Jani and the Greater Game (The Multiplicity Series Book 1) (39 page)

D
AWN LIGHT GREETED
the airship as it sped east.

Jani sat beside a porthole and peered out, Anand beside her.

Ahead she could see the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas, aluminium blue and brilliant white, with the dazzling starburst of the sun rising beyond. Far below she made out crumpled foothills and the varicose squiggle of a river; they were passing above the land seemingly in slow motion, the thrum of their engines the only sound. There was no sign of pursuing British craft.

“Jani-ji, I heard what the... what Jelch told you. Is it true? Is the creature really from the stars? And will another race invade the Earth?”

From his lips, the threat did sound extraordinary. “It is true. Jelch is from another world. As for an invasion...” She shrugged. “I don’t know. Jelch seems convinced, but it has been a long time since the other beings... the Zhell... threatened.”

“And what does Jelch want you to do?”

“Not just me, Anand. We’re all in this together. You’ve helped me so far. Without you...” She stopped and shook her head. “But I don’t know what he wants, ultimately. You heard him say that it’s best that I don’t know?”

He nodded. “Can we trust him?”

“You’ve asked that before, and my answer is the same. Of course we can.” She reached out and took his hand. “It’s strange, isn’t it? Here I am, trusting an alien creature above those of my own kind, above the British, the Russians, and even our fellow Indians.”

Anand smiled. “I always thought Durga Das was an untrustworthy fellow. Your father called him a ‘bloody troublemaker’!”

“Well, with luck we’ve seen the last of him.”

Anand was silent for a time, and then asked, “Do you know where we’re going, Jani-ji?”

“I
think
I do,” she said. She’d had time to consider what Jelch had told her about the alien ship. “I think we’re heading for the great ship that brought Jelch and his companion, and the Vantissar, here fifty years ago.”

Even as she spoke the words, she found them hard to believe, and Anand’s expression mirrored her incredulity.

The baize door swung open and Jelch ducked through. He sat on the
chaise longue
; the seat was low, and his long legs and high, articulated knee-joints jutted oddly. Jani stared at him, a being from another world.

“We are more than two hundred miles into the territory of Nepal,” he said, “and I am worried.”

“But I don’t see any sign of our being followed,” Jani said.

His lips stretched. “And that, Jani, is why I am worried. I would have expected the air to be thick with pursuing RAF airships and planes.”

“Perhaps they didn’t suspect that we were heading for Nepal?” she suggested.

“They wouldn’t be so foolish. We were a hundred miles from the border, and heading east. They knew, all right. We might have lost them in the cloud, but they should have sent other craft up after us.”

“So...?”

“It’s my guess that they are tracking us from the ground.”

Anand leaned forward. “So what should we do, sir?”

“What I always planned to do – land perhaps a mile or so away from our destination and continue the rest of the way on foot. If they are tracking us from below, then the lie of the land is to our advantage. They might be able to see where we come down, approximately, but the foothills are dense and hard to navigate. We would have a good head start before they caught up and found the abandoned ship.”

Jani watched Jelch as she asked, “You said ‘our destination’... I take it that you mean the Vantissar ship?”

Jelch inclined his head. “I do.”

“And once there?”

He was silent for a stretch. Only the monotonous rhythm of the twin engines could be heard. “And once there, Jani, you will board the star-vessel.”

She stared at him. “You make it sound easy. Won’t the craft be guarded? I would have thought that it would be as well-defended as a garrison town.”

He gave his attempt at a smile. “It will be well-guarded, Jani, which is why it would be impossible for me to enter. The British have built a bustling city around the vessel. Scientists are domiciled there, and of course – this being a British concern – administrators also. And where there is any congregation of British citizens on the subcontinent, there are also servants, Indians and Nepalese, to do the dirty work.”

“Ah,” Jani said.

“The British employ native men and women to ferry things to and from the interior of the ship. The vessel is vast, Jani, and at any one time there are up to a hundred scientists and engineers working within it. Of course these people need supplies, food and drink, and what they discover in there needs transporting to the outside world.”

“I see.”

Jelch drew a long breath. “What I suggest will be dangerous, and I will fully understand if you refuse to go through with the idea.”

“Tell me.”

“We land, trek towards the city that surrounds the vessel, and you and Anand will infiltrate the workers there. I have rupees with which to ease your passage, if you agree to undertake the task.”

“I too have rupees,” Anand said.

Jelch smiled. “And then all you have to do is buy your way into the ship. I will be on hand to assist you.”

“Assist, or...
advise
from afar?” Jani asked. “Your appearance would preclude you from being present, physically.”

“Jani, I once said you were perspicacious.”

She smiled. “How else to explain your ‘presence’ in the warehouse? You were too real to be a hallucination – and anyway, if you were so, then how did I know that I would be saved, and would head east from Delhi?” She stared at the alien. “How did you do it, Jelch?”

“I am tempted to say that you would not understand, but that would be patronising, and anyway I think that you would comprehend fully. My kind have the ability to... I suppose a translation would be to ‘project’ ourselves, a tele-cognitive talent we use in extreme situations. To do so is taxing, and has been known to kill an individual. I am linked with you on a neurological level, can chart your presence, and if needs be project my consciousness so that you can witness it. Perhaps, in the days ahead, this might again come in useful.”

She let the silence stretch as she contemplated his words, then asked, “And once I am within the ship?”

“I will tell you that closer to the time,” he said. “Of course, I will fully understand if you baulk at entering the ship. The task will entail no small amount of danger, after all.”

She said in barely a whisper, “I think I should make up my mind when the time comes to act, Jelch; when we have landed and approached the city around the ship, and I have assessed the situation fully. Will you accept that, for the time being?”

“Of course I will.” Jelch stood. “We should be landing in fifteen minutes, I had better make preparations.”

He loped off into the control cabin, and Jani watched him go in silence.

Anand stared at her. “Whatever you decide, Jani-ji, I will be with you. If you elect to enter the ship, then I will come too.”

“And endanger yourself in doing so?”

He shrugged. “How could I leave you to do this alone?” he murmured.

“Thank you, Anand. But as I said, I will assess the situation later.” She stood and moved to a porthole at the stern of the gondola, more to be alone with her thoughts than to see if they were being followed. The bright blue sky was as clear of pursuing craft as her mind was full of questions.

How did Durga Das know she had had the coin, or the tithra-kūjī, as he called it? Why did Jelch want her to enter the Vantissar ship? And how might her doing so help combat the invasion of the Zhell?

She wondered what her father would have counselled her to do. She smiled: she knew very well what he would have said.

And, despite telling Jelch that she would make her decision later, she knew that she could take only one course of action. She had come so far, risked so much already – and she trusted Jelch wholeheartedly – that she could not in all conscience turn back now.

If humanly possible, she would enter the alien ship.

T
EN MINUTES LATER
the ship’s engines changed pitch as they descended towards the Himalayan foothills.

Jani joined Anand and together they peered through a porthole as the forested slopes rose to meet them. Jelch called out from the control cabin that the landing was likely to be a turbulent one, and Jani and Anand found hand-holds as the airship brushed the treetops and the gondola crashed through the foliage. Jani braced herself, expecting a shattering impact to split the gondola asunder. Her surprise was matched only by her delight when the airship came to a sudden halt and the engines fell silent.

She looked out and saw close-packed trees and foliage. The gondola hung six feet from the ground, swaying slightly. Jelch emerged from the cabin. “We’re closer to the outskirts of the city than I thought – less than a mile.”

“Which, over this terrain, and through undergrowth like that...” Jani began.

He pulled something from the pocket of his jacket, a small golden cylinder that reminded Jani of a lipstick. “The undergrowth will be the least of our problems,” he said, crossing to the hatch and pulling it open.

Jani and Anand followed. “Meaning?” she asked.

He paused, peering down. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the British had a reception party awaiting us somewhere. Our first priority is to leave the airship as far behind us as possible.”

He told Anand to pick up a rucksack containing food and water, then turned and climbed from the airship. The ship’s collapsible ladder extended halfway to the ground. Jani followed Jelch down and jumped the last three feet, turning to assist Anand.

She gazed up at the airship lodged in the treetops high above. Jelch said, “The envelope’s too damaged for the craft to take off. Not that I was planning to use it again. The British would be on the lookout for a ’ship with these markings.” He looked through the canopy at the bright blue sky, still innocent of RAF airships. “We’ll be forced to find an alternative means of getting away from here.”

He turned and pointed through the undergrowth. “We head east. There’ll be a steep climb. When we get to the crest, we should be able to see the Vantissar vessel in the far valley.”

Jani’s pulse quickened at the thought. She stared at Jelch, the alien; hard though it was to credit, she now had to accommodate the startling fact that out there, among the far stars, were other planets, other teeming civilisations. She had thought the contrast between Britain and India extreme; she could hardly conceive of how totally different life on an alien world might be.

And soon she would look upon a vessel that had set out, more than fifty years ago, under the light of another sun, and she would attempt to gain access to this ship.

Jelch adjusted the golden cylinder and a thin white light sprang from it, startling Anand.

“But what is it, sir?”

“A concentrated beam of energy, Anand. Look.”

Jelch swept it in an arc ahead of him, and as if by magic the dense undergrowth before them fell away.

He led the way up the incline away from the airship, clearing a path where the foliage was thickest. The air filled with the stench of ash, occasionally overcome by the perfume of bromeliads and bougainvillea. Jani heard distant birdsong. They were high up here, and the humidity of the plains had given way to a cooler, cleaner atmosphere.

They climbed steadily, stopping from time to time to peer through the canopy high above for any sign of the RAF. Jelch cocked his head to the side and listened intently. Jani knew from their first meeting that his sense of hearing was more acute than any human’s. She considered his ability to project images of himself into the minds of others and wondered what other peculiar abilities he might possess.

Anand followed Jelch like a faithful dog. After his initial wariness of the alien, the boy had hung on his every word, eager to assist Jelch in whatever small task he performed. Now he offered to wield the light beam, and after a slight hesitation Jelch smiled and instructed the boy in its use. Anand marched ahead, fanning the beam to and fro before him and grinning at the results.

Jani fell into step beside Jelch and said, “And if I succeed in entering the vessel, what then? Can you tell me now?”

After a hesitation, Jelch replied, “You will be instructed what to do next, Jani.”

“By whom?”

He sighed. “I can only speak in abstractions, using terms you will understand but which only approximate to the facts.”

She shook her head. “I admit that I don’t understand, Jelch.”

“You will be met, within the ship, by an... an entity. It will appear real to you, but is in fact only a... a recording.”

She shook her head. “A recording? A recording of what?”

“Of a subroutine that I installed in the ship, fifty years ago.”

She glanced at the alien. “I don’t pretend to comprehend your words, but no doubt you’ll say that that does not matter.”

He inclined his head. “Do not be alarmed when you see this... apparition. It will instruct you–”