The Mandala Maneuver

by Christine Pope

  Pulse pistols tucked into his belt, and the emergency bag slung over one shoulder, he climbed out of the skimmer and hastened up the hillside. The wind caught at the edges of his cloak, whipping the heavy fabric. Grimly, he pulled the cowled hood over his head, glad of the weighted edges, which would keep the fabric from blowing back away from his face.

  The ground underfoot was treacherous, loose rock breaking away under his heavy boots. More than once he had to stop and regain his balance, find a surer footing in the scree. But eventually he gained the ridge line, and took the briefest of pauses to scan the area and see if anything looked particularly out of place.

  As far as he could tell, it did not, but he had only a scant second or two for that inspection, enough to tell him there were only a few guards about, and not the sort of expanded security presence that might indicate they were actively on the hunt for any intruders. For a second he wondered if he had made a foolish mistake, if he had left prematurely and abandoned Alexa to make her own way back to the rendezvous point.

  But then he felt it — a pulse of worry and fear that could only have come from Alexa. There, in that tall gray building, which must be some kind of administrative offices. So they had caught her.

  Although he wished nothing more than to go pounding down the hillside to her rescue, such a foolish gesture would only result in his being captured as well. He would have to go about this methodically. At least now he knew she was alive. Almost as important, he also knew where they were keeping her.

  The refining plant hugged the hillside, casting a deep shadow behind it. Lirzhan used that shadow, working his way downward until he was at its base and could feel the very ground beneath his feet vibrating as it processed — well, whatever it was that they were mining here.

  Now at last he could hear the voices of both men and women, and he held himself still, using a huge metal support column as cover as a group of miners walked down a ramp and toward one of the paths that cut through the installation. Two of them were arguing over whether their bonuses were going to be ten percent or fifteen percent, and another one expressed a hope that it wouldn’t be vindiloo —whatever that might be — again for lunch today. And then they were gone, disappearing into the very building where Alexa was being held.

  He guessed they had no idea that a Consortium ambassador was being detained in that building. No, they had all sounded like regular working people. They must have some sort of clearance to be working here at all, although he assumed a great deal of the facility’s importance had been shielded from them.

  Perhaps he was not exactly relieved, but it did gladden him a little to know that not everyone here was a cold-eyed mercenary too ready to commit murder to hide their secrets. Those barracks had not looked large enough to hold more than a hundred people at most, and if the majority of those here worked in the mines, that meant the actual security force might not be that large after all. It made sense in a way — if your facility was so secret that no one even knew it existed, most likely you would not have to expend too much effort defending it.

  Well, besides pulling ships out of subspace that got too close. Somehow he knew that was the heart of the puzzle, although he did not have the time now to work at it. All of his focus must be kept on Alexa, on retrieving her from wherever she was being held. He wished now that his people truly were telepathic instead of empathic, for then perhaps he could have sent her a mental message telling her to keep heart, and to expect rescue at any moment. But since he did not possess such skills, all he could do was try to get to her as quickly as possible…and hope there weren’t too many people standing in the way.

  He ghosted to another pillar and then paused, surveying the scene before him once again. It was clearly time for the noonday meal; more workers were emerging from the mines and heading to that same building, which must house the commissary. Unfortunate that he was so distinctive in appearance. There was no way he could blend in with them. He wondered then exactly how they’d caught Alexa, because she was right — her own disguise of black coveralls and messy hair and smudged face would have made her indistinguishable from the grubby men and women he glimpsed from his hiding place.

  Not that it really mattered now. The worry and fear he’d sensed told him somehow she’d been found out. Obviously her disguise had not been enough to protect her. Had she revealed who she was, or did they already know? Most likely they knew she was one of the shuttle crash survivors right away; after all, every single worker here had to be accounted for, and they would have seen she was not one of them, even if they didn’t immediately recognize her face.

  He had reached the last of the pillars supporting the refining structure, and after this he would have to venture out into the open. It was probably good that the day had turned gray and dark, a fine drizzle beginning to descend from the lowering clouds. His black robes would not stand out as much in this sort of weather as they would on a blazing-bright sunny day.

  The area seemed more or less deserted, the last of the workers having disappeared inside the building in search of their noonday meal. Lirzhan scanned the area, paying particular attention to the eaves of the buildings, as they were natural mounting points for surveillance cameras, but he saw nothing. That didn’t mean much, as most types of security equipment were designed to be small and discreet, difficult to see with the naked eye. For all he knew, they were watching him now as he hung back in the shadow of the refining plant, deciding on his next course of action.

  Then he saw an automated cart trundling away from the plant, heading toward a low building connected to the tall one where he believed Alexa was being held. The cart was covered with a flat sheet of plastic, most likely to protect it from the elements.

  Figuring this was his best chance to get inside without being detected, Lirzhan slipped in behind the cart, crouching low so that it would provide some cover. Then he unfastened the pressure tape holding it down on one end, lifted it, and heaved himself over the side.

  He landed in some sort of glinting bluish powdery substance. Frowning, he gathered up a handful of it. The substance felt like very fine sand, but he could not understand what it could possibly be, or why the Gaians would think it so very valuable. Something about the color seemed oddly familiar, though, as if he had seen it before.

  Dark rock walls rising around them, with the lanterns picking out a sudden glitter of blue crystals on all sides….

  That was it. The crystals he and Alexa had seen in the caves on their journey here. This powder must be those crystals after being pulverized in the refinery he was now leaving behind. But what the Gaians were doing with that material, he couldn’t begin to imagine.

  The cart rode over a bump, and through the loose flap of the protective plastic he could see that it had passed inside the facility, was now moving through a large open area with bins on either side. A man’s voice called out, “Another load just came in.”

  “We haven’t finished processing the last batch. How fast do they think we can work?”

  “Not fast enough, I guess. What should I do with it?”

  “Just leave it up against that wall for now. We’ll come back for it after we’re done performing the last crystallization tests.”

  A thud, and Lirzhan felt the cart being steered off to one side, followed by a final thump as it was apparently pushed up against a wall. He held his breath for a moment, wondering if either of the two men who had been speaking would come to look inside, but they seemed to have more important things on their minds, for he heard nothing further from them. After another moment, Lirzhan pushed the plastic up and risked a quick look around.

  He appeared to be in some sort of holding area; in addition to the bins he’d spotted earlier, there was another cart similar to the one in which he now hid pushed up against the opposite wall. To his left was a metal door, and it was from that direction he thought the men’s voices had come.

  The door suddenly opened, and two Gaians wearing white knee-length coats over their cov
eralls emerged. At once Lirzhan ducked back down into the cart and dropped the plastic.

  The first man said, “Break for lunch? This stuff isn’t going anywhere.”

  “Good idea. I can’t work on an empty stomach anyway.”

  Their footsteps echoed on the concrete floor and eventually disappeared. After waiting another minute, Lirzhan once again pushed up the plastic and peered out. The holding area appeared to be deserted, so he judged this the best time to get away.

  After sliding out of the cart, he paused for a moment to brush as much of the crystalline blue sand out of his robes as he could, then glanced around. No one seemed to have come to replace the two men, so it appeared that perhaps they were the only ones assigned to this part of the facility. They had gone out the way he had come in, which meant he should go through the door, which clearly led deeper into the building. It seemed the best way to get to Alexa.

  Besides, he had to confess a certain amount of curiosity about what they were using all that blue sand for.

  He pushed the button to open the door, thankful that it did not have a biometric lock or some other security device. On the other side was a long corridor with closed doors on either side. Not much helpful there. And these doors did all have card locks on them, which meant there was no way he could get inside.

  Very well, then he would just have to continue deeper into the facility, and hope that everyone else had gone to lunch as well.

  “You! What the hell — ”

  Lirzhan didn’t even stop to think. He pulled the pulse pistol from his belt, wishing the weapon was the type with a paralyze setting. Apparently the mercenaries hadn’t bothered with such niceties, and so all he could do was aim for the man’s leg. A pale green bolt flew down the corridor and hit the man in the knee. He crumpled to the floor, dropping the cup of hot liquid he’d been carrying. Some of that acrid drink the Gaians called “coffee”; Lirzhan could smell it as it splashed over the gray laminate floor.

  Moving quickly, Lirzhan ran to the stranger, clapping a gloved hand over his mouth before he could let out anything more than a startled howl. A strip torn from the hem of man’s white coat served well enough to gag him, keeping him from making any more noise, and two more strips secured his hands and then his feet. Pain pulsed from him, but the wound was not life-threatening.

  Luckily, the man had been alone. Violence was not the answer, or so he had been taught, but Lirzhan reflected, as he more or less set the squirming man in a more comfortable position with his back up against one wall and neatly plucked the identification card from his pocket, that every once in a while it did come in rather handy.

  But which of the doors to check first? He decided that the one the man had come through seemed the safest, as there was a chance he had been alone, and so the room he had just exited had a greater chance of being empty. Lirzhan swiped the card and the door opened, revealing a laboratory of some sort. He could not identify all the equipment contained therein, but he did see a sheet of what looked like pale glimmering blue glass with thin leads attached to it.

  So they are using the sand to make some sort of crystalline sheet. But to what end?

  A heads-up display was located just off to the right of the blue glass or crystal. He was not a scientist, and so Lirzhan could not make much sense of the diagram shown there, or the complex equations set off to one side. But on the tabletop directly below the display was a tablet, with what looked like notes written in Galactic Standard.

  There is still notable instability in the field, which will not hold for more than ten standard seconds. This may be due to residual impurities in the matrix. However, the results are promising enough that tests at greater distances and with larger vessels are indicated. With a large enough sheet and better refining methods, it may be possible to reach out and disrupt ships passing several systems away. If —

  Lirzhan stopped reading there, his stomach tightening. So this was what they were trying to hide. Somehow the crystals native to this planet possessed a quality that allowed them to reach through the very fabric of space and time to disrupt a ship’s subspace passage. And the Gaians were doing everything they could to exploit that quality.

  No wonder they did not want Alexa or him alive. They could leave no witnesses who weren’t complicit in the cover-up going on here. For if the other powers in the galaxy — the Eridani Hegemony, the Zhore Alliance, the Stacian Federation — ever learned of what the Gaians were up to, it would surely lead to war. No one could allow the Consortium to wield such power.

  He had lingered here too long. Yes, this information was valuable, and he must do whatever he could to get it back to his people, or to the members of the Council. But first he must find Alexa. He had felt no more waves of worry or fear from her, so he guessed she must be safe for now, but he could not count on that to continue for much longer.

  After opening the door, he glanced out into the corridor. It still seemed empty, although the man he had bound and gagged was moaning loudly. He seemed so far unable to free himself, but that didn’t mean someone else might not come along and discover him. As soon as that happened, Lirzhan knew they would sound the alarm. No time to waste.

  From his inspection of the facility, it seemed clear enough that this smaller research building was connected to the taller structure that must house administrative and security offices — and apparently the commissary as well. He could only hope that this hallway would lead him there, and that the other scientists and technicians were either safely holed up in their laboratories, or off getting something to eat. The chances of that seemed exceedingly slim, but then again, the chances of his and Alexa surviving the crash had not been all that good, either, and yet they had, and had also lived through the often treacherous trek across Mandala’s surface…and below it. He refused to believe that they could negotiate all those hazards, only to be killed by a group of unscrupulous Gaian operatives.

  Since there was nowhere to hide here, all he could do was run down the corridor, hoping that if he were spotted by whatever hidden surveillance they had here, he would be gone before they could catch up to him. Surely they wouldn’t believe him mad enough to keep burrowing deeper into the complex rather than seeking a way out.

  At the end of the corridor was a set of double doors. He swiped the card, and they opened. Good. At least they hadn’t yet realized he had access to as many sections of the facility as the scientist whose card he’d stolen. As soon as they realized that, he would be trapped, but with any luck he would have located Alexa before that happened.

  He pounded down this new hallway, intent on the set of lifts he’d spotted as soon as the double doors opened. That pulse of fear he’d felt had told him Alexa wasn’t on the ground floor, was being kept higher up in the building.

  But it was here that his luck ran out, for as soon as the doors to the lift opened, he found himself staring down the muzzles of two pulse pistols held by stony-faced men wearing plain, unadorned black uniforms. He wondered if those particular pistols were set on “paralyze.”

  “Going somewhere?” one of the men sneered, as the other raised his pistol and shot him point-blank in the chest.

  Blackness, black as his robes, enveloped him.

  Alexa didn’t know how long they were going to keep her cooling her heels in this room, but she guessed no one was going to drop by to tell her. For all she knew, Marquand and Ono were in the hallway outside, arguing over whether to put a pulse bolt through her forehead and finish the job they’d started with the attack on the shuttle.

  Waiting and wondering when her fate would be determined wasn’t particularly appealing, so Alexa instead stared down at the chronometer on her wrist, watching as the interminable minutes ticked by. Now there were only two and a half hours until the earliest a team from Targus could arrive. If they’d even seen through Melinda Ono’s lies and had actually sent a ship to Mandala. Alexa knew she shouldn’t be counting on that, but it was the only hope she had to cling to. She was caught, and she did
n’t know where Lirzhan was, and if the look in that Captain Marquand’s eyes was any indication, he would be all too happy to kill them both and throw their bodies down a mine shaft.

  Honestly, she wasn’t altogether sure why they hadn’t done that already, unless they still thought they could use her to capture Lirzhan. And maybe Ms. Ono was finding cold-blooded murder a little more difficult when she had to look her victims in the eyes. Either way, Alexa figured it was a pretty tenuous thread holding her to life at the moment.

  The door opened, and two black-clad mercs dumped a wad of black fabric on the floor — a wad that she realized a few seconds later was Lirzhan. She was kneeling down next to him so quickly she didn’t even remember getting up off her chair. Neither of the mercenaries said anything; having delivered their bundle, they went back out the door and closed it behind them.

  Not that Alexa was paying much attention. Oh, God, they’ve killed him….

  She didn’t want to think of that. She couldn’t think of that. Until now she hadn’t wanted to think of what he’d become to her, how he’d somehow found a way past the armor she’d worn on her heart for too many years. Four days with him, and now she didn’t know how she could go on if he were dead.

  Hand shaking, she put her fingers to his throat, praying his anatomy was similar enough to a human’s that she’d find a pulse there. And she did, although she had to press down a little harder than she normally would. But yes, there it was — strong and slow. So they’d only stunned him.

  Relief turned to anger. Hadn’t she told him not to come in after her, no matter what? She’d been right. Here was the knight locked up in the dungeon right next to his princess.

  His eyes opened, lashes heavy and thick as his sooty hair revealing pools of deep green. “Alexa.”

  “You just had to play hero, didn’t you?” she demanded. “Now we’re both trapped in here, and they’re probably going to come in at any moment and shoot us both, and if you’d just stayed — ”