Farr clapped his hands: a short, emphatic noise that made everyone jump. ‘You have much in common and you arrive on my doorstep at the same time. A pattern is emerging from seemingly random events. Someone has begun something that has had consequences for you all. And I... I am another part of it.’
Glances intersected all around the table but the Baronessa spoke first. ‘Then you will help us?’
Jo-Jo’s heart pounded just to hear her voice again.
‘Please, Lasper. You can’t ignore this,’ added Beth softly. ‘There is more than territorialism going on here.’
‘I think your sorella is right, Mr Farr. I have in my possession some... some information that would suggest a precious mineral is the reason for the invasion on my planet,’ said the Baronessa.
Farr stiffened as though he’d been unexpectedly shot. ‘How interesting, Baronessa. What mineral would that be?’
‘It is called quixite.’
‘And you say your planet has an abundance of quixite?’
‘I am not sure. There is a single mine, I’m sure, in which the alloy can be found.’
‘Quixite is only ever found in small quantities. Are you sure your information is correct?’
Mira reviewed what she had heard in her mind. ‘Si,’ she said simply.
Farr closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, Jo-Jo noticed that they had changed colour. No longer grey but darker, almost black.
‘I have some things to consider. Randall, take your people back to your biozoon. You are free to move around the city and enjoy the biannual Trade Fest as long as you respond immediately to my next summons for a meeting. Bethany and Mr Rasterovich may use our guest facility as you have no current transport. Petalu Mau, you may return home.’
Mau’s lip quivered in appreciation and Jo-Jo felt relieved for the big man—and for himself.
He and Bethany walked to the door.
‘For the record, too, Farr,’ said Jo-Jo, ‘when we tried to shift here, a ship cut into shiftspace ahead of us. We had to loop out and go again. The H-M on the Savvy saved our skins by being smart. The Captain... he would have got us all dead.’
Carnage Farr nodded. ‘I will investigate it.’
To his right the Baronessa suddenly sagged as if punched. Rast Randall moved to her side and jerked her upright. ‘We’ve been through a rough shift too,’ said the mercenary. “Zoon’s had some injuries. Think maybe the lady needs to rest.’
Jo-Jo sensed the undercurrent between the women.
So did Carnage. The famous warman’s gaze flicked around the group. ‘Later,’ he said. ‘We will continue this later.’
THALES
Gutnee Paraburd lied to me. That thought obsessed Thales. I could have been imprisoned. If I hadn’t lost my temper at Sophos Mianos... if the Baronessa hadn’t sent her man back to help me...
He found it impossible to reconcile the notion that his aggression, his loss of composure, had been the thing that had saved his life. Jain taught that self-control was the only way to attain moksha—true realisation of the soul.
Thales nursed his revelation all the way back to the biozoon and into the ribbed space that the Baronessa called the cucina.
The five of them convened around a table over a variety of recomposed meals. The Baronessa sprang up and took a container from the unfolded shelves.
She handed it to Thales. ‘Risotto without meat,’ she said. ‘I hope this is suitable.’
He smiled and thanked her.
She looked weak with fatigue.
‘Sit and eat,’ Rast ordered her.
The Baronessa resumed her seat near the mercenary. She broke off a tiny amount of bread and put some to her lips. ‘It was them,’ she whispered.
Rast shovelled in large mouthfuls of beans. ‘Too late for conscience now, Fedor. We survived. Most of them survived. Coulda been worse.’
Thales didn’t understand the meaning of their exchange and knew it pointless to ask. He’d become caught up, unwittingly, amongst fugitives, and in truth he did feel some sympathy for the plight of the Baronessa’s world. But he had too many of his own concerns.
His shaken faith, for instance; Paraburd’s DNA, the state of his own world, and Rene, of course. What must he do to win her back?
He knew that the people he sat eating with thought him to be naive and senseless. But naivety was a phase soon passed, and senseless he was not—although it seemed useful for now that they thought of him as such. Their tongues would be less guarded if they did. They would take less notice of him.
The God-Discoverer Jo-Jo Rasterovich interested Thales the most. Though obnoxious and uncouth, the man had knowledge of Belle-Monde and the Entity. Tonight, at the Trade Fest, he would seek out his company...
‘Will Lasper Farr support me?’ Mira Fedor asked Randall.
The mercenary scraped a fork moodily across her empty plate. ‘Carnage won’t do anything that doesn’t suit him. Course, there’s one thing in your favour.’ She shot Mira a look. ‘His niece is on Araldis. That might be enough.’
Latourn, the one who had brought Thales from the OLOSS ship, stood up and belched. He had not been with them. ‘I hear we’re goin’ to the Fest, Capo?’
‘Reckon we might be due some downtime, Lat. Not much work around for a team of three.’
Latourn nodded. Then he gave the Baronessa a lingering look. ‘Reckon I’ll go rest up, then, ready for the show. Never know what Luck might bring me.’
Rast and Catchut laughed at that. Leaving their plates and cups piled at random, they followed Latourn from the cucina.
In the silence that followed Thales was surprised to find the Baronessa staring at him.
‘Will you go out this evening, Thales?’ she asked after the others had gone.
He shrugged. ‘Perhaps, Baronessa. It seems there is little else to do.’
‘I am sorry for the way things have happened. And I have had little time to thank you for what you did. I fear Sophos Mianos would have imprisoned me.’
Thales was unsure how much he should tell this woman. She seemed educated enough, but something irrational lurked within her, something stronger than she could control. She lacked the centred calm of the truly sane. ‘Sophos Mianos has a habit of doing such things.’
‘You seem unsuited to the job you have undertaken.’
‘Bio-courier?’
‘Si.’
Embarrassment warmed Thales’s cheeks but he decided to continue. He badly needed to unburden himself a little. ‘M-my circumstances changed. I was wrongfully accused of sedition. My world has become a reactionary, oppressive place.’
The Baronessa nodded thoughtfully. ‘I am distressed to hear that, Msr Berniere. At my Studium we were taught that Scolar was Orion’s ethical and ideological centre—her soul.’
Thales felt the passion rising in his breast, loosing his tongue. ‘It is no longer what it should be. It is like a malaise that has crept unheard and unseen upon us. My colleagues have embraced Pragmatism and, worse, I fear that the Sophos have ceased to encourage honest discourse.’ He thought of The Children of God and Villon. More than that, they have murdered it.
The Baronessa watched him with an intent expression on her face.
He stopped. ‘My apologies—I am speaking of things that mean nothing to you.’
‘No, no,’ she said. ‘Please continue. Although I am not a philosopher I am educated and I have a love of learning. It is... invigorating to listen to a man with such meaningful comprehensions.’
Thales blushed again. He had not been called a man before—not by a woman.
‘I had heard that your culture did not encourage women to be...’ he searched for words that would not be offensive ‘... reflective or informed.’
The Baronessa smiled and her face lost the tiny age lines that should not have been there. ‘You have a most refined manner... may I call you Thales?’
Thales nodded. ‘Of course, and should I continue to address you as Baronessa?’
/>
‘Mira,’ she said. ‘And you are partially correct. The women of higher castes in my culture are educated in a certain way. It is expected that we should have a full comprehension of Latino history and we are encouraged to be familiar with literature and art and with alien genera. I am unusual in that I have acquired learning in aerospace technologies.’
Thales put a mouthful of the recomposed potato to his lips and sucked at it. ‘This is part of your Innate Talent, I suppose?’
Mira’s smile faded and he saw bleakness replace it. ‘In part, I suppose. But much was from my own initiative. Women are not supposed to possess an Innate Talent. It has not been that way before.’
‘It was difficult for you, then—in a patriarchy.’
Her face took on a gaunt appearance. ‘They sought to take my Talent from me.’
‘How so? I am not trained as a biologist but I imagine it would need something akin to gene transference.’
She bowed her head. ‘Si. And afterwards... what would be left?’
They sat in silence then for a while.
‘Would you accompany me this evening? I am uncomfortable with the mercenaries,’ Mira asked.
Thales thought of Rene and felt a pang of guilt. ‘I—er—of course, though you may be safer in their company.’
The Baronessa shivered. ‘I do not think so.’
* * *
Thales escorted Mira from the biozoon a little before the Edo bells heralded star-set. He wore a robe called a fellalo that the Baronessa had found him in one of the myriad of cabin spaces.
She had also changed from her simple shapeless dress into something ornate but equally as shapeless. Thales wondered that Latino men could find attraction in their women under such voluminous garb.
Still, he felt a slight stirring as she placed her arm in his. He was unused to being so long without physical contact with a woman and the Baronessa’s crimson colouring was not unattractive but exotic in a way. Scolar was home to a variety of humanesques, but he had not previously known a race with such vivid skin tones.
The Lamin creature was waiting for them on the docks. ‘Commander Farr has sent me as your guide.’
‘But how did—’
The Lamin clacked its fingernails together as if pinching something. ‘It is customary for us to know our guests’ movements.’
Customary? Thales suppressed a bitter laugh. Words could not disguise hegemony in any place or time. Was this Lasper Farr no better than Sophos Mianos?
The Lamin hustled them into a preprogrammed taxi which transported them up and away from the docks across an arched viaduct. The biozoon became a miniature of itself as they arced high, and then down again towards a complete wall of darkness.
Thales was astounded to see the gloom separate into compacted metals thousands of mesurs high. The viaduct connected directly with a tunnel that passed through the metal wall, much like the chute they had navigated through to land. As the taxi slid purposefully onwards, Thales glimpsed tunnels branching off in many directions. Some were lit while others appeared disused; easy to become lost in, he imagined.
After a time the vehicle entered a huge shaft, the diameter of which extended well beyond their line of sight. The Lamin instructed the vehicle to halt alongside a block of a dozen airlifts.
‘Please leave the vehicle and enter the closest available lift,’ it said, flicking its tongue across its lips.
Mira Fedor had spoken few words since leaving the biozoon but Thales could see her escalating curiosity.
‘What are the proportions of this metal wall?’ she asked.
The Lamin appeared to ponder over an answer.
‘The wall, as you call it, is one of Edo’s wings, and it stretches three thousand mesurs high and a thousand mesurs wide.’
‘A wing?’ The Baronessa frowned. ‘Planets do not have wings.’
The Lamin laughed: a moist, wheezing noise. Tiny droplets of spit sprayed from its mouth, causing it great embarrassment. It snapped a handkerchief from the pocket of its sleeveless suit and dabbed at its face. When it was satisfied with the result it continued. ‘Edo is not a planet, Baronessa Fedor. Edo is a Self-Made Object comprised entirely of amalgamated refuse.’
Mira’s mouth opened. ‘But how—’
‘The core is magnetised.’
Thales had a sudden and overwhelming sense of unease, his imagination firing in many directions. ‘Why would anyone make a planet of refuse?’
‘The core of Edo is a disbanded mega-space station. One of the first large objects to be brought here. As you may have noticed on your arrival, Akouedo is a hazardous system through which to navigate. The Savoires sometimes spill contents in the disgorging process. Over time the magnetised core of the station began to attract much of this loose material. And, of course, gravity makes its own.’ It cleared its throat. ‘As the process was entirely random, and influenced by the strength of the core, more accumulated in certain locations. Think of Edo as a unique diminutive spiral galaxy surrounded by an outer halo,’ said the Lamin. It lifted an arm in a dramatic fashion and then proceeded to groom the long, fine hair of its armpits.
Thales wondered if the creature was anxious or merely had no sense of delicacy. When, a moment later, it began to lick the same area, he decided it was the latter and turned back to his observation of the scenery.
As they descended in the airlift the Baronessa remained quite animated, pointing out and listing things. What had seemed to be merely a grotesque and ugly mass now began to take on more recognisable shapes.
By the time they reached their destination, Thales could make out the gigantic trusses bedecked with barrel-shaped habitation modules. He saw innumerable sheets of broken solar arrays sandwiched between broken-backed service modules, and unit nodes speared through by abandoned robotic arms and bristling antennae.
The airlift stopped along the route and their capsule rotated inside another shaft before continuing downward until it reached a cavernous space illuminated by banks of light arrays. Mira Fedor pointed out the arms of the original space station branching out from the bottom.
The sight of the bones of such an ancient object thrilled Thales more than he would have thought possible. Thousands of years old, at the very least. Stations had been artificial spheres for that long at least—not these gangling elongated things.
‘Beautiful,’ breathed the Baronessa. ‘Like a starfish.’
The Lamin hustled them to another vehicle which transported them into and along one of the arms.
‘Are the airlifts part of the original station?’ asked the Baronessa.
‘Only the lower section,’ the Lamin said. ‘The lift well has grown as Edo has grown.’
The station arm was wide enough to allow several lanes of medium-sized transport in either direction, each one separated by islands filled with racks that the Baronessa told Thales would have housed payloads and experimental equipment. Periodically they passed small central parking nodes that had been converted into kafes. ‘Esques sat at tables eating and drinking, oblivious to the traffic.
Some way along the arm the vehicle veered into a side bay.
‘We must walk from here,’ said the Lamin.
They followed the creature through a series of medium-sized compartments, jostling alongside other pedestrians, until they reached the entry to a grand bulb-shaped chamber.
‘This must have been the recreation module. Each arm had one,’ the Baronessa panted. She was breathing heavily for the light exercise they were engaged in. ‘It is larger than the Principe’s palazzo.’
Thales had no idea of a palazzo’s dimensions but the chamber could easily have accommodated several of the Pre-Eminence buildings.
This was not, however, aesthetically manicured like the boulevards of Scolar. In this chamber, silvery chaos reigned: mesurs and mesurs of foil streamers and balloons hung from the roof. Beneath the decorations,
liquid-metal fountains interspersed the hundreds of lots where the bartering of recycled
refuse was conducted.
On a circular dais in the middle of the chamber an array of weird and spectacular sculptures teetered.
Thales pointed. ‘What in Scolar are they?’
‘Installation art. Many of Orion’s most famous sculptors sell their products at trade time,’ said the Lamin.
‘Artists? Here?’ Mira Fedor sounded shocked.
‘Commander Farr is an entrepreneurial genius. He has requested that you join him on the dais for refreshments.’
The Lamin proceeded to thread a path for them towards the bizarre towering displays, its head constantly turning to make sure they were close behind.
Soldiers ringed the dais, and a sombre tattooed Balol scanned the three of them before they were permitted to take the escalator to the top of the dais.
‘We have a few moments before we meet the Commander. You are welcome to observe the art but I would ask you to stay together. I cannot protect you if you are separated.’
‘Protect us?’ said Thales.
The Lamin showed a row of barbed teeth. ‘Everyone has enemies, Msr Berniere, most usually without knowing it.’
‘But I know no one here other than the Baronessa and her companions,’ Thales protested.
The Lamin closed his painted lips over his teeth. ‘Indeed.’
Thales’s insides twisted. What did the creature mean? He looked to the Baronessa for reassurance but she had drifted away and was not listening.
‘I have never seen such things,’ she marvelled as he joined her.
Thales regarded the nearest sculpture. ‘That is a dragonbee and those are sea membranes. I’m not sure what that is, though.’ He pointed to a moving shape in a large frame that seemed to be constantly folding in on itself like a whirlpool of living tissue.
‘Crux!’ exclaimed Mira.
Thales’s gaze followed hers to the centre of the dais where a huge shard of green glass thrust up towards the ceiling. Tiny lights glowed along the myriad cracks that it contained, some appearing to be moving up and down along the fissures. The whole sculpture shone with both reflected and internal light. Though scarred and irregular it was the most beautiful thing Thales had ever seen.
Chaos Space (Sentients of Orion) Page 20