Laura Jo Phillips (36 page)

“The scroll spoke of a double explosion of brilliant white light that flared into the heavens so brightly that it blotted out the stars for a full night.  The exploding stars, or planets, were close together, but the light from one did not touch the other.  Now here’s the interesting part.  The scroll was dated, and the date was converted into the Standard calendar on the translation sheet.  Taking into account the number of years that have passed since I saw it, and the distance between the Zeta Reticuli and Sheara systems, that double explosion took place three thousand, two hundred and sixty-four years ago.  The only thing I am not certain of is the location of the planets, but then, how many planets explode at the same time?”

“But Summer, our world did not explode,” Maxim pointed out.

Summer stopped pacing and turned around to face Maxim.  “How do you know that?” she asked.

Maxim opened his mouth, then closed it.  He sat thinking for several moments.  Finally he sighed and looked up, meeting Summer’s gaze.  “I don’t know that,” he admitted.  “It has always been said our planet was destroyed by magic.  But there is still one of the original pods in existence today and I have seen it.  It does not contain windows or viewports.  Whether Ugaztun and Narrastia exploded or not, nobody aboard an escape pod could possibly know.”

“Wait,” Ran interrupted, “are you saying that both Ugaztun and Narrastia were destroyed by an outside force?  Not magic?”

“That’s what it looks like,” Summer replied.  “I can’t say that for certain of course, and I would want to review that scroll to be sure I haven’t made an error.”

“Have you ever made such an error before?” Loni asked.

“No,” Summer admitted.  “But considering the importance of this subject, I think it warrants a careful check of that scroll, and its translation.”

“I agree,” Maxim said.  “If what you say is correct, then someone else destroyed both worlds, and made it seem as though we did it to each other.”

Chapter
36

Za-Linq stripped off his soiled clothes and left them in a pile on the floor before stepping into the shower.  He turned his face up into the spray, letting the warm water rinse away the worst of the blood that covered him.  After a few minutes he reached for the soap and began a more thorough cleansing of his skin and hair.  He tried to remember the last time he had made such a mess of himself during clean-slice, but couldn’t.  But then, this really hadn’t been a game of
xafla
anyway, so it didn’t really count.  It had started out that way, but his rage had overcome his reason.

For good cause, too, he consoled himself as he worked the suds into his hair.  He had warned his crew that incompetence would not be tolerated.  Then that useless navigator had gone and lost the Jasani ship.  How such a thing was possible was beyond Za-Linq’s comprehension.  The ship was gigantic.  Laziness.  Incompetence.  Worthlessness. 

Za-Linq stilled, the water beating down over his head as he worked to rein in his temper.  He needed to think.  There had to be a way to find that blasted ship and as he was surrounded by a crew of incompetents, it was clearly up to him to figure it out.

His temper under tight control, he finished cleansing himself and turned off the water.  He reached for a towel and began to use it as he mentally traced the Jasani ship’s route up to the point where it had been lost.  But no, his concentration was not what it should be.  He needed to look at a map to see this.  He dropped the towel on the floor, reached for a robe and left the bathroom.  He considered calling on one of his officers to plot the course for him, but decided that he really could not afford to kill any more of his crew.  After all, they were needed to run the ship.  For now.

He sat down before his vid terminal and began pulling up astrometric charts.  A couple of hours later he stood up and began pacing his quarters.  The maps weren’t helping, the plots weren’t helping, nothing was helping and tomorrow was the tenth day.  If he didn’t have that
berezi
by then….

Za-Linq shuddered.  He didn’t want to think about it.  It was bad enough he dreamed of it each night.  If only he knew where the damn
berezi
was supposed to be delivered.

Za-Linq froze.  How could I be so dim? He wondered. 
Berezi
are sold only to Brethren.  That was their only purpose, the only reason the Xanti searched for them to begin with.  That reduced the possible buyers of his
berezi
to only a small few.  And of those, only one was in this end of the galaxy.

Za-Linq smiled.  Then frowned.  What if Lio was not taking the
berezi
to the buyer?  What if he was going somewhere else?

Well, he decided, it didn’t matter.  He had only one option right now, and that was to bank on Lio’s greed.  He would not get paid if he did not deliver the
berezi
as promised.  For Za-Linq’s purposes, that meant the buyer had to be William, on Li-Hach-Cor. 

It had to be.  If his guess was wrong….

No, he would not think of that.  He was right.  He knew it.  He had to be.

He reached for the bridge comm and gave orders to plot a new course.  Then he settled down to wait.  And worry.

Chapter
37

Summer, Darleen, Doc and the Katres stood on the bridge and stared at the many different views of Li-Hach-Cor displayed before them.  It was quite obvious that there was only one large settlement on the planet, and that it was set amidst a very large green land mass in the southern hemisphere.  Exactly as Summer had explained days earlier in the Lobos’ meeting room.

“According to the data,” Maxim began, “there are about ten thousand people living on that planet and they are all either in that settlement, or scattered throughout that land mass.  For so few people to cultivate such a large area, they must make use of massive amounts of technology.”

“And the rest of the planet?” Summer asked. 

“It appears as though the rest of the planet is barren,” Maxim replied. 

“How is it possible that one quarter of the planet is green, and the rest is barren?” Darleen asked.

“Terraforming,” Ran replied.  “They probably terraform more land as they need it, a bit at a time.  Eventually, the entire planet will be viable, but right now it appears that only this one land mass has been made livable.”

“Yes, that is how it appears, but I have my doubts,” Maxim said.  Summer looked at him in surprise. 

“What are you thinking?” she asked. 

“When we went to the slave compound on Jasan, all of our instruments indicated that there was nothing but forest below us for miles in every direction,” he explained.  “Obviously, that was not the case.  They were using a very sophisticated camouflage system unlike anything we had ever seen before.  I have a feeling that the slave compound is really there, and is using the same type of system.  We were able to spot it using our katrenca vision from the air.  Once on the ground, the camouflage system was not an issue.  Apparently it is designed to prevent detection only from above.”

“Then how can we find it?” Summer asked.  “There is too much planet down there for us to cover on foot, or even in a ground-car.  It would take us years.”

“Perhaps the Li-Hach-Aki can help us,” Darleen suggested.  “Summer said that the Li-Hach-Aki are peace lovers.  If that’s true, then I doubt that they would condone slavery.  At the same time, as peace lovers, they can’t force the intruders to leave themselves.”

“Good points,” Ran approved.  “Perhaps we can get the Li-Hach-Aki to aid us in this.  If they know that we are here to free the women being held captive, and shut down the compound, maybe they will be willing to tell us where it is.”

“If they know where it is,” Maxim said.

“Yes, if they know,” Summer agreed.  “But we are going to have to handle this carefully.  If we go storming in there demanding answers, or even if we go in armed, we may not get anything out of them.”

“True,” Maxim said.  “What if we take one shuttle down to the planet with just the six of us, and have another go down with an armed squad?  They can land some distance away so that the natives won’t know they are there, but close enough to help if we need it.”

 “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Summer said.  “I think we need to go down alone, and have a squad stand by here.”

Maxim gazed at Summer for a long moment.  “Perhaps the high level of technology the Li-Hach-Aki use for their agriculture is indicative of other technology as well,” he said thoughtfully.  “If we try to sneak a ship full of military personnel past them, they may very well know it, and be offended by it.”

Summer stared at Maxim in open shock. 

“When I am not being bull-headed and temperamental, I’m not altogether dense,” he said with a grin.  Summer felt her face heat.  “I’m sorry,” she began, but he stopped her with a gentle finger against her lips. 

“Don’t be,” he said, gazing into her eyes for a long moment.  He removed his finger and kissed her lightly on the lips. 

“Come on,” he said.  “Let’s get ourselves down there and see if the natives will help us out.”

Calnic watched curiously as the two human women approached on foot.  He was fully aware that a Jasani male-set watched and waited from the ground-car beyond the Sentinel Line that bordered their land, but he did not mind.  They had not been threatening or demanding.  They had, in fact, been very polite.

They had approached the outer tower slowly, showing themselves to be unarmed and nonthreatening.  They had respectfully requested a meeting with a settlement representative.  They had then waited patiently for him to arrive, and had followed all of the official requests for the meeting without scoffing or sneering.  They had not acted anything at all like the Other.

Thoughts of the Other caused Calnic to shiver, his pale, blue-grey skin darkening slightly with worry and fear.  They had lived peacefully on Li-Hach-Cor for many years until the Other had come.  Now, they were always worried.  Always afraid.  The Other made many demands of food and water that their settlement was hard put to fill.  They dared not miss the quotas set by Li-Hach, so they were forced to pay the demands from their own food stores.  Many people went hungry now.  Hungry, though they worked amidst such plenty. 

Calnic hoped that these visitors meant to remove the Other from Li-Hach-Cor.  The thought gave him a vague thrill such as he had never experienced before in his life.  He wondered if it was wrong for him to hope such a thing. 

He shrugged his narrow shoulders.  Whether he hoped it or not meant little.  He would see what these human females wanted and, if it was not against their beliefs, he would aid them as he could.  Such was they way of the Aki. 

The women stopped in the appointed place, a circle marked on the well-worn path running through the forest surrounding their village, as requested.  They were very calm, Calnic observed.  That was a good sign.  Taking another long look around to be sure this was not a trick such as the Other sometimes played on them, he stepped out of the small border hut hidden amongst the trees and approached.

Like all Li-Hach, Calnic was very tall, perhaps ten Standard feet.  Everything about him was long and slender, including his head.  He wore a long blue robe, belted around his waist with a yellow sash to indicate his status as a messenger of Aki, and nothing else.  He had very large eyes that matched the blue-gray tone of his skin, a thin, flat nose and a lipless mouth.  Li-Hach did not have hair, though they did have a row of thin, spiny protuberances that began in the center of the forehead and ran all the way down their backs. 

As Calnic approached the women he noted that they both had five fingers on each hand, as did the Other.  He always wondered how they managed to manipulate things with so many fingers.  Calnic, like all Li-Hach, had one thumb-like appendage on each hand, and two long fingers.  That was quite as many as anyone really needed, Calnic thought.  Five seemed quite excessive to him.

Calnic smiled at his own wayward thoughts as he stopped in the circle several feet from the women and bowed his head slowly.

“Greetings, human women,” he said, pleased at the opportunity to use Standard.  He so rarely had the chance to use it, and it had taken him so long to learn.

“Greetings, Li-Hach-Aki,” the tallest of the women said, most politely.  “I am Summer.  This is my friend, Darleen.”

“I am most pleased to accept your names,” he said.  “I am called Calnic.”

“We are most pleased to meet you, Calnic,” Summer said.

“How may the Aki assist you?” Calnic asked, hoping the woman would not be offended by his abruptness.

“There is, we believe, a compound on this world that should not be here,” Summer said.

Calnic blinked in surprise.  He had hoped, but not believed.  He must be careful, he decided, lest his hope lead him astray.

“This is a truth,” he said carefully.

“It is a bad place, where many are held as slaves,” Summer said.

“This is also truth,” he said, nodding his long, thin head slowly.

“We would free those who wish to be freed,” Summer continued.