A Dark and Hungry God Arises (64 page)

Get rid of him -

Her desire to close the lock against him was so intense that she nearly moaned.

Yes! Let him die outside and be damned!

But it was too expensive. She'd seen that with her own eyes, felt it with her own heart's pain. The Amnion had tried their mutagens on her. Like treachery and lies,

-revenge cost too much; grudges and hate cost too much.

Nick and Angus had taught her that.

She didn't hesitate.

'No, ' she told her son. 'You're a cop. From now on, I'm going to be a cop myself. ' Not the kind of cop Warden Dios and Hashi Lebwohl were: the kind her father and mother had been. We don't do things like that. '

'Are you sure?' Mikka demanded from the lock. 'We're better off without him. We're safer—he's made too many enemies. And he hates Angus too much. '

'I'm sure, ' Vector put in softly. 'Morn's right. The rest of us aren't cops, but we have enough other problems without doing things that will make us sick of ourselves. '

'Besides, ' Sib observed, 'he still has his guns. If he tries to blast his way in, we might not survive the damage. '

Morn took Mikka's silence as assent. She gave Davies a quick hug, then lowered herself down the ladder into the ship.

Davies rather than Mikka keyed commands into the control panel, shutting the airlock so that it would reopen for Nick. He gave the impression that he was already acquainted with Trumpet. Morn wondered how long he'd been with Angus; how long ago Angus had rescued him. But she didn't ask. For the moment, at least, all her questions had been burned out of her.

And she was overtaken by a strange sense of recognition, an unaccountable impression of safety. From the airlock and the lift down to the central passage and along it to the EVA suit compartment and the weapons locker, she knew this ship. Details were different, of course, if for no other reason than because Trumpet was new; but she'd done some of her training in Needle-class gap scouts. For the first time since Starmaster's death, she found herself in a place where she felt she belonged.

Davies must have had the same reaction -

After her long hours in an Amnion cell and her hazardous escape, Trumpet's poignant familiarity nearly over-whelmed her. She had to remind herself forcibly that this was Angus' ship, Angus Thermopyle's; that when she entered Trumpet she was re-entering the domain of the man who had raped and debased her to the core of her being.

If she could have believed that she or any of the people with her - even Nick - were capable of taking Trumpet away from Billingate intact, she would prayed for Angus to fail his deadline; beseeched the uncaring stars to grant her that one last mercy.

Mikka was in command; but Davies stowed his suit and weapons first. Once he unsealed his helmet, Morn saw his face clearly for the first time since the day he was born.

Her heart seemed to stop when she saw that he'd been beaten up.

The damage was recent. Blood still crusted his forehead; bruises which hadn't had time to turn livid swelled his cheeks, puffed around his eyes.

The Bill had done that to him. Or it'd happened in the struggle to escape.

Or he and Angus had fought over her; over the things Angus had done to her.

An inarticulate protest died in her throat as she studied her son.

Apart from his battered face, he didn't appear hurt. He was noticeably thinner than Angus: in fact, he was thinner than he'd been when Captain's Fancy had left Enablement. And his skin looked hot, as if he were burning up inside; tension poured off him like heat. Nevertheless he was physically intact.

His eyes hid whatever he was feeling. He glanced at Morn quickly, but didn't meet her gaze. He may have been angry at her for refusing to doom Nick. Or he may have been ashamed of himself for wanting to lock Nick out.

Or he may have begun to recover the pieces of her past-The thought that he might be able to remember how she'd abandoned herself to Nick made her own skin burn.

Yet that chagrin was small compared to other, more profound shames. He might recall how Angus had raped and brutalized her - or the way she'd saved his life -

Or how she'd killed Starmaster -

As he wheeled away and hurried toward the bridge, he seemed to take the last of her strength with him.

Without warning her legs became so weak that she nearly folded to the deck.

She'd been terrified that how he was born and what he knew about her might drive him insane; that only the strange blockage of his memories kept his mind in one piece. Yet he was whole now, whatever he remembered.

Angus had given that to him — or done it to him.

His mind was no longer hers. He'd begun to inherit the legacy of his father.

And he'd had to fight for it.

Suddenly she wanted Angus to come back so that she could force or beg him to tell her what he'd done to her son.

She stood in the passage without moving, too beaten and exhausted to remove more than her helmet.

Fortunately Vector seemed to understand her condition. As soon as he'd put away his suit and projectile launcher, he knelt in front of her despite the pain in his joints to unseal her suit, unstrap the harness from her hips, rug the tough fabric off over her boots.

Mikka had already finished storing her gear. She scrutinized Morn for a moment, then turned to her brother.

Her old scowl was etched into her features, but fatigue and concern had worn off every other expression. 'Ciro, find the galley, ' she told him. 'A ship like this, the food-vend probably works by magic. Make coffee, cocoa, hype

- anything hot. And sandwiches. Bring them to the bridge. '

Ciro? Morn thought wearily. She'd never heard Pup's real name. Like Davies', his face had changed since she'd last seen it: danger and fear had aged him by several years. For the first time, his resemblance to his sister was obvious.

He opened his mouth to protest, then closed it when Mikka pushed his shoulder gently. 'Right away would be good, ' she murmured, unconsciously copying Nick.

'Right now would be better. '

Ciro ducked his head and went to obey.

With Sib behind her, Mikka followed Davies toward the bridge.

Vector smiled wanly at Morn. Pain or exertion left a sheen on his round face. When they were alone, he said,

'I owe you an apology. '

She blinked at him dumbly. Her brain was full of Davies and weakness: she had no idea what he was talking about.

He levered himself up from his knees. Old hurts hampered his gaze as well as his joints. 'If it weren't covered by so much other damage, ' he explained quietly, 'you would have a bruise where I hit you. '

As careful as velvet, he stroked the ridge of her cheekbone with his fingertips.

Instinctively she flinched away. He was male, like Nick; like Angus. His touch and his gentleness seemed to impact her like a blow.

He smiled again as he lowered his hand. In a tone like a shrug, he said, 'I like to think I would regret that in any case. But as it happens I have more reason than you may realize. You forced me to look at the implications of my life, and I didn't like what I saw. If I were wiser - or perhaps simply braver - I would have hit myself, not you.

'I don't understand any of this. How it comes about that a man like Angus Thermopyle is here to rescue you from Nick and the Amnion - well, it's beyond me. But it's given me a chance to see things differently. That's my other reason for regret. In retrospect, it seems' - his smile broadened slightly - 'downright callow of me to have hit the woman who changed my life. '

What he was saying must have been important, if he made such a point of it; but its significance eluded her.

Once she realized that he didn't mean to hurt her, she could no longer focus on him. In her thoughts she'd already joined Davies. On the bridge of a ship she knew

- a UMCP ship, whether Angus had any dealings with the police or not. Only her weakness held her back; only the immeasurable cost of her hours in an Amnion cell.

She needed her zone implant control. Without it she had too little substance, too few resources, to change anyone's life, even her own.

'I'm sorry, ' she began. 'I need-' Unable to say the words, she stopped.

Apparently he had his own ideas about what she needed. He nodded as if he were amused by his personal follies. 'So do I. '

Then he took her arm and helped her into motion.

As frail as a derelict, she shuffled through the ship.

When she reached the head of the companionway, she heard voices below her.

'If anyone tried to break in, the computer didn't record it, ' Davies reported, presumably to Mikka. 'I checked the communications log. There's a whole series of threats, some from the Bill, some from Operations. They get more hysterical as they go along, but they aren't very specific. Then they stop. The channel goes dead. No more demands, no more threats — and no more operational data. Nothing but static. Calm Horizons could be right on top of us - there could be half a dozen ships coming in on Billingate - and we wouldn't know it. ' He gave a sardonic snort which reminded Morn of Angus. 'On the other hand, we're still getting installation power. '

'Ship's status?' Mikka asked brusquely.

'Up and running, ' Davies said. 'All systems green. I went through the checklists. We're ready. '

'Then give me scan, ' she ordered. 'Let's find out who's in range-to hurt us. '

Morn pulled away from Vector. Bracing her arms on the rails and locking her knees, she lowered herself down the treads. She wanted her son to believe in her. If he saw how weak she was, he might not trust her.

He sat at the command station. His hands on the console were accurate, but cautious; not particularly adept.

Morn's memories and his time with Angus familiarized him with the ship, but they couldn't take the place of experience. He was probably competent to run Trumpet under normal circumstances: the present danger required someone with more expertise.

Mikka was the best choice Angus could have made, even though she knew less about Trumpet than Davies did.

She and Sib stood on either side of the command station, watching for data as Davies activated scan and fed the results to the display screens. In moments blips appeared on a schematic of Billingate's control space.

Davies typed a few guesses based on the ship's last operational input. The blips took on ship id.

'That's all we can see, ' he muttered. Thanatos Minor blocks us from the shipyard. We're blind past the horizons. '

Holding her breath, Morn moved to the back of his g-seat. If she braced herself there, she could stay on her feet and study the screens.

Five blips. Two of them were off in the direction of human space, one in-coming, the other heading out.

Trumpet had picked up their demands for traffic data and navigational protocols had obtained ship id from those transmissions. The in-coming vessel called herself Gambler's Luck. Unless she slowed her approach, she would be in range to have an effect on the action around Thanatos Minor in twenty minutes. The out-going ship, Free Lunch, was burning hard, obviously on the run from trouble.

The other three blips Davies had identified by guess: their transmissions, if any, were all tight-beamed. Nevertheless Morn was sure he'd named them correctly.

Soar. Calm Horizons. And the Amnion shuttle.

'It looks, ' Davies pronounced, 'like Soar is moving to pick up the shuttle. Its course is erratic, and there's a sputter in its emission signature: I'm assuming it was Soar that fired first. The shuttle must have been right beside Captain's Fancy. It got caught in the discontinuities. I think it's out of control. But Soar won't have any trouble catching it. '

His father's voice and Morn's training made him sound certain.

'Calm Horizons is coming this way, ' he went on. 'Probably wants to improve her field of fire. '

Will she attack while we're still docked?' Sib asked tensely. The calm or resignation he'd felt earlier was gone.

'She can't hit us without damaging Billingate. '

'If I were the Amnion, ' Davies rasped, 'I wouldn't worry about that right now. They've lost Tranquil Hegemony - in fact, they've lost most of their installation. And they know Nick works for the cops. ' Complex vibrations sharpened his tone, like whetted knives. Morn heard anger, revulsion - and a strange note of pride. They know about his immunity drug. '

As he said that, a small sun of fear and shame went nova in her heart. They know — Of course they knew.

Nick had told her that. But how did Davies know?

They're bound to assume, ' he continued, 'that's why their mutagens didn't work on Morn. So they have to believe he set them up. He and Angus must be working together — he gave them Morn to bait some kind of UMCP trap.

'Stopping this ship probably takes precedence over everything else. '

Morn's knees failed: she sagged against his seat. 'You remember. ' If she'd ever needed her zone implant control, she needed it now. 'Your memory came back. ' How else could she face the things her son knew about her? 'You remember Nick telling me about the drug. '

No wonder he wanted to lock Nick out of the ship.

He remembered the things she'd done with him; the lies and desperation; the sex -

'Yes. ' He spoke over his shoulder without facing her.

'I remember it all. ' He sounded far away, too far to be reached; doomed by knowledge. 'It started coming back as soon as I saw Angus. '

He remembered the people she'd killed.

He remembered what Angus had done to her.

Did he want Angus' death as much as he wanted Nick's? Or was all his remaining rage and revulsion fixed on her? Had he given his loyalty to his father because he couldn't bear the memories he'd inherited from his mother?

Anger and revulsion made perfect sense to her; but what had he found in her experience - or his own - to be proud of?

If she lost him - or he lost her - he would have nothing left except Angus.

Vector had moved to stand behind her. Although he didn't touch her, he seemed to lean toward her as if he wanted to shore her up somehow.