Broken Vision

by J. A. Clarke

  "What was on it, Maegan?" Corenna asked.

  "Nothing. It was blank."

  "We saw the flash."

  She shrugged. "Sorry, it was blank."

  The two glanced at one another.

  "Let her explain it to the governor," said Drakal. "We may be able to retrieve something off it back on Pallas Five."

  "Why wait?" Corenna moved to take Maegan's arm. She flung up a hand in warning and, with a grimace, he gestured her ahead of him instead. "This is Janas Corporation--cutting edge information technology systems. Let's have them test it."

  "Why would they cooperate?"

  "It's not a question of cooperation. It's an opportunity to humble us lesser sentients with their superior knowledge and technology."

  They hustled her down the hall toward her office.

  "Maegan, here, is going back to the governor's care, thank Sagar's crystals. You and I are going to have another chat with that gorgeous Soron in the lab. She seemed quite, ah, receptive and talkative."

  If anyone could retrieve the erased message, it would be Nimon. The chip had to be from Morgon. A warning. But what did the priests know?

  Maegan passed Coryon's station with a nod at her wide-eyed assistant, mounted the shallow flight of steps and entered her office. His back to her, Alerik was comfortably ensconced in one of her guest chairs.

  Makiee sat across from him. Guilt flooded his young face as soon as he caught sight of Maegan. What had they been discussing?

  Alerik swung around, glanced past her to Corenna and Drakal, then rose slowly to his feet. "Trouble again?"

  "We're on it, sir," Drakal said, ever cheerful. "We'll be back as soon as we complete a small task."

  Alerik nodded and flicked his sapphire gaze back to Maegan as Corenna and Drakal left. The look in his eyes promised much, and an involuntary shudder rippled through her. But he gestured behind him and said calmly, "Makiee has agreed to accompany us to your habitat. I think we're almost done with Janas Corporation for the day."

  They hadn't uncovered anything then. Maegan allowed herself a deep breath of relief. No second set of books. No tunnels. No one but she and Morgon knew about the tunnels, although sometimes she wondered how those of her staff involved in the rescue relays could fail to suspect something.

  Alerik bent down and touched the comm on the table. "Coryon, are those files done yet?"

  "Almost, sir."

  Maegan went cold. Her gaze flew to Makiee, who was looking everywhere but her. "What have you done?" she whispered.

  His face was a mask of misery, but it was Alerik who answered. "He followed my instructions and uplinked your personal database to our network. It will make it easier for you to work on Pallas Five."

  Blazing starpits, how had he convinced Makiee to do that? And what exactly had Makiee done? She was under no illusions. Even now, her data was being analyzed back on Pallas Five. Depending on how strong the bans were that Makiee had sent after her data, they could have nothing but legitimate Janas records.

  Or they could have everything, including the second set of books and all her relay routes. Damning evidence indeed.

  Makiee's expression said it all. She couldn't bring herself to blame him in the least.

  "You had no right," she said through gritted teeth to Alerik.

  "I had every right. You may not be incarcerated, but you're far from being absolved."

  "So you'll find an additional set of financial records and you'll find old flight routes. I'm sure you had your suspicions," she said bitterly. She couldn't think what this might mean to her personally, but she mourned the crumbling of Morgon's hard built dream.

  Alerik stepped closer. "Stop fighting this so hard, love."

  The heat of his body reached out to her coldness. The endearment battered her defenses. He was her greatest threat. Why did she yearn so to yield to him?

  "What happened with Corenna and Drakal?"

  "Someone passed me a message chip today, probably Gloriana." It was inevitable that he would learn that too. Why was she fighting him so hard?

  "The message?"

  "The priests know. Stay away from them."

  "Blood of Cor!" Alerik jerked away from her and punched at his personal comm. "Where are the priests?"

  Commander Foster's voice answered, "Still haven't located one, sir. We always seem to be a step behind."

  "We know how many there are?"

  "We believe five, sir."

  "Has the counselor come through with resources?"

  "Yes, sir. We have teams of three on every priest."

  Alerik glanced at Maegan. The simmering sapphire-black of his gaze revealed strong emotion. "At least one of the children is equipped with a tracking device. Morgon Trion knows it. The priests are chasing false signals."

  * * * *

  It had to be the older child. There'd been something very strange about his eyes. An implant? A prosthetic?

  Maegan allowed Alerik to help her out of the transporter. Makiee followed still looking like a whipped baby mercat. He'd whispered his apologies, but they'd had no chance for further private conversation.

  Alerik hadn't taken his hand off her since they'd left Janas Corporation. It was almost as if he expected her to dissipate into thin air.

  He placed his other hand on the access panel to the habitat, and she watched in renewed disbelief as the door slid open.

  "How did you--?"

  "The code was on my console shortly after the bonding quorum." Alerik pulled her aside to let Corenna and Drakal enter the habitat first. "Morgon Trion must not share your objections."

  It was too much. Her brain was already overloaded with too many unanswered questions. It was inconceivable that Morgon endorsed this partnership with an heir to an institution against which he had long rebelled.

  They were all barely inside the habitat with the door secured behind them when the men's communicators buzzed to life. "Three priests on their way to the habitat."

  "Location of the others?" Alerik barked.

  "Unknown. We lost track of them."

  "Cor's blood! Let's not take any chances. Shield the exterior," Alerik ordered.

  Drakal was already moving to the main control console in the corner of the room. "They'll know we're here. The transporter--"

  "My guess is they've had trackers on us as we've had on them." Alerik was hustling her toward the interior hall of the habitat. "Makiee, follow. I want you and Maegan in here."

  He pushed her into the safe room, an area completely reinforced and capable of withstanding tremendous force. It would remain standing even if the rest of the habitat was blown apart.

  The door slammed closed and she and Makiee were left in a vacuum of peculiar silence.

  "Maegan, I--"

  "No more apologies, Makiee," she cut him off. "I can't imagine what he said to you to get you to cooperate, but it doesn't matter now." She ran over to the room's small control panel. "Can you get me into the bathing chamber next door?"

  "He wants us to stay here."

  "Makiee!" Makiee seemed well on his way to having a serious case of hero worship.

  "All right. All right. Why?"

  "I have something I need to do." Like find Morgon. If he was in the tunnels. "But I want you to stay here."

  Makiee already had the panel open and the interior cover which contained the room controls off. He whistled at the contents behind it. "Morgon's work again. This could take some time."

  "Just hurry."

  Makiee glanced at her sideways. "If you need to use the--"

  "I don't. Concentrate, please."

  "What do I tell the governor when he shows up and finds you gone?"

  "You may not have to tell him anything." Maegan shifted from one foot to the other. "I might not be gone long at all." She was counting on the priests keeping the Mariltar team busy for a while.

  Makiee frowned and fiddled with the panel. "But what if-- There, not so hard after all."

  One of four doors to t
he safe room slid open. "Oops, sorry, wrong room."

  The door closed and another slid open, this time to the bathing chamber.

  "Thanks, Makiee. You're a genius!" She threw her arms around him in a brief hug. "Stay here and close the door again."

  How she would communicate with him when she was back, she didn't know. No sound could penetrate the room from outside and the comm could only be accessed from the great room. It was something to be figured out later. She waited impatiently for the safe room door to close completely before she activated the entrance to the tunnel.

  She climbed onto the pad and touched the control that would take her to the hidden habitat. It wasn't the only place Morgon could have concealed the children, but it was the most logical.

  The habitat was bathed in a dark silence. As she moved further into the unnatural stillness, the tiny hairs on her nape stood up.

  Every instinct in her body clamored at her to leave and leave now. Yet something compelled her forward. The lumens brightened to a low glow with her progress.

  A tall, dark shape materialized from the shadowed corner of the room and moved toward her.

  "Morgon..."

  * * * *

  "All five are back on their vessel?"

  "Every one."

  "No response to our communications?"

  Sharm shook his head. "None. I've never dealt with people like this. It's clear they don't want confrontation, nor to engage us in any way. There's simply no interest. They're completely focused on this search."

  "Then why did they all give up and return to their vessel so abruptly?"

  "Don't know."

  "Unless they found what they're seeking?" Corenna interjected.

  "We'd know that. Our scanners show only five sentients aboard their vessel."

  "Then maybe they obtained critical information," Drakal offered.

  "Why are they still here? They haven't requested departure clearance. They're just sitting there."

  "Waiting for something."

  "Alerik, where's Maegan?" Sharm inquired.

  Outside the habitat, a soft green mist was beginning to obscure the valley floor. Two squems scampered along the balcony rail, oblivious to the problems of the human world.

  "I locked her in the safe room with Makiee," he said absently. "Probably should let her out."

  A muffled snort came from one of the men behind him.

  "Bargain with her," he heard Drakal mutter. "Release her when she gives up some information on this place."

  "Not a bad idea," Sharm said quietly beside him.

  "I don't think any of us have the patience to outwait her." An urgency was rising in him as something poked and prodded in his brain.

  "Sagar's crystals!" The sick realization exploded like a laserblast, and he turned with a violence that made Sharm jump back. He didn't bother with the comm, but strode across the room and down the hall to the safe room.

  "Check her tracker signal," he snapped over his shoulder. It took tremendous effort to focus on the code sequence he had programmed to lock down the safe room. When the door opened, the sight of Makiee, all alone, playing with a holovid, validated his fears and almost sent him to his knees with rage and an inexplicable pounding grief.

  "Tracker's dead," Sharm said. "It's either been blocked or disabled."

  He nodded unsurprised, drew a ragged breath and focused on the Bogasill. "Where is she?"

  Makiee cowered in his chair like a cornered carnet. He glanced wild-eyed from Alerik to Sharm. The holovid game revolved forgotten in front of him. His hands dug into the arms of the chair and he looked like he could bolt except there was nowhere to go.

  Fearful for Maegan, Alerik had no patience. He descended on the boy prepared to choke the answer out of him until Sharm's quiet warning brought him up short.

  Through a red haze, he forced himself to step aside and let Sharm approach Makiee. "No one's going to hurt you. Just tell us where she is," he said.

  Garbled noises came from the boy.

  "Do it again," Sharm commanded.

  Makiee almost fell out of his chair in his hurry. He knocked the holovid aside and, with a wary eye on Alerik, stumbled over to the room's control panel, which was open, its face removed.

  Alerik forced his fisted hands behind his back and made himself stand at ease, legs spread, as Makiee fumbled and fiddled with the panel's interior. After nanonans, he threw up his hands and mumbled something to Sharm.

  "He let her into the bathing chamber," Sharm snapped at Corenna and Drakal.

  Corenna and Drakal had only been gone a nan when Makiee exclaimed in triumph and a door behind Alerik slid open. It was too much to expect, of course, that she would be there.

  As Alerik stepped into the room, Corenna and Drakal burst in through the door leading to Maegan's sleeping chamber. "Not here," he tossed back at Sharm.

  More questions from Sharm. More mumbles from Makiee.

  "He says she made him the close the safe room door immediately."

  "And did he?" Alerik prowled the perimeter studying every architectural feature that could yield a clue. If Maegan had left the habitat, this was the room from which she'd done it. But he was fairly certain the room had only one outside wall, which was made of opaque plexi. Nothing about it suggested a hidden portal.

  "He did, but he was curious so he opened it again."

  Alerik stopped in his tracks and pivoted. Sharm and the Bogasill stood together at the door, the boy slightly behind the commander. He narrowed his eyes at the boy. "Her life may be at stake here. I want everything you saw, everything you heard, everything you smelled. Everything."

  Makiee looked like he was about to expire from fear, but then he rallied. He threw his shoulders back and moved forward. "I-it wasn't much." He sidled past Alerik and tapped on a section of solid wall. "It looked like there was some sort of exit here. It was only a nanonan. Maegan was already gone. I can't be sure."

  "It's all we have. Get the platscanners in here," he snapped at Corenna and Drakal. "Maybe this time they'll do some good against Morgon and his slieking technology. I also want a report on the priests. Makiee, over here now. Start looking. There has to be something that controls the portal."

  Enthusiasm restored at being given a task, Makiee hurried to comply.

  "What's bothering you?" Sharm asked quietly, as they watched the Bogasill run his hands along the base of the wall. It wasn't where Alerik would have begun to look.

  "Yes, she's gone again, but I get the feeling you think there's a connection between her disappearance and the priests?"

  "I don't know." Alerik turned aside. Makiee, although intent on his task, was likely listening to everything they said. Alerik just didn't know that he could trust him. When it came to Maegan, he was finding it hard to trust anyone.

  "My gut is telling me something is very wrong here. Why did they go back to their ship so abruptly? Why did they come here in the first place? I'm guessing they have what they were looking for. Or something comparable."

  "Maegan would do everything in her power to keep those children away from them," Sharm said. "It was her own decision to leave that safe room. You can't assume there's a connection between her and the priests' activities."

  "You just said it yourself. 'Everything in her power.' To the point of sacrifice?"

  "You're not thinking logically, Alerik. What would that accomplish? The priests want the children, not her."

  "They know she was involved in their abduction. And she knows they know. She might have given herself up to allow Morgon more time to get the children to safety."

  He turned back to check on Makiee and scowled. The boy was attacking the wall in an inefficient, random pattern.

  "Assuming Morgon even has the children, that still doesn't make sense," Sharm muttered at his side. "Give Maegan more credit-- Balls of Sortor!"

  The section of wall Makiee had been exploring suddenly slid open.

  Makiee yelped and jumped back. "I didn't do that."

>   "You disappoint me, Makiee." Out of the dimly lit aperture stepped a tall figure dressed in dark brown from neck to feet. "You should have worked out the mechanism easily enough, or were you procrastinating? Torn loyalties, hmm?" He inclined his head. "Governor. Commander."

  Alerik stepped forward. The brew of emotion threatening to erupt was barely under control. "Morgon Trion? Or is it Commander Tiege?"

  "Whichever pleases you, sir. I claim both names."

  "And how many others?" Alerik said through gritted teeth. "Where is my wife?"

  Chapter 16

  Margaine Confluence:/Fourth Rising

  Pallas Four

  The stygian darkness she could bear. It was the bone-invading cold that was intolerable. It made her body shudder and her teeth hammer together. Her body, still fragile, had no defense against it.

  Maegan hugged her legs and buried her face in her knees, where at least some of the captured warmth from her breath eased the icy prickles of pain in her face.

  She was terrified. She'd been brought to the Taragon vessel, that much she knew. What she didn't know was whether the vessel still rode at dock on Pallas Four or had departed. If it was still on Pallas Four, she at least had a chance. Because once they took her away, she had no doubt her life was forfeit.

  There were thirteen priests, she was certain. More than the Mariltar technology had identified. They were somehow able to shield themselves and move undetected.

  They'd discovered her bracelet immediately and had seemed to recognize it for what it was. Whatever they had done to it with that odd zap of electrical current had ensured the bracelet no longer gave off tiny warm vibrations against her wrist. She was certain the signal had been destroyed.

  Alerik wouldn't be able to find her.

  She wondered, with despair, if he even knew she was missing. Or really cared.

  He had to regret the marriage partnership. She was the antithesis of everything he valued, everything for which he existed. Why would a Mariltar heir take her, a known troublemaker, for his bonded mate? She couldn't make sense of it.

  And yet... Their physical bonding had been the most amazing experience of her life. He had been so tender, so intently focused on her and her needs, so passionate, so caring. For that too brief, exquisite moment in time, he had made her feel cherished, even...loved.