Tacenda

by Christine Jayne Vann

  At least she’d got her answer. She made a few adjustments to the soldiers’ ship, it had no shields or significant security to keep her out. Octavia reacted with pleasure, emitting a low subvocal hum. She didn’t like normal ships and it gave her a lot of pleasure to mess with them.

  Now it was up to the colonists, to take the chance she gave them. She couldn’t play her hand too strongly, not now. She could only hope.

  She flew Octavia out from her steady hover, and through the edge of the clouds. The skies above the shoreline were clear, so she held them back at the edge. It was too far to see the shoreline or work out the people, and Octavia couldn’t spot lifesigns on land - only in ships.

  Bracing herself, she reached out to her partner.

  A moment of shock, and then Arucken’s presence burst into her mind. So Malik isn’t dead then. The sea dwellers got to him, and changed him. I’m captive here. You’d recognise the gun he’s holding. Stay away.

  Not the best plan. Another voice joined the sending, sibilant and demanding. It was repellent, clawing the way into a private space and tainting it. It was nothing like the odd thunder of the sea dwellers. I’ve heard a lot about your ship, and you. You’d best come to the shoreline. We have plenty to discuss.

  I’m not landing without assurances. What are your aims here?

  Assurances of what? That we won’t blow up your colonist friends? I can assure you we won't. If you land.

  And destroy that lovely ship? I didn’t think this planet had enough to spare.

  Just land! The vicious sending filled her like poison. Kerris’ hands faltered at the controls as she sensed how much Malik had been holding back. She could sense his desperation, his fervent desire to claim the ship as a prize and earn his life back.

  Or shall I burn it out of you? The voice continued. I’m told your ship just landed itself. That’s a pretty useful bit of tech for this planet, we could trade that.

  You think this will save you? There isn’t much hope of that. The Concordat aren’t fools.

  Laughter at that, and Kerris struggled to find meaning behind it. She needed to talk to Arucken, and fit the missing pieces together. What little he’d sent her had been fragmented, distance and emotion shattering the images into hazy echoes.

  I won’t let you take her!

  Then you’ll be killing a lot of people won’t you?

  Arucken was quiet, subdued behind the awful sending. Cordoned off from her reach. She thought furiously, remembering the scratch of their signatures and the promises they’d made to his entire species.

  The scans had turned up nothing on that ship that could self-destruct and if Octavia fell into the wrong hands…that couldn’t happen. Not only for them and their ship, but for the entire species and the risks she would pose.

  With her link to Arucken so tainted by Malik, there was no guidance there from her partner. She was on her own.

  She broke the mental link, accelerating away with all Octavia’s speed.

  Towards the mainland. Towards Arroyo.

  ***

  Malik’s eyes opened, and refocused on Arucken. The hand that held the communicator opened and he dropped it carelessly to the floor.

  Gathering the gun now in both hands, Malik stood upright. A hiss of pain escaped him, but he stood steady enough. Arucken remained with his hands spread wide. He eased himself backwards before Malik halted his movements with a shake of his head.

  “Oh no, you stay.” The voice was gaining in strength, clarity returning to maddened eyes. He stepped forward, charred wood and dust swirling in his footsteps.

  “What do you know of community?” Malik said, his body tight with pain. His pupils were too large, the face slack. Only the eyes were alive, burning with fever. He stepped forward and as he did so, his foot kicked an empty needle away.

  The glass rolled across the floor, smashing against the metal shelving nearby.

  “I’ve heard of experiments like you, attempting to become what you cannot be.” Malik’s eyes followed the needle, ceasing after a few seconds. His smile was a sick tightening of his lips. “What do you think the Concordat do with the results of your tests? Do you think it private? We can all use it.”

  The gun swung to one side, and Arucken leapt forward.

  He twisted his body out of the way and the first shot went wide, the shock of heat brushing past his skin. Malik paused for another shot, his face still empty but eyes bright with concentration.

  Arucken rounded a corner and flung himself behind the metal shelving, crawling some distance away. The expected gunfire did not come, although he heard the brush of Malik’s feet against the cinder-covered floor as he followed.

  “I told them!” Malik’s voice rose to a shout. He couldn’t tell where it came from. “It wasn’t my decision, I warned them!”

  Arucken remained like a statue, attempting to quell the frantic thunder of his heart. His thoughts raced past. Without seeing what the needle had held, he had no way of knowing what stolen energy was fuelling Malik nor how long it might last. Even if the pair outside could hear Malik’s words, he doubted they would arrive to help him.

  No-one was expected to emerge alive.

  A bolt of energy hit the shelving far in front of him, and collapsed it into a heap with a roar. A shadowed figure leapt backwards, illuminated by dancing blue sparks. Malik laughed, a deranged ripple of noise.

  “You of all people!” Malik said, still laughing. “You don’t even know why they sent you, do you?”

  He’s just playing with me. Arucken told himself, creeping along the line. He fumbled with the gun at his hip. It doesn’t matter.

  Kerris had insisted he took a weapon, and would always pack it if he did not. He’d used it a few times, but never to do more than threaten. He didn’t know if he could fire.

  Arucken swallowed, his mouth as dry as sand, his fingers made of lead as he tried to bend them to withdraw the weapon. The weight of it in his hand was unfamiliar, heavy and cold.

  He could no longer see Malik.

  His voice still echoed in the storehouse though, voice rising and falling like the tides of the nearby sea. Some words held their shape, but he could make no sense of them in isolation. A feel of Malik tickled the edge of his mind and he severed it.

  Malik’s back swayed as he walked, his arms swinging wildly. The odd scarecrow movements caused him to stumble in wavy lines across the floor. His head began nodding up and down and the gun drooped to one side. Whatever he had injected, it was wearing low.

  Arucken moved forward, taking care to time his footsteps to the same untimely shuffle as the human. He eased his breath, in and out, with care. He was only steps away.

  Energy hit the storehouse from outside, large bolts of bright flame. Malik spun round, eyes wild and pulled the trigger of his gun. Arucken grabbed both arms, spinning the weapon aside and the bolt shot wide. Shelving tumbled around him, part of the roof crumbling like bread. He flung Malik away, as the noise thundered all around.

  Then something crashed into him, tossing him to the floor. He felt a blinding pain across his leg, before his head hit the stone floor and darkness took him in.

  ***

  As the acceleration forced her back into her seat, Kerris heard an enraged shout from behind her and remembered her guest. As the level of shouting increased, it became clear he couldn’t get to the door. He’d be safe enough in there, as long as he had the sense to keep still.

  She didn’t have time to appraise him, her hands flickered over the controls to hail the main settlement. That and the navigation kept her occupied, although she spared a brief second to flick the lock on the third chamber shut.

  Octavia’s distress call, primed for the Concordat’s main frequency, cried out into an ominous silence. If she’d had the time Kerris knew she could break the encryption preventing her call.

  “Arroyo, please respond!” She called the main settlement, but got no response. Octavia was fast, much faster than the dolphins, especially when br
eaking the planetside speed limit many times over. She flicked on the outward sound, but the residents had not spotted her yet.

  She changed that. Octavia broke through the clouds, to hover over the main council hall. A silver shadow overlaying the clean brisk spire of bureaucracy. She continued to hail them but ignored the insistent messages directing her to the landing pads. She flew too low for the mainland and she could see groups of people congregating to look upwards at the small ship looming over them. The more intelligent were already fleeing, and over it all she could hear a large bell tolling.

  She pictured herself, covering the hall in broad daylight in full view of its inhabitants, and gave a grim smile. Ignore me now if you can!

  Sure enough the response came swiftly. She could sense the person behind it, fighting to keep the anger from their voice.

  “Messenger Kerris we have your listing on file. Please proceed to the landing pads as directed, and present yourself for explanation!”

  More thudding came from the third bedroom to the back. Eland was not in agreement with her actions, she suspected.

  “I represent the island colony of Kalinaw, who are under attack. Please respond.”

  They traded explanations and then the silence on the line was heavy. The line was muffled and when the voice came back, it was different. An older voice, firm but demanding.

  “Stand down messenger.” It wasn’t a voice she recognised. “This is for Maylith Tara to sort out internally.”

  “They have my partner.” Kerris responded. She struggled to keep her voice steady. The fear inside her threatened to consume. She would not leave him; she would not leave any of them. “I’ll be coming with you.”

  “Not required. Land safely, and wait for instructions.”

  They cut off communication but she opened the line once more, careful to leave no note of compromise in her voice. “I’ll be coming with you. That’s not a request.”

  They didn’t bother to respond. The automated messages did not stop, demanding with tinny insistence that she land. She ignored them. When a pair of silver ships rose and she followed, she received no further comment.

  They were dragons to her sleek falcon, and it was a little tricky holding Octavia back. She could feel the ship wanting to surge forward, to lead the larger ships towards her missing co-pilot. Instead Kerris hung back, following at a discrete distance and counting time down in her head. She tried a few times to raise Arucken, and the silence there was terrifying.

  It was a void that could only destroy what remained of her. For so long she had been gathering the tattered remains of herself around her like a cloak caught in a strong wind, pieces flying everywhere. Yet Arucken had been with her throughout it all, and now he was a missing piece of her, and she of him.

  Aludra flickered through her mind. Her sister had fought with every breath for the life she’d had. The report Kerris had received had been grim, but her sister had made them pay for everything they took from her.

  Would she say less strength resided in her?

  She banished her imaginings, concentrating on flying her ship. Alert for signs of her partner, calling out with all the strength she had. The thudding coming from the third chamber was an annoyance she ignored. Eland hadn’t wanted to help earlier; she wouldn’t need him now. She steadied her hands on the controls, drawing each breath and releasing it slowly. She was still here. And Arucken...had to be.

  She drew to one side of the right-hand ship and they reached the shoreline at the same time. It all looked so normal. She called to Arucken again, but made herself stop after a few attempts. He would know she was there.

  She guessed that Malik was blocking him. She switched the controls to Octavia and called out again. For Malik.

  I see you have company. The voice was growing stronger, and she felt no sense of her partner behind it. It was a harsh voice, full of anger and desperation. What do you hope to achieve here? You’ve already killed the ones you were protecting.

  It wasn’t quite glee behind the voice, but she could feel his satisfaction. It made her feel physically sick.

  Before she could form an answer, the companion ships began firing on the storehouse. Kerris cried out in shock.

  Arucken!

  She was answered by silence.

  It took her some dizzy moments before she noticed that the fizzling, energy bolts were not harming but drawing themselves together in lines. It was unlike any technology she’d ever seen, placing crackling lines of energy around the storehouse and growing sheets of lightning across it. It shook the storehouse, pieces of roof falling inwards.

  The sense of Malik faded as if a curtain was drawn across.

  Kerris opened a channel to the ships but they ignored her. She saw with no small satisfaction that the larger ships made many minute adjustments to their course. No-one hovered like her falcon.

  Her heart was beating wildly and she refused to consider what might have happened down there. Arucken had survived worse, and it was only the outer layer of the storehouse. It could not have reached him inside.

  The right ship moved forward, shooting towards the mountains and where she’d last seen the other human ship. Her fingers tightened against her ships controls and she forced herself to calm down, and breath.

  Kerris informed the remaining ship tersely she would find a safe place to land. She remained alert for any movements from the remaining ship. Her hands kept close to the controls, but the ship made no acknowledgement. She’d never felt so unimportant.

  Octavia had to fly a little distance to find another area safe enough to land, and she did so with some of the same destruction as before. If this continued, there would be Octavia-shaped indents across the whole of this landmass. Eland had gone silent in his chamber, immersed in his writings she hoped, and so she left him there. She paused only to tap in the manual lock to Octavia’s doors, before racing down the extended ramp.

  As her feet hit the ground she could hear the sound of the ramp already retracting and she closed her eyes briefly, in pain. She had set the timer, and if she did not return her girl would leave of her own accord.

  She was some distance away from the beach, but close enough to see where the shadow from the remaining ship cut deep across the beach. It hung there for some moments before it departed to follow its companion.

  Kerris raced towards the beach, heart pounding. She headed for the oddly shaped rocks. Relieved to spot the familiar sight, she ran past the creepy alignment without slowing. As the terrain changed, her feet sank into the pebbles, pulling each foot downwards with every step.

  She scanned the shore but saw no signs of the sea dwellers. She was alone.

  As she reached the broken storehouse her footsteps slowed. The blue transparent sheet across it crackled with yellow and white lines so bright that it left tracks across her retinas. She wasn’t foolish enough to go nearer. A high pitched buzzing sound hovered at the limits of her hearing.

  She extended a hand, and though she felt no heat little sparks drew towards her. She pulled it back in haste.

  Two bodies lay to one side, just in front of the door. She could not tell if they were breathing. Peering through the leaping images, neither face sparked recognition yet the attire was familiar. She’d last seen it in Arroyo.

  She shouted across the barrier, with voice and mind. Her voice was a hoarse scream she did not recognise.

  Kerris!

  A flicker of a response. Enough. She clung to that thread of her partner. She would not let it go.