Blood of the Cosmos (16 page)

“There is a far worse pain than the
thism
,” boomed the Shana Rei. “Eternity's mind grows louder, deeper.” The words degenerated, became gibberish, then swelled into a howling wail echoed by hundreds of other inkblots that appeared around him, countless eyes staring through the void.

Lashing out, the Shana Rei plucked a random robot from the group and spun the black shape away from the others. The robot swiveled its flat angular head, sent out a burst of panic, and transmitted an emergency backup of its personalities and memories. Exxos and his counterparts received the flood of data only a moment before the shadows ripped the victim apart. They tore the metallic plates loose, plucked out the optical sensors, and spilled internal circuits like the entrails of a vivisected animal. The robot's bleating electronic signal fell silent, and the destroyed components drifted into the nothingness. Long afterward, the Shana Rei continued to break the debris into smaller and smaller pieces, then separated even the combined molecules into component atoms, and then they were finished.

Exxos and the other robots endured in silence. Now, only 240 of them remained.

Fortunately, after their frenzied outburst the Shana Rei seemed calmer, and their agony settled into a dull throbbing. One of the inkblots appeared before Exxos again. “We will create your ships, and you will continue to destroy that which causes us pain. Tell us this target you have chosen.”

“It is a place where the Ildirans focus their thoughts. They draw
thism
together as they study the Lightsource. We must erase it.”

The shadow said, “Yes, they inflict shards of pain upon us. Destroy them with these ships we give you.”

The void rippled, and the Shana Rei absorbed the projected blueprint and forged the first warship out of nothingness, a feat which was accompanied by a chorus of howling pain as the shadows forced matter out of chaos. They managed to manufacture ten identical battleships before the pain became too great for them.

Exxos was satisfied. As he and all his comrades were transported aboard the impressive new vessels, he said, “These will do very well.” It was a statement of fact, not gratitude.

The new black robot fleet began to move through the back corridors of the universe. Finally they arrived at their destination, opening a doorway at the proper place. The deadly ships emerged above the Ildiran shrine of Hiltos, ready for battle.

 

CHAPTER

23

TASIA TAMBLYN

As the de-facto administrator of Kett Shipping, Tasia knew her title sounded impressive, but the work wasn't as exciting as being a trader herself. Most of her day involved dealing with bureaucratic headaches, and taking care of business details. It wasn't the sort of work the daughter of an influential Roamer clan was bred to do, and her years as a crack pilot in the Earth Defense Forces hadn't prepared her for all the tedious crap required to manage a large commercial fleet.

At least she got to eat Rlinda Kett's cooking.

The big hearty woman had a sparkling grin as she maneuvered a large presentation cart loaded with more food than any family could eat. “I outdid myself today.”

Tasia and her husband Robb sat at a central desk in the headquarters building, going over the distribution of ships in the Kett fleet, trying to maximize routes and profitable cargo combinations. Most of the independent pilots who worked for Kett Shipping could veto the suggestions—although not if they had any common sense.

Sniffing the savory aromas that wafted up from the cart, Robb perked up. “Now that's the right kind of distraction.”

Tasia's stomach growled. She had grabbed only a quick packaged breakfast, but she would never confess such a culinary indiscretion to Rlinda.

The big trader waved her hands like a magician over the various trays and serving platters on the presentation cart. “Freshly prepared and perfectly seasoned, guaranteed.” Rlinda frowned. “And where are Xander and Terry? I was very specific about the time I was serving.”

“With Xander, you should have been specific half an hour early,” Tasia said. “Our son gets distracted easily.”

Rlinda's brow furrowed as she tried to decide whether to serve the food or wait for her other two guests.

Since Xander and Terry's recent disturbing trip to Dremen, she and Robb had dug into their suppliers and found five similar shipments of “boutique medical supplies” being sent by the same man, Aldo Cerf. They had stopped delivery of all of the shipments (to the great anger of some customers), considering that any such materials might well be dangerous. Unfortunately, the supplier was clever enough to use several layers of handoffs and dead ends so that Kett Shipping never knew the exact origin of those medical shipments. When they kept probing, Cerf had simply disappeared.

“Deliveries were made and bills were paid,” as Rlinda often said, but maybe it was time to ask a few more questions about what their ships were delivering. Just because a cargo was profitable didn't mean it was worth carrying. Tasia felt that Kett Shipping's profit margin could withstand it.

Now that she had Rlinda with her in the headquarters—a very rare occurrence—Tasia used her desktop to project a color-coded cargo manifest of each ship in the company roster. “While we wait for Xander and Terry, do you want to look at what Robb and I have been working on all morning? Since we don't have the
Proud Mary
and Orli Covitz to pick up the slack, we refactored our basic routes. We have a suggestion, if you'd like to—”

Rlinda waved a hand. “Not at all, girl. If I didn't trust you two to make those decisions, I would never have given you control of my company. And if I wanted to do the work myself, why would I have hired you in the first place?”

Lifting one of the covers, she bent over to sniff a glistening brownish tangle. She picked up a serving fork and twirled the dish. Tasia thought it looked like some tropical bird's nest. “We're adding this to the menus of my restaurants—a spiroid fungus harvested from the trees on Dremen, naturally savory with a distinctive nutty flavor. It goes particularly well with chili oil.” She couldn't resist scooping up a few strands that squirmed of their own volition. She slurped, smacked her lips. “Terry in particular will like this.” She gave a snort. “If he ever gets here.”

Rlinda had been a successful trader, flying the
Voracious Curiosity
during the Elemental War; afterward, King Peter had chosen her as the Confederation's first trade minister, but in her retirement, she was much more interested in her avocation of cooking. She ran gourmet restaurants on Earth, Relleker, and Theroc.

In her stead, Tasia and Robb managed Kett Shipping, and profits were higher than ever, thanks to the exclusive ekti-X trading arrangement with Iswander Industries. As she thought of that, she couldn't help but be reminded of how Xander and Terry had gotten themselves bullied at Ulio Station. Iswander Industries produced so much stardrive fuel that it required five different vessels from Kett Shipping just to deliver and distribute it all, but Xander and Terry were the only direct liaisons with Elisa Enturi, and no one knew where the stardrive fuel was coming from. Kett Shipping remained ignorant, on purpose—none of their business.

Just as they had done with Aldo Cerf and his horrendous “medical supplies.” Her stomach knotted at the comparison.
What else don't we know about our cargo?

As if her thoughts had summoned the two young men, Xander and Terry appeared at the door. “Sorry we're late,” Xander said, his voice overlapping with Terry's happy exclamation. “That smells delicious!”

“And we brought a special guest,” Xander said with a grin. They came in with a clean and polished compy strutting beside them. Wearing his antigrav belt, Terry held the small compy's shoulder, which was just the right height to give him balance. “OK, fully repaired and ready to get back to work. Good as new.”

The compy said in his pleasant synthesized voice, “I apologize for being out of commission. The damage inflicted upon me was more severe than the engineers originally thought. I am much better now, though.”

Terry added, “We also had the compy engineers include reinforced shielding and hardened circuits to protect him if he ever gets into a similar situation.”

Xander waved his hand, minimizing. “There won't be any similar situation. That was an anomaly. Aaron Duquesne is a hothead and a bully, and we'll be more alert from now on.” His voice grew quieter, more insistent, as if promising the compy. “It won't happen again. We'll be more careful.”

Robb was concerned. “I've also had increased armaments installed on the
Verne
before you go back out. You know how valuable ekti-X is.”

Tasia added, “And maybe I should take you both out on more defensive flying lessons so you can learn reckless maneuvers that could save your lives if you're under attack.”

“Don't go overboard, Mother,” Xander said.

She crossed her arms over her chest. “My reaction is perfectly appropriate, considering what happened.”

Meanwhile, Rlinda Kett busied herself serving large plates for the five of them, spiroid-fungus noodles, shellfish-and-insect skewers, and a separate bowl with a haystack of jellied stems with a sweet sauce for dessert. She called to the compy, “Here, OK—if you're repaired, then make yourself useful.”

“That is certainly within my capabilities, Rlinda Kett.” OK carried the first plate to Robb, who cleared a spot for eating on the projection desk.

As she prepared the second plate, Rlinda said, “It's none of my business anymore, but I did my share of dangerous runs, delivered cargo through blockades, and got into a lot of trouble.” She tapped the spoon on a plate and handed the serving to Xander without waiting for OK to return. The compy seemed disappointed as he held out his polymer hands for the third plate. “Your deal for distributing ekti-X is a huge boon to our company, and there's absolutely no question about the profits. The
Verne
is my highest-earning vessel in Kett Shipping—and you're my youngest pilots, so you can be proud of yourselves.” Her voice became sterner. “But don't be so damned na
ï
ve. Plenty of people would kill—and I mean that literally—to learn where the hell ekti-X comes from.”

Tasia added, “I went to a Roamer convocation on Newstation, and that's all the clans were talking about. Skyminer families are in an uproar, afraid they're going bankrupt. Nobody knows where to find Lee Iswander, but ekti-X keeps pouring in.” She frowned more deeply. “It does raise a lot of questions. What is his source of the stardrive fuel? Is it some kind of illicit operation?”

Xander sounded defensive. “I don't know, and I want to keep it that way. I can't reveal answers that I don't have.”

“Won't stop someone from trying to find out,” Robb said. “And by the time they're convinced you don't know the answer, you might be in worse shape than OK was when you brought him back here.”

“I am completely repaired now,” the compy said as he brought Tasia her plate. The food did indeed smell delicious, but the thought of someone wanting to hurt her son had dampened Tasia's appetite.

“Not knowing has its own dangers, too. Look at the debacle on Dremen with the ‘medical treatments,'” Tasia said. “Shizz! We've done some digging and hit only dead ends. Best we can determine is that Aldo Cerf operates outside of the Confederation on one of the unallied worlds. Nothing we can do about it—except turn down his business.”

Rlinda huffed. “We're a shipping company. We have a right to know the source of what we're transporting. Period. Whether it's an illicit medical treatment that kills people—or ekti-X. We can't just turn a blind eye, pretend it fell off a truck somewhere, and sell it. It's for our own peace of mind, if nothing else.”

Robb shook his head. “We were there during Iswander's disaster on Sheol. Who knows what sort of operation he's using now to produce that stardrive fuel? He's entitled to his proprietary information, but we're entitled to know that we're not inadvertently involved in something illegal.”

Terry shook his head. “We can ask, but Elisa will never divulge anything. It's closely held knowledge. If Lee Iswander has an ekti-production process that nobody else knows, why should he reveal it—even to us?” He took several bites, exclaiming with delight at the taste.

Xander added, “With the way the Roamer clans treated him after Sheol, I can imagine he wouldn't be in a sharing mood.” He finished his main course and tried the sticky, caramelized stems.

“We have no interest in getting into ekti production or stepping on his business. We're not Iswander's competition,” Robb said. “But what if he's doing something illegal or underhanded? By acting as his distributors, Kett Shipping would be an accomplice.”

“In my experience, if something seems too good to be true, it usually is.” Satisfied, Rlinda served herself and ate standing up while holding the plate in one hand. “Maybe we need to find the answers on our own.”

 

CHAPTER

24

ORLI COVITZ

The regular trader was due to arrive at the Ikbir colony that day, and it was the first bit of excitement Orli had seen since coming here with Garrison and Seth. Living in the colony had quickly settled into a routine, even though she did enjoy the warm, calm times with Garrison.

Although the people here didn't depend on outside trade for their survival, they still looked forward to seeing what the commercial ship brought. While automated agricultural machinery continued to till the outlying fields, the workers had started to gather around the cleared landing field. Waiting. It was like a festival day.

Garrison had gone to monitor the spaceport systems in anticipation of the trader's arrival, but Orli worked at home. The Domestic compy MO busied herself cleaning, scrubbing, dusting, sterilizing, and polishing until the dwelling could have been used for medical research. MO was obsessive about her duties, and the Ikbir colonists were happy to have her move from home to home.