Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5 (42 page)

“When are we to be given custody?” asked Six.

“You will take over at four months of age. Occasionally, the child will be required to spend some weeks at the donor headquarters, for standard tests to be run, but apart from that you are to have full custody, although you will be required to provide the most complete education possible on Xiantha. The council has also agreed to waive the prohibition against children under 14 traveling abroad in this particular case, although they would ask that such journeys be of limited duration. It may otherwise be difficult for the child to find its own colour.”

“We understand.”

“Then, perhaps you would like to come with me to choose your body heir,
Valhais
?”

They followed him to a waiting magsled, and climbed up. The journey to the donor headquarters was very quick. They drew near to the impressive magmite-floored building only an hour later.

Six looked around with interest. “Reminds me of the first time we came,” he said, rather sadly. “Before Grace, before the Xianthes.”

Diva nodded. She remembered the original journey across the Great Plain, too. There had been something magical about it – getting used to their new canths, discovering the beautiful healing sun beating down on them. She sighed. Then Atheron and Xenon had irrupted onto the scene, to ruin everything, and leave Grace permanently damaged. She stared at the imposing doorway, as they approached. How she wished they had gone with Grace that morning, instead of staying behind enjoying the break!

The magsled slipped past the imposing portal and around the side of the building to the garage area. Once there, it slid inside the building, and dipped to the floor.

They all climbed out, and the man who contrived children led them towards the nursery. “What criteria are you going to use?” he asked Diva.

She shrugged. “I’m not sure. I think ... I will just know.”

“There are 50 children,” he warned. “It may not be easy to differentiate between them.”

Six pursed his lips. He wasn’t sure he wanted
any
of his children to inherit Coriolis.

But Diva seemed to be in perfect control. She swept along the corridor with no sign of doubt in her gait. Six followed, wondering what would be the result of this visit.

THE NURSERY WAS one of the noisiest places Six had been in, short of open battle. He winced as he stood there, surveying all 50 of his offspring. He had had no idea they could make so much noise, so young. He decided that they had definitely inherited Kwaidian lungs.

Most appeared to be crying. Some were literally bawling, and one or two were laughing and gurgling. Many Xianthan women were busy tending to them; all the babies were beautifully clean, and the area was absolutely spotless.

Six began to walk along the chamber, stopping from time to time to reach down and touch one of the babies. They seemed tiny, perfect individuals, and he felt his heart respond to all of them. It was hard to see differences though, at this age. He had no idea what Diva would use to pick one of them above all the rest.

When he had finished his tour of the room, he walked slowly back to the entrance, and looked around from there. Diva, he saw, had not moved. She had simply been observing all of the children from a distance.

Six said nothing, but followed her eyes as they traveled around the room.

She was observing attentively. After a short time, he realized that she was concentrating on the babies that were moving most, and that these were a minority. There were three boys and two girls who seemed to have come to her notice, and she was dividing her attention between them.

Eventually she shook her head. “They are too far apart,” she said. “Could those five ...” she indicated which children she meant, “... be moved to a different room, please?”

The man who contrived children nodded, and waved to some of the carers to separate them.

The women carried all five children through to a smaller and more private room, and placed them all face up on coloured mats. Six looked at Diva, and Diva looked at the children.

They were on their backs, staring upwards at the ceiling. One was crying, unhappy at the new environment. One was gurgling to himself, and waving his hands slightly. Two of the others were smiling placidly, and the last little girl was struggling to turn herself over. Six found himself staring at her efforts. She raised her plump little legs off the rug, kicked them about a little, then she seemed to throw one over to the left, and somehow managed to flip her whole little body over behind it. There she lay for a moment, face down on the rug, looking rather surprised, before she plumped her short little arms out to each side of her head, and reared up on her elbows, giving a short gurgle of pleased satisfaction, the dark hair on the back of her head shining black against the pale skin.

Diva breathed out. Six realized that she had been holding her breath.

“That one.” She pointed directly at the little girl who was still pushing her head away from the rug, and keeping it upright with great difficulty. “That is the one who will be my body heir.”

The man who contrived children hurried up. “That young lady is number ...” he bent to examine a small flexible tag around the child’s ankle, “... seven.” He motioned to one of the carers, who immediately came forward with a new tag, and fastened it securely around the little girl’s other ankle.

The Xianthan man observed the child for a few moments. “She is well in advance of her age,” he said. “Most children do not accomplish what she has just done until at least 4 months.”

Diva nodded. “She is the one with the most unquiet spirit.”

The man who contrived children seemed surprised at that comment. “Then she will be able to find much colour in her lifetime. You have made a good choice.”

Six stared down at the tiny being who would inherit a planet. “I just hope she has time to enjoy being a child,” he said.

Diva turned to examine him. “What do you mean?”

“I would like them all to have a proper childhood, running and playing and enjoying their lives.”

Diva suddenly felt sorry for Six. They were things he had never had. She moved over, and touched his arm. “We will see that they do,” she said softly.

He had been lost in contemplation of some past event, and seemed surprised to find her hand on his arm. “What? I’m sorry; I was thinking about something else.”

She grinned. “Well, no-name, I have chosen her, so it is up to you to choose her bespoke name. After all, you are her father.”

Six looked at the little girl, still stretching up on her arms, although her head was dipping down towards the rug under its own weight now. The only thing he saw was the dark fuzz of hair on her scalp, shining black against the pinkish skin. “Her hair will be dark,” he said slowly. “Let’s call her Raven.”

Diva smiled at both her husband and her child. “Raven it is,” she said, “though her hair may not be so black when she grows up. But that doesn’t matter. I still like the name.”

With one last look, they turned away. Six felt a gentle tug on his heartstrings. He already loved the small being who was about to share his life.

THEY WERE READY to leave Xiantha immediately after sunrise the next morning. Diva and Six were tacking up their canths. Both Diva’s seal brown and Six’s dapple grey were edgy and nervous, their feet treading the ground incessantly. The canth keeper and his bay mare were standing in readiness to one side.

“I thought we were to go on our own?” said Six.

“You are. I shall not be accompanying you down to the planet in question. But I must be in the cargo bay of the New Independence, since somebody has to be there to take care of the canths in transit. And my canth insists on coming too, as I am to be part of the team.”

Arcan arrived with a flurry of dust. “Ready? I will drop you off close to the planet, somewhere where your arrival will go unremarked, and it will be up to you to make your own way after that. But first, we need to get to Coriolis, to attach the heavy-duty shuttle to the trader.”

He transported them all smoothly over to the orbital space station above Coriolis, making sure that the canths went directly into the cargo hold of the New Independence.

Six and Diva went to investigate how long it would take to attach the heavy-duty shuttle to the New Independence, leaving the ship almost immediately to find the man in charge and get an estimation of the time it would take.

The head of the Coriolan orbital station stared at them with a certain degree of animosity. “I have been instructed to provide you ... foreigners ... with one of our new freight shuttles,” he said, very much as if he was personally not in agreement with the instruction, and with a deadly emphasis on the word ‘foreigner’.

Diva’s head went high, and she stiffened, but Six put a warning hand on her arm.

“Thank you,” he told the man, “we appreciate that. How is it to be joined to the trader?”

“Our teams will undertake the coupling.” The man’s cold eyes went from one to the other. “It will take all day. I have been asked to tell you that you are not granted authority to visit Coriolis planet. You are to remain on the orbital station.”

Six tried to give the man a pleasant smile. “That is most kind. Thank you. We will remain on this space station.”

Diva shifted uncomfortably, but Six kept a tight hold on her. He could feel her ire as if it were tangible, but he didn’t want anything to delay their departure on the rescue mission. He turned and ushered her away, moving down a long corridor, and then, when he saw more Coriolans from the station approaching, through a half-open door.

“You should have let me speak!” Diva was furious, her eyes snapping. “He knew who I am, and he refused to acknowledge me!”

“I noticed.”

“Who does he think he is?”

“Diva ...”

“Don’t ‘Diva’ me! You know perfectly well that he was trying to denigrate me, deny my meritocratic rights!”

“Diva!” Six sighed. “You yourself said that we wouldn’t be welcome on your home planet ...”

“But that man was not even a meritocrat! He had no right to speak to me like that! It’s unpardonable of him ...” She stopped, for Six was staring around him in wonder. “.—What is it? What is the matter?”

Six turned around. “Look where we are!”

She gave her surroundings a cursory inspection. “In some sort of a holding cell ... Oh!”

“Yes, ‘Oh’ indeed! Do you recognize it?”

She examined the walls around her, and then the ceiling, and shook her head, not very convincingly. “I don’t think so.”

“Because I certainly do. This is the cell we were held in, all those years ago. Remember?”

She shifted from one foot to the other. “Not very well. Why?”

Six grinned, and shook a finger at her. “Now, now, Diva. Of course you remember. You just don’t want to admit it. You called me ‘grubby’.”

She looked at her nails. “Did I? That is not my recollection, I’m afraid. I’m sure I would remember if I had.”

Six gave a disbelieving hoot. “I don’t know how you can have the nerve to say that! I know very well that you remember. Your memory is second only to that of a Cesan catumba!”

Diva looked around again, with her most innocent expression, pretending to come to a slow recognition. “Though, now that you come to mention it, this place does look slightly familiar.”

Six’s eyebrows nearly hit the ceiling, before joining together in a sceptical frown. He took a menacing step forwards. “Perhaps if I lock you up in it for a few hours your ...
selective
memory might get a bit of a jog?” he suggested.

Diva drew her Coriolan dagger in a flash. “You try that, no-name, and I will divvy up your brain in nice thin slices so everyone can see how few neurons Kwaidians have!”

Six’s kris seemed to have appeared, as if by magic, in his hand, and he squared up to her. “You and whose army?” he queried. “I haven’t forgotten how to fight, you know!”

“You were never a match for me!”

“Now that,” he promised, “is where I am going to prove you wrong!”

“Mind your step, no-name. I wouldn’t like you to trip and hurt yourself.”

His eyes glittered. “Take care, lady privilege! You might find that this Kwaidian can still beat you!”

Diva’s white teeth flashed in amusement. “You wish!”

He laughed. “Oh no. I promise!”

They set to with a will, and, as they fought, Diva felt the annoyance of the head of station’s treatment of her slip away. Because Six had got better. He was more than holding his own against her now. When had he got so strong? Diva was forced to fall back.

He crowed. “Sure you can’t remember?” he demanded. “Sure you don’t remember saying you wouldn’t touch my hand if you were drowning in a sea of Xianthan crocodiles?”

She matched him, stroke for stroke. “I never said that. You made it up!”

“And I suppose you don’t remember calling me ‘boy’, either?”

“I might have. I mean, you
were
a boy then.” She prepared to strike.

He parried her dagger thrust, and she suddenly found his kris at her throat.

Diva looked thunderously cross. She absolutely hated to be beaten. Her eyes were flashing like stars turning supernova.

Six dropped his sword. “Your last thrust was dangerous. That was practice with real swords, you know.”

Diva ground her teeth. “I had noticed.”

“Just saying,” he said coolly. “—In case it had slipped your attention.” He preened. “Feeling a bit under the weather, Diva? Because I seem to have beaten you quite easily.”

He received a deep-throated growl for a reply.

He grinned. “No? Well, never mind. I expect your memory will come back one day.” And then he sauntered out of the cell, sheathing his kris. Diva stared after him. When had he got so cavalier?

She frowned around at the cell walls. She remembered every word she had said in here, but it would take more than a knife at her throat to make her admit it.

LATER THAT DAY the station supervisor called them to the bridge of his orbital station. He stared at Diva with cold black eyes, and addressed his words to a spot somewhere above her head.

The Coriolian told them that the coupling had been completed, but his expression was scathing, and his words clipped. His nose twitched with distaste, as if he had noticed a particularly bad smell. Diva seethed, holding biting words back with some difficulty.

Six examined the man in front of him closely. If this bureaucrat was an example of the influence Tartalus was having on the Coriolan meritocracy, it was unlikely that Raven would ever be allowed to rule the planet. He rather thought that Tartalus would be planning on taking over himself, and wondered idly how the man intended to accomplish that. It was something they needed to think about, he decided.

Diva stared right through the officious supervisor. She was remembering savagely how, in other times, he would have been fed to the Tattula cats merely for omitting the mandatory obeisance to her. The thought of personally offering pieces of him as tidbits to the felines was enabling her to listen with apparent calmness, through a brain surging with outrage. She hadn’t realized quite how quickly her cousin would begin to spread poison against her, how quickly some of the inhabitants of her planet would react, nor how difficult she would find their defection. It was a bitter pill to swallow. She realized that Coriolis was heading towards great instability, and looked sideways at Six.

He was to blame, of course. This had all started when he rescued Tallen and Petra from being entombed alive in the rexelene museum. If he hadn’t done that ...

She gave a mental shake. She was glad he had. It was time to change those hidebound, barbaric customs which her own family still permitted. No, there could be no doubt. Coriolis had to change.

The supervisor was now looking directly at her, and seemed to have finished speaking. Diva blinked, and came out of her reverie. She raised her chin and straightened her shoulders.

“Thank you. Your team has been most efficient.”

The man’s eyes flickered. “I was merely doing my duty.” He stared back at Diva with an insolent expression clear for all to see.

Six nodded to the man with deceptive amiability, and put his hand on Diva’s shoulder to turn her back towards the ship. He was aware of a slight resistance, and exerted more pressure.

“I would love to scatter him around the galaxy in knife-sized bites,” he whispered to her. “But that might not be the most intelligent way to rule Coriolis.”

Diva nodded. She had no idea how he had known what she was thinking, but was glad that he had. Of course such a thing was impossible; she knew that. With an answering smile, she followed him to the access tube where the New Independence was moored. She would be glad to get off this orbital station.

They busied themselves silently in the preflight checks which were necessary, even though Arcan was to transport them over to their mysterious destination, rather than the trader’s own engines.

When they had completed all the checks, and made sure that the new coupling of the freight shuttle was failsafe, Six turned to Arcan. “Do you know where you have to take us?”

Arcan consulted with the canths, and a shimmer of surprise spread through him. “Yes, but—”

“No buts, Arcan. Just take us there!”

The sunny morning of Xiantha disappeared, and so did Arcan. The New Independence had been transported out, away from the binary system, away from any known planets, and deep into the heart of the galaxy.

Six found himself seated at the main console of the bridge on the Independence. His eyes opened as wide as dinner plates as he looked out of the rexelene observation visor in front of him.

“What on Sacras ...!” His voice trailed off in astonishment.

THERE WERE NO words at all for the sight which lay before them. He peered through the observation visor, and gaped. Diva was in much the same state.

“Six! Isn’t that ...? Surely that must be ...?” She fell uncharacteristically silent too.

Before them was the most unusual sight they had ever seen. They could see stars, but these were only visible around the edges of a round dark circle of nothingness, which took up much of the horizon. The circle of darkness was ringed by ethereal smudges of light of different colours: blue, gold and some white. The stars which they could see beyond this seemed duplicated on either side of the circle of emptiness. The edges of the aura showed strong aberrations; as they watched the stars seemed to grow and then shrink again as if a pulse of energy had swept over them.

“That is the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Ammonite Galaxy ...” Six leapt for the console, and started to push buttons frantically, “... and I just hope we are nowhere near the event horizon.”

“Arcan wouldn’t have left us here if we were.”

Tallen’s harsh voice sounded interested. “So that is the Great Magnet, is it?” He gave a whistle. “How come there are so many stars in such a small area? It is almost like being in half-light, they are so close.”