The Vanished Seas (Major Bhaajan series Book 3)

by Catherine Asaro

  Ruzik spoke about poverty and survival, of the violence and beauty in the Undercity, and of the spiritual sense tykado allowed him to find even in his darkest times. His speech was short, his sentences terse, but the words had a power of life and death. The entire room went silent. When he finished, the masters nodded to him with respect.

  Angel went next. She spoke in short sentences, as terse as Ruzik, but with a lyricism she had no idea she possessed. She talked about the first time she had come aboveground and seen the sky. She described its endless wonder, the incredible colors, and how at first she couldn’t even absorb the sight. Then she spoke of how tykado evoked that wonder for her, the sense of becoming one with a new world she had never imagined. Her audience sat mesmerized.

  Their choice of subject matter touched me at a deep level. Ruzik and Angel used tykado in a way the city students would never know, if they were fortunate. For Dust Knights, tykado wasn’t just a sport, it offered a means of survival. Yet today they spoke of their spiritual connection rather than of the attack and defense as everyone expected. The spare beauty of their words stunned me.

  The students had taken a written test earlier, one Ruzik and Angel studied for at great length, not only the questions about form, function and philosophy, but also how to take a written test, something we never did in the Undercity. As with the speech, they found it difficult. Although they’d spent two years learning to read and write the Cries dialect, I hadn’t realized until that night at the starships that they also spoke it, or at least understood when others did. We didn’t know yet if they’d passed their exams; that would come later. Only the physical tests remained.

  The students gathered on the mats and bowed to the instructors, who had them stretch and do exercises. Ruzik and Angel barely broke a sweat. For people who ran and trained every day, often for hours at a time, it was child’s play to do one hundred push-ups and sit-ups. They next went through their stances, the basic positions for defensive and attack footwork. Then they showed their mastery of defense-and-attack patterns, finishing with a pattern they’d designed themselves. Sparring with their instructors came next. Both Ruzik and Angel made it look easy. I didn’t get the sense they considered this part a test. For them, fighting just to show you could fight was something done for fun, in contrast to real fighting to protect your territory or challenge another gang. At the end, they showed their ability to break various blocks and bars. The process went on for hours, with few rests, a form of endurance testing.

  It felt odd to sit rather than work with them. I needn’t have worried about their preparation; they were well beyond the city students, not only in their ability to do tykado, but also in strength and fluidity. The sheer grace of their moves was joy in motion.

  During a break, Ken said, “It’s beautiful to watch them. It’s like they’re dancing.”

  “They enjoy it.” I regarded him. “I heard you’ve been working on the quarries.”

  Ken nodded. “The army rushed through my clearance. They wanted to make sure those boxes were dismantled and couldn’t activate.” He gave me an appraising stare. “No one is telling me what happened, why they suddenly needed these ‘quarries’ moved and neutralized.”

  “You took them apart?” I tried to sound casual, rather than saying, Yah, I want those mothers broken into tiny little pieces so they can’t blow up people.

  “Completely.” He considered me. “Do you know why it was such a priority?”

  I didn’t have the authority to talk about the High Mesh, so I just said, “People were going to the ships who shouldn’t be there. The army wanted the ancient tech in a safer place, and in a form that couldn’t harm people.”

  “Harm how?”

  I just sat there. After a moment he smiled and said. “All right, Major. No more questions. We moved them to the temple Tiqual out in the desert. It’s better protected.”

  “Good.” It was an immense relief. If our ancestors had ever mastered the quarry technology, that knowledge had been lost long ago. Their machines no longer worked properly. Hell, maybe they’d never worked. That might be why they stored the quarries under the ships, out of the way.

  “We do hope to figure them out someday, if we can manage it safely,” Ken said. “A fellow named Bessel is going to work with us.”

  “Good. He’s smart.” To put it mildly.

  “He’s also under some sort of house arrest.” He studied my face. “I wonder why.”

  “I’m sure a good reason exists.”

  He waited.

  Oh, what the hell. I could tell him one truth. “He went to the ships without permission, to study them. He feels it’s a crime for the army to hide the knowledge they contain. He believes it’s the heritage of the entire human race.”

  “He has a point.” Ken nodded, more to himself than to me. “Whatever happened convinced the army to expand the circle of people working on the ruins. They asked me for recommendations. I suggested some Imperialate scientists, and also a few from the Allied Worlds of Earth.”

  It made sense to invite people from Earth. They could see connections we might never realize. I doubted our government liked the idea, though. “It’s hard to imagine them letting anyone from Earth see the ruins.”

  “Well, I only convinced them for two scientists, John Rather and Dean Hartley from the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop. Maybe you’ve heard of it?”

  Well, yah. Who hadn’t? TVIW was a part of history. The “workshop” started in the early twenty-first century as a small group of visionaries who dreamed humanity would someday reach the stars. It had grown over the decades until they became experts in Earth’s burgeoning program of interstellar travel. They were the ones who discovered the star drives that took our siblings from Earth to the interstellar community. “It’s a good choice.”

  “I agree.” He glanced across the room. “Someone has noticed you.”

  Startled, I followed his gaze. Lavinda Majda was seated on the tiers against the opposite wall with her aide and also a new bodyguard. The colonel inclined her head to me, a rare public acknowledgment. I nodded back, on my best behavior today.

  After the physical tests, while the students were cooling down, I stood with Ken. When Lavinda headed in my direction, Ken tactfully left to talk with some other people. Lavinda and I met under the graceful archway that exited the room.

  “My greetings, Major,” she said. “You look much better today than the last time I saw you.”

  I winced. “I’m afraid I don’t remember anything after I collapsed in the flyer.”

  She strolled with me into the hallway beyond the testing room. “The palace doctor treated you. I don’t know how you kept going. Your injuries were extensive.”

  “Ah, well.” I shrugged. “I have good biomech.”

  “Yes, you do.” She regarded me steadily. “But a lot of it wasn’t working. And biomech only affects the physical. It can’t give strength of character.”

  I hadn’t expected her to imply anything positive about my character, given how often I annoyed her family, breaking all sorts of unwritten rules about how to behave with royalty. “I had to stop you from using the Kyle gateway.”

  She spoke quietly. “You saved my life and that of my sister Vaj. You did a great service, not only for my family but also for the Imperialate. You have our deepest thanks.”

  I’d never known how to accept thanks, especially from someone so highly placed, so I just returned her nod, Undercity-style. Then I thought, She deserves better from you than silence.

  “I’m glad I could help,” I said.

  She smiled, which I’d noticed royalty did as rarely my people in the aqueducts. “So am I.”

  We entered a small room, a serene place with blue walls and window mosaics designed from colored glass. The floor had no chairs, only white rugs bordered by woven gold vines. Parchment screens stood around the room with delicately painted mountains and deserts.

  As much as I wanted to find out what had happened with
the palace security updates, I couldn’t risk pushing the subject. So instead I asked, “Have you figured out how Tandem Walkerdale comes into all this?”

  “Ah, yes, our illustrious circus spy.” Lavinda walked with me toward an alcove. “She was the High Mesh contact on Metropoli. They wanted to steal more than the quarry tech; they wanted the quarries themselves. She planned to move them through Metropoli. It’s why Mara Quida got the Metropoli contract. When Quida disappeared, Walkerdale showed up to find out what happened.”

  It made sense. From what I’d gathered, the Scorpio CEO was also part of the High Mesh. “Walkerdale wasn’t the one who attacked me after the gala, right? That was Sav Halin, the reporter.” Supposed reporter, but I couldn’t reveal that I knew that Halin worked for the Majdas, or at least, used to work for them. Yesterday the news conglomerate had fired Halin, and I didn’t doubt the Majdas had also shown her the door.

  “It looks that way,” Lavinda said. We reached the alcove and sat on a blue banquette set under tall windows. “Halin and Detective Talon were the only ones in the Mesh with true covert training. Talon spent five years in the Fleet after she earned her chemistry degree at the university.”

  “What about Walkerdale? She claimed she did covert ops for the military.”

  “She lied.” Lavinda shook her head. “What operative, even former, gives away her cover so easily?”

  I’d wondered that, too. “My EI claims she’s a magician in the circus.”

  Lavinda smiled at my incredulous expression. “That was actually her real cover. She’s the financial equivalent of a mercenary. Corporations hire her to do their dirty work.”

  “In a circus?”

  “I think its incongruity is the point. She could move the quarries through the circus because no one would think to look there. She planned to disguise them as part of her show.” Her smile faded. “Gods only know what would have happened if she’d actually tried to use them. That’s one performance I sure as hell never want to see.”

  I grimaced. “You almost did.”

  Her tone became guarded. “You have always had an ability to make leaps of logic most people never see. Whatever it was that led you to think that I in particular might be in danger, I thank you for your discretion.”

  I spoke with care, not wanting to overstep. “I’m sorry about your friend Chiaru.”

  “Yes,” Lavinda said softly. “As am I.” She seemed to give herself a mental shake. “Hell of an arrogant move for the Mesh, trying to murder the Majda investigator.”

  That was unexpected. Sure, I worked for the Majdas, but I hadn’t thought they saw me as the Majda anything given how often I got on their bad side. That seemed especially true now; I was almost certain Lavinda knew I was the one who cracked their security network.

  “What will happen to the High Mesh?” I asked.

  “Talon and Halin will go on trial for attempted murder, breaking into a secured military site, and probably other charges as well. Security charges will also go against Bessel, Daan Bialo, and Walkerdale.” Lavinda spoke dryly. “The prosecutors are still figuring out who to charge with what in regards to the deaths. Talon and Halin will almost certainly get prison time. Walkerdale too, but not as much since she didn’t try to kill anyone.” She paused. “We don’t have much on Daan Bialo. His employers at Scorpio Corp also got him one hell of a lawyer.”

  “You think he’ll get off?” It annoyed me, but not as much as I expected. The High Mesh had used him big time, for his Kyle ability, and they damn near got him blown up.

  “He’ll get fines, probation, a demotion.” Her voice hardened. “Jo Muller will go to prison.”

  It took me a moment to place that name. Jo Muller was Lavinda’s bodyguard, the one I’d seen at the gala and again in the park in Cries. “She was the mole at the palace?”

  “If by mole, you mean she betrayed our trust, then yes. She picked up Halin in the flyer that morning after the attempt on your life. She’s also the one who gassed you in the other flyer.”

  “I’m glad you caught her.” I didn’t want to imagine Muller’s fate. The same could happen to me if the Majdas ever charged me with cracking their mesh.

  Lavinda was watching my face. “We found clear evidence that Muller compromised our security. So our security people believe she is also the one who broke into the palace mesh.”

  I kept my voice neutral. “Then your people have completed the security updates?”

  “Yes, after the techs dismantled the quarries and did more safety checks than I can count.” She continued to study me. “I find it odd. I’ve worked with the palace system for decades. That break-in during the night seemed too sophisticated for Muller. And no damage was done, unlike her other attempts to compromise our systems.”

  Stay calm, I told myself. “That’s good it caused no damage.” I’d never intended any.

  Her gaze never wavered. “I’m assuming we won’t have any more problems in that area.”

  I met her stare. “I’m sure you won’t.”

  We sat for a few excruciating moments. Then she said, “That must have been quite a fight at the starships.”

  “I hope it didn’t cause too many problems.”

  She shrugged. “The ships are fine. We can fix the broken hatch and repair the bullet holes.”

  “And the desert?” Jak’s final shots had collapsed the tunnels beyond repair. My red beetle may have explored that maze of ancient passages, but I’d never know; the army had caught the little drone and wiped its memory clean before they gave it back to me. Same with my green beetle. It didn’t matter. I knew enough to guess at the rest, that before Jak destroyed the passages, an ancient route from the ships to the Undercity had existed, even if it was clogged and forgotten in modern times. Now no one would ever use it. The military could dig new tunnels if they wanted, but I doubted it was worth the expenditure, besides which, they probably knew my people would harass any such efforts now that they knew the ancient passages had existed.

  “Perhaps,” Lavinda said, “some damage is better left alone.”

  I breathed more easily. “Thank you.”

  “Lieutenant Ackerson spoke highly of how you conducted yourself.”

  “Ackerson?”

  “The lieutenant who helped you at the Vanished Sea starships.”

  Ho! I hadn’t expected her to say anything positive. “She seemed a bit, uh—taken aback by my methods.”

  Lavinda smiled. “Most people are.”

  I wasn’t sure what to make of that, so I said nothing.

  “This Vibarr fellow who calls himself Bessel,” Lavinda added. “He is a brilliant young man.”

  “Then he is a Vibarr?”

  “Half Vibarr. His father is a commoner. His mother is a younger Vibarr cousin who had Bessel out of wedlock. Caused a scandal for the father, but the mother did acknowledge her son and give him the Vibarr name.”

  “I had the sense Bessel was trying to prove himself to his family.”

  Lavinda frowned. “He shouldn’t have to. His intellect is incredible, but they don’t care unless he uses his intelligence to make money for their house.”

  “The Mesh used him, playing on his insecurities.” My anger surged, adding an edge to my voice. “None of the Vibarrs or corporate top execs—none of the true powers behind the Mesh—got involved. They let their flunkies commit the crimes while they stayed hidden. So they’re all free, while Bessel takes the fall.”

  “Not quite.” The way she said those two simple words, so cool and precise, spoke volumes about what her House intended for the true powers of the High Mesh. “Now we know who to watch.” Her voice turned to steel. “We’ll catch them.”

  I was glad I wasn’t a Vibarr, dealing with the Majdas in that terrifying arena where the noble Houses fought with each other with weapons designed of power and influence rather than projectiles or explosives. “I heard the army offered Bessel a plea deal.”

  “Yes, house arrest in return for working with the corps ass
igned to the ships.”

  It could never make up for the two deaths, but at least now his mind would neither be wasted nor misused by people with no scruples. “He feels a lot of remorse for what happened.”

  Lavinda exhaled—and her mask of reserve slipped. Pain showed on her face, a deep pain, the kind that never truly left you. With difficulty, she said, “Telling Inna Starchild what happened to Chiaru—it wasn’t easy.”

  Watching her, I suspected that was the understatement of the year. Lavinda could never acknowledge her grief, not in public, not to her family, and especially not to her husband Paolo. I’d met him a few times, always in the controlled environment of the palace. Although it wasn’t a love match, I had the impression he and Lavinda treated each other well. He’d given up a great deal to marry a Majda heir; before that, he’d lived as a modern man and a successful architect. He still worked as an architect, but he could never leave the palace. He lost his freedom on the day of his wedding. I had no doubt that in return for his agreeing to live in the ancient manner, Lavinda respected their vows, though she loved someone else and could never love Paolo in the way he might want.

  The greed of the High Mesh had claimed a high price. At least this all offered new insights into our origins, especially since our scientists were going to work with Earth researchers who knew more about our ancestors. Although it could never take away the grief, it did provide another step toward understanding the ancient mysteries of our world.

  I found Lukas Quida in a garden behind the mansion he had shared with his wife and now lived in by himself. He sat in an open gazebo. The walls and roof were white trellises intertwined by vines. As I approached, walking along a bluestone path, he must have heard my footsteps. He turned and stood up, watching me.

  I stopped at the three stairs up to the gazebo and bowed to him. “My greetings, Del Lukas.”