Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5 (73 page)

ARCAN BURST INTO the Valhai Voting Dome like a tornado. He had been searching frantically for any traces of Petra and Mandalon, and the orthogel entity was not in his best mood.

He knew that somebody must have found Atheron’s old gate; it was the only explanation. Despite his best efforts, he could find absolutely no trace of either the missing Sellite or of his Namuri bodyguard.

Rumours that Mandalon had been abducted by the Namuri girl abounded, but Arcan knew them to be false. Grace had assured him that both Petra and Tallen regarded their blood oath as binding to death; she would never willingly have abandoned her emptor. He was working on the assumption that she was to be implicated in his disappearance, and had already spent hours going right through the abandoned corridors and vaults underneath the Valhai Voting Dome. There was no sign of them down there, although he had been able to detect several rock falls which appeared to be recent. They could be behind any one of those, but Arcan was unable to travel there; he could not go where he was not able to visualize.

So he was not in the best of humours when he burst upon the Sellites gathered in the head of house chamber.

“I cannot find either of them.”

The acting head of Sell, head of the officiator house, Zorion, stared implacably back at Arcan. “Then I do not see what can be done,” he said in a resonant voice he felt to be consistent with his new position. “We are going to have to let the rest of Sell know that Mandalon is missing; the Second Valhai Votation will have to be cancelled.” He assumed a solemn tone.

Arcan shimmered. He was not deceived by the man, who he knew to be one of Mandalon’s fiercest opponents. He thought it quite probable that Zorion had been responsible for the two disappearances in the first place.

“There is still time for Mandalon to be found before the Votation,” he said shortly.

Zorion gave a smooth smile. “With all due respect, Arcan ...” he pushed his fingertips into a steeple, and touched his thin lips with them, “... it is the Sellite people who must decide what to do – not the orthogel entity.”

Arcan turned black. “If you remember the terms of the treaty you signed with me,” he said in a voice which boomed inside their heads, making them reverberate uncomfortably, “any violence on this planet makes the agreement null and void. Which means that I am no longer bound to supply the agreed services, does it not?”

Zorion’s black eyes flickered. “There is no proof of violence.”

“Mandalon certainly didn’t disappear of his own free will, and it is clear that the orthogel fragments they both carried were wrenched from them by force.” Arcan had been horrified to find Mandalon’s amputated finger, which had been left casually in the
vimpics
room.

Zorion tried to assess the feelings of his fellow Sellites. He could not be seen to be assuming control too quickly; that would immediately bring suspicion down on him.

He wavered, and then gave a wide smile. “As you wish, Arcan.” He bowed, secretly vowing that he would never demean himself like that again. “I think we can afford to wait a little longer before we go public with the news.”

Arcan pulsated. “I still hope to find them alive.”

“As do we all, of course.” Zorion steepled his fingers again, and tapped his mouth for a second time, hoping to look suitably concerned. “As do we all.”

IT TOOK SIX and Ledin another three hours to reach the entrance to the deep cleft in the rocks. When they did, their mouths dropped open in awe.

It was a huge fissure, and now they were there they could see that it did, indeed, lead into a cave. The rift was majestically flanked on either side by huge natural columns, and the floor was littered with the hexagonal stepping stones so typical of Pyraklion. They led to the back of the fault, where the passageway twisted, then opened up into a cave. This still admitted light, so that it was almost magical, with huge columns surrounding the waiting ortholiquid. Everything had a still, timeless feel to it.

“Why are you puffing so much?” The visitor and the trimorphs had appeared effortlessly from the ortholiquid pool.

“Well,
hello
? We have just climbed down a third of a mile, remember?”

“What has that to do with making so much noise when you exhale?”

“We need to get our breath back.”

“Why? Did you lose it on the climb?”

“Of course we didn’t!” Six rolled his eyes at Ledin. “—Oh, never mind.”

The bimorph looked confused. “Why should I mind? It is you that is making all the noise.”

Six decided to ignore that. The two Kwaidians checked out the fissure, and then made their way to the entrance. It was time to let Diva know that they were ready. Ledin took out a flare which he had carefully carried down with him, and pulled at the ring with one fluid motion, before holding it out away from him hurriedly.

There was a pause, and then a small rocket shot out of the end of the cylinder, powering up towards the sun. Ledin tracked it up, until it burst into a shower of red miniature stars, which in turn fell gently to land as they burnt themselves out.

“Even Diva couldn’t miss that.” Six sounded pleased. “Phase two!”

“There was no need for the fireworks;
I
could have told Diva you were ready.” They could see the visitor was peeved; he was spinning crossly.

“I suppose you could. We just couldn’t be sure you would be here, when we were planning everything. Anyway, Ledin didn’t want to miss the pyrotechnics.”

Ledin looked at his friend, raised a surprised eyebrow, and then grinned.

They sat on the edge of the cleft, their feet dangling over the gulf below them, until they finally heard the sound of the shuttle engines approaching. Six began to fix the small, portable grapnel to the end of one of the ropes, testing its weight in his hands. He gave a couple of practice swings of the rope with its heavy appendage.

“Here! Watch out! You nearly took my head off,” complained Ledin.

“Sorry. This thing is deceptive. It should work well.”

“Yes? Well if you don’t mind, I would appreciate some warning next time you are hurling metal anchors around in here – you nearly knocked me off the rock!”

Six sat down repentantly. “Sorry. I guess I got a bit carried away.”

“You don’t seem very experienced at this type of thing.”

“No. First time. But it can’t be hard to do, surely?”

“We’d better hope not.”

They fell into a silence, listening to the noise of the shuttle getting louder and louder, until they wouldn’t have been able to make themselves heard over the noise anyway. The thrust of the heavy engines was throbbing through the rock, and they were forced to retreat from the edge, where eddies of high velocity air were beginning to whip around.

Six stared at the vortices with a worried expression. “I hadn’t thought of that,” he muttered.

“WHAT?”

“I SAID ... OH, NOTHING!”

At last the shuttle was directly in front of the cave entrance, although just slightly above it. A long rope was hanging over the side of the acoton net, and the end of it was knotted into a loop.

“Well, it’s now or never.” Six stood up with a sigh, and pulled the rope he was holding, with the grapnel attached, closer to him. “You had better stand back.”

But the advice was unnecessary; Ledin had already stepped hurriedly into the recesses of the cleft, and was watching from what he considered to be a safe distance.

Six began to gain momentum with the end of the grapnel, swinging it in ever faster circles from his shoulder and gradually letting some of the rope out as he did so. He fixed his attention on the loop of rope hanging from the front of the shuttle, tried to estimate the distance, and then let it fly, dropping the rest of the coil as he did, so that it could unravel freely.

The first attempt was a failure, and he only just realized in time that he needed to put his foot on the end of the coil. As it was, he very nearly lost the whole thing, which swung down towards the depths, hitting the side of the drop some ten metres further down.

“Can’t you aim any better?” said the visitor, who had appeared again from nowhere suddenly.

Six pressed his lips together, and gave him a look.

“Just making a comment,” said the bimorph in a defensive tone, subsiding into a smug sort of silence. The trimorph twins hovered behind him, but had apparently decided to hold their tongues on the subject of swinging expertise.

Six hauled the rope back up quickly, and re-coiled it. Thankfully, his second attempt caught the loop. Ledin moved in to help him pull, and they gradually drew in the slack. That done, they could now pull anything suspended in the net at the front of the shuttle into the crevice in the middle of the precipice.

Six watched as Diva brought the shuttle down, until they could see her in the small cabin, right opposite. Six blew out air. “Uuff! This is going to need some pilotry!”

It did.

Ledin was impressed. He wasn’t sure he could have held the pod quite so still in those conditions. But she was managing to allow for wind currents, interference, the engine thrust, and the echo of the rock face. He gave an admiring nod. She was good at this!

Once they had managed to tug both of the machines out of the extended net and manhandle them onto the ledge, Six and Ledin carried them into the rift and set up the lasers, one on each side of the pool of ortholiquid. It took them some time to get them both working correctly, and then Ledin looked up expectantly. The morphics ranged themselves behind the Kwaidians.

Six nodded. They switched on the machines.

There was a hum as the lasers powered up, followed by a long pause. At first, nothing seemed to be happening, but then a small light appeared, deep inside the ortholiquid.

Even though Six was expecting the sight this time, the tiny beings still managed to take his breath away.

Again they shone with a blinding, mind-numbing brilliant white which seared his eyes and seemed to penetrate his soul. They pulsed with energy as they formed the diamond star. Both Ledin and Six knew what would happen next.

Six gave a sigh. “All this first contact is getting old, don’t you think?”

Ledin didn’t have time to answer. They were already being absorbed into the stellate shape, and the mental invasion had begun. They both braced themselves, knowing what was to come.

When they were released, some ten minutes later, and the animas had poured themselves into the third box, Six and Ledin got up, dusted themselves down, and then looked at each other. It was time to leave.

The bimorph materialized in front of them. “We morphics have to return to Pictoria. We will be in touch when you all get back to the binary system.” The trimorph twins hummed their agreement.

“Of course. You three get on your way. We will see you soon.”

One of the twins twinkled. “Are you sure that you won’t need our help?”

Six shook his head. “There is nothing you can do. You can’t transport us anywhere, unfortunately. No, we will make our own way back.”

The morphics hovered for a moment, and then all three of them dived into the ortholiquid pool, where their shapes were only visible for a short time before their silhouettes shimmered and then vanished.

Ledin looked at Six. “Our job is done, then?”

“Yes. It is time to go.”

LEDIN CARRIED THE precious box to the edge of the crevice, and placed it carefully on top of one of the laser machines. They were ready to put the next phase into action. He peered rather warily over the edge of the drop down; two-thirds of a mile to fall, he thought. A small wedge of fear appeared in his throat, making it dry. Ever since he had stood over the Valley of the Skulls, with the body of his sister in his arms, he had hated heights like this. He drew in a slow breath, and concentrated on making the shadows of doubt disappear; they would only hinder him now.

Six was looking up at the shuttle, and signaling to Diva.

“Come on, woman,” he was muttering to himself. “We haven’t got all day, you know.”

The shuttle edged closer to them, until the net which protruded from its nose was dangling in front of the cave. Diva was flirting with danger, Ledin saw. The edge of the net must have been hovering only about two metres from one of the columns. He shook his head admiringly. That girl had nerves of steel!

Diva’s face was taut with concentration, but they could see her gesturing abruptly with one hand for them to throw the machines into the net quickly.

Six looked at Ledin, and raised one eyebrow. “Ready?”

Ledin stared, until he realized what Six was suggesting. “You don’t mean...? You have got to be joking!”

Six shrugged. “I don’t fancy struggling all the way back up that crag again, do you? I suppose we could go down, but that would be twice as far as we have already gone. And that net is plenty strong enough for all of us!”

Ledin licked his lips. “We would have to jump with the lasers, all at the same time. Otherwise we would probably break something landing on them.”

Six nodded. “That is what I thought. Up for it?”

“Does Diva know?”

Six shook his head. “Of course not. She’d never have agreed! Don’t worry ...” he had heard the unspoken question, “... Diva will get us out of here.”

“I’m only concerned that we might get fried by the engines.”

“Nah. They are below the level of the net, and beyond it. Nothing happened to the lasers on the way here, did it?”

“No-o-o.”

“She is ace at this. She’ll get us up to the top all right.”

Ledin concentrated on tying the rope around his body in a secure harness, fastened the laser machine and protected the quick release knot with a failsafe on top. Then he reached out with one hand and he and Six touched knuckles. “Way to go!” he said.

They moved back, ready to take a run at the edge. Ledin closed his eyes momentarily.

Six didn’t have to close his eyes. He was staring down at the silvery fuselage of the shuttle, now slightly below them. “Go for it, Diva!” he was muttering. “Take us up!”

He began to count down.

“Three!” —They edged slightly further back, until the shade of the rift almost made them blend into the darkness.

“Two!” —Ledin tightened his hold on the laser.

“One!” —Six looked over towards the cabin of the shuttle, and saw from Diva’s open mouth that she had just realized what they were intending to do. He was glad there were a couple of metres, and a few sheets of rexelene visor between them.

“Now!” —Both men grinned at each other, and then launched themselves towards the sheer drop with a huge surge of adrenalin, shouting at the top of their lungs.

“AAAAAHHHHH!”

Together they soared off the edge and into the empty air, flinging themselves as far as they possibly could away from the huge cliff behind them.

There was a moment of freefall as they plummeted towards the rocky stones far beneath, and then the net caught up at them, ceded slightly, bounced them rather heart-stoppingly into each other, clashed machine against machine, and finally accepted the extra weight.