Her Brother's Keeper - eARC (34 page)

There you go again, damn it. Just focus.
There was nothing to be gained from this speculation and brooding. He had in front of him a treasure trove of information, and Zak had long since learned that the best distraction from his troubles was to get lost in his reading. There had been more to this find than even the long-dead Dr. Loren had known. The Zanzibaran Colonial Government had kept the discovery of the Antecessor artifacts top secret. There was always the potential that alien discoveries could be dangerous, like a tribe of hunter-gatherers discovering a box of hand grenades. They kept everything as secret as they could, compartmentalized the project as much as possible.

Very little was known about the Antecessor species that had once walked on Zanzibar. It did seem that like the human scientists four million years later, they knew their end was coming. Everything that had been found of them had been located underground, discovered by a mining operation. Whereas some fossilized skeletons of the bipedal, three-eyed native species had been recovered, there was no leftover biological remnant of the Antecessors. All that was known of their makeup and appearance came from the artwork of the Zanzibari.

This Antecessor species looked nothing like a human, and the Zanzibari depictions of them were nebulous at best. So unfamiliar was their form that one didn’t immediately recognize what one was seeing when studying a picture of them, though it reminded Zak of a mix of Earth sea creatures.

The trunks of their bodies were stalklike and resembled a sea cucumber standing on end, at least two meters tall, with different Zanzibari illustrations showing individuals with surface bumps and projecting spikes. At the bottom of the stalk there seemed to be an elastic pad, similar to a slug’s, that was used for mobility. Halfway up the stalk, four tendril-like appendages emerged from their bodies, and the depictions by the natives indicated that these appendages could be extended or retracted as needed. Their bodies curved slightly forward and were crowned with what resembled a grotesque sea anemone. The tendrils and tissues on this structure were theorized to be sensory units, but that, too, was little more than speculation.

The xenobiologists who had studied this species theorized that this Antecessor species had aquatic origins. They called them
Pseudocaelus aquagrandis
. Like many of their theories, this was also speculation, as no biological remains of them had ever been found.

The ancient native Zanzibari hadn’t known anything about the Antecessors, either. Everything the human scientists had learned of their arrival and presence on Zanzibar had come from a series of remarkably well-preserved etchings and sculptures, created by native artists millions of years before. The Antecessors were depicted coming down from the stars in great vessels. The Zanzibari believed that the Antecessors had found them as hunter-gatherers and had lifted them up, teaching them writing, farming, mining, and city-building. The native civilization flourished under the guidance of the aliens, and in turn, the Zanzibari seemed to have worshiped the Antecessors as gods. Great temples were built in their honor, orders and societies were dedicated to their devotion.

For thousands of local years, the Antecessors ruled over Zanzibar. They seemed to have been few in number, but their influence was great. They were depicted observing, or perhaps directing, the construction of great pentagonal pyramids that dwarfed the ones constructed by the Ancient Egyptians on Earth. They oversaw the digging of great canals to get fresh water from great northern glaciers to the equatorial cities. The Antecessors taught the Zanzibari to build ships and navigate the planet’s shallow, salty seas. They were shown teaching astronomy and apparently medicine as well. They gave the natives alloys stronger and longer-lasting than anything they could have forged for themselves, which, Zak realized, probably explained the short sword Anna had been studying.

The advanced aliens’ generosity came at a price, however. One of the murals, which Zak was presently studying, depicted a group of Zanzibari rebelling against the Antecessors, even slaying one with swords and spears. In turn, the aliens punished the natives cruelly. They obliterated one of the great cities they had helped the Zanzibari build, wiping it from the surface of the planet like Sodom and Gomorrah in the Old Testament. The wayward natives were slaughtered by the thousands, sacrificed as a penance for their uprising.

The Antecessors may have wielded godlike power and influence over the Zanzibari, but they were not gods. The scientists studying the artifacts had not ascertained what had happened to the planet four million years before, but it seemed the Antecessor beings knew the end was coming. Great murals, preserved for millions of years in the incredibly dry darkness of subterranean caves, depicted the Antecessors digging great underground structures, holdfasts against the coming doom. Others were shown fleeing back to the stars, leading to speculation that they might still be out there somewhere.

The Zanzibari, too, prepared for their end. They dug catacombs and tombs for themselves, but unlike the Antecessors, they seemed to hold out no hope for their survival. Interpreting the artwork of a long dead, nonhuman species involved a lot of guesswork and speculation, but in observing the murals, etchings, and sculptures, Zak came to the same conclusion as his predecessors: they had known that they were doomed. There was a fatalistic sadness to their art that transcended the gulf between human and inhuman intellects.

When the end came, it happened rapidly. The geological record of the incident could be found all over the planet. The world was scorched, burned, cleansed in fire. The seas, indeed almost all water on Zanzibar, boiled away and were blown into space as the planet’s magnetosphere dissipated. Solar winds did the rest, slowly thinning out the planet’s atmosphere over the course of eons. Colossal upheavals shook the surface of the world, causing great quakes unlike anything ever seen on Earth. Mountains crumbled and fell, rifts kilometers wide opened up, and still scarred the surface of the barren world.

Everything the Zanzibari had built, all of their achievements, were rendered unto dust and carried away by the winds of time. Only fragments of their once mighty civilization remained, broken remnants buried between layers of silicate. Zanzibar, now a cold and dead world, wheeled quietly around Danzig-5012 for four million years before another living being set foot on it.

Conflicting theories as to the cause of Zanzibar’s apocalypse abounded. Many believed it had been an unusually powerful solar flare, or even a discharge from Danzig-5012 striking and altering the planet’s atmosphere. Some postulated the culprit might have been a nearby gamma ray burster. Others insisted that neither of these scenarios would have ended the planet’s seismic and volcanic activity, but the counter for that argument was that it wasn’t known when such activity stopped. It could have been millions of years earlier, as the geological evidence was inconclusive.

The most chilling theory, to Zak’s mind, was the one that most of the scientists had dismissed. This theory held that Zanzibar was deliberately destroyed by other alien intelligences, greater than even the Antecessors. By what means they did this could only be guessed at. The thought of something capable of wielding such titanic power frightened Zak to his core. He looked up from the warm glow of his screens, listened to the howling wind buffeting the building, and felt very small in a dark and hostile universe.

Zak startled when a hand was lightly placed on his shoulder. He turned around to see Anna, looking concerned. “You should get some rest,” she said softly. “Do you know what time it is?”

Zak blinked hard and looked at the chrono on one of his displays. “Oh man. It’s late.”

“You’ve been at this for more than a day straight,” Anna said.

“I know. I’m just frustrated. Look at what we found, what we learned, and it’s all going to Lang!”

“There’s nothing we can do right now,” she replied. She was right, of course. “Once we get off this planet and back to civilization, we’ll have more options. Your message was sent out. You’ve done everything you can do, and risked your life in the process. Stop beating yourself up.”

Zak closed his eyes as Anna rubbed his shoulders. “I know. Once I get back to Columbia I can get a hearing with Concordiat officials.”

“I’ll be there with you. I may be able to use my family connections to open some doors.”

Zak opened his eyes again. “You’re going back to Columbia? Why not go home to New Constantinople?” He immediately felt stupid for asking.
Are you trying to convince her to be on a different planet than you, idiot?

Anna smiled, looking down at the historian. Her hair hung down in his face as he looked up into her eyes. “Because I don’t
want
to go back to New Constantinople yet, Zachary. When I do go back, I’m taking my paramour home with me.”

“Paramour?” Zak asked. “Is that what they—” Before he could finish, Anna leaned down and kissed him passionately.

She stood up after a long moment, gently stroking the top of his bald head. “Paramour, Zak. It’s aristocratic-speak for boyfriend. Lover, if you will. Now come to bed. Those files will still be there tomorrow, and being the paramour of a woman in my position is a serious matter. I’m tired of going to bed alone. You’ve been derelict in your duties.”

Zak blinked rapidly, and tried to think of something clever or charming to say, but he stammered out “I, uh, okay, sorry,” instead. Anna just smiled at him one last time and turned for her room. Zak watched her leave, glanced back at his screens, then looked at the partially open door to her room. She was right: the long and tragic history of Zanzibar would wait a few more hours. Perhaps it was time to focus on something positive. The rather-less-dour historian stood up, kicked off his shoes, and followed Anna into her room.
Carpe diem, right?

Chapter 24

The Privateer Ship
Andromeda

High Solar Orbit

Danzig-5012 System

It had taken over four thousand hours, according to the ship’s internal clock, but the
Andromeda
winked into existence two hundred million kilometers from Danzig-5012. The orangeish Type G main sequence star was orbited by six planets: two gas giants, one ice giant, a scorched, barren world closest to the star, a tiny frozen planet furthest out, and one average-sized, terrestrial rock called Zanzibar.

As the ship’s systems recovered from transit shock and came back online, Captain Catherine Blackwood recorded a message for Aristotle Lang. She informed the warlord that she had arrived in system, and would be planeting on Zanzibar within the next several local days. That gave her plenty of time, as the
Andromeda
slogged across space on her reaction engines, to prepare for the next stage of her mission: finding and recovering her brother.

There were other pressing matters to attend to, however, and Catherine left Wolfram von Spandau in command of the ship and headed down to the ship’s security office. It was here that Mazer Broadbent had his office, as well as a tiny brig with one cell. The captain joined Mazer and Marcus Winchester in watching the security camera feed from the cell. There, the Orlov woman called Lana-90890 was being questioned by Randall Markgraf.

An intelligence officer by trade, Markgraf was in his element. Lana seemed scared and bewildered, so he was applying a softer, friendlier touch. She was beginning to trust him and was becoming very forthcoming with information. Little of it was of any use to the crew of the
Andromeda
at the moment, but everything was being carefully recorded. First-hand intelligence about the Orlov Combine was hard to come by; such information could likely be sold at a high price.

“He’s good,” Marcus remarked absentmindedly. Lana was sobbing again, and had her head buried in the mercenary’s shoulder. He comforted her as if he were her father. “She’s really warming up to him.”

Catherine raised an eyebrow. “I don’t suppose there’s any chance he’s just being decent to her?”

“Maybe. Either way, she’s an asset now. She’s been involved in the smuggling of refugees to Zanzibar before. She’s heard of this Sanctuary place.”

“Combine political refugees aren’t my immediate concern,” Catherine said, sounding colder than she would’ve liked. “We have a job to do.”

Marcus nodded. “Yes, ma’am. But the only information we have about the situation on the ground on Zanzibar is what Halifax as told us, and that’s years out of date. This woman has information that’s more recent. If we deliver her to Sanctuary, perhaps they’ll trust us enough to share some information on Aristotle Lang and his operation. It might give us a way in, an edge.”

“I’m still planning on simply paying his ransom, you know,” Catherine said.

“I understand, Captain, but I’m preparing for every contingency I can. If simply buying your brother back does the job, that’s all well and good. Until then, I’m going to assume the worst-case scenario and plan for that.”

The captain nodded thoughtfully. “I continue to get my money’s worth out of you, Mr. Winchester.”

On the screen, Markgraf was asking Lana about Sanctuary. “We don’t know anything about it,” he said calmly. “Your father told us to take you there. He said you’d know what that meant.” Lana looked uncomfortable, as if she was afraid to reveal this secret, even after the crew of the
Andromeda
had saved her life. Markgraf pressed in on her. “Lana, listen to me,” he said firmly. “You’re safe from the Combine. We almost started a war with them to get you out. The crew of this ship risked their lives to save yours. We were told by your father to bring you to Sanctuary on Zanzibar, but none of us know where that is. Help us help you.”

“My…my ECCOM is still active,” she said, pointing to the device attached to the side of her head. “With…without my programs, I can’t deactivate it or fool it. Everything we say is being recorded.”

“I’m aware, Lana. It doesn’t matter. You’re outside of Combine space, on an independent privateer ship. Your electronic comrade has no one to talk to. It can record, but it can’t upload. We can have the ship’s flight surgeon look into removing it for you, if you like. After that, you can launch it out of the airlock, burn it up in the ship’s exhaust. You’re free now, Lana, but we need to know where to bring you. One way or another, we’re going to Zanzibar. We’re almost there.”

Even in the face of overwhelming evidence, Lana was hesitant, as if she feared this whole thing was some kind of elaborate ruse. Catherine couldn’t imagine the kind of living conditions, if you could even
call
it living, that could make a person so afraid to
think.

“Lana, we need your help,” Markgraf insisted. “Our mission on Zanzibar is not related to this Sanctuary place, but maybe they can help us. We need information about a dangerous warlord, if they have it. We need to know what the situation on the ground is, so we’re not going in blind. If we can even find them, they’re not going to talk to a bunch of off-worlders. But if we bring you to them, explain what happened, maybe they’ll be willing to talk to us.”

Lana, still sitting on the bunk, folded her hands in her lap and looked down. She seemed terrified. “This could be a trick,” she managed after a moment. “InSec could’ve hired you people to find Sanctuary.”

“Lana, you watched the video of your station being destroyed. You saw the message your father left for you.”

“My father could be
in
on it!” she snapped, tears in her eyes. “Everything else could be faked!”

Catherine could see Markgraf’s frustration, but he kept his professional demeanor and changed tactics. “Listen to me. If you really believed that, you wouldn’t have come with us. Do you want to speak with the captain again?” Lana didn’t answer. “Okay, I’ll bring her in here.” He looked up at the camera. “Captain Blackwood, would you be so kind as to step in here with us, ma’am? I think our guest would feel better hearing this from you.”

Catherine’s eyes went wide for a moment. Marcus shrugged. “I didn’t tell him you were here, if that’s what you’re wondering. He probably just assumed.”

“Well then,” Catherine said, smoothing the wrinkles out of her flight suit. “I suppose I ought to go talk to the woman. Excuse me.” With the ship accelerating at 0.75 gravities, the captain was able to walk to the holding cell instead of pulling herself along by handholds. Markgraf nodded at the skipper and excused himself as she entered the tiny brig and sat on the bunk next to Lana. “Hello,” she said, after a pause.

“Hello, Captain,” Lana said quietly.

Catherine took a soft tone. “Listen to me, child. I know you’re scared. I know your whole world was just turned upside down, but we need your help. We can’t get you to Sanctuary if you don’t tell us how to find it. It’s okay if you don’t know everything. Just tell us what you do know, and we’ll go from there.”

“Why are you going to Zanzibar?”

“I’m going there because a local warlord is holding my brother hostage. My father hired me to pay his ransom and bring him home. Our meeting you was completely unintentional, arranged by your father. He practically blackmailed us into it, as a matter of fact.”

“And you’re just going to let me go?” the young woman asked incredulously.

“Yes, dear. Unless you’re interested in joining the crew, I’ve no cause to keep you on board. One way or another, after we make planetfall, you’re free to go. Zanzibar is a dangerous place. We can help you get to Sanctuary safely, and maybe your compatriots there will be able to help us as well.”

She absentmindedly touched the gray monitoring device attached to her head. “You can really take this off? It’s…it’s been on me since I was a girl.”

“We have some time before we land. Doing the procedure in freefall isn’t ideal, but my flight surgeon is very skilled. I’m sure he can remove it. I can take you right to him, if you like.”

Her eyes teared up again. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “Thank you, Captain. I know a way to contact Sanctuary, and an emergency code. It’s old, but it should still be good. If you take this…this
thing
off of me, I’ll take you to them when we land.”

“You’ve got yourself a deal, Lana,” Catherine said. “Come now, let’s go see Dr. Emerson.”