While she stepped into the tiny shower tucked into a corner, Jazz explained. “You remember the cargo ship on Volda? The one you saw pick up a shipment? I found it. Here, quietly sitting at the dock on Solicor’s orbital ring! I gave the information to Laorcq and Alrine. She got a warrant right away. While you were sleeping, Torg went to meet up with them. They’ve got about a half-hour head start on you.”
She pondered this news as she finished washing up. She put on one of her black flight suits and matching heavy boots. Standing in front of a section of the wall that she had polished to a mirror shine, she styled her hair with a few brushstrokes and said: “Contact Torg.”
The cybrid’s voice rang out immediately. “Mallory. You’re too late. We got the cargo without you. I had to convince the captain to cooperate.”
She had a pretty clear idea of how he had made his case. She shrugged: compared to the recent events on Solicor, a minor beating could be overlooked.
“So?” she asked. “Did you find out what was in the crates from Volda?”
“Yup. Exactly what we feared: a very effective method for propagating Saharj embryos without anyone knowing.” Torg paused briefly, then said, “Hey! Laorcq wants to talk to you. I’m looping him into the conversation.”
On the Sirgan, the scarred man’s voice emerged from the intercom.
“Mallory, do you remember how many crates the Spicans loaded onto the cargo ship?”
“Six,” she replied after searching her memory.
“There are two missing!” Laorcq blurted. “At least a hundred Saharj embryos are floating around, waiting to implant themselves in hosts… Bring the jufinol and come to us. We have to put Hanosk’s theory about your multicolored friend to the test.”
She was rather curious how Laorcq knew about that, but she simply agreed: questions could wait. She pulled a box of rags out from under her bed: the telepathic worm’s improvised bed. Already awakened by the feeling of urgency he had sensed through his link with Mallory, he came to curl himself around her left arm. She stood, picked up her navcom bracelet from a little shelving unit, and they left the cabin, headed for the airlock.
The pilot quickly oriented herself in the maze of corridors that snaked through the orbital ring. She entered a transport tube station and, from there, traveled to the sector where the cargo ship was located.
When she arrived at the platform Jazz had indicated, she was hardly surprised by the scene she found.
A Spican lay on the floor among plastic debris and a pool of oily liquid in the vessel’s wide-open hold. While Torg kept an eye on the unconscious alien, Alrine and Laorcq were trying to collect the large red balls that were bouncing around everywhere.
Noticing the pilot, the scarred man stopped to welcome her.
“Mallory! This time we’ve got them!” he exclaimed, showing her one of the reddish things. “This kind of mollusk is a plorde, a sort of vaguely conscious fruit that is one of the Gibrals’ favorite delicacies. I’m sure they contain the parasites based on the Saharj embryos.”
With a plorde in each hand, Alrine walked over to an open crate and dropped them in.
“I’ve notified the Solicor police—I told them I found contraband. They’re searching for the missing crates now.”
Mallory entered the cargo ship. A feeling of unease stole over her. Around her arm, the jufinol tensed, its fur standing on end.
Guided by her telepathic link to Squish, the pilot’s attention was drawn to one of the large, bouncing fruit. She was sure the veteran was right: it contained a Saharj parasite. She could feel it at the edge of her mind, like a movement glimpsed out of the corner of her eye. The Vohrn had been right about the jufinol’s abilities. Unfamiliar with her new sense, Mallory moved involuntarily toward the parasite. The result was as painful as it was unexpected: a wave of suffering that felt like an electric shock ran along her spine and exploded in her skull, paralyzing her. As she dropped to one knee, the jufinol emitted a panicky bleat.
Laorcq and Alrine didn’t understand what was happening. Fortunately for Mallory, Torg reacted instinctively. Mute, she saw him rush over to the crate where Alrine and Laorcq had collected the plordes. He plunged his hands in and began to crush them between his thick, steel-reinforced fingers. Once the culprit was destroyed, Mallory felt the pain disappear. Her mind cleared, and Squish calmed down.
She stood, took a deep breath, and said:
“Well, now I know how that works. It’s time to visit the Gibral leaders and do some housecleaning.”
Mallory and her colleagues had to be cautious. It wouldn’t be good to reveal that they could detect the Saharj parasites too soon. A host with enough power could discredit them and might manage to expel them from Aldebaran altogether.
First, Alrine arrested the Spican captain, based on the charge of contraband. She then made sure that word made its way to the Xilf police, using contact information she received from Frrrj.
Three tall insectoid extraterrestrials appeared shortly thereafter on the platform and, after a short conversation, placed the cargo ship under seal.
With evident interest, Mallory watched them set up square posts around the vessel. Then, one of the Xilfs brushed the top of one of the rods, and a bluish force field immediately surrounded the ship, blocking all entry. Words appeared on the energy barrier, warning the potentially curious away in a dozen different languages.
As she left the docks, the pilot worried about where things might go from here. “We have to find a Gibral who is reliable and highly placed. If we move too fast and end up with someone who’s parasitized, they could warn their friends.”
Laorcq agreed, rubbing his chin, a thoughtful look on his face. “The sector chief where the Vohrn embassy is located seems like a good place to start. Given that we’re the ones who removed Jarvik from his post, he shouldn’t be too surprised to see us when we show up in his office. Then we just have to test him without letting on.”
With this nascent plan in mind, they turned and headed back to the tube. Traveling through the ring and descending via orbital elevator would be faster than weaving through the tentacular city on Solicor’s surface.
In less than a minute, the cylindrical capsule in which they were sitting transported them six hundred miles away, to the section situated above the Vohrn embassy.
After crossing through a packed hall, they arrived at the elevator. The cabin was occupied by a variety of aliens. Mallory saw Regulians, a green humanoid race, as well as members of a species she had never seen, with a body shaped like a smooth goatskin that traveled on a mass of tentacles. These mobile stomachs were conversing animatedly to three Gibrals. Now that the theory about shadowy bad guys taking control of other creatures had been confirmed, the presence of the latter species made the pilot uncomfortable. Her sensitive tattoos transformed into a tangle of brambles that were dark brown, almost black. She turned to Laorcq and Alrine and saw the same concern on their faces. Rather than sharing the Earthlings’ anxiety, however, Torg was gazing out at the planet’s surface through the glass wall.
Mallory decided to follow his example: worrying wouldn’t solve anything. She walked over to her bodyguard and let herself become absorbed by the sight of Solicor seen from space. It was the middle of the night on the visible hemisphere. The continent toward which they were traveling looked like a glowing sea, reminding them that the smallest parcel of land on the city-planet supported dozens of levels.
The three humans and the cybrid left the cabin and plunged into a dense crowd: the recent tension between the Xilfs and the Gibrals had eased enough for everyone to return to their normal activities.
The sector chief’s office was located near the surface. Mallory was confused by the building’s appearance. It was a giant agglomeration of large cubes whose reflective walls looked like they were made of mercury. “Is that a building or a sculpture?”
Before her eyes, the liquid walls of the cubes shifted suddenly, merging their edges in a curious ballet, as the enti
re structure changed shape. Just as abruptly, the construct froze again in a completely different configuration.
“Fluid trapped in a force field?” Alrine guessed.
A gloomy voice from a translator box rang out behind them.
“Nothing so unsophisticated. They’re Riniel’s algae, programmed via pheromones.”
Turning away from the polymorphic building, the pilot and her companions saw a Gibral who stood barely taller than a human despite its giraffe-like neck. Mallory’s eyes paused on the alien’s abdomen; the being’s clothing was designed to leave its marsupial pouch uncovered. Only this physical characteristic allowed Mallory to recognize the Gibral as female. Nothing else in her appearance distinguished her from the males.
The blue-skinned alien gazed at the humans and Torg with her single eye and seemed to be waiting for them to speak.
“This… building—is this where the section chief’s office is located?” the policewoman asked.
The Gibral confirmed this and informed them that she was one of his apprentices.
That explained her shorter stature, Mallory thought. By Gibral standards, she must be an adolescent.
“We’d like to see him,” the pilot replied. “There’s an issue with the Vohrn ambassador.”
At the mention of the aliens from Cébalrai, the young Gibral changed color, paling slightly. She quickly escorted the little group inside the strange building.
They entered a large hall, where two very wide spiral staircases wound around each other like endless corkscrews. Mallory first thought it was a visual trick, then realized with astonishment that they were really escalators, one going up, the other down. At first glance, what she was seeing seemed blatantly impossible: the impression of movement had to be an optical illusion.
The walls were also made of the silvery liquid, as were the floor and the ceiling. Between the flights of stairs, a pearl-shaped hologram indicated the presence of an AI. The Gibral approached and barked a few vocal commands while gesticulating with her long, thin fingers.
A circular opening appeared just above the up escalator. The cyclops invited them to follow her, setting off at a brisk pace. The humans and the cybrids looked at each other: the décor was more bizarre than anything they had yet seen.
Slowly, they climbed the pivoting spiral staircase, at the top of which they arrived at a surprisingly narrow room. It was barely ten feet wide and about sixty-five feet long. At the far end, a corpulent Gibral sat on a half-sphere carved from a block of thick brown moss. Images, graphics, and columns of ideograms floated in the air all around him. As he listened to his apprentice, his eye came to rest on the newcomers.
“I’m Flesil, the section chief. I see that the Vohrn have sent me two very different human females and a male, accompanied by a strange hybrid. From what I can see, your masters are fond of collecting samples of the species they encounter.” Sweeping away the data displayed before him, he then asked dryly, “What is the purpose of your visit? Are the Vohrn not satisfied with their designated sectors on Solicor?”
Slightly softened by the translator hanging around his neck, his tone nevertheless remained sharp, which seriously pissed Mallory off: We’ve been risking our necks for them for days!
Before her colleagues could react, she drew close enough to the alien to touch him. Flesil seemed to notice the jufinol’s presence. The pupil of his enormous iris dilated, and he opened his mouth to speak.
He failed to make the slightest sound.
With Squish’s help, Mallory’s mind searched for the nasty aura she had perceived earlier during her contact with the Saharj parasite in the little Spican ship.
She felt the director’s thoughts flash by, both annoyed and indifferent, but completely normal.
At least in Flesil’s case. The jufinol sent her a diffuse impression that led her to turn towards the apprentice.
Catching everyone off guard, the Gibral rushed at Mallory. Without her years of martial arts training, she would have been killed on the spot by the ferocious assault: although she wasn’t yet fully grown, the Gibral already weighed more than two hundred pounds.
Reflexively, the pilot pivoted a quarter turn, avoiding most of the alien’s charge. She was still knocked to the ground, landing between a glowing wall and the bureaucrat’s hemispheric seat.
Torg was advancing on the apprentice with the manifest intention of tearing her to shreds when a three-foot wide transparent ball of gelatin hit the aggressive Gibral in the chest. The violence of the blow threw her against the opposite wall, where she collapsed, immobilized.
“How did you manage to get that through security?”
Mallory showed off the object proudly. “It’s made of serag. I asked Hanosk to make me a pair.”
Serag was a wood as strong as steel as well as other special properties, including the fact that it could not be detected by scanners.
Mallory smiled widely at the scarred man’s surprise. She had learned about this type of weapon from him.
He shook his head. “I never thought I’d see one with hypertrophic ammunition. The Vohrn really don’t mind showing off their technological prowess.”
The Gibral officer interrupted their conversation. “In a few moments, a squad of soldiers will come to take you into custody, which leaves you just enough time to explain why my apprentice has suddenly gone mad.”
Mallory turned to the alien and saw that he was surrounded by a force field.
Sheltered behind this protection, he added, “Did I mention that all of the exits are locked?”
XIII
OFFENSIVE
IN the room with the liquid walls, the humans froze. The next few minutes would be decisive. Nevertheless, speaking in the presence of the parasitized Gibral was out of the question. They had no way of knowing whether the Saharj embryo could hear them. Mallory tried to find an excuse to get rid of the apprentice.
“Before continuing, please have your apprentice removed. I’d rather she not wake up and try to kill me again.”
Still protected behind his force field, Flesil settled himself comfortably on the half-sphere he used as a chair, then spread his arms. His gesture was accompanied by the appearance of a series of lighted icons. Floating in front of his face, they were reflected in his single eye. He reached out a hand and activated several, too fast for his guests to see which ones.
The mercury floor seemed to boil under the unconscious Gibral. She slowly sank down, and the liquid metal contracted to form a sort of pocket that closed over her. A moment later, the floor had become smooth again, as if the blue extraterrestrial had never really been there.
“You may speak,” the sector chief declared.
Under the alien cyclops’ fixed stare, Mallory summarized their recent discoveries, explaining their team’s real mission for the Vohrn in the process. This was no time to lie: the Gibrals, being manipulated by the Saharj, would need all the help they could get to stabilize the situation on Solicor and regain the Xilfs’ confidence.
The fat Gibral bent his long neck towards her. “I’m going to order a thorough examination of my apprentice, in order to confirm what you’ve told me. There’s still one thing that isn’t clear to me: why would the Vohrn help us?”
The question hardly surprised the humans. Mallory replied honestly. “They want to reach a trade agreement with you, specifically for access to the Aldebaran system’s resources. They’re especially interested in the moon, Reival, and its plant life.”
“Reival? That impenetrable jungle?” Flesil shook his head up and down, which for him was equivalent to a shrug, before continuing, “That’s a possibility. Let me make provisions for a meeting and…”
Mallory allowed herself to interrupt. “Wait a second: you can’t tell anyone anything before you’re sure that they’re not under the Saharjs’ control.”
The alien seemed to frown. “And how do you plan to verify my colleagues’ trustworthiness?”
The pilot sighed. “There’s only one way. B
ring them all here under some pretext so I can test them with the help of my jufinol.”
“That will take many cycles!” Flesil complained. “And even if my apprentice’s behavior supports what you are saying, I’m not yet convinced.”
Mallory was frustrated by the Gibral’s stubbornness, but Alrine intervened.
“We have documents confirming our association with the Vohrn delegation on Solicor.”
She touched her navcom and transmitted them to the alien. He opened and examined them. Apparently satisfied, he agreed to cooperate.
A myriad of holograms filed past his single eye. He made a series of calls and sent several messages. In less than five minutes, he had assembled all of his subordinates and requested the presence of three of his superiors. There was nothing left to do but wait.
The Vohrn agents divided up the task list with caution. Laorcq and Torg would stand on either side of the access to the escalators. Alrine would hang back, wielding Mallory’s serag revolver. The pilot stood in the middle of the room, ready to probe the arrivals.
The floor opened suddenly under her feet, taking her by surprise. She barely had time to step aside. Wearing antigrav harnesses, five Gibral soldiers burst out of the new opening. They immediately pointed short black rods at the humans and Torg. The pilot didn’t know what kind of weapon this was and had no desire to become a victim of one just to find out.
One of the soldiers spoke. Amplified by a large translator box, his words rang out dryly. “Don’t move, or we’ll neutralize you.”
Mallory felt her stomach twist. She had forgotten about the squad Flesil had summoned! If one of them happened to be carrying a parasite, it would be almost impossible to deal with under the circumstances. And if there was more than one…
She preferred not to think about it. Concentrating, she reached out her mind toward the warriors, all while sending a reassuring feeling to Squish. The jufinol tightened its grip around the Earth woman’s arm and helped her perform the telepathic exploration. She carefully brushed up against the first one’s mind without detecting anything unusual.
Aldebaran Divided Page 13