Vontaura

by James C. Dunn

  ‘Noah Nuveen.’ She typed his name into one of the screens. Seconds passed. Then at once her eyes glared, flicked wildly back and forth.

  Dimal’s head shot towards Justus. The large woman knew it wasn’t him. How could he have been so stupid as to use a real name?

  With considerable effort the woman dragged herself from her seat. ‘I’ll be right back,’ she mumbled. ‘Remain here, please.’

  ‘Not a chance.’ Dimal leaned in and slid a small disk across the table. A light pink gas blew into the woman’s face. She retched, spluttered, then subsided, collapsing over the chair, legs stiff in the air.

  ‘What are you doing?!’ He grimaced, checked the corridor behind. It was empty.

  Dimal folded her arms. ‘The smarmy bitch kept giving me dirty looks.’

  ‘Who are you?’ Justus said to his co-pilot as he stepped over to the woman’s buckled form to check her pulse.

  ‘Whadda’ you mean, who am I? I’m you, which is more than I can say for you.’

  ‘I mean it!’

  ‘Don’t give me that! No one used to love all this more than you, Antal.’

  ‘Happen you’re right,’ he said. ‘But if truth be told, I’d rather actually make it to Earth before getting another call out for my arrest! Don’t forget, I’m still AWOL from Earth Forces.’

  She unfolded her arms and stood up. ‘Look,’ she said, relaxing a little, ‘I’m so glad I have you back, that we’re going home. But I want some honesty.’

  Justus checked the corridor again. Still clear. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘What do you want to know?’

  ‘Why did you leave Earth in the first place?’

  ‘Pass.’

  ‘What demons do you have to confront?’

  ‘Next question.’

  ‘Damn it, Antal! What the hell are we even doing here?’

  Justus grinned. He nudged the woman, still out cold, away from the desk, and began a search of the library data files. Dimal moved to his side. ‘This place,’ he explained. ‘The Athenaeum. It’s the largest store of information in all Four Systems.’

  ‘So?’

  He typed in Peter Marx’s words:

  ‘The moon is our ally. Seek the answers on Earth.’ She scratched her head. ‘But this isn’t Earth.’

  ‘No, but if the answer’s on Earth then it’s surely in here. I was hoping Vortan could help decipher it.’

  ‘I get your thinking. But what if Peter Marx wanted you to actually seek the answers on Earth?’

  ‘What?’ he said. ‘Like a quest?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Hmm, not a big fan of quests.’

  Concerned that they were pressed for time, he continued searching. Nothing. He reworded the phrase and attempted it in as many Earth languages as he knew. Still nothing. He cursed loudly, and turned to another screen, where he froze. Dimal knelt, stunned, having already read the information on the monitor into which their host had entered the name Justus had given.

  ‘It can’t be real,’ he said.

  She looked to him. ‘It looks pretty real to me.’

  NOAH S. J. NUVEEN

  OFFICIALS CONTINUE TO SEEK ANY AND ALL INFORMATION ON NOAH NUVEEN, FIFTH SON OF THE JULIAN NUVEENS OF MAR-ANDRA. HE IS WANTED IN THE PLANETARY SYSTEM BRAVORAL AND ITS SEVEN MOONS FOR CRIMES INCLUDING FRAUD, ARSON, AND SEVERAL COUNTS OF MURDER . . .

  CONSIDERED A HIGH RISK

  ‘Shit!’ Justus said.

  A gasp from the corridor. The two spun to see a tall, skinny woman enter the room. Upon witnessing her corpulent colleague’s ankles dangling in mid air, the woman turned tail and scuttled back down the hallway.

  ‘I think it’s time we made a move.’ He took Dimal’s hand again and they hurried out. When they reached the main office room the skinny woman was already alerting three robed men nearby. Security.

  Justus dragged her through the workplace, knocking busy workers over their desks and onto the stone floor. They reached the steps leading out just before the guards. Justus held onto the wall and kicked one of them in the face. Dimal slammed the door shut.

  Hearts beating madly, Dimal’s hand not leaving his, the two made their way back up the steps and out into the rectangular structure. From there, through into the glass ring. They walked fast, but not too fast.

  ‘There’s more security,’ she said, pointing ahead.

  ‘It’s okay. They haven’t – oh, wait, yeah, they’ve seen us.’

  ‘Run!’

  They kept their heads down and dashed quickly back through the second stone structure. A large granite carving stood to one side, and they threw themselves behind it. Their pursuers passed by. They waited, before heading back to the Flux.

  The Álunan north dock was just ahead. Dimal craned her neck as though to glimpse upon the beautiful carvings one last time, but her captain took her head and pushed it back down. ‘Plenty time to come back, darling.’

  Once again avoiding a security grouping’s eye line they reached the docked Flux. The last thing Justus had expected to find, however, was his crew knelt in cuffs outside the crimson beauty. Several guards stood around them, while a number more followed behind.

  Blast!

  ‘What’s going on?’ Justus asked, making every effort to sound indignant. ‘Is something wrong?’

  Three guards approached him, hands on their blasters. ‘Is this your craft, sir?’ asked one.

  ‘Yes, it is. Why—’

  The guard took out a pair of cuffs. ‘Stay where you are, sir,’ he said sternly. ‘Under authority of Luna and the Lunar Athenaeum, you and your crew are under arrest for the possession of a falsely-registered vessel.’

  ‘There’s been a mistake,’ Dimal said. ‘Wait.’

  ‘Just stop.’ Justus moved, but the guard took his hands, lifted up his sleeves. He went no further. His eyes were fixed on the tattoo upon Justus’ wrist. A silent several seconds followed. Then he looked up at Justus, suddenly fearful.

  ‘I . . . we . . . b . . . beg your pardon, my lord.’ He turned and whispered something to the guard beside him, who in turn released the others from their fastenings. Bewildered, the crew stood and watched the guards leave, one by one, most of whom appeared just as confused. ‘Once again, my lord,’ the guard said. ‘I am . . . ever so s . . . sorry.’

  Justus didn’t know how to react. ‘I . . . well . . . yeah, I’ll forgive your mistake this time.’

  ‘But you see that it doesn’t happen again,’ Dimal added, wagging her finger. The guard left and she turned. ‘Please tell me what just happened.’

  He gulped. ‘The guy saw my tattoo. From Erebus.’

  ‘The Circle and Triangle?’

  ‘The very one.’

  She gulped too. ‘Let’s get out of here. Quick.’

  Justus nodded. ‘To Earth at last.’

  ELEVEN

  ANNA’S FIRST GLIMPSE of the majestic rings of Saturn from the reaches of dark space was just as she had imagined it. Surrounded by the rest of Erebus’ survivors, sat in the central control room, she gazed up at the projection of the Saturnian system, and her home upon Titan.

  Beauty was a word which seemed so inadequate. The truth was that her home did not look beautiful. It looked cold. Cold and starved of light. Alone and far from welcoming. A shadow enveloped the system, enveloped them all. Was it from here, or had she brought it with her?

  Gílana stood beside her, their hands clasped together. The others sensed it too. The sound of silence filled the command room. Kramer and Ketrass, attached to a freestanding panel near the edge of the room, hung their heads. Any awe that they had felt was replaced by cold dread.

  ‘Do you think it could have happened?’ Callista asked Ferranti. ‘Titan, fallen into the hands of the Dishan?’

  ‘I don’t know, Callista.’

  Her eyes cut into Gordian. ‘Why so quiet, Crilshan?’

  Gordian looked to her and did not smile. He said nothing. The seven sat in a sea of fear, the silent beating of Anna’s heart surrounding her
completely.

  Captain Ferranti moved silently around the nearest console, shifting instruments and levers.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Gílana asked.

  He glanced up, blowing hair from in front of his blood-shot eyes. ‘If the worst has happened, we’re like sitting ducks up here,’ he said. ‘I’m moving us somewhere safe. Until we decide what we’re doing. There’s a docking bay within the moon Hyperion, known of only by Titan’s captains.’

  ‘Or so you hope,’ Gordian said.

  The moon Hyperion looked ancient grey and was shaped like an enormous potato, Anna thought. It did not take long to reach the dock within, into which Ferranti guided them carefully. Once attached to a large, vacant platform – empty but for a single unmanned craft – the seven survivors of Erebus gathered close. The Stellarstream’s engines were placed on reserve.

  ‘Now,’ Callista said, aiming her ancient eyes at the two bound prisoners, ‘we must come to a decision. All of us. Our fates are knotted. All our lives on the line.’

  ‘You stand there, expecting to decide my fate,’ Kramer said. ‘And you can’t even control your own. Tell me, what is it that has to be decided?’

  ‘If Crilshar has taken Titan,’ Ferranti said, ‘like they’ve seized others, then we can’t go back.’

  Callista moved forwards and with difficulty knelt down before him. In a depleted tone she whispered, ‘Your Córonat’s work, I think.’ Kramer breathed deeper still. She lifted the silver booklet from inside her grey cloak and held it aloft. ‘Courtesy of Edgar Mokrikov.’

  ‘I should have known.’

  ‘According to the prime minister of Rotavar,’ she said, ‘you were all deceived by your master. The Córonat. Marrak Malizar.’

  ‘The name means nothing to me,’ he breathed. ‘None of us knew the identity of the masked Córonat. Only that he was of the fallen Iástron race.’

  ‘Indeed it seems so,’ she said. ‘According to this journal, Mokrikov believed that all those who knew of Erebus would be killed once you achieved the given task, whatever that was. He says that’s how his Córonat deals with all things.’

  ‘So that’s what Lesper discovered,’ Kramer muttered. ‘Then what do we do?’

  Anna looked to her little sister, who shivered, just as frightened as Anna felt. She gripped her hand firmly.

  ‘Fleeing to Earth would seem the only sensible option,’ Callista said. ‘We would be met with hostility and perhaps even death on Titan . . . if the invasion has occurred.’

  ‘That gives us two choices,’ Ferranti said. ‘We can continue on to Earth and hope that Crilshar’s armies haven’t penetrated that deep into the System. Though I can’t imagine a reason they would not. Or we could take the chance. Face the threat, whatever it may be, and go home.’

  ‘What could we expect to find?’ Callista asked Gordian.

  The Crilshan thought for a moment. ‘I cannot say for sure. Such a plan has only ever been dreamed of in my home world. Who can say what they will have chosen to do? Your world is impure. You are impure. Ita es khulul.’ The second time he said it in Crilshan, in an effort, no less, to remind himself of that very fact. Everyone knew the Crilshan word for impure. It had been used enough by the Dark Race to justify their deeds.

  He noticed the looks he was receiving, and continued, ‘That is, to say, in the minds of my masters, that until you receive the Pure Gene, you are all in danger.’

  ‘We have to go back,’ Anna said. ‘My uncle might be down there. He’d know what to do. There is still hope.’

  ‘Don’t forget,’ the elderly Iástron said, ‘that your uncle Ruben took Titan to war while we were gone. In an effort, perhaps, to find you. It would appear he failed.’

  ‘Such a threat,’ Gordian said. ‘Ruben Berenguer would not have been kept alive. The custom in my world is to execute high-ranking enemies.’

  ‘So we leave everyone else to suffer while we run?’ Anna said. ‘What if my uncle is down there?’

  ‘Couldn’t we try and save just him?’ Gílana asked. ‘And then go to Earth?’

  ‘Earth,’ Ketrass said from her corner. ‘I say we head there. You’re right. No one needs to know of Erebus, or what we saw there.’

  Kramer looked to her, and then down to the ground.

  Ferranti reached out a hand and placed it on Anna’s shoulder. ‘You heard what Gordian said. I’m sorry, but if your uncle is down there, the chances of him being alive—’

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘He is alive. I know it.’

  ‘I hope so,’ he said. ‘But for now we’re on our own.’

  Anna felt herself shaking. She shrugged his hand from her shoulder. How could they all give up on her uncle Ruben so easily? How could they give up on Titan without as much as a fight?

  Callista hobbled back towards her, leaning on a nearby panel. ‘Even if your uncle is down there, child, there is nothing we can do. Look after your sister. That is what Ruben would want.’ Her eyes penetrated deep. ‘But, I agree. My recent dreams are clear now. They tell me that we must not go to Earth.’

  ‘So we’re following dreams now,’ Kramer said. ‘Want to know what I dreamt?’

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘I think we should return to Titan. Perhaps just a survey. A small craft. Once we see evidence of the Dark Race, we can decide.’

  ‘That leaves one problem,’ Gordian said.

  ‘Just the one?’ Ferranti raised his eyebrows.

  ‘The greatest one.’

  ‘Which is?’

  ‘Erebus.’

  ‘Yes, they’ll want to know,’ Callista said. ‘Where we’ve been once we waltz on down there in a military craft with a Crilshan prisoner.’

  Anna sighed. ‘Then what do we do?’

  ‘We make up a story,’ Ferranti said, pacing the control room. ‘Gordian’s right. If they find out about Erebus – and that’s assuming they don’t already know – then they’ll stumble into disaster, or gain a power worse than the entire arsenal of Proxima. Erebus is still out there. It has to be forgotten. And we can do that. We have to do that.’

  TWELVE

  DIEGO FERRANTI PEERED out of the small, ringed window of the Stellarstream’s shuttlecraft, though he knew there was nothing to see beside thick, murky-red banks of cloud. He had peered into the bloody veil so many times on his return journeys. But never like this. The clouds weren’t different, but the approach, clandestine and apprehensive, certainly was.

  No one knew what they would find. If it was true and Crilshar had taken Titan, he would have them out of here before the real sun came up. Such decisions were not hard for him to make. He was an orphan after all. Growing up he’d never had to think about anyone but himself, and it had suited him. Ferranti was well aware of how selfish he was capable of being; it was what pushed him on: the search for ever more lofty thrills, ever greater highs.

  After joining the Titanese Guard it had been a hard shock to discover that, on board a Titanese vessel, selfish was the last thing one could get away with being. It made him aware of another, more fulfilling side of himself. His friendship with Dathlan Berenguer was an enormous influence, only strengthened by the encouragement of Callista, who, on the afternoon he turned twenty-three years old, revealed her true past and inspired the young Guard to more laudable endeavours.

  Those endeavours may soon come to an end, he realised as he guided the shuttlecraft along the horizon, white knuckles fixed firmly around the controls. The entire crew of the Stellarstream was lost. Callista, Anna, and Gílana were his priorities now, and a small knot in the back of his mind told him the darker part of himself may soon be called forth if they were going to survive what may be waiting.

  They approached Titan’s Twelve Cities from the south, making the docking city closest. From what he could see, both on his display and out among the blood-red haze, it was night upon Titan. A storm was raging some fifty miles to the south, but its curved path would not bring it near the Twelve Cities.

  The survivors descended slowly toward the
surface, en route for a resource base on the outskirts of the Cities, not knowing what they would find. Ferranti brought them in to land within a hidden landing site some distance from the docking city, and turned to Gordian, sat beside. The Crilshan nodded. Behind, Anna and Gílana sat close to Callista, who sat with tangible trepidation. Kramer and Ketrass remained tied to the far wall.

  ‘What now?’ Kramer asked.

  Callista looked to Ferranti.

  ‘You all need to stay here,’ he said. ‘I’m going to go out.’

  Callista placed a hand on his shoulder. ‘You can’t go out there with your arm in a sling.’

  ‘I’ll be fine. I’ll sling up the suit.’

  ‘And be no good if you’re caught.’

  ‘If I get caught I doubt ten arms would help me.’

  ‘I’ll go with you,’ Gordian said. ‘I’ve done this sort of thing before.’

  ‘Yes, I imagine you have,’ Callista said. Her hand left Ferranti’s shoulder and softly pressed her collar.

  ‘These two are to stay as they are,’ he said, motioning to Kramer and Ketrass.

  ‘And who put you in charge?’ Kramer demanded.

  ‘The Golden Guard of Titan,’ Ferranti said. ‘There’re only two of us here with any military instruction.’ He glanced towards Anna. ‘And only I have qualified.’

  ‘So that puts her in charge while you’re out exploring?’

  Ferranti smiled. ‘Yes. Anna, he’s in your custody when I’m not here. I know I can trust you.’

  Anna nodded without looking at Kramer and followed Ferranti and Gordian down the corridor. One at a time, she helped them climb into their life-suits. ‘Now I can see the resemblance to the model of life-suit we wore inside Erebus,’ she said. ‘They were more sophisticated though. These are bulkier than normal.’

  ‘Better bulky than dead,’ Gordian said.

  Ferranti stood back and lifted his helmet from the wrack. ‘The temperature out there is minus one-seven-nine. Without these, the pressure would boil us in our suits.’

  She nodded. ‘Fair enough. Take care, Diego.’

  He held out his hand and she took it, gripping it firmly. ‘Look after your sister,’ he told her. ‘If there is one thing you must do, it is that.’