The Catalyst (Targon Tales) (10 page)

It wasn't until Nova switched the screens in the Dutchman's cockpit to real-video that she realized that they were approaching what she had always considered to be the wrong side of the planet.

"Magra Torley?" she said. "Not Magra Alaric?"

"What would I want on that continent?" Seth pretended to shudder. "Full of Union people and Union stuff and flying projectiles coming at me from Union pistols. Enough to make a person want to stay far far away."

She sighed. "All right, stop it. I should have realized you'd want Torley."

He began their descent over the continent that was less welcoming of Union members than other parts of the planet. While over the past three hundred years many of the habitable worlds in the Trans-Targon sector had come to welcome or at least tolerate an alliance with the Commonwealth, Magra had not. Perpetually at war with each other, three of the continents allowed access to Union members and took advantage of the benefits such alliance brought. The other two sided with the rebels and, in keeping Union presence from their shores, had become a haven for Shri-Lan and Arawaj activities.

"Try not to look like a Lieutenant," Seth advised. "Don't you people know how to slouch?"

Nova sneered and went back into the cabin while he landed the Dutchman on a public airfield on the edge of Tanglan to change her clothes.

The past few days had been difficult for both of them. The Dutchman had not been searched again before given clearance to leave Targon and they had set course for the jumpsite back toward Magra without incident. But some awkwardness seemed to have settled between them, perhaps because of the hours they had spent asleep together on his bed. Too many memories had crept in there with them and both of them now took painstaking care to avoid speaking of those, avoid touching, avoid even looking at the other for too long.

Nova put it aside as an aberrant moment of weakness and set her sights on solving the mystery that had come into her life along with the poison delivered to her hospital room. If Seth’s contacts could offer no clues about what had happened to her on the
Dyona
and why the pirates were sent to retrieve the tank, she would present herself to the base on Magra Alaric. She would face the consequences of whatever had happened on Targon and let her commanders deal with assassins and rebel infiltrations. This whole situation was intolerable. She was only a pilot and nothing in her experience had prepared her for a day when a rebel was anything but target practice. This sort of defiance went against everything she had been taught, that she believed in and that she had trained for.

She waited until the Dutchman had settled to the ground before reaching for her medication. Between the long periods she spent asleep, conserving energy, and the drugs given to her by Doctor Darshan she felt almost perfectly healthy.

"Must you do this where I have to watch?" Seth had come into the cabin.

She injected one of the ampoules into her arm. "Did you ever think you might be in the wrong line of work, seeing how squeamish you get about things?" She counted the remaining vials in her package of medicine. "I'm a bit worried about running out of this stuff."

"Take some with you. Maybe we can find it here."

She tucked one of the vials into a pocket of the leather vest she had filched from him and reached up to loosen the tight chignon at her nape to let her hair fall freely over her shoulders. Her snug breeches were tucked into solid boots and the rail gun lashed to her thigh added what she hoped was an aura of menace to her appearance. "So do I look like a rebel?"

"I don't think it should be anyone's goal to look like a rebel. In fact, most rebels try very hard not to look like rebels."

"Don't spoil my fun."

"Well, just don't start shooting people," he said. "This is a neutral planet and you have no authority here. We're not here to hunt rebels. You can do that on Union time, not while you're AWOL."

Nova followed him out of the Dutchman and onto the airfield which was little more than a paved surface among rolling expanses of fields. She was curiously disoriented by the vast tracts of vegetation reaching to the horizon. The skyranches she had seen were orderly rings of multi-level hydroponic production units and she had only a vague concept of how animals might be used for food. Seth had to grin when she stopped to stare at a four-legged creature behind a low fence. It was a massive, horned being that surely would not be stopped by such a flimsy barrier should it be moved to charge at them. Yet it seemed quite content to return her gaze, chewing on whatever there was to be found on the ground. "Leave your gun where it is, Nova," Seth said. "That's not a rebel."

She let him pull her along. "It's so huge! What is it?"

"Dinner, hopefully," he said. "I could really use some real food for a change. With luck we'll get fed when we get to the lab."

"People eat that? Look at those eyes!"

He had to laugh. "You can tell an M-track from a trap rail at fifty paces but you’ve never seen a live daram? They’re great with mushrooms. That’s fungus."

"I know what mushrooms are, wise guy."

They walked onward, away from the town and into an area where there were just a few houses, each surrounded by gardens and orchards. A cool breeze blew from nearby hills but the sun shone warmly and Nova enjoyed the stroll. "Actually prettier here than over in Alaric," she said. "So where is this lab?"

"Right there." He pointed to one of the cottages along the tree-lined road. It was a rambling structure to which additions had been added over time and as the need arose. Behind it stood several greenhouses.

The door to the building opened before they had even reached it. "Sethran, you shiftless vagrant! About time you visited again!" An elder Terran came outside, his arms raised in greeting. He clapped Seth's back in a loose embrace. "I told Acie that she was dreaming when she told me you had messaged her!"

"Good to see you, Vincent. This is Nova Whiteside that I mentioned in my message."

The old man studied her for a considerable time. "So you think it's wise to bring one of them here?"

"No choice, I'm afraid. She's our specimen."

"Well, I trust your judgment. Come inside." He waved them into the house. "Have you eaten? Acie! They're here! Now where did that girl get to? Come, let's have tea. Or would you prefer something else, Miss Whiteside? I have some wine. Very good, too. Perhaps you'll join me in a glass. Too bad that Sethran doesn't indulge."

Nova had been looking around the entrance of the cottage, charmed by its blend of rustic materials and modern conveniences. "He doesn't?"

"Tea's fine," Seth said as they entered the kitchen. "Hello, Acie."

Nova turned to see a small woman enter the kitchen from the rear door of the house. She was unmistakably Bellac with deep red skin and startling white hair drawn into a thick ponytail. She wore coveralls and carried a basket of produce. "Seth! You made it. I heard you had some trouble back there."

"A little."

Nova peered at the woman more closely. "Don't I know you?"

Acie smiled broadly and put the basket onto the thick slab of wood that served as a table in the middle of the room. "We all look the same to you, don't we?"

"Not to me. I lived on Bellac for months. You're the... woman we saw on Aikhor!"

Seth nodded. "Meet Acie Daruen, an expert chemist and squash grower. The tail was just decorative." He grinned at Vincent. "Perhaps Nova will have the wine."

"Yes, and then I'll make dinner. I have a very nice bird all ready to go."

"We probably shouldn't stay long," Seth said. "Why don't you go bleed for Acie, Nova, so that she can start whatever tests need to get done?"

Acie waved Nova along, out of the kitchen. Nova followed, a little baffled by all that was going on. They walked through a cozy commons room filled with overstuffed furniture and piles of books, 3D’s and reader tablets everywhere. Among them lolled several small animals that she might have seen in illustrations somewhere. The Bellac opened a door and walked ahead of Nova into a basement level instantly illuminated when they stepped into the stairwell.

A small but gleaming and modern laboratory awaited them at the bottom of the stairs. Nova turned in the small space, seeing spotless counters and equipment, coolers, heaters, things that spun and things that contained tiny rodents.

"Nice," she commented.

"Well, it's home. I've got a few experiments already started. Come, have a seat here and roll up a sleeve. And fill me in."

Nova complied and bared her arm for Acie's needle. "We were transporting a cephalopod of some sort in a water ash matrix. It stung me before it died. The doctors on Targon suspect it was carrying some sort of organism but they don't know why. It's not native to the species."

The Bellac removed a vial of blood and attached another. "I know all that. Fill me in on you and Seth!"

Nova coughed. "Seth?"

"Yah."

Nova frowned. "We used to be friends. Long ago. How about you fill me in about
you
and Seth. What was that back there on Aikhor?"

Acie shrugged. "We were meeting there to take the lab out. Been planned for months, although he was a few days late because of some other job. I was there to see if there was anything useful we needed to remove or that shouldn't be just blown into the sky. We found a few things and put those on his ship. Unfortunately, there was someone working late at the lab and then a bottle of something that Centauris don't tolerate so well got broken. Well, sort of thrown at him. We got the job done but Seth was just ill the whole time. So I took him back to the inn. Poor guy had trouble seeing straight!" She laughed at the memory. “Here, exhale into this as hard as you can.”

"He let me believe he was drunk!"

"Oh," she said. "Oops. I talk too much."

"I'm getting used to being left in the dark," Nova grumbled.  She blew into a tube as instructed. "That was quite the outfit you were almost wearing."

"Well, we all use what we've got, honey," Acie said with the same breathy warble she had used on Aikhor. Nova could not help but join her laughter.

"Okay, got enough," Acie announced. She opened a metal cabinet and crouched low to search through some containers. "I'm going to start playing with water ash, so you better go in case those doctors are wrong about you being immune. Close the door at the top of the stairs. It'll seal. Let me know when dinner is ready."

Nova left the diminutive Bellac in her lab and made her way back upstairs. She heard gentle laughter from the direction of the kitchen.

"I thought she was going to shoot the poor daram," Seth was saying. Nova smiled when Vincent replied with more laughter.

"So does she know who you are?" he said, suddenly sounding very sober. Nova stopped in mid-stride. “Who we are? This could be dangerous to us all."

"I trust her. You want to relocate the lab soon, anyway. I’ll cover our tracks once she’s back where she belongs."

"She could be useful to us. Especially now, with you so close."

"She is Air Command and always will be. I won't risk her getting mixed up in this any more than necessary." He was silent for a moment. "I just can't."

"If she’s not one of us she’s as dangerous to you as you are to her. Don't get caught up with her, son."

"Well, I had my chance and I blew it a long time ago. Don't worry about that."

Nova bent down to pet one of the animals that roamed the cottage, cooing loudly enough for the two men in the kitchen to hear. She entered the room. "That little black thing is so sweet. Please tell me that isn't breakfast."

"Oh, no, Acie would carve me up into thin slices if anything happened to little Maru. Will you taste some of these roasted pepper pods, Miss Whiteside?"

"Nova," she said. "I don't think anyone has ever called me 'Miss' before." She took a seat at the high table. Something simmering in a nearby pot was filling the kitchen with mouth-watering aroma and she inhaled deeply. "I'd love a taste, sir."

"Only if you call me Vincent. I take it that Acie has settled into her beakers and gadgets by now?"

Nova nodded. "That is a very nice lab down there. For such a remote location." She smiled at the Human. "I won't pry, don't worry. I’m grateful that you are willing to help me with my problem. Forget who I am." She glanced at Seth. "And I won't ask who you are."

"Well, that's probably for the best, then," Vincent said brightly. "Now, until our dinner is ready, how about a tour of our lovely garden?"

"Seen it," Seth said. "What I'd really like is to stand in a hot shower for a while."

"Me, too!" Nova said at once. "Um, after you, I mean. Your Dutchman's system is more than adequate, but nothing beats buckets and buckets of water."

"Please, make yourself at home," Vincent said. "There is no shortage of sunshine on Magra. The cells are fully charged and the tanks are right up with lovely hot water."

A few enjoyable hours followed. Acie joined them for dinner but even while the others ate and talked she was busy with her little screens and notes and didn't seem to notice that there were two pencils tucked behind her ears. She disappeared back into the basement before the others had even finished their meal. Nova listened to the stories and chatter around the table, feeling wholly at ease in the overheated kitchen with its clutter of dishes, glasses and bottles strewn over the table along with a growing pile of books and tablets. The conversation rambled through distant places and foreign worlds that interested Vincent as much as they did Seth. He clearly deferred to the older man and she noticed none of the irreverence that colored his speech at other times. It had been a long while since Nova had felt as comfortable and untroubled as she did in this company.

It was well past midnight before they heard the seal to the basement door hiss gently in preparation of opening.

"Ah, here is our mad scientist," Vincent declared. "While I won't pretend that we are better equipped than those vast facilities on Targon, Acie does have a way of ferreting things out."

"She certainly does." All of them turned when the Bellac stepped into the kitchen. She lifted a hand and drizzled a handful of amber dust onto the surface of the wooden table.