Six grinned cheerfully. “Nor did I, your worshipfulness!” Then he took a step back at the fierce look he received, and withdrew prudently. “I’ll go and finish the temaris tea.” He took care not to come back until he was quite sure Grace was all right again, and all the physical signs of her distress had been cleared up.
“And Arcan?” Grace gasped finally. “Do we know if he is all right?”
“No. We know nothing.” Diva applied a clean damp cloth to Grace’s brow. “But he must be, mustn’t he, because he managed to get the Independence here, and us inside it.”
“Yes.” Grace gave a sigh of relief. “Of course.”
“Though we ought to have heard from him by now.” Six went over to the console and began to examine the control panel. He shook his head. “We are going to have to ignite the engines to get us into a stable orbit. We are in a degrading one at the moment, and we have no idea how long we are going to be here for.” He pressed a few controls until he was happy that the Independence could maintain her present trajectory.
“Just think, Six,” Grace pointed out. “We are the first people from the binary system to travel outside it. We are pioneers!”
“Hmm. Can’t say it’s much fun at the moment. Here’s hoping it gets better with time.”
“Spoilsport!”
“Hang it, Grace, just can’t see what the point is to orbiting a poisonous planet on the other side of the galaxy, is all!” He thought for a moment. “In fact, things seem to be going from bad to worse. If anything has happened to Arcan we are going to be stuck here until our air or our fuel runs out, and then we get to die a horrible death millions and millions and millions of miles away from anybody we know.”
“Your usual Kwaidian optimism, I see,” replied Diva.
“Just giving you the unvarnished truth.”
Grace giggled, despite her nausea. “Makes you wonder what a varnished truth would look like, doesn’t it?”
Diva’s eyebrows twitched. “No!”
Six nodded. “It
would be a bit like Diva’s teeth,” he said. “flashy and ultra white.”
Diva bared said teeth in his direction. “They are not varnished!”
Six put a hand up to shield his eyes from an imagined glare. “No?” he said politely, “I suppose they just grow like that on Coriolis?”
“They give us isotopes when we are children!”
“That explains it. I always wondered why you shone in the dark.”
Diva sucked in air. “I do not!”
“And together with that hair … well, I for one wouldn’t like to come across you in a dark alley.” He pretended to cringe away from her.
Diva glared at Grace. “You started all this!”
“I did not! Just making a comment.”
“Well, don’t.”
“No, Grace. Lady muck here is the only one who can make comments,” Six told her. “You and I are just humble minions, here to carry out her wishes.”
“Shut up, no-name!”
“See? As your ladyship wishes.” He tipped an imaginary hat, and backed away.
“If you keep on like this I shall throw you out of the airlock!”
Six gave a wicked grin. “You might not find that so easy, your royal glitterness. I have got bigger and faster since we last clashed, you know.”
Diva gave him the full benefit of all her teeth, causing him to wince again theatrically. “We’ll have to see about that, won’t we?”
“Whenever you want.”
“Good!”
“Well then!”
“Excuse me …” Grace sounded apologetic. “I hate to interrupt this mutual admiration society, but we have moved.” She waved a hand in the direction of the rexelene visor, where the orange glow had changed into a clear black night sky with distant twinkling stars.
“Moved? Moved? I wish Arcan would tell us what he is doing!” Six leapt to the controls, and checked the console carefully. “You are right. We are now in orbit around a different planet, and it looks much better than the last one. The long range viewer is showing vegetation, so we might even be able to breathe correctly on it. Great!”
Ammonite Planets (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #1-3 Page 59