Land of the Dead ittotss-3

by Thomas Harlan

  “Hennig here, kyo.” The Kikan-cho was a dough-faced Saxon of very conservative mind. Kosho found him refreshingly direct and, like many engineers, disinterested in politics of any kind. Had he shown any flickering of concern for the past glories of Imperial Denmark-of which Saxony had been long part-he would not have found a posting in the Fleet at all.

  Which would be a shame, Susan thought, because we are short enough of talented officers as it is.

  “Emil,” she said aloud, “how does the shielding on the Fiske or Eldredge compare to ours, in this dust, at our current velocity?”

  “Poorly, Chu-sa.” He looked off-pane, and Kosho was heartened to see that the engineer already had the ’cast telemetry on his own monitors. “We’re pegging up to five or six percent capacity-that last bolus deflected from the port shielding at nineteen percent-but Fiske is showing sixty or seventy percent just in the easygoing.”

  “You’d agree the densities are increasing, the deeper we go?”

  He nodded. “ Kyo, whatever gravitational sources are causing all of this debris to collect are-more or less-dead ahead. The closer we come, the tighter the influx spirals are going to be. Right now, if you plot back to our entry point, you can see we’re cutting across deeper ‘valleys’ in the clouds. The interval between each ridge is growing shorter as well.”

  “Sensor efficiency?”

  “Declining, Chu-sa.” Hennig smoothed back short-cropped gray hair. “Have you been watching the cycle-rate on the battlecast itself?”

  Susan shook her head, no.

  “Increasing as well. Tachyon relay times are starting to vary-which indicates we’re getting deep into a gravitational eddy as well-and ’cast timing is starting to slow. Not noticeable to you, or I, kyo -but our ability to supplement the navigational suites of the smaller ships is starting to degrade.”

  “And if-when-we’re attacked?”

  Hennig showed a set of small, pearl-like teeth. “ Chu-sa, below-decks chatter says the gunnery officer on Mace nearly lit off a sprint missile into the Falchion two watches ago… a distortion interposed between them and he lost ident lock. So it will be interesting.”

  “Delightful.” Susan sat back, her face calm and composed. “Thank you, kika-no. ”

  Thirty minutes later, after reviewing the incident reports from the rest of the battle-group-or at least those she was privy to-Kosho lifted her chin and caught the duty Comms officer’s eye.

  “Pucatli- tzin, I would like to talk to the battle-group commander on the Tokiwa directly, captain’s line.”

  ***

  The Chu-i stiffened and then immediately began speaking into his throatmike. Kosho stood up, stretched, and took a roundabout of the bridge. This caused a wave of activity to move with her, as the staff checked and rechecked their status displays. When Susan came around to the threatwell, she was standing well away from everyone else. Only Oc Chac had remained on-task with the gunnery control officer, testing the launch control relays for the main missile batteries spaced along the “wing” of the battle-cruiser. Six or seven control modules had already been replaced, having failed their workup.

  Now the Mayan’s attention was fixed on her from across Command, and he lifted one eyebrow in question.

  Susan shook her head, then tapped her earbug live as Pucatli reported the channel was open, secure, and the admiral on-line. A holocast of the Chu-sho ’s face appeared before her, surrounded by a wedge of informational glyphs. Xocoyotl was a little overweight for a Mexica officer, with hard cheekbones and a northern-or Anasazi-cast to his features and a deep, gravelly bass for a voice. So swift had been their departure that Kosho had yet to actually meet her commanding officer in person.

  “Report.”

  “ Chu-sho, battle-group ’cast is showing increasing shipskin erosion from the cloud. Naniwa ’s deflectors are fresh from the yards and we’re still failing to make a perfectly clean channel-the smaller ships are doing worse, with an increased risk of equipment failure.”

  “Your point, Chu-sa? We are still behind schedule to reach rendezvous. If we slow-”

  “Understood, kyo. If I may-our projections show that slowing one-half-or reorienting the battle-group for overlapping coverage-will reduce the chances of losing the Fiske, Eldredge, or Hanuman by almost sixteen percent.”

  The admiral’s expression did not change-it was habitually disapproving-but Susan thought there was a brief flicker in the deep-set, black eyes. She missed Hadeishi again-discussing something like this with him would have been brief, efficient, and to the point.

  “We’ve no time to experiment,” he said at last. “All ships will stay on course and make do.”

  “ Hai, Chu-sho! ” Kosho nodded sharply in acknowledgment. Then she paused, wondering if there was enough of an opening to The v-cast folded away in the air before her with a soft ding!

  Shaking her head, Susan returned to the captain’s chair, her fingers tapping in thought on the shockframe. Oc Chac was almost immediately at her side.

  “What were you going to ask him, kyo?” The XO asked in an undertone.

  Susan tilted her head, considering the engineer for a moment. Then she said, “What we discussed earlier: live-fire exercises for our command and gun crews. But given the rush, I doubt he’d approve the expenditure of munitions or time that it would require.” She sat down in her chair and flicked open the v-panes on her control surface. “Not that I am easy about pulling power from the deflectors in this muck-even without the stress of gun exercises-it’s eating my ship.”

  Oc Chac stiffened at the light tone in her words. “This does not seem amusing to me.”

  He stared at the convoluted patterns in the threatwell for a long moment, then continued in a low voice: “I cannot laugh, kyo. All this reminds me of Hunahpu’s description of the road to Xibalba:

  Here there is no light but what we wayfarers bring with us. We grapple in the dark with degraded, phantom faces. Only treachery awaits us.”

  Susan frowned. “It’s long since I read the Popol Vuh; what canto-”

  “It is as if we are finding our way to the underworld, To the dark stairs which bisect the sky.”

  The low, chanting tone to his voice began to raise the hackles on Susan’s neck. His face-normally striking, given the strength of his features-now seemed cold and still. The long oval shape, the distinctive nose, the wide lips punctured by labrets of jade and turquoise-a living statue dredged up from the wreck of old Palenque or Copan.

  “ Chu-sa, you know the legend of Mictlan?”

  “I do, Sho-sa. The tutors of Chapultepec are diligent in their application of Mexica history.”

  He waited expectantly. For what? she wondered.

  “ Kyo, did they teach you that the Mexica Kingdom of the Dead is but a weak shadow of Xibalba, place of phantoms, place of fear? That deadly trials and cruel, prankish Gods and whirlwinds of knives bar the way to that awful kingdom?”

  Susan frowned. The Mayan had her full attention. “You believe we’ve chosen such a road ourselves?”

  “Those who go that way have no choice, kyo. It is only for those who are dead.”

  Before she could reply, Susan’s earbug crackled with the peculiar static endemic to the region. Pucatli was speaking, his normally calm voice tight with adrenaline.

  “ Hai, Chu-i, put him through.”

  “ Chu-sa Kosho,” Xocoyotl’s voice rumbled in her ear. “I have decided to reform the squadron. Tokiwa, Asama, and Naniwa will lead with the cruisers forming a secondary wedge. Set your transit shielding at maximum extent and clear a path through the dust for those who follow. New vectors will be on your navcomm within the quarter hour.”

  “ Hai, Chu-sho! ”

  Susan turned, feeling the chair motors kick in quietly. She tapped up the intraship channel and waited for Pucatli to confirm green across his repeater boards. Chac said nothing, his attention turned inward. Kosho’s attention lingered on him for a moment, before she shook her head and opened the channel.

/>   “All hands, all section officers. Be advised that Chu-sho Xocoyotl has commanded the squadron to reform our flight pattern. We will be shifting vector in fifteen-I say fifteen-minutes. Engineering sections be aware that we are going to full transit shield power. Stand by for maneuver on my mark.”

  When she closed the circuit, Oc Chac was standing at the edge of the threatwell, seemingly lost in thought.

  “Do you truly believe what you just said, Sho-sa?” Susan’s voice was soft, given they were surrounded by a busy Command deck. “That we’ve stepped onto some cursed road, leading only to destruction?”

  Chac turned, his face somber. “Such thoughts come to me in this place unbidden, kyo -and if they assail my mind, they will afflict the soldiers, starmen, and scientists aboard the squadron doubly so.”

  He nodded sharply to her, and now everything about him seemed professional and direct once more. “There is work to be done, Chu-sa .”

  “Dismissed,” she replied, and then watched him with interest as he strode off.

  Can he really make the men forget-or put aside-this apprehension? That would be a boon indeed.

  Aboard the Moulins

  In the Kuub

  Gretchen sat squeezed in behind a narrow fold-out table on the mess deck, a mug of coffee clinging to a stickyplate by her right hand and a battered field comp balanced on her left knee. The crew was grumbling in and out of the tiny space, getting their threesquares heated and coffee refreshed, and passing what gossip had managed to evolve in the last shift. The room was cold, crowded, and noisy. Every surface felt worn with age and constant, hard use. Like the rest of the ship-or the parts she’d seen-it was spotlessly clean, but the freighter was of an age that no amount of scrubbing and polishing could make the walkways, walls, or counters seem fresh.

  Despite this Anderssen felt almost happy for the first time in nearly six months, her nostrils filled with the stink of cold diesel and burning rubber. Abstracts from a good year’s worth of the Extraplanetary Archeological Review flipped past on the comp’s screen. From time to time she recognized names or remembered the faces of old coworkers or rivals or long-standing dignitaries in her field. Occasionally an obituary cropped up-leaving a small, cold chill behind as she paged to the next document.

  How did I get so far behind? All of the time spent toiling at the Technical College seemed to have faded from memory already, as though the whole interlude had been a fever dream, and her last “real” assignment and this one were running together with only a few idle weeks at home in between. Easy to forget the last half year, I guess. She hoped that was true.

  The articles were the same as ever-plenty of insights promised, but the results were always a few pages of heavily censored data, some halfhearted conclusions, and hopes for further funding. The good stuff, of course, was never in the public journals. The Honorable Company, or the Mirror Which Reveals, saw to that quickly enough. Our Secret Histories, she thought morosely, where the truth goes to be stuffed, buried, and forgotten.

  Her coffee cup suddenly shivered-dark liquid pulsing into a sharp spike and then collapsing. Her stomach did the same thing, at the same time.

  The freighter had dropped from transit. The g-decking in the mess area failed momentarily, eliciting curses from a crewman trying to refill his cup from the dispenser. Gretchen’s mug had a clear cover, which kept it from disgorging a flight of brown-and-white globules into the air. Without thinking, she put her thumb over the drinking spout-gravity returned-and she wiped her finger on the thigh of her field pants.

  Hummingbird ducked into the room, even his short frame needing to bend to get through the hatchway from the passenger cabin they’d booked for this leg of their journey into the unknown. Like the crew, the old Mexica was kitted out in a workaday mantle over his z-suit with a broad leather belt at his waist and deep pockets. As he passed, Gretchen looked up curiously. The old man lifted his chin, indicating the hatchway to the control deck.

  “Are you ready to transship?”

  Anderssen nodded. Next bus, now departing… “How soon?”

  “We’ll see in a few moments.”

  Though he hadn’t invited her, Gretchen slipped out from behind the table-tucked her comp away, drained the coffee cup-and followed along quietly. They had been in motion-hopping from ship to ship-for nearly ten days now and the old sorcerer had yet to speak more than a handful of words to her, none of them concerning their eventual destination.

  When she squeezed into the door to the control space- bridge seemed too grand a word for the crowded warren of consoles, wire bundles, and creaking shockchairs-the sharp, abrupt impression of fear and adrenaline was a cold splash on her face. Better than coffee! she thought, feeling suddenly awake and on edge.

  The freighter’s master, a short balding little man named Locke, was standing over the pilot’s shoulder, peering at the main navigational display. The camera displays were filled with a riot of iridescent color. Thick clouds of dust congealed out of the void on every side, lit with the radiance of distant, unseen stars. In comparison to the usual emptiness of interstellar space, the view seemed dangerously crowded. Hummingbird was also squeezed in, on the other side of the pilot, and his face seemed tight.

  “One drive trace,” muttered Locke, chewing on the edge of his thumb. “Too big for our contact.”

  “Maybe two,” ventured the pilot. His stylus clicked on the display surface. The navigation holo shifted slightly and Gretchen, now quite alert, could see two vectors illuminated by the computer. “But this big signature is washing out the other.”

  “Our ship?” Green Hummingbird was watching Locke closely.

  The freighter captain rubbed his forehead, and then swung into the navigator’s seat. “The commercial shipping registry has some drive signatures on file,” he said, uneasy. “Let’s see what it kicks up.”

  Hummingbird waited patiently, while Gretchen-who felt an urge to start tapping her fingers-took the opportunity to examine the little room and the adjacent compartments. In comparison to the mess area, things were cleaner, and some components might have been recently replaced-but even so, there was a sense of age and hard use permeating everything she could see.

  No, she suddenly thought, that’s not right Locke cursed, drawing her attention back to the three men. Two ship’s schematics had come up on his display-one obviously of considerable size, the other showing an outline almost exactly like their own paltry freighter. The captain sat back, covering his mouth with one hand. He pointed at the larger schematic with his chin.

  “This is the flux signature of a Khaid Neshter -class destroyer. And the smaller one must be your ride.”

  The pilot hissed in dismay, looking back to the drive trails on the navigation holo.

  “The smaller ship’s signature is showing a couple hours newer than the entry-point for that destroyer… but their chrono tracks synch up on exit.”

  “I warrant the freighter went in chains!” Locke stood up, giving Hummingbird a hard look. “There’s no ride onward for you, Mexica. We’re turning around and getting the hell out of here.”

  “Our agreement, Captain Locke, says you deliver me and my assistant to our destination.” Hummingbird’s tone was even, showing neither anger nor concern. “I will provide you with new transit coordinates and we will press on.”

  Locke bristled and Gretchen could feel his agitation like a sharp, prickly heat on her face. Before the captain could continue, however, Hummingbird raised a hand and looked over to Anderssen.

  “Could you step outside, and see we’re not disturbed?”

  Meeting his gaze directly, Gretchen felt the adrenaline-heat suddenly flow away, replaced by cool calculation. He expected this, she realized. The old nauallis didn’t seem fazed by the turn of events, though there was a substrate of annoyance in his voice.

  “Sure, boss,” she said, ducking out through the hatch. The heavy steel drew closed behind her, though she didn’t let the panel lock into the socket. Three crewmen were now
standing around the dispenser, their attention drawn by her sudden appearance and the clank of the hatch.

  “I think,” she said brightly, “that you’re all going to get a hazard bonus.”

  The men looked at her quizzically, and then one bustled off down-ship with three cups balanced in his hands. Gretchen leaned against the hatchway and unwrapped a stick of chicle from her pocket. I am so very nonchalant, she thought in amusement as the hot taste of cinnamon filled her mouth. Very much the idler.

  The remaining two crewmen ignored her and sat down to the table.

  Without consciously intending to, Anderssen turned to examine some old bulletins posted on the nearest wall and let her eyes lose focus. Like magic-if sensory prioritization could be called magic-her hearing sharpened and she heard one of the men say: “Spero Lockenem maleficum eum circuagere non permissurum esse.”

  The other replied, equally softly: “Navarchus non stultus est. Claude os et oculos aperi!”

  How odd. They’re speaking -

  She forced herself to step away from the door and pick up her cup of coffee. The little sound leaking through from the control space indicated a vigorous discussion was under way, and now that these two burly specimens were watching her, it wouldn’t be polite to overhear. She swirled the cold liquid around in the cup, frowned, and went to the dispenser. Both of the men at the table turned away as she passed, but something about their clothing-no, their tool belts-caught her eye. Nothing unusual about them, she thought, wondering what had set her on edge. You’re getting paranoid… that’s Hummingbird’s business, not yours.

  Hot liquid steamed into the cup and she thumbed the glyph for extra cream, extra sugar-substitute.

  Both of the crewmen stood up, pitched their cups, and climbed down the ladder to the engineering spaces.

  Not their work tools, she realized, watching them go out of the corner of her eye. They have the same sidearm. The thought caught in her memory and other fragmentary images suddenly coalesced. Tattoos-at least two, maybe three of these men have a crimson cross fitche on a white field. Like an insignia. Every one of them has at least one handgun. All about the same size, too, as though they were issued arms. These men must be ex-military.