Balance of Terror (13 page)

And so Srin had worked next to Moon as her two-legged living, breathing super-computer, all the time quietly subverting the occasional calculation so her research would fail. Compared to what he had done to her project – her life’s work – his current deception of partially feigning disability barely rated.

Closing his eyes momentarily, Srin took a deep breath. He knew he should have been habituating to the drugs that Moon was feeding him, but instead he felt as if his condition was improving. He still endured bouts of exhaustion, and the sceptre of a brain-destroying fever was ever present, but he felt stronger than he had in months. Maybe even years. Part of him wanted to tell Moon, so they could celebrate together, but Srin was also a cautious man. What if he relapsed in a day? In a week? What he needed was a permanent cure and he knew that his temporary well-being was far from that.

Much easier, for the time being, to keep his improved stamina a secret. If it improved, or was sustained, all well and good. But he was damned if he was going to lift Moon’s spirits, only to dash them again. That, he would never do.

Chapter Ten

“It’s been a good run, thanks to the two of yer,” Gauder conceded. His voice was clear over the comms unit and only wavered when his lead tank hit the small sand ridges that seemed to ripple ahead of them like waves on a shoreline. The day blazed white and hot around them, a glare even the tinted glass of their cabin couldn’t completely neutralise.

“We’re a month ahead of schedule. So ah thought we’d stop fer some recreation.”

Moon and Srin looked at each other but said nothing.

“We’ll be headin’ for Kushin Meet. Punch it into yer nav unit and stay behind me.”

Srin did as he was told as Moon handled the driving.

“It should be less than an hour’s travel from here,” Srin remarked, staring at the small navigation screen.

“A city?” That didn’t seem to make any sense. From how Gauder had spoken, Moon got the impression the arms trader hated the human-dominated cities.

“No, not quite. It looks like the location marker is a recent addition, not part of the original map.”

“Another one of our here-today-gone-tomorrow encampments?”

“Could be.”

“And what does he mean by ‘recreation’?” Moon mused. “The idea of Gauder enjoying himself is quite alarming, to be honest.”

Srin grinned crookedly. “You’re just saying that because he’s a ruthless bastard who’d sell us out in a heartbeat if there was a better deal going.”

Moon, less amused, tightened her lips but remained silent.

They didn’t see Kushin Meet at first. Through the wavering view of the horizon, Moon thought they were approaching a series of sand dunes and it was only when they were almost on top of the formation that it resolved into an agglomeration of dun-coloured tents, some of them stretching fifteen metres into the air, while others – low and squat – hugged the sandy ground.

For the first time in more than two months, Moon had to decelerate the tank in order to navigate her way through a welter of increasing traffic. She followed Gauder’s vehicle carefully, turning off at a marker stuck into the ground and entering a large corralled area that contained a bewildering array of vehicles, from one-person flitters to cargo carriers three times the size of their tanks.

Gauder parked his vehicle, jumped down and gesticulated to Moon, directing her next to him. Amid clouds of dust, Moon manoeuvred into position and breathed a sigh of relief when she finally switched off the engine.

“We’ll make a fine driver out of ye yet, lady scientist,” Gauder commended as she opened the door.

“This is Kushin Meet?” she asked, ignoring his statement as she jumped to the ground.

“Aye, this is the Meet.”

They were interrupted by a native who had a quick conversation with Gauder before handing him a small disc. Gauder pocketed it and gestured to the other two. “Let’s go find us some fun, eh?”

Kushin Meet was a city of tents, arranged according to rules that seemed less than obvious to Moon. Narrow straight avenues bent abruptly or flowered into several more alleys. It took twentyminutes before she began to notice a pattern. One lane, for example, appeared to be dominated by weavers and dealers in clothing and textiles, others by electronics handlers. Several contained food vendors and it was here that Gauder stopped first.

A garbed figure detached itself from a group and approached them, gesticulating expansively. Moon couldn’t see what the person looked like, but he? she? exchanged a few words with Gauder and the trader allowed them to be ushered into the interior of a tent. It should have been dark inside, but Moon looked up to see that the apex of the tent was open to the air, the pale sky blazing above them, blocked only by a conjunction of slim support beams. From where she stood, it looked like she was beneath an unfinished spider’s web, the beams glittering silver in the early afternoon sunshine.

This was…so different to what she’d been expecting from life and, for a moment, she just stood there, soaking in the alien atmosphere. Moon Thadin, premier stellar physicist of the Phyllis Science Centre, now passable cargo tank driver and visitor to one of the more exotic locations that the galaxy had to offer.

Then a voice spoke close to her ear. “Come on. Gauder says you’re blocking passing traffic.”

Moon shook her head and smiled wryly at Srin. “Sorry, I got caught up for a moment.”

“Tell me about it later,” he said and guided her to a small table by the edge of one fabric wall.

“The Meet moves around from place ter place,” Gauder began as they sat down. “Best t’ avoid any complications that way, if yer get me meaning. In another two weeks, it’ll be gone. But, while it’s here, it’s the closest to a continent-wide gathering you’ll find.”

“But,” Moon objected, “with all these people travelling to and fro to this one spot, even for a few weeks, won’t that make it easy for the Republic to find us?”

Gauder shook his head as if lecturing a child. “Lady scientist, haven’t ye been taking
any
notice of what we’ve been doin’ for the past month? Each sector of the Open is ruled by a warlord and when the Meet happens, yer get several such warlords – and a fair bit of their arsenal – in the one place. Oh, the Republic can
try
to blow us to smithereens, but
they’ll
be the ones tryin’ to reassemble their soldiers if they do.”

“So the Republic just ignores anything that happens outside the cities?”

“Don’t poke yer nose in, don’t get it chopped off,” Gauder confirmed.

“It can’t continue,” Srin said.

“Oh, yer think so, do yer?” Gauder’s eyebrows rose. “Well it’s worked for the past eleven decades already, sick boy. What do yer say to that?”

“A temporary situation.”

“Temporary?” The burly dealer guffawed loudly, momentarily garnering the attention of several groups of fellow diners. He cleared his throat and lowered his voice. “Yer call more than a century ‘temporary’?”

“Yes, so long as it suits the Republic. But if they find something valuable on Marentim, Mr. Gauder, something that’s rare and precious, then no warlord on this planet will be able to stand up to them. At the moment, you’re safe because the giant hasn’t decided to flex its fingers, but if it ever does….”

Gauder attempted another laugh, but it petered out. “Yer think too much when yer awake,” he finally grumbled.

It occurred to Moon that her lover was completely correct. Maybe Gauder’s heartfelt paeans to the beauty of the planet’s arid spaces had affected her more than she thought – and she certainly wasn’t going to admit it out loud – but she had been thinking about Marentim, wondering if there was some way she and Srin could use the planet as a base, scouting for medical breakthroughs from a secure home on the desert world. Despite its harshness, or perhaps because of it, Marentim had crept its way into Moon’s soul, beguiling her with its sparse beauty.

Upon listening to the banter between the two men, however, Moon realised that there was no future for them on this world. What if they settled down…and the Republic found rare minerals on the planet? What if someone stumbled across a viable crease closer to the system, leading to the heart of the Tor system? What if Marentim was close to what the Republic considered to be a strategic target? There were too many variables to feel completely safe. Maybe there might be some security at their next stop, on 3 Enkil IV. But there was still the matter of trusting her ex-partner, Kad, and the rebel network he had kept secret from her for years.

Moon had been trailing Srin and Gauder after they all finished their quick meal and exited the tent, her mind on other things. There was pride in Gauder’s voice, as if he had single-handedly conjured the Meet from the fine desert sand. At his gestures, Moon looked appropriately to the left or the right, but she had a bigger problem to figure out.

What I need is some kind of insurance, she thought to herself. Not to be at the mercy of people like Gauder. A way out so if someone tries to double-cross us, we’ll still have an avenue of escape.

“—no civilisation, well, we can turn to the casino over there and wish ‘em the best o’ luck.”

Moon stopped. “Casino?” she repeated. Was it a mere coincidence that she was thinking of a difficulty and, suddenly, an apparent solution presented itself?

The other two stopped and turned.

“Aye,” Gauder confirmed, “that’s what I said. Ye’ll find the usual games in there, as well as some indigenous to this planet. Are yer game to play, lady scientist?”

Moon blinked a few times, still disbelieving.

“I think I’m starting to feel a little lucky, Mr. Gauder,” she finally told him. And smiled.

“We have to do it in one night,” Srin said.

Moon grimaced. “Isn’t that going to be too obvious?”

“More obvious than cleaning them out over
two
nights? We might be able to explain one night as beginner’s luck. But if we go back and repeat our performance, we’ll only arouse everyone’s suspicions.”

She chewed at her bottom lip. “Yes, I suppose you’re right.”

The cargo hold of their tank was almost three-quarters empty by now, and Moon was using the extra room to pace. Srin thought the gesture looked familiar. Had she done this on the
Differential
? Was the familiarity an echo of something he’d once seen for himself? From his comfortable seat on the floor, leaning against a tank wall, he watched as she strode back and forth.

“I asked Gauder about the kind of games they play,” she said, “and he gave me a brief rundown. There’s the usual – some card games, a couple of others with a spinning wheel, and some involving dice, sand and even drops of blood that I don’t know too much about.”

“I need something with a few well-defined parameters,” Srin mused. “Something that depends on skill but doesn’t
look
like it depends on skill. It doesn’t even have to be my skill…in fact, it might be better if it doesn’t involve me at all, so that all I have to do is make a bet on someone else’s work.” He paused. “Do we know when our guide is thinking of moving out?”

Moon lifted her eyebrows. “He says tomorrow night, just after dusk.”

“Hmmmm. That doesn’t give us much time. How much money do we have to play with?”

“Around two kilo-credits.”

Srin looked at her. “And how much of a win are you going to be happy with, Moon?”

She laughed without mirth. “Happy? I won’t be truly happy until both of us are safe from everyone who wants a piece of your brain and my work. What do I need to buy that? Fifty kilo-credits? Eighty? The skills of an interstellar pilot so we can buy and steer our own ship?” She shook her head. “I don’t know, Srin. Every time I come up with a figure in my head, I get a counter-argument about something I haven’t thought of.”

“What are we going to do with all this money once we get it? Keep it for a while? Or escape straight away?”

Moon stopped pacing and looked at him helplessly. “Again, I don’t really know. I just want some independence from everything that’s being played around us.
Our
own money,
our
own agenda. At the moment, we’re riding the edge of other people’s largesse – Kad’s, Gauder’s. Their generosity, to do with as they will. Before we touched down on Marentim, it was Leen Vazueb and her medical skills, then the
Velvet Storm
and its crew spiriting us away from Lunar Fifteen. Each time, we made it to our planned destination, but it occurs to me that anyone could’ve sold us out before that point and there wouldn’t have been a thing we could have done about it.”

Srin’s eyes widened. “You’re thinking of ditching Gauder, aren’t you?”

“Haven’t you?” she countered.

He shrugged. “Sure, but I have to admit, it’s easier to handle me with another person around than just by yourself.”

It hurt his masculine pride to say that, but it was only the truth.

Several seconds of silence passed.

“You know that’s not how I feel, don’t you?” Moon finally asked in a quiet voice.

“Moon, all I’m saying—”