Land of the Dead ittotss-3

by Thomas Harlan

  “What about the Khaid?” Helsdon ventured. “Why bring them into the equation?”

  “The Judges-or Hummingbird-must have decided that the Mirror fleet had to be destroyed. And they didn’t know the Order was also in play with a powerful fleet.” Gretchen smiled ruefully at Kosho. “He had great faith in you, Captain, expecting you and your ship to survive when everyone else was slated to die. The arrival of the Tlemitl threw all of those plans into question-he was almost frantic when the Prince arrived.”

  “And the Knights of the Temple,” Susan said, her lip curling in distaste, “stood by waiting to clean up the survivors-on either side!-and take the prize.”

  “And now they have it.” Helsdon’s pale face was drawn with worry. “ Chu-sa, we’re not ready to fight or even run. Perhaps-perhaps we should give her over, if that will obtain our safe passage?”

  Gretchen nodded in agreement, but Kosho’s expression turned obstinate. “She’s all we have for a bargaining chip-I’m not going to offer her to anyone.” She raised a slim hand to forestall Anderssen’s rejoinder. “Consider this as well-at least three Imperial factions were involved here-the Mirror, the Judges, and presumably the Emperor himself-who else could have dispatched Sayu with a newly minted super-dreadnaught? It is very likely the Knights are also divided amongst themselves-if not, why send some of their agents in secret, and others arrive with such overwhelming force as to seize the prize openly? Also weigh that they have not attacked us, though at least a day has passed since the missing Templar from the Sunflower should have reached the Pilgrim.”

  This gave Gretchen pause, and she settled back, searching her memories. “That is… possible. Hummingbird had not intended to reach this place aboard the Moulins -we were supposed to meet another ship-one carrying an ally, he said-but the Khaid had intercepted them. I think-I got the impression we were going to meet Captain Hadeishi on that other ship. And he’s here, now, right?”

  “Yes.” Susan nodded, her eyes dark. “I’ve been told he is aboard the Pilgrim. They took him aboard, along with many survivors from the Imperial ships destroyed outside the Pinhole. I’ve spoken with one of his officers-a Mirror technician, actually-who was brought over from their medbay. He was on a ship called the Wilful, commanded by a woman Sencho named De Molay.”

  “Really? How curious…” Anderssen opened her field comp again. “Yes-I thought that sounded familiar. A famous Templar surname, actually. So two Templar spy-ships-and a fleet to back them up-but maybe only one of the freighters was intended to be here. The other-the crewmen on the Wilful -they had an insignia, a tattoo actually, of a-ah, here it is: the Croix recroisetee au pied fiche, in crimson on a white field.”

  She turned the comp so Kosho and Helsdon could see a cross composed of three smaller squared crosses-for the crossbar and crown-then the long end of the cross was more like a spike, or spear, pointing downward.

  “Striking,” Susan commented, “but not the insignia of the Knights of the Order. They bear a cross with equal arms and rounded ends, fit to a circle, not a rectangle.”

  “This one,” Gretchen said, tapping up a second image, which matched the Nisei officer’s description.

  “So there are your two factions, Chu-sa.” Anderssen shrugged again. “Probably representing a political split within the Temple hierarchy; each espousing the same goals, I’m sure, but embracing markedly different means to reach the end.” She tapped the croix fiche . “Three crosses, each composed of three arms, surmounting a spear. I-I saw something like that when I was aboard the Moulins. The sense of it was a warrior brotherhood, standing watch on the edge of infinity, much like the Judges…”

  “Three of three?” Helsdon blinked. “Like the patterns on the surface of the Chimalacatl?”

  “Aping the Vay’en and their symbology.” Gretchen scowled. “The Hjogadim were the same way, thinking the oversize robes and scepter of their overlords would grant them the power of Lord Serpent! Fools. The strength of the Vay’en was-is-beyond our ability to grasp.” She laughed harshly, thinking of the hundreds of thousands of Hjo corpses desiccating in the garbage disposal chutes throughout the massive artifact. “The same fate awaits us-our puny little principality-if the great houses, the Emperor and the Order all fall out amongst one another over the prize. It is better the Sunflower is gone-safer by far for everyone. Much better.”

  Hearing a change in the Swedish woman’s voice, Kosho’s jaw tightened and she glanced sideways at Helsdon. The engineer was watching Gretchen as well, and the same dawning suspicion was showing in his face. “You destroyed the artifact, Doctor? You-what did you do?”

  “And why? Just to protect humanity from some hypothetical civil war?” Susan seemed genuinely curious. “Are you certain such a fate would befall us?”

  “Look around you, Captain!” Gretchen rang her knuckles on the damaged wall beside her. “An Imperial Judge betrayed the Prince’s expedition to the barbarians! Just to keep the Emperor’s hand from the hilt of this infernal blade! The unity of the Temple is already divided, one faction intriguing against the other-and it will not end here, no-it will not end until Anahuac is a burning ruin and all our colonies and settlements are laid waste.” Her voice had gained a harsh, hectoring edge. “Because even should we seize this power for ourselves and learn its use- others will come which we cannot withstand, even with this weapon! Remember the lesson from the Hill of Grasshoppers!”

  The Swedish woman winced, feeling her bruised torso twinge. Angrily, she stabbed at the field comp with her stylus, invoking a projected image of the rosette-the three brown dwarves, the distant demarcation of the Barrier, the singularity-then she cupped the holo in her hands. “The Vay’en assembled this. They dragged these suns into position, spun up a black hole of their own, wrapped in the wall of knives-everything within ten light-years is here by the will of Lord Serpent, who perished nearly a million years ago!” She caught Kosho’s eye with a piercing, exasperated glare-then jabbed a finger at Helsdon. “We can barely perceive their works with our instrumentality-and you expect the Mirror, or the Fleet, to grasp their technology?”

  “In time.” Susan lifted her hands, conceding the point. “But what else can we do? Even if we are beneath the notice of these great powers, that must surely change. When that black day comes, we’d be remiss in all duty if we had not prepared as best we could. Even to the point of waking-as you say-a power like the Vay’en and seeking their alliance.”

  “Foolish. Very foolish.” Gretchen buried her head in both hands. “At least this temptation is banished-none of the sleepers will return from the pit.” She made a casting-away motion. “The balance in the system has been destroyed. Structures you cannot perceive have descended deep into slow-time, quite close to the event horizon of the singularity. The tidal stress on the Thread broke apart the Chimalacatl -the Pylon, the great chrysalis chambers, the warehouses for the hosts-all gone.”

  “We saw.” Helsdon sounded sick, but his face was alight with interest for the first time. “How-how did they do it? Hold something in balance deep in the gravity well? A platform-for the Vay’en themselves?”

  “There were two lattices,” Anderssen replied, growing weary. What little strength had returned to her while recuperating in medbay was beginning to flag. “One fell while the other raised-not much, in the scale of their works, but enough. Enough for them to feel time quicken again.”

  “Who?” Helsdon frowned, glancing to Kosho for support. “You said the Vay’en fell to oblivion-but something else rose up out of slow-time? What else was dwelling in this place? Something that will issue forth, as these Vay’en would have done?”

  “Not yet, maybe never.” Gretchen made a vague motion towards the floor. “Eventually they might escape the gravity well, as their ancestors did. Or not. They have”-a small, fierce smile flitted across her face-“free will at least. They’ll have to choose, just like the rest of us.”

  “Who? If the Vay’en perished in the singularity, what was on the other structure?”


  “Their children.”

  Helsdon and Susan stared at her, uncomprehending.

  “That clever little bronze tablet Hummingbird gave me? He must have thought it a personal comp, or a ship-comm of some kind. But it was a teaching device for immature Vay’en. It tried to reprogram my mind and failed because my poor old ape brain just wasn’t capable of following the lessons. But it was a piece of the puzzle-and a twisty, nasty one at that. You see, the tablet was very old, even to the Vay’en. It was something they’d put aside-a failed, melancholy experiment-in favor of another, more promising way to cheat death.”

  Kosho said nothing, hands clenched tightly behind her back. The Swedish woman’s voice had a queer, atonal quality and her face seemed marked by some last remnant of a hot golden glow. Helsdon drew back, shaking hand reaching for his sidearm.

  “The Vay’en were-are-energy creatures,” Gretchen continued. “We would consider them sentient wave structures. And I would guess they could manipulate electromagnetic fields in close proximity to themselves with great dexterity. But in turn, their own physicality could be manipulated by quantum resonance. With the tablet, they were trying to bring their offspring ‘up to speed’ by exposing them to the already established mentation pattern of an accomplished elder. The mind in the tablet had been a poet, I think. Some kind of great artist. They wanted to keep his essence alive, even when chaos claimed him at last.

  “In the beginning, the Vay’en evolved in the interface around a black hole. They could live far beyond its confines, but from all we saw, it seems they returned there to breed.” Gretchen halted, watching her two companions digest what she’d said.

  Susan spoke first, musingly. “It was a nursery.”

  Anderssen nodded, digging around for a threesquare in her blankets.

  “They were betrayed, then,” the Nisei officer continued. “Their most loyal servants turned upon them at a most crucial juncture-their great fleet shattered by their own weapons. The Vay’en had to descend into the singularity to birth a new generation? But the Hjogadim trapped them too close to the event horizon, in slow-time. Then the treacherous Hjo abandoned the artifact and fled-to assume custody of the Vay’en dominions-to become Gods themselves.”

  “Plagiarists,” Anderssen mumbled around the chewy bar. “Doesn’t sound like the traitors told anyone, though. A ‘Guide of Thought’ still rules the Hjo, from what I gather. But the Guide is not a Vay’en anymore, just some old fart of a Hjogadim pissing around a palace. So do the great powers pass!”

  During this Helsdon had said nothing, but now the engineer stirred, moistening his lips before venturing: “You are saying the elder Vay’en had discovered how to live forever by impressing their memories and personality patterns upon the newborns of their own kind as they emerged from the birth-caul. They murdered their own children, so they might live on themselves?”

  “Not just kin-murderers, either. They had no care for others of any race.” Gretchen’s voice was flat with anger. “You saw how Sahane viewed us. A pale echo of the attitude of his Gods. I think when the Vay’en departed their puppets en masse and descended to renew themselves, the Hjo rose up, seizing their one moment to escape. We have stumbled across the traces of a successful slave revolt.”

  “But they didn’t all rebel, did they?” Kosho lifted her chin at the nav plot, where the vast shoals of broken leviathans still drifted in the abyss. “Even within the shield-reed, there must have been those who remained true to their masters.”

  “Yes, many remained loyal. Quite a vicious little struggle they had. It was brother against brother… so much for the legacy of the glorious Vay’en. A squalid play of infanticide, kin war, and murder played out on a galactic scale, just to forestall death one more day. ”

  “And now? What will happen to the children you’ve released from slow-time?”

  Anderssen shrugged, managing the faintest smile. “I don’t know. It’s not much of a gifting day present, but they are freed from a cruel past.” And free of Lord Serpent, I hope. A nagging feeling of unease began to steal over her. Did that one escape the rebellion? How would you kill something like that? How long do they live?

  “Was that what Hummingbird wanted?” Susan’s old anger began to return, thinking of the old Nahuatl. “Was that the choice of a nauallis? You said the end result was much as he desired-”

  “His desire?” Gretchen snorted incredulously. “No, this was a tired mother’s choice, one who has seen both happy children and sad in full measure. No child was ever so blessed as to grow without the hand of expectation on her neck! Those which are let be, flourish, while those who are pressed hard wither. The Crow had no comprehension of what I felt, holding any of my babies in my arms. This was his great failing, I think, having no children of his own.”

  With this, Anderssen finally lay back on the bed, her eyes turned to the ceiling and some distant vision. Kosho watched her for a minute, and then for five. But the Swedish woman said nothing more. At last, the Chu-sa turned away, motioning for Helsdon to follow.

  When the door had cycled shut, Susan tapped open a comm channel to Oc Chac, who was acting duty officer on the bridge. “ Sho-sa, can you connect me to Captain De Charney aboard the Pilgrim? Extend my regards and let him know we’re ready for the rest of the wounded to come aboard.”

  Then she turned to the engineer, who was waiting silently, head slightly bowed as he tried to digest all they had heard in the medbay. “ Kikan-shi, find Hennig and let him know we’ll be underway and out of this cursed place as fast as his crews can get the hypercoil in operation.”

  Kosho’s face was calm and composed but her eyes were dark with troubled thoughts as Helsdon departed in haste. She could think of only one thing to do, given the intricacy of the situation. It’s at least seven days to get in range of one of the big t-repeaters on the Rim. If we push it, six. If I can manage a secure channel to Obasan Suchiru, then perhaps an accommodation can be made between the Mountains. Emperor Ahuizotl cannot be pleased to learn I’ve lost his son-not even an honorable corpse to bring home-as well as any possible prize from this tar-pit.

  The thought of facing her grandmother with a disaster of this scale made Susan’s stomach clench, but despite this she walked steadily to the nearest lift, nodding to the doctors and corpsmen hurrying here and there in the medbay. When the doors cycled closed, she was perfectly composed, her white uniform shining in the gleam of the overheads.

  “Main Command,” she requested.

  ***

  Hadeishi pressed two fingers against a battle-steel door and heard, muted and distant through the metal, a chiming sound. A moment passed as he stood at ease, hands clasped behind his back, and then the door receded into the bulkhead with a soft hsst! Within, kneeling behind a low desk of teak and rosewood, her fine-boned face pale in the light of a single task-light, Susan Kosho was considering an array of v-displays, all filled with reports, forms, and colorful graphs displaying the state of her ship.

  “Yes?” she said, not bothering to look up.

  “Somehow,” he said, amused, “you’ve brought your office through in fine shape, Sho-sa. Mine always seemed to take the worst of it, riding such a rough passage. Everything would always be ruined…”

  Kosho’s head lifted, eyes widening at the sight of the thin, weary-looking Nisei officer. She stood, tucking a stylus into the twisted bun of hair behind her head, and stepped around the end of the desk.

  “You’re here?” She paused a polite distance away, the carefully impassive mask of her face subtly transforming. Without meaning to, Susan began to smile. “You were very foolish to come through the Pinhole after us-there was no safety to be found in our company.”

  “So we discovered!” Mitsuharu bowed, dark eyes twinkling. “But things would have been worse if we ran the other way… I had no choice, really, knowing you were here.”

  She nodded, looking him up and down. Then she shook her head, seeing quickheal gel shining on his neck, his wrists. The trim bro
wn and white uniform seemed to fit him well enough, though it was strange to see him out of Fleet colors. “You’ve been in the infirmary again, Chu-sa. And I’ve seen your poor ship-kindling and splinters are all that remains.”

  “Yes,” he said ruefully, shrugging thin shoulders. “She had a brave heart, though, even to the end.”

  “Your crew is aboard,” Kosho offered, “under the best care we can provide.” She stepped closer, pursing her lips disapprovingly, and took the hem of his jacket sleeve between thumb and forefinger. “Lost all your clothes, I see. Is this a loaner?”

  Hadeishi shook his head, straightening the half-jacket. “I’ve a new commission, Sho-sa. Brevet-captain of the Kader -that same poor wreck lying in tow off the Pilgrim -mine now that I’d found her, brought her to worse state than when she fell into my hands. But-”

  “A ship, still. A starship.” Kosho stepped back, her expression turning wan and drained. “I can offer you nothing better, Chu-sa. Not even as an unfounded promise.”

  “I know.” Hadeishi smoothed back his hair from forehead to nape in a terribly familiar gesture. “It is strange-not to be in dress whites, not to hear the piping when coming aboard.” He looked around her cabin, at first sad, but then whistling softly in appreciation. In comparison to his old quarters on the Cornuelle, the Naniwa ’s accommodations were refined, even luxurious. “This suits you, Sho-sa .”

  Kosho looked around at the gleaming wood-paneled walls-the tatami-patterned g-decking-and laughed softly. “Pretty-but all this doesn’t give me another meter of armor, another sixteen hard-points…”