They had also shown him Lona Brant, Hal Nedrong, Veithman Wolsh and the other four crewmembers of the Aladna Hill bound like that. The Split had not answered his desperate calls; they had just transmitted the coordinates of the planet and of the residence of the patriarch of Chin without so much as a single word.
Now, the X was approaching for a landing on a shallow angled trajectory. From an altitude of fifty kilometres only a thick, dark-green see of titanic sequoia could be seen by the naked eye. Only when the ship was well below five kilometres in altitude and less than ten kilometres away horizontally from the patriarch's keep, Kyle could make out the large, rectangular clearing where the huge palace was located; the building looked like it had been put together from crudely wrought ashlars. There were also spacious meadows of red grass and several installations whose purpose couldn't be guessed when seen from the air.
"Valerie, I'd like you to overheat the M/AM drive in six hours from now and detonate it, if I'm not back healthy and of my own will by then", Kyle asked his faithful on-board computer right after the ship had set down on the airfield.
"Captain, I'm unsure if the command subsystem will ultimately let me execute this order", Valerie said. "But it would be my pleasure to try to the best of my capabilities and knowledge."
Kyle smiled faintly. "I hereby issue authorization code Molander-99z4tu38 to the command subsystem. And I will miss your humourous vein, Val."
"But Captain", the on-board computer said indignantly with the usual, well modulated female voice. "My last statement did not have the least intention of being funny!"
"Of course not – how could I have thought otherwise?" Kyle lightly touched his palm against his forehead. "Two more things, Val. Firstly, I want you to broadcast that six hour countdown on all known frequencies. Secondly, if someone tampers with the X, you'll reduce the countdown to one minute."
Valerie confirmed. "Good luck, Captain", she added after a moment's hesitation.
"Thank you, Val – I'll most certainly need it."
Only now Kyle took a closer look through the cockpit window. The X wasn't the only ship on the airfield. He saw a handful of small and sleek vessels that were obviously one-person fighters; there were a few larger space ships and – he swallowed hard – a medium-sized Argon transporter bearing the insignia of the Argon government. Supposedly this was the vessel belonging to the diplomatic mission which Elena was part of.
He suddenly had a very bad feeling about this.
Hurriedly he moved the pilot seat back on its rails and pushed himself up against the armrest. Quickly, almost hastily, he left the ship through the middle airlock, jumping down to the airfield's black and hard asphalt.
A faint hiss in his back signalled that Valerie had closed the airlock behind him. In the very instant, a second, pervasive popping noise followed, and another, albeit much louder hiss. There was a frightening, painful sensation: something hit Kyle hard, made him sway. Something that wrapped itself around his chest with great momentum, fixating his arms and legs, tying him up with sharp plastic straps so narrow he could hardly breath, let alone make a horrified sound.
Someone had hit him with an immobilizer: a weapon that threw large, heavy weighted nets that strung themselves around the victims, inhibiting their every movement. Since Kyle couldn't move his narrowly tied legs, he wasn't able to regain balance. He fell hard, with a loud thump.
"Didn't I say he should not assume this was over?" someone growled with deep satisfaction in a non-human voice and tone. A pair of chunky legs came into Kyle's field of vision, and he let his eyes follow them upwards, to see who it was.
"Joe TNT!" he gasped under his breath. Even this short mockery of the representative's name was a huge effort, because the plastic strap that confined his chest wouldn't give back the space gained through exhaling.
"I will teach him to pronounce my name correctly!", the Split said angrily. He bent down to put Kyle back on his feet with a cant.
"Ship – will – explode", Kyle groaned when he was standing upright again, swaying to keep balance.
The patriarch's representative paused for a moment. This human had proven his recklessness a number of times before. But would he risk his ship, his friends and his own life? Cho didn't need to ponder that question very long to arrive at the answer. Kyle certainly would, because he didn't have anything else in his hands to warrant for his security. Wordlessly, Cho drew a knife and quickly and skilfully cut the straps on Kyle's legs and over his chest.
"Too kind of you, Joe!", Kyle gasped after having taken a deep breath.
The representative snorted and hit Kyle in the face with his flat hand. "I'm not obliged to act sensibly anymore. The creature should know that. And it should not hope for a special treatment."
Kyle felt blood from a laceration on his cheek run down his neck; his hands were still shackled so he couldn't wipe it away. Grinning, he looked at the representative. "Just listen what my ship has to say. In little more than six hours – convert that to Stazuras – it is going to say bye-bye in a fun antimatter explosion. And it'll take you and a rather large piece of your wonderful planet with it on the occasion.
Cho wanted to say something, but Kyle interrupted him. "And should someone tamper with the ship, it'll blow immediately!"
"The creature doesn't interrupt me!", Cho spat, but he renounced from hitting Kyle again. "Why does the creature think I believe it?"
"Because the Split just can't afford not to believe me, my best girl."
The young representative stared at him with widened eyes and a pulsating vein on his forehead; a deep growling emanated from deep within his throat. Kyle didn't know if Cho was more upset because he had called him "my best girl" or because of the situation as such; but that didn't matter anyway. He had played his cards and the Split would be more careful from now on.
*
All prejudices one usually had of the Split were correct. The gaol, the dungeon, the interrogation room – all were mouldy, barbarian, made from raw cut, dirty bricks, and fitted with the proverbial in-ground shackles. The only thing there wasn’t any lack of was illumination; the crude light unceasingly stabbing the prisoners around the clock was more demoralizing than merciful darkness could have ever been.
Ninu couldn't remember all the details of the interrogation that had went on for Tazuras, and she was glad about it. Certainly she had betrayed everything that was sacred to her many times over, just like the other crewmembers of the Aladna probably had. But she didn't know anything valuable to the Split, did she? Red haze surged in front of her eyes. She wasn't sure anymore if this was all real, or just a terrifying dream from which she would eventually awake.
Voices approached; contorted echoes reverberated from the walls. Ninu winked. She knew this voice: Johnra Fathum – her father? She tried to focus her eyes, but a strand of her long – once smooth, now scrubby – hair dissolved over her forehead, prohibiting a clear view on her surroundings. She no longer had the power to lift the heavy shackles to wipe away the strand.
“Johnra?”, she whispered, once, twice, and again.
But the voices went away. “Father!”, she supplicated, but it was pointless. And what more, completely impossible – Johnra had died many Jazuras ago. This thought sobered her momentarily, and a semblance of alertness trembled through her body for a few Sezuras. She came to the conclusion that her senses had played a trick on her; so this was how delirium felt from the inside! When weariness and fatigue returned she no longer fought it. Instead, she let her eyes flicker shut without much resistance at all.
Nothing happened for a long time. Ninu was vaguely aware of the presence of others to her left and right, shackled as well. Lona and Hal? Where was Veithman? For how long had she been here? What did the Split intend to do with her? Something had invaded her thoughts; there had been electrical currents inside her body, cold, demanding, relentless, painful and abhorrent like a polyp with a thousand tentacles. Her mind utterly refused to uncover the memory.
Thinking of Kyle was indefinitely far away. Her heart laboured to keep her alive if nothing more; there was no room for emotion. Alive? Was there any sense in being alive at all? She made a soft, inarticulate noise.
Time passing again. Much more time. How much time?
Something warm tentatively touched her forehead.
“No!” Ninu cried. With desperate power she leaned into her shackles, opened her eyes wide and shooed the surging, aching fog away with sheer willpower.
“Now, now”, a female voice said reassuringly. “It’s going to be alright, Ninu. Shush!”
Slowly, Ninu's eyes managed to focus the white spot in front of her. A roundish, kind-hearted face. Lively, almond-shaped eyes. Plain black hair.
“It is… you are… Elena!”, she said sluggishly.
Elena hugged the tormented Goner and pressed her against her chest. “Everything’s going to be alright, you know?” She pitied Ninu infinitely; the young woman was a sight of pure misery. She didn’t want to try and imagine what the Split had done to her and the others from the Aladna. Suddenly, Ninu started sobbing in her arms, and Elena felt tears trickling down her neck. For a long while, Elena just held the girl in her arms, cradling her softly like a mother would cradle her child.
Eventually, Ninu lifted her head and looked at Elena. She asked: “But you’re imprisoned as well!”
The astronaut from Earth nodded. “Yes, but not in shackles. For some reason the Split seemed in a hurry to shove us in here and shut the door behind us.”
“Us…? Who else, Elena? Who else is with you? Is Kyle here?” Ninu forced her eyes wide open and looked around. There was the silhouette of a tall Argon kneeling next to the door, obviously examining it; an Argon woman stood in the middle of the room, looking around with sheer horror on her face.
“This is Ban Danna and Halga Giller of the Argon government. Kyle isn’t here with us.”
This brought Ninu back completely. “Where is he? What happened to him?”, she demanded excitedly. “Is he alright? Nothing has happened to him, has it?”
“Shush… he’s not on Nif-Nakh. He’s on a different mission. I believe, he’s not in danger and we’re going to hear from him soon.” Elena wasn’t sure at all if this was so; but she had just decided not to trouble the tormented girl any further, even if it meant telling her factoids.
Ninu's excitement abated. “Thank Earth!”, she shouted with relief. “Where’s the Aladna’s crew?”, she asked, looking around once more, but this time with bright, alert eyes. Slowly but surely she seemed to be returning to the realm of the living.
“Lona and Hal are here and they’re… okay, I suppose, considering the circumstances. I don’t know about Veithman and the others, but I believe they’re in the chamber behind this wall.”
“We’re okay!”, Lona Brant’s voice was heard.
“Now, if this is okay for you” – demonstrative rattling of chains – “then I don’t want to see you on a really rotten day, Lona”, Hal Nedrong moaned in his usual grumpy way.
A very tiny smile appeared on Ninu’s face.
“I’m going to check whether your friends are in the adjacent room”, Ban Danna said. He had finished examining the electronic door lock, but hadn’t found any obvious shortcomings in its coarse mechanism.
Ninu nodded and watched Danna walking across the room. She had met him before, briefly, on Argon Prime. A good man; she had had confidence in him right from the start.
“Boy, it’s really good to have friends in the government”, Lona said. She didn’t look half as battered as did Ninu, or Hal. Her greying hair was a bit ruffled, albeit not much more than after getting up in the morning.
“Wait and see”, Nedrong interjected.
“With Elena and Danna here, we’re as good as free”, Ninu said hopeful. “And… one moment, someone is coming!”
Steps approaching from outside of the door became audible. Something made an ugly hiss, Sezuras later, the electronic lock snapped open with a rattle. The door opened slowly.
CHAPTER 45
I do not believe in order from chaos.
Unfaltering will creates order!
Ghus t'Gllt
“So he reckons he can blackmail us?” Chin t’Thhg asked in an interested, but casual tone. In reality he was much less even-tempered than he appeared; another unpleasant surprise had just announced itself in the view field’s info bar. It wouldn’t help much, of course, but he made a mental note to rake the communications officer responsible for this message over the coals. Three bad news messages within one Stazura were well beneath him, the patriarch of Chin!
“Firmly, yes”, Kyle answered. He looked at the patriarch, then, from the corner of his eyes, at the old one-eyed Split that Chin called Whi. Cho stood observantly on the throne pedestal to the left of his patriarch, with his hands firm on his back, just as if he intended to make a conscious effort to curb himself from inconsiderate gestures. Something weird went on in here; Kyle sensed a tension in the air that was so thick he might as well have cut himself a leaf off of it.
“My technicians have already entered his ship and disabled the countdown”, the patriarch explained.
“Patriarch, this is untrue. Firstly, we are still alive. Secondly, I am still alive.”
“He accuses me of lying?”
“I certainly do!”
“He is bold!”, the patriarch answered calmly instead of throwing a tantrum as Kyle had expected. “Almost like a Split!”
The Split woman sitting next to the throne threw Kyle a curious and intrigued look.
Kyle shook his head. “Patriarch, let’s talk about my demands…”
“Raargh! He is in no position for demands!” Gradually, the patriarch began losing his temper. He started to lash out at the armrests of his throne, touching a small, silver casket on the right armrest, making it drop to the floor. “I’ll have his friends executed, one by one!”
Kyle shrugged. “If my friends are not brought on board of my ship unharmed within six hours – oh, it is less than five hours now – it will cause an M/AM detonation.” Unfortunately, that was not exactly what he had arranged for with Valerie, but it was close enough and the Split wouldn’t dare question this.
“Cho”, the Patriarch spoke to his special representative when he had calmed down a little, “does he believe the human is telling the truth?”
“Mylord, he is most certainly amalgamating truth and lie as it is commonplace amongst humans. However, I don’t doubt that he indeed instructed his ship to detonate after six hours.”
The patriarch knitted his brows in an almost human fashion. “Ghinn – I want her to show our guest from Earth to the prisoners so he can convince himself that they are in good health”, Chin slowly said. “Brennan, if this suits him, we’ll talk about his… demands afterwards.”
Kyle agreed while the patriarch’s bonds wife rose with flashing eyes and took the casket from the floor, putting it back on the throne’s armrest tentatively. Then, she came down from the pedestal, moving towards the high, curved alleyway ten meters behind the throne. She beckoned Kyle to follow her.
“Alright”, he said. “But take my advice and waste no more time. The countdown is running and my ship is not exactly being secretive about it, as you well know.”
With an impatient gesture of his hand, the patriarch ordered Kyle to leave. He might have not been able to make for more time at this point; but sending Brennan away at least gave him an opportunity to think and form decisions. “He activate the display”, the patriarch commanded his representative, after Ghinn and Brennan had left the hall. “He’ll be interested in what is presently injecting into Nif-Nakh orbit. Whi, he come here and take a look as well.”
*
The scene that presented itself to Ghinn t’Whht after opening the door was memorable: the inmates of the gaol stared at her with gaping mouths and wide eyes. While the shackled crewmembers of the Argon ship showed traces of fear, the members of the delegation, who weren’t shackled
, couldn’t hide their aggressiveness. Ghinn moved the muzzle of the heavy blaster she was wearing back and forth. The weapon appeared clunky, definitely martial – perhaps this was the reason why it seemed so dangerous in the hands of the tall, willowy Split woman. Directly behind Ghinn came a guard, then Kyle, who was followed by another guard.
“Mylady, please don’t point your weapon at my friends”, Kyle said. He made a move to escape the guards to get on Ghinn’s side, but the guard behind him grabbed his shoulder and dragged him back into position. Ghinn ignored him.
Elena Kho and Ban Danna were able to contain their surprise at seeing Kyle almost immediately, but Ninu called out his name loudly. “Kyle!”
“Unshackle them”, Ghinn demanded. “Brennan”, she added, when both guards as well as Kyle started for the prisoners. Ghinn dropped an electronic key to the floor and kicked it sliding to the middle of the room – without even looking at it.
Kyle entered the room, whose walls of crudely cut boulders seemed to allow a deep view into the souls of their creators. He briefly nodded towards Elena and Danna. “Lin, Ban. Quarter inspection?” The two shot each other a quick grin, while Kyle went past them to take Ninu in his arms.
“Kyle! I’m so glad you’re here”, she sighed. She didn’t even bother to ask why he was here and why Elena and Ban didn’t know anything about it. She was simply happy to have him here by her side right now.
Kyle ran his hands over her hair and her shoulders. “What did they do to you? Are you okay?”
She nodded. “I am now.”
“Will the creatures obey my order at once!” Ghinn t’Whht barked at Kyle, who stayed completely calm, keeping Ninu in his arms. He turned his head to look at the Split woman.
“The creatures will take as much time as they desire, Mylady”, he said with a harsh emphasis on the last word.
Farnham's Legend: The beginning of the X-Universe saga (X Games Book 1) Page 35