darknadir (52 page)

* * *
Day 37

Tirak's off-duty crew had been conducting a minute search of the ship for any sabotage or tracking devices but had turned up nothing.
"They even put the cryo unit back," said Mrowbay, helping himself to a drink at the galley. "And patched the hull breach in the workshop. Nothing special, just a good, temporary repair."
"Well, they had us long enough," said Giyesh. "Manesh wants us to move our stuff. He and you, Sayuk, are on the passenger deck opposite the hostage. Rezac, would you and Jo, Zashou, too, if she doesn't mind, move down to the cabin next to them." She looked over to Carrie. "You know where you and Kaid are."
"Where are you? And Jeran, I presume," asked Sayuk.
"Where Rezac was, with Sheeowl and Nayash."
"Cozy," said Mrowbay, checking out the cupboards above the sink for nibbles. "And what does the captain think of that arrangement?"
Giyesh gave him a withering look. "I'm not going to mention it unless I'm asked. Kate, you and Taynar stay where you are." She looked from one to the other of her crewmates. "Well, go on, get shifting your stuff. Mrowbay, you and I can move Sheeowl's and Nayash's kit and pack up the camp beds. Jeran can help."
They disappeared, leaving Carrie with Kate and Taynar until Kaid joined them. He looked around the deserted mess.
"Where's everyone?" he asked, nodding to Kate and Taynar as he went to help himself from the drinks unit.
"Changing cabins," said Carrie, taking another mouthful from her mug.
"Any idea what our guest would drink?" he asked as he waited for his beverage. "I'm going down to question him now. Coming?"
"Why take him a drink?"
"Because so far he's been cooperative. It's worthwhile fostering that attitude. I suppose water's as good as anything till we know."
"There's a galley on the passenger deck," offered Kate. "You can get him what he likes from there."
Taynar began to grin. "There's an entertainment console in the lounge down there! I'd forgotten about that! Coming, Kate?" he asked, getting to his feet.
The two younglings disappeared, leaving them alone. Kaid joined her at the table. "Didn't get the chance to tell you earlier that you did a good job back there in the hangar when you took over from T'Chebbi."
"I only did what I was trained for."
He reached across the table, stroking her cheek with the back of his hand. "Then you learned it well." He let his hand drop to the table beside hers, turning it palm side up as she took hold of his. "Is it always like this?" he asked, voice low. "When you're with me I want to touch you. It's like a physical need, almost a pain, if I can't."
"In the beginning," she said, feeling a bittersweet love for him flow through her. She slipped her fingers between his, lacing them with his as he responded. "You get used to it eventually." She could feel his heartbeat increase as she saw his eyes begin to glow. "It's strong now because tomorrow's our Link day."
"I will never get used to it," he said, voice roughened with intensity. He took his hand away reluctantly. "Let's go before I get too distracted." Finishing his drink, he got to his feet.

* * *

As they went past the passenger lounge, they could hear Kate and Taynar playing on the entertainment console.
"That's all those younglings should have to worry about," said Kaid. "Instead of which, they've suddenly been thrust into an adult world."
"They seem remarkably untouched by it," said Carrie.
"The damage is there, just pushed deep down for now. It'll surface in time."
They could see Manesh sitting on a chair outside the cabin door, one of the Prime trank rifles held across her knees.
"You've come to interrogate him," she said. "Captain said you'd be along."
"I want to take him to the galley," said Kaid. "We need you as the guard."
"You still armed?" Manesh asked.
Carrie nodded, patting the pistol she wore in the belt of her one-piece fatigues.
"If he makes a break for it, and I can't get him with the trank, hit him somewhere non-lethal. I'm not having him loose on my ship," said Manesh, getting up.
Aware of Carrie's hesitation, he grasped her shoulder briefly.
You can cope. He isn't like J'koshuk.
I know. It's their scent, it reminds me of...
J'koshuk's was that of a rutting male.
His mental tone was harsh.
This one's will be fear. Break that association, conquer the fear now, or it conquers you.
She nodded as Manesh unlocked the door.
Their hostage was still sitting where Kaid had left him. His gold tabard lay discarded on the bed beside him. He looked up as the door opened.
"You hungry? Want a drink?" asked Kaid, standing in the doorway. He beckoned to him. "Come on. Let's go get something. What's your name?"
Surprised, the Valtegan got to his feet and slowly approached the door. "Zsurtul."
Kaid stood back, motioning him out. A few steps more and he saw Manesh standing with the rifle. He froze, looking from her to Kaid.
"A precaution," said Kaid. "No tricks, I assure you."
He's only a youngling, Carrie!
I know. He can't be an officer, surely?
Hesitantly, Zsurtul stepped into the corridor. Kaid took him by the arm, drawing him past the storeroom to his right and right again into the main corridor.
"The food you served us, is it what you eat?" asked Kaid, "or do you prefer your meat raw?"
"Cooked. We have always eaten it cooked." His voice was light, the Sholan well spoken, as if it had been studied, with very little of the sibilance Carrie was used to hearing from Valtegans.
"The ones on Keiss ate their food raw," she said.
He looked sideways at her. "You met only the warrior caste, and from a different world."
They'd reached the galley. Kaid took him over to the food dispenser. As he turned to ask Manesh to translate the U'Churian script, Zsurtful pointed to an item, naming it in equally flawless U'Churian.
"You speak and read U'Churian, too," said Kaid in surprise. "How many more languages do you know?"
"A few more," he admitted, letting Kaid select the meal for him. "When you have dealings with a species, it makes sense to communicate with them in their own language if at all possible."
"You're the Valtegans that visit Jalna," said Carrie. "The science ship, was that the one we were on?"
"The
Kz'adul
hasn't called at Jalna, but her sister ship has," he said, picking up his plate of food. "I'd like a dish of maush to drink, if I may," he added, moving toward the long dining table.
Manesh got him the drink, keeping her eyes and gun trained on him all the while. Then, snagging a chair, she took up a post by the door.
We need Rezac,
sent Carrie.
This Valtegan is so unlike any I've known.
Ask him to join us.
"Which world are you from?" asked Kaid.
"K'oish'ik. Ours was the world at the heart of the old Empire," he said, accepting the cutlery from Kaid. "We had four worlds of our own then. Those who destroyed your colonies and ruled Keiss are from M'zull. They are at war with another world called J'kirtikk. It's a war for dominance. That, after all, is what warriors want." He began cutting up the meat and eating it with obvious pleasure.
Can you read him?
asked Kaid.
Yes, if I force the contact. The barrier natural to his kind is stronger in him. But then, everything about him is different.
Rezac came in and helped himself to a drink, sitting halfway down the table on the opposite side from Zsurtul.
I can read him.
Not yet, Rezac— if at all,
sent Kaid. "So. You're not warriors. What are you then?" he asked.
"Intellectuals and scientists. A curious people interested in learning about others."
"That's why you kept us prisoner and kidnapped us from our rooms to do experiments on," said Rezac, an angry rumble in his voice.
Startled, Zsurtul looked over at him, fork poised halfway between plate and mouth.
Go easy, Rezac,
warned Kaid.
He's being cooperative.
Too damned cooperative if you ask me!
was the acerbic reply.
"We found you on the M'zullian vessel, I told you this. We studied you only to see how you'd changed in a millennium and a half, nothing more."
"You remember us from back then?" asked Carrie.
Zsurtul's eye ridges creased in confusion. "Not you, the Sholans."
"Genetic memory?" asked Kaid.
"And data banks," said Zsurtul. "The City of Light withstood the Empire's collapse, though those outside didn't fare well. We were self-sufficient and lost nothing during the years of the Fall. Ask him. He lived then."
"How do you know about me?" Rezac demanded. "Did you get the information from me under drugs when you took me from my companions?"
"You are named on our database. We were sent to Jalna because our previous ship received an ancient transmission from the planet as it left. It hadn't the authority to investigate, but we have."
Carrie frowned. "What signal?"
"The stasis cube," said Kaid. "When Jo and Kris opened it."
"Just so. It was an experimental device which you and your Leska partner entered accidentally in your attempt to outrun the guards. It's thought M'zullian warriors must have taken it from the lab in the confusion."
"They worshipped it as a holy object," murmured Carrie, as shocked as the others by the depth of the Prime's knowledge.
"They probably used it as a deterrent at first," said Zsurtul. "After all, it contained the ultimate weapon against their enemies. Two Sholan telepaths. It would have given those who possessed it enormous power over the others on their world."
"And as time passed, they forgot what was inside it and why they had to be afraid of it," said Kaid. "It would become revered for itself— a holy object."
"As you say," agreed Zsurtul. He picked up the mug and attempted to drink from it but it was too narrow for his wide, almost beaked mouth. He put it down. "Do you have a wider container?" he asked hopefully.
Carrie got up to look in the galley cupboards under the sink. "The cups on the Prime ship," she said, turning round with a small bowl in her hand. "I saw them, I should have guessed!"
"You eat cooked food," said Rezac, suddenly noticing the remains of the meal.
"Our caste always have," said Zsurtul, accepting the bowl and pouring his herbal drink into it.
"But the raw meat!"
"Do you not feed your warriors on raw meat to make them fiercer?" he asked, then his mouth formed a lopsided smile. "I forget. You have telepaths. They are more formidable than warriors."
"I don't believe you," said Rezac. "I saw them eating raw meat at the city palace!"
"You saw only what it was intended you see. Don't you remember some took the meat from a central dish, while others were served plates already covered in the sauce of the laalquoi plant? They had the cooked meat."
Rezac growled low in his throat, dissatisfied. "That's so," he admitted.
"The laalquoi plant on Jalna. What happened?" asked Kaid.
"We over-farmed that world about a hundred years before the Fall. The plant interacted with a native mold and it mutated into a form that turned our people as well as theirs violent beyond reasoning. We had to pull out. There was nothing we could do to help the Jalnians until recently."
"Oh, yes. And what did you do for them, apart from call in every fifty years to take samples?" demanded Rezac.
"Why grow so much of this plant?" interrupted Carrie. "There are still resin stones found today on Shola."
"It was necessary to our diet. It had a calmative effect on those bearing the warrior blood. Worlds where the soil was right to farm it were rare."
"You just ate U'Churian vegetables," Carrie pointed out.
"After the Fall, there were few of us left in the City of Light. We had to employ our sciences to help us survive. We needed as large a gene pool as we could get, needed to eat what was available."
"The females. You socialized the females," said Carrie.
"Among other things."
"How?" asked Kaid. "I saw them. They were feral."
Zsurtul looked curiously at him. "So were you when deprived of your pregnant mate. Put yourself in a female's place. Stop giving her the laalquoi, give her no say in her life, and keep her in a breeding room with others like her. Then take her eggs away when they're due to hatch, knowing that her ravenous young will try to devour each other without her presence. See then how feral you would become."
"They did that to them?" asked Carrie, horrified. "You mean they were sentient all along? Gods, but your ancestors were barbaric!"
"What caste are you?" asked Rezac very quietly.
Zsurtul looked at him. "An Intellectual," he murmured.
"You're lying. It's been bothering me since I first saw you, but I finally remembered what it was. Your color. You're not a breeding male, you're a drone, aren't you?"
"I'm not a drone, though there are drones in my ancestry," he admitted.
"Drones?" asked Carrie.
"Infertile females, almost asexual," said Rezac. "Used as servants and for sex because access to females was restricted. Jo says there were three on M'ezozakk's ship. They were moved out of the room he put her in on the
M'ijikk.
"
"I'm not a drone," said Zsurtul, his voice becoming lower as his sand-colored skin flushed a deeper shade.
Rezac got up and began to slowly stalk round the table to him. "There's a way to find out," he said. "Because if he's lying about this, then all the rest could be lies, too."
"Rezac!" warned Kaid, getting rapidly to his feet.
Rezac looked at him.
Trust me.
Kaid watched as he slowly resumed his seat. Since Rezac had learned about their family relationship, the competitiveness and belligerence that had existed between them seemed to have disappeared.
Rezac stopped beside Zsurtul and reaching down, grabbed him by the front of his clothing, pulling him to his feet.
Zsurtul began talking rapidly in Valtegan, trying to dislodge his hands.
What's he saying?
demanded Kaid.
Can you read him?
Carrie was noticing for the first time how short Zsurtul's claws were, and that they were carved in intricate patterns. They were not the claws of anyone who might need to use them to defend himself— or was it herself?
"What's he saying?"
repeated Kaid.
He's babbling about being the Enlightened One, that this is an assault against his person.
Rezac transferred his grip to the neck of Zsurtul's garment, and fending off his scrabbling hands, ripped it open to mid-chest level. Then he froze. As he did, Zsurtul became still, his flushed skin paling to an almost deathly white.
What is it?
asked Kaid anxiously.
His mind has gone still, I can't sense anything!
replied Carrie.
"You're not going to believe who we're got here," Rezac said very quietly. He spun Zsurtul around, holding the garment open so they could see the markings on his chest. Tattooed there was a symbol Kaid had seen before.
"You're looking at the Prime Emperor's son and heir. The Enlightened One."
About three inches across, executed in iridescent colors, was an open ovoid shape resembling an egg, with flames coming from between the two halves.
"When he's Emperor, they'll add the symbols for his name underneath," said Rezac. "Zashou saw Q'emgo'h's when he tried to rape her." He released Zsurtul.
Carrie was no less stunned than anyone else present. "They'll follow us," she said. "As soon as they can. The Primes won't let us get away with their crown prince."
"I figured on that happening anyway," said Kaid, going over to Zsurtul and pulling his clothing shut again. "My apologies," he said. "We had to know. You understand that, I'm sure."
Zsurtul was shaking with fear and shock. He tried to move but was unable to do so. Kaid helped him return to his seat then turned to Rezac, putting his hand on his shoulder reassuringly.
You did well. Was that what you were looking for?
Not exactly. Breeding males have a tattoo on their chest. A small sigil showing they're allowed access to the females,
he replied as he went back to his seat.
"I said I was not a drone," Zsurtul said through clenched teeth.
"So you used drones in your gene pool," said Kaid. "How, if they're asexual?"
"Drones were inferior females' eggs kept too cool to hatch as fertile offspring. Many of the eggs that hatched at the time of the Fall were infertile— males and females both. We were forced to utilize all the offspring that were born to be able to survive." Still in shock, his voice was low and remote.
Carrie got up and took his bowl to the dispenser to fetch him another drink. He clutched it gratefully in both hands, warming himself against it.
"And you have no warrior caste, only those who volunteer to be implanted with a device that does what?"
"I'm told it can be adjusted to control their moods by shifting their hormone levels. It makes them quick to respond in a more aggressive way than we can."
"M'ezozakk's crew. What did you do with them?" asked Kaid.
"Implanted them so they would be less violent. We need their genetic material to breed our own warriors. Not like them, though, we're adjusting their genetic memories so their hatred of the Sholans is removed. We only want to be able to defend ourselves effectively against the M'zullians and the J'kirtikkans."
"Two of your four worlds are locked in battle against each other, then there's you. What about the fourth?"
"It is harmless. They reverted to a level similar to that of the Jalnians. They are no danger to anyone."
"What's their setup?" asked Carrie. "Do they treat females as equals or shut them in breeding chambers?"
Zsurtul roused from his torpor. "Why should you care?" he asked. "Females are equal there. The castes are balanced. They are peaceful, there is plenty of laalquoi and they prosper. They are best left alone. We need your help to retrieve the ancient weapon that destroyed your two colonies, and to deal with the M'zullians and the J'kirtikkans who otherwise will wipe us out when they find us."