Omega Games (26 page)

we could follow her in. Reever checked the wall panel. “She’s locked out the controls.” He took a small device from inside his tunic and attached it to the panel.

“Do I want to know what that is?” I asked.

“No.” He keyed in a code, waited for a moment, and then pulled off the plas panel covering the internal locking mechanism. Quickly he rerouted a circuit before replacing the plas and inputting another code. The doors slid open. Inside the simulator an arena program was running. A crowd of Hsktskt roared from the stands as Tya

sparred with three Jorenian warriors. They were fighting with claws, not weapons, and green blood

stained the ugly brown sands. “End program,” Mercy shouted, and the simulation vanished, leaving Tya standing alone in the center of the grid. Mercy held her pistol trained on Tya’s head as she moved forward. “Hello, lizard. What did you use to send the signal to Davidov?”

I would have gone after her, but Reever held me back. “Wait,” he said in a low voice, never taking his eyes from Mercy. “You’re that noisy runt who came to kill me yesterday, ” Tya said, lowering her green-stained claws. “I

don’t fight children. Go back to your parent.”

Mercy fired at the wall next to Tya’s shoulder. “For your information, I’m all grown up, and your fucking species slaughtered both of my parents. How did you send the signal?” Tya folded her arms and said nothing. My husband took a step forward.

“I am going to kill her,” Mercy said. “Don’t move, Reever. I can pull the trigger before you can reach

My husband stopped in his tracks. “Tya, did you send a signal to the
Renko
?” I asked. Large yellow eyes shifted to gaze upon me. “The other nosy midget. Is this place overrun with your

kind?” “It’s not going to be overrun with yours,” Mercy assured her. “So you think.” Tya bared her teeth. “Did you learn nothing from the last time we came, little one?” Mercy fired, but Tya moved at the last second, so quickly that her body blurred. The shot ricocheted off

the grid beams and burned a hole through the floor.

Reever grabbed Mercy from behind, knocking the weapon out of her grasp and pinning her arms under his. She fought him wildly, kicking and shrieking. A second energy beam cut across the room, striking Mercy on the shoulder. Her body and head sagged.

I turned to see Cat standing behind me and holding a stun emitter. He pocketed it and went over to Reever, taking Mercy in his three arms and lifting her against his chest.

Drefan’s glidechair rolled into the simulator, and the games master surveyed the scene. “Is anyone hurt?” “Yes,” Cat said, walking up to him with the unconsciousMercy. “I had to stun her. Something that I’m not looking forward to explaining when she wakes up.”

The games master looked at Mercy’s slack face with something like regret. “I am sorry, Cataced. She

will not listen to reason.” “I don’t know why you’re hiding a Hsktskt here, James,” Cat said. “But when the stun wears off, Mercy will see to it that everyone hears about her. I suggest you do something with it before the colonists start breaking through your air locks.”

The Omorr hopped out. As I had no more examinations to perform, and tensions between Gamers and Mercy House had

escalated, I thought it best to go with Reever to check on the progress the engineers were making on
Moonfire
. I also wanted to have a look at the crater of black crystal near the crash site. “I’ve added optic shielding to our helmets,” I told Reever as we put on envirosuits the next morning for

the trip. “That should protect us from the effects of reflected light.”

Drefan allowed us to borrow one of his STVs to make the trip out to the scout, and Reever piloted it over the rough surface terrain with admirable skill. “Why do you want to survey the crater?” my husband asked as we climbed out and enabled our suit

weights. “Black crystal has caused much sickness on other worlds. Cherijo wrote about it extensively in her journals.” I glanced back at the cluster of silver-white domes. “If it has somehow infiltrated the water supply system or food synthesizers, it could be poisoning the colonists.”

“It never seems to have the same effect on those exposed,” Reever said. “It made the Taercal become

“I did not find any trace of it in the people I’ve examined,” I admitted. “But the crystal has many properties, I think, that we are not aware of yet.”

Drefan’s engineers greeted us and were happy to show Reever the repairs they had made to the hull, engines, and navigational controls. The little maintenance drone, it seemed, had been a great help to them, as it was able to access areas of the ship that the engineers could not reach themselves without disassembling more equipment.

While the men discussed the work in progress, I went to our quarters in the back of the ship, and found the image Reever had taken of Marel on Joren, just before we left. My heart twisted as I looked at her small, grinning face.

“Soon, baby,” I murmured, touching the surface of the image with my gloved fingers. “Soon we will be together again.”

I tucked the portrait in one of my utility pouches and surveyed the rest of the chamber. Neither Reever nor I had many possessions, and both Drefan and Mercy had given us enough garments to wear. I unearthed a container of Jorenian tea from a jumbled pile and checked the seal; it was still usable. I also found one of the Omorr blades Squilyp had given me.

It was not much, and not enough to solve the mystery of what was happening on Trellus, or prevent Davidov from keeping his vow to destroy the colony.

Tea and knives. Do you really think that’s the answer?

Pain hammered into the sides of my head, making me clutch at my helmet. I knew the voice. It belonged to an entity that had promised to leave me alone.

Wrong. I said I’d stop imprinting you. You’re making the connection this time, kiddo.

The interior of our quarters on
Moonfire
vanished, as did my envirosuit. I found myself sitting on black, pebbly soil, looking out at an endless stretch of rust-colored water. It rushed at me in huge, curling waves, collapsing and churning up fountains of orange foam.

A red-haired, nearly naked Terran woman appeared beside me. Two inadequate strips of cloth covered her breasts and loins; dark miniature optic shields concealed her eyes. Under her buttocks lay a colorful rectangle of cloth depicting flat red flowers.

“It’s a beach towel,” she said, glancing at me as she poured a thick white liquid from a container onto her palm. “Take off your clothes; you could use a little sun.”

I looked up at the blue giant star blazing overhead.It made streaks of purple and green in the yellow sky. “I thank you, no. I thought you had merged with the rest of the Jxin, Maggie.”

“I did, I am, and I will.” Cherijo’s surrogate mother seemed unconcerned as she rubbed the lotion into her freckled skin. “You’re not doing what we talked about, but it’s not like that’s a surprise. How’s your head?”

The question made the pain intensify. “It hurts.”

“Get used to it.” She reclined, flattening her body onto the beach towel. “You’re stuck with it until you reconcile. Which I would do before you get off this fun-house ride of a planet. There’s serious business in As before, her instructions and predictions made little sense. “Are you aware of what has happened to Reever and me?”

“Aware?” She laughed. “The way you’ve been broadcasting, the entire merge wants to sever their connections. They can’t wait for the day when your life gets boring.”

“Then you know there is a crater lined with black crystal near the ship,” I said, ignoring her sarcasm. “The same black crystal that you claimed was infecting the galaxy. Is it responsible for the problems here on Trellus?”

“Black crystal does nothing but cause problems,” she told me, yawning and stretching her arms out before folding them over the slight curve of her belly. “But it doesn’t get all the blame this time. There’s only so much crystal can screw with.” She turned her head toward me. “Which means yes, maybe, sort of, it’s part of the problem, and no, I can’t be more specific than that.”

“You are supposed to help me.”

“Monitor you,” she corrected. “Occasionally pop into your brain and set you straight. Which I have done so often the merge is ready to kick me into permanent oblivion.”

I could sympathize with the merge, whatever that was. At the moment I was tempted to drag her down to the rusty water and drown her in it. “Is the crystal in the water or the food?”

“This time, neither.” She held up a finger with a glossy red nail. “That’s all I’m saying. You have to find out the rest on your own.”

“Why?” I demanded.

“Free will. It cannot be circumvented, influenced, or otherwise fucked with.” She sighed and looked down at her front. “I miss having a body. I really loved shopping for clothes. Remember all the trips we made to the retail centers when you weren’t this doormat you’ve become?”

“Cherijo went with you, not me.” My head felt as if it were going to fly apart. “How do I end this connection? ”

Maggie rolled onto her side. “You could ask me nicely. Say pretty, pretty please with sugar on top.”

I repeated her words, but I was not returned to the
Moonfire
. She was maintaining the link between us now; I could feel it. “What more do you want me to do, Maggie?”

“You could stop fighting yourself.” She brushed some black sand grains off her thigh. “It’s counterproductive, and I need you whole before the crystal awakens and everything goes straight to hell.”

I remembered the vicious argument I had had with her on Vtaga. I had pinned her to a wall by the throat. Then she had mentioned that the crystal was dormant, and that when it woke, it would devour worlds. “I said I will do as you wish.”

Maggie’s red curls bounced as she shook her head. “No can do, sweetie. I need you both.”

“Reever will help.” I could barely speak through the pain. “Please, Maggie. My head wants to explode.”

“So does mine,” she said without a shred of sympathy. “All right, Jarn, have it your way. We’ll talk again.

Maggie and the alien shoreline melted away, puddling around my feet. The colors darkened and then rose, forming themselves into
Moonfire
’s walls and deck. A white blur solidified into Reever in an envirosuit.

He caught me as I stumbled toward him. “I could feel her all the way on the other side of the ship. What did she want from you?”

“I don’t know. When she speaks, I can hardly make out her meaning.” I looked through my face shield and saw the hatred and fear in his eyes. “She claimed that I summoned her this time. That I made the connection myself. But Duncan, I didn’t try. I wasn’t even thinking of her.”

“We’re too close to the black crystal; that always seems to precipitate encounters with Maggie.” He sounded grim. “We’ll return to the dome.”

“No.” I almost shouted the word, and jumped at the vehemence in my own voice. I clamped down on the panic his suggestion made me feel. “Not yet. I need to go to the crater, to see it for myself. I can’t tell you why, I don’t know why, but it’s important. I promised Maggie on Vtaga that I would fight the crystal, Duncan. This”—I gestured toward the view port, and the colony beyond—“is part of it.”

“How can you fight something that destroyed her and her entire species?” he demanded. “What does the crystal have to do with Trellus?”

“I don’t know, but it starts here.” I put my glove on the arm of his suit. “Please. Trust me.”

Reever went over to one of the cabinets and pulled out a coil of cord. “I’m going to tether us together before we go near that crater.”

“Our weights will keep us grounded.”

“There are mine shaft openings all around here. I don’t want you falling down one of them.” He clipped one end of the tether to his suit and the other to mine. “Come on. I want to be done with this.”

We walked from the scout toward the old mining processors. I saw carbon marks from the weapons Posbret and his raiders had fired at Reever and the engineers during my husband’s first trip out to the wreck. They reminded me of Cat’s threat. I didn’t think Mercy would turn the raiders against Drefan, but I had only known her a short time. Her hatred for the Hsktskt seemed unyielding and absolute; she might now regard Drefan as a traitor to the colony.