Requiem (28 page)

Seline had not
moved. Her fingers hurt from where they dug into the armrests of
the chair.

'Give me the
girl and I will forget your grievous insults.'

The muscles
constricted in Seline's arms and legs.

'You will not
touch her.'

'The girl,' it
said.

'You are in no
position to make that demand,' said Sear.

'The girl.'

'And even if
you were it would not be satisfied.'

Its fist
slammed into the desk. Seline shot up to her feet. The chair
tumbled back to the floor.

'The girl!'
Gliphen demanded. Saliva flung through the air in thick, white
globs. It lathered and pooled on the broken surface of the desk,
bubbling like a festering soup. The lights shone from behind the
orange skull plate crested atop its head. Shadows bathed the
indents and crevasses on its face. Its beaded eyes were for Sear
alone who was the only one left seated.

'With my bare
hands, I could break your spine,' it said.

'Without having
to leave this chair I could turn this entire world against you.
Broken spine or not it will be as much your end as mine.'

The sinew and
flexing muscle within the joints of its armour plating slackened.
It hung its head down and laughed quietly to itself. Seline
remained standing, unsure of what she should do.

'… Your ship
and its crew are dead,' it muttered.

'How do you
know?' asked Sear. He motioned with his hand for Seline to take her
seat but she remained standing.

'My workers
have seen it and reported salvaging what little they could from its
wreckage.' It looked up. 'Their corpses and that of your ship have
been ravaged beyond repair. I will give you their last known
co-ordinates if only that you will see what has become of them. It
is my deepest wish, Sear, that they were closest friends to
you.'

'And you know
what destroyed the ship?'

Each word
strained from the Ordonian's mouth. 'My workers arrived after the
damage had been done – returning through one of the many Atlas
Gates in the system. We do not know what carried out that deed only
that whatever did it is most likely responsible for the
disappearance of other... features of the Obal System.'

'Features such
as?'

'Such as a
star. Such as planets.'

'You know what
is responsible?'

'I make no such
claims, Yurrick.'

'You have seen
what is happening beyond the Tryil Gate?'

'Yes.'

'For how
long?'

'Longer than
you.'

'Then you must
have information.'

'Must I?' Its
face turned into a lurid kind of smirk. 'Surrender your servant
girl and I promise to give you the name of the person who can help
you.'

'Let's not make
promises we can't keep,' said Sear. He rose from his seat then
tapped Seline on the arm and turned to leave. The Ordonian stood
watching them walk in silence from the broken antiquity of its
office. Its voice echoed behind them, rasping and clawing at their
ears.

'Nothing would
delight me more than to see your expression when you find their
corpses, Yurrick. That is the only reason I tell you this and the
only reason I'll allow you to leave these halls.'

They kept
walking. Every muscle urged Seline to sprint towards the door and
run for the ship but she kept her eyes fixed to the floor ahead,
her body tense and rigid, expecting the worst.

It waited for
the doors to close and it was alone once again. It dialled a number
on the comm. The dial tone ceased and a voice answered.

'Yes? What is
it?'

'The girl,'
said Gliphen. 'She is on Sceril'

'How do you
know?' said the voice.

'She was just
in my office.'

'Under what
pretence?'

'They are
searching for their lost scout ship.'

'And what did
you tell them?'

'The
truth.'

The voice was
silent.

'I will not
move on them. That is not part of our deal,' said Gliphen.

'Yes. Besides,
the Yurrick will have her too closely guarded. There are other
plans in motion. Go about your business. It is under control.'

'I expect
payment for my service.'

'Payment will
be made. There will be no debate as to the amount.'

The connection
was dropped. Gliphen remained breathing heavily into the gentle
crackling of the static. It passed its gaze across the catacombs
over which it presided. It switched off the comm and sat back down
and pulled the scroll of paper from the drawer and set to writing
again.

Seline walked
next to Sear, staying close as they descended the temple steps.
'Don't you want to know what information it had?' asked Seline.

'It was
bluffing.'

'How do you
know?'

'Because I've
seen that smile before.'

'How well do
you know Gliphen?'

'I first met
Gliphen on Earth when I was travelling through one of the corporate
zones. It must have been just after NeoCorp had given it the
serums.'

'You mean the
video you showed before? Is that why it looks so different to the
other Ordonians?'

'Yes.'

Seline stepped
carefully around a sunken section of the steps. 'So what is it
exactly?'

'Thanks to the
serums it has become an overlord. To the Ordonians, the hierarchy
is everything and once Gliphen was artificially transformed his
standing within their society subsequently increased.'

They reached
the bottom of the temple and made their way back through the
stagnant indigent of the market.

'How do you
know all this?' said Seline over the rabble of voices.

'The Yurrick
have an extensive intelligence network. Those within the first
contact teams are among those who have full access to this
information. Generally, the information such as we were sent to
retrieve would be obtained through more covert means but we
required the information immediately so I had to do the work
myself.'

Sear and Seline
returned to their ship where the others were waiting and departed
from the planet's surface. They docked upon the orbiting cruiser
which set its course for the Tryil Gate. After the debriefing
Seline immediately made her way to the lower levels so she could
shower and wash away the wet, sodden feeling that the catacombs had
left upon her.

He was perched
on a thick slab of metal. Years ago, no one would remember when,
the slab had been blown from the hinges of the old safe and left,
face down, to drown in the blood that would immediately come to
flood the floors it had once stood guard over. The vault had long
been emptied, only the stains remained.

The Warlord
spoke, his voice was cold, detached, it echoed through the
adjoining chambers of the basement floor.

'The heads of
NeoCorp will be fighting each other more than anything, they are of
no concern. I'm certain that Habel was acting alone. If he'd had an
accomplice, I would have known or we would know by now.'

Jemma was
seated upon an upturned locker. Her feet hung over its edge just
off the ground. Her rifle was rested against the edge of the
locker, between her legs, pointing at the ceiling. She spoke with
her eyes directed at the floor.

'There was a
mild fluctuation in the market but things were back on track within
the hour. We still don't know what the repercussions might be but
it's been two days and NeoCorp still haven't made any co-ordinated
offensive.'

Of the five of
them in the vault only Daniels hadn't seated himself. His eyes
moved between the Warlord and the others.

'We've painted
a giant fucking target on our foreheads. You're all acting like
nothing happened, like we aren't at war. We should have just used
the serum. Killed Habel and used the serum anyway. We were standing
right there. We had their pants around their fucking ankles.'

'No,' said the
Warlord. The word cut through the air, breaking Daniels' stride.
All eyes were turned on the Warlord. There was an image in his head
of Cain, writhing on the ground, screaming in agony as his skin
boiled and the serum ripped through his bloodstream like razor
wire. 'We've been over this enough times. Bring it up again and
there
will
be consequences.'

Daniels stared
at him. 'Then what?' he demanded weakly. 'What are you- we going to
do?'

A searing pain
right in the centre of his skull. The wound his failure had
inflicted was still bleeding. The Warlord was about to speak but
was stopped by the soft pattering of bare feet running towards the
vault. He looked up. The steps came closer and the small brown man,
Jakob, came running down the hall.

Jemma stopped
him. Checked him for weapons. Clean. Shoved him forward so that he
could address the Warlord.

'Sir, sir,
we've found something you might be interested in,' said Jakob,
trying to catch his breath, remain calm, and spit his message out
all at once.

The Warlord
stared back at the breathless messenger. Thin, dark, frail. Like
the black, unnamed birds he used to see perched on old power lines
and radio towers.

'Catch your
breath and then speak,' said the Warlord.

The messenger
took a deep breath, was about to speak but took another breath
instead and then began. He spoke quickly. 'We managed to copy over
some of the hard drives during the fai- sorry, during the recent
NeoCorp mission.'

The Warlord
said nothing.

'Sir.' Jakob
cleared his throat. 'NeoCorp are expressing interest in the
disappearing planets and stars... there's a girl they're tracing.
She is currently with the Yurrick.'

The Warlord
placed his hand to his forehead. Beneath the mask his eyes closed.
Beneath the skin his head ached. 'Why do they want her?'

'It seems, sir,
that they think she has information on the Atlas Gates.' The
messenger tried to force the words from his mouth. He didn't know
if it was impatience or patience that stared back at him. Nothing
he said seemed to satisfy the mask. 'They think she might know how
to close and open the gates.'

'What is the
girl's name?'

'Seline, uh,
Seline Esher, sir.'

'And where
exactly is she?'

'We- we don't
know exactly. Most of the information we managed to get was
encrypted. But the Yurrick are mentioned, and a ship name that
passed Palin Station recently... as well as a name... Zackry
Klondike. Zackry owns some o-'

'I know who
Zackry is,' said the Warlord.

'R-right.
Well... there's also an... uh... an article in the Yurrick news
about a missing scout ship beyond the Tryil Gate, sir.'

'Yes. I
know.'

'Well, I had an
idea that maybe the girl, Seline, is with them. That might explain
why NeoCorp are having so much trouble getting to her. And Seline
used to work for Zackry Klondike... so maybe he knows
something.'

The Warlord
sat, unresponsive, for some time. Jakob shuffled his bare feet in
the dirt and sand that had settled on the granite floor. His gaze
darted nervously around the room but avoided the eyes of the
Warlord's companions.

'Is that all?'
the Warlord finally asked.

'Yes-yes,
sir.'

'Good. You may
leave.'

The messenger
turned but the Warlord called him back.

'Where are your
shoes, Jakob?'

Jakob turned
back, slowly, as if the Warlord had just threatened him in some
way.

'My shoes? I,
uh...'

'There is a
dead man on the floor above this vault. The last time I saw him he
had a nice pair of leather steel caps. I suggest you take
them.'

Jakob stared at
the mask for a long time before the words finally sank in. A
severely yellowed grin stretched across his face. He gave a sharp
nod and grunted a thank you before running back to the broken
elevator shaft.

'What was he
talking about?' asked Daniels once Jakob had left. 'Disappearing
planets and stars? Is he mad?'

'No,' said the
Warlord. The Warlord breathed in deep, shifted his weight. 'The
failure of the serum has been an important lesson – a harsh lesson
but an important one nonetheless. We have been far too narrow in
our search for a cure for mankind.' He uncrossed his legs and
leaned forward. He looked directly at the ground for a moment as if
he was reading what was there, written in old blood like some kind
of prophecy. 'If we are to find a solution to mankind's problems
then we must search beyond the limitations of this planet.'

'You expect
something to fall from the sky?' asked Daniels.

'Perhaps,' said
the Warlord. 'And if not, then we will pull it down ourselves.' He
sat up, recrossed his legs and looked over his companions. 'The
young man was referring to the news of something lurking beyond the
Tryil Gate. According to the Yurrick, this 'something' has been
destroying planets and devouring entire stars.'

'This sounds
like bloated rumour and hearsay to me,' said Daniels.

'Hold your
tongue Daniels, or I will sever it so I may hold it for you.'

Daniels crossed
his arms and leaned back quietly against the wall. The Warlord
continued. 'The information has been taken from an official
statement made by the Yurrick government.' He looked at Daniels
again. 'The Yurrick are not known for publicising mere rumours and
hearsay.'

'So what
exactly do they know about the source of the disappearing stars?'
asked Jemma.

'Not much. A
Yurrick scout ship has since been destroyed and another research
team has been dispatched to continue the investigation but hard
data is hard to come by.' The Warlord looked over the eyes of the
others. They were tired, frustrated, doubtful. He kept his voice
hard and calculating. 'The serum failed but we must find humanity's
cure as quickly as possible and there is promise for us in what the
Yurrick have found.'