Transformation Space (24 page)

Her comment was straightforward, bordering on simple, but Balbao didn’t think that was a reflection of her mind. Her sharp
eyes were busy assessing everything.
What in Sole’s name
, he wondered,
could this ancient and seemingly harmless couple have done to enrage Lasper Farr?

He leaned back against the wall and lifted his legs onto the bunk. As if on cue, a dreadful fatigue washed over him. ‘Is there
anything to drink?’

Hob got up and went to the washing module. He pressed a panel, and a tube filled with water slid out of a slot. He twisted
the tube from the dispenser and tossed it to Balbao. ‘Don’t take too long to drink it. The tube dissolves after a while so
it can’t be used for anythin’. Anyone else?’

Everyone except Ra murmured their assent. Hob busied himself doling the water out while Balbao drank his. It tasted faintly
musty, as though the recycler need recalibrating. By the time he’d finished it, some of his distress had faded.

He got off his bunk and dispensed another. Settling back to drink it, he began to talk. Jise and Miranda still seemed to be
too upset, and Labile Connit looked as if he might be in shock. Ra appeared angry above all.

‘Commander Farr rescued us from our lifeship in the Mintaka system. We are now, so we are told, on our way to Scolar.’

‘Scolar? Why there?’ asked old Sammy.

‘We went through imperfect shift, didn’t we?’ said Hob.

‘Yes. Imperfect shift. I believe that biozoons use it, but I’ve never heard of an OLOSS ship managing it.’

‘This ain’t no OLOSS ship,’ said Hob.

Balbao nodded. ‘Indeed. As for why we are going to Scolar …’ He shrugged. ‘Perhaps it’s the only place left with the shift
sphere still functioning.’

‘What?’ they both cried.

‘The Extros invaded Mintaka, destroyed our research station and an entire planet.’

‘A
planet
?’ Hob and Sammy stared at each other, faces crinkled with incredulity.

‘Balbao speaks truthfully,’ whispered Jise. ‘We are only alive because Lasper Farr came looking for his son.’ He turned a
bewildered stare on Labile Connit. ‘Labile?’

‘I’m
not
his son,’ Connit insisted from where he huddled on his bed.

The eyes upon him were unconvinced.

Balbao thought he had a lean likeness to Farr, though his colouring was darker, his eyes brown, not grey. It was possible
the shape of his face resembled the Commander’s, but that could have been his imagination.

‘This is not a time for lies, Labile,’ said Ra.

The geneer straightened and glared back at them. ‘Then I shouldn’t be the only one to tell. We all have secrets. Especially
you, Ra. How do you know Lasper? What have you done? What was the device you asked about? Have you been working with him?’

Ra stepped closer, his paper-thin skin pale and taut.
Balbao noticed the slight peeling around his hairline. He had little enough hair to hide it.

‘Are you accusing me of something, Connit?’

‘All I know is that any collusion with Lasper Farr would be suspicious.’ Without warning, Connit leapt at Ra, his hands grasping
the Lostolian’s throat. ‘
What is it?
What did you build for my father?’

Balbao and Hob both intervened. Hob knocked Connit back with a well-placed punch. The old fellow had been around, thought
Balbao as he pulled Ra away.

‘Enough,’ he bellowed with full Balol ferocity. ‘If any violence is to occur, it will be from me.’ For the first time since
any of them had known him, he bared his warrior’s teeth. For good measure he let loose a growl.

Neither Sammy nor Hob batted an eyelid, but Miranda shrieked and clung tighter to Jise.

‘What is happening to us?’ she wailed.

‘Miranda!’ Balbao growled again.

She curtailed her wail to a whimper.

‘Now,’ he said, ‘it is time we talked. All of us. And quickly. It may be the only – the last – chance we get. Labile?’

The geneer scowled at Ra as he spoke. ‘He is my biological father. But he didn’t raise me or have anything to do with me.
I don’t acknowledge him.’

‘Have you met him before?’ asked Balbao.

Connit closed his eyes and nodded. ‘Once. He came to visit my mother when I was younger. To look me over, no doubt. He didn’t
like what he found, and we never saw him again. Though he did help my mother to pay the studium costs.’

‘So it’s thanks to him you’re a geneer?’ said Ra. ‘That’s hardly uninvolved.’

‘The important thing from our perspective is that you aren’t one of his people,’ said Balbao.

Jise nodded agreement.

‘You mean, was I his spy on Belle-Monde? No. And I take offence at anyone who would suggest it,’ Connit said hotly.

Ra made a disparaging noise and turned away.

Sole’s favoured Godhead was beginning to annoy Balbao beyond comfortable tolerance. ‘Ra?’

‘What of you two?’ Ra asked the cell’s original occupants. ‘Who are you? Other than old.’

Sammy opened her mouth to retort but Hob put a calming hand on her arm. ‘You heard of Consilience?’

‘Are you members?’ asked Miranda.

Hob smiled, somewhat proudly, thought Balbao. ‘Sammy’s one of the leaders.’

Ra froze.

‘And I,’ continued Hob, ‘was Commander Farr’s pilot during the war. And more recently. Until I happened to let Tekkie sneak
off with some real important device that belonged to the Commander.’

‘Tekkie?’ shrilled Miranda.

‘Device?’ chimed in Ra.

Hob grinned at them. ‘Yeah, Tekkie. Tekton. He pinched the Commander’s future-readin’ machine.’

Jo-Jo set the coordinates for the first of the most likely islands. Randall had taken control of the AiV, and he sat next
to her, watching intently in case he needed to fly it. Catchut lay across the back seats, exhausted from the climb to the
villa.

They’d encountered no Saqr on the way, which made Jo-Jo uneasy.

‘Where are they all?’ he’d whispered to Randall as they entered the abandoned villa from a basement door.

Randall didn’t reply till they reached the catoplasma landing pad on the top of the building. Then she tilted her head to
the sky. ‘You noticed anything up there?’

Jo-Jo took a moment to catch his breath and take in the glittering vista. Neither of the moons was up yet, and the sky was
studded with the lights of alien craft. Less of them, though, than there had been.

‘They’re leaving,’ said Jo-Jo.

‘Yeah,’ said Randall. ‘Seems so. Gotta real bad feeling about this.’

Jo-Jo had to agree. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

The AiV lifted into the air without incident. Randall kept the landing lights off, concentrating on the flight panel, watching
the altitude and infrared sensors.

Jo-Jo stared out into the darkness, wondering what stretched below them, besides the desert. What a Crux-
forsaken world to have been born into. He felt a pang of sympathy for Mira Fedor. Dust and repression had been her life while
his had been so free.

‘You plannin’ your funeral?’ said Randall.

‘Nope,’ he said. ‘Shoulda passed the Extro ship by now. Can’t see nothin’ down there, though. Unless it’s sunk into the sand.’

Randall checked her map. ‘You’re right. No sign. Wonder when that moved?’

Jo-Jo glanced out at the sky. ‘Mebbe it’s got something to do with things shifting around up there.’ He kept staring until
his attention was caught by something lower on the horizon.

‘Looks like a fire,’ he said eventually.

As they drew closer, the glow cast a dim light and moving shadows across sand dunes. ‘That a town?’

‘Was Loisa,’ said Randall, consulting the flyer’s map again. ‘Fedor’s hometown. She had a villa there with her sister. Thought
it’d be all burned out by now, But this damn atmosphere’s lethal. Keeps stuff smoulderin’ for ever.’

Jo-Jo felt Mira’s presence keenly again, as though she was in the cabin with them. He clenched his fists.

‘Funeral again?’ asked Randall.

‘How far, Capo?’ asked Catchut from the back seat.

‘Day and a night, mebbe. Depending on whether we luck upon them. That’s all the fuel we got, anyway.’

‘Maybe we can pick up some extra fuel cells on the way.’

She nodded. ‘If we see anything. If it’s safe to put down.’

They fell silent again, Catchut dozing while Jo-Jo
scoured the murky landscape for wreckage or landmarks. Randall set the AiV on auto and sat almost motionless.

Maybe Jo-Jo slept for a while. He must have, because Randall’s nudge to his shoulder and curt ‘Crux!’ jerked him to awareness.

He rolled his tongue over his teeth. They felt coated with neglect. He blinked a few times and stared out into the dark –
by now, the not so dark. Far off to Randall’s side of the AiV was a fiery glare: not the orange glow of fire but the stark
white of electricity.

‘Whassat?’ he slurred sleepily.

Randall checked her settings and fingered the location map to take them closer. They executed a wide sweep of the area, keeping
their distance from the light.

‘Saqr there. Plenty of them, by looks,’ said Catchut. ‘But what’re they doing?’

Jo-Jo strained already tired eyes across Randall’s shoulder. ‘Looks like they’re all over the Extro ship.’

‘Well, least we know where it went,’ said Randall.

‘And where
they
went. Where are we?’

‘AiV’s map says it’s a mine called Juanita, between the Pablo tunnels.’

‘Means squat to me,’ said Jo-Jo.

‘Lost two of my original crew in there. Tunnel collapse. Still ain’t convinced it was accident. Always had an inklin’ I knew
who did it.’

‘Tough,’ said Jo-Jo. ‘But so what?’

‘Juanita mine had somethin’ goin’ on. Namely, quixite. The Pablo mine next door has the longest tunnels on the continent.
We had a tour down into one
of them where there’d been some trouble. Fedor said she left Pellegrini and the survivors inside the Pablo shafts. She thought
he’d follow the tunnels south, get as close to the coast as he could.’

Jo-Jo stared at the eerie sight of Saqr crawling all over Extro ship. ‘Can we get closer?’

Randall was obligingly conversational for once. ‘I’m figurin’ they already know we’re here. If we keep on movin’, chances
are they’ll be too caught up in what they’re doin’ to come chasin’ us. We go in close, who knows? They might just blow us
out of the sky.’

She was probably right. Their curiosity wasn’t worth the risk of attracting attention. Yet something itched at Jo-Jo. Something
important was happening there. He knew it.

Randall reset their direction, and within a short time
Medium
had faded into the distance and the dark.

Sunrise came a few hours later, a gradual lightening then a blinding raw incision of light into the scorching world. The cabin
windows automatically dimmed, and the AiV’s environmentals struggled to keep them cool. Despite wearing the fellalo he’d stripped
from the dead Latino, Jo-Jo was hot. The flowing robe with the interior webbing of cooling nanites felt like a shroud.

They discussed the water situation and agreed how best to stretch out their supply.

‘They reckon these robes can recycle your piss into something palatable, if you need it,’ Randall remarked.

‘Got none to spare,’ said Jo-Jo. ‘Haven’t pissed since we left.’

She shrugged and stared out across the endless red desert.

By the time they saw the first glint of water, Jo-Jo’s tongue felt twice its normal size. None of them had spoken for several
hours.

Randall tapped the map, changing direction.

‘What you doin’?’

‘We left an AiV on the Principe’s island. It’s how we got to the biozoon. Mebbe the fuel cell’s got some life in it.’

Jo-Jo nodded and blinked away the stinging sweat that ran from his hair into his eyes. The AiV turned on a northerly bearing
and followed the coast. The islands beyond were dots of grey relief in a brilliant stretch of ocean. Somehow, it soothed Jo-Jo
to see so much water.

‘Most of them are nuthin’ more than spits of sand,’ said Randall, nodding towards the islands.

‘You think they made it this far, Capo?’ asked Catchut.

The mercenary’s ankle injury from being stuck in the Extro goo was festering. Jo-Jo could smell it. Hopefully, Catchut’s HealthWatch
was enough to overcome the infection. He seemed lucid enough, and without fever.

‘Here? Yes. But how they’d get over to the islands?’ Randall shrugged. ‘Maybe the palazzo’ll give us some ideas.’

On the back of that statement, she sent the AiV into a descent. Ahead of them and to the left Jo-Jo saw an island marked with
wide-arched buildings, incongruous on the scantly vegetated tract of sand.

‘They like things to look like home,’ commented Randall, as if reading his mind. ‘You been to Latino Crux?’

Jo-Jo nodded. ‘Once. The women were too quiet for my liking.’

Randall laughed and gave him a sideways glance. ‘Funny how things work out, huh?’ She stopped short of saying, funny that
you fell for one of them anyway, but the implication was loud and clear.

Jo-Jo bit back a retort. Things had been amicable enough between them on the flight, and he didn’t need to fan any flames.
He craned forward over the dashboard. ‘Any life signs?’

‘Don’t seem so,’ said Randall. ‘If there were, they’re gone now. I’ll land as close to the hangar as I can.’

In descent, Jo-Jo got a clear view of the extent of the Pellegrini holiday chalet, a main building with numerous outhouses
connected by covered walkways. The largest of the outhouses had a partially open roof. He took this to be the hangar Randall
had mentioned. Wide sand beaches were segmented by empty jetties, and paths wound through the low brush. On the beach closest
to the chalet sat another AiV, partially covered in sand.

‘It’s still there,’ said Randall with relief. ‘There’s a half-arsed infirmary in the chalet. Or there was. Lat used it.’ She
glanced over her shoulder at Catchut, her face grim.

‘He knew the risks, Capo. We all do.’

It was the first time Jo-Jo had ever heard Catchut attempt to reassure Randall.