The Lodestone Trilogy (Limited Edition) (The Lodestone Series) (89 page)

She linked arms with Alondo, and the four of them made their way across the landing field.

As they turned the corner to the front of the house, Shann saw a phaeton lying empty just inside the gate. Rael’s voice sounded just behind her. “Oh my.”

Shann twisted around. “What is it?”

“You see that crest?” Rael said, pointing to an emblem emblazoned on the carriage door. “That’s the Scientific Directorate. Hannath is receiving a visit from one of the Directors.”

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

Rael pursed his lips together. “Nothing. Besides, there’s no turning back now.”

~

“…and so, with all the hull damage, we were taking in too much seawater. So Patris decided that our only chance was to run the ship aground.” Lyall’s explanation was punctuated by the rhythmic ticking and whirring of the instruments that lined the walls of the sitting room.

“I know,” Shann said.

She sat in a close circle with Lyall and Alondo. Standing off in the corner, leaning against a wall, was Patris. Keris had said that they would find the sailor-thief at the observatory along with the other two, but Shann was still surprised to see him. He had not moved from the position he occupied when she had entered the room.

Rael had invited them to make themselves at home. Then he had excused himself, saying that he had to report to Hannath. Shann had almost offered to accompany him, but something stopped her. Somehow she had a feeling that her presence would probably only make things worse.

Lyall frowned. “You know?”

She nodded. “They found the wreck of Annata’s Reach. I persuaded Rael to take me there. It was obvious that she had been deliberately beached, but there was no sign of the rest of you.”

“We were attacked,” Alondo explained.

Shann leaned forward.
“Attacked?
By whom?”

“We don’t know,” Lyall replied. “An avionic chased us. It fired some sort of lightning. Keris’ quick thinking saved us, but I was badly injured. We had to seek shelter.”

“Where did you go?” Shann asked.

“Well,” Alondo began, “Keris found a dwelling house and kicked in one of their windows like she usually does. So they invited us to stay for supper.” Shann looked at the musician dubiously. He turned to Lyall, his hands wide in a gesture of appeal.

Lyall shrugged and smiled. “Don’t ask me. I was unconscious at the time. They were kind, though. They looked after me while I recovered.”

“Later I saw you in one of those flying carriage things,” Alondo told her.

“I knew it was you,” she said excitedly. “But by the time I returned, you were gone.”

Alondo lowered his eyes. “Keris dragged me away. She didn’t believe me. And she was afraid I would draw too much attention.” Shann scowled. The musician raised his eyes. “It wasn’t her fault, Shann. We had to be careful as we didn’t know who it was who had attacked us earlier. She was just looking out for me, that’s all.”

Go ahead. Make excuses for her.

The door opened, and Rael’s untidy mop appeared, followed by the rest of him. She stood up when she saw the boy’s studious expression. “Are you all right? What happened?”

Rael ambled over in his ungainly style and pulled up a stool. Shann moved to admit him to the circle. He tucked his legs awkwardly behind the legs of the stool. “I saw Hannath. Director Thordan was also there. Hannath spent the first twenty dahns or so yelling at me. Then it occurred to him to ask where I’d been. So I told him about the tower.”

“Tower? What tower?” Alondo put in.

“Rael and I discovered another of the vacuum displacement towers,” Shann explained, “like the one on the eastern Plains.”

“Thordan didn’t believe me,” Rael continued. “Hannath insisted that whatever I might have done, I wasn’t a liar. They started arguing. Then I showed them a small device I found there. I don’t even know what it is exactly, but I knew it would be recognised as ancient technology.”

“What did they say?” Shann asked.

Rael leaned back and laughed. “Well, for the first couple of dahns, Thordan just kept opening and closing his mouth. He looked rather like a fish out of water. I went on to tell them about my findings on the interactive properties of lodestone gas. I also said that I had another lead on an ancient site near the Tower of Akalon. I told them I needed to travel there with you all. There was immediately another argument. Thordan said I should be given leave to go. He is head of the Archaeology Division. Hannath insisted that I stay here and work on the new lodestone theory. Eventually, they reached a compromise. The Scientific Directorate will put an expedition together in the spring to investigate the tower at the location I gave them. I am to take you to the site of Drani-Kathaar, along with a drach escort. Before I leave, I will hand over my lodestone calculations to Hannath.”

Shann shook her head “I…I don’t understand. What about the avionic we…borrowed? What about Ravid?”

“After I told them of our discoveries, they didn’t seem to care about any of that. Thordan told Hannath that it was probably all just a misunderstanding.”

“That seems incredible,” Shann said.

“What can I say?” The boy shrugged. “The Science Directorate is revered here in Kieroth. If they say it was all a misunderstanding, then that’s what it was. No-one is going to contradict them, certainly not an avionics engineer. That said, I am going to go and apologise to him when all of this is over. I owe him that much. For now, though, we need to prepare. We will be setting out for Drani-Kathaar at first light tomorrow.”

“How far is it?” Lyall asked.

“It’s about a hundred met-ryns southeast of here,” Rael replied.

“That sounds a long way,” Lyall commented.

“We travel by avionic,” Rael informed them. “We should be there in five days.”

“But your machine only carries two people,” Shann pointed out. “There are five of us.”

“Actually, there will be eight people travelling. We will be taking three drach with us. So we will need four avionic craft. Plus an extra one for Keris and Boxx that we will pick up on the way.”

“They let you have four machines?” Shann’s voice expressed disbelief.

Rael smiled. “I presented them with a major advancement in our understanding of lodestone physics, not to mention the greatest ancient discovery in living memory. If I’d asked for a troupe of dancing girls, I think they’d probably have given it to me.”

“Maybe there’s a chance you could go back and request one of those?” Alondo’s straight face creased as Shann dug him in the ribs. “Oooof.”

Lyall’s eyes twinkled. He turned to Patris, who was still leaning against the wall. “You haven’t said much, Patris. Are you fine about coming with us?”

“We’re going to meet Keris, right?”

“That’s right,” Lyall affirmed.

“Then I’m definitely coming with you,” the thief said. “We have an arrangement. She owes me money.”

~

Alexander McCann sat on the dusty wooden floor of a freezing garret in a disused building in Kieroth’s workshop district. Across from him, an elderly Kelanni in a smart coat of short fur was propped up against a chimney breast, his legs splayed out in front of him. A wrap-around metal band covered his eyes, coloured lights playing across its inner surface. The Kelanni was semi-conscious. McCann checked his watch. Five more minutes for the psychotrope to take effect.

As McCann’s stubble had grown thicker and longer, his patience had grown thinner and shorter. He was fed up with shifty-eyed informants, dank basements and dark alleys.
I’m an engineer, not an infiltrator. I should be back at Helice helping Lafontaine fix the QDE drive so we can get off this rock, not fooling around with these primitives.
Still, carping about it wasn’t going to help. He had taken an oath to his Captain many years ago, and as an experienced spacer, he knew what that meant. In the vacuum of space, death was never more than a few metres away. Quintessence dark energy was unstable and could lead to unforeseen emergencies. Survival often depended on following protocols–on unquestioning obedience to authority. In truth, he was whoever his Captain said he was at any particular moment.

That meant that today, he was a man who had kidnapped the alien official of a planet they had been trapped on for sixteen years in order to extract information. He leafed though the creature’s paper identification. He was called Thordan, a Director no less, of one of their ruling institutes. This individual had met with Hannath and a representative of the rebel faction some hours ago, and his information was that they had discussed a major discovery. “Find out what it is they’re up to and report back.” Wang’s orders were unequivocal. In his opinion, the Captain was becoming paranoid about these people. There was nothing they could possibly have come up with that would justify this investment of time and resources. But as usual, his opinion stuck in his throat, the words unspoken.

Instead, he had trailed the official to his place of residence, then as soon as the Kelanni had alighted from his transport and dismissed the driver, the engineer had introduced him to the business end of a neural tranquiliser. McCann had some reservations as to the possible long-term effects of such powerful drugs on alien physiology, but he knew better than to voice those concerns to his Captain. Wang was interested in his getting the job done–nothing more. Fortunately, Wang had left open the question of what to do with him after the interrogation. McCann found unnecessary killing, even of these creatures, to be quite distasteful. Fortunately, he had a good reason to keep this one alive. The unexplained murder of a local dignitary would attract way too much attention. McCann intended to deposit him near where he had been taken, comatose but alive. The good Director would wake up with a sore head and no memory of why he had passed out in the street. A curious mystery–but nothing more.

McCann glanced again at his watch. It was time. He got up and went to the quiescent form, checking the readings on the headband, then he took the Kelanni’s head between his hands and turned it to face him. “Who are you?”

Flickering patterns of light from the headband fed directly into the alien’s eyes, enhancing the effect of the drug that had been pumped into his system. The Director forced his eyes half open as if they had been pasted together by sleep. “Wh…wha?”

“What is your name?” McCann urged.

“Unghhhh…”

“What…is…your…name?” he repeated.

“My…name…Th…Thordan.”

McCann cursed under his breath. This was a sledgehammer to crack a nut. The old fool would probably have spilled his guts anyway if McCann had just looked at him the wrong way. The engineer adjusted a remote control so that the fluctuating images pouring into the subject’s eyes slowed, and his breathing became more regular.

“You met with the scientist Hannath earlier today,” McCann continued. “You discussed a new discovery. What was it?”

There was a pause, as if the alien’s mind was processing the question. Then he spoke in a voice that was deadpan. “Lodestone.”

“Lodestone? What about it?” the engineer probed.

“N…not know. Not my speciality. Involves…weaponization.”

“The weaponization of lodestone?”

“Yes.”

That was disturbing news indeed. If it were true that they had somehow discovered the secret of how to construct an accumulator device, then Wang had been right to be concerned. McCann leaned forward. “Who made this discovery? Was it Hannath?”

“Not Hannath,” the old Kelanni breathed.

“Who then?”

“The boy, Rael.”

“A boy?” McCann exclaimed. “Who is he?”

“Ap…apprentice.”

“Was he the other person you met with?”

“He arrived unexpectedly. He is…with the others.”

So this boy was a member of the Kelanni rebel faction. It got worse. “What is this group going to do next?” McCann demanded.

“Akalon…Dais.”

McCann shook him by the shoulders. “What?”

“Akalon…D…Dais,” the creature repeated. He appeared to be slipping towards unconsciousness.

McCann cursed to himself again. He wasn’t going to get much more out of this subject. Still, perhaps it was enough. He released the Kelanni’s shoulders, and the alien sagged back against the brickwork. The engineer returned to his former position next to one of the roof trusses and pulled out a datapad from inside his fur jacket. The flat rectangular instrument glowed into life. “Inquiry,” he said.