Aldebaran Divided

by Philippe Mercurio

  She thought about Antarian jets. These ships were nothing more than giant synergetic systems onto which passenger accommodations had been grafted. Most vessels had very similar propulsion signatures, so distinguishing between them was almost impossible, particularly in the vicinity of a crowded world.

  On the other hand, given how uncommon the jet was, it should still be possible to track it, the pilot thought. The risk of error would be high: she’d have to first follow a vector to a less crowded sector, at the edges of the system, and then confirm the trail by trying to find it again. The odds of accuracy would then become acceptable.

  While they descended through a large antigrav well, she called Jazz.

  “My Captain!” he answered. “What’s the plan?”

  “We’re going hunting.”

  The Natural Intelligence didn’t hide his concern. “Torg told me everything. I know what Vassili did to you, and I’m also seriously worried about Alrine and Laorcq. The problem is that the Vohrn will have to hang around to play the diplomats. Chasing him with nothing but the Sirgan is a very bad idea.”

  “I know they have to stay in the Aldebaran system, but I’m sure they can help. I’m planning to ask Hanosk.”

  “And if he says no?”

  “We’ll manage alone,” Mallory growled. Vassili violated me and kidnapped my friends, so letting him go is out of the question!” A thought suddenly occurred to her. “Don’t you think that his presence here is a strange coincidence? Just when two species have almost been driven to kill each other… There must be a connection.”

  “Yeah,” grumbled Jazz.

  Seeing that she was wearing him down, she added one final argument. “Besides, this is our chance to get the upgrades Hanosk promised. Come on, aren’t you dying to know how much the Vohrn can improve our synergetic system?”

  This time, he agreed more strongly. Mallory realized that Jazz wanted to set off on the kidnapper’s trail as much as she did, but that he also wanted to be careful.

  She was aware that she was taking a risk, but she wasn’t doing it without a reason. “Let’s go. Soon it’ll be impossible to pick up Vassili’s trail. Start by cross-referencing information on the Antarian jets that departed from the ring in the last few hours. We’ll be there to take off shortly.”

  Thoughtful, Mallory hung up. She felt Torg nudge her shoulder.

  “We’re going to miss our level!”

  They quickly stepped out of the well. Mallory barely avoided knocking down an alien. The extraterrestrial, who had a massive, hairy body, glared at the small woman with his eyes, which looked like big purple diamonds, and emitted an outraged rumble. She mumbled a brief apology. She wondered if he would have flattened her like a common cockroach if Torg hadn’t been there.

  A few minutes later, they reached an orbital elevator. Once back on the ring, they sped toward the Sirgan. Mallory was pleased to see that Jazz had initiated the necessary preparations for departure. The engine’s steady pulse had a calming effect on her nerves. The Sirgan was still her “home,” the place where she felt most comfortable.

  She was dying to curl up in her cabin and drift off to sleep with Squish in her arms. Instead, she forced herself to climb the passageway to the cockpit. First she had to put some distance between them and Solicor’s orbital ring. She set the jufinol in the copilot’s seat and took off her leather jacket. After throwing the garment on the back of her chair, she sat down at the controls.

  “Two jets took off during the relevant time period,” Jazz informed her. “One of them was a regular flight, a roundtrip to the Achernar system. So I set that one aside. The other was headed straight toward the galactic rim, which makes little sense: there are no habitable worlds along that trajectory. I wouldn’t be surprised if he changed course repeatedly, to muddy his tracks.”

  Another obstacle. It failed to break Mallory’s will. “We’ll search half the galaxy if we have to, but we will find them!”

  Vassili flew the Antarian jet with ease. He considered that, not so long ago, such a task would have exceeded his abilities. The ktol had not only improved his physical condition; his cognitive capacity had also increased tenfold. Once he had sedated the prisoners and secured them in the compartment reserved for the on-board automed, it didn’t take him long to figure out how the ship worked. Built for speed, the vessel didn’t even have an AI, just a set of routine programs.

  Part of his mind focused on maneuvering while the rest developed plans. He wanted to get out from under Axaqateq’s thumb, but he realized that the Saharj could be a major asset in the future. Since I have to gain their favor, I might as well seem to be obeying for now.

  Within two days, he had exited the Aldebaran system and crossed through two others. He had just arrived near an uncharted star, at the precise coordinates provided by Axaqateq. He was supposed to pick something up and bring it to the Saharj.

  It took Vassili some time to spot it. It was a long, wide box that looked oddly like a coffin. Maneuvering carefully, he approached it as closely possible and steadied the jet.

  No sign of a nearby ship. Too bad, I would have liked to meet a “colleague.”

  He followed the only passageway through the ship, at the end of which he found a spacesuit in a locker and a safety line, which he picked up. Thus equipped, he entered the airlock where he attached the cable to a reel while the atmospheric pressure dropped. Finally, the metal panel separating him from the void slid slowly open to reveal a black expanse dotted with a handful of stars. Without his enhanced capabilities, he would have had difficulty making out the package he was supposed to recover. He connected the other end of the line to his suit and checked the anchor point. Satisfied, he turned his gaze to the box that was floating in nothingness, bent his knees slightly, and jumped.

  He sped silently toward his target, the cable paying out behind him. He had planned his trajectory perfectly and reached the object in a few seconds. He grabbed it and pressed it against himself with one arm.

  He then yanked on the rope, triggering the power winder installed in the airlock. Slowly, Vassili and his burden approached the Antarian ship. The large box barely fit through the opening. The modified human closed the airlock and removed his suit as soon as the pressure was restored. He pushed aside the inner panel and dragged the box into the ship’s passageway. Once subjected to the ship’s artificial gravity, Vassili realized it easily weighed over four hundred pounds. Highly intrigued, he decided to contact Axaqateq: he was supposed to deliver a report in any case. He could take the opportunity to try to learn a little more.

  He reached into his clothes, removed the ktol, and clenched it in his right hand. He concentrated, seeking to contact his “master.” The process was now easy for him. He toppled into the world of the Primordials and their ruined stone city. Once again, he stood at the edge of the brownish ocean, and Axaqateq was near him, as if he never left this place.

  “I recovered the gift for the Saharj,” he said by way of introduction.

  Axaqateq leaned his oversized head toward him and stared with his six pairs of eyes. “I see a question in you. You want to know what it is. Amazing. Few who have been subjected to the ktol show initiative.”

  At this, Vassili winced. He carefully compartmentalized his thoughts and even influenced his neuronal structure to conceal the extent of his independence. He feared that the Primordial would see through him.

  The alien continued. “The object is a weapon. The only gift that would interest artificial warriors. We call it a ‘world-eater.’ Now go and promise this present to the Saharj in exchange for their cooperation.”

  Vassili was brutally hurtled back toward his physical form and found himself in the passageway of the Antarian jet once again.

  A wave of anger crossed his face: Axaqateq was really treating him like a stooge. This burst of human feeling transformed into a slight smile: he had managed to hide his true intentions from the Primordial. Once he won the Saharj over to his cause, nothing would be able to st
op him.

  XVII

  TRAIL

  MALLORY flew her transport ship straight out of the system, moving at a much higher speed than the limit imposed by the Aldebaran authorities. At this rate, it would only take two hours to reach the Urkein’Naak.

  The Sirgan was too large to dock inside the cruiser, so Mallory crossed the distance in a Vohrn shuttle. Once onboard the huge ship, she found Hanosk and explained the situation succinctly.

  She waited anxiously for the Vohrn’s verdict, her tattoos morphing into an outline of black thorns under the influence of the fear and fatigue caused by the last few days. Her eyes traveled over the cruiser’s passageway and the aliens sitting at each station. The only light came from the floating firefly that accompanied her and a few holographic projections surrounded by Vohrn characters.

  She still knew little about their way of thinking. They might well consider the loss of Alrine and Laorcq acceptable in exchange for the number of lives saved on Solicor, or they might not consider rescuing them to be important.

  To Mallory’s surprise, the alien leader agreed that she should pursue Vassili.

  “We have begun negotiations with the Gibrals, thanks to your involvement. We cannot leave Aldebaran right away, even if we understand the importance of finding your comrades.”

  Relieved to have avoided a disagreement with her employer, Mallory was about to request logistical support, since the Urkein’Naak was not available, but Hanosk hadn’t finished speaking.

  “Cole Vassili is of interest to us. We are concerned by his ability to implant a hybrid embryo in your womb. After the attempted genocide against my people, we established an intelligence network in multiple systems. The initial information we have collected is alarming. We believe that a group of individuals is using intermediaries to trigger major conflicts. I won’t be surprised to find out that Vassili is one of their agents. Finding him has become a priority.”

  The pilot took the opportunity to fulfill the promise she had made to Jazz. “Before sending me to Solicor, you mentioned upgrading the Sirgan’s engine: this is a good time to do it. With a jet and a half-day’s head start, I may not be able to catch Vassili.”

  “I’ve already given orders to this effect, but time is short. Only some of the components can be replaced. A full upgrade would take too long—we’d have no chance to follow his tracks.”

  Mallory nodded. “I understand. Please do your best.”

  “We’ll also install a high-performance scanning system, since the margin of error for Earthern equipment is too large. I’m also assigning four warriors to you, as a precaution.”

  Mallory wasn’t sure that the escort qualified as good news. She didn’t mind having Vohrn onboard, but she was concerned about losing her autonomy if they were constantly looking over her shoulder. Which would certainly happen: the Sirgan was still a low-tonnage ship.

  The soldiers Hanosk had promised were waiting for the pilot on the flight deck, lined up near the shuttle that had brought her from the Sirgan to the cruiser. The four aliens were wearing combat harnesses, and each had a shapeless bag in place of luggage. Their final piece of equipment was an organic-looking gun. These massive weapons seemed very heavy, but the Vohrn handled them with ease.

  When she approached the little group, one of them turned toward her.

  “I am Section Chief Losnuk,” said a voice from his translator box.

  She looked at him. His body, which was easily more than seven feet tall, was covered with thin, matte, dark-green scales. He approached silently, his knees articulated in the opposite direction from humans, which gave the Earth woman the impression that he was going to pounce with every step. On the upper part of his chest, just below the unbroken line that connected both broad shoulders, his conical rostrum protruded like a gigantic nose. Mallory suppressed a smile at the analogy: she didn’t know how it might be interpreted…

  She wasted no time with pleasantries: as far as she knew, the Vohrn paid little attention to them. She pointed at his gun, “What are you planning to use those big guns for? I don’t plan on killing Vassili. I just want to make sure he can’t hurt anyone. Something civilized, like exile on a barren world populated by giant scorpions or locking him in a rescue pod and launching it toward the edge of the galaxy…”

  The Vohrn replied, impervious to her humor. “These weapons are standard equipment for our troops. You say you want to keep the man we’re following alive, but your suggestions will only lead to his death. Unless…”

  Mallory interrupted him. “Ah, but for humans, the means are more important than the end!”

  Evidently, her explanation made the big alien uncomfortable.

  Back aboard Sirgan, she found a second Vohrn team modifying the propulsion system.

  They had spread throughout the bowels of the ship. Two Vohrn were disassembling the controls in the cockpit, another followed the wiring harness that lay under the metal grates forming the passageway floor, and three others were working on the synergetic group.

  Normally neat and tidy, the Sirgan suddenly looked like a fully operational repair shop.

  Feeling like a stranger on her own ship, the pilot watched the scaly-skinned aliens tinker on the reactor. They replaced the propulsion regulator with a Vohrn model, moving as if they had done the task a thousand times.

  Mallory watched them work, not without apprehension. The regulator, a critical asset for interstellar travel, also anchored the Sirgan to the present time. At the speeds attainable with synergetic tubes, the vessels’ mass would increase to the point of influencing space-time, thereby putting them out of sync with the rest of the universe.

  Coupled to the ships’ antigrav generator, regulators continually compensated for this increase and maintained ships in sync with their time vectors. Despite what humans had believed for centuries, the ultimate barrier to conquering the stars was not the “wall” of light speed, but mastery of the gravity/mass equation.

  Mallory knew all too well the risks of a faulty regulator: the ship was virtually certain to end up as mush, brutally crushed by the engine’s acceleration, and, even if they were lucky enough to escape this fate, they’d still arrive millennia after departure.

  The partially biological equipment the aliens installed contrasted sharply with the rest of the machinery.

  Jazz’s voice burst from the intercom. “The Vohrn didn’t waste any time! While you were twiddling around with your boss, they pounced on the Sirgan. This is the first time she’s been so chopped up! I hope our headless pals here know what they’re doing.”

  Mallory shrugged. “We’ll find out soon enough. As soon as they finish, I’m throwing them out and we’re picking up Vassili’s trail.”

  Three hours later, all of the crew were strapped into seats or in one of the cabins, and Mallory cranked the rebuilt engine. She immediately noticed that it now pulsed with a different rhythm. The pilot was transfixed by the subtle variation that had crept into the vibrations generated by the synergetic group, replacing mechanical regularity with a flexible, almost organic cadence.

  In front of Mallory, a multitude of holograms appeared on the cockpit’s windows. Indicators, gauges, and supervisory systems shone reassuringly green. With the back of her hand, she swept this information aside and activated the tracking system.

  “The Vohrns’ sensors are wonderful!” commented Jazz. “Looks like our prey decided to play Tom Thumb…”

  Indeed, Mallory was pleased to see that the jet’s trail was clear on the projection before her, accompanied by the necessary data for following it. With a few gestures, she transferred this data to the navigation console.

  It was time to test the new controls the large aliens had just installed. On her right, the joystick she had used for years to maneuver the Sirgan like an airplane had been replaced with a cartilaginous half-sphere that pulsed with pink light. According to Losnuk, it was a neural interface. It was similar to the organ nestled in the Vohrns’ rostrums that allowed them to access the
thoughts of most known species.

  With some trepidation, Mallory put a hand on it, preferring not to recall her previous experiences with similar technology. To her relief, she felt no pain. Soon, a second presence joined the jufinol in her consciousness. Both more complex and less sensitive, it almost drowned Mallory under a deluge of information.

  The stream suddenly slowed, as if someone had turned a valve to reduce it to a trickle. Disoriented, she realized what had happened. “Jazz? Did you take over part of the data stream?”

  “Yes, my captain!”

  “Has it changed?”

  “No, but you get used to over time. Besides, the Vohrn could have connected us for communications instead of forcing us to speak.”

  “Ah… Uh… To be honest, between Squish and now the Sirgan, I feel like there are enough people in my head.”

  The Natural Intelligence chuckled, a sound Mallory heard too rarely. She sometimes wondered how he was holding up: many people would prefer death to Jazz’s fate.

  “You’re not wrong, and besides, I also have a lot of memories that aren’t particularly glorious, so I’d rather keep them to myself.”

  “Why ‘also’?”

  On Mallory’s arm, the roses closed, becoming small buds. She was nevertheless reassured: as long as he teased her like that, she knew she didn’t need to worry about him. She tightened her grip on the neural interface and declared, “You asked for it!”

  She accelerated the ship to full speed, enjoying her newfound ability to interact with it directly. The acceleration shoved her back into her seat, exerting a tiny amount of pressure compared to the forces at play between the propulsion and gravity control systems.

  Data flew by on the thick reinforced windows, stabilizing well beyond the usual values.

  “Hey, easy there, Captain!” cried Jazz, while the rest of the crew dealt with the speed Mallory had set with varying degrees of success.