The Stars Down Under (7 page)

“Thousands of stations,” Farber said. “Maybe hundreds of thousands.”

Gayle shut off the wallgib and brought the overhead lights up to full illumination. “What we'd really like to pinpoint is the network's control station. The hub of it all, or hubs if there's more than one. You can grind a Sphere into dust and not find any type of machinery inside. How the tokens appear, what power source sends them spiraling onward—it's a mystery.”

Jodenny asked, “You've destroyed a Sphere?”

Gayle gave her a patient look. “Hypothetical computer models. We would never destroy an archaeological artifact.”

“But you did capture a token,” Jodenny said. “You tried to transport it on the
Yangtze,
and it ended up destroying the ship.”

She tried not to sound bitter about it. Hundreds of people dead. Her shipmates, her closest friends. The actual sequence of events was still an enigma to her. The Team Space agents on Warramala had insisted that no memory block had been installed in her mind, but Sam Osherman had told her otherwise. If he was alive, if she ever found him again, she intended to wrap her hands around his throat and throttle the truth out of him.

Gayle sat down. Her gaze, always direct, burned into Jodenny. “The field office had no way of knowing what destruction the token would cause while transporting it. You can be sure that no one will try that again. Safety is our highest priority. That, and preserving the integrity of the network. We only want to understand what the Wondjina left for us. With any luck at all, it will help us understand them better. Bring us closer to who and what they were.”

Myell would no doubt have something to say about that. Jodenny checked the nearest clock. He should be off work by now, on his way home. She hoped his second day at Supply School had been easier than his first one.

“All you want me to do is see if a Mother Sphere will respond to me?” she asked.

Gayle nodded. “If the system stays operational, if it's safe, we'll send a rescue team after Robert's group. If you'd like, I could get you on the team. With the new medical treatments, the sickness is no longer a problem. You could be part of an amazing adventure, Commander.”

The offer was more tempting than she wanted to admit. Jodenny said, “What if the token doesn't come?”

“If it doesn't, we'll have to try something else. Can I count on your cooperation, Commander?”

Jodenny said, “When do you want to try?”

Gayle leaned forward. “Tonight. Tomorrow. You decide.”

Her eagerness was a little unsettling. Jodenny said, “Let me call you in the morning.”

She was halfway down the passageway, heading for the lift, when Leorah Farber came after her.

“Commander,” Farber said. “A word?”

Jodenny replied, “I said I'd call in the morning.”

Farber said, “It's about your husband. We'd appreciate his cooperation as well. I've tried talking to him and understand his reluctance, but this is an issue larger than individual concerns any of us might have.”

The passageway was long but wide, filled with gleaming white floor tiles and windowless beige walls. A medbot sat on a perch high above, waiting for emergencies. Jodenny said, “His ‘individual concerns' are pretty big.”

“I know,” Farber said. “But I've also talked to his commanding officer at Supply School. Captain Kuvik doesn't want him there. Doesn't believe he sets a good role model for the students or staff. Why should Chief Myell continue in such a hostile environment—”

“Wait,” Jodenny said hotly. “Not a good role model? Winner of a Silver Star?”

Farber glanced pointedly at Jodenny's wedding ring. “It's not my opinion, ma'am. It's Captain Kuvik's. The fraternization issue, skipping initiation—these aren't taken lightly. But I promise you, here, in this project, no one will make an issue of it.”

Jodenny shook her head in disgust. “If that's your entire sales pitch, Miss Farber, it's no wonder you didn't win him over.”

She took public transportation home, mulling over Farber's words and rehearsing what to tell Myell about the project. She wouldn't even mention Gayle's casual offer to include her in the rescue mission. Better that he didn't even think that was an option. She wouldn't go gallivanting around the universe without him, anyway. Jodenny tried pinging him from the monorail, but he didn't respond to his bee. He hadn't left any messages and Betsy reported that he wasn't home.

That was strange, but perhaps he'd gone to the gym and left his bee on a locker shelf. Once she was home and out of her uniform, Jodenny tried calling him again. No answer. She curled up on the ugly sofa with her gib, reading the news, watching the daylight fade outside. Karl snuggled between her feet, his ears twitching.

“Where are you?” she asked the ceiling.

Myell didn't answer.

*   *   *

Myell couldn't reach his bee. It buzzed more than once, and he imagined Jodenny's increasing worry on the other end. Sooner or later she would call the duty officer at Supply School to find out what time he'd left. The duty officer would report that he hadn't flashed his ID at the lobby security scanner on his way out. A search might commence. The idea of anyone finding him here, bound and gagged in the dark, was utterly humiliating.

He twisted and squirmed for the knots. Some large piece of machinery nearby started to hiss. Warm air blasted over him, and the dark terror of the hood over his head dissolved into a burnt-red desert that he hadn't seen since Warramala.

This landscape was different from the one he'd experienced then. A watering hole, large and unexpectedly blue, lay not far from his feet. A crocodile was immersed in it. Only the creature's head and snout showed. Its teeth were white like bone, its skin gray verging on black.

“I didn't have time for you,” Myell said, shuddering.

The crocodile stared at him, its eyes flat and green. “Jungali,” it said, though its mouth didn't move.

Myell tried closing his eyes, but they were already closed. Jungali was the nickname his mother had given him as a child. Was the name the Rainbow Serpent had used, in asking him to choose between the so-called real world and the Dreamtime.

“That's not me,” he said.

The ground around the watering hole rippled, and another reptile tore free of the ground. It rose on its hind legs like a dinosaur might. Its breath smelled like burnt flesh, like something rancid and rotting left to dry under the sun. Thunderhead clouds boiled in the sky.

“Jungali!” the crocodile cried, and scurried out of the waterhole toward him. The dinosaur-thing attacked it with claws and teeth, and their ferocious struggles ripped through the air.

Myell jerked backward. The vision disappeared, replaced by darkness and the sounds of machinery, the cut of rope against his skin. Oxygen was becoming a problem. He forced himself to calm down, but it took several long moments before he could breathe steadily through his nose, and even longer before his hands were steady enough to get to work.

He finally managed to free himself, at the cost of torn and scraped wrists. The rest of the faculty and students had long departed the school, and the lobby was empty but for a bored-looking AT.

“Night, Chief,” he said, as Myell passed through the scanners.

The air outside was fresh and mild compared to the basement. The after-work crowd had thinned. If he checked over his shoulder once or twice, that was caution and not paranoia. On the train ride home he worried how he was going to explain things. Jodenny would want to get involved, pull rank, pull strings, as she had on the
Aral Sea.
He didn't need to be rescued by his wife. He wouldn't allow a repeat of the bullying there to mar his time on Fortune.

His bee was silent, though. Maybe she'd given up trying to contact him. When the monorail drew close to Adeline Oaks, he pinged Betsy.

“Commander Scott is asleep,” she told him. “Shall I wake her? She was eager to reach you.”

“No,” Myell said. “Leave her alone.”

He trudged home from the train station in the darkness. She was dozing on the sofa when he let himself in. He hurried to their bedroom and closed the door behind him.

There were no marks on his face, except for irritation where the tape glue had been. His wrists wouldn't look pretty come morning. Myell turned on the shower and climbed in under hot water. Only under its strong torrent did he allow himself to close his eyes, and lean against the shower wall, and let himself tremble.

*   *   *

Without meaning to, Jodenny had fallen asleep on the ugly sofa. When she woke the sky was full dark and the shower was running in the master bathroom.

She poked her head into the bathroom. “Terry?”

“You were sleeping,” he said from behind the shower screen and a cloud of steam. “Didn't want to wake you.”

Jodenny yawned at her mirror reflection. “I tried to reach you. Is your bee working?”

“It's been frizzing out all day. Sorry I was late—a few unexpected things came up.”

“School was okay?”

Myell reached for a bar of soap. “Every day's something new. I'll get the hang of it. Did you eat?”

Jodenny thought of Farber's words.
Hostile environment.
She said, “I'm starving. Want to go to Mexwax?”

He didn't answer for a moment.

“Come on,” she wheedled. “Quesadillas and tequila.”

“Okay,” he said.

Jodenny was glad. No doubt they both needed a little cheering up. She slipped into a little blue dress and was surprised when Myell ducked into his closet to pull on his clothes. Usually he dressed in front of her. He emerged wearing slacks and a black shirt, one of her favorites.

“You look great,” he said, and kissed her cheek. His skin was still warm from the shower, his hair damp, and he had a little rash around his mouth. Jodenny touched it gingerly.

“Did you eat something you were allergic to?”

He looked at himself in the mirror. “Maybe. I didn't notice.”

They took their own flit. Myell drove, refusing to put the car on autopilot. Traffic was light. A landscape of darkened stores, empty office parks, and carefully tended public parks slid by their windows, silvery in the moonlight.

“Did they tell you what you're going to be teaching?” Jodenny asked.

“They're still trying to figure that out. What about you? Your day was okay?”

She studied his profile. He had always been private, reticent, unwilling to complain. But she trusted that if he was having serious problems with Captain Kuvik or anyone else at school, he'd tell her about them. Farber's words had been meant to unsettle her, nothing more.

“I found out more about Dr. Gayle,” Jodenny said. “She has a great reputation.”

He nodded, his attention on the road.

“I spoke to her some more. I don't think what she's asking for is unreasonable.”

Myell said, “You want to help.”

“Yes.”

His gaze didn't waver from the windshield. “And if I asked you not to? Because I don't think it's a good idea to become involved, and because I worry about your safety?”

Jodenny reached over and touched his arm. “Is your worry worth sacrificing nine lives?”

Myell didn't answer. Jodenny listened to the hum of the flit until they reached Mexwax, a sprawling adobe-style restaurant on a hill overlooking Kimberley's western suburbs. They were seated by a window with a good view, and their food came quickly. Jodenny's basil and ricotta enchilada was excellent. Myell only picked at soup and salad. She told him stories about herself as a young ensign in Supply School and the embarrassing gaffes she'd made. He smiled at all the right times and ordered two shots of tequila, though he barely touched the second.

Halfway through dessert she said, “Tell me what you want me to do.”

Myell squeezed her hand. “You could never turn your back on someone in need. That was true when I met you, and it's true now. But I don't trust Team Space. Not about this.”

She asked, “Are you seeing … you know. Things?”

He had told her that on the
Aral Sea
he had seen an Aboriginal shaman. During their trip through the Spheres on Warramala, he had seen a Rainbow Serpent. She didn't think about those visions too deeply or too often, because they seemed so illogical and fanciful, so entirely unlike him.

What could she say, anyway? She didn't believe in visions. She believed in
him.
As she hoped he believed in her.

Myell lifted his tequila and studied the depths of it. “A crocodile. In our kitchen.”

She didn't know how to respond, so she made a joke. “I'm glad he wasn't in the bedroom.”

Myell put the glass down. “I don't want you to help them, Kay.”

The use of her old nickname made Jodenny's throat tighten. “I can't promise anything. Not yet.”

He said, “You promised
me
. On Baiame. That we wouldn't get involved.”

“Things have changed.”

“I don't think they have.”

They drove home in silence.

CHAPTER
SIX

Myell stayed awake long after Jodenny fell asleep. He stared at the ceiling and listened to her slow, steady breathing.

The little he'd eaten for dinner was still heavy in his stomach, or maybe that was the tequila, or maybe the lingering ache from being punched in the gut. He had managed to hide his wrists from Jodenny during dinner and while getting ready for bed. A small bump ached on the back of his head but he'd had worse, and mostly all he felt was a burning shame at being bound and blindfolded and gagged. If he hadn't freed himself, he would still be there, miserable and afraid.

He closed his eyes and saw the crocodile and dinosaur devouring each other, teeth rending flesh, blood in rivulets across the world.