The Catalyst (Targon Tales) (23 page)

A few of the Naiyads approached them directly now and Caelyn lifted his hands toward them. The gloves he wore were not the heavy pressure-suit equipment Seth and Nova were using but were made of a much thinner material, substantial enough to protect him from this fluid but still light enough to allow him to communicate. One of the creatures swam up into his hands and settled there.

“We are greeted,” he said when his mind touched the Naiyad’s. “They are curious. Not hostile. I’m not sure that they are capable of hostility. They think you are very hard to the touch.”

Nova bent awkwardly to look at several of the Naiyads squelching around her boots. One or two of them swam up and she moved her hands through their limbs. “Are they going to bite me again?”

“Yes.”

She withdrew her hand. “Do they know why we’re here?”

“Not really. They do understand that your blood is important to them. They don’t know what lies outside this world, but we’ve made them realize that they are in danger unless we release the catalyst. They are intelligent but there is little point of reference for what we try to tell them.” He gestured by sweeping a hand through the fluid. “They live in sort of a dream. You can feel that, I’m sure. It’s like music. They live in music.”

“What makes that music?” Seth asked.

“They do. A vocal apparatus in their heads. The songs are like thoughts or words that move through the fluid. They don’t actually have much to say. They float, they eat, they sing, they mate.”

Seth made a startled sound and staggered backward.

Nova turned to see that one of the cephalopods had attached itself to his helmet and another seemed about to do the same. “What are you doing?”

“What am I doing? What are
they
doing!” More of the creatures settled over his visor to obscure his vision completely. “They better not be mating on me. Stop laughing, Red.”

Caelyn reached out and gently brushed the Naiyads from Seth’s visor. “Your eyes seem to excite them. Can you stop them from glowing?”

Seth warded off another one. “Only with a pointy stick.”

“Put your sun shield down,” Nova advised when he pulled an especially tenacious specimen from his face. “And quit playing around.”

Indeed, the Naiyads drifted away once his eyes were obscured behind the shield. Nova turned her attention back to Caelyn and the creature in his hands. “So what’s the story with the water ash here?”

“Some by-product of bacteria, possibly a waste product.”

“Oh, great.”

“It cycles through these oceans and is broken down by sunlight. We have found no reason to believe that changing it with the catalyst will cause any problem for them.”

“Well, let’s get on with it,” Seth said. “If we stay here much longer I’m going to sit down and never get up. I am already not too keen on leaving this place. Is this doing something to our heads?”

“Possibly. I feel it, too.”

“Nova?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah. Let’s do this.” She waved her arms in a slow motion, watching the Naiyads waft out of the way as she moved. “That song keeps slowing down like it’s going to stop and then I want to go that way.”

“I don’t recommend it,” Caelyn said. “There is a trench that way. These Naiyads live down there, like a community or breeding grounds or hatchery. I don’t really understand it. Let’s just stay where we are.” He walked over to her and took her arm. “Ready for this?”

“Not really.”

He carefully sealed the improvised valve around her arm and peeled back the sleeve, ensuring that no air escaped that way and to keep a tight pressure on her veins. One of the Naiyads had attached itself to his shoulder and was watching with unblinking eyes.

“Seth...”

“I’m here,” he said, his voice steady.

“Yeah, but you hate needles.”

“I have the feeling there aren’t going to be any.” He moved to stand behind her.

Her arm was now exposed to the Naiyad ocean and she felt her skin tingle in response to the substance. The creature on Caelyn’s shoulder slid down and moved over her arm. Like a wet sponge, it caressed her skin until she felt the edge of a sharp protuberance on one of the limbs. It sliced into her skin. Blood billowed into the surrounding fluid and Nova cried out in pain. The creature brushed over her again, opening another cut. Then she felt a stinger dig into her arm as it had dug into her neck weeks ago.

Another Naiyad approached and also swiped at her. And another. Nova moaned in pain and stumbled backward, into Seth’s arms. “It hurts, Seth.” She had to fight the impulse to brush the creature away from her skin.

“How much of this does she have to endure?” Seth snapped at Caelyn.

“She’ll know.”

Nova bit her lip, watching long ribbons of blood move through the amber liquid. Soon they perceived a change in their surroundings, much like the model in Celessa’s lab. The color of the sea itself was beginning to transform, moving outward from Nova’s arm and ever faster as it accelerated in some chemical chain reaction that seemed to take only moments. The ceaseless song of the ocean faltered momentarily and then began again at a higher pitch that made Caelyn wince in pain.

She swooned, feeling the edges of her vision move in closer. Something seemed to be pulling the blood from her now as if the catalyst itself was looking to escape from her body. “It’s alive,” she whispered. “It knows.”

“That’s not possible!” Seth objected. He watched helplessly as yet another tentacle whipped across Nova’s arm. “When are they going to stop?”

“They don’t even know that this is hurting her.”

“Well, tell them!”

“It’s done,” Nova said. “There is no more.”

Seth immediately turned her around and moved as quickly as the thick fluid allowed toward the shore. Caelyn followed and wrapped his arm around her from the other side when they lurched out of the sea and onto the dusty beach. Nova lolled between them, barely aware of her surroundings.

Seth took a last look back over the smooth ocean and saw that the lace of water ash had turned a paler shade of amber.

They climbed into the Dutchman’s cargo bay. Seth raised the door and moved to the control panel. They allowed the decon process to remove all biological traces of Naiya from the exterior of their suits. “Okay, now let’s hope this actually worked or this’ll be a very short trip.” He took a deep breath and pressurized the cabin to let it fill with oxygen. Both he and Caelyn cringed in apprehension while they removed their helmets and air supply.

Seth grinned when the ash clinging to their suits seemed to cause little more than an unpleasant desire to sneeze. “We did it. Nova, it worked!”

She raised a thumb, using the arm that still seemed to function. Then her knees buckled and she dropped to the floor. Caelyn and Seth worked quickly to discard their suits and then peeled Nova out of hers. Her face was ghostly pale. “We have to get back to Trans-Targon,” Seth said. “Now. She’s lost so much blood!”

Caelyn opened the door to the cabin. “I’m not sure I can do this now.”

Seth carried Nova inside and settled her into a chair. Her clothes were drenched in blood and more still seeped from the wounds on her arm. He opened a box of medical supplies and dug through it. “I think they got a vein. Will you look at this!” He applied pressure to the worst of the cuts. The gauze he used immediately turned red. “Nova! Don’t go to sleep! Stay with us.”

“I’m here,” she said dully. “Don’t shout. Kind of queasy, though. And cold.”

Caelyn checked her pulse and then inspected Seth’s supply of emergency treatments. He selected a tab and prodded Nova into slipping it under her tongue. “That’ll keep her on her feet for a while.” He leaned over her to pull a blanket from the back of the lounger. “I’ll get us ready for takeoff. No guarantees that we’ll end up anywhere near this galaxy when we jump. My head is killing me.”

“Well, we can’t stay here,” Seth said. “Come on, Red. Sit up, lift your arm.”

“Gonna throw up, I think,” she said and drooped against him.

“Well, if you must.” He nodded to Caelyn to go ahead into the cockpit. “We’re going to need you for this, Nova.”

“I got some blood on me,” she mumbled. “And you.”

“A bit,” he agreed. Her shirt and part of her breeches were smeared in a frightful, bloody display that made his own stomach a little uneasy, too. “But it’s stopped now. You’ll be fine. Keep pressing on this spot. We’ll need you in the cockpit once we leave Naiya.”

“Going back now?” She sighed. “I wonder for how long they’ll lock us up.”

“Well, maybe we’ll get lucky and Air Command lost the battle.”

“You’re a funny guy, Kada.” She waved her hand toward the cockpit. “Don’t let him get into trouble for us.”

“Bah, civilian. Bloody Delphis do what they want, anyway,” Seth said. “Isn’t that right, Caelyn?”

“That’s about right,” came the calm reply. “The Council may have some very stern looks for me, though. You want to get going now, or what?”

Seth cast another worried glance at Nova before joining Caelyn in the cockpit. Skipping pre-flight procedures, he lifted off and hovered out over the sea before accelerating away from the planet. They watched it grow smaller on their screens even as the Dutchman began to pry into the keyhole back to Trans-Targon.

Nova left the lounger and came to stand between the two pilot chairs. Her body still felt like it was made of pudding but she wasn’t about to faint. “Can we do this?”

Seth looked up. “Going to have to. There isn’t anything out here except Naiya. And they’re a little short on air.” His eyes shifted to Caelyn. “Counting on you, Delphi.”

“Hold your end up, Centauri,” Caelyn replied lazily.

“What can I do?” Nova said. “You only have the two interface sets.”

“You can join us,” Seth said. The Delphian nodded. “Why don’t you take a seat on Caelyn here, and we can go for jump.”

“What?
On
Caelyn?” she said when the Delphian took her hand and pulled her toward himself. She climbed uneasily onto his bench and stretched out on his long body, now guessing their intent. “This is awkward. And insane.”

“No groping the Human, Caelyn,” Seth said and settled into his interface.

“I’ll behave. Emitters online. Go neg when ready.”

Nova closed her eyes when the jumpsite to Trans-Targon opened before them and the Delphian’s mind used the Dutchman’s processors to expand the breach and allow them to enter. She reached across the space between the chairs to take Seth’s hand.

“See you on the other side,” Seth said. “Hopefully.”

Caelyn’s fingers moved over her cheek and touched her own neural interface. She gasped when she felt something, some presence in her mind that was more tangible than what she experienced when interfacing with a plane. “Whoa,” she whispered. “Is that you?”

“Focus,” he said. All three of them now used their link to each other and the Dutchman to augment Caelyn’s ability to direct the ship to the point in space that they hoped to meet. Obediently, the plane shot forward into the breach and their world disappeared.

* * *

Nova became aware of herself only a little while later. Her next awareness was of the Delphian’s angular body beneath hers, then the muted noises from the dashboard. She lifted her head. Seth had dropped her hand and both men lay with their eyes closed, unmoving.

“Seth?” She blinked. “Oh shit!” She leaped from Caelyn’s lap and groped for the manual controls. The Dutchman was tumbling wildly after having been spewed from the breach at the same speed it had entered and it took every bit of her skill and likely a fair bit of luck to bring it under control. “Seth! Wake up! We’re in trouble.”

Alarm lights were calling for attention on the console in front of her. Something beeped from somewhere below the floor of the cockpit and now a squawk from the com board announced some inquiry, hopefully from the Union fleet. The Dutchman shimmied unsteadily and Seth frowned as he opened his eyes. “Wha..?”

“We’re back!” Nova exclaimed. “He did it! But something broke. We’re going to have to land. Soon. If we can.”

He used his interface to engage the ship’s diagnostic programs. “I think you’re right. There goes my plan to outrun them to the next jumpsite.”

Both of them looked up at the overhead screens when the rebel platform came into view. There were two Eagle cruisers attached to her locks and only a handful of Shrills remained of the rebel fleet. A few Air Command Kites buzzed the area, approaching the Dutchman now that they had been spotted. The Union battleship loomed nearby, dwarfing all in her shadow.

Seth opened a com line. “Is that you, Carras? Hold your fire, we’re coming in.” He swooped the Dutchman in a wide arc toward the rebel station.

“You don’t want to land on the battleship?”

“Hell no. We might still have a chance.”

She smiled sadly. “Ever the optimist.” She peered into Caelyn’s face. “Caelyn? Are you in there?”

“I’d like to be left alone now,” the Delphian replied in a tired murmur. “Please go away, both of you.”

She smiled and gently kissed his forehead. “Thanks for getting us back.”

Seth nudged the Dutchman into one of the locks on the platform. The connection was rough and Nova stumbled briefly but the ship soon came to rest. She waited for him in the cargo bay.

“Okay,” she said resolutely. “I’m ready.”

“For what?”

“They’re going to arrest you and then Baroch will find a way to cut you loose. They’re going to arrest me and put me in front of a court martial. The best I can hope for is to get thrown out of Air Command. I don’t have your kind of immunity.”

“You could lie, you know.”

“No, I can’t. I killed a Union pilot. And Drackon’s guard. I’m a deserter. Disobeyed orders. Aided the enemy. Unlawfully at large. And I cost the Commonwealth a future in water ash.”

“And you saved a few million sentients from a very dreadful future. I like that part best.”  He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and kissed her softly, for a long time. “And being in hell with you. That was fun, too.”

“Yeah, it was.” She sighed. “I suppose I could get a job as a rebel.”

He smiled and stroked her face. “You’d make a terrible rebel. What you are is a Union pilot.” He kissed her again. “Do you trust me?”