by R. A. Nargi
I bolted out of the bed. “Why didn’t you wake me?”
“I tried, Jannigan. You were really out of it.”
This wasn’t good. I pulled on my clothes. “So what happened? Did it work? Are we able to communicate with the Rhya?”
“They’re waiting for you. Plus, we can’t find the Rhya.”
Great.
As we left the crew quarters I asked Chiraine if anyone had seen any sign of the Mayir. According to my calculations, it had been at least twenty-four hours since our encounter with them in Roan Andessa.
“All clear,” she said. “Narcissa has shut down the non-essential systems to minimize our energy signature. And we’re still deep in the mist.”
That was a relief. But I couldn’t believe that they’d give up on us.
We searched for the Inspector as we walked, calling out, but there was no sign of it.
Ana-Zhi and Narcissa sat with cups of moxa in the engineering bay, deep in conversation.
“There’s sleeping beauty!” Ana-Zhi said. “Good nap?”
“Very funny.” I turned to the work table, where a bunch of components were haphazardly strewn about. In the center of the table was an assemblage of parts that could have been anything, but was probably the comm module that Narcissa had built. “Is this it?”
“Yeah, we’re just waiting for the subject to show up, so we can test it.”
I nodded. “Good work.”
“It was easy,” Narcissa said. “This ship has just about everything.”
“Except a spare discharge retainer,” Ana-Zhi said.
“They never do.”
“So, are we going on a Rhya scavenger hunt, or what?” Chiraine asked.
8
It took the four of us close to three hours to search all four levels of the Vostok. We eventually found the Inspector in a processor rack in the science station on the top level. I wasn’t sure what it was doing there.
“Inspector,” Narcissa said. “We have some equipment that will allow you to communicate with us. Please accompany us back to engineering.”
The Rhya ignored her.
“Can it even sense sound waves?” Ana-Zhi asked.
“Yes,” Narcissa said. “I’m positive it can hear and understand us.”
“Then why is it ignoring us?”
“No idea.”
“Higher intelligence,” I said.
“Exactly,” Chiraine said. “Remember, to the Rhya, we’re barely sentient.”
“Yeah, well, sometimes I feel barely sentient,” Ana-Zhi said. “What do we do now?”
“We leave it alone,” Narcissa said. “It will let us know when it wants to communicate.”
As we walked back to the bridge, Chiraine asked if anyone knew the biological requirements of the Rhya.
“Is it hungry? Thirsty?”
“No idea,” Narcissa said.
“Me neither,” Ana-Zhi said. “I’d imagine it might be more eager to communicate with us if it needed some food, though.”
I searched my memory for anything relevant, but nothing specific about the Rhya had been implanted for me. Of course, I didn’t know much more about them than anyone else did. They left our species alone and we left them alone.
The general consensus among our xenologists was that the Rhya were observing our civilization and acting as caretakers for certain worlds. Other than that, they didn’t really get involved in our activities.
“Speaking of food,” Chiraine said, “how long will our stores last? It’s been ten days since we came through the Fountain.”
“Every company is different,” Ana-Zhi said, “We stocked two weeks of food and water on the Freya. Who knows what Qualt did?”
“We need to run an inventory report,” I said.
“As long as you don’t start rationing the moxa,” Narcissa said.
“No, Jannigan’s right,” Chiraine said. “We have to know where we stand.”
“The way I see it, the Mayir will find us before we run out of food,” Ana-Zhi said. “It’s just a matter of time before they send drones out to every known site on the planet—and the moons.”
“Are we sure about that?” Chiraine asked.
“What are you talking about?” Ana-Zhi asked.
“Well, they didn’t come here looking for us, right? They came here to pillage. Isn’t that what Qualt said?”
“Not in so many words, but yes.”
“And they probably have a limited window to pillage.”
“Why do you say that?” Narcissa asked.
“Think about it,” Chiraine continued. “The Mayir killed hundreds of Rhya, and the Rhya are out for blood. Figuratively speaking. They are probably moving against Persis as we speak. And they’ll be doing everything they can to get back here.”
“That’s assuming that the Rhya know who was responsible for the attack,” I said. “And even if they did, the Mayir would deny it. They would say Qualt was acting on his own.”
“And the Rhya couldn’t get back here even if they wanted to—not without dark space beacons,” Ana-Zhi said.
“Go ahead,” Chiraine said. “Depress me even more.”
“What was your point, though?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I was just thinking that maybe the Mayir might be more focused on collecting artifacts—which is why they are here. If there’s a time constraint, maybe they’d deprioritize going after us.”
“I can’t see it,” Ana-Zhi said. “Sure, the carrier will be focused on clearing out the known sites: Iotan, Darot, Mygerria, Chando, Roan Andessa, and Bandala, of course. But they’d still deploy some of their stingrays and drones and whatnot to find us. Don’t forget, we have one of their ships. And they may even know that we have a hold full of artifacts.”
Chiraine nodded. “Once they access the Ambit, they’ll know that for sure.”
A stab of anguish hit me as I thought of the Sean bot. He had done his best to save some of the artifacts from Bandala, loading them onto the Vostok. Then he tried to sacrifice himself and activate the Kryrk to destroy Bandala and everything on it. All to keep the rest of the artifacts out of the hands of the Mayir.
And it had almost worked.
With everything else that had gone down, I hadn’t really thought about the biggest mind freak of all: the Kryrk really was an ancient weapon. And it could summon asteroids.
“They also know that someone found the Kryrk,” I said.
“How can you be so certain?” Narcissa asked.
“They saw an asteroid appear out of nowhere and they saw that it was going to hit Bandala. That’s why they nuked it. Ergo someone used the Kryrk.”
“Do you think it’s in their possession now?” Chiraine asked.
“You tell me.”
“What do you mean?”
I had that lump in the pit of my stomach again. “My dad said if something went wrong, he’d self-destruct. Would that destroy the Kryrk too?”
“I have no idea. The Shimese testaments don’t mention what the Kryrk is actually made of. And when I held it, I couldn’t tell what it was made of. Could you?”
I shook my head. “Some kind of substance I’ve never seen before.” I remembered the Kryrk was smooth and hard with a translucence about it. And there were little motes of light flickering within it.
“Do you guys remember what my father’s last instructions were?” I asked.
Ana-Zhi looked down at the ground. “He didn’t want me to surrender to the Mayir, I know that. But, honestly, that might be our only way to stay alive. I still think we should keep that on the table.”
“He told us to find someplace remote, hide all the artifacts where the Mayir wouldn’t find them, and then scuttle the ship,” I said.
“Are you serious?” Narcissa asked.
“Yes.” I looked over at Chiraine and Ana-Zhi. Neither of them looked particularly enthusiastic about the prospect of dumping our cargo.
“Well, do you know what the artifacts are, at least?” Narc
issa asked.
“No idea,” I said. “My father handpicked them during the seven years he spent in Bandala.”
“As a bot, right?”
I bristled a little. “It was my father’s consciousness in the bot.”
“That must have been extremely weird.”
“Tell me about it.”
Chiraine crossed her arms. “We can’t just dump the artifacts—”
“I agree,” Ana-Zhi cut in. “They’re too valuable to—”
“The Empire,” Chiraine said. “We need to get them in the hands of people who can study them. Determine if there is something there that will help us defend against the Mayir.”
“Wait a minute,” Narcissa said. “You think the Mayir are going to make a move against the Empire?”
I said, “You’ve been out of it for several years, so you probably don’t know this. But the Mayir have stepped up their anti-NH activities.”
“What do you mean?”
“A few years ago, they ejected all non-humans from Persis. Close to a million individuals. It actually hurt their economy, but they don’t care. This is kind of like a holy war for them.”
“It is exactly a holy war.” Chiraine’s eyes flashed with anger. “It’s Jarl Tuddon’s holy war. And he doesn’t just want non-humans off his planet, he wants them wiped out.”
I needed some more time to process everything, and I was still preoccupied by the thought of waking my father. I had talked it through with the others one more time.
Everyone agreed that it would be risky, but I could tell that everyone was excited. The possibility of the legendary Sean Beck joining the team might give us more of a fighting chance.
“Of course it’s your decision, Jannigan, but I’ll start digging around in the KB,” Narcissa said. “Just in case.”
“If we’re going to do this, we need to do it right,” Ana-Zhi added. “We’ve only got one shot at it.”
Yeah, I knew that. All too well.
“I’m going to go run that inventory,” I said.
“Do you want me to come with?” Chiraine asked, touching my arm.
“No, that’s okay. I need some time to think.”
I walked down to the galley, my mind racing. There was so much to try to make sense of. There were a lot of ways this could play out—and none of them good.
In the galley, I accessed the inventory system. I could have used any datapad on the ship, of course. But there was something satisfying about physically going to each storage locker and seeing for myself the items the information system displayed.
Unfortunately, the MCP weren’t as generous as the Shima when it came to food and drink stores. It looked like they started with a seven-day allotment for a crew of seven—49 units. According to the inventory report I just ran, there were 24 units remaining. Under normal circumstances that would last the four of us about six days. We could start rationing, of course, and probably could stretch that to twelve days.
I wondered if Ana-Zhi was right. Would the Mayir find us well before we ran out of food and water? That probably depended on what we did next.
If we followed my dad’s advice and hid the artifacts somewhere, at least we had a chance of keeping them out of the hands of the Mayir. That was something.
I kept coming back to what Narcissa had mentioned about the Coliseum. It had been picked clean by previous expeditions. Maybe the best hiding place for the artifacts was right here. Especially if we could unload everything and move the ship to another location far from here.
I rejoined the others and told them what I had learned about our food and water situation, and also floated the idea of hiding the artifacts in Umbanor.
“It’s not a bad idea,” Ana-Zhi said. “Especially if we end up captured.”
“Nice optimism,” Chiraine said.
“It’s called being realistic, princess.”
“I, for one, don’t intend to be captured,” Narcissa said. “At least not alive. I don’t think the Mayir would look too kindly on the person who shot up their patrol.”
“What do we know about this Coliseum?” I asked. “Is it really a coliseum?”
“No,” Chiraine said. “That’s just what the Viatani team called it. Let me see if I can find something in the system.”
While Chiraine worked, Narcissa called up the topo of our immediate vicinity. Surrounding the valley we were in stood tall mesas, buttes, spires, and needles of stone. On one particular butte—Umbanor—early Yueldians had built the Coliseum.
“Here we go,” Chiraine said. She sent an image to the main viewport display. It showed an aerial view of the Coliseum.
I looked a little closer and studied the image. There were hundreds of stone structures—arranged like a village around a massive circular courtyard.
“Is that a man-made lake there in the center?” I asked.
“Yes,” Chiraine said. “Fed by an extremely deep well—according to the report.”
“How old is this place?”
“Two thousand years, give or take. The ancient Yueldians were incredible craftspeople and engineers.” She zoomed in on some images of the structures.
Most were just shells of buildings, but you could tell that they had been precisely constructed from uniform stone blocks. I saw immense multi-story structures of various shapes—including many circular buildings.
“So this was one of their cities?” Ana-Zhi asked.
“We’re not completely sure, but we think the Coliseum was a sacred site, used for rituals of some sort at certain times of the year. Most of the year it was uninhabited.”
That seemed odd. Obviously a massive amount of effort was spent to build this place. Why just use it for part of the year?
“How much of the complex has been explored?” I asked.
“Between the two expeditions, I’m thinking it’s all been explored,” Chiraine said. “There was a lot of data for me to study. Images. Three-D captures. Physical samples.”
Chiraine went on to explain that a fair number of artifacts had been removed from the site, but they were mostly symbolic religious objects, purely ornamental in nature.
“If we were to hide our artifacts here, where would we stow them?” Ana-Zhi asked.
“That’s the question,” Chiraine said. “There are close to five hundred structures spread across nearly a square kilometer block. If I recall correctly, some of them have underground chambers and storehouses. I can dig into the map data to narrow it down, but if we are serious about this thing, I think we’ll have to see it for ourselves.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” I said. “What kind of hazards are in the area?”
“The previous expeditions didn’t report any hazards,” Chiraine said.
“What, no cthulians up there?” I asked.
“It’s five hundred meters up on the butte,” Narcissa said. “Cthulians can’t climb.”
“Right, I knew that. What about K’Lortai Dragons?”
“They stay down in the mist as well. The buttes on Yueld are pretty desolate places. Not a lot of life up there, especially compared to the swamp level.”
Well, that was encouraging.
“Okay, so maybe I should check it out,” I said.
“Me too,” Chiraine said.
Everyone looked at her.
“What?” she said. “I’ve never had the chance to actually see Yueld for myself. Off-ship, I mean. You guys didn’t let me go to Roan Andessa, and—”
“And we’re not going to let you go to Umbanor either,” Ana-Zhi said firmly.
“Why the hell not?” Chiraine jerked her thumb at Narcissa. “She just told us that there’s nothing dangerous up there. And neither expedition ran into any trouble. It’s an empty ruin.”
“It’s not safe, princess, and that’s that.”
“Would you stop calling me that!” Chiraine stomped forward towards Ana-Zhi.
“Or what?” Ana-Zhi said with a smirk.
“Hey, ladies, calm down,” I said. �
��Chiraine should get a chance to see some Yueldian ruins for herself.”
“Yes!” Chiraine said. “Thank you, Jannigan.”
“Not a good idea, junior.”
“It’s important to her, Ana-Zhi. And we don’t know what will happen with the Mayir. Just give her this.”
Ana-Zhi didn’t say anything for a few moments. Then she shrugged. “It’s her ass.”
“Then it’s settled. Chiraine and I will do a quick recon, and see if there’s even a place to hide six sleds worth of artifacts.”
“Ho, chief,” Ana-Zhi said. “Not so fast. You guys aren’t going up there alone. No way. I’m coming with you.”
Chiraine sputtered, “You? You’re half dead!”
“She’s right,” I said. “You need to heal up.”
“I’m fine.”
She wasn’t fine and all of us knew it. “You need to sit this one out.”
“I’ll go,” Narcissa said. “Keep an eye on the youngsters.”
“You’re actually not that much older than me,” I told her. “But okay.”
“I don’t know,” Ana-Zhi said.
“It’s fine,” I said. “She’s a much better shot than you. And besides, we need someone to look after the ship.”
“And keep an eye on the Inspector,” Narcissa added.
9
While Narcissa and I geared up and prepped the sled, Chiraine loaded our Auras with topos and data files from the previous expeditions. The plan was to take a sled quickly up to the top of Umbanor, and then power it down. That way we’d only be exposing our energy signature for a minute or two. We couldn’t risk full comm with the ship, but we agreed to a pulse alert every hour on the hour just to let Ana-Zhi know we were okay and vice versa.
As we were ready to launch the sled, Ana-Zhi shook her finger at us. “You assholes get yourself killed and I am one hundred percent going to defect to the Mayir. Got it?”
“Got it.” I smiled at her. “We’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, famous last words.”
Before we opened the cargo bay doors, Ana-Zhi did one last scan of the area to make sure no beasties were waiting for us outside of the ship. She gave us the thumbs up. I keyed the sled’s drive and we launched out into the mist.