Alongside the edge of the images, icons flickered and danced in a familiar arrival sequence. The ‘zoon was letting them know of its intention to land.
‘You think she’s down there?’ Jo-Jo’s voice sounded hoarse suddenly.
‘Fedor?’ Rast shrugged. ‘Maybe. I don’t know how strong their symbiotic link is. Could be that the ‘zoon’s just guessing.’
‘Should we arm up, Capo?’ Catchut seemed anxious for something to do.
Rast kinked a corner of her lips. ‘You know my motto, Cat. When in doubt, strap it on.’
Latourn and Catchut grinned and disappeared out of the buccal.
Rast stared at Jo-Jo. ‘You got your head together yet?’
Jo-Jo shrugged, holding tight to his belligerence. ‘Course.’
‘You got any ideas why Beth and the idiot Thales jumped ship with the Lostol?’
‘Why? You think it’s got a bearing on this?’
‘Eventually,’ she said. ‘Everything will.’
‘Didn’t pick you for a philosopher, Randall.’
‘Didn’t pick you for the lovesick type, Rasterovich.’
The moment of civility had passed and the tension was back.
Rast got up out of Secondo in her usual leisurely, overconfident manner. ‘Might go check out that hardware myself.’
* * *
They assembled a while later inside the egress scale as they waited for the biozoon to dock on the overrun of the drum station. The mercs wore Latino combat vests loaded down with bulky, antiquated weapons. Latourn had a set of knife sheaths hanging from a utility belt, and Catchut wore something similar with pouches attached. Rast had two semis slung over her back, plus a selection of grenades in her own pouches. Her vest bulged, making her chest look twice its actual width.
She held out a vest to Jo-Jo and pulled a face. ‘Best the Pellegrinis had to offer. Vintage sweeties. Good for getting your head blown off.’
Jo-Jo took it from her. The material felt stiff and new, straight out of a crate.
‘If the ‘zoon lets the Extros on board we’re better to be here, armed and ready, than have them hunt us down through the ship.’
Jo-Jo agreed with the merc on that score at least. He slipped the vest on and buckled it. ‘I wouldn’t be mentioning who I am to any Extros,’ he said as they took up positions around the mouth of the egress scale.
Rast nodded her agreement to Latourn and Catchut. ‘Can’t do any of us any good to be seen keeping company with the God Discoverer. Best if he’s known as one of ours for the time being.’
Catchut scowled but said nothing.
Latourn stared at the stratum ceiling—his thoughts were clearly elsewhere.
‘Lat?’
Latourn dragged his gaze across to meet Rast’s. ‘Do you think the Baronessa’s even here, Capo?’
Rast gave him a sharp look. ‘Maybe. Why?’
Latourn reddened, his skin colour vivid enough to pass for Latino. ‘If we find her, mebbe we can get off this damn ‘zoon. I got a hankerin’ for somethin’ more military. Not complaining, Capo. Farr’s paid us enough to make good for a while and I know we gotta find her to collect the rest of it, but this ain’t the sort of work I’m wantin’. Babysittin’ wimmen, like, and freakin’ around in Extro space.’
It was the most Jo-Jo had ever heard Latourn speak but Rast never got to reply to him. The light altered, signalling that the egress scale had begun to peel back.
‘Quiet!’ ordered Rast. She leaned her head towards Jo-Jo, whispering. ‘We got one rule in my crew, Rasterovich. My word. You ignore it, you wind up dead. Either by them, or by me. And like it or not, for the moment you’re one of my crew.’ She shot him a fierce glance. ‘Got it?’
Jo-Jo nodded slowly. He’d already made his big choice, the one that saw him here on this crazy ‘zoon trying not to piss himself over what was about to happen. Now it was time to swallow any arrogance on Randall’s part and survive.
Rast seemed relieved. ‘Right. We see trouble, you stay between me and Cat.’ She fished inside her jacket and passed him a pistol. ‘It’s a semi. Don’t fire from behind me.’
She crimped back against the wall now, pushing him along her as she squatted out of sight behind a ridge of ribbing. Latourn and Catchut did the same thing on the other side.
The egress hollow flooded with greyish light.
Nothing happened. No sound. Or smell.
Jo-Jo strained to see past Rast but she shook her head at him. Drawing a small spray pack from her utility belt, she sent the contents squirting into the air. It illuminated hundreds of minuscule beads floating in the atmosphere, glistening like diamond chips.
‘Eges. Don’t breathe,’ said Rast. She tucked the spray away and made hand signals to Latourn and Catchut on the other side of the opening. They felt in their belts and brought out skin masks. Rast pinched her nose while she fumbled for hers.
Jo-Jo followed their cue, holding his breath while he fished in his vest to find one. He guessed the eges acted like tracers if they entered the bloodstream. He didn’t let out his breath until his skin was tight across his mouth and nose.
They waited, then.
The tension increased until Jo-Jo’s desire to stand up and stretch his legs became overwhelming.
Rast frowned at him, sensing his restlessness, and he was forced to admire the mercs’ ability to remain absolutely still. He pressed hard against the ‘zoon’s ribbed wall, trying to divert his senses away from his aching, oxygen-deprived legs.
Rast hadn’t sprayed the area again but Jo-Jo imagined the eges floating all around him now, measuring, calculating and relaying their data. What was the point in sitting motionless if the Extros could see them?
An instant later his question was answered. A spiked ball-shaped object hurtled in through the egress scale at high speed. It dropped onto the floor, spikes digging into the ‘zoon’s spongy tissue, and proceeded to spin past Latourn and Catchut and on down the stratum.
‘Barb sensor,’ whispered Rast through her mask. ‘Saw them in the war; analyses on the run. Once it’s finished with the floor, it’ll start on the walls. You get in its way, it’ll prick holes in you. It’s attracted to movement.’
A sweat broke across Jo-Jo’s body. ‘Will it come back?’
She nodded. ‘Time to move.’
She didn’t have to signal this time. As she came out of her crouch, Catchut and Latourn were already turning the corner of the rib into the egress hollow. Rast went through the open scale first, semis raised.
Jo-Jo came next, pistol quivering, then the others.
They barrelled through the short connecting junction, straight into a seamless metal chamber. Rast landed on her feet but Jo-Jo tripped and sprawled awkwardly onto his knees.
He got to his feet, nerves buzzed. ‘It’s sealed everywhere but the junction,’ he said, glancing back to the scale. ‘No way out or in.’
Rast studied the layout, then pulled out her spray pump and sent a squirt into the air. Nothing glistened.
She slipped her mask down. ‘Wouldn’t be too sure about that.’
Jo-Jo and the others followed suit.
‘Where then?’ asked Jo-Jo.
‘There, Capo.’ Catchut pointed to a high ceiling spot that seemed to be bubbling as though something might erupt. Did erupt; a thin tube at right angles to the surface.
‘There’s another,’ said Lat, pointing somewhere else.
The mercs had automatically fallen into a back-to- back formation, leaving Jo-Jo standing alone.
‘Get in here,’ Rast ordered him.
Jo-Jo slotted his body between Rast and Catchut. Now there were half a dozen thin tubes pointing at them from different angles in the ceiling.
‘Is it gas?’ Jo-Jo asked.
‘Could be. Extros don’t use regular weapons.’
They held that formation for so long that Jo-Jo’s legs began to tremble. Again he became desperate to move position.
‘Randall?’ he grunted.
‘Hold,’ she said.
He bit his lip and locked his knees.
Then, directly in front of him, a large section of the wall began to bubble. Jo-Jo lifted his pistol, working to keep his aim steady. He watched as the bubble seemed to melt into a set of metallic legs crowned by a shimmering globe where a torso should be. An Extro was in the room with them and the wall was just as suddenly back seamlessly intact.
An arm moulded from the globe and digits sprouted. A face of sorts took shape to the side of the arm: a high, angular forehead and large rolling eyes. The eyes—unnervingly—blinked.
Rast suddenly burst out laughing and dropped her weapons to her side.
To Jo-Jo’s astonishment she strode over to the Extro and stopped in front of it, hands on her hips. ‘EK, you bastard. Too easy.’
A square mouth-shape formed below the eyes, silver lips and tongue protruding. ‘Our eges identified, Rast Randall. EK was summoned. You brought the substance directly here?’
Randall grinned and Jo-Jo marvelled at how quickly her expression could shift from one thing to another.
‘I want to change the terms of my payment. Thought mebbe it was best to discuss in... erm... person,’ said Rast.
‘Amusing,’ said the Extro. ‘Now explain better.’
‘Your Host-species have abducted a woman in my protection. I want her back. That’s my price for the payload.’
‘Tone is demanding. Do not respond to humanesque imperatives.’
‘I’m speaking this way because I’m pissed, EK. But I guess you don’t know what that feels like.’
‘Understanding of the Post-Species is limited. Advise against drawing comparisons.’
‘Whatever. I have the substance and I want the woman back. Simple stuff.’
‘No knowledge of her.’
‘Thought you kept an eye on what the Host-species are up to.’
‘Much to be observant of currently.’
Rast frowned. ‘Yeah. We noticed. What’s with all the traffic?’
Most of the Extra’s face and its digits melted away, leaving only the protruding arm stub and lips; the globe shivered with fluidity. ‘Identify the humanesque.’
‘Her name is Mira Fedor, an aristocrat from the border world Araldis. We were together on Rho Junction and a bunch of flippered jellyfish abducted her.’
‘Siphonophores.’
‘Yeah.’
The Extro fell silent for a time. So long that Rast squatted down where she was and pulled some chewing-stim from one of her pockets.
Once more Catchut and Latourn followed her lead, though they sat behind her, their eyes roving and hands close to their weapons.
Jo-Jo noticed the dark sweat stains on Latourn’s jacket and how his hair stuck to his scalp, and how his tongue worked constantly in his cheeks. Of them all, he seemed the most unnerved by the presence of the Extro. Catchut seemed more comfortable; hands steady enough and eyes darting about in cool appraisal.
Jo-Jo found himself sympathising with Latourn. He’d seen Extros before—hell, Rho Junction had been overrun with them— but not this kind. Something about the fluidity and the peculiar smell exuding from it made Jo-Jo’s mouth dry.
More importantly though, how the hell did Rast Randall know it? She’d fought in the front line of the Stain Wars. That’s what Lasper Farr had said, and she’d confirmed it later in their conversations aboard the ‘zoon. But her manner, here, now, was too damn friendly for someone dealing with the enemy.
The merc leader turned to stare at him, as if guessing what he was thinking.
They locked glances for a long moment.
‘I bought some cryoprotectant on Intel station. Landhurst runs illegal trade in it. I was supposed to deliver them to a contact. Things didn’t quite work out that way. Then we end up here. Opportunity.’
‘How do you know it?’ Jo-Jo nodded towards the silent arm nub and lips of the Extro.
‘You can’t just know one of them. They’re not like that. They just do it—appear that way—to make us more comfortable. I jus’ gave EK a name so I didn’t feel like I was talking to a million Extros at once.’
‘So you’ve been trading with the Extros while you’re working for both Farr and the Latinos?’
She scowled at him. ‘I told you when we met. I’m nobody’s bitch. I earn where I choose and so does my crew.’
Catchut nodded his agreement but Latourn looked uneasy.
Jo-Jo wanted to wrap his hands around Rast’s throat and choke the life out of her. Her greediness had meant she’d left Mira and Bethany vulnerable.
And yet, if he were honest, his lifestyle resembled Rast’s in so many ways: the same self-absorption but without the killing.
Until now. Now he couldn’t think of anyone or anything other than Mira Fedor and the slight bulge of her newly pregnant belly. There. He’d allowed the thought into his consciousness. Was she really pregnant or had he just imagined it?
‘The League of Sentient Species has signalled aggressive intentions towards the Post-Species,’ said EK unexpectedly.
‘What do you mean?’ Rast stayed in her crouched position but Jo-Jo saw her muscles tense. ‘‘Where do you mean?’
Vibrations emanated across the chamber.
‘Sounds like the whale’s getting ready to blow, Capo,’ said Catchut. One hand had moved to his utility belt, where with deft fingers he eased open one pouch.
It took Jo-Jo a moment to realise he meant the ‘zoon.
Rast came out of her crouch in a slow, controlled manner. ‘Wouldn’t do for us not to be there, Cat.’
‘I’m thinkin’ the same, Capo—under the circumstances.’
The hair on Jo-Jo’s body began to prickle. His muscles bunched, ready to move quickly.
At the same instant the three mercenaries slid their face skins back into position. Jo-Jo copied them as Catchut flicked a grenade of sorts from his pouch. It should have skittered across the floor to the, Extro but on first bounce it disappeared into the floor surface. The texture of the whole chamber seemed to have changed. It was no longer metallic.
‘Remove all your weapons and place them at your feet,’ said the Extro.
Catchut stared at the spot his small explosive had vanished.
‘Do as it says,’ Rast instructed.
‘Capo?’ Latourn’s voice was tinged with uncertainty.
‘Whole chamber we’re in is an Extro, Lat. You wanna be goin’ where your grenade just went?’
‘No, Capo.’ The hulky man began unbuckling his gear.
Jo-Jo felt a rising conviction. One thing he knew for sure, he wasn’t going meekly into captivity again. Especially not in this place.
He glanced across at the junction. The egress scale was still open. Could he make it before the floor, or the wall, or the Extro reached out and sucked him away?
‘Josef.’ Rast’s warning to him was clear.
‘A jail’s a jail, Randall. Not going back into one.’
‘Who says that’s where you’re going?’ she said reasonably. ‘Might be that EK here wants to entertain us. Be the smart thing to do. Seeing as I’ve got all that cryo on board. Be an awful lot of disappointment if we told the ‘zoon not to let them have it.’
Pretending she had control over the ‘zoon was about the only thing Rast had up her sleeve. A small amount of cryo went a long way in Extro land from what Jo-Jo’d heard.
Rast’s caution didn’t stop Jo-Jo from taking a step backward though; or trying to, at least. But his damn boots stuck to the floor. The fear that had been gathering in his stomach sent panic messages to his limbs. He reached down and frantically scrabbled with his boot buckles.
‘Don’t take your feet out.’ Rast gestured to stop him. ‘You’ll—’
A noise erupted from inside the ‘zoon; a terrible groaning that drowned Rast out. An object shot through the junction as if thrown, and stopped near Catchut’s feet.
Jo-Jo barely recognised the object that had spun past them earlier to samp
le the ‘zoon’s internals. Now it was coated with biozoon tissue and a thick, stinking mucus.
“Zoon’s pissed,’ muttered Latourn.
Jo-Jo glanced at the junction. Insignia’s start-up hum sent another vibration through the chamber. A fine shimmer of skin appeared across the connection junction between them and the ‘zoon; a second skin growing to replace the soon-to-be-torn egress scale.
‘She’s blowin’, Capo,’ said Catchut.
Rast’s expression cracked for an instant and Jo-Jo glimpsed her terror. It matched his. Then he lost all thought save the one that told him to stay with the ‘zoon. Lifting his feet out of his boots, he gave one huge leap towards the junction—and fell short. The moment his feet touched the chamber surface he stuck. He fell forward and tried to crawl the last distance but his hands and elbows adhered as firmly to the floor as his feet.
Insignia’s hum became something higher and stronger and a groaning tear deafened them all.
Jo-Jo craned his neck upwards to the junction. The old egress scale was still in place, a thin layer between them and the blackness, but Insignia had gone.
SOLE
need’m that one, need’m luscious
creature find’m, bring’m
me
MIRA
Mira ran.
Wanton called out directions that took her branching down what seemed like random tributaries between the featureless plumes of Hue. The sandy terrain remained flat and firm enough for her to keep her pace for a while, but soon enough she had to stop and rest. And then sooner again. Eventually the periods of running shortened until she was back to walking.
The spreading black fertiliser kept pace with them, staining the sand in every direction. On the occasions she allowed herself a backward glance, the land had become curving dark stripes.
‘The humanesque form is more limited than Wanton thought,’ it commented.
‘I am pregnant,’ Mira snapped. Right now she could feel the drag and the ache it caused around her lower belly, and her spirits lowered with the fatigue. She did not bother to add that she was neither trained for, nor used to, extreme physical demands.
The Sentients of Orion Page 71