Supergiant (Gigaparsec Book 2) (23 page)

Echo’s search for the professor lasted over ten days, so
long that Roz began to worry about fuel. The amount required for the
subbasement jump and reaching the next refueling station would take nearly
everything they had left. She was down to a 9-percent safety margin. If they
orbited too long, they might need to adjust the arrival point closer to the
next colony and risk blowing their cover.

Nothing would make Echo hurry.
“Seven of your years is but a heartbeat of the galaxy. This must be done
properly. The underground structures are amazing. The miners must have
appropriated one of the tunneling machines to build shielded homes. Were any of
the prisoners architects?”

“Yes,” the Bat monk confirmed.
Since Deke refused to take any part in the co-opting of his own shuttle,
Brother Horcrasmus sat in on the partner planning meetings. As someone with
church clearance, he had read all the files available on the prison.

“He was a genius.”

“The average IQ of a political
dissident sent here for treason is 122,” said the monk. “We don’t consider the
stupid ones a threat.”

Max grunted. “Like Russian prison
camps after their world war. I read Dostoyevsky.”

“The smart ones figure out the
wrong people are in power?” Roz guessed.

Echo reported, “Outside the
official landing pad, I can’t tell the guards from the inmates.”

“What do you mean?” Max asked.
“Everybody’s dressed in rags?”

“Quite the opposite. The population
is twice what we were led to believe. Most people seem healthy, happy, and
productive. Moreso than the border world of Little Flowers. Granted, the
technology level is lower, but they appear very civilized here. The art is
amazing, reminding me of the Earth period of enlightenment known as the
Renaissance. Except I see no signs of churches.”

Roz smiled. “The signs wouldn’t be
visible from a visiting alien ship, but I think the inmates have taken over.
How cool is that? They took over hell and made it paradise.”

Max seemed more wary. “
Querida
,
they won’t want their secret exposed.”

“So we won’t let them know that we
know. We’ll keep it secret from anyone on the crew who may not be staying,
including Mr. Doesn’t Share with Others.” This was Roz’s new nickname for Deke.
Mr. Cranky Pants already meant something in Bat that made Jeeves wheeze with
amusement every time he heard it.

The monk nodded. “I’ll be staying
for the privilege of joining such an experiment.”

“You’ll be a national hero for the
supplies you snuck them,” Roz said.

“How long do we continue to
search?” asked Max.

“Give it at least a year,” Echo
requested. “Then we can contact the guards and request their help.”

“How?” asked Kesh. “We have no
ansible, and they have no radio.”

“Point-to-point laser,” Roz
replied. “They have to know we’re here by now. They’ll be listening.”

Due to food constraints, the team
bargained Echo down to two months.

This turned out to be unnecessary,
as she located Crakik’s notch-eared bodyguard a few days later, the one Aviar
had supplied. She then followed the Bat to where the professor was living. “I
have the coordinates,” Echo said to Roz on the bridge. She felt well enough to
make another visit in person “The hard part will be finding a surface access
tunnel nearby so we don’t alert the natives to our rescue. The entrances are
camouflaged from aerial view. I had to engage the ship’s gravitic probes so we
could see them from orbit.” She displayed the network of tunnels on the bridge
screen.

“Are they expecting an invasion?”
Roz asked as she examined the bunker construction.

“Perhaps they merely wish to hide
their prosperity from the Saurians so it can continue.”

“Just get us within a kilometer,”
Max said. “We’ll be the legs. You and Ivy will be our eyes.”

Roz activated the intercom. “Deke
to the bridge. Strike team to the cargo bay. This is not a drill.” She had been
practicing on the flight simulator for weeks. Hopefully the real Bat shuttle
would be just as easy to operate.

****

Roz followed the approach toward the prison intake site
until the last possible moment. The moment she deviated, a warning beacon on
the way in threatened to blow them out of the sky. She kicked in the emergency
jets instead of slowing down. By the time the natives could have reacted, she
had dipped below radar. No problem.

The guards knew they had
trespassers, just not who or where. If all went according to plan, Roz would be
gone before they suspected

Picking her landing zone, Roz had
avoided the meager crop lands. If she destroyed the soybeans, the natives
wouldn’t talk to them. Her landing in a rocky area at the outskirts of the
underground town was bumpy to say the least.

When Ivy complained, Yenang
defended the pilot. “We experienced a dip in power at the last moment. I’ll
look into it.”

Roz crawled through the narrow
airlock to the cargo area. She wore her blaster-proof armor for the occasion
but not her normal boots. They all wore footgear that would blend in with the
natives’. Her pistol was strapped to her right hip and the smoke grenade to her
left. “I forgot how freaking short Deke is, and my butt wouldn’t fit in the
chair right. If anyone makes a crack about that, then they’re flying us home.”

“Good job, babe,” Max said. “And I
think you’re butt is perfect.”

Yenang looked shocked. “Where is
Sir Deke?”

“We borrowed his shuttle for the
first mission. He’ll fly the others.” Roz listened to the encrypted Turtle
headset. “The guards dispatched a buggy to search for us. In the worst case, if
they head straight for us, we have about forty minutes. A spiral search pattern
is more likely unless we attract attention. Either way, we retrieve our man and
blow this Popsicle stand.”

“What is a Popsicle?” asked Yenang.

“Don’t worry about it,” Max said.
“You just sit behind that gun and protect the shuttle.” He pulled a clear Magi
mask over his face, crudely decorated with black fur, and the women did the
same. The team members also pulled up the hoods on their homespun cloaks. The
disguise wouldn’t work closer than a few meters away, but it was better than
standing out like cream in the coffee.

Yenang looked like he needed to
visit the little boy’s room. “What is this mission all about?”

“We need to talk to someone,” Roz
said vaguely. She couldn’t tell Yenang about revolutionary star drives or drift
adjustments.

“Must be rutting important to come
to this armpit,” said the weapons specialist.

Roz nodded. “Enough for the Magi to
risk an interstellar incident if we get caught.”

“All three of your triad members
are here,” Yenang said.

“Yeah,” Roz fibbed. “We didn’t want
any other species to take the blame if this doesn’t work out.” She had just
given Ivy and Anodyne Intelligence plausible deniability.

Ivy powered up her stun rifle. “The
air outside looks reasonable as long as we wear a scarf. If you step in a
fungal colony, cover your face. You do
not
want those spores in your
lungs.” She looked to her side, as if speaking to an unseen person. Echo still
found long-range communication easier with Ivy. “The target is eating dinner,
as is most of the local population. The window is now.”

Max tapped a button. “Primary route
and two alternates are programmed into or heads-up displays, along with flash
codes. From here on, it’s silent running.”

Roz slapped the bay-door controls
on her wrist unit, and the cargo pod’s door lowered to form a ramp. Yenang slid
behind the blaster controls and powered up the big gun to cover their insertion
into alien territory. Over his headset, the Bat said, “Telescopic sights show no
hostiles.”

Max leapt from the shuttle.

After months of jogging at his side
every morning, Roz matched Max’s pace and hovered inside his zone of artificial
silence. Together, they hopped a barbed-wire fence.
We’re a great team
.
Roz had to hold the wire down and wait for Ivy to catch up.

The steep ground was covered with a
slippery moss that resembled grass. Inside the corral, knee-high snail
creatures grazed. Near the lake, the algae and moss had combined into a lichen
forest.

Together, they approached the
timber-reinforced tunnel. Suddenly Ivy dove into the brush.
Incoming
.
Max and Roz took different sides of the tunnel opening. Though the door wasn’t
officially guarded, a male in dungarees came out to dump a slop bucket into a
compost heap. Max paralyzed him, and Roz propped him on the hillside with his
hat lowered over his eyes.

Ivy remained at the door, within
sight of the shuttle. She unfolded a reflective shield that mirrored the
greenery and sky and crouched behind it. Anyone coming from the tunnel wouldn’t
notice her until he was already in range of the shuttle’s turret. Then, she
closed her eyes to concentrate. After several moments, Ivy gestured for them to
begin the next phase.

Nervously, Roz checked her grenade
and pistol before following her husband into the tunnels. She projected her
best “pay no attention to that janitor” vibe as she instinctively strolled to
places other people wouldn’t be. They had to choose a circuitous route,
especially when Echo appeared in one tunnel branch to wave them off.

After twenty minutes of dodging,
the couple arrived in a room where the professor dined by candlelight with the
notch-eared thug, a pure white Bat, and one other muscular specialist. Their
target was the only one wearing glasses. Roz clutched the smoke grenade with
her left hand in case they needed a quick escape.

Once Max took out the two largest
Bats with darts, Roz stepped out of the silence and raised her mask. “Eesan
Crakik, we’re here to rescue you and take you back to Union space.”

“I don’t want to leave,” said
Crakik. “I’ve been waiting for a place like this my entire life—no church or
royals, and a man can research or publish anything he pleases. Moreover, my
advanced science skills make me desirable to a wide range of females.”

She wasn’t going to be able to drag
him away. “What about the guards?”

“Since the algae disaster, everyone
works together to survive. There are no social classes here.”

“Then who are these guys?”

The white Bat held out his hands in
the gesture of uplifting. His outfit had brass buttons that resembled something
out of nineteenth-century Europe. “Mayor Feeveerkahn. I came to enlist our able
scientist’s aid in contacting your spacecraft. I supposed I came to the right
place.”

“Prince?” Max asked.

Feeveerkahn waved the thought away.
“No titles here or inherited roles. They invited me here to lead because of my
views on peace, but I continue to serve only by the will of the electorate.”

“Invited?”

The professor smiled. “A guard
calls royal intelligence with a tip after one of us is ‘questioned’. We can get
any sort of specialist we want here with a hint. Our mines are almost entirely
automated.”

“What about the Phibs?”

The white Bat answered, “They left
ages ago for someplace they called Glory Point. What is it you want here?”

Roz decided to trust these men.
“Sir, our ship was sent as part of a Magi relief organization. We’ll trade you
tons of medical and building supplies. All we need is a little time alone to
consult with the professor. Nothing against his will. In fact, I believe he’ll
welcome the challenge.”

“That seems equitable,” Feeveerkahn
said, glancing at the professor.

Crakik nodded his agreement. “She’s
wearing an Order of the Dolphin pin. I think I’ll be safe.”

The mayor put his napkin on the
table and departed.

Max dragged the unconscious bodies
out into the hall. “All yours, babe.”

“He’s so sweet to me,” Roz gushed
as she hit record on her wrist unit.

“What’s so important that you would
seek me out in this remote location?”

“Members of the academy of sages
have been studying your math papers, and your theories have generated
tremendous interest. They wanted your advice. I promise we’ll cite you in the
resulting papers.” Roz neglected to mention that she and Echo were the only
members involved.

“The sages want advice from me?”
the professor asked. “I’m flattered.”

She brought the astrogation data up
on one side of the room and the critical cell of the Enigma equation on the
other. “We need your help adjusting for the drift constant in this problem. All
I know is that it isn’t really a constant.”

“You’ve deduced the Xerxes
transformation!”

“No. This was our equation before
he stole it to build a weapon.” She took a laser pointer and drew a line on the
star chart. “This was the intended flight path, but you can see how our test veered
off.”

“Naturally, toward the hub.” The
professor took a data cube off his shelf and projected a similar image,
adjusting the scale and position until they overlapped. “The Xerxes implosion
left a plume in subspace that resembled this.”

“You brought top-secret data with
you?”

“I bribed officials to allow me to
bring all my university books and papers into exile, both published and
unfinished. They didn’t recognize the treasure right in front of them.”

She looked from one example to the
other. “Both vectors aim toward the center of our galaxy. Why?”

“Gravity, my dear. The hub is what
holds all the stars in place and spins them in their courses. It’s the puppet
master on our stage.”

“Overcoming the distance-squared
rule with incredible amounts of mass.”

“Yes, yes. You also need to account
for the angular momentum and the effects of other galaxies for complete
accuracy. That’s the layer under subspace I proposed to my colleagues.” The
professor selected another cube and picked a paper from the menu.