Dryland's End

by Felice Picano

  Mart Kell did nothing to hide his interest in the subject.

  “I take it,” perceptive Rinne offered, “you have Bella=Arth. acquaintances here on Hesperia. Perhaps even one such female?”

  “Indeed I do!” Kell admitted. “But I doubt she’d leave the City voluntarily. After all,” he added quickly, “her family’s been here for generations.”

  “There’s Ckw’esso’s problem in a nutshell!” Diad said.

  In the silence that followed, Lill finally asked a question that had been nagging at her. “I don’t understand why Premier Todd spoke of my behavior. From the holos I saw, I wasn’t anywhere on-screen during the Deneb XII affair.”

  “True, but we know that you were present,” he agreed. “And we know you were helpful while others lost their heads.”

  She brushed off the compliment to ask, “When will the negotiations for my return be opened, and will I be present at them?”

  “As soon as we are contacted by a party of sufficient rank in the Matriarchy. And within limits, yes, you may be present.”

  Of sufficient rank – meaning the MC Ministry, Lill guessed. Mart Kell was confident. And within limits – meaning that should something she wasn’t supposed to know come up, Lill would be escorted out. Confident and commanding. Cautious too.

  Now Rinne spoke up, “My work in Melisande was organizational. I don’t know what value that will be here. And most of it was left in my personal Cyber on Commander Lill’s Fast.”

  “If you wish to join our staff, anything at all you know or recall and choose to share with us will be of value,” Kell answered graciously. “By the way, I’d like to add a political note for a second here. There’s no doubt that your integrity, Councilor Rinne, is unimpeachable. During the crisis, you spoke out against injustice and gained the respect of every right-thinking being in the galaxy.”

  It was Rinne’s turn to blush.

  “So,” Kell continued, “nothing which you may tell us about your work will ever be allowed to be traceable to yourself”

  “What if” – Rinne was tentative – “you know, what if the MC wants me back? Not that I believe –”

  “Councilor, we are discussing only the return of Commander Lill and four skimmers. No one else will ever come up in the talk. Trust me.”

  Mart Kell was extraordinarily confident. And, Lill thought, calculating too. Perhaps it was time to see how sharp he really was.

  “While we’re on a political note, Lord Kell,” Lill began. “I’d like to know exactly where Hesperia stands on the problem of the Cyber rebels.”

  “Commander Lill, they’ve infected our women, too.”

  “Yet Hesperia continues to barter with them, slipping through our Fleet to do so.”

  “We’ve received serum for uninfected women. To date, eight thousand doses.”

  She was amazed by his candor.

  “It’s not very much,” he said. “And it will merely hold off, not reverse the ultimate effect regarding the City’s population growth.”

  “Yet you shipped them materials!” she insisted.

  “We did. Rather than see the Cyber rebels attack planets in Carina Fornax to obtain the supplies,” he explained. “They would have done that, you know.”

  “In which case the MC Fleet would have counterattacked.”

  “Perhaps,” he said and inflected the word so Lill knew he meant – why haven’t they done so already? “The MC Fleet appears to have its quirky set of orders.”

  She deflected the unasked question. “Then you do think the Cyber rebels must be destroyed?”

  “I think they should never have been allowed to become rebels in the first place,” he replied. “Hesperian intelligent Cybers already possess all those civil rights Cray 12,000 demanded in the manifesto. They have for centuries.”

  “I agree that the way the rebels’ demands were handled was a mistake,” Lill admitted, “but they now pose the greatest possible threat to all Three Species.”

  “Who’s in command of the MC Fleet at Carina Fornax?” Kell asked and added quickly, “if that isn’t a military secret?”

  “It’s not. Admiral Thol.”

  Kell didn’t say “Oh, no!” but Lill heard it anyway in the look that crossed his handsome face.

  “How would you like to take her place?” he asked.

  “In about four hundred years and six promotions up!” she answered, allowing a trace of her bitterness against the bureaucracy to show in her levity.

  “Soon we will be speaking to someone Matriarchal in a high position,” he said. “Why not make this an occasion of far more significant negotiations?”

  “You mean the two of us? They’ll believe you’ve wiped my mind – or worse.”

  “The minute you begin to talk, they’ll see we’ve done nothing of the sort. You remain opinionated and unstoppably loyal. You’re hating every second you’re here.” He smiled. “We don’t want your kind on Hesperia.”

  “You mean you don’t need my kind on Hesperia,” she rephrased it. “But you may need my kind in the Matriarchy.”

  “If you’re as courageous and discreet and levelheaded as you appear to be. And if you’re in the right place instead of a fanatic like Thol, perhaps then we could think about combining forces against our common enemy.”

  He was also ambitious – daringly so.

  “You’d actually bring that up – after deliberately provoking the MC over the Centaurs?”

  He said dismissively, “That was merely public relations, a local police action,” then added, “with a hint of how well Hesperians can fight.” He smiled charmingly and Lill noticed that both of his nipples were erect: he had enjoyed the repartee as much as she had.

  “One question the Quinx has had regarding the women in the Alpheron Spa” – Kell looked at Rinne for an answer and added quickly, “I know this is not your favorite topic,” and when she gestured for him to continue – “Exactly what was Wicca up to?”

  “I thought that was obvious. Interbreeding.”

  “Yes, but for what reason? Who were these women?”

  “That required some work for me to discover,” Rinne admitted. “And I must say my poor Cyber had to break some codes to get the answer. Since all of the women were from Center Worlds, where the microvirus was rife, at first I assumed they had been infected, and that, somehow or other, in mixing in Centaur genes with Hume ones, someone fortunate in the MC had found a key to the solution of the disease.”

  “That was what we believed,” Kell admitted. “Or rather what we were led to believe.”

  “‘Led’ is the correct word,” Rinne said. “For like almost everything connected with the Matriarchy these days, it was a lie. When I had the opportunity of speaking with the refugees and interrogating them more closely, I discovered that, while all of them had come from Benefica and Eudora and so on, not one of them had been on her homeworld at the time of the Cyber infection, but off on resort worlds or some satellite unserviced by Hesperian Beryllium haulers. In short, not one of them was infected.”

  “It was a public relations stunt then,” Kell said, “aimed at the Cyber rebels.”

  “And I suppose at the entire Matriarchy, should word of the disease ever leak out.”

  “Now,” he addressed all three of them, “if you’d like to rest and change ... Vel’Crane will show you to your chambers.”

  Lill remained seated when Diad and Rinne rose. “I think I’ll wait for the MC’s comm.,” she said simply.

  Once the others were gone, Kell looked at his Stele cocktail and asked in the most boyishly naive tone, “However shall we pass the time?” He smiled.

  The waiting time turned out to be all too short for Lill’s taste. Within minutes the Hume escort had returned: the MC comm. had come through.

  Vel’Crane had already turned on the holo-screen when they entered the media section of the transparent domed room. Minister Etalka was onscreen. Lill stopped and saluted sharply.

  “I don’t suppose they have any
fresh MC Security forces uniforms on Hesperia? That one’s a scandal!” was how the Minister greeted Lill.

  Lill felt herself go rigid with anger at the reprimand. After all she had gone through on Deneb, she felt she had earned the condition of her uniform, felt it was a badge of battle. No one here in the City had been rude enough to refer to it.

  “I believe, Minister,” Kell said, “that one of the City’s better party costume boutiques has already been contacted and is having a uniform made and sent over.

  Lill watched Etalka’s shock at both his clever retort – which Lill enjoyed – and at his own costume.

  “Perhaps, Lord Kell, they may also find something for you to wear.”

  “Truly, Minister, seeing you again after such a short time, I feel we already know each other well enough to dispense with formalities such as clothing.” He languidly seated himself in an air-chair. “I believe you can arrange the holo to show only the top part, if you’re offended.”

  “It’s already done,” the Minister replied.

  “Wouldn’t want to upset the MC’s censors,” Kell smiled.

  “Oh, go ahead and sit, Commander!” Etalka snapped at Lill. More gently, she asked, “You’ve been well treated?”

  “Sufficiently well, Minister,” Lill answered. “They’ve promised not to interrogate me too harshly.”

  “But naturally we can’t answer for the unconscious effects upon your soldier of our pervasive decadence,” Kell added, turning a piece of MC propaganda back at her.

  Etalka ignored him and addressed Lill: “How many are you? And how did you get there?”

  Now for the story Lill, Diad, and Rinne had concocted en route. “Myself and four sand-skimmer pilots along with the crew of the Hesperian Fast. We were caught in the ruins when the Fast imploded. We came to after a Fast jump inside a Deneban agro.-lizer hauler just outside of Hesperia. Those who found us told us they opposed the rioters and wished to save our lives. We were hidden among the lading.”

  “Why didn’t they simply turn you over to MC authorities on Deneb?”

  “We asked that question, Minister. Their reply was that following the holo from the ruins, they weren’t certain which authorities might be trusted.”

  A little dig at Thol. Kell showed his appreciation by making a sign with his fingers, low in his lap so it would show only offscreen.

  “Very well!” Etalka said, wanting to end that line of discussion. “What of the others in the ruins with you?”

  “We discovered nothing of their fate,” Lill said. “The implosion was ...” She let that hang. “I understand some bodies were found.”

  “But not enough. Many women are still unaccounted for. How did you five survive?”

  “We were being held captive far from the entry.”

  “And what exactly were you doing in those ruins, Commander?”

  “Intelligence scouting for the Fleet.”

  “Under Admiral Thol’s orders?”

  “Not directly, no. But under my orders of commission, intelligence scouting is usually the prerogative of myself and those under my command.”

  Which was true, stretching it a bit. And compared to Thol, Lill’s story of scouting for intelligence and being caught was far more how the Defense Ministry liked to think their officers ought to act.

  “We’ll go into this in more detail, later,” the Minister snapped.

  “I’d be happy to be of whatever use I can at Admiral Thol’s court-martial investigation, Minister,” Lill said with as much naivete as she could summon up. This had been a key point, one that Rinne had stressed. If Lill was threatened with a hearing on her actions, she would bring the entire unsavory mess up to closer official scrutiny – the last thing the MC wanted.

  “That might not be necessary. Now, Lord Kell, are you ready to release the Commander?”

  “Instantly.”

  “Well, then I see no problem. Her command post has been moved, but if you send her to some intermediary point we can agree upon –”

  “There is one matter more, Minister,” Mart said casually. “As we were going to be speaking anyway, the Inner Quinx has suggested we discuss a joint military action.”

  Lill would have enjoyed seeing the look on the Minister’s face frozen for a while so she might study the many shades of complete surprise.

  “I realize,” Kell went on, as casually as before, “that this is a somewhat new offer, and so you might want to pass on the word and comm. back.”

  “Given the ... uh, complexity of ...” Etalka stammered, then caught herself. “Yes, perhaps that would be the best course. I’ll ... please hold a minute!”

  Now the holo did freeze.

  “What’s going on?” Lill asked.

  “We’re about to have company.” Mart sounded as though he knew what he was talking about. “Look sharp, Commander!”

  The holo unfroze, but Etalka looked more flustered than ever.

  “Apologies, Lord Kell. I’ve been instructed to give this holo to the Matriarch Herself.”

  Lill jumped out of the air-seat and stood at attention in a salute. Far more casually, Mart Kell also rose. The holo slatted out Etalka and slatted in Wicca Eighth. She was seated on an air-sofa in one of her apartments at MC Headquarters. Her hair was styled up and tinted Procyon blue with golden threads brocaded through. Her simple flowing gown was white, threaded with Plastro. Her bare feet rested upon a stylish air-ottoman.

  “Ma’am!” Kell bowed. “This is a surprise.”

  “Really?” Wicca answered in Her usual half-amused, plummy voice. “Somehow I felt this meeting was, well, expected? Whereas you, yourself, Lord Kell, constantly surprise Us.”

  She gazed at Lill, who had never met Herself by holo and had gotten only a distant live glimpse of Her at a military parade a year ago Sol Rad.

  “Truly, Lill,” Wicca said, “you’ve seen a bit of action lately.”

  It was so kind and yet so purely Matriarchal, Lill almost smiled as she said, “Yes, Ma’am. Apologies for the condition of my uniform.”

  “No matter. From what I’ve heard of you, you’ve never been afraid to get yourself dirty ... in Our best interests,” she added slyly.

  “Yes, Ma’am,” Lill said, more tightly, wondering exactly how much Wicca Eighth knew of her extramilitary activities.

  “As for my own appearance,” Mart pointed it out, now that it was evident the Matriarch wouldn’t stoop to a half-screen holo. “I wasn’t expecting You.”

  “What you’re wearing, Lord Kell, was sufficient to annoy my Minister, and it will do for Me. Please sit, Lord Kell.” Lill appreciated that Wicca would not humiliate her by requesting the same of her.

  “I must admit, Lord Kell, that you’ve managed to confound several of My most experienced cabinet members lately. When you replaced Lord Branklin, they were certain it meant an increase in unpleasantness between Ourselves and the City. Given the well-known indiscretions of your youth, you had a few of My Ministers shuddering. Especially,” Wicca added, “due to your political leanings. You had them seeing Oppos. in every MC sanitary facility. And, I must say, initial events seemed to bear out their fears. Yet now you come to Us with this most sensible offer. I trust that since you present it, it’s your own offer?”

  “It is, Ma’am.”

  “Well, go on. Don’t keep teasing Me. Tell Me how this turnabout occurred?”

  “A Metro.-Terran philosopher once theorized that the speed of Hume travel and communications not only made possible but also determined the rate of speed of temporal events,” Kell began. “We happen to live in an era unpredictably rapid even for that philosopher. Change, therefore, must be at Beryllium-Flash speed. Including turnabouts. Lord Branklin could not adjust and resigned. At the moment, I can adjust, and so I have his post.”

  “I trust, Lill, that you’re listening,” Wicca said, and before Lill could reply, She added, “Lord Kell is himself a philosopher. Or a poet.”

  “Gratitude, Ma’am,” Mat Kell said. “If we are
agreed in principle, the rest is merely administrative. We have a common enemy. That enemy has shown the depth of its hatred, and some of its strength. We must not doubt for a second that some new Cyber-virus is being concocted to further weaken or destroy us. Thus, Dis-Fortress and all rebels must be destroyed before they destroy us.”

  “A defensive war?” Wicca seemed pleased. “Have you the anti-Cyber propaganda ready, so we may proceed?”

  “All but the specific facts to be distorted to meet our common purpose. Obviously, we cannot utilize the Cyber-virus they have already spread in our campaign – at least not until a cure is discovered.”

  “Obviously not,” Wicca agreed. “You haven’t, by happenstance –”

  “No, but we’ve obtained a serum from Cray. It’s now undergoing the most thorough analysis.” He shrugged. “Naturally, that would be shared.”

  “And so, your plan is, Lord Kell?”

  “Minister Etalka said that Commander Lill’s post had moved. I supposed that to mean moved to Carina Fornax. If it has not, then why can't it be moved there? I will accompany her to her command in person, with one assistant. We’ll look around a bit and see what we can find out from fugitives of the Cybers about their methods and past actions. I think we may find something that can be turned to propaganda uses. Once that’s found, we will launch it as news revelations from the City.”

  “I understand, Lord Kell. The Matriarchy lacks credibility – thanks to recent events in which Hesperia had some hand. But Hesperia possesses full credibility. If therefore you say it’s true ...”

  “Then it’s so! Yes, Ma’am. While I’m at Carina Fornax, Minister Etalka and Lord Tedesco will work out the details of command of a joint action against Cray. We launch our campaign, and simultaneously our attack.”

  “Which you’ve already proved from the Centaur affair should be an effective double maneuver. Very good, Lord Kell. I’ll discuss it with My Cabinet tomorrow morning Sol Rad. Ready a Fast for Carina Fornax sector. Be prepared to leave as soon I’ve comm.ed back.”

  “I hope, Ma’am, that following the successful completion of this action, we’ll meet in person.”

  “I was warned you were a flirt, Lord Kell. But yes, we shall meet!” She turned to Lill. “Comment?”