After this is over I'll have to introduce Lang to my friend, Kadin.
Lang looked ... perturbed.
“General?"
“Tazh, what in the name of the Ancients do you think you're doing?"
“Getting prepared."
“Prepared is one thing, but what you're doing is something else. Any movements on such a scale are bound to attract attention, man."
“I suppose,” Tazh said coolly. “It appears you'll have to step up the schedule, too. Apps found Villers's body—there was enough left to know what happened to him—so I'm sure it's merely a matter of time before they understand what this is about, if they don't already know.” He paused to pull up a chair, then continued. “Anyway, if we wait, they will pick us apart one at a time and you will lose control of this sector before we have a chance to do anything. As it is, if they decide to respond, they'll have to do it in force and expose themselves to casualties I don't think they're willing or able to take."
Tazh studied the face on the monitor and, written there, he saw a little man who thought he had power and control, wrestling with conflicting ideas over what to do about his Colonel Tazh. Good. Tazh delighted in Lang's obvious confusion and waited for his answer.
“Well, Tazh,” he said finally. “I've ... I've already held a meeting with staff, and we are agreed to move everything ahead, based upon your recent actions. Same plan as before, with some minor changes that your activities have forced upon us. I don't mind telling you, no one is happy about what you have done. In the meantime, I want you to go quiet until First Day of the Halfyear Festival. Will you do that much for us?"
What else could they do? There were no other options open, and they were at least smart enough to recognize that. Halfyear Festival was not quite soon enough to suit Tazh, but it would have to do. Otherwise he could lose their support and, when the time came, he needed the entire Cadre involved. Otherwise his victory over New London would be short-lived, and he could see no point in that.
“Yes, General, we can shut down here in three days and remain static until First Day of Halfyear. Much of what we need to do can be accomplished here in the Keep at this point."
“Good—good,” Lang said. “Staff is working up the details of the advanced battle plan now, and it will be sent to you as soon as it's completed. Study it and stick to it. Oh, and Tazh, please, don't do anything more rash than what you have already done until we are ready."
“No, sir. Is there anything else?"
The screen went blank, and Tazh leaned back in his chair, satisfied that there would be action soon. No one knew how much he anticipated the day he would reveal his greatness. He, Tazh, would show Paz what it meant to be a Gamma. The seat of power—of rule—now lay within easy reach.
He was confident of victory in the Northwestern Sector, and, even if the Cadre failed on other fronts, he would be the leader of an empire that included the major mining and manufacturing centers of Paz. The rest of the sectors, weakened by conflict, would succumb eventually, after he had choked them off from that which made life on Paz bearable—he would have it all under his control in less than two years. He was going to be the supreme ruler of the planet, and no one could keep him from it—his destiny would be realized, and Paz would be raised to the glorious place the Fathers had foreseen.
That thin slit of a smile formed on his lips as he played it through in his mind again. First, he would eliminate that subhuman cancer, the blight on the Pazian soul that was worming its way into everything. There would be no room in his empire for the untrac who, by passing himself off as true human, was diluting the purity of the race, weakening it through rampant reproduction. Mating with true humans indiscriminately, deceitfully, and producing a class of non-onners that flooded the planet with their no-line filth. Left unchecked it would be no time at all before they made up the majority, and that was not going to happen on his planet.
Twenty-two days to wait. Here in the Keep they would have everything in readiness in less than half that time, because he'd had the foresight to begin his preparation well in advance of the rest of the Cadre. Tazh had eight thousand troops trained and ready, eleven air attack vehicles, a hundred ground assault transports—and he had weapons the rest of the Cadre lacked, devastating weapons that Kadin's sadistic imagination had provided without the General's knowledge. He was ready—ready for the coming battle, and the struggle only he knew would come in the aftermath. Once he had ripped the heart out of the Cadre and stepped over its bleeding body, he would take his rightful place as the supreme leader—the Emperor of Paz.
* * *
Chapter XV
From their position at the edge of the Cafferty Slip they could see the craggy, forbidding rise of the Mount Cafferty cone, its stark blackness softened by gray wisps of fog boiling up over the cliffs. Lower, the ebony mountain yielded to the force of insistent life, first reluctantly, then in an explosion of green that, even through the mist, was as brilliant as any emerald. Where they lay, pressed flat into the tall salgrass, the tree line thinned and gave little cover for the thirty who followed.
Niki pulled the high-powered SED from a pouch on his side, adjusted the light gain down a few notches, and brought it up to his eyes for a better look. The main entry tunnels were plainly visible, and there were several uniformed men stationed at each of the giant doors—a large air transport's nose section showed in one of the openings where intermittent flashes of laser welders silhouetted more men moving around inside the gaping hole in the mountain's side.
“So?” Shan inquired. “What's up there?"
“More than we bargained for. Looks like five men at each door and a lot more inside."
“Apps or Enforcement?” Luto asked, pulling himself forward for a better position.
“From the color, I'd say, neither. Probably Cadre soldiers.” Niki handed the SED to Luto. “Here, you take a look."
Luto looked into the instrument, frowned, and handed it back to Niki. “Cadre for certain,” he said as he rolled onto his back and stared at the lightening gray sky. “They're all carrying weapons—every one of them.” Luto turned his head and looked at Niki with an expression of frustration.
“Well, what do you think, Luto?"
“I think it's going to be first light in a few minutes, that's what I think. We won't be able to make it to the doors, and, even if we could, we wouldn't be able to get past those guards. It'll take us all day to get around to the fault ridge and most of the night to work our way up to the vents."
“And that would be a wasted effort anyway, Luto. They're sure to have guards up there, too, or they've sealed the vents. In any case, I don't see any way in from the mountain so—"
“Wait a second here,” Shan interrupted. “What's happening? Why are we here?"
“We are here,” Niki said as patiently as he could, “to inspect the cores and get a feel for what we—"
“The reactor cores?"
“That's right. Without the cores we can't achieve our objective. We have to determine that they are still here and that they are functional."
“Yeah, well, you know I'm only here because you promised me the hottest story in the history of Paz. I'm not here to get termed along with the rest of you. And what's the end objective? What is it you plan to do with the cores, once you have them?"
“No one is going to be termed today as long as we're careful and quiet. If you want, you can wait here—what we're going to have to do is risky—and don't bother yourself about the end objective, you'll learn soon enough. In the interim, it's a good idea if you don't know too much."
“So I don't wind up like Washton and Lanno, huh? Okay, okay—I hate this—what's risky?"
“We're going to traverse the slip out to the edge of the cliff,” Niki said. “Then, we're going to work our way down about half way to one of the main vent shafts."
“You're tagging me, right? That's Cafferty, the highest cliffs on Paz. Two hundred meters straight down, Niki. Two hundred meters down to dormcarp heaven. And, be
sides, how do you know you're going to find a shaft on the face of that cliff."
“I saw them in a dream, Bo. Now, are you coming, or are you staying here?"
“In a dream? He saw them in a dream, Luto.” Shan was silent for a moment, then continued. “Well-l-l, I won't get my story out here, will I? I guess I'm coming—I guess.” Shan looked out to the hard, blue-green line marking the end of the Continent and the beginning of the Western Sea. Vegamwun was driving back the fog, but towers of light gray continued to shoot skyward and tumble back to the ground where the small group huddled, cold and wet. The sharp smell of salgrass and salt filled the air, while late season hold-outs blew off from the reaching branches of almost naked trees to loop and soar in defiance of gravity.
“Luto, drop back and tell the rest what we're going to do—and remind them to stay below the edge of the slip."
As Luto descended the face of the slip, Shan crawled around and placed himself between Niki and the line of Cafferty Bight.
“Okay, Niki. How do you propose getting down there?"
Niki's answer was just a smile, and Luto, who had returned in time to hear Shan's question, gave him a shrug accompanied with a wink.
It took the small band a little more than an hour to work their way out to the cliff line. Niki, holding Luto's powerful hand tightly, leaned out as far as he dared and was pleased to find the face of the cliff was not as vertical as it had been in his visions. But it was covered with a slimy mold—the copper green in his dream—that glistened with droplets of water planted there by the fog that continued to boil up from below, though it had thinned enough for him to make out the whiteness where the sea pummeled the base of the cliff.
It would be impossible to climb down without lines. There were no handholds, no ledges, and no cracks that he could see. Niki stepped back a safe distance from the edge and looked over his group.
“All right. The trees are too far away, so half of us will have to stay up here to provide an anchor for the line."
“Niki,” Shan said, “there are no openings in this cliff. I studied this area for a story on ancient communals, and none of our pictures showed anything down there."
“You didn't look close enough. There are vents in the face of this cliff. Trust me."
Niki tossed a coiled line over the edge and handed the other end to Luto who carried it to the biggest, heaviest man in the group.
“Tie this around your waist and dig in. The rest of you who are staying, grab a spot and hold on."
“We'll go down one at a time,” Niki said. “As each man makes it to the shaft we'll give two hard tugs on the line so the next one will know to start down. Does everyone understand?"
All nodded, and those who had the line began digging in their heels and taking double wraps over their forearms.
“Good. Please, everyone, be careful. The face of this cliff is really slick. Now, we'll need at least five hours before we'll be able to come back up. Haul the line up after the last one is down and take cover in the trees over there. At twelfth hour, throw the line back down and make sure it goes over where it is now. If there is no sign of us by fourteenth hour, get out of here and wait for us in Ganeden."
Niki passed a full turn around his waist, took a half turn on his forearm, then disappeared over the edge into the lingering grayness.
* * * *
“Alex."
“Yes, Rammix?"
“I have made a positive identification of the other vehicle."
“That's impossible, Rammix. How can you identify a ship from a system we've never been in?"
“It is not from this system, Alex. The ship I have been observing is Interstellar Colonizing Unit Nine."
“What? Are you telling me a ship that launched almost thirteen hundred years ago is still functional?"
“Yes."
“Impossible."
“There is no error."
“You're certain it's not just the hulk of ISCU-9 trapped in a long orbit."
“There is no error. The vehicle is responding to a beacon signal emanating from the surface of the Delta component of this system and has made thirty-four minor course corrections since first detected. Its path will put it in a far orbit about the Delta component. There is no error."
“Oh God."
“Please repeat, Alex."
“Forget it, Rammix. It's just an allegorical reference I tend to make occasionally. You wouldn't understand."
“As you wish. Do you want information regarding this vehicle?"
“Uh, yes, of course I do. Load what you have at my station and Main Engineering. I want to discuss this with them before I make any decisions."
As she worked her way through the passages leading to the engineering section, Pax squeezed nervously at the exercisers Lavan had given her to help regain the strength in her hands—hands that still felt tender and numb after sixty days. Lavan had offered her some drugs, too, and Pax knew they would work wonders, but she hated taking things like that, particularly since she'd made up her mind to go through with her motherhood idea. Five more squeezes, and she was standing at the door to Main Engineering. Slightly startled at having arrived so quickly, Pax pried the exercisers from her fingers and shoved them into a pocket on the side of her off-duty smock.
“Good morning, or afternoon, or something,” Marcus White said from his data board where he was reading the information the Rammix had sent down.
“Hello, Marc. What's the verdict?"
“No verdict. Not yet, anyway. Fascinating stuff, but there's too much missing."
“Such as?"
“Most importantly, we don't have the codes, so we can't set up a dialogue between Rammix and ISCU-9. Rammix is working on it, but it's slow going, even for him. Secondly, and this is the part that's interesting, we don't have any clues as to why this machine is still around. From Rammix's early contact data, that thing was in an orbit outside this star's brood of dirt-balls by about twenty units."
“So what?"
“So what? Look, this system's so screwed up gravitationally that nothing can remain in a natural orbit outside the fifth planet."
“And?"
“And that means ISCU-9 had to actively adjust its track pretty frequently to stay out there. I have some ideas about that, but, with our informational starvation diet, they're just wild guesses. Lydia's on her way down to have a look at what we have, and maybe she'll be able to straighten it out."
“How would you account for its being active after all this time?"
“Hey, that's the only thing about it that doesn't bother me. Twenty-third century technology was pretty damned good, you know. In a lot of ways they were more advanced than we are. A little, anyway."
“That's ridiculous"
“Is it? Remember, Alex, before Vaunt-Courier came in and scrambled the system, they had a long, unbroken run at making things work. In addition, they were so desperate to get their germs to another system and so sure they were all going to die that they threw all the materials they had at those ships. That's why roid collecting was so important to us; they went out and stripped most of Earth's resources to—"
“Hi all,” Lydia Crane, Hermes' head astrophysicist said in a charming singsong as she bounded into the compartment. “I just love half a g, don't you?"
“Only for moving furniture and wild sex,” White said.
“Sorry, Marc, I expected that. Looks like you've finally lost your shock value. So, where's the data on our ancient and errant interstellar ark?"
* * * *
After a harrowing descent, Niki found a grating closure for one of the vents. It was covered in the same slime as the rest of the cliff and would not have been visible in even the best of photos. His experience during the descent told him that there was no way anyone would be able to go back up the same way, especially since the fog would get more dense in the later hours and make the face of the cliff even more slippery. This could become a no-return track, and he couldn't inform the others.
&nb
sp; Dangling from the line, Niki worked at the grate in an effort to force it open. It was large, heavy, covered in green scum and corroded but, finally, after prying and pulling, it swung clear and exposed a gaping hole in the rock about two meters square. He let himself down carefully until his toes touched the bottom edge of the vent's floor, then swung himself out and into the shaft.
Niki thought that if he didn't pull on the line the men above would understand and not attempt the descent. It didn't work. Within moments the first pair of feet was dangling, kicking above the entrance and, one after another, they struggled their way into the shaft, puffing and panting from the exertion and stress of knowing what fate awaited them if they lost their grip.
“Luto,” Niki said, his words barely heard over the sound of the Western Sea's constant pounding at the Continent. “Take three and go ahead. The rest of us will follow two minutes behind.” Niki looked out over the edge to the sea below and continued. “When you reach the first cross duct, go right about fifty meters and wait."
“Do you want me to let you know when we get there?"
“No. The Cadre may be monitoring. Keep your lanterns from swinging around and aim them as low as possible—no noise."
Luto turned to the main body gathered at the edge of dim light and dark shadow. He picked the men he wanted with him by a touch on the shoulder. “Follow me—and be quiet."
As they moved off down the shaft, Niki watched the dim rectangle being cast against the walls by Luto's lantern. He checked the time.
“All right, everyone, form up and move in about ten meters. No noise."
“Uh, Niki?” Shan said, laying a hand on Niki's shoulder.
“What, Bo?"
“I ... I don't think I can make it back up the cliff."
“None of us can, Bo. We're going to have to leave here through one of the upper vents."
“But, you said they'd be sealed."
Niki looked at Shan in the diffused light of Vegamwun, now riding fairly high in the east, and saw the signs of real fear in his eyes. Their situation was not a good one, and Niki had serious doubts about getting out without being discovered, but he couldn't let that uncertainty show, particularly not when it came to Shan. Shan's presence was the price Niki paid for the man's cooperation, and he knew at that moment that it had not been one of his better decisions.
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