It could be the last time he ever saw such a thing, or it could be the beginning of a much closer relationship with the reclusive civilization. At least Asura was with him this time, and she would be able to see the Orion for herself, and not second-hand from his descriptions of them.
“This one is trustworthy?” began Subdirector abruptly, and Cordez assumed it meant Asura.
“Trust her as you would trust me,” said Cordez firmly.
Subdirector considered this.
“The two of you have been inseparable for the past, mm, three of your days. We had to take the risk and contact you.”
“I understand,” said Cordez. He and Asura had been grabbing a few days of rest from their exhausting round of duties, and that had forced the Orion to contact him while Asura was present.
Asura squeezed his hand, and sat fascinated by the desert scene before her. She stared at the strange ‘living rock’ that was somehow communicating with them.
“Time is, mmm, very short,” said Subdirector. “Druanii ask you to act without delay.”
This was promising. The Druanii must be taking the treaties seriously. Subdirector’s next words, though, went far beyond what he had imagined the treaties might be used for.
“Invardii have, unfortunately, located Orion planet. Therefore, Druanii have declared planet a Druanii protectorate, and used Invardii-Druanii treaty to enforce this.
“Druanii request Alliance send force to back declaration of independence, and to show by presence that other races have knowledge of treaty.”
Cordez’ heart sank, as he realized it was he who had brought the Invardii to the Orion planet. He had contacted the Orion so he could talk to the Druanii, and the Invardii must have followed the sub space messages he had sent.
He didn’t have to think about his response to the request.
The Alliance would send warships. Of course it would. He would have to get the okay from the governments involved, but he would send the ships now, anticipating a favorable response. There was no time to waste. He looked at Asura, and she nodded.
It might be a hopeless gesture – what could hundreds of Javelins, Sumerian warships and even a smattering of Valkrethi – do against a sizable force of the powerful Buccra warships? But the only hope of the Alliance lay with the Druanii, and with the treaties. It would do whatever it could to help.
“Political situation is, mmmm, complicated,” said Subdirector.
“Druanii have invoked treaty clauses as basis for neutrality of Orion planet, but this in turn depends on much wider treaty clauses.”
Subdirector paused, as if it were taking a deep breath, though whether it metabolized oxygen or not was unknown.
“If Invardii cell outside galactic core can be completely destroyed, Invardii may honor treaty restoring previous boundaries of Invardii, within the core, for one thousand revolutions of Caerbrindii sun.”
Cordez had to repeat Subdirector’s words to himself several times before they really made sense. In the end he figured it out.
The three races the Caerbrindii had spawned, the Invardii, Rothii and Druanii, must have grown tired of border conflicts that flared up into debilitating wars, and eventually drawn up a ‘contest of strength’ clause.
If there was friction along a border, then a period of peace would be observed if the race attempting to expand its territory could be thrown back to its previous boundaries. After the allotted time, something like three Caerbrindii years, they were free to try again.
Cordez had no idea how long a thousand revolutions of the Caerbrindii sun was exactly. Fedic had just come back from Mentuk, the original planet of the Caerbrindii, and he would know. Whatever the time span was, it would buy the Alliance some time to prepare for the next Invardii onslaught.
Cordez felt confident the rapidly evolving members of the Alliance would be equal to that battle, when it came. Asura squeezed his arm encouragingly. She saw the possibilities as clearly as he did.
One last matter remained to be unraveled, and Cordez followed the lines of cause and effect to their logical conclusion. These were Invardii-Druanii treaties, and they didn’t cover the Alliance. For the Druanii to invoke this clause and make it work, it would be necessary for the Druanii to take over the Spiral Arm as their own. Then they would have a common border with the Invardii, and a sufficient reason to invoke the relevant treaties.
It turned out that Subdirector was about to get to this point.
“Druanii say, with apologies, is necessary they declare Alliance areas Druanii protectorate. Then treaties may be, mm, applied against Invardii.
“Is this acceptable to Human, to Sumerian, and others in the Spiral Arm?”
Cordez barely hesitated. He had already decided to send Alliance forces to the Orion planet now and get permission later, and the same urgency propelled him to act in the same way on this point.
“Alliance areas may be declared a Druanii protectorate,” he said. “This is acceptable to the Alliance. Formal agreement will follow as soon as possible.”
He paused.
“If Orion will disclose the coordinates of their planet, the Alliance will send forces immediately.” Once he had said this he activated the security recorders for the room. However such information arrived, he wanted to have a good copy of it.
Subdirector waved its fronds, initiating something, and the picture faded out to leave a flickering white ball in front of Cordez and Asura. A few moments later, some previously recorded material took its place. Cordez assumed the sub space feed from the Orion planet had been relayed to a Druanii information bank.
The picture cleared to show a desert plain from a great height. This then receded until a brown and orange planet hung in space, not far from a feeble yellow sun. The system whirled away until it was part of a sparsely populated scattering of stars, tiny points on the very edge of the galaxy.
There were no further developments, and the watery ball simply faded out in Cordez’ living room.
The Regent took a deep breath.
“That’s probably the best outcome we could have hoped for,” he said at last, “but it’s all coming down to some tricky last minute timing. Dammitall, there’s so much to do!”
Asura could see what the last few weeks had taken out of her husband, and she wished she could shift more of the load onto her own shoulders.
“Leave EarthGov to me,” she said with a smile, putting her arms around him. “You start gathering the Alliance forces you’ll need to send to the Orion planet.”
He hugged her arms against him, grateful she was there. Then he stood up, freeing himself from her embrace. He took the security recording and went to his home office next door. Asura could hear his voice as he opened a sub space link with Prometheus.
“Good to hear your voice, Finch. There’s a data file coming your way with the location of the Orion planet on it. It’s a visual recording, and we’ll need to check it against our star charts to get exact coordinates.
“Yes, the Druanii are coming in with us, best as I can understand what the Orion are saying. No word of this to anyone else until I can think of a way to prepare the Alliance for what’s coming.
“We have to send a military force to the Orion planet. When are the Valkrethi expected back from Orouth?
“Understood, I think we should include a number of them with the force we send.
“Yes, we’re going up against the Invardii city, but I’ve no idea what help we’ll get from the Druanii. The good news is that if we win, the Alliance should be left alone for a good spell, long enough for us to be in a winning position if the Invardii ever come back.
“I know, it’s complicated. I’ll get back to you with more information soon.
“Thanks, that means a lot to me.”
Cordez made another call before he came back into the room. Then he was back at her side.
“Your transport to EarthGov headquarters in Geneva is already on its way,” he said. “I’ll get a South Am shuttle to lift
me into orbit as soon as I’m ready. I think I need to be out at Prometheus for this one.”
He smiled. “We were lucky to get these three days together, weren’t we? The demands of our work are never-ending.”
She smiled back, and he put his arms about her.
“When are we getting out of this business,” he said quietly, as he held her tightly against him.
Her muffled voice came from his collar, and he lessened his grip a little.
“When it’s all over,” she repeated, not wanting him to make promises he couldn’t keep. She kissed him gently, and broke the embrace to go and pack what she would need for the trip to Geneva. Cordez returned to his office to initiate the gathering of the Alliance forces. There was still a lot to do before he left for Prometheus.
A very long way from Cordez’ office, Air Marshall Cagill was in the middle of collecting the remaining Valkrethi from Orouth. The Valkrethi were a central part of Cordez’ strategy, but collecting them safely hadn’t turned out as planned.
Cagill surveyed the scene in the desert from the bridge of his freighter, which had miraculously landed more or less upright. He found himself in the middle of the convoy, looking out at seven towering ships that were scattered on the sands in various upended positions.
It was an incongruous sight among the soft, rolling dunes of the desert. The shuttle that had been sent from his command freighter to make up the appearance of eight freighters on the way down had landed – much more gracefully – just in front of him.
Cagill was finishing a conversation with Matsu, who was still somewhere on the edge of space far above. He was delivering his heartfelt thanks. The researchers in the eighth freighter, and their sub space missile technology, had come through for the convoy. He didn’t want to think about what would have happened if they hadn’t.
The problems the convoy faced now fell into two broad categories. The Valkrethi that remained on the planet had to be found, and stowed on the freighters, and the freighters had to get themselves back into space.
They weren’t going to be able to make the jump off the planet using the small auxiliary systems used to navigate when they were in orbit. They were going to have to use their main stardrive engines. That would normally fry every circuit in every piece of electronics on the ground as far as the horizon.
Fortunately, there was nothing as complicated as electronics on Orouth. But the stardrive wasn’t that good for living things either, if they were right under it. Cagill would have to find a way to contact the desert people, the Pellukech, and warn them.
They were an unknown, a race he had only read about in his briefing papers. Perhaps he would get Celia to make the initial contact, since she was known to them. She would have to convince them to move out of the area for a few days when the freighters were ready to lift off, or hide away in one of the fissures that ran across the desert.
Last of all the structural integrity of the freighters would need careful checking. Some sections of the freighter hulls would need repairing. The freighters had been through a lot more in the last few hours than they had ever been designed to withstand.
Cagill set up an open channel with the captains of the other freighters, and they began to work through the problems, one by one.
HISTORIAN’S REPORT
I do not remember when I agreed to accompany the freighters to Orouth. I knew of the terrible descent through the atmosphere that we would have to endure, and the many days in stardrive on the way there and the way back. Why I agreed to come on this mission is a different matter.
Perhaps it was pride. Cordez commissioned me to write the history of our people, and it would not satisfy me to write 95 percent of that history, even if it was to the best of my ability. It would always be less than what I was capable of.
I recall with a smile my father saying once, under extreme duress, that a particular historical paper by a competitor was ‘half-arsed’, before he was sternly admonished by my mother. If I had not gone with the convoy to Orouth, my efforts to write Earth’s history at this critical juncture would be ‘half-arsed’ I think.
I am still recovering from being whirled around during the descent to the planet. As usual when I am accompanying him, I and my life support systems were fixed in place at the back of Air Marshall Cagill’s bridge. But this time around it was different.
My life support systems were not designed for the rough treatment we have endured, and several of the systems failed during the descent. I am currently in the sick bay, more dead than alive, and wondering if I will ever feel normal again.
But at least the worst is over. I will soon be one of the few Human beings to have looked upon Maka’H’Rosh, and the Valkrethi that are stored there. The planet itself, with its strange lines of demarcation – bands of desert, rain forest and ice and snow – does not interest me so much.
The inhabitants, our long lost ancestors, would interest me more, but I must remained focused. My work here is to record the experiences of the convoy, not take side trips for my own gratification.
At least I have stopped vomiting now, and certain other tubes have been re-attached.
PART SIX: MORE VALKRETHI
CHAPTER 19
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While Cagill and the other captains of the convoy tried to assess the damage to the freighters, Celia led her research team and a number of pilots to the Rothii archive behind the Lizard’s Head. It wasn’t long before the shuttle touched down on the plateau above the site.
The warlike Olongetti were absent from the plateau this time round, but she doubted things would stay that way for long. The top of the plateau was a sacred site to the Olongetti, and any intrusion would be met with their throwing clubs dotted with sharp bronze fragments, and their warlike cries.
The shuttle’s passengers made their way quickly to the door into the archive, and then through to the archive itself. The shuttle took off again, and would wait for them to emerge much higher up the mountain. The underground transport system worked as smoothly as before, taking Celia and her expanded team away from the archive. It wasn’t long before they found themselves in the vast, cathedral-like space that was Maka’H’Rosh.
Celia’s research team moved quickly toward the giant figures at the other end of the huge hall, while the newcomers struggled to keep up. The pilots kept stopping to look at the wonders around them, and make awed comments.
Celia managed to coax them up the gantry ladders to the mezzanine floor, where she showed them the work station the research team had previously found. It told them, in diagrams and pictures, how to activate the giant figures.
“Jeneen. Andre,” she said, once the pilots seemed to understand the basics, “get the newcomers down onto the floor and ID’d into a Valkrethi each.
“Roberto, you and I have to figure out a way to get the giant figures across the desert to the convoy. The freighters will be exiting straight up through the atmosphere, so we’ll need to take the Valkrethi to them for loading.”
Jeneen nodded, and ushered her group down the gantries to their waiting steeds. Roberto ran the program on the work station once again, looking for the controls that had managed the exit point for the Valkrethi last time.
Opening the giant portal to the outside world for the Valkrethi to exit the cavern had been difficult enough, and old rock falls on the camouflaged exterior had jammed the portal shut behind them.
“You mentioned cave systems,” said Celia thoughtfully.
“I did?” said Roberto, his mind more than half on the diagrams he was watching.
She dug him in the ribs, to get his mind on the cave system question, and he put out a hand to keep her at arms length while he finished deciphering the operational instructions. They both smiled. Roberto was pleased with Celia’s growing boisterousness – in their relationship and in life generally – and took every opportunity to tell her how much he enjoyed the changes.
“Back in the archive you mentioned cave systems,” she said. “
On the first trip. You remember?”
“Oh, the fresh air,” said Roberto. “The air smelled fresh in the archive because it has a passive air supply system. Warmed air inside the plateau rises into a cave system further up the mountain, drawing in cooler air from further down. A natural chimney effect.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” said Celia impatiently. She wasn’t interested in the science at the moment. “But that might be the way out. Do you think the Valkrethi could fit through those cave systems?”
“Whe-ew,” whistled Roberto, turning to look at her. “I don’t know about that. The Valkrethi are awfully big.”
He turned back to the work station, and finished his run through the diagrams. He didn’t find anything else they could use to get the Valkrethi out into the open air.
“Maybe it won’t work,” said Celia, “but we’re going to give it a try. Excavating the jammed portal looks like it might take longer than exploring the cave systems for another way out.”
In the end, the cave systems did prove the more successful option. Celia and Roberto took temporary ID routines and climbed ladders into two of the standing Valkrethi. They ran them through the warm up routines, and didn’t find any glitches from standing around for 200 thousand years.
They used their mounts to enlarge the natural vents along the back wall of the cavern, and discovered an interconnecting system of huge spaces, similar to the one in which the Valkrethi were stored.
“It looks like there was a cave here in the first place, and the Rothii just enlarged it for the Valkrethi,” said Roberto, examining the wall next to the rough archway he had just made. The surface was beautifully machined, but there was enough of the cavern walls left to support his idea.
“Get the others over here,” said Celia, on the comms band between them, “and we’ll see if we can find a way out. I can see another opening on the far side of this cave as well.”
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