Rebel Ice (33 page)

Jarn leaned her head back and closed her eyes as if exhausted. "Daneeb."

"Yes?"

"Shut up," she said in Terran.

Resa smiled at the headwoman's puzzled look. "She says to fasten your harness."

When the ship was off the ground, Daneeb left them to sit with the other vral. Jarn remained where she was, as still as a pillar of ice.

"I think I will go and sit in the copilot's seat," Resa said, and released her harness. "I may be of assistance to him."

Jarn nodded without opening her eyes.

Resa was not certain why Jarn had permitted the ensleg to accompany them on the rescue mission. He had come from the hospital as they were deciding which patrol ship to take to Skjonn. Jarn had tried to order him back to his berth, but he had drawn her to the side. No one knew what he said to her, but it was enough to change her mind.

It was not as if he were in the best physical shape, Resa thought, studying his thin, bruised face. He didn't act as if he was quite right in the head, either. He caught her watching him, and she smiled. "Are you sure you feel well enough to pilot?"

He was not particularly verbal, either—at least, not with her. He seemed to have a lot to say to Jarn, and Resa wasn't sure how she felt about that.
Well, I did bash him in the skull, the last time we met
.

Resa turned and watched as Jarn, Daneeb, and Hasal went through the final preparations with the other vral for the attack.

"No, you must wear it so." Sogayi bent over to adjust a fold. She looked at another vral. "Too much red, not enough blue. Your brows should be thinner, more arched."

"Have you ever been to one of the skim cities?" Reever asked Resa, distracting her.

The words were innocent enough, but they made Resa feel suddenly on guard. "No. Well, perhaps. I cannot remember, to be truthful. I suffered a head injury that stole most of my life from me."

"Do you wish to remember?"

Resa considered that. "Sometimes, yes. It is maddening not to know who I was. But I am not from this world, so there are no answers for me here, and since the war started, it seems more important to live in the day."

"What if you must choose between who you are, and who you were?" Reever asked.

"I hope I… choose wisely," was all she could think to say.

The flight to Skjonn took only a few minutes, but Reever stayed well beneath the kvinka layer until the vral had finished their preparations. Then he ordered the cargo secured and the rescue team to strap in.

Resa noticed the Terran had become very pale. "What should I do if you cannot make it through the layer?"

"Say good-bye to the others," Reever told her. "Quickly."

The patrol ship jolted as Reever jumped from the temperate zone into the kvinka. The roar of the wind outside rilled the ship with an eerie echo, as if it were trying to pry the hull panels apart and get in at them. The view panel was filled with such turbulence that Resa found herself automatically closing her eyes, as if expecting to be struck in the face.

Deeper groans and shudders shook the vessel as Reever maneuvered through the deadly streams of air. Resa saw how he was jumping from place to place, seeking the relatively calm areas and using the more violent currents as conduits to get to them. Behind her, someone was suddenly, abruptly sick.

A final, terrifying jolt made them all jerk in their harnesses, and then the patrol ship was in placid, calm air.

"Skjonn," Reever said, nodding at the viewer panel.

Once the Kangal had retired to have himself prepared for the victory banquet, and the League's ambassador retreated to his quarters to rest, General Gohliya invited his counterpart, General Patril Shropana, to his offices in the palace. They dismissed their aides by mutual unspoken agreement and went there together, discussing on the way a few trivial points of interest within the quadrant, and how the military life often made off-duty time a precious commodity.

"Your ambassador is quite impressive," Gohliya said as he offered Shropana a brimming server of the black red liquid. "Do you have to program him, or does he think up all those polite phrases on his own?"

Shropana was startled into a laugh. "He has had much practice in the art of honorifics and other accoutrements of homage. Fortunate, in this instance. I would have run out of pretty compliments for your Kangal after three minutes."

"That is why I have Lopaul," Gohliya admitted. "He thinks up my lip service for me in advance."

The two men regarded each other for a moment, pleased and guarded.

"How many worlds have had their fate decided in rooms such as these," Gohliya wondered out loud, "by men such as us?"

Shropana sampled the wine. "Not enough."

Someone had to make the first foray into the territory of truth, so Gohliya played polite host. "Things have been much better since we captured the rebel leader."

"I would like a word with this man," General Shropana said, trying to sound casual. "That is, if he is still alive."

Gohliya looked over the rim of his server. "Oh, yes, he is. The Kangal reserves the right to inflict the full punishment of the law whenever he desires. He desires this man. No one else is permitted near him, I fear, so I must refuse your request."

"Indeed. I have the sense our Captain Deyin did not run afoul of your rebels, but of your Kangal." Shropana shook his head. "You need not comment. We should not have sent him here alone. No, I have the greatest sympathy for you, General. I have gathered the impression that you contend with much here."

"Motivation, General, is a marvelous thing." Gohliya set aside his wine and silently produced a scrambling emitter that would prevent their conversation from being overheard by any of the listening devices Orjakis had planted in his offices. He set it out in front of Shropana and activated it. "We will talk about the Terran woman now."

"She is not a negotiable point." Anger made Shropana's eyes small and hot. "Your Kangal promised her to me."

"Everything is negotiable. He will make promises, our Kangal." Gohliya smiled. "I believe he made several to Captain Deyin. I would verify this with the recipient, but my guess is that he occupies any number of places in the disposal pits."

Shropana made a disgusted sound and subsided. "I thought as much. Do you intend to take over as soon as the rebels surrender?"

Gohliya chuckled. "I have already taken over. The Kangal simply doesn't acknowledge it."

"A little neuroparalyzer at the banquet tonight, and you can have him in a position to acknowledge anything you wish."

"The monarchy of the skim cities is hereditary, General," Gohliya told him. "I am a soldier's son, as "Which you could, if I am persuaded to lend them to you," Shropana said smoothly.

"I do not wish to be the Kangal." Gohliya removed a transparent crystal from his inner jacket and set it on the console between them. It sparkled like a phantom jewel. "I only wish to control his power base. The most valuable ice on Akkabarr, General."

Shropana took it into his hands. "Permanently etched?"

Gohliya nodded. "Stored here for centuries. The first exchange of space for crystal began with one world. They gave us the command override codes to control their fleet, etched on indestructible crystal, which we verified. They also agreed to defend Akkabarr should we ever call upon them. In exchange we provided them with safe storage for their ordnance. Once we had proved trustworthy and did not use the crystals to take over their fleet, or sell their weapons, they recommended our services to their allies. Thus, word of our services spread. Our entire civilization was built on our reputation for safe, secure storage. There is no armory safer than Akkabarr."

"Or was, until your rebellion," Shropana reminded him.

"Akkabarr is not a vault so easily defeated. The rebels have no ships, and no experience traversing the kvinka if they did, so they cannot leave the planet." Gohliya moved his shoulders. "They have done what I could not, however. They took the keys to Akkabarr out of the Kangal's control."

"Rebel ice." Shropana smiled at his own joke. "When you have all of the crystals, will you use them?"

"We already do, to provide the security we crave, by not using them," Gohliya said. "The rebels don't know what they are, and even if they have some idea, they can't use them. I propose to put them back precisely where they were, only with my guard drones in place instead of the Kangal's. That is where you would come in."

"You want help getting them back."

"I don't know where they are. I will need your men down on the surface with mine to search these rebel encampments." Gohliya poured more firewine into his server and offered the same to Shropana, who shook his shaggy head. "We have only a short time to find and relocate them. We can supress news of the crystals being taken from the trenches, but not forever. Many of our clients have already made some anxious inquiries."

"That can be done." Shropana drained his glass. "In return, of course, you guarantee me the Terran woman."

"I would like to know more about this woman everyone regards as so valuable." Gohliya pulled up a data file on his console. "The files Deyin carried were unclassified; they only list the decision to classify her as a nonsentient, and the criminal charges against her. Collaborating with the Hsktskt is the most serious, I presume?"

"She sold me and my fleet to the lizards," Shropana snapped. "Hundreds of my people were butchered. Some were eaten."

"Regrettable. I have heard rumors of a bioengineered clone that escaped a Terran laboratory. This clone was female, and allegedly the first true immortal bioconstruct." Gohliya switched off the viddisplay. "Is this the same female?"

Gohliya weighed the demand. He needed the crystals to gain irrevocable control over the Kangal. On the other hand, what man would not be tempted by the prospect of immortality?

"Her value would surpass that of your crystals," Shropana said, his voice rough, "except that she also carries a Hsktskt blood price on her head."

That decided it. Gohliya would not antagonize his suppliers in the Faction for what was only a slim chance at immortal life. If this Terran woman was being hunted by the Hsktskt, she would need ten armies to protect her.

"If she lives, she will be yours." He checked the time and stood. "The banquet will be starting shortly. Let me show you to your quarters so you can freshen up for the festivities."

Janzil Ches Orjakis had watched Gohliya's attempt to interrogate his former slave. The general had not employed the console, but Orjakis was sure it was not out of respect for the Kangal's demand that the rebel leader remain untouched. Gohliya, he suspected, had ordered three of his men to methodically beat the Raktar while he was being transported from the planet to Skjonn. Now the magnificent creature was covered with wounds, and not one of them inflicted by hands that would adore doing so.

It was not the only thing the general had done to cheat Orjakis.
He always has to spoil things
.

What had to be dealt with, and soon, could not ruin the Kangal's mood entirely. There were too many pleasant things happening for Orjakis now. The League ambassador, a charming male with the most elegant turn of phrase, had made many significant promises.
The Toskald need not continue being made to serve slavers;
now, that had been particularly inspired. The League was willing to forget all the unpleasantness of the past and become friends to the Toskald.

All he had to do was make the right impression at the banquet, and slit his Defense general's throat before Gohliya did the same to him.

Orjakis suddenly realized he had nothing to wear to the banquet, and summoned ten dressage drones. "We require new garments brought for our inspection, Senior Dressage. A selection of one hundred to begin."

The drone he had addressed scooted forward. "I see Janzil Ches Orjakis, Kangal of Skjonn. We would happily supply the Kangal with all the Kangal requests, but Acquisitions has no more garments worthy of our Kangal."

"We are not asking for weapons, ships, or men, only that which may enhance our physical perfection." Orjakis frowned. "Why are there no more garments worthy of us?"

"Garments for the Kangal have always been created from materials provided through tithe tribute," the drone stated. "No such materials have been delivered for eight months, nineteen suns, and—"

"Enough." Orjakis waved the drone away and gnawed at his lip. How would he look beautiful for his new League friends if there was nothing for him to wear? "Shall we go naked to our own banquet?"

None of the drones responded, as they had not been addressed directly.

"This is infuriating.
We
are the
Kangal
of
Skjonn
." Orjakis paced around the chamber before he "Defense's senior staff consists of Commander Lopaul, Lieutenant Commander Fhren, Lieutenant Commander Appulus—"

"Lopaul. That one is his favorite, and precisely the right size." Orjakis rubbed his arms. "Summon Lopaul to our presence."

Chapter Twenty

Reever maneuvered the patrol ship into the abandoned docks using only lift thrusters. It took longer to move the ship into position, but there was less chance that their minimal energy signature would attract attention from the city's defenses.

"The dock is clear," he told the women after scanning the area.

Resa, Jarn, and the other vral were already waiting to exit the ship, and followed Hasal and Sogayi out as soon as the docking ramp had been extended. Reever secured the helm and locked down the ship's controls. Daneeb stayed behind to open the lower cargo hold doors.

Once the other women were off the ship, Reever closed the outer door panels and waited for her. Daneeb slowed her step as she emerged back into the cabin and saw him, but went to her pack and begun to dress.

"I am astonished, ensleg," she said to Reever as she donned her robes. "You did not crash us after all."

"You are welcome." He checked his blades. "Daneeb, there is something I must know before we go into the palace. Why did you never tell Resa what happened, that day on the ice?"