Rift in the Races (47 page)

Perplexity plowed rows across her brow.

“Missy, whatever that man come for is of particular value to someone right flush with gold.”

“I’m sure Tytamon keeps track of those kind of people. He probably already knows all about Black Sander and his business.”

“Tytamon may be ancient and wise, but he don’t know everythin’. Not locked up in that tower up yonder the last two hundred years. Things get past a man what ain’t bothering to look no more, ‘specially at what’s beneath his station, so to speak. Gryphons don’t eat rats and squirrels.”

She was fairly sure she couldn’t disagree with that. Probably.

“Well, thank you, Sergeant. Is that all I should know?”

“Best you don’t have the rest, missy. No offense.”

She wanted to ask him why he even bothered to say it then, and she almost did, but held it back. He saw it and changed his mind.

“Well, you don’t need to go tellin’ him this neither, but people say Master Tytamon is gettin’ old. They figure he might have lost his touch if’n he don’t reckon it suspicious to walk around hisself like he has. Even send an alien to do his dirty work. And a right fine lady alien at that, no offense intended, of course.”

“Of course,” she said, nodding so that he might continue.

“It don’t take a Z-class ‘viner to figure out somethin’ gone right regular wrong. And strange things is afoot.” He turned and looked out over the many rows of tents, a half-measure spread in all directions around Calico Castle, the boundary between the orc lands and civility for centuries. “Things ain’t right, missy. Even a low-burnin’ lamp like me can figure it.”

She put a slender hand, grubby from a day in the camps, on his shoulder. “Well, hopefully you are right about where it is,” she said. “I’ll let Tytamon know.” She spun to go, then turned back. “Just about Black Sander, don’t worry. I have no idea where I heard it from. All you aliens look the same to me anyway.” She winked.

He laughed hard enough to make his armor rattle as he watched her go, though the sound died away some as he fell to leering, unintentionally of course, at her departing posterior. She knew it, confirmed it with a quick glance back, but she made no move to protest. Let him look. He’d given her a small victory, or at least she felt he had, and the sergeant’s appreciation of her departure, so to speak, simply proved that Tytamon’s strategy had paid off. This had to be the information Tytamon was looking for.

Chapter 31

T
he shuttle reappeared right where it had been when they began, just out of gravitational range of Naotatica. Being back was good, in a way, but the location was still very far from Tinpoa Base, the
Aspect
or any other ships.

Roberto sat back down at the controls and tapped at them futilely, having no other ideas. He wasn’t sure why the core computer systems hadn’t come back up. The lights were on, and nobody was floating around the ship, so the batteries were still there. Even without the reactor, the computers should be up. It was like the whole system memory got wiped in addition to the problems with the reactor.

He tapped his com badge. “
Shuttle Six
to
Aspect
. Come in
Aspect
. Are you there?”

“Lieutenant,” crackled back Captain Asad’s voice. “We’ve been waiting. I take it that it works.”

Roberto could not hide the relief in his voice. At least that worked. “Captain, I am glad to hear your voice.”

“Lieutenant, is there a problem?”

“Everything is off.”

“What do you mean ‘everything is off?’”

“It’s off, everything. Full system shut down. As in, we’re going to need a ride.”

“What happened?”

“Captain, I really don’t have time to explain it. We’ve got eleven people in here panting like underage boys at a strip club. By the time I walk them all through putting on masks and setting levels again—assuming the suit controls work—we’ll all be puking and passing out. And I’m not too big on using these necklaces they gave us either, not after what happened to Altin and Orli the other day. I’d rather you just pick us up, sir. The ship needs a total restart.”

There was only the slightest pause. “Hold tight, Lieutenant. We’ll be right there.”

Roberto could not remember ever being as happy to see the
Aspect
as he was when it finally appeared. It was like an old friend had just come to take him off the rooftop of a flooded home. The three of them that had not teleported back to Prosperion by the time the starship arrived sat with oxygen masks pressed to their faces, though not yet in need of the suits.

The oxygen level aboard the shuttle had dropped rapidly, quickened by the fact he’d had to explain how much breathable air they had to the conduit twice more after the first attempt. But eventually all but three of the test crew had left. Only the X-class wizard and the two pilots remained. Fast-cast amulets or not, Envette refused to leave until she’d seen the two pilots safe. Her defiance had irritated the conduit, but he relented as his headache began to increase.

An hour later, after a brief examination by Doctor Singh, Roberto found himself in the captain’s great cabin, seated in relative and uncomfortable intimacy with Captain Asad, Admiral Jefferies and Commander Jackson, whom he knew well enough but seldom saw due to having polar-opposite shifts from hers on the bridge. He’d even been given a drink, which revealed for the first time in Roberto’s experience that Captain Asad was something nearly approaching human.

“That was admirable, Lieutenant,” said the admiral when Roberto was settled and had the first few sips of his drink. “Leaving yourself to chance like that took courage. Or faith.”

“I got plenty of faith, sir. Not sure about that other part. I’ve seen Altin in action, seen what his people can do. I felt pretty comfortable, even though I still have no idea how it works. But thank you, sir.”

“Modesty suits you,” went on the admiral. “So, now that you are adequately recovered, what happened?”

“To be honest, sir, I have no idea. They did their sing-song, and then, just like that, we were in the dark. The first ones, the short teleports inside the system, worked great. I’m sure you saw those on sensors. But then they went for the big score, and, well—I don’t really know. It didn’t work. Or at least, not exactly. We got there, but when we did, the reactor was out and the systems down. Some kind of surge or something, but I never saw it, so that’s nothing but a guess.”

“Did they have any ideas why? We haven’t been able to contact them yet. We’ve sent word through Little Earth, but we haven’t heard back. Their people are difficult to communicate with.”

“You got one of those lizards?” Roberto asked.

They all laughed at that.

The admiral got up and refilled his drink, motioning to the others in a way that inquired if any were in need of a refill. Only Roberto was. The admiral smiled and came to retrieve Roberto’s glass. “So what did they say while you were waiting for the
Aspect
to arrive?” he asked as he dropped in a fresh ice cube.

“That conduit had no clue. He still thought everything was ‘tea and biscuits’ or whatever. I can’t decide if that guy is a genius or an idiot.”

“He’s dangerous is what he is,” said Captain Asad. “He was evaluating our capacity the entire time. I watched him. He put on a show of flamboyance to put us off. Everything that man does is on purpose. These people play the part of rustics, but they are cunning and manipulative.”

“I don’t know if I’d go that far, Captain,” said Roberto, “but I do think Huzzledorf notices more than he lets on.”

“So, all that temporarily aside,” said the admiral, bringing Roberto his refill and retaking his chair to the left of Captain Asad, “how far did you get, Lieutenant?”

“Sir, I have no idea. All systems were off.”

“You couldn’t guess based on the size of the Prosperion sun? Finding your bearings seems pretty basic for a trained pilot,” said Captain Asad.

“Sir, respectfully, I vanished into thin air and then reappeared by some completely inexplicable mechanism in a ship with zero power and ten other people sucking down oxygen like frat boys with a beer bong, and the whole time I was dealing with it, I had a windbag in a Santa suit telling me everything was fine and that we should ‘pip pip and all that rot!’ along for another try. So, sir, trained pilot or not, I just didn’t think to bother formulating a guess.”

“Lieutenant, nobody is second-guessing your decisions,” said the admiral. “It was a fair question. Don’t be defensive.”

“I’m sorry, sir. You’re right.” He looked to Captain Asad. “Sorry, sir.”

“You’ve had a long day, Lieutenant,” acknowledged the captain in a rare show of empathy.

“Man, you ain’t lying.” Roberto took a long pull off of his drink. “Sir,” he amended hastily.

“So if you were going to hazard a guess based on nothing other than instinct, how far would you say you were? No need for accuracy, just four guys talking.”

He frowned at them, not liking to simply make things up, but he could still see the sun in his memory, shining brightly in the distant sky. “Fine,” he said at last. “A quarter light year. Maybe less. Probably less.”

Captain Asad and the admiral exchanged glances, made calculating faces, after which the captain nodded, though the movement was so small it barely constituted movement at all.

“So, I realize it’s preliminary,” said the admiral, “but what is your opinion about trying with a starship?”

“That’s up to them,” said Roberto. “I mean, they brought us back with just one of them. The young one, the redhead. I think she did most of the heavy lifting anyway. I guess it’s not that hard for them once they’ve been somewhere. And they can do the ring of magic thing, with Santa Claus controlling everything. So, I don’t think it’s a matter of whether they can do it so much as a matter of where and how far—oh, and maybe a matter of
who
is going to be sitting there on the other side waiting to kick our ass while we restart reactors and every other system on the ship.”

“That is a problem,” admitted the admiral.

“It makes arriving in orbit and blasting the Hostiles out of existence impossible,” said Captain Asad. “Which means if we use it, and I count that a monstrous
if
, we’re going to have to use it well short of their system and cruise in on our own.”

The admiral seemed to visibly deflate. “It’s a complete loss of the element of surprise. And we’re hardly in a position to fight our way into their system and get it done. We’ve got to find a better way to fight them. We’re running out of time. And ships.”

“I’m sure Prosperion will send wizards with us if we ask,” offered Roberto. “A few of those guys, and things would get pretty easy fast. Altin is convinced that
Citadel
, with a full crew, can do whatever they want to the Hostiles. It will be like punching babies.”

Commander Jackson frowned at that and shook her head, but she had enough restraint not to say anything.

Roberto saw her expression, but shrugged it off, saying only, “What? I’m just trying to make a point.”

“If it’s true, then they can also take
Citadel
and do whatever they want to
us
,” said Captain Asad. “You do understand that if they teleport our ships into one another, we have a far bigger problem than we do with the Hostiles?”

“Sir, I’m not sure why you refuse to give Altin and his people a chance, but he’s not like that. His people aren’t like that. I’ve been around them a lot over the last ten months, and I’ve known Altin for almost two years, technically at least. You start to get a feel for people.”

“All people are
like that
, Lieutenant. Aggression is a matter of need, analysis and opportunity. With this recent experiment, they have the analysis fairly well done, I’d say. It seems opportunity is whenever they choose. All they lack is a need, or the belief they have one, and those people you speak so highly of will turn on us at the word of one woman. It’s a monarchy, Lieutenant. One decision. One whim. And that works on the assumption that we aren’t, and haven’t been, in their sights all along.”

Roberto tried to hide his irritation by looking down into his glass as he took another drink, but the admiral saw it anyway.

“Lieutenant, I realize you’ve come to like these people a lot,” said the admiral. “And I do too. And while I am not quite as … cautious as Captain Asad, it would not be prudent, being down to our last fifty-three ships, to completely drop our guard. I’m sure that is all the captain is suggesting.”

Roberto shrugged. “Yes, sir.”

There was enough resignation in Roberto’s tone to incite the admiral to press for more. “Go ahead, finish your thought. If you have more to add, we should hear it.”

Roberto exhaled, the breath fogging the inside of the glass, which he’d just brought to his lips. He looked down at the ice cube floating there and considered whether he wanted to offer it up or not. He decided he did. “Well, sir, if this whole mess is them, then there’s nothing we can do about it anyway. If they want to wave the magic wand and turn the whole fleet into one big intergalactic meatball, they’re going to do it. So, at some point, you just have to have faith in people. In them and in us. I get vigilance, but, I mean, there has to be a line.”